the perks of knowing an italian

• they want to feed you all the time 
• they are insistent that you can eat more
• they know how to make GREAT FOOD

we have been thoroughly spoiled by the donadio's cooking.  everything we eat is compared to their food to see if it measures up (and most of the time it doesn't).  

the seafood even looks good (though i wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole). 

thank you for filling our bellies!

He's on the move

i came home from work today and discovered slade had acquired a new skill: mobility.  Yes folks, he can crawl.  And Cash is not far behind him.  Things are about to get crazy(ier)....

these two

i feel like i leave cash and slade out of the blog a lot of times. it's not intentional, it's just that at this point in time, they are not doing a whole lot. very, very soon i will be have much more to say about them because they are oh-so-close to crawling (slade will be first, i think). i'm sure once they are mobile, the stories will be endless. especially when they are able to play with jagger. i can only imagine the mischief the boys will get into!

but anyways, i felt like i needed to dedicate a post to just them.

cash and slade do not play well together. if they are set next to each other with toys surrounding the both of them, in a very short while, cash will be crying and slade will have all toys around just him . i think slade has green eyes of envy because he instantly wants whatever cash has no matter how many other toys are offered to him. so we usually put one kid in the playpen and one kid stays out. today, they seemed to notice the division between them.

(that's crusted teether cookies on the mesh. yum!)

generally, cash winds up being the one in the playpen because he handles it better. slade may start out ok:

but soon he is doing this:

and then much crying ensues.

and this is completely unrelated to the playpen situation, but these pictures made me laugh because corey likened cash to gollum/smeagol from lord of the rings:

we hates the hobbitses! gollum, gollum

No! The hobbitses are our friends!

sneaky little hobbitses. they stole MYY PRECIOUSSS!

fashion + camera fever

today i was looking at jagger and i realized he is such a stylish kid.   

i mean, look at what he was wearing today:

the striped pajama pants with the dirty shirt and the happy meal hat with built in sunglasses.  it can't possibly get more stylish than that.  what's that jagger?  you know of the perfect accessory to complete the outfit?  what is it?!

ah yes... of course... rain boots.  and on the wrong feet no less.  why didn't i think of that?!

i can't wait to see what he comes up with when he's older.  i'm sure it will be so fashion forward.

also today, jagger got a fever.  a camera fever.  and the only cure was more picture taking.

so we had a disposable camera laying around that i let him take pictures with.

he kept telling us to "say cheese!"

and he didn't quite get the whole looking thru the viewfinder aspect of it, but he definitely enjoyed himself.

wolfgang was sitting so nicely for jagger's photo session :)

i'm thinking it would be fun to get him one of those kid friendly digital cameras for christmas.  i'll have to keep that in mind if he still seems interested in a few months. it'd be great to see what kind of pictures he'd take :)

a star in the making?

Jagger LOVES to be onstage.

he wants to play all the instruments.

he adores the microphone.  he gets very serious when there is a microphone in his hand, and everything is turned into a microphone to sing in to, like the guitar stand in the following pictures.  

major meltdowns occur when he is told to get off the stage.

the worship team was nice enough to let him "practice" with them this past wednesday.

He thought it was the best thing ever :)

is this kid really supposed to be andy's?

jagger decided to show us where he hid his banana the other day. 

what a nice surprise...

(for those of you who aren't in the know, andy hid a bowl of soup under the cushions of the couch when he was a kid)

books are like crack to me

    i have an addiction to books.  they truly are like crack to me.  when i am in the middle of a book, it is all i can think about.  while i am doing other things (working, taking care of the kids, etc) all i can think about is when i can squeeze in my next fix.  i will go without food and sleep to cram in a few more chapters.  if i'm driving somewhere, i take the book with me so i can read a sentence while sitting at a stoplight.  i am forever toting around several books at a time, you know... just in case (i like to have options).  i dream of having library in my home with walls covered in books.  i think my body physically needs books around in order for me to survive.

    i inherited my love of books and reading from my parents.  they were good role models and i have many memories of them reading.  my mom was constantly taking me to the library and we always would leave with way more books than what we could read in the few weeks time we were allotted.  my dad was always willing to get me whatever books piqued my interest.  i even have a memory of my dad trying to read a book while he was driving (dangerous, i know, but a fond memory never-the-less).  

     it has been hard to get much reading done in the past two years (since jagger was born).  what little time or energy i had was devoted elsewhere and the few books that i did read were mostly parenting and baby books.  i have finally broken free of that rut and in the past month and a half, i have read 9 books.  i just started no. 10 today, and it feels so good.  i love getting lost in a story.  it's like a watching movie in my head.  i didn't realize how much i missed it.

     i am a fiction reader.  i have in the last few years really enjoyed reading young adult fiction (harry potter series, twilight series), and now it's generally the first section i look to when i need a new book.  can i share a secret with you?  i'm a bit of a book snob.  they say never judge a book by it's cover, but i totally do.  a cover has to catch my eye in order for me to even pick up the book.  it's terrible i know, and i'm trying to get past it, but it is a hard habit to break!

     i really want to foster a love of reading in my boys.  i look forward to taking them to the library to get their library cards.  i look forward to reading stories aloud on long car trips.  i look forward to all of us gathered together in bed to read a chapter before going to sleep.  i look forward to them telling me about the stories they are reading.  i just can't wait :)  

psst...terry....I need to borrow the last book of the dragon fire series!

picnic

Yesterday was our annual community church picnic.  It was a good time.  I am so thankful for the church family that we have here in Warren.  We have several women from the congregation that are willing to watch the kids throughout the week and it has been a huge help!  Yesterday I was able to hand off the babies so I could chase Jagger around and snap a few pics.  

Here is just a sample from our day:

Comedian, Will McDaniel, entertaining the crowd

Jagger insisted on playing with the big kids.  That gun is half his size!

We traded the big gun for one more his size and 

he figured out how to shoot all by himself :)

The big kids decided to play too!  

Slade needs shades, his future is so bright :)

Cash just enjoying being outside and watching the adults play volleyball

It was a good day.  It was a long day.  Jagger slept good after all that running around. And Corey slept good too, since he didn't get his usual Sunday afternoon nap!

finger paintin' fun

jagger seems to enjoy artsy activities. 

he really enjoys coloring with crayons (everywhere! you should see my dining room walls). 

he received an art easel for his birthday that has one side that's a chalkboard and he is constantly scribbling with chalk.  

today we went out and got some paint to try finger painting. 

huge success!  he knew what to do immediately, i didn't even have to show him. 

corey is good at art and i love all things artsy, so maybe we have a little picasso on our hands.  or maybe not picasso so much as pollock.

here is some randomness for you:

• cash has four teeth, two on top and two on bottom.  the ones that came in on top are those that are next to the front teeth, so he looks like a little kid that has lost his front teeth.
  
• slade has only one tooth on the bottom.  i think he is getting one on top too, but it is taking forever and causing him (and us) a lot of grief.
• both cash and slade are sitting up like pros.
• slade wants so badly to be crawling, but can't quite do it yet.  he kind of scoots around on his butt to get where he wants.
• cash rolls everywhere, and sometime does a bit of an army crawl.
• cash consistently sleeps through the night and usually wakes up happy.
• we are lucky if slade sleeps a solid 4 hours at night, and generally he screams at the top of his lungs to let us know he is awake.
• slade thinks jagger is hilarious.  he just sits and watches jagger and laughs and laughs big deep belly laughs.
• jagger is starting to get a little bit possessive about his toys. we are starting to hear "no! mine!" when one of the babies has a toy.  we are trying to teach him to trade with them if he wants what they have.  he trades about 50% of the time.

well, that's all for now.  wow, this is a really long post.