My little angels!

labor day weekend pictures

Dominic swimming; Dominic and his Aunt Katie; Stella; Dominic and Papa working together; Dominic and Stella dressed up in paint ball gear; Dominic and Stella with their Aunt Katie; Stella with her Aunt Laura (Yaya)! We had a great Labor Day weekend. As you can see, we spent lots of it with family and at the lake!

summer fun continued

God has certainly had a way of smoothing out the rough patches of life for us with some laughter lately! We have had to use our Triple A emergency towing three times in the span of one month, and while we were finally looking forward to Peter's overtime coming to an end, he just found out that not only will it be extended for another month, but he will have to work even longer hours each day, and Saturdays as well... not to mention that I have only continued getting more and more exhausted as the pregnancy progresses! But we are all healthy and safe! That is of course what matters most!!! Regardless of the difficulties in the past few months, we have been doing some fun summer activities and we have been laughing a lot!
Dominic and I were having some animal crackers one day. He was pretending that the horse- shaped cracker was his pet, and was making it walk around on the table and talk to me. When he dropped it he said, "Oh poor horsey. He sad. He need his papa." I asked, "Where is his papa?" He thought for a moment, then with his head tipped to one side said, "I guess he's in my mouth. I ate him."
Earlier that morning, when Dominic woke up, I heard him over the monitor saying that he was scared. I went to his room, to find him pointing towards Stella's crib, with her in it, happily snoring away. "What are you scared of?" I asked him. I could tell he was searching for the words to describe what he was afraid of. Finally he blurted out,"I gared of Della when she do dat zebra!" Translation: "I'm scared of Stella when she snores!" So apparently, Stella sounds like a zebra when she snores.
We were getting in the car to go home after Mass one morning, when Dominic hops in the driver's seat and pretends to drive. I turned the car on.
Peter: Why did you do that?
Jennifer: Why not? It's not like he can reach the pedals.
Dominic: Yes I can! (as he begins to slide down the seat in the direction of the pedals)
We went to the Detroit zoo last weekend! It was a fun trip. One of our highlights was when we were at the grizzly bears viewing area. Stella is fascinated with flowers, and so, much of her time was spent trying the pick every pretty flower that we passed by. At the grizzly bears, Peter put Stella down for a second (that is literally all it took), and when I asked where she was, we turned around to find that she had climbed underneath the wooden fence that separated the viewers from the moat (which is the only thing that keeps those bears at a safe distance), in order to pick a flower. It is quite a sight to see your one and a half year old picking a flower on the other side of the grizzly bear fence at the zoo!
I will post some pictures of the kids, but that might take up another whole post, so bare with me!

Labor day weekend

It is already Wednesday, and it feels like the week has just started! I guess that's because of the long weekend we just had due to Labor day. The weekend started off kind of slow. Friday night after dinner, Peter and the kids and I went to pick up a new riding lawn mower, to replace our old one that broke. Dominic was totally excited about that because he LOVES tractors! And better yet, this new one was blue... one of his favorite colors. Saturday we really just took it easy. Peter and Dominic mowed the lawn (Dominic sits on Peter's lap) in the morning after we ate a nice breakfast. This is their Saturday morning routine, and something that Dominic always looks forward to! Stella and I stayed in while I did some quick cleaning up of the house, then we got ready and went outside to be with the guys, take a little walk, and play. After lunch, Dominic "helped" Peter put in a sink in the laundry room. Poor Stella had a really hard time going down for a nap. Even though she desperately needed one, I think she is/was in the midst of teething. She has also just begun exhibiting some symptoms of a cold today, so that might have been bothering her too. Overall, it was a quiet and rather boring day, which in hindsight was great, because the next two days were very full. On Sunday, we went to 11:15am Mass, then directly to my dad's house for my step mom's family reunion. My dad took Peter, the kids, me, my brother Johnny, and a few others out on the boat, for a fun boat ride! After lots of playing and eating an early dinner, we headed off to my Nana's house, to celebrate mine, my mom's and my uncle's birthdays. This side of my family tends to do things on the later side, and so we didn't end up leaving until 10pm. It takes us over an hour to get home, and so, needless to say, we were all exhausted! I felt so bad about keeping the kids out so late, but it was a very rare occurrence, and they actually did surprisingly well with everything going on. They really had a great time! Monday, was Labor day, and so Peter did not have to go into work! We went over to my dad's house again, to swim at the beach there. The kids had the best time! My favorite thing is seeing my kids having fun and enjoying life! After building a huge reservoir and filling it up with water for the kids, Peter got to fish with my dad and siblings, while Dominic, Stella, my sister, and I made sand castles. After Kate (my sister) decided she'd like to join the guys for fishing, Dominic's interest shifted to the little playground that was near the beach. He went for a few rides down the slide, then headed back to the water to play with Grandma for a bit. Stella, hates the sand! She did NOT want to touch it. But I managed to get her interested in the shovels and buckets, which worked for awhile, until she noticed that her hands were covered in wet, clinging sand! Shortly after pizza with the family, we started on our way home, which is usually only a 45 minute drive, but this time took us an hour and a half, because we had to stop a couple of times to calm our overly exhausted children! We did finally arrive home, with the kids asleep, and Peter and I ended our night by watching a movie together. Tuesday was my birthday. I had a great day! Peter surprised me by coming home a bit early with flowers and chocolates. He grilled a wonderful dinner, and my mom and brother came over to eat with us. The kids had a blast playing outside in their wading pool, singing happy birthday and blowing out candles, and getting to spend time with their Nonnie (my mom) and uncle Johnny, whom they just love to pieces! And to close, I just have to mention a very cute thing about Stella. It is not always easy to understand all of her words, as most are very unclear, and mixed in with lots of babble, but I could clearly hear her version of the happy birthday song... "Happy to Stella, Happy to Stella!"

Summer Fun!

Stella at the park

Stella having fun in the pool

Dominic and Stella in their pool

Dominic on Papa's tractor

Dominic pulling Stella in a trailer with his tractor

Dominic having fun at a friend's house

Dominic and Stella with friends Norah and Kitty

Dominic having lunch after swimming