D'Angelo is 4

Happy 4th Birthday to my D'Angelo! I am so excited for him to wake up in the morning and have an awesome day. Four years ago today I didn't know my life was about to undergo a major change. I was unaware of newborn D'Angelo and certainly had no idea I would be meeting him, my firstborn son, in ten short days. Instead, I was thinking, wow...I just turned 30 five days ago. I wasn't unhappy with turning 30, but I also was not overjoyed with turning the big 30! I can happily say now that 30 was the BEST year of my life. It is the year in which I became a parent and fell completely in love with my sweet baby D'Angelo. The love a mother has for her children is like no other. I thank God every day for the opportunity, gift, challenges and great blessing of parenting my children. It has been an awesome experience to watch D'Angelo grow from the precious 10 day old newborn I fell in love with into the sweet little boy he is today.

Summer is unofficially over & the weather here feels very much like autumn. It's after 2 am and it feels cold outside to me. I'm wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and socks! I think my feet forgot what socks were. It seems to go from sticky hot & humid here to cold! As in, one day the kids are out back splashing in the pool...the next it's time to get out socks & jeans. Don't get me wrong, autumn is my favorite season, it's just that it appears out of nowhere and summer ends so abruptly.
Rick got to enjoy some even cooler weather himself this past week while in Colorado. He & his friend Tom take an annual trip there to hike in the mountains, I can't wait until the kids are a little older so we can all go on a vaca to Colorado. While they were away, the kids and I spent time at my Mom & Darrell's. We did the usual run around all day playing, campfire with marshmallows in the evening, and lots of golf cart rides. The other fun thing is the big guys are having a blast learning to ride their Fisher Price quad all over the farm! Hmmm, what else did we do? We also got over to the Walworth County Fair last week. I roasted 25lbs. or better of Roma tomatoes on Wednesday to make soup & Darrell just brought me another HUGE box of Roma's today! Thankfully with the cooler weather I don't mind having the oven on all day long.
Exciting stuff here, isn't it :)

Silly animals at the fair

Lotsa tomatoes.

roasted tomatoes & garlic
What happens when you allow two toddlers to play with rice??? Lots of fun & a BIG mess.

obviously they didn't get the concept of keeping it in the bins and on the cloth.

Sharing a photo from Eric's 30th birthday party at The Cubby Bear.

Grandpa, me, Eric, and my Mom.

I don't think there is anything quite like a Chicago block party! I hadn't been to one prior to last week in years and I am so glad that my kids got the opportunity to enjoy one. There was good food, games, face painting for the kids, popcorn, snow cones, and the company of friends. Thanks to Jerry & Tricia for having us over. The Chicago fire dept came and opened the hydrant for the kids to play. This was a first for my kids. When I was little the older kids in my neighborhood used to get out the channel locks to open the hydrant on our corner. We would run through it until the police came to chase us away and close the hydrant. Where else does this go on? I am curious to hear about other block parties & fire hydrant antics. The kids also got a chance to ride on one of the CPD horses, thanks Audrey. Towards the end of the night my friend Harold let the kids get into his squad car. D'Angelo asked to sit in the back seat and H's partner told him that he couldn't because that was where the dirty bad guys sit. D'Angelo is still talking about the bad guys going to jail.

D & Auggie

While my brother was in town he got all nostalgic and took himself on a trip down memory lane. He drove around our old neighborhood and took a few pictures.

Here is the home we grew up in.

I remember the day the little sapling out in front was planted. I went to preschool in the morning and returned in the afternoon to find my new tree. It really has grown.

The school we attended K-8

Sayre Language Academy


Tia Grace is 5 months old!

It has been a crazy, busy time around our place. I think I say that all too often. We have been in the process of renewing our foster care license. Every 4 years it comes up for renewal. This entails completing paperwork, background checks, completing 16 hours of classes each (Rick & I over the 4 year time period), physicals for all family members (Rick & I both run out the week of home study to get these done), home inspection and another home study. Had our home study on Friday and it went well. Glad to know we should be granted our renewal.

We received the boys' amended birth certificates with their new legal names on them! Yippee Skippy, that thrills me. I am listed as their mama and Rick is listed as their father.

Saturday we attended my friend Ruick's 40th birthday BBQ party. We had a nice time visiting and the kids enjoyed playing and having what else? cake!

My Brother Eric and his family came in from Cali for a nice long visit. My grandfather took the bus from Appleton to visit last Thursday and left yesterday morning. My sister-in-law had a surprise party for Eric's 30th on Sunday at The Cubby Bear. Eric's first suspicion raised when my Dad suggested grabbing a beer at The Cubby Bear with my grandfather who doesn't drink! Eric was surprised though and it was a nice time with a good group of his friends.

Yesterday was his actual birthday so we spent the day together at Coco Key Water Resort . I left the littles home with Grandma Debbie while my mom, Josh & I took the big three to meet up with Eric, Michelle & Bailey. The kids had a blast! We spent more than 6 hours there before my crew was so tired I thought they were going to fall over. My brother took me on the fun, dark, fast water slide. I was so nauseated and lightheaded at the end of it I couldn't stand straight for a few moments. I will not try that again, the affect on me was vertigo like.
Upon entering the car I inform the kids that once we get home we will have a quick dinner then get to sleep. D'Angelo cries out, "What about Uncle Eric's birthday! We did not have cake & a party yet!" Thankfully, I was able to assure him that we would get to sleep in order to make a cake in the morning for a BBQ party tonight. Which is where I am now. I am trying to blog while my kids holler at me about making a crazy birthday cake. Off to make a cake!

You babies should really stay off of the

kitchen sink & stove!X & O: partners in all things naughty

"Undefeated" sports camp

D'Angelo had the opportunity to participate in a sports camp this week right down our street at Our Saviour church. Unchartered Waters Sports Ministy lead the camp. This year's theme is "Undefeated" and the theme verse is Romans 8:37-39. I bought the music cd today that contains all the songs used this week during camp. D'Angelo was so excited to show his brothers and sisters how to do some of the moves for the songs. He kept correcting Adeline because she was dancing to the music and did not know the right way to do it. He had a fun time at camp but will miss tomorrow's final day because he and Auggie are headed way up north with Gaga & Poppy.

A few pictures from sports camp

Here's a few pictures from last weekend. We were back up at my mom & Darrell's. The kids ran around and played outside every day, all day long! They were especially happy to have a couple campfires and toasted marshmallows. D'Angelo & Poppy even spent Saturday night out in the tent.

Another new outfit from Ruick-

Please don't make me eat a smore...I just wanted a piece of chocolate
marshmallows are a gooey treat

Oh Poppy you make me laugh!






Look at this! I paid under $4.00!

My friend Ruick made Independance Day outfits for the kids but I never got to take pictures of them together. We had a BBQ here and the kids stripped their cute clothes to jump into the pool before I got any pics. Yesterday we were up at my Mom & Darrell's so I dressed them up and took some pics.

Oliver
fresh picked zucchini

all together now!

twins on the run

Big brother and baby sister

Yesterday was opening day for the Rock County Fair in Janesville, WI . It is the oldest 4-H fair in the United States and remains the largest youth fair to this day. We spent the whole day, noon-8:30pm, there with our friend Ray, my mom and Darrell. The kids had such a fun time at the fair. They were able to pet sheep, cows, and goats. Walking through all the barns and hearing the enthusastic young exhibitors tell us about their animals was really neat, it is always my favorite part of the fair. They are always so willing and happy to allow the little kids to come and pet their animals.

We enjoyed our lunch at one of the church sponsered tents. Burgers, hotdogs, pulled pork, baked potatoes and the Best iced coffee. I like supporting them and they always have good food at much better prices than the carnival food vendors. That is not to say that we did not indulge in any of those other treats though. My mom and I love cotton candy-gross I know - but I do love it at a fair. We also had curly fries, cheese curds, lemonade and ice cream!

Thanks to my Mom and Darrell for such a fun day.

my lil' cowboy

my Mom with Tia & Darrell pushing D'Angelo & Xavier

Annie let the kids pet her sheep and spent lots of time telling my kids about her animals.

She also followed us over to the cow barn to let the kids get up close with her brother's cows.

Adeline loves cows!

This is always a hit with my kids! Xavier and Oliver had their first experience playing in the corn. They spent an hour in the beginning of the day in there and another hour just before we were leaving.


D & Auggie made friends with an older kid who had a great time burying them in the corn and dumping it over their heads. Their laughter was awesome!

they rode this ride multiple times and choose this jeep every time!
Funny since it's the only one they rode in last year too!

The picture below is of them last year 7-27-2007

busy hands making braclets