About Average

So I have not been good at posting (but what else is new?) and it has been 4 months since I posted.  You would think in 4 months there would be interesting amazing things that would have occurred.  But, life has been very normal for the last few months, and we are not complaining at all! 
Since the last post

• Nettie turned 7
• The holidays came and went
• Tiffany finished 2 classes for her Masters and is working on a third
• We are in the midst of girl scout cookie sales
• We spent a fun super bowl weekend in the mountains with Ben's family

Overall, the time has been fun.  Nettie skied for the first time this year and loved it, so there will be skiing in the future for the girl.  John wanted to try it, but we were asked to get off the magic carpet since we didn't have a lift ticket (whoops) and so he got hot chocolate instead.  He can try next year, but my vote is ski school and maybe after 8 years I can get my sorry self back on skis:) 

These kids love their electronics - Merry Christmas!

The kids and Poppie

Our Christmas photo

The kids getting ready for skiing

The holidays were fun, and busy as usual.  Lots of time with family and enjoying a break of reality.  The kids enjoyed Christmas and were very excited for Santa to come. 

Going back to school has been an experience.  It is amazing how much easier writing a paper is with the internet.  The library is on the internet, my classes are on the internet, and a plethora of information (although I clearly check the sources) is available.  I sound like an old person, but it is ODD not going too the library and hunting down a book, but I will take it.  There are sacrifices, Ben is taking on a lot around the house, I don't see friends as much (if at all) as I did before.  I am enjoying the experience, but looking forward to taking a break over the summer and finishing when John finishes first grade. I couldn't get through this without my wonderful husband who has been a great support.

New Camera - New fun

I recently got a new camera, it is smaller than then old one, and most importantly the shutter opens all the way to take pictures. Quite a few first day of school pictures were ruined due to that malfunction on the old camera. I am figuring out all the gadgets on it, but so far, love it! Here are a few shots from the last month or so:

John as Spider Man at Chik-fil-a Family night

Nettie and Poppie on a walk

The kids with Grandpa Jack on his birthday weekend

Mini Me

Ben at about 3-4 years old

John at 3 1/2 years old

You can't tell in this picture, but John's eyes are just as blue as Ben's. As much as Nettie looks like her Mommie, John looks like his Daddy

John's turn

John doesn't have much to report, he is starting Pre-K at "school" and is already getting homework. He is getting through it as best as a 4 year old can get through homework. He recently decided that the curly hair had to go, so I cut it short...I miss thouse cute curls.......I can't believe these pictures were taken only about 6 weeks apart.

Firsts

This is Nettie on her first day of First grade. She was SO excited, she was up and dressed by 6AM. A small feat for her and one that has not been repeated. She is enjoying first grade so far. Getting to do new things, apparently she has the "real" gym teacher this year. I am not sure what that means, but hopefully we will find out at Back to School night. We celebrated with a girls trip to Glenwood Springs. It was a fun weekend, playing in the hot springs, shopping and going to the Fairy Caves. She is already wondering what we will do next year....

10 years

August 11, 2001

August 11, 2011
It has been an amazing 10 years. We are blessed with a wonderful family and an amazing life. I am excited to see what the future holds.

Lots to update

Since it has been about 6 months since the last update (Really????) I thought I would get news out about what we have been up to. Obviously it has been busy, why else would I have not posted for SOOO long? (Maybe has something to do with me sucking at blogging). Here we go - update by person in order of age - youngest first

John turned 4 in February. It has been a wonderful transformation from 3 to 4. The temper tantrums have decreased considerably. He has turned into this most wonderful little boy. And he is truly a boy. Not so much the sporty type boy, but the playing with my Star Wars, turning everything into a battle between good and evil kind of boy. With the weather warming up, he is starting to enjoy riding his bike which is fun for the who family as Nettie is riding with him. As mentioned before John LOVES Star Wars. He plays with stuff at home and even better, when we go to Nonna's he plays with Uncle Paulie's old toys. Uncle Paulie could be his favorite for just this reason. He has recently moved into the new class at day care, and is starting to learn more. He can spell his name, knows his numbers and we are working on writing his name. He is also is swimming lessons for the summer, we are hoping he will venture away from the wall at some point.

Nettie graduated from kindergarten at our elementary school. It has been an amazing year for her, she is now reading on her own, writing and ready for first grade. The graduation was cute, and Mom didn't even cry!! She is excited for the summer, a break from homework, although she is joining a couple of reading programs. We took the training wheels off he bike last week, so she is working on balancing and riding. It is so fun to know that this summer we will be able to ride bikes to the park! Nettie is also in swimming lessons, she is still scared of the water as well, so both kids go every day, we are hoping they conquer the fears quickly so they can enjoy the pool with cousins this summer.

Tiffany is enjoying work at Archstone. It has been a wonderful change in jobs, and I enjoy my team and my co-workers. I am busy keeping up with the kids and trying to find new things to entertain them for the summer.

Ben is spending summer making the yard beautiful and enjoying time outside with the kids. He is also playing softball in a summer league with co-workers. So far, they have played one game and he hasn't hurt himself (yet). Work is going well, he is constantly taking on new projects and learning more about the business.

We had the annual family camping trip over memorial day weekend. I can honestly say I think this was the best year yet. 3 nights of everyone in their own sleeping bags is a success!

It's that time of year

It is hard to believe that it is already December 4th. Christmas is 3 weeks away, and the house is getting ready! We kicked off the Holiday season with Thanksgiving with the Burke/Maring/Cribari families. Our entire house has been fighting sickness since October so we kept it relatively calm. Even with sickness we have been able to enjoy several fun events:

• Going to see Santa
• Decorating the tree
• The kids help Geema and Geepa decorate the tree
• Aunt Pam's 50th Birthday
• The lighting of the lights in Downtown Littleton
• Zoolights

We are looking forward to another weekend of fun with birthday celebrations, making Christmas cookies and snow football for Ben. Of course, since Denver hasn't really seen snow, it will be a dry event this year.

This was one of the only pictures John would willingly take!

Petting a snake at Zoolights - Daddy stayed in the hall

It was SO much warmer this year! Last year it was about 10 degrees, this year it was a balmy 40!

Going to see Santa with Poppie!

Cousin Lily having fun at zoolights

Guess who is 6!

Antonette Eileen turned 6 last week, and the weekend was FULL of celebration! Nettie wanted to have a skate city birthday party. It was more fun than I thought it would be, the idea of getting on roller skates was rather daunting to me, I have never been very coordinated (as most who know me know). There was lots of family time, and of course lots of cake and fun. Here are a few pics from the weekend!

Practicing out back with her new skates


Twinkle Toes - She is SO excited

Nettie and her Barbie cake
At her party
Skating with Daddy

End of Summer

It has been a great summer. The kids are loving playing outside, driving in the Barbie Jeep, swimming whenever possible, and the sun being up until 9:00 at night. Of course, with new schedules all that is starting to change. Nettie started at our local school a couple weeks ago. She is enjoying her kindergarten at her school, although it took some convincing that "Yes, you want to go to kindergarten again".
John has moved to the next classroom in the day care center, so he is now doing preschool all day, which is good for him. He is our artist and enjoys drawing, cutting, playing with play dough. All fun stuff when you are 3 years old.
Ben is doing well, ready for the summer to end so that he can stop mowing the lawn for a few months. While he enjoys the yard looking as wonderful as it does, it is a chore to cut the grass.
After being laid off in May, although I still had a job until October, I recently accepted a position with a new company. So after 9 years with Western Union, I am moving on. I am very excited for the new prospect and will be starting tomorrow morning.
Here are some recent pictures:

Nettie enjoying her new American Girl Dolls
Getting a pedicure with Mommie and Nonna
First Day of School
Daddy and John hanging out (check out the shoes, they are about 3 sizes too big)

Nettie playing dress up

 

Family Picture

 

We took this picture at my cousin Mel's wedding a few weeks ago. It was a wonderful day and the kids had fun.

Something to get your toes tapping

I found this on another blog today and thought it is good to share...(from Kottke)

You may have to click and view in You Tube to see the entire screen

Flying By.....

Can you believe that it is almost August already? I am having a hard time with the fact that this weekend is the last weekend of July (at least half of it). But the better part is that we get to celebrate Ben's birthday on Sunday, and that is always a highlight of the summer.

The summer is going so fast, as usual, but we are enjoying all we can. It has been warm, but not unbearable. We have been enjoying seeing Nettie thrive in swimming, and hopefully with a few more lessons will overcome her fear and take off in the pool. She is getting very good, but likes to make sure someone is close by at all times and the wall is easily attainable. John is starting to ride his bike more and loves playing outside whenever possible. It makes it nice to open the back door after work and let the kids run out for a bit before dinner.

Nettie is helping me with a garden that we have with our neighbors, I will attach pictures soon. It is a wonderful garden and we should have more food than we can handle in about a month. Right now we are starting to get lots of tomatoes, but the rest is coming:) I never thought I would say that I love to garden, I love picking the weeds, I love watching the plants grow and I love seeing the vegetables coming on, and knowing that it all started from a seed.

Here are a couple of recent pics from this month...The 4th of July parade, the family picnic, birthdays, some of the flowers in the backyard, and of course SuperDad, allowing both kids to help him mow the lawn..

Yeah for Summer Haircuts

Tonight was haircut night. This happens for John every 4-6 weeks, but for Nettie only about every 12. Tonight she said "I want a haircut like cousin Paige" so here it is.......

Summer fun

Ben and I went to Red Rocks to see Sting in June
Cousin Lily playing with bubbles
The whole family camping Memorial Day weekend
The kids playing croquet

40 years

Last Saturday we spent the day celebrating my Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary. It was a fun party full of friends and family. It celebrated 2 people that I admire and strive to be like as a parent, a spouse and a person. I feel so blessed to have them as parents and can't imagine a better reason to have a party! Happy Anniversary to my Mom and Dad (take that Al and Tipper!)

Her first tooth

Last Friday I took Nettie to get her toenails painted. The woman at the nail salon gave her an apple as her "going away present". A little odd, but she seemed to like it so I said it was fine. As she was eating it, it occurred to me that her front tooth was pretty loose and this could be interesting. As we were sitting in the driveway she said..."Here is my tooth" and after shoving a napkin in her mouth for the blood, she proceeded to finish her apple.

Here is the pic from the first tooth down, only a few more to go....

Not so good at the update thing....

Enjoying kite day at Mother Cabrini with Nonna, Poppa and PoppieDaddy and Nettie acting silly
Nicole and Tiffany after complete the Platte River Half Marathon
Nettie practicing her writing
Hanging out with the cousins at Geemas and Geepas

So, it has been, as usual, busy in the house. Lots of things going on and as I sit here thinking of what is going on and I am suddenly drawing a blank. So, here is a list that I can think of..

John is out of diapers at home - YIPEE!! Even at night, he doesn't wear them.

Nettie is learning how to read and is doing a great job. She is working on her sight words and can read some books in part. She is also practicing writing whenever possible.

Tiff ran her second 1/2 marathon and finished (always the goal). 2 more are in the plan for this year, although the one is May is a maybe.

Ben survived a weekend with the kids while Tiff went to Vegas with a friend. The trip was fun, but Ben was more excited to see Tiff than the kids.

Cousin Lily spent a few days with us, always fun to have cousins around, and Lily loved playing with the big kids.

Tiff survived a few days while Ben wen to visit his Dad. Jack enjoyed having Ben in town for a visit. They got lots of stuff done and enjoyed the time together.

That is about it for now, we are getting excited for summer and ready for warmer weather. Although we are expecting snow this week, so who knows when the warm weather will arrive.