Sunday afternoon

First post from the Blogger App

My blog took a hit a year ago when my parents got me an iPod for my birthday. The iPod make sit so easy to take photos and send them via email or Facebook that I stopped taking the time to blog with my laptop. In fact, I rarely use my laptop anymore!

Well, I found a blogger app, so I'm trying it out. If it works, perhaps my blog will come back to life!

Since I know that anyone who comes to my blog does so for the photos of the kids rather than any words, I've included one for this post. I'm not sure where it'll end up, though :). It is a picture of Cati sitting at the table where she likes to work. She has the doll that she made with her Grandma a couple of weeks ago, plus a collection of marker tops that she's acquired. Cati's always been a collector!

Happy Birthday to me :)

A birthday bouquet from Maria :)

Yesterday, we celebrated my birthday! It was nice to have my parents here from Georgia to celebrate with us. Dany was home all day, too, since it was SVC's Fall break!

Here is the birthday cake I wanted...The apple-cream cheese cake from Southern Living's September issue. Very good! (BTW, there's also a really good homemade pudding recipe in that issue!)

Here's the regular birthday cake that Maria baked and decorated for me. This cake was really for the kids :)

Presents...

Cati made me a doll :) What a treasure!

And Maria drew this picture of Mary for me!

The beautiful priceless gifts that I received and do not have pictures of are the many hugs and "Happy Birthdays" from my sweet kids! What a wonderful day!!

The Last Time We Were in Rome

During our upcoming visit to Italy, we're hoping to go to Rome, especially now that some of the kids are older and can really appreciate it. Here are some pictures from the last time we went to Rome in June 2004. We only had 2 kids then. Maria was 3 (nearly 4) and Cati was about 18 months.


In St. Peter's...



In front of St. Peter's...

Homecoming at SVC

Yesterday we went to Homecoming at SVC. It was a beautiful day - look at the blue sky!

First, we saw a parade...

The kids got tons of candy tossed from the Homecoming Court. No need for us to go trick-or-treating!

Lunch...

...and football. The kids really liked the bushes across the way that spell "Saint Vincent."

Matteo was very excited to watch his first football game!

Giuseppe enjoyed his first football game, too! I spent the day shading him from the sun. He was wearing his Bulldog shirt, ready to cheer UGA to a victory over TN later in the evening!!

Elena really needed a nap, so we left at halftime. The SVC Bearcats went on to win the game!

Happy 11th Birthday, Maria!!

Maria celebrated her 11th birthday a few weeks ago! (Yes, I'm behind on blogging AGAIN.)

One of her gifts was a new dress made by her aunt.

Maria decided to wear it while she continued opening presents.

More presents...these were from her American grandparents who got to watch via FaceTime on the iPod.

Giuseppe's Baptism (and the previous 2 weeks)

Giuseppe was Baptized yesterday! We had an absolutely beautiful weekend celebrating with friends. It was very touching to see so many people come together to celebrate the life of this little boy! We are truely blessed to have such great family and friends near and far!


Our long-time friends from Georgia came to stay with us this weekend. We were so happy that they were willing to drive so far to celebrate this special weekend with us.

Here is Maria with her Godbrother (her Godfather's son) :)

John Paul arrived and immediately noticed that the living room was too clean and decided to help us out.

Here are the 2 little ones, Mary Grace and our Elena, carefully guarding their baby dolls.

Chiara enjoyed bossing around...I'm mean playing with her Godmother :) I got several reports from different people of Chiara "teaching" them soccer, requesting bubble-blowing, and reassuring them that Cheetos was all she needed for a meal. After Mass, but before the Baptism on Sunday, Chiara turned to me and asked if it was time for cake yet. Four-year-olds are special :)

Our 3 families enjoyed spending time together on Saturday.

After Mass on Sunday, it was time for the Baptism! Many of our local friends joined us a church and then came to our home afterwards. It was a joy-filled day!

The Baptism...

Anointing with Holy Chrism...We're still enjoying it's sweet smell today!

Presenting of his Baptismal candle by his Godfather...

This is what Giuseppe thought of the experience :) The kids said he was sad that he had to wear a dress :) He had a tough morning, but a peaceful afternoon at home in the sling with Mommy.

Family picture...yes, there's something on Matteo's face. He and the kids decided it would be fun to play tag outside with their eyes closed...until he ran into the side of the house. They always seem to come up with these ideas when it's time for pictures.

Group picture of our kids and our friends' kids...

Back home after the Baptism...this was the only person who got to hold Giuseppe. He was so unhappy that he spent the rest of the afternoon snuggled with me in the sling.

Time to eat!

We wore out the babies...

It was a wonderful weekend! Thank you so much everyone for celebrating with us!!


Now onto the 2 weeks before this weekend...Obviously we had to spend several days getting ready for this event. Dany decided that the front of our house needed some attention...

He battled for 2 days, but managed to conquer the weeds and attempted to prevent their return with a covering and mulch.

Giuseppe was one-month-old last week. He went for a check-up on Thursday and here are the stats:

Birth weight = 10 lbs 4 oz (4.7kg)

1 month weight = 12 lbs 15 oz (5.9kg)

Birth length = 22.5" (57.2cm)

1 month length = 24.25" (61.6cm)

He's eating and growing well :)

He's been cooing a good bit and smiling occasionally. He's a pretty good sleeper, too!
And he still rolling front to back regularly.

We've completed 10 days of school so far. Here's a brief look of some of the things we've done.

The two little ones like spending time with sticker and stamps in the mornings while the others are working.

Here are Maria and Cati coloring and labeling cell sketches for science.

Here's a demonstration Matteo did about camouflage to begin his study of animals.

How many squares do you see?

Chiara is working on math...

...and handwriting...(she's also working on reading, but it's hard to take a picture of that. She's reading 3-letter short vowel words so far.)

Here's a handwriting sample from Cati.

Of course the kids have done many other things, but they don't always make for exciting pictures :)

Classes start back for Dany in 2 weeks and he'll be doing things to get ready for that during these two weeks. I've enjoyed having him around so much this summer. I guess it's time for us to really settle into a routine and get to work!

And here's a video that has nothing to do with anything else in the post except that it was taken in the past 2 weeks. It's a video of Elena dancing to music at the end of a movie. Dancing 2-year-olds are the cutest! Enjoy!