happy birthday babies!!

it is so hard for me to believe that a year ago today my babies were tiny little 5lb 14oz and 6olb 9oz bundles barely fitting into newborn size clothes and now today they are bubbly smiley kids eating cupcakes!! time flies by, especially when you become a parent. and its sad for me to think that this year has gone by particularly fast because with 3 kids, i feel like i have missed a lot. even though i am here with them everyday - there is just always so much going on. my hope for the coming year is that with the twins gain of developed independence we as a family have more time for fun things like playing and reading books, with less time spent on bottle feedings and diaper changes!

so now i get to live the next 6 months saying "i have one 2 year old and two 1 year olds!!"

matteo wasnt quite sure what to do with his cupcake...i dont think he was to fond of the idea of getting his hands dirty! but once he figured it out, there was definitely a mess to be cleaned!

vincenzo on the other hand had his cupcake demolished before i could turn around with the camera in my hand...he was shoveling that thing in his mouth faster than his mouth could keep up with!

once the cupcakes were eaten it was straight to the bathtub!! they were up to their elbows in cake, literally!! but thats whats fun about being one!! you can smash cake all over the place and people just think its cute...if you or i did that people would probably be talking!

and now sunday i get to do it all over again!! although, i will have more help with the clean up sunday...frank was working all day today so it was just me and tuscan singing happy birthday to the babes, and mandy and the girls sent their birthday wishes via mandy's blog!! (which made me cry by the way!!) if anyone would like to see it, pull up "a day in the life" link on the side of my page and look at mandy's blog entry!! its so wonderful to have such amazing friends! i truly am a very blessed woman!

oh dear...the good news and the bad...

so the good news is...our camera is fixed, we have it back and instead of paying the $136...frank is cooking dinner at his friends mom's house, for her, her husband and a few of their friends!! she is paying for the food...frank is cooking it! so not only did we get our camera fixed (for free) but he now also has an opportunity to get his name out there once again for some private party type business!! of course we are going to use the money we had put aside for the repair (part of which was from my mom) towards a little thank you gift for (brandons) mom...but we felt very blessed by the final outcome of that situation...

the bad news...this is the first picture i was able to use the camera on today - my discovery, walking into tuscan's room to wake him up from his nap...that is his mattress laying on the floor and when i walked in he was still sound asleep on it, his butt way up in the air....no sheets or blankets...he had taken those all off too...

his sheets were stuck behind his door, there was a support bar missing from the underside of his bed, how he got his mattress to the other side of the room is beyond me! and the best part is, he apparently did this without making any noise because frank said he never heard a thing!! (the kids were all asleep for the afternoon nap when i got home today) crazy boy...but it inspired me to clean up his room real good, vacuum under the bed, so i guess he did it for a reason!

and on a good note, we have had a really good week so far with potty training. he has been amazing at telling us that he has to go (pee and poop) and he hasnt peed in a pull up in 2 days...so we are definitely making progress and he seems very excited about the idea of not wearing baby diapers anymore! yeah tuscan - i am so proud of him!!

kelly (syracuse) is still pregnant...im hoping by sunday she will go into labor, the plan is to head up there wednesday, baby or no baby...kellie (colorado) is flying in saturday afternoon...and we are looking forward to a fun filled week...outlets, wine, strong museum of play and dinosaur bbq...wine and scrapbooking, syracuse...maybe another bottle of wine and lots of talking, laughing, probably a few good tears...ya know just being us!! i cant wait! its been a year and a half since we last saw each other (when she flew me and tuscan down to OK) so i am so excited for her to see the house since we settled in, to see how much tuscan has grown and matured, to meet the twins!! and to have a whole week to just do whatever we want to do! its going to be a blast! did i mention..i cant wait!!

potty progress!!

big time potty progress...for the first time ever today, tuscan called me into the family room, touched his butt and said "mom poop" and started to pull his pants down...we quickly got his little bottom on the potty and within seconds he was accomplishing his first real #2 on the big boy potty!! and best of all, he was super excited about it!! we have been telling him for weeks that if he has to go poop to let us know so we can put him on the potty and usually we get the very angry face followed by "NO, MA!!" or "NO DA!!" but today was a complete 360! so congrats to my growing-up-way-to-fast little boy! just another step in the right direction - maybe he really can be potty trained the week that kellie is here!!

now what??

so obama won...how disappointing...

a very crazy thing happened to me last night and all i can relate it to is my nerves being shot from this whole election process...

i dozed off on the couch while tuscan was watching curious george...frank put him up to bed and i woke up about an hour later, the election was on and i was horribly sick to my stomach, literally. i felt like i wanted to throw up but i feared it was going to come out the other end as well...i was in a ton of abdominal pain and chilled...and all i could think was that the end of times was here...i was terrified that the kids wouldnt be in their beds when i got upstairs...i ended up throwing up a few times and then went to bed and i think im ok today...but it was really weird and now even today when i think about it and when i think about who our new president is, my stomach gets a little queezy and nervous feeling. i cant wait to go to church on sunday!

i have read the left behind series...and ever since obama became a presidential candidate, i cant get pasted the resemblence of him and nicholae carpathia...it has had me freaked out since the beginning of all this campaigning. and although i am glad this election is finally over, i can honestly say that i am very disappointed with the results. but with the way our country has been turning their backs on God lately, i am not at all surprised with the outcome.

last night i we took a short video of the three boys in the bath together, i was hoping to load it on here but apparently our video camera did not come with the proper cable to hook it up to the computer...new thing to add to the christmas wish list!

its a gorgeous day here again...near 70, yesterday was a beautiful 68! and tomorrow its supposed to be 70!! yes i said 70, in buffalo on november 6th! its amazing, but also scary at the same time...as much as i love the nice weather it also has me freaked out a bit about what the future has in store for us...

but anyway - the twins want lunch, then i think we are taking a walk to the bank before tuscan goes down for his nap. it is much to nice out to not take advantage of it! if anything extremely eventful happens this afternoon (like word on kelly's pregnancy status) i will be sure to add to this post. otherwise i hope you all have a day as beautiful as mine and time to enjoy it!

oh and some exciting news...the twins enjoyed their first full meal without any baby food today at breakfast, they had cheerio's (their new all time fav!) a real banana and some yogurt! very exciting!

GOD BLESS AMERICA - more than ever before!

potty time...

so i forgot to include in my post yesterday the most important part of our whole weekend!! tuscan pooped (once) and peed on the potty like 5 times yesterday...he managed to keep his pull up dry for the two hours that he had it on and used the big boy potty 3 times during that 2 hours!! we are so proud of him...now that he is learning how to better communicate i think it is going to get a little easier trying to train him. my goal is to have him pretty close to, if not completely potty trained before kellie leaves to go back to colorado. i figure having someone else around all day will give me a chance to really focus on him and this task for a week! just one more reason to be extremely excited that kellie is coming to visit!

i also had a chance last night to do something i have wanted to do for a few weeks now. frank and i were both home for bathtime so we put all 3 boys in the tub together. tuscan thought it was the coolest thing ever to really be able to play with his brothers in the tub and the twins thought it was a ton of fun to have that much water to splash in. i managed to snap one quick photo before the camera batteries died on me. its not the greatest, but it captured the moment!

tonight my mom is going with me and the kids to sears for halloween/1st bday pics!! when she made the costumes i had tried offering her money for the materials and she said the only payment she wanted was an 8x10 of the boys in their costumes, so when she offered to go with me, i couldnt really say no! it should be fun, she is coming over right from work, we'll have dinner together and then get the boys ready to go! my mom has never run arrands or go out with me and the kids before like this, so i am really looking forward to it! if i can figure out how to get the proofs from the sears website to my blog i certainly will! (kellie i may need ur help on that one!) i also am going to try and figure out how to get pics from halloween night from facebook to here...someday i hope to know how to really use a computer!

so much to catch up on!!

so its been a while since i blogged, but with very good reason....

my house is finished!! all the painting is done and the dinning room is decorated. my goal date to have the painting done was nov. 13th and we did it!! i am so excited, and the dinning room looks amazing!

the weekend of oct 25th was a blast...mandy was in town for a weekend with the girls, she left her kids in FL - which i know was a huge deal for her, as im sure it would be for any of us moms!! but we had so much fun together. that friday night the whole gang came over to my house for dinner, fried bologna - fancy i know!! but its a tradition with us that started many many years ago at her parents house...so it only makes sense! mandy, her brother phil and his girlfriend jen, phil's daughter mandy, donna, keith and their two girls, brynn and brylee were all here. we had cheese and wine and a wonderful dinner!! we laughed so much my face was killing me by the end of the night! some great pics were taken but they are all from everyone elses cameras...if u havent already seen them through snapfish or on my facebook page, leave me your email and i can send them to u!! i have no idea how to get them from snapfish to here!!

then saturday night was girls (+phil) night out...me, mandy, donna, corinne, jen, phil, becki and camille all went to the melting pot for dinner and to coyotes for some drinks and dancing! it was so much fun...although i was quickly reminded why it is i dont go out very often! the best part of the night was making fun of all the people who looked so rediculous! im glad i went though, another night full of fun memories!!

the whole dinner crew!



the picture of the chocolate teeth is me re-demonstrating a funny story about chocolate covered fried dough at the fair, a story that mandy and phil apparently havent forgotten!

diva me...i guess i do still know how to have fun!

sunday the 26th was my lia sophia party at my parents house...bridget and meghan were the two friends of mine that showed up, but thankfully beth had a lots of ladies there and between the two of us, we should have made out pretty well, i cant wait to find out how much we are going to get for free!!

tuesday the 28th frank and i took the boys to the erie county home to trick or treat...franks grandma and great grandma both live there so they were very excited to see the boys in costume - whom by the way looked totally adorable! they got so many compliments of their costumes...it was a ton of fun!

halloween day, i took the kids to beths office and then she ran around with us to frank's work, my work and my moms work to show off the kids costumes and again everyone thought they looked so amazing!! they couldnt believe my mom had made the costumes! then that night my 142--zipcode bff jess went trick or treating with us. i am so grateful to her for that, there is no way i would have ever been able to accomplish that task on my own! tuscan had a blast "treat treat" and getting tons of candy...holding jess's hand, matteo slept almost the whole time in the back of the stroller and vincenzo sat in the front seat thrashing around a wooden spoon!! it was a perfect halloween night!

today i went and did some twins bday/kids christmas shopping...great deals at kohls!! and it was nice to get out shopping... something i cant wait to do more of the week that kellie is here!! frank's going to make dinner, im gonna feed the twins and then i am scheduled to work tonight - but im crossing my fingers that ill get called off!! so say a little prayer for me, i need the evening home with my husband more than i need the 4hrs at work!!

ill post some halloween pics soon, im still waiting on them from jess and my parents...the batteries in my borrowed camera died after my girls weekend and i forgot to buy more while i was out and about last week!

a mission accomplished...

so i am happy to report i got the twins bday invites in the mail today...i was quite proud of the little jingle i came up with for them too...so i thought i would share for those of you who live to far away to make it to the party...

page 1...

Can you believe its been a year??

Time flies by, its already here…

Its time to celebrate, laugh and cheer.
Matteo and Vincenzo’s 1st Birthday party!!
We’re turning one, such lil’ boys we’ve become,

so come on over and have some fun!
Sunday, Nov. 16th, 2008
2:00pm
Our house: 20 Klink place, west Seneca
RSVP by: Nov. 10th
238-2561

page 2...

We don’t need toys (we’re already spoiled little boys!)

but diapers and wipes and food are always nice!

Huggies or Pampers please, size 4 or 5 is what we need,

stage 2 0r 3 fruits or veg or gerber graduates for a snack instead.
Clothes would be good, size 18 months if you could,

sweats, jammies and things that are snuggly

cuz all winter long we plan to be cuddly!!
Thank you so much, we love you a bunch!

We’ll see you that day and then we can play!
Love always,
matteo and vincenzo

the day has been pretty good so far. i just got home from a fun morning at work with my 142-- zipcode bff jess and my at work husband dan...jess and i had about an hour of slow time so we got a little project accomplished...something i was very proud of when we were done - organizing the coffee on the retail shelf - i know, for many of you that sounds like something silly to be excited about, but if you are reading this and have ever worked at starbucks, im sure you understand!!

we are heading over to matt and bridget's for dinner tonight, tuscan is excited to play with his bff chase and we are excited to get out of the house and hang out with some friends!! we dont even care what we are having for dinner, we're just happy to have friends to hang out with!

so im going to go prime the last wall in the dinning room and get my coffee smelling self in the shower and dig out some warm clothes to wear (mandy - dont read this part!!) cuz its freezing here today!!! i am not ready for this at all, i was really hoping for a not so cold halloween because i have 3 really cute kids with really amazing costumes that i want to take out trick or treating!!

just to back track a little on the weekend too, kelly and kennie came down from syracuse sunday so jess could do their pregnancy photos, they turned out amazing - check jess's blog in a few days to check some of them out, she's a follower of my blog, so just click her pic! then they came back to our house for dinner...hot and spicy tuscan bread, frank's homemade pasta fagioli and ceaser salad. it was delicious...

and something very exciting was accomplished for me this weekend...out of curiosity i went down to the basement to pull a few pairs of very pre-pregnancy jeans out of my bin of "shans super small clothes" and i was able to comfortably put on a pair of old navy size 2 jeans!! i was sooo excited!! wasnt quite able to button the all time favorite pair of jeans, but i did get them all the way up!! so maybe before the year is up... im keeping my fingers crossed but who knows, i am a sucker for christmas cookies!!

can today be my groundhog day??

i had a great day today, which is kind of rare on days that i dont work. and actually, i never even left the house! i woke up early today, around 7:00 - both the babies were awake so i figured i would let frank sleep a little longer and i got up and gave them another bottle...it was still dark out so i thought i might be able to trick them into thinking it was still sleeping time! it worked, but only for a few minutes, by 8:00 they were screaming to get up and tuscan was calling for me through his bedroom door. so i got up with frank and got all the kids changed and he headed down to feed them breakfast while i crawled in bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. i generally average about 5 hours a night and every few weeks that starts to catch up to me and i need a morning to sleep in...so around 945 i crawled out of bed and my wonderful day continued. nothing in particular happened, but i think thats what made it a good day. shortly after i got up the twins were ready for the mid morning bottle and nap. matteo slept from about 1030 till 1:00 and cenzo slept from 1030-noon and woke up wet and upset, he's teething again and is a little feverish, so i gave him half a dose of tylonal and he went right back to sleep, until almost 4:00!! i couldnt believe it! so for a few hours i was able to enjoy just matteo, tuscan was down for his nap too. it was so nice because it is such a rarity that i get to spend time with just one of the twins. they are pretty much on the exact same schedule so that doesnt make for much alone time with either of them.
before frank went to work today i was able to finish painting the livingroom. ill have to wait to see it in the daylight tomorrow to see if it needs a second coat or not - im hoping not! frank and tuscan put away all the lawn furniture and cleaned out the shed....tomorrow is grass cutting day, the last cut of the season and thursday the lawn mower is retiring to the garbage!!
i actually made dinner tonight and it was more than just mac and cheese! it was a stove top recipe, modified to my liking - chicken, cream of mushroom soup, some milk and cheese, brocolli (tuscans fav. veggie) and the stuffing...in the oven for 30 mins...it was delicious! and the twins ate their first oreo tonight - i wish i had some pics - but no camera = no pics :-( next time...
everyone went to bed without a problem tonight, everyone played together nicely all day...never once did i have to raise my voice or yell at anyone. it was awesome, i really wish every day could be like today!
but im off to clean up the kitchen and plop on the couch to watch some tv...and maybe eat a snack, now that we have some food in the house!! ( i got up at 630am yesterday to go to the grocery store before church!)

what a wonderful morning...

it may have been short lived, but i had a great morning with tuscan today...when we all got out of bed this morning we realized we were almost out of milk and only had enough formula to get us through today (2 quarts) so we ate breakfast and then tuscan and i headed out for some "me and mommy" time together. we only had an hour, but it sure was fulfilling. we went to tops, got the essentials, ran to target for some baby food (that was marked down!! - gotta love it) and he got a box of fruit loops, his only request, how could i say no...he was chatting away with the lady cashing us out about the "monsters" that were hanging all over the store for halloween. then because he was such a good boy, we spent our last 10 minutes together at starbucks, me sipping a chai and him chugging his hot chocolate! crazy kid, im not even exaggerating when i say his hot chocolate was gone in 2.5 minutes!! then he liked his lips, said "mmm..good" and waved to the ladies ("bye ladies" - in tuscan voice) and we we're home just in time for frank to leave for work.

i also was able to pay off two of our credit cards this morning - major accomplishment, they will be cancled tomorrow as soon as payment posts. the twins just went down for their nap, tuscan and i are off to eat some lunch (peanut butter and fluff sandwiches!!) and when everyone gets up i think we're going to take a walk to the bank.

i got some good news yesterday - hopefully anyway - we might be able to get our camera fixed for about $30. one of the guys frank works with said his mom might be able to get it fixed for us, she is the manager or something over at stereo advantage...so hopefully we will get a break on that one - because who seriously has $100+ laying around to just unexpectedly buy a new camera?? not me! im trying to pay off our debts, not create more...but with 3 adorable and amazing kids, not having a camera is like not having food in the house!! its a necessity in our life right now! replacing that would be more urgent then getting a new appliance!! so we'll see what happens...

jess came over last night for our thursday night ritual...i gave her a new hairstyle...bangs!! she looks amazing, of course...so the next chance we get we are going to put some real dark chestnutty low lights in her hair. hopefully she will be my walking model and i can start doing more hair at home - it would be a great way to make some extra money while doing something i have always truly enjoyed. (anyone need a haircut?? color??)

second color in the living room is complete, as of yesterday morning. so that was a big stress reliever...tomorrow when i get home from work i plan to start (and maybe complete depending on how many coats it takes) the 3rd color in the livingroom...then we just have to touch up a few spots on the ceiling and the living room will be done, well at least as done as its going to be for now... new carpet and baseboards is something for the future.

oh and i forgot to post about this last week...we got an amazing deal at our neighbors garage sale last weekend...a deal that we just couldnt pass up! i would love to post a picture, but i cant take one! anyway, a big screen hitachi tv (not flat screen but still, its huge and its hdtv compatible, engerystar) and sony surround sound in amazing condition for...are you ready??....$200!!! its franks christmas/birthday present, a few months early and we are super excited about it. it was just what we needed to complete our new livingroom. it was something we planned to get sometime in the very far future because we new we couldnt afford it right now....but for $200, there was no way we could pass that up!! so anyway...off to eat lunch with hopes that the rest of my day is as good as my morning was!!

love to all...

much better day....

after a long talk with frank last night, we were both able to get a few things off our chest. i think he now has a better understanding of where im coming from when i have days like yesterday. and i think i have a little more patients for his - well him just being him. he said he doesnt understand why he hasnt figured out a routine for himself and the kids at home because he is so good at being organized and having things under control at work. so i think he understands and realized that its an area he needs to work on. and for the whole 2 hours that he was home today, i saw an improvement. i think yesterday was just one of those days when life got the best of us, weeks of barely seeing each other and lack of communitcation in those weeks just took a turn for the worse and we were lost with each other. we forgot how to interact together as a team and we were at each others throats all day.
it gets hard sometimes, really hard, because more often than not i live my life like a single mom would. i am 75% mom, 20% starbucks barista and 5% wife - i hate that thats my ratio but thats where life is at right now. frank and i maybe spend 10 hours a week together so when we have to spend a whole day together, we sometimes forget how!! he has his morning thing that he does with the kids (consistant or not) and i have my whole day...trying to mesh the two of them together while keeping everyone happy can sometimes be a challange - thats where we were at yesterday. but by the end of the night my blood pressure was back down into normal range and i was snuggled closely in franks arms when we went to bed - a good ending to a horrible day.

i never would have thought that being a "stay at home" mom would get so lonely, if it wasnt for my job 20 hours a week, i would lose my mind!! i love my kids more than anything but i would love them so much more if i actually had the time to enjoy them and someone around more often to share them with. parenting was meant for two people and it sure is hard when your the one doing it 12 hours a day by your self. frank is an amazing dad when he is around but his job doesnt allow for that very often and even though i know there is nothing we can do about it, its still hard. i know he would never chose for it to be this way, but i just miss him. days can go by without us having a real conversation about anything of importance. and certain things will come up that i sware i told him about, but in all honesty, i may not have because i just havent seen him. this life was easier when it was just us, no kids, and when i had more friends around me to spend my time with, but trying to find friends who want to venture out of the house with you and your 3 kids, not easy...i can barely find family who wants to participate in that one...so im here everyday, so grateful for those i do have to "hang out with" via the internet! you guys are my saviors some days and i want you to know how much i value our friendships. you help keep me grounded somedays and you remind me that im not alone in this venture of life!!
i have a lot of fun and exciting things coming up in the next few weeks, things that will help me feel like "shannon" again and not just mom...i love being mom, but i miss being shannon...so off i go to end my evening as mom with hopes of finding an hour before i passout to spend scrapbooking as shannon! love to all and many thanks to all of you who let me vent so openly - i really need to get frank on the internet more often so he also has more insight as to what goes through my mind on a daily basis!!