day 2...

so the guys were here working again today...more walls are partially gone and so is part of the ceiling...the current condition of everything is really bad...the worst of the worries we were anticipating, so the guys definitely have their work cut out for them!! tomorrow is a day off for them and for us...we are heading to pittsburgh for the day with the kids and our parents, to celebrate our anniversary!! 4 years on thursday!! so we are heading to chipotle chipotle.com for lunch (yeeaahhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) im super excited about that...they we are going to the pittsburgh zoo and the national avairy and we will finish the day with dinner at fatheads fatheads.com, our favorite hole in the wall-amazing resturant!

but here are the pics of what got done today...

the front hall, looking into it from the dinning room... no more door, for now!

the living room, looking in from the side of the foyer, there will be a wall back in that spot eventually...

the pile of garbage where the stone platform used to be...

the kids and i headed out to the east aurora farmers market to pick up some fresh stuff today...beth met us there and then we headed back to my parents house for some hot dogs! its always so nice and relaxing out there...sitting out on the deck breathing in the fresh country air!

say a prayer that we make it down to pittsburgh without any major issues...ie - crying babies for 3 hours!

under construction...day 1

yes, my house is under construction...today was the start of a few very long weeks, but weeks that will be worth every minute in the end.

we have been having some problems with water leaking in our living room ceiling the last several months and today was the day to start correcting those issues. as it turns out, the front of our livingroom and our foyer, used to be a front porch. the previous owners (previous before our parents 25 years ago) apparently decided to enclose the front porch, make a foyer and make the livingroom bigger for a wood burning stove. well we had taken the stove out a few years ago, the week before the october storm - go figure! but we never took out the stone platform that it was on or the brick wall that was behind it. its out now though!!

franks cousin rich and stepdad mel are doing the work on the house and todays accomplishments were:

- rip out the wall between the foyer and livingroom.

- take down the brick wall

- tear out the stone platform

there is dust everywhere!! but today was just the beginning of some pretty amazing changes. ill post pics as the weeks go on so you can see where we began and where we end up. i think you will be pretty amazed in the end. we are changing the floor plans around a little and its going to be amazing! we also will end up residing the front part of the house that is being repaired...and we're changing the color! unfortunately we can afford to reside the whole house this year, but its a start...and who cares if its a different color for a little while...a good friend once told me (bridget) "it will just be your accent wall!" and hey, who ever said the accent wall had to be on the inside of the house!

today was the day...

to get my other tattoo that is! and it turned out totally amazing! its not completely the idea i orginally had, but in its own way i think its a lot better...i really really wanted the twins names to be on it somehow, how could i have tuscan's name and not the twins...but in all honesty, their names are really long and to fit it on my foot with the tattoo itself would have been way to much...i do think i want to at least add their initials to it, but we'll wait and see how it heals first. the whole tattoo ended up just being totally symbolic and representative of the twins instead of spelling it out.

(pic to be posted once my computer wants to load it properly! - and more details of my day to come...it was an awesome day, totally what i needed, but what i need most right now is to plop on the couch with my honey and enjoy some alone time with him...priorities!!)

well for whatever reason the picture doesnt want to load in the right direction, but here it is anyway... just lay across your computer desk and u will be able to see it the right way!

and to conclude a great day, not only did i get to work with jess this morning, but she also joined me to "hold my hand" while i got my tattoo...she is no longer a tattoo witnessing virgin! but then she also came over for dinner with me, frank and the kids (she's husbandless this week!) and she also joined me at my first meeting with my new girls group from church. it was so awesome to have a whole day devoted to not only being me, but being me with a bunch of other girls!!

frank was home with the kids by himself pretty much all day and he did amazing...everyone was in bed when i got home! it was so nice to have a day where we switched rolls more or less! i look forward to the next tuesday that i have a chance to get together with all the girls. we're trying to make it an every other tuesday thing, but the next week they are getting together is my cousin sarah's bachelorette day - an amazingly fun day with the girls...just different girls!!

i will find my innerself once again, if its the last thing i do this year!

im in love....

with my new double stroller that is!!


we have been having issues with the double stroller that we had for a while now (it was $40 at a yard sale, bought before we knew we were having twins...thought it would be great for tuscan and a baby.. but then there were two) so recenly we have been talking more seriously about investing in a better one...one that offered more support in the seats, one with more reclining options in the front and back and right now, very importantly, something that had a 5 point harness in the front and back. the one we currently have the back seat could either be straight up or flat down...there was no in between option and the front seat barely reclined at all...not enough for a baby to comfortably take a nap. and it didnt have 5 point harnesses...a must have for our babies at their current age...my daredevil vincenzo has recently decided that he really likes to ride in the stroller, hanging over the edge so he can watch the ground go by...it scares me to death!


so after showing up at jess's friday with only 3 wheels on my stroller, i decided it was time to move forward. i spent the weekend comparing prices and model and decided on one at babies r us. i got a great deal, as i had a 20% off coupon for there and i got the exact stroller that i wanted, all the way down to the color combo i wanted!! and i love it, maybe even more so than the kids did!! it folds nicely, its easy to open, its so much safer, its sturdier...its basically amazing!! so heres some pics of tuscan and matteo trying it out, inside - it was raining when i got it home!

and matteo decided to play with tar tonight...i love seeing tarzan with the kids...its something i used to dream about when i first got him 8 years ago...and its amazing to see it really happening, he is sooooo good with them, so patient, never snippy...the can crawl on him, drool on him, pull on him...he doesnt care!

a summertime tradition...7/20/08

so today was a fun filled, action packed day...for some reason two of our favorite summer festivals decided to finish up on the same weekend - the canal fest and the italian fest. and come on, who can choose between those?? canal fest = craft show, italian fest = great food! so we didnt choose, we went to both!


our sunday started, as every sunday should, by going to church and i can honestly say, church has been so much more enjoyable lately since tuscan has made the decision that he would rather go to kids church than sit with us! so he goes and does his thing and we hang out with the twins during the worship and sermon...we're almost ready to start sending the twins to the nursery too though so that we can truly regain focus on the things we actually go to church for - no interruptions, i can barely imagine that in any aspect of our life!


from church we headed out to the canal fest and no sooner do we find a place to park, its starts pouring rain! fortunately we were able to kill time in the van feeding the twins lunch and letting tuscan watch a movie because once the rain cleared up we had a pretty good time. it was just nice to be out and about, walking! we didnt get anything for ourselves, but we did get nonna's request taken care of... all three of the boys handprints in clay that will be turned into a gorgeous ceramic piece to hang on the wall.. beth has done it the last two years with just tuscan and this year she needed all 3! ill post a pic when it gets here.


then we headed over to the italian fest, it rained the whole drive over there, but was fine once we parked...matt, bridget and chase met us there and we were able to share a summertime favorite with some of the favorite people in our life. FYI - they are friends of ours from church, chase is a few months younger than tuscan but they are pretty much best friends! we ate all of our favs...stuffed peppers, stuffed artichokes, gelato, pastry hearts, giant pizza! it was awesome, we had a really good time. tuscan and chase ended the night with a few games of "i got it" and then we all headed home. we got our babies to bed quickly and quietly and started a new movie...hopefully we will finish it before the week is over!

it was bright out, we're all squinty! but we sure do all look italian!

oh, and the twins were there, i promise!!

tuscan really enjoyed that pizza and finished his night off with a giant smiley face cookie...it was as big as his face!

just some pics...

the twins have really grown up these last few weeks, not only are they getting around like crazy now (crawling-if thats what u want to call it!) but cenzo has also started sitting himself up when he is playing on the floor, he is holding his own bottle now and i think if he has it his way he will be walking before the summer is over! so here are some really great pics that have been taken in the last few days...




sleeping baby, nothing sweeter..(cenzo)

what a big boy vincenzo!

silly tuscan, showing me how he swims, but covering up the parts that should remain unseen on the internet!!

matteo - hanging out in the buff...(plus a diaper) in agreeance that it is way to hot and humid for clothes!

friday, july 18th MY 25TH BIRTHDAY!!!

so i have to be honest in saying, this whole week leading up to today had been kind of depressing for me because i really didnt have anything to do today and i was sad thinking that it was going to be just another day. im 25 today and to me thats a really big deal!! its my quarter of a century! but frank has to work..all day...my dad and beth are in vermont on a motorcycle trip, my mom is working all weekend and leaving for FL on sunday and kelly, kellie and mandy are all to far away, but there is my BFF that lives here in the same area code as me...jess!! jess had me and the kids over for lunch today and that is what started a pretty special 25th for me. she made some very delicious turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and spinach on very fresh bread, fresh brewed iced ginger tea (and not the tea bag kind, she actually seeped fresh ginger! it was amazing) and we had mini chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting after she and tuscan sang happy birthday to me! she also made me a really cute card, bought me a flower (just incase no one else did - which no one else did!) and a tin of scrapbookers mints - what can i say, she knows me to well! after lunch we took the kids for a walk to the park, the twins in the ghetto three wheeled double stroller (more info this coming monday!) and tuscan in his. we looked like trashy lesbos taking our kids to the park in the ghetto stroller with our short jean shorts and black tank tops on...yes we matched, unplanned...thats just the kind of things that best friends do!! and living in cheektowaga she could only imagine and laugh about what the neighbors would be saying! if u want to see pics from the event either check me out on facebook.com or add your address as a comment if you do not already receive my frequent snapfish updates. there are some really cute pics!
then i headed home to get everyone down for a nap. to my surprise frank had stopped home on his break, thats something that never happens, but he wanted to surprise me since he couldnt be there to spend the day with me...it was brief but very sweet! my other birthday surprise was from kelly (syracuse), she im-ed me and told me to pick out anything i wanted from the lia sophia web catelog because she had such a successful jewelry party and she wanted to share the wealth with me as a little extra birthday present! i was so excited...my day just kept getting better and better!
i spent some time working on kelly's baby shower invitations (pics of those once they are finished), ate some dinner with the boys and had the most amazing night ever with the twins. tuscan was a very good boy as well, but i was able to share the kind of moment with the twins that i always wish there was more time for. tuscan went to bed earlier than them so i just hung out on the couch with them for a while, cenzo was sitting on my lap looking at me and teo was laying across my lap behind him...they were both being such sweethearts, laughing and smiling, i was tickling them and they were totally cracking up!! it was so awesome...a perfect ending to a great day!
happy birthday me and thank you to all the people who contributed to making today extra special...whether it be cards in the mail, messages on facebook/myspace or just a phone call...it all meant so much! i truly am blessed with some amazing people in my life!

the most amazing part of any day is the amount of love i share with these 3 crazy, yet adorable little boys, they are my life and i love them more than anything!

tuesday, july 15

what a great day...
it started with work, which besides getting up so early, is always a nice break for me. i really love my job and its nice to get out of the house and just be "me" once in a while. if work is the place that i need to go to accomplish that then so be it...thankfully i love my job and even most of the people i work with!
it continued with some yard work. this whole summer has consisted of transplanting plants, not only because they have become so over grown in their current locations, but also as a way of personalizing our yard and making it our own. we have added, modified, etc... to the landscaping that my dad had been maintaining for the last several years. and so far we are enjoying our improvements, we just don't seem to have enough time to keep all the weeds out!! they grow much faster than our time allotment allows for! but its getting there and for the time being i just have to be content in knowing that the weeds are part of nature too!
but it was tuesday evening that was really the greatest part of the day....
frank and i actually went out on a date! its something we havent done since well before the twins were born (they are 8 months old now!) - other than jess & jakes wedding. our dear friend bridget and her son zach (age-10) came over around 530 and took on the task of our three boys! i must say, getting in the car all by ourselves is a very strange thing to do and we have now done it two tuesdays in a row!! but we headed out to franks resturant where we enjoyed an amazing dinner and bottle of wine, and wait it gets better...it was on the house! a major perk to frank's current place of employment. his boss has offered for the 3 kitchen guys to come in for a date night every once in a while on their night off for dinner and a bottle of wine...so we took him up on the offer! the wine was amazing, the food even better, but the best part was actually spending time together.
all in all it was a very simple night, after dinner we headed to the other side of town to grab cheesecake from the cheesecake factory...reese peanut butter for frank, snickers for me and oreo for bridget and zach...then we made a few stops while we were in the area (bedbathandbeyond and joanns) and we headed home to enjoy our cheesecake and watch a movie all snuggled up on our couch.
according to bridget, the kids were amazing and not only did she write us the sweetest letter to tell us how the night went, but she also volunteered to do it again for us whenever we want!! of course it has to be after she and her kids get back from 3 weeks in Guam...but it certainly is an offer worth waiting for and one that we are more than willing to take her up on! hopefully we can work out an alternating month kind of deal, she watches our kids one month and we watch theirs the next...every couple deserves a night out and what better way to make sure it happens for both of us!
we truly are blessed with some amazing friends!

potty progress!

today has been a very exciting day for us as a family! for two reasons...

first and most exciting, tuscan peed on the potty 4 times today! and all 4 times was out of his own encouragement. he was taking his diapers off by himself and walking into the bathroom and trying to sit on the big potty by the time we got in there to help him! we are so very proud of him...our original goal has been to have him potty trained before we go to virginia beach at the end of august and for a while that seemed like a goal that would be hard to reach, but all of a sudden he has a huge interest in going on the potty and an even bigger lack of interest in wearing diapers...im sort of thinking the huge box of size 5's i just bought at BJ's yesterday may get put aside for when the twins are wearing that size because at this rate tuscan will be wearing pull ups before the end of the month!!

secondly, frank did his first official catering job today! he has done a few big parties on his own before, but they have always been for us, i.e. beths bridal shower, tuscan's birthday parties...a dinner at dr.lewis's. but this party he was hired to do by a woman that beth works with at the hospital, it was her sons college graduation party and frank was cooking for about 75 people. most of the cooking he was able to get done here at our house...some of it he waited until he got on site. it was hosted at one of the local churches. he made 2 salads, homemade red sauce with sausage and homemade meatballs, mach lasagne, pasta carbonara, a cheese platter, a fruit platter, italian roasted chicken...there was bread...it was awesome!! i am so proud of him for receiving and accepting this opportunity to provide even more for his family. aside from some of his "little quirks" in the past, frank has always been a hard worker and i appreciate all that he does to try and provide for us and the kids. he had a stack of "business cards" sitting out on the table and when he left the stack was quite a bit smaller and the compliments were pouring into the kitchen! so who knows, maybe this will turn into a little side job for him! between the extra money he could be making doing that and the money we could be saving if tuscan stops wearing diapers, we might be living large by the end of the year!! lol - hey i can dream can't i?!?!

but then our night ended with dinner at red robin, had to get my free birthday club burger! and we all shared some ice cream from cold stone creamery. it was kind of cool, it reminded us of being back in colorado springs, that was the place we had our first red robin and cold stone experiences and we were so excited when we found out both places were making their way into the buffalo market, now if only we would get a chipotle! i think frank and i would probably keep them in business ourselves! now im off to start a movie, one that will probably take us all week to watch, but oh well, what are ya gonna do, im just grateful to have the opportunity to watch a movie with my babe, whenever we get a few extra minutes!

in a funk (wednesday)

wednesday was a rough day...i woke up, much later than usual, which was very nice! and there was a gray sky, tons of clouds and it was pouring rain...not a great thing to wake up to on a day that already has a reason to suck! knowing that mandy and fam were getting on a plane at 4 made it really hard to get through the day...seems kind of silly, since i obviously knew she wasnt going to be able to stay forever...but i guess it was just because we really had such a great time together...it just makes it hard to think i probably wont see her again for almost a year, and it makes me sadder to think that our kids wont see each other for that long either!
i dont have very many mom friends around here, so for tuscan to have kids his age to play with, it was awesome! and today is just a sad reminder that 3 of my greatest friends live way to far away from me... kelly in syracuse, kellie in OK and mandy in FL. they are the three people that i have shared the most with thus far in my life and it makes me sad that they cant be around more often to share these new experiences with - like my kids!
but i do have to say, i have been blessed with the start of some amazing friendships here within the past year or so - jess, my best friend in this zipcode and bridget, my best mom friend in this zipcode! and i am finally getting involved with a group of girls from church, we're going to meet every other tuesday and i can already tell that god has put these new women in my life for a reason and i am so looking forward to it!
i have to say though, there is one nice thing about having amazing friend that live in other places...it gives you a reason to go on vacation or even just get away for a day! a drive to syarcuse to spend a day with kelly is always well worth it and my visit to OK last year was amazing, something i would have probably never done if kellie wasnt living there and soon i will have her as my main reason to head out to CO for a much over due visit (to catch up with even more great friends) and there is now very serious talk about a close in the future trip to FL...by close in the future i mean like march 2009....but its way closer than saying "one of these days" frank and i have recently been discussing the idea that if we ever want to do things and go places with our kids, we have to just do it and stop just talking about it. we need to just look at the calendar and pick dates and stick with them. it always comes down to money, but if the date is set then the money will be saved for when the time comes, we cant keep thinking that the money will come first! it doesnt happen that way. so thats what we're going to do, we are going to set dates, save the money and enjoy life, see things, go places...make our dreams realities and stop wasting the time we have here on earth. life is to short to wait for the good things to happen, sometimes you need to just make them happen yourself (with god by your side anything can happen and he has already answered more prayers than we could have ever dreamed of!) we are so blessed...and even though i may have been having a bad day, i love my life and wouldnt trade it for anything! and to all my friends, near and far - i love you too and i think about you all everyday!