Merry & Bright!

Almost every November I get all nostalgic about the events of the year… and then I freak out cause I haven't recorded or blogged any of it and then I try to boost into overdrive to compensate or at least make a mark in our family history.  This November was a toughie and the blogging didn't happen at all!!  And I have to say, I'm kind of a horrible blogger in general.

But even though the year is over.  And I didn't post for much of it.  I am still here.  And I am still trying to keep up with our family!  And I hope you had a wonderful 2013 - and that all your days were merry and bright!!  And even though it's LATE we hope you had very Happy Holidays!!

Love,
Us

Tiny Jace

He's here!!  Our Tiny Jace Jacob.  I LOVE him SO!!  --We ALL LOVE him SO!!

He is such a happy, HEALTHY little guy and we feel SO BLESSED!!!

He is a sweet ANGEL.  : )

Labor and delivery are super scary to me but Jace's delivery went great.  Brad and I went into the hospital at around 3:30am.  I was dialated to 5 centimeters... and asking for an epidural.  I got one about 4:30ish (EPIDURALS are AWESOME!!).  And about 2 hours later at 6:41am Jace was born!!  I was SO HAPPY!!!  I still am!!  I feel so lucky!!

We were ALL so HAPPY and excited he was here.  : )

We counted tiny toes...

 and marveled over tiny hands....

We were all so excited!!  : )  --It was awesome to watch the kids welcome Jace.  : )


I love our new Tiny Jace and ALL our babies!!!  : )

Missed Target

Today, all of a sudden, one of our kids wasn't feeling so great, ran to their bathroom and lost their lunch... ALL over the bathroom....  ALL.  OVER.  After the Targeteer was checked out and ok, we surveyed the damage;  ... looked at the potty... then the floor ... then up the walls ... and then checked the ceiling!

My superhero man swooped in, gathered bath rugs, loaded them in the washer and then cleaned EVERYWHERE.  I LOVE that superhero man.  --Especially, since I can't even SEE my toes let alone reach them or anything else on the floor right now.

Our Targeteer is doing just fine now  : ) ... and I just gotta say, Mr. C rocks!

Comforts of Couch

Brad came home from work and snapped this picture on his phone.  At this very moment in time this is Ella and me.  There's nothing like a baby that's fallen asleep on you... even if it's your side ... : )  Ella has an arm fetish...I guess you could call it where she LOVES to fall asleep while clutching my arm.  : )  She's had it for forever and it's one of those unique baby things that hasn't gone away.... : )  I love my little Ella girl.  : )  ...We are both feeling under the weather and there's nothing like hanging out on the couch (or on your mom... and unborn little brother) when you're sick.  It's like the best right?

I have 2 MORE WEEKS until the big due date!  2!!  Maybe it's the cold I have but I feel so ... limited in being able to move about. ....  Actually the other day I did the DUMBEST thing EVER!!

I am the YW President here and one of our Beehives and I had climbed 3 FLIGHTS of stairs (she effortlessly.  Me with some gasping for breath.)  ...and these are ITALIAN FLIGHTS so it's like 4 FLIGHTS  ...and "heart attacked" and valentine-candy-attacked another Beehive's apartment door.  

We were trying to be FAST and QUIET and were feeling the adrenaline.  Everything was working out great until the new Beehive started to unlock her door and come out of her apartment!  So my candy-taping Beehive darted down the stairwell and I followed and DID TOO!!  I took those babies 2 stairs at a time until we got to the bottom and then we ran across a parking lot and green belt to my car!!  

I am dumb.  Who does that when they're 8.5 months pregnant??  Maybe since I only have 2 weeks left I'm technically 9 months pregnant!!  

Well, when I went to get back out of my van I could HARDLY toddle back to my home!!  

And the next morning 

I felt like Mr. Fredericksen trying to get out of bed - EXECPT he had TONS upon TONS upon TONS MORE range of motion than me!!

No more superhero stuff for me.

http://pixarplanetda.deviantart.com/gallery/24900154

Ella and I are loving the couch...  : )  

Jasmine and The Beast

Today Ava and I were playing Princess Memory, and  Ella came over and wanted in on the game too.  So, we let her have a turn.  She turned over a card and said,

"Oh, Mom!"

I could see how with my dark hair and eyes I could MAYBE be pulled off as Jasmine.


Then she turned over another card and said,

"Oh, Dad!"

I couldn't really see the resemblance between Brad and The Beast.... and I did wonder who he was dancing with!  : )

But, needless to say, this Jasmine loves The Beast!

Later The Next Day: 

So, I know who The Beast is dancing with!  I don't know why I didn't see it there before....  I've been thinking why Ella would call The Beast, Brad.  (After all, he's not beastly, or furry, or mean!)  And I started thinking about all the dancing Ava and Ella do and how they get their daddy to swing them about like princesses on the arm of ... a beast (?) or a prince charming.  : )  --The Beast is dancing with our tiny Beauties.

Today, after a long tiring day, even though Brad was tuckered he swung them around and around.  : )

(He WAS really exhausted; --he's not even moving his feet!  --Usually he and his girls do some serious rug cutting!)  : )

And while I'm cooking dinner (and blogging) ... he has put on little hoodies and shoes, and taken all the kids out to the park.  : )

I LOVE that Beast Prince Charming!  : )

Hanging Out At Our Favorite Pizza Joint

Brad and Dave.  Dave seriously was the BEST tour guide/well of information.  He was so good to us!

So, one night we headed out to treat Dave to our new found favorite pizza joint (it seemed like the only place he hadn't been to - cause it wasn't near his house)  ....called....  of all things....  ARIZONA'S.

Italians eat SUPER late in the day.  Like you're lucky if you show up for pizza at 6pm and the place is opened.

 If you get hungry for pizza before 6, you're outta luck.

Might as well sleep while you wait....

 Or contemplate....

 the deeper things in life....

 like cheerful babies.

Italians have a crazy love of bambini (babies and kids).  They are like great aunts that love to pinch cheeks.  (Except the Italians don't pinch.)  But they say "Bella!!" or "Bello!!" to little kids.  I was told that Italians are very out going and gregarious because all their little-kid lives they've been told they were beautiful and wonderful.  : )

You know... I didn't even get any pictures of the food!  I guess we'll have to go get some pizza and do another post... in the name of gathering pictures, of course.  : )

A lot of our learning about Naples revolved around quizzing Dave while the kids played.  When we arrived we also had to put the kids in Summer Camp and Brad and I took a 2 week Indoctrination Class on Naples and Italy.  Serious, I could feel my brain almost exploding from the G-force on the proverbial learning curve!  That class and Dave were invaluable.  

Agriturismo

Agri..tur..what?

When we arrived in Naples two of Brad's friends were at the airport waiting for us.  One of them, Dave, had prepared every single thing we could've needed.  He had filled our hotel fridge with food and water... and in the subsequent weeks took us all over.  He was getting ready to leave Italy (infact his family had already flown out) and he took us around to a few of his favorite places.

One of those was an agriturismo.

So, an agriturismo is a place that raises a certian percentage of it's own food and drink that it then serves in it's "in-house" restaurant.  The meals are pretty pricey, but are several courses and it takes about 3-4 hours to eat them!!  Yes, 3-4 hours!  (It took us 3.5)

So, we pull up into a vineyard overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and this guy comes over to greet us and welcome us.

Our host.

Call it shameless, but I couldn't stop smiling to myself!  This guy was the first Italian that we met "out in town" and top that off with the expensive restaurant ... well he was pretty awesome .... I don't think anyone would EVER see a host at Olive Garden sporting those goggles!  I LOVE those goggles!

So, from the vineyard...

we were led into the agriturismo...

 where he showed us the animals.

 They had small horses,

goats,

 lots of rabbits...

 and chickens.

Our host showed us a big pile of fresh weeds to feed the animals and then gave the kids some fresh eggs.

 He was super nice to us all but especially the kids.

I felt embarressed while taking this picture actually!!  But I seriously couldn't get over the goggles.... : )  After showing us the animals our host hopped on a moped and buzzed out of the vineyard.

 The kids were left to feed and marvel over the animals.

The rabbits were so sweet.... there were tons of baby ones.... cute little puffs with ears....!

 After Ella made it over to the animals...

 ... she was so tickled.

James especially loved the small horses.  (Italians use horses A LOT where we live!)

 So the restaurant is designed for the adults to sit around and chat while the kids play outside.... there were trampolines and other playground things for them to play on farther out past the animals.  But the kids hung out with the animals through out the 3.5 hours we were there.

 Brad and Dave.  Those two had a lot of good times together and Dave was SO helpful and good to us!

 It was all so pretty... with the grapes.... hanging from the rafters and everything....

It's a bit of an understatement ... but vineyards are really popular in Italy....

Bottoms up!  Ok well, just on a glass of water.  --Italians love fizzy water.  Like Sprite without the sugar or flavor.  If you order water, you're going to get the fizzy stuff.  So, you gotta specifically ask for the water "senza gas" (without fizz).

 Ok.  So this is the VERY FIRST COURSE...ONLY.  If I made DINNER and it had this many platters I'd be heralded as a genius chef amongst my family.  : )

 While this looks a little unappetizing it was one of my favorites!  It's pickled eggplant.  : )  It was so good!

 Ella was totally ready to dig in!

 So, in Italy a common appetizer is prociutto (like thin slices of ham...) and mozzarella balls.  But there are other things as well.....

 Ashley LOVES to pause and pose for pictures.

 Her first bite of Mozzarella Di Buffala.

 I have not met ANYONE who dislikes Mozzarella Di Buffala.  It's like the nummiest of cheeses for EVERYONE .... except me!  I actually don't like it.  But it is this super delicious cheese that gets shipped out to regions of Italy... (it's a Naples cheese).  --We've seen the water buffalo pastures to prove it.  : )

 These are olives.  They were so good!  I learned just the other week that the black ones from the can are actually dyed a little.

This was one of the main course dishes.

It was so delicious!

But then when I munched on some super tiny bones...

Dave told me it was ... rabbit... like the ones that my children were in love with outside....

 I kind of couldn't eat that course anymore.....

 All in all, we had a fabulous few hours at this sweet agriturismo...

 ...overlooking the Mediterranean....

It was great!  : )