A few January pictures

Here are a few pictures from the last 2 weeks.

Here is Cati doing a science demonstration. We started a science unit on birds and insects that we will study once a week. This demonstration showed how fast air flow over something causes lift, which causes birds to fly. The kids had fun spraying water across the table :)



This is what may happen to you as the youngest of 5 children... Your older siblings may dress you up for their own enjoyment. Elena doesn't seem to mind :)

Here is Maria practicing caligraphy. She's also been working on knitting a lot lately, but I don't have a picture.

Yesterday we attended the Baptism of Dany's collegue's baby. It just wore Elena out!

You may notice that I added a pregnancy ticker to the top of the blog. I had a check-up with the midwife 2 weeks ago and we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time. We'll have another appointment in a couple more weeks when we should get to schedule a mid-pregnancy ultrasound. This past week I started feeling the baby move a bit!

Back home and ready to work!

I did it! I finally caught up on all of my blog posts! I posted 4 new posts about Christmas and Cati's birthday. Enjoy!

Tomorrow it's time to get back to work. The Christmas season officially ends today. We put away all those Christmas and birthday gifts and cleaned the school/play room.

You see, I know it won't stay this clean for long, so I have to take a picture :)

I hope all our GA family and friends will enjoy their snow day tomorrow! We have about 4" of snow on the ground outside right now, but it's business as usual around here.

Happy 8th Birthday to Cati!!!

On New Year's Day, we celebrated Cati's 8th birthday!

On the day before her birthday, we took Cati to get her ears pierced. She had her ears pierced about a year ago, but we had to let the holes close because she had a reaction to the earrings. Her one wish for Christmas was to get her ears re-pierced. For Christmas she received some pure titanium earrings, which is what people with metal allergies have to wear.

Well, we were PROMISED that the earrings that they used to pierce Cati's ears with were pure titanium. By the next morning, it was obvious that they were not. Her ears and the surrounding skin had an obvious angry red rash. We changed out the earrings for a pair she received for Christmas and treated her with Benedryl for a few days. The good news is that as I write this more than a week later her ears have completely healed and are not reacting to the good titanium earrings! This is a nice birthday gift for her :)

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!! You are a true blessing in our lives. Your beautiful smile brightens our days!

More Christmas Fun with More Family!

On the 3rd day of Christmas, we got to celebrate with family in Atlanta. It was an extra-special get-together because my cousins who live in Florida were also there!


Our cousin was very cute with her new camera taking lots of pictures. Here she is taking a picture of Dany, who was taking a picture of her :)


After a yummy lunch, the present-opening began!

Not only were we celebrating Christmas, but also the 8th birthdays of Cati and our cousin who were born only a few days apart!

What a great family photo!!!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!!! We had a wonderful 1st day of the Christmas season with family, fun gifts, and yummy food.

Here is the tree on Christmas morning...

I'm quite sure that I had the ONLY children in the world who had to be awaken on Christmas morning!!! I think Matteo woke up on his own by 7:30, but we had to wake the others around 7:45!

Ready for the madness to begin!

Elena figured out present-opening pretty quickly :)

Maria got everyone in our family a statue. Here is Cati with the "Our Lady of Fatima" statue that she received from Maria.

Maria got some new shoes...

Elena got a new baby doll. She absolutely LOVES babies and notices them anywhere she sees them. We just hopes she loves them as much in 6-months when her baby brother/sister arrives!

Some new books...

I love this...showing off one present (a new game) while simultaneously starting on the next present!
This is Christmas morning multi-tasking :)

Pooh characters for Chiara...

New books for Maria...

A new book for Elena with felt pieces - great book to bring to Mass!

Some titanium earrings for Cati...The only thing Cati actually asked for for Christmas was to have her ears re-pierced. If you remember, we had to let her 1st piercings almost a year ago close up due to metal allergies. More on this story later :)

A new purse for Cati - Maria also got one.

Keva planks for Matteo...The kids have really been enjoying these since we returned home to PA!

A sewing book...

Elena enjoying a present with Aunt Jess...

The girls with their new American girl doll horses.

Babies will always enjoy the boxes on Christmas morning the best!

Believe it or not, we had a white Christmas in GEORGIA!!

Soon after we got up that morning it started to snow...

Within a few hours it looked like this!!

It was exciting to have a white Christmas in GA, but the excitement wore off quickly the next morning for Dany as he had to clear the snow off the van just as he would if he was in PA. We don't really travel 600+ miles SOUTH for this kind of weather :)