Working Girls

The girls are spending the day with their Mamo and Bampo today (we have no daycare in GI today). They stayed up late, ate Oreo's and played tea party. I guess they have also been playing in the dirt...

Preschool Graduation

Yes, Addison graduated from preschool; only to earn herself probably 2 more years at preschool! She graduated from her current class, and was as happy as a cat on hot tin roof!! She was so giddy in the morning, very anxious for her graduation ceremony. We got to watch a video slideshow of pictures from throughout the school year and then her teacher gave each student a :diploma:, and they even wore graduation hats. Yes, they may have been made of paper, but she was still excited. She is such a big girl now!! Addison recieved a gift card for being the 2nd highest student reading books during the month of March and April for Book-It! During the school yar, Addison gained 2 pounds and grew 2 inches. However, looking at her starting school picture and ending school picture, she has grown up so much. She still looked like a baby when she started, and now, she is all grown up. Can't imagine what I will be thinking next year when I look at the pictures. She has learned to write her name; almost all by herself. Those darn "s" give her some trouble. She really enjoyed school this year and anxiously looked forward to going. Next year she will go 3 days a week. In February, we will talk with her teacher about what to do about kindergarten in the fall. Kinda weird to think about it now, we have lots of mixed feelings about it. We pray that God will make the answer clear as to what we should do.




Be sure to keep scrolling down as I have posted a few other updates and pictures today! Keep checking in over the summer, as we are gearing up for a fun summer of sliding, swimming and hanging out! Hoping for mom's sake it won't be too hot! Baby will be here in August.

Time to Shine 2008

Addison participates in gymnastics once a week, and loves it. While their is no recital or performance, they have what they call, Time to Shine. This is an opportunity for family and friends to come to the gym and see what they have been learning. There were about 30 kids, all Addisons age "performing" for their parents. It was fun to watch! We asked Addison if she wanted to take the summer off from gymnastics, and you would have thought I told her Bob (her monkey) was lost for good. She wants to continue, and is actually pretty good. We may be a bit biased as her parents. She is pretty athletic, and her calfs...man walking on yout tip-toes make your calfs strong. Yes, she still does peridocially walk on her tip-toes. With gentle reminders, she puts her feet down. Enjoy the pictures from Twisters Time to Shine 2008.

Happy Mother's Day

I have got to be the luckiest mom in the world! I have 2 amazing daughters with amazing spirits and love for one another. I could not of thought of a better way to spend Mother's Day this year. There was a time in my life that I was not even sure I would ever become a mom. In the spring of 2001, my faith was at a sinking low after my surgery. With only a 20% chance of ever becoming pregnant on my own; I was fairly certain having my own children was out of the question. If by some act of God, I was able to concieve, each pregnancy afterwards, the chance went down.

By the spring of 2003, we were ready to at least give it a try, we had nothing to lose and everything to gain, including a restored faith in God, and a new realization of miracles. The doctor had told us, we had 6 months to try and then I had to go back on the medicine to stop the endo from growing. After countless months of ovulation sticks, tears, more sticks, lots and los of tears, we went to the doctor. 6 months came and went, and we were not pregnant. Again, losing faith. We made an appointment with the doctor, and he said, try for 2 more months, be diligant (did he really think we weren't?) and come back in January. Imagine the surprise in his face when we came back in January, PREGNANT!!!! Imagine our surprise. Our faith was restore, we believed in miracles, but was cautiously optomistic. 9 long months later came Addison Claire.

Addison, thank you for making me a mommy, and allwoing me to put my trust back into God that He is indeed our Creator and miracles can and do happen. You have been such a blessing in my life and always keep me on my toes. I have so many dreams for you, fears for you and love for you. I love snuggling with you in the morning and before you go read your books at night. I love the way you always tell me you love me, and I even love your spunkiness. I love watching your spirit and the love you have for Jesus. Your questions amaze me, as does your maturity! I am anxious to see what the future holds for you, just promise me you won't grow up too fast!!

Back to trying for another, our faith got us through this one. We did it once, we can certainly do it again. Lots of tears again, but a continued sense of belief that He would provide for us. Almost exactly 2 years later came Olivia Grace.

Olivia, thank you for making me a mommy for the 2nd time. You have been such a fun little girl and I have loved every minute with you. With those flirtaous eyes, and endless smiles and giggles, you can ALWAYS bring a smile to my face, even when I am upset or sad. Watching you and Addison learn to play together, learn to love one another and learn about each other has been such a blessing in my life. I have so many dreams for you, fears for you and an endless amount of love for you! I am anxious to see what the future holds for you as well, promise you won't grow too fast; and promis to never stop smiling and laughing. I look forward to you being a middle child!!!!

And now, another on the way...who would have ver thought this would be possible? Definatly not Tony and I. We believe in miracles, we kiss them each morning and each night. We say prayers with them, soothe their fears, kiss their boo-boos and love on them every single day. Thank you Addison and Olivia for making me a mommy, and encouraging me to be the best mommy that I can be.

Thank you Tony for always loving me! Thank you for continuing along this journey with me; there is no one I would rather want with me! I love you with all my heart and soul!

I would have never had the chance to be a mommy if it were not for my own mommy. So thank you mom! Thank you for loving me, molding me and showing me how a mom treats her children, and how a mom loves God before herself and her children. I am a better mom because of you and the examples you have shown me. I love you!

A Birthday Gift

I just wanted to share with you all what Tony made me for my birthday! He loaded it onto my computer at work, so when I got here, it was there. I have to admit, the tears flowed as I watched it. I am a lucky person to have such a wonderful husband and am blessed with 2 wonderful little girls another miracle on the way!

Eric, I hear you had a hand in this...thank you so much!!!

The New Mr & Mrs DiMauro

Cassie and Lou exchanged wedding vows on April 11th and it could not have been a more beautiful day...depsite the yucky weather outside, it was bliss on the inside!! We were truly honored to be there as our baby sister walked herself down the aisle to her husband!! It was kinda a tear jerker for Kevin and I as we stood beside her to witness her love for Lou! I am sure it was just as emotional for mom, her baby girl was getting married!

Cassie, you looked beautiful!! It brought tears to my eyes to watch you walk down that aisle as my baby sister and walk back down in 60 minutes as a married women! You have come such a long way in your life, and I am so thankful that I have been able to share the memories with you, both the good and the bad. The memories are what will unite us for forever. I look forward to hearing your stories of being married and listening to you talk about your husband, and someday babies!!

Lou, we welcome you to our family with lots of love! We may not have it altogether all the time, but together we have it all and could not be happier to include you in the fun times!! Our life is nothing short of chaotic, and you always seem to have a smile on your face. My girls enjoy being with you and are anxious that you and Cassie are now married. Addison just thinks it is cool that you will always be at "Bubba's house". We are trying to get through to her that it is yours and Bubba's house now!!! It may take time, bear with us! You have made Cassie one happy person and we are thrilled with God's choice of a husband for her! We wish the 2 of you lots of love and lots of kids (someday)!!!

Addison was so excited to be such an important part of your special day as well. She is still talking about it...almost everyday!! Thank you for your patience with her! I appreciate it.

Thank you for your patience with all the kids. I know at times it was loud and at times, it was probably disruptive. But you both made us feel comfortable and like the children were not disruptive to you! You will never know how much we appreciate that. Well someday you will, when you have your own kids!! Thanks for letting us ALL crash at your house, I know it was worrisome walking in at times, but we got it all cleaned up and hopefully did not break anything. Heck, we only lost the umbrellas! Sorry! We are still trying to locate them.

Hope you are having fun in Mexico, we sure miss you guys and are VERY jealous!! Wish we could be there too!

We got Pee!!!!!!

Someone went pee in the potty the other night!!! Yes, it was Olivia. Addison already does that!! We decided to get out the potty chair and just kind of let her start "exploring" it, she will never go when we put her on the "real" toilet, so we decided to try to potty chair we started Addison with. She will sit on it, grunt a little, then get up and giggle. I think she knows what she is supposed to be doing on it! Well, the other night after her bath, I brought her into the living room to get her ready for bed, and of course she dashed away before I could even lay her down. She went right to that potty, looked at me, giggled and then proceeded t pee!!! We clapped and cheered! Addison intially said, "oh that's gross mommy". We explained to her that peeing in that potty is good for Olivia, so we had to cheer and clap for her. One can ALWAYS count on Addison to cheer for Olivia, so that is what she did!!! She hasn't done it since, but got to start somewhere!! Think before baby gets here we can get her out of diapers? Pray for us!!

NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament

Tony got a press pass to the NCAA basketball games at the Qwest Center last Thursday and Saturday. A dream come true for him! We saw little of him, and he saw much basketball!! He only took the camera one day and only took 2 pictures!! I am sure he can tell you much more about it!



Don't forget to scroll down further, I have added lots of pictures today!!!

Easter Eggstravaganza

The girls got to have LOTS of Easter egg hunts and found too much candy!! Olivia has found a liking to jelly beans...in my prior life (the one with just one kid), Addison NEVER would have been found eating jelly beans at 19 months. More like 2 or 2 1/2. Guess more kids makes you less uptight!! Addison enjoyed helping Liv find the eggs as well.

We had been in Omaha since Holy Thursday fo docotrs appointments, ultrasounds and the NCAA tournament (Tony had a press pass). We had so much fun with our family. We were all pretty tired by the time we got home on Easter Sunday evening, but was glad to have had the time to see everyone.

Addison enjoyed dying Easter Eggs much more this year than last year. She stayed with it until the very end!

Easter morning we went to church with Cassie and Lou. The Easter Bunny visited Cassie's house while we were gone. So the girls had a little hunt as did the big kids!!! We had so many cute pics...bear with me as I try to narrow them down for you!

After Easter at Cassie's house, we trekked to York to Mamo and Bampo's house for Easter dinner an more Easter Egg hunting!!

So you can see we had an eventful Easter and lots to do!!!

Shrine Circus

The lighting was terrible on the pictures, so not to many to show. We did have a great time though, and Addison's favorite thing was the baby elephant pooping and peeing during the show!! She did not like the live alligators. She got to ride a pony! She was extremely giddy in the car leading up to the circus, and then got shy around the clowns and wouldn’t talk to them. We had to buy popcorn, mommy’s snacks that she brought were not about to cut it.

Jumping in an inflatable jumpy thing: $3
Riding a pony who keeps pooping: $5
Buying popcorn and a bottle of water to satisfy your child: $10
Watching the excitement in her face doing it all: PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Coming....Shrine Circus

Shrine Circus, watch out...here we come! Addison has earned herself a "date" night with just mommy and daddy tonight. She gets to see the Circus. We took her last year, and she absolutly loved it, so when we saw they were in town again, we couldn't pass it up. Check back, hopefully on Wednesday for some pictures. It will depend on what time we get home and how much Bracketology Tony has to do if he gets the pictures downloaded!!!!

Mommy Experiences

Most people who read this blog are family, but for the VERY few who are not, let me tell you something about myself. I am a passionate person, and one of my passions is children. When I was working as an occupational therapist, I loved seeing the children everyday and the delight they got out of accomplishing something so many others take for granted. I still pray for many of those kids that I worked with, and have found many other children who are sick or just need some extra prayers. I am not sure how I stumbled upon this website, but it has captured my attention, my heart and I find myself praying for this fmaily everyday. I will not give you the whole story, as I want you to click on the link and fall in love with this amazing family for yourself. The VERY short version of the story, is that Tricia was preparing for a double lung transplant when she found out she was pregnant. Doctors advised her and her husband that carrying the baby would be very risky, through their faith, they choose life for their little miracle. She was born by emergency c-section at 24 weeks and some days. Both mom and baby are stable, Tricia has been listed on the transplant list, and now they wait. Here is their blog: http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/


Nate, Tricia's husband posted on his blog about doing something really neat for Tricia. (This was the original post: http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/2008/03/for-tricia.html )Coming up with a list of things I as a mom can not wait for Tricia to experience with Gwyneth. So here is my list:

Tricia, I can not wait for you to experience:

Slobbery kisses and hugs

the words, "momma" and she knows it means you

when she walks into your room at 5am and "just wants to snuggle with you"

when you have been gone all day, and she runs into your arms the minute she sees you

"Mommy, I love you"

a toothless smile

the way she can communicate a 1000 words with just her eyes and her smile

watching her dancing to the music on the radio

when she starts asking about God and Jesus

explaining the difference between a truth and a lie

when she realizes that male anatomy and female anatomy are different and wants to know what that "wiggly thing is" (you can read further down my blog to see my recent conversation with my 3 year old)

explaining that a bridal shower does not mean "actually taking a shower"

potty training!!!!

learning to sleep through the night

My list could go on and on!

Please peek in on this family and say a prayer for them when you do. I do not personally know them, but they have been placed on my heart and in my prayers.

Future American Idol Winners

We were having a little too much fun last night during dinner, annoying daddy with our singing into the pretend microphone...a lipstick tube!!

FINALLY...PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a picture post, since it has been FOREVER!

A few from Christmas morning! Addison got the homemade cabbag patch doll that I had when I was little! She takes VERY good care of her, and named her Dorothy.

Mom, Cassie and I took the girls to see Elmo! They both had a great time and ate way too much popcorn and fruit snacks!! The concert was during nap time, so we weren't sure how they would do, but they both did great and no whining!! The baby behind us was less than thrilled with Elmo and the Seasme Street Gang!

Cassie and Lou are getting married on April 11th and have asked Addison to be a flower girl!!

A few weekends ago, we went to Wichita to celebrate Londyn's 2nd birthday and Sydney's Dedication. We had a lot of fun, and the girls enjoyed seeing each other. The time went by WAY to fast! We have NO pictures of the birthday girl, she was not wanting to smile for us when we tried to take pictures!!

So check back in a few minutes, I am making another post!!