Happy Easter!

Well - what a wonderful weekend! Mimi and Gena came on Good Friday and we did the Stations of the Cross. You always know in the back of your head that Jesus died for us but Easter always brings it to the forefront of my mind. It makes my heart hurt to think of what He did for us all so long ago. After 40 days in the desert, with no food or water, while being tempted by the devil Jesus had to basically carry a tree up a mountain to be nailed to it and left to die. But He has RISEN!

Madelyn picked her own outfit for the stations. I think she did great!

I got to spend time with my sweet girlfriends on Friday night. They all tease me about my no meat Fridays in Lent! We had fun but missed sweet Susan.

Sofia (correct spelling) started feeling ill on Friday so she spent most of the day in bed. Poor thing. She was better by Saturday for our big party!

On Saturday, all of Tommy's relatives (Oley side) came together for Easter and for his twin cousins, Joe and John. Joe just got back from Iraq and will heading back in October. It was amazing listening to his stories and it's very touching what he and many others do for us every day. His twin brother, John, will be heading to Iraq in April (I believe). It was nice, very nice, having all of the family together. Some I had never met and some I met so very briefly at our wedding almost 6 years ago. It was an amazing day and I miss all of their smiling faces already!

One of Tommy's cousins, Theresa, gave us this beautiful "Heart of Jesus" painting. She also brought Madelyn some nail polish (she has three boys!). Maddie could not have been more excited. She enlisted the help of Aunt Lorraine to give her a manicure and then showed everyone her newly painted fingers . . .

Some candid and not so candid shots from the day . . .

Aunt Dot's boys with Tommy . . .

(l-r: Frank, Bob, Tom, Joe, John)

Jeannette and HopeSaying prayers before dinner . . .

(Madelyn changed halfway through the day, of course . . .)

Family photos were taken . . .The big group shot . . .

There are actually quite a few people missing from the above shot!

The kids all played so well together. Here are some of the boys playing basketball inside - they played baseball outside! Sports fanatics . . .

Madelyn and her second cousin, Janna . . .
The Oley girls . . .

Even Brock was exhausted by the end of the day . . .

We had a full house with people and dogs!
EASTER MORNING

Sunday morning we hunted for Easter eggs and found baskets of goodies! The Easter bunny brought special baskets for hunting for the eggs . . .Madelyn was thrilled to see that the clever Easter bunny knew how much she loved Princesses and hid Princess eggs . . .

She was even more thrilled to find that Hippity Hoppity brought her the Barbie Mariposa Movie . . .

Another basket . . .Wow - maybe the Easter bunny went overboard . . .
After the Easter morning excitement, we headed off to 11:00 mass at our new church. We were running a little late (as usual) and sat in the Parish Hall - opened for overflow. The picture below taken right before we left sort of sums up our day:
The kids were exhausted from Saturday's festivities and it showed! As I was heading up to receive communion on this Holiest of days, Madelyn stopped in the middle of the aisle and had a meltdown. We gathered everything up and left. With kids, you always have to be prepared to just leave whatever you're doing. I know God understands . . . :)

AGAIN!

Well, it's been a long time . . . AGAIN! I got my computer problem fixed, sort of. We were set up for the LOWEST speed "High Speed Cable" - not good. It's better now and I'm able to upload pics again but only ONE at a TIME. I'm a picture person, again, not good. I think we need a new wireless router. Anway, I'll get better at blogging once again - so many new things and adjustments! My life just did a complete 180!

I don't even know where to start . . . How about one week ago today . . .

Last Thursday Madelyn had an easter egg hunt at school. I was in meetings/training all week so I wasn't there for the 20 minute egg hunt but I got some great shots of my little Easter model when I dropped her off.

She's no stranger to the camera . . .

Madelyn and Dylan - Chase wasn't there yet . . .Aren't they sweet!

On Friday, my Aunt Kathy and cousins (Kristen and Kori) came in from MN to visit us for a long weekend (until Tuesday morning). We had them over on Saturday night for drinks, food and more food! I go a little overboard . . .

Then, on Sunday, Gena and Djan graced us with their presence. The weather was beautiful and we, again, had more drinks and food!

Djan dancing with Mads . . .

Madelyn adores Djan . . . She's got to be in the center of it all . . .

I had lunch with my boss on Monday at Mi Cocina - my favorite Mexican food restaurant. Yummy!

Then we had dinner with my aunt and cousins again on Monday night - our last Hoorah before they left. We ate at Esparza's (great margs!). Mexican . . . again! We were sad to see them go :(

Can you tell they're related?!

Even Marek knows to turn around and say "cheese!" . . .
My emotions were all over the place because I was sad to see my family go but we were about to meet our long awaited Au Pair!! That's right - after dinner Tom, the kids and I drove to the airport to pick her up! YEAH - she's here! Just in time before the weather got bad again! I was getting a little nervous about not having found someone yet. Mimi helped us the first week of my job when I was in Hickory and my mom helped us last week and what was supposed to be this week. However, AA was getting her contract ready and they wanted her to come back asap - she starts again on Monday. She got some stomach bug while she was here, too. Just before I screamed "Calgon take me away!" - we found Sophia. We really needed someone and God answered our prayers - AGAIN! Sophia is from France and we love her! She is wonderful with our children and she is very sweet!

On Tuesday, I started my diet . . . again . . .

Back to Work

That's right. I took the sales job at Corning. I'm actually pretty excited about it. I flew to Hickory, NC on Monday this week and had some training, meetings, and tours. I was then scheduled to fly out to Las Vegas on Thursday evening for the weekend for my birthday! Woo Hoo! Sooooo - I didn't have any meetings on Thursday (yesterday) so I left Charlotte on the first flight - 7:05 am. I was up at 4:30. Then I got to DFW (AA doesn't fly direct from CLT to LAS) - no problem! 2nd in line on the standby list for the 9:50 am flight only 2 gates away from my arrival gate! Greatness! Well, after rolling over 3 flights - it started snowing. Tommy, Jason and I were all scheduled on different flights to get to Vegas to meet Kelly. Then they announced that ALL flights were canceled for the day - this was at about 4:30pm. Apparently there is something that the northern states have figured out about flying in the snow. They take off in blizzards!! We had about 3 - 4 inches of snow and EVERYTHING was canceled. So, here I sit on my birthday (boo hoo) NOT in Vegas saying "all in!" at the Hold 'em tables. The soonest they could get us out there was Saturday evening at 10:45 pm. That's nice. Our return flight was at 12:55 am Sat evening (Sun morning really). I'm just really feeling sorry for myself right now. This is so not what I'm supposed to be doing today. . . :(

I was really excited to see my kids, though. Then Marek threw up all over me. Back to life - back to reality. :)

New House

Ok - so there is SO much that has happened lately. I'll try to paraphrase . . .

Here is the new house . . . .

It's crazy.


I'm scared that I'm getting too used to this . . .

Charlie Bit Me

One of my favorite Youtube videos - Madelyn, Marek, Tom, and I must have watched this 10 times the other day. The kids just giggled and Maddie kept saying "let's watch it again, mommy!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OBlgSz8sSM&feature=related

Another good one forwarded from my brother-in-law, Brian. Paul Potts:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Emergency Room

Well, today has been an interesting day. I went to the grocery store this morning by myself (ahhh relaxing - sad isn't it?). I got a call on my cell phone from an unkown number and answered it. It was my husband, saying "everything's ok - alright? Just . . . everything's ok . . .". That's never a good sign. I asked what happened and felt my stomach sinking. Tom had given the kids some mixed nuts while he was preparing lunch. Marek got one caught in his throat and wasn't breathing - turning purple - etc. He called from the emergency room. Marek is fine - daddy got most of it out at home with the little baby CPR he remembered but Marek was still breathing funny so he had to take them to the hospital. At one point in the car his breathing was really labored and he had his head down. By the time he was about 5 minutes away from the hospital - Marek was breathing and acting normally again. I nearly had a heart attack on the way there my heart was beating so hard. I started crying in the middle of the Super Target. The other bad thing was - I had my car . . . with the two car seats. Tom had to put Madelyn in the back seat with NO car seat! I guess I won't be winning "Mother of the Year" this year. I'm so thankful that God and Marek's gaurdian angel was watching over him . . .


I know I've been blessed with no emergency room visits thus far and there will probably be many more in our future (especially with a boy) but it doesn't make them any easier . . .

So when we got home and everything settled down, I went outside to take pictures of the house. I heard Tom in the house yelling at Brock so I went back inside. He said there was a bird in the house and he couldn't find it. After a brief search, I found the bird on the dining room table.

(I'll have to attach pictures later - I think there's something wrong with Blogger)

It had flown into one of the 4 - floor to sealing wall of windows and must have knocked his head pretty good. It seemed a bit disheveled. I grabbed the plate it was sitting on and brought it outside. It must have hit it's little head pretty hard because it just sat their looking terrified. After a while outside, it was gone. I'm just going to believe that it "came to" and took flight!

I'm ready for bed!

Madelyn's FEBRUARY Birthday Party

Ok - so they're a little late but we had just moved, my computer wasn't up for a while, I started my job right after her party, I was sick, etc etc . . . Here are the pics . . .

The presents . . .

The people . . .
The "Island Princess" . . .
The cake . . .
The cupcakes . . .
The two . . .
The royal crowing of the Birthday Princess . . .
the patience . . .
The crabby Princess

(Mads was a little off on her big day - maybe it was overwhelming!!)


The individual candles
(everyone had their own candle to blow out . . .)
The blowing of candles . . .
The digging in . . .
The Happy Princess . . .
(There's my girl)
The opening of presents . . .
The anticipation. . .
The crowd!

The helpers . . .
The excitement . . .


We are so glad that all of the princes and princesses could join us on her big day!



(Thank you ADAM for taking such great pictures for me. :)

THE END!!

My Valentine

My sweet precious Valentine. Four years ago early in the morning, you came into our lives and changed them forever. I couldn't believe how much love I had for you then and I can't believe how much it grows every day. I love you so much it hurts my whole body. You are an amazing little-big girl. I love the little woman you are becoming. You're so kind and giving to everyone - even your little brother, sharing your valentine suckers from school with him! You have such a free and sweet spirit like your daddy. You are so special and I thank God for you every day. What a beautiful blessing.

Happy 4th Birthday my sweet little Princess!

LONG LONG Time No Blog

Well, we've moved! 2008 has been a crazy year so far. . . I went and interviewed at Corning for a sales position a couple weeks ago all while we were waiting to hear about the house we put a bid on. We didn't get the house BUT have moved into an 8000 square foot home instead! It's a friend of Tom's who's been trying to sell his $2.9M home for a few years. He built this home as a smaller replica of his 10K square foot home that he's trying to sell. I don't know how we'll ever find anything that will measure up . . . :) It's nice to have all of our "stuff" back and to have Brock back with us! He's loving the new pad - in fact he has special doggie doors around the house that open for him when he needs to go out! I love that as well! The kids have a play room that is bigger than our old house was! Madelyn thinks she's living in a castle and just in time for her "Island Princess" birthday party this weekend!

Meanwhile, I've also been fighting bronchitis! Yuck - never had that before. I was so sick last week - fever of 103.2 and body tremors. I'm MUCH better this week after being on 4 prescriptions!

We're getting settled pretty well - I've finally got my computer up and running! Yeah! I'll post pictures of the house when I have them. Although my camer has been broken, too . . .

Here's my "Island Princess" Madelyn . . .

The party is sure to be a Grand Affair!