Tah-dah!!

Camryn had her dance recital yesterday- it was so great! The theme of the recital was 'Alice in Wonderland', so the kids in her class were the 'Bees'. They are a Combo-Ballet/Tap class, and their dance was a tap number. She not only remembered all of her moves, but had a perfect dancer's smile plastered all over her face the entire time. I swear she's meant to perform! (I'm not biased or anything :) Grammie, Grandma Nana, Grandma Linda, Grandpa Dave, Grandma Betty, Auntie Amy, Mickey, Nolan, Auntie Gena, Uncle Kyle, and of course, us & brothers came to watch her. Thanks everybody!!! And to those who wanted to come, but didn't make it- we bought the DVD, so no worries! She really does enjoy dancing, although she will be foregoing dance this fall to play soccer again (much to my dismay :( ). I think it just brings back memories for me, ha ha! She has met some really cute friends, and we love the dance Academy she goes to. It's so family oriented- not competitive or petty at all. I'm pretty sure she will want to go back in the spring.

Here's before the show at our house. She was pumped and ready to go!

After the show with all of her flowers. She told me before the show, "Mom, Grammie's gonna come and bring me flowers!" I think it was more of a hopeful statement... as you can see, she was right!

Here she is with a couple other 'bees'- (L-R) Sofia, Camryn & Lauren. She was excited because I was a 'Parent Helper' for the 7 pm show. That is a whole other story in itself. Just imagine 30 5 & 6 year olds with 2 adults, in a giant room with 100 other dancers all getting ready to perform. Yah, I know... but I was glad to be there with her. We had fun and can't wait till the next one! (Well, maybe... :)

Fun with family

Thursday night we went to a concert at our local park. The kids loved it because we grabbed sandwiches and a blanket and had a picnic dinner while we listened to the music. This particular time it was the band from a local 'mega-church'. We had a great time, although it was hard to explain to the kids why they couldn't play at the playground. (There were literally probably 500 people there!) I very briefly went into my 'Mommy doesn't want to lose you' speech.
Anyways, it was great to see SO many locals gathered to hear Christian music! I overheard that it was the largest turnout of any of the concerts so far. Yay God!!

We joined Matt's parents there- we all had a great time! By the way- thanks for the yummy brownies, Linda!

Cookies and milk

So we got bored and decided to make chocolate chip cookies the other night. This was one of those moments that the kids were SOO excited over and I totally thought nothing of it. They made me whip out their aprons and everything. It's been really funny lately to see them doing things because they will tell me, "Mom, get the camera so you can put it on the computer!"
I love how fun things like this turn from making cookies...


....to eating almost all of the cookie dough...


....to forget the cookies, let's just take pictures!! (I just have to say, is she my daughter, or what!?)


They were a blast that night, even though I ended up making all the cookies by myself after the novelty wore off. I guess it's all about the process. Who really wants the cookies in the end anyways?

Snip Snip!

Blake had his first haircut the other day by my mom. She almost had to pry him out of my hands and convince me that he REALLY needed a haircut. So after some bargaining, and even a few tears (HA!) she finally convinced me. Granted it was much needed, but I think I am really having 'last child' hesitancies when it comes to his milestones!! You would think after the third kid things like this wouldn't get to me so much, but I guess some things never change. He does look so much cuter with his new 'do'!!


Before


After

Fun In the Sun

Today we went to go visit my friend Debbie and her kids, Natalie and Lauren, out in Murrieta. They moved there the end of last year and we miss 'em! They have this great house with a pool, so we drove down to enjoy it for the day. Cam & Ty had so much fun in the water with the girls. They both definitely put their swim lessons to good use! I was actually impressed with their swimming abilities. (Although Tyler scares me sometimes at how daring he is!)



Here is Tyler with the goggles he borrowed. He LOVED these things! He said they made him look like Batman-ha!! They looked ginormous on his face, it was so cute!



Debbie with the Blake-ster. He had a good time too, watching all the crazy kids.



And of course, it wouldn't be complete without a popsicle to finish off the day. Yum! Thanks again, Debbie, for a great afternoon! We all had so much fun!!

Off to the fair

On Wednesday we headed down south to the Orange County Fair. It ended up being a beautiful day & the kids had lots of fun! We have taken them every year since Cam was a baby, and we always have a great time. One of their favorite things is looking at all the animals. Here they are looking at the cute baby chicks, whom they fondly refer to as "pollitos". It's the cutest thing ever to hear them attempt to speak Spanish. Mom & Grandma Nana would be proud!


Camryn decided instead of rides she wanted a unicorn painted on her face. It really was cute, and I couldn't believe the girl did it in like 5 minutes! Truly a talent I do not posess!


Even the floral decor at the fair was beautiful. I just couldn't resist a photo op!


The kids wanted Dippin' Dots for their treat. Go figure... something we could get around the corner from our house. No deep fried twinkies?



And of course, I couldn't forget the happiest baby ever. I swear that kid is just along for the ride. What a trooper!! And, yes, even he got a little taste of vanilla ice cream. What can I say, it's the fair- you gotta splurge!

Hai-yah!!

Tyler had his first karate belt graduation yesterday! He graduated from a white belt to a white belt with yellow stripe. It was the cutest thing ever!! This is a video of him actually breaking a board in one swift kick. As you will see, he is pretty surprised (stunned actually) at his accomplishment.
He is really loving karate and is getting better at his 'fighting stance'. It really is the cutest thing ever!!

His time... not mine

I really didn't feel like working last night, so I promptly accepted when they called asking if I wanted to be on-call. We ended up going out to dinner with the kids to Islands- our fav kid-friendly restaurant. At about 7:45 I got a phone call, while browsing through Linens-N-Things, from my work saying they needed me to come in. Of course. It was too good to be true. We rushed home, I quickly fed Blake, got dressed & arrived at work just before 9 pm. I was definitely bummed to be there. I started my shift by admitting a patient to be induced. Nothing special. Pitocin, epidural, wait. Then we had another patient come in. Contractions- whatever. No doctor- whatever. Looking for baby's heartbeat. Looking for baby's heartbeat. Nothing.

This is pretty much the worst side to my job. After a sequence of events, I ended up volunteering to take care of this poor woman, probably safe to say on the worst day of her life. As I sat there listening to her sobs, I couldn't help but think how I really didn't want to be there not too much earlier. Then I came to realize, this was why I was here. My heart really went out to this stranger. All I could do was listen to her. All I could think of was I couldn't imagine what she was feeling at that moment. All I could say was "I'm so sorry" and "It's not your fault".

When I came home this morning, to my three healthy and beautiful children, I promised myself that I would try not to control my life too much. You never know what's going to happen. That lady had no clue what was going to happen. She was just as happy as I was, probably sitting with her family having dinner, getting ready for a huge change in her life.

We all have those things we are expecting to change our lives. Good or bad, I will try to leave it to Him and be grateful for what I have now. After all, it's in His time... not mine.

Boy, oh boy!

Today we had a great day with some of our family visiting from Arizona. Cousin Laurie and her boys (4 out of the 5, anyways) came down for some Southern California fun. We always have a great time when they're here. Like I always tell everyone, Laurie's boys are some of the best behaved kids I've ever met!! We celebrated Laurie's birthday, and just enjoyed each other's company. It's really funny to see so many 'men' in our family after our generation of all women!! I guess that's the way it works!!


Here's Laurie & Blake- bringing back baby boy memories... By the way, doesn't she look great!?! She's lost almost 50 lbs. and is still going! She's awesome!



Here's the kiddos... (L-R) Gillian, Blake, George, Mark, Josh, Matt, Tyler, Camryn, & Johnny (Paul's in AZ working). Can't believe how fast they grow! We missed Mick & Nolan!!

Very Veggie

So I had to brag a little about my accidental 'Green Thumb' lately! For those of you who know me, you know that I don't exactly care for my plants as well as I probably should. But, then again, I barely remember to feed myself sometimes. As Camryn shows (such like Vanna!) we have a vegetable garden growing in our backyard. This was totally an experiment on my part, and I did not think it would turn out as good as it has! We have zucchini, carrots and green beans growing. I actually harvested an edible zucchini the other day, too!!



Here is my beautiful Hydrangea plant that I am so proud of. I don't exactly know why it started to grow so well this spring, although Matt says water helps. We have had it for about a year and it just decided to take off this spring.


And here is another creation of mine; a cluster of plants that I plopped in a planter hoping they would grow into something. I guess Matt's right- water works wonders!!

By the way- I don't know why everything is underlined... anyone have any suggestions?

Family fun

This weekend was filled with spending time with friends & family. Thursday we went to see fireworks with grandpa/grandma Bonafede (aka: mom & dad).
Friday we spent time with Ken & Tara & the kids for the Fourth. Gosh do I miss that neighborhood!
Saturday was my mom's birthday, which we celebrated on Sunday at our house. Aaron & Christa & the girls spent the weekend here & joined us for the bash. It was really good to see them, and I know the girls especially had a good time! Camryn now refers to Brooklynn as her 'sister'. I guess that's the closest she'll get!

Matt actually thinks it's entertaining to wacth him play his XBOX. (Notice the level of excitement on their faces.)


Happy Birthday Mom!!

What a wonderful weekend we had- we are so BLESSED to have such a wonderful family!

I'm in love...

So I finally had the chance to sit down and write. I am blaming it on the fact that we just got a new wonderful camera- which I am in LOVE with- and I just got the card reader for it. In my narrow-mindedness, I assume that I need pictures to go along with every blog... So anyways, here's a sample of a few of the AMAZING moments that our camera recently captured.



Camryn & Tyler at the St. Bruno's Carnival












Tyler's new Karate abilities... SO cute!







Our baby boy, not so little anymore!