The big 4

Happy birthday Luca!!  It's hard to believe it has been four years since Luca was born.  He was a long awaited joy to come into our life.  It is crazy to believe that it has been four years since Udine almost burned the house down the day I came home from the hospital with our little bundle.  Ok, ok, he only burned the kitchen down.  Ok, he didn't burn it down, but he did start a fire which was big enough to set off fire alarms and have to replace cabinets, counter top, stove, re-paint, etc.  hahaha (Had to put that in for you babe)  :)

Luca is by far my most challenging child right now, but Udine reminds me I used to say the same things about Diego when he was his age.  So maybe we'll have another crazy little boy on our hands.  :)  He is very particular with how he wants things done and needs to be told what is going to happen before it happens or else it is a major melt down.  He loves to color, dance to music in his room, and play house with his little sister.  He is very sweet towards her....one day while we were at the store Mia was throwing a fit so I told her we were going to leave to which Luca replied in almost tears "We can't leave her, she's my sister".  Aww, it was cute.  He really does look after her.  They are either best of friends or worst of enemies.  Luca loves to try and do the things his older brothers do and gets very upset when they decide to stop playing with him.  He's a very sensitive boy. He is my first that is not very good about playing by  himself.  If Mia is napping and the boys are at school he is constantly following me.  And following so closely that I step on him half the time because I don't realize he is right behind me.  He loves his one on one time with Udine or I and loves to be held whenever the opportunity is there.  He is a sweet boy and such a joy to our family.  We love you Luca!  Happy Birthday!

Luca loved his cake.  He said he wanted a cat in the hat cake so I went online to get ideas and he was with me at the time.  The second he saw one like this he decided that's what he wanted.  Hmm.  I was hoping for something not so tall...I haven't done that many cakes so I wasn't sure I could pull it off.  It was 6 layers high, I was a little nervous about doing one that tall, but it turned out ok.  I wish the red were a bit darker, but oh well....I'm an amateur and he was happy.  So all was good.

It was our turn to babysit cousins the night before his birthday in our babysitting co-op so we decided to celebrate with them.  We played a few little kid games and then everyone joined in on simon says....the kids love to play this with Udine.  He's funny and makes everybody laugh. 

We don't have near enough seats for the amount of people there so PJ decided to sit under the table and others thought that was funny and joined him.  :) 

Fun videos that make me smile

Mia singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Too cute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BGyAiNHLL0

I was sitting and watching my kids dance around for about 15 minutes and it finally clicked that I should record them.  This is what we got.  Too funny.  And as a side note: I love, love, love that I have a husband who joins in on the fun and silliness with the kids.  He just makes me laugh.  Love you babe!  :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ahkAXFGURc

No repeats of tonight...please!!!

Well, it is 7:30pm in our house and all the kids are in bed.  For some people this may be a normal thing, but in this house I feel lucky if they are all in bed by 9:00 pm.  But tonight was one of those nights and I was just done.  Udine won't be home until after 11:00 and I just can't handle anything right now.  What is my problem!!??  The day started fine, I was going to go grocery shopping in the morning with the two little ones, but when I saw the snow I decided to shovel first.  Which turned into a shoveling/play time in the snow for the little ones.  Which was fun, but it's exhausting pulling those two on a sled!!  Anyway, I spent too much time outside so I didn't have time to shop before naps, etc.  Which was fine, I figured I'd go out later.  The older boys walked to their cousins house after school to play, so I had a little break from them, but that also meant I couldn't sneak out for a half hour while Mia was asleep.  Anyway, the older boys get home and they needed to eat right away because I had to be somewhere by 6:00.  I gave them plenty of time, but instead of eating they were just goofing off.  Which is fine sometimes, but since there was a need to get food in their belly's so we could get out the door, I wasn't in the mood for it today.  After asking nicely multiple times for them to calm down and just eat I finally just yelled.  Which unfortunately got the reaction I needed from them.  But the second I turned my back milk was spilling out of Diego's mouth because they were screwing around again.  I lost it again and he was in time out until we had to leave.  Anyway, I run my errand and then decide to stop at walmart to pick up those groceries I never got to this morning.  That was a mistake!  I HATE shopping with all four of the kids.  The older two were wired and just goofing around, which is fine to a point, but not when it bothers other people.  Then there was Luca and Mia....Luca HAS to sit in the cart, which is usually fine because Mia likes to walk.  But things were taking way too long, her little legs wanted to sit for a while.  So I took Luca out and put her in.  Which started a screaming fit from Luca, I could not calm the kid down.  We were then in the toy section so Mia wanted to get out, so I took her out and put Luca back in which fixed Luca's screams.  But then Mia wouldn't walk with me because she wanted to play with the toys.  So I had to grab her and carry her like a football in one arm and push the cart with the other.  I was furious.  The older boys could tell, so by this point they were quietly following.  I check out and Luca starts crying that he didn't get a treat.  (When we first got there I talked about getting one) But I told him when they throw fits and make bad choices no one gets treats.  So there I am with Luca and Mia screaming and Diego and Alessandro doing who knows what behind me as we walk to the car.  When we were in the car Alessandro hit a water bottle diego was drinking out of and smashed into Diego's mouth which hurt him and also spilled the water all over him.  That was the last straw.  When we got home I made them all get ready for bed, clean up, get ready for tomorrow and they are now in bed.  Part of me feels really bad, but I don't know what else to do.  I could put them in front of the tv but that would be rewarding the bad behavior.  Ugh, what a night.  And then I just read Jana's blog about being sentimental and it made me feel even worse for being like this.  I really do love my kids and I love the stages they are in.  And like her, I wish time could slow down a bit.  But for today, I guess I just couldn't handle it.  Talk about feeling like a lousy mother.  Not one of my best moments.

Snow fun

This was actually back in December but I wanted to post the snowman Diego built.  He was proud of himself, but the poor guy built it on a not so flat part of our yard (which to give him credit, there is not many flat areas) and it tipped fairly soon after being built.  I should have gone out with him to help him make it more stable, but I was being lazy cause I didn't feel like dressing little Mia in all those clothes to go out also.  Looking back, I wish I had because he was so proud of himself for doing it, but to see his disappointment so quickly after was heart breaking.  Especially since I could have helped prevent that.  Next time I'll suck it up and go out with him...even if that means taking a half hour to get everyone dressed and ready to go out.

The one and only good thing about the location of our home is that the boys can sled down our yard.  It has provided plenty of fun for them this winter.  Although, all the snow is gone now....but I'm just fine with that.  :)

Frustrated

I feel nothing but frustration right now.  We had a soccer game tonight and I did something to my already bad leg.  I don't know why it acts up like this every now and then, but when it does it is the most intense pain.  I can't handle it.  I can't even describe it, it's like this horrid pain shooting down the whole part of my leg that has the metal rod in it.  I felt like such an idiot practically in tears hobbling around.  I hate being hurt, I hate having to watch the game and not play, I hate playing poorly.....I just hated tonight.  Crazy how something that happened 15+ years ago can still cause me so much pain.  I just can't slow my mind down right now, and that's not a good thing because right now it's not positive thoughts running through my mind.  I guess I'll go sulk on the couch and watch some tv and hopefully get tired soon.  Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Although, on a positive note...the Packers rocked the house today!  Woohoo!!

Happy New Year!

It's great spending time with the fam!  Diego and Alessandro stayed up until midnight...Alessandro almost didn't make it.  Luca and Mia went down at about 10:00 pm.  We had a movie marathon night with lots of popcorn and yummy drinks.

Christmas Day

It is soo fun to watch the kids Christmas morning.  I just love seeing reactions and facial expressions to gifts being opened.  Diego is over the top excited with being loud and happy, Alessandro is quieter but you can see it on his face how happy he is.  Luca was quiet but excited as well and Mia always opened her mouth like she was surprised when she opened a gift...it was so cute.  But my camera is too slow, I could never catch the perfect moment to get a good picture of it.  After opening the gifts we just played all day in our pj's.  It was so fun and relaxing.  A day at home with the fam.  It doesn't get much better than that.

It was funny to see how each child takes a look at their stocking goodies.  Diego just dumped it and Luca would line it all up to see everything.

All Luca asked for was a penguin pillow pet....and he got it!! 

Pickles and her much needed bed 

Alessandro and the zhu zhu pets he really wanted 

Diego only really wanted 2 things...drums and a skateboard.  He got the skateboard! 

Mia loving her cuddle pet 



Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we did the usual, meet the cousins at McDonalds for lunch and play for a while.  After that Emily and Schyleur's family came to our house for the afternoon where we hung out, made food for the evening and decorated cookies for santa.  Usually for Christams Eve it is just Ben's family and ours with a ton  of food and celebrating but this year we were lucky to have all the families that live out here celebrate with us at Peter and Amanda's house.  Good times!!

Micah and Mia were more interested in eating the cookies than decorating them.  :)

When Udine tried to show Mia how to decorate them she got angry because she didn't want to, she just wanted to eat them.  hahahaha 

Our new Christmas Eve shirts....we did USA soccer ones this year.

Luca and Mia were not happy to get their pictures taken.

I know this is not centered but the only other one I have of all of us is blurry, so I figured this was better. 

THE NATIVITY

 at Peter and Amanda's house

Diego the donkey

Luca, one of the sheep 

Alessandro, an inkeeper 

The group singing at the end. 

Mia was one of the four angels, but she screamed through the whole thing so I didn't get a picture of her, I had to take her out. 

DANCING

Benji wanted to show off some dance moves so when he was done the cousins joined him.  It was quite the sight to see!!  :)

I don't know what dance move Alessandro is doing here, it was like the worm except on his back.  It was so funny to see.  I laugh just looking at this picture.  And what made it even funnier is that it's not what you'd expect from him.  hahaha 

Diego attempting the worm....with no use of his arms though.  hahaha Uncle Ben needs to show him how it's done.  :) 

GIFT EXCHANGE

So happy!!! 

We left cookies, 1 cream puff, 1 meatball and milk for Santa.  He ate it all except the meatball, that was there when the boys got up, but by the time we got up it was gone...I think Pickles got to it.  :)