Grocery Shopping

Please don't call Children's Services on me. This is my life every couple of weeks in the grocery store. I really dread going shopping but we must eat. I just had to capture this moment. Giana was so squished and Dominic was eating the q-tip box. Life is good. Oh, by the way, the healthy food is at the bottom of the cart. Could those Swiss Cake Rolls jump out at you anymore? Not good for the diet but I really love those things. So does G. Why do they put the produce department near the front of the store anyway?

Happy Birthday, America!

We celebrated the 4th with a family reunion, fun, food and fire works! (Giana's first fireworks display that she was able to stay awake for!)We are so blessed to live in this great country. Please pray hard for our country so that our children and grandchildren can enjoy the same freedom and happiness that we have today. God bless the USA!

Our New House!

We moved! We finally bought a home that Dominic and I both love and we moved at the end of June. This house has been in the works for a while. Dominic wanted to be further out of town with a nice lawn and I wanted to be closer to town with a nice lawn. Closer to town meant more money and I really wanted to try and make it work. We found this house in a perfect location and the sellers had to get rid of it because they were building a new house just a few doors down from us. So we caught them at the right time! Funny, the previous owners are our new neighbors and they have kids the same age as ours. Worked out great! We are so happy to have a home and yard for the kids. We've got lots of renovations and painting going on inside. Once we are done in a few weeks, I will post interior pictures. For now, here's the outside. We love the back yard! Dominic has been working hard on the grass and landscaping. An irrigation system is a wonderful thing! The neighborhood is so nice with young families and lots of kids. We are happy and blessed to be here.

First Zoo Trip

I took Giana, Dominic, my niece and nephew to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. My BFF, Erin came along to help me out, even though she didn't have her son with her! What a good friend! I'm happy she was there because 4 kids + zoo = CRAZY! It was Dominic's first zoo trip. He's much too young to be interested in the animals, but I still had to blog about it. Giana would like a flamingo or hammer head shark as her next pet. We had a fun day.

A Soccer Player She Isn't

Giana has been begging us for months to sign her up for soccer. We decided to enroll her in a soccer camp. The camp was one week long and lasted 1.5 hours per day. I stayed each day and watched the camp because the weather was so nice and the baby enjoyed being pushed in his stroller around the walking path near the field. OK, I'll be honest, I just didn't know these people and I'm a little particular about who I leave my kids with so I stayed to spy and make sure she was OK. (My kids have never been left with a babysitter...only family and close friends. Giana is almost 5 years old.) A little protective but that's just how I roll.

Throughout the week, I noticed that Giana would often sit on the sidelines and never wore an orange jersey during scrimmages. At the end of the week, she received a "score card" with the coaches comments. "Giana would not participate with fun practice games and refused to wear the jersey during scrimmages." That answered my question about the jersey. So I asked her about it and she told me (and I quote) "Mommy, orange is just not a good color for me so I couldn't wear the jersey." Well, OK then. She no longer wants to play soccer. At least not this week.

Beach Vacation

We went to Myrtle Beach in early June with Dominic's family. We had the best weather and it was so nice to relax, make sand castles and enjoy the sun and sand. This was Dominic's first trip to the beach and he loved it! He ate the sand but loved the ocean water and swimming pool. We stayed at Dunes Village (the same place we've stayed for the past few years) and Giana loved the indoor water park. The baby enjoyed the lazy river. :)

First time at the beach!


Our little princess (can't you just see the attitude?) :)


There's my guys!


I love this picture. There's just something so sweet about it.


Our family photo...the only one that came out looking OK.


The whole gang, except me. We have one with all of us but it was SO windy that evening and we agreed that my hair looked so bad that I should be removed from the photo. He-he!