More pictures

Before Nonna and Zio Stefano left on Tuesday we saved a copy of all the pictures of the trip from Zio Stefano's camera. Here are some of the highlights...

Opening presents on the first day of their trip....



Chiara walking into her "old" room - actually Zio Stefano's room for a week!

Pictures from their tour of Greensburg...

A morning at the park...

Elena really enjoys tomato sauce!

Maria and Stefano with their cathedral...

Stefano and Elena... Elena actually warmed up to Stefano rather quickly. I think it was because he looks so much like Dany!

Nonna and Elena...

Elena in the fireplace :)

All of us after Mass on the morning before they returned to Italy...

A few pictures of their tour of St. Vincent...

Thank you again for your visit, Nonna and Stefano!

We really enjoyed your time here and we hope to see you again soon!!

A Special Gift

Even better than the beautiful scarf and the gorgeous icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help that Dany's mom brought for me from Italy is the photo album. The photo album contained many pictures of Dany receiving the Sacraments as a child!

These pictures are just so wonderful that I had to share!!!

His Baptism on May 5, 1974...

Dany's First Holy Communion on May 9, 1982...

His Confirmation on November 24, 1985...

I am so happy to have these pictures!!! Thank you, Thank you, Nonna!! Be assured that these will be greatly treasured.

Now I get to add them to our family Sacrament poster and we can remember them throughout the year!

Visiting with Nonna and Zio Stefano

We've been enjoying our time with Nonna and Zio Stefano!

Here they are with the kids after we got back from Mass this morning. The kids have really enjoyed seeing Stefano concelebrate Mass in the mornings. This morning, our priest, Fr. Tom, asked him to give the final blessing in Italian. Everyone in the church enjoyed that :)


Here are the two brothers enjoying beer, Nascar, and American football last night :)

Stefano helped the kids make a really great cathedral...

We went to the park on Friday morning - well, most of us. Maria and I spent most of the time at the orthodontist's office where she was getting her bottom braces put on. Then, we joined the others at the park for a bit.

Nonna and Elena enjoying a book.

Two of the kids getting an Italian lesson.

I don't have pictures of their tour of downtown Greensburg, including the cathedral, given by a friend from church, now affectionately known as the "Alleluia man" :)

I also don't have pictures of Nonna enjoying some of her favorite American discoveries, including waffles and my steam mop :)

Tomorrow they will go for a special tour of St. Vincent College. Then, they will fly home on Tuesday.

Thank you, thank you for your visit!

Feast of St. Elena

I actually wanted to post this on Wednesday, the actual feast day of St. Elena, but I've been having trouble getting a video to load. I've decided to give up on the video so that you can at least see some pictures!!

Today we celebrated the feast of St. Elena (Helena in English)!

And, celebrating with Dany's mother and brother made it even more special! They arrived from Italy last night to spend a week with us. We had a wonderful first day together.

This is just a cute picture of Elena from Monday night...

Elena will be 16-months-old in just a few days. Can you believe it?!?!

Happy Feast of St. Clare (Santa Chiara)!

Today the Church celebrates the life St. Clare of Assisi, our little Chiara's patron saint.

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Chiara and Elena were playing on the kitchen floor while I was fixing lunch. I heard Elena fussing about something, and I asked Chiara what Elena wanted...

Chiara: She wants my toy.

Me: Well, it would be really nice to share it with her. That would make her happy.

Chiara: It's my feast day. I don't have to share!

Ahh, I'm sure St. Clare is smiling down on her little namesake :)
St. Clare, pray for us!!

Summer in GA - Part 5 - Visits with Friends

During the last few days of our time in GA we got to visit with some college friends.

On Thursday, we visited with Maria's and Cati's Godmothers, Whitney and Pamela.




Maria with her 2 "Godsisters" :)

Cati won the admiration of the preschoolers :) :)

Yes, Chiara refused another group photo...

On Friday, my college roommate visited us! It was so great to see her and her beautiful little daughter. We had not seen each other since we left GA 7 years ago!! It's hard to believe that it's been that long!

Elena tried to make friends right away...

We'll have to teach her a little about respecting personal space :) :)

It was wonderful to see you all, even if it was only a short time!! We hope to see you all again soon!

Summer in GA - Part 4 - More family fun!

We are back in PA now, but I still have lots of GA pictures to post!

During our 2nd weekend in GA, we got together with more family members and celebrated my cousin's 21st birthday.

We were very happy that on this incredibly hot Saturday in Atlanta we got to go swimming!

This was Chiara's first time in a pool and she really enjoyed it!

It was also Elena's first time in the pool and she thought it was very relaxing. A little longer and I think she would've fallen asleep!

Cati really loved using a ball they had as a flotation device :)

Here are the girls with the Birthday Girl! We realize that she and Cati look A LOT alike!!

Elena even cooperated for a photo...unfortunately, Chiara did not :)

It was a super-fun day!!! We hope you had a wonderful birthday, Heather, and we really enjoyed getting to spend some time with all of you!