True Story

I couldn't make this up.

Today, in between rain showers, we went for a walk in the village.

In my favorite upscale clothing store I saw a tunic style shirt I fell in love with.

It would have been perfect for my husbands company Christmas party.

And it was a decent price.

I hurried in beyond excited. 

I was hoping they had one size up from the size in the window (which from reading the tag it said it was a medium).

"Excuse me do you have anymore of the tunic shirt in the window."

"No that is the last one."

I quickly think OK what the H*** I will try it on and maybe by the grace of God it will look good, if not oh well it was worth the risk.

"Oh bummer.  Could I please try that one on."


Here it comes folks....hold your breath.....the SALES lady answer....


"That is a size small, and it is a junior cut, it won't fit you."

My jaw hit the floor.   Did she really just say that to me.

She just stared at me. 

I was hurt, and crushed, I wanted to cry.  I sheepishly hung my head and mumbled

"Umm, Ok."

Turned and walked out the door. 

Then I raged to my parents.

Called my husband...whom knows the store owner...and yes we will be going back to let her know about my experince.

And let me say...I was wearing a shirt with a sweatshirt with and ergo and a baby in it, how the heck did she know weather a shirt was or was not going to fit my body.

True Story.

Hustle and Bustle

Oh me oh my have we been a busy clan!  Since I last posted we have had our second annual pumpkin roll, 2 Christmas programs, lots of fun family and friend parties of all sorts and we even took a ride on the north pole express.  We have been a busy crew.  Then to top it all off I have decided that it is time to sleep train AJ, which has been a process and still is. 

With my other babies I read the books followed the outline and in 24hr had perfect sleeping babies.....umm not this one.   You know when you read in the books about the extremly colic ones, or the strong willed babies.....well that is the path AJ is trying to take.  So this Mama of four who thought perhaps she might have all this parenting stuff down, realizes she really doesn't.  For the past few days instead of cleaning the kitchen, updating my blog, or doing laundry, you can find me pacing around with my "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" book in one hand and my monitor (on silent, just watching the little green line grow to red as he wails) in the other.  Constantly opening rereading the same paragraph, "Let them cry for one hour."

Really one hour?  Let me check again

"Let them cry for one hour."

OK one hour.  Really.  Maybe I should reread that section.

"Let them cry for one hour."

Then one hour hits and to the room I go to get my upset child.   There as been a few occasions where he has fallen asleep only to wake 10 minutes later.   But this is only day 2.   And it really is amazing how fast 1hr can go by when you are pacing and rereading parts of a book (which is an awesome book and I would recommend it to anyone, I still refer to it for all my kids, a great resource).

Hope you are all having a great holiday season.  (It has been one hour now I am off to get my baby) 

2010 Chirstmas Letter

Our family is jumping for joy:

because the holidays are here!

Which also means Christmas cards and letters. Keeping with last years tradition, I decided to send out pictures with our blog address and then write our letter here! I didn't get feedback last year, but I enjoyed doing it this way so here we are again!

So if you are new here enjoy our Christmas letter. If you have time feel free to click around and see everything we have been doing. If you have been following, we are happy your here and hope you enjoy the mini-update.

Our Day Dreamer

Sam turned eight this year and is now in the third grade. He is making huge strides in his education. He still has a love for soccer and played one of his best seasons ever this year. He tries his best to be a great big brother, but sometimes that is tough work.

Our Spunky One

Serafina, our baby girl, turned five and started Kindergarten. Why does time fly by so fast? Most days this child has more energy then I know what to do with. She is excelling in school and gymnastics - where she was recently moved up to a new class with 6 and 8 year olds!! However, what makes my heart happy is seeing her love for God grow and her want to help others.

Our Boy

There is no other way to explain this kid. He is just all boy. He spends his day in dirt, water, or mud. He loves tools, trains, and "big" trucks. Matteo just turned three and he spends his days with A.J. and me. He is constantly on the go stopping only to sleep (never long enough for mom). He is also full of love for his family, especially big brother Sam.

A.J. and Matt

A match made in heaven. This boy only has eyes for his dad. He is a lover wanting to be with someone at all times! Matt is doing awesome at work and as a Dad. Still with the same company as COO, Matt loves his company and co-workers. Though he has been traveling a lot, he is all Dad when the weekend comes!

Oh yes and then there is me. I am still here just playing with the kids. Still quilting and baking as time allows, but for the most part you can just find my goofing around with kids. Yes, I play on the play equipment too!



Our only plans for the next year is to enjoy life to the fullest and hope that God's love will shine through our family.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
The Regusci Family

Making the Boring Exciting

For those that don't know my eldest little guy is a bit on the active side, physically and verbally. He is consistently on the go. (OK he does have ADD but I like the term active better!!)

With that said one of the hardest times of the day for me is driving in the car with him. Oh my goodness. Since his body has to be still (Well at least sitting down) it seems like all his energy comes bubbling out verbally, no holds bar. There have been times I have almost wrecked the car when he has screamed out "COW...COW...COW....I see a COW!!!!!!!!!!!" (yes it needed that many explanation points. It seriously drives me nuts. Or he comes up with these stories that go on and on about racing cars on the streets or how rain is made (none of which are true but they are very interesting ideas)

However, thanks to my Mom, I know have a new outlook on my crazy car rides with a very loud boy in the backseat.

We were driving around, with my Mom, and passed a tractor. All of a sudden from the back seat seat we hear.

"TRACTOR, TRACTOR, TRACTOR....MATTEO, LOOK A TRACTOR."

I cringe.

Mom looks an me and says,

"The way you should look at is; when the other kids grow up and are sharing childhood memories they will always remember that there big brother Sam could make the most boring thing in the world exciting!"

That is such a true statement. And now I can appreciate his crazy bouts or random excitement better, I just sit back and smile, thinking he is help making the boring exciting.

(fun side note this picture was in the Santa Barbabra Zoo magazine this month!!)

4th Annual Compound Thanksgiving

There is so much to be thankful for this year.

Nana is going on one year free and clear of cancer.

A.J. is healthy, happy and growing. He enjoyed his first thanksgiving:


We are surrounded by friends and family whom love and care for us.

Including Noni whom takes a couple kids for the afternoon so I can catch up on things

And Nana whom takes early risers so Mommy can sleep in.

And of course who can forget Papas who take awesome pictures of our 4th Annual Compound Thanksgiving. Check out our day by clicking here.

We had an great day and some of the yummiest foods ever! We had over 30+ people this year and everyone brought something to share. It was a true Thanksgiving dinner.

I also noted that we had 3 first Thanksgivings: A.J. and one of Matt's partners from work; she just moved up from Mexico (where they don't celebrate Thanksgiving) so it was her and her husbands very first. We were so excited to share that time with them! Thanks for coming guys!

Now we are busy getting out Christmas decorations and are looking forward to the great pumpkin roll tomorrow!

Hope you all had great Thanksgivings!

Don't forget to check out our pictures!

Our Day

My friend Jeannett challenged fellow bloggers to snap pictures through out their day so that we might see the beauty that surrounds us.

I loved the idea because lately I have been forgetting to see the joy in my job, whining about laundry, cranky babies, dinner..etc.... It happens.

So I snapped away and what I found on my camera was a blurry mess and I instantly felt disheartened. Of course I cant even get a good picture, blah, blah blah... The pictures were not in focus, the color was all wrong, there was a finger over the lens, but then amongst them all I found one:



The view out my bedroom window as I was getting ready. What a beautiful work of God I get to witness every day. Fog resting in the canyon with the beginning of the sun coming up over the hills. Thank you God for your beautiful paintings.

Then more blurry mess...and....I would find another

My little boy sitting up nice and strong for the first time!

Matteo playing happily with his tricycle and two shovels.


More dark photos...more fingers over the lens...and then..


AJ and his Noni enjoying time together when on a whim we decide to go visit them for the evening.

And an impromptu pizza picnic breaks out. Family time, Family memories, God's Love.

What did I learn from trying to take pictures of my day to find the technicolor in everyday life?

That just like in life you have to look through the blurry, dark, covered up parts of life to find the golden rays shining through. You can choose to spend time focusing on the parts of life (or pictures) that didn't turn out quite right or you can find the beauty in the few that did and no one will ever see the blurry.

Laundry Fairy

This evening (after a very busy last 48hr) I innocently post this on face book:

"Desperately needs a shake up from picking up and doing laundry. Having a hard time being joyful about fabric softener and toys under foot. =)"

And an hour later to my surprise a dear friend showed up with these:



Then we proceed to have a wonderful time eating them and chatting about anything and everything; that didn't have to do with laundry!!

What a great way to end the day. I feel so blessed to have wonderful friends!


Now I can start tomorrow off joyfully doing the laundry and picking up the toys, yeah!


Thanks laundry fairy!

Matteo Turns Three

Three years ago sweet, wild Matteo entered our lives. We have been so blessed to have such a crazy young man in our lives. He has grown and changed so much over the last 3 years it brings tears to this happy mom.


He was a sweet little baby that just rolled with the punches.

He seemed to have a smile for everyone and a definitely love for music.


He fulfilled his roll has a little bother, worshiping his big kids.

Then just this year walked into the roll as a big brother, which he wears proudly. Often making sure the baby is happy before him. (like handing over his lovie!)


He found his passion: Trains at a young age of 1.5yrs( pictured at 2 hanging on the back of a train), and he still is a true train enthusiast.

Our Matteo may you have a great 3rd birthday!

Typical Saturday

Daddy made pancake breakfast.


Starbucks



Trip to Target to get a few things and fill our Operation Christmas Childern Boxes.



Stop by the bookstore.



In and Out for lunch


A trip to the ER.


Nap


Spaggatti feed at Great-Grandpa's Church.


What?



Yes a trip to the ER, you know it had been a while since we visited so we thought a swing through with the worlds largest goose egg would be nice.

When we were at In and Out, I was escorting Matteo outside because he was screaming, as I pushed the door open I didn't judge the door closing time and get Matteo through. And boom.... he got a door in the head. I bent down to kiss his head, didn't see any bump so proceed with letting him calm down. After about a minute he calmed down, we went inside and I was telling Matt about what happened, swooped his bangs out of his face...that is when I saw it....a huge....huge goose egg with a dark purple line about 2inch long straight down the center.

Now my calm collected Tracy brain said it looks bad but he is OK.

My mommy brain however was freaking out.... Mommy brain took over and we headed to the hospital.

The hospital was awesome we were triage and taken back pretty much immediately. The doctor was awesome. He looked him over and said the bump was big but normal and Matteo showed no signs of concussion or fracture. I guess it is very hard to fracture the front part of the skull. We were at the hospital a total of 45min, and no one made me feel like a nut for dragging my kid in for a bump!!

So my Tracy brain was right, and now we know when and when not to bring in our children when they bump theirs heads!

Of course a picture of the bump. What the picture doesn't display is that it is sticking out like 1/2inch!

What can I say it is all just another typical day in our lives!!

Speechless

What do you get when your 8-year-old decides to hang on the soap dish during his shower?









I am speechless.

Halloween 2010

or

Fall Family Time

or

Our Growth Group

or

Parenting in the Raw


Out of all these title choices I ultimately decide that Halloween 2010 was the best, kind of all encompassing!!

Did we have an awesome Halloween? Over all yes. Did it have it's moments? Yes. But that is what families are all about. That even amidst screaming babies, cranky two-year-old and a 5 going on 18 little girl, we still manage to find the joy and love in every (most) moments of the days.

In general I love the fall. Going to the pumpkin patch. Getting out the sweatshirts. Carving pumpkins. Warm apple cider. Yum. But Halloween, dressing up and trick-or-treating is not my bag of tea. I could do with out that part of it but my kids love it. This year I think we managed to strike a good balance.

To start with our pumpkin patch trip was priceless. We went to Nipomo Pumpkin
Patch and of course manage to pick out 2 huge pumpkins to adorn our front steps until November 30th when we get to partake in the 2nd annual pumpkin roll (stay tuned).

My favorite part of the pumpkin patch is to get a tradition pumpkin picture of all the kids, however that was a major fail this year. About 10 minutes to the trip I realized that my picture was not in the cards. Matteo was not going to cooperate. Sam is 8 therefore standing with your siblings or family, is just not cool apparently. Serafina was ready and willing to participate, and well AJ was AJ...a baby. After I let my picture go we had a great time and did manage some interesting group shots! Gotta love it. Here is AJ but my internet is being to slow to load more so hit my dads page for the rest, they are great: click here



On the day before Halloween we had our pumpkin carving day!! Wohoo! The kids all had a great time carving. We managed to get our tradition baby in pumkin shot, and we even carved what I have to assume is the worlds smallest pumpkin. Followed by an great dinner: candy corn pizza and dragon breath bread sticks! Again click here to see a pictures. (because my internet is to slow to load.)

Halloween Day - started awesome and ended awesome. There were a few bumps along the way. In the morning we headed off to church were we heard an awesome message about Reformation Sunday and 2 Timothy. Then it was home to hang out until trick-or-treating in the village, and we would end the night with our Growth Group (ahh my happy balance).

Here is a picture of the group all dressed up and ready to head to the village..





Whats that you say?

I have 4 kids.

Yes your right.

My daughter is in the house screaming because..her hair hurts, her costume is bugging her, her socks are scratchy and well pretty much her world is falling apart.

I knew this was coming and tried to prepare for it. My daughter only wears cotton dresses. I am not kidding. So a week ago I her try on her costume and wear it around the house to make sure she was happy with it. She was. On Halloween I had her get her costume on 15min before the boys so we would have time to adjust what might not be right. But even with all the extra prep, when it came time to walk out the door she flipped a lid. I told her she needed to get it together and we would talk..but she was to wrapped up.

OH MY...it was amazing. So I had to say...sooo...sad.... It looks like you wont be trick-or-treating today.

Off to her room she went and home she stayed in her room. (Nana stayed home with her and graded papers). Nothing like being in the trenches of parenting on Halloween!!

She did get to go to Growth Group after trick-or-treating which was awesome. Our growth group leader spoke a little on reformation Sunday and also all saints day with the kids. And they put together some fall themed games. It was a great way to spend Halloween and it was an awesome balance for me, in letting the kids dress up and trick -or-treat but not having the whole day center on that aspect. The kids were just as happy if not more excited about getting together with our growth group then trick-or-treating (yeah).

And of course for all the pictures of trick-or-treating in the village click here.

That wraps up Halloween 2010.

All Clear!!

Just moments ago I got the call from the Neurologist that AJ's MRI came back and everything is CLEAR!

We have a healthy little boy!

What great news on his 6 month birthday!!



This picture was taken last Monday at around 5:30am as I was trying to keep a very hungry boy happy before his MRI. He was to wear pajamas with no snaps, and our only pair were these rocket ones Uncle Trevor got him when he was born!! The hat is from Auntie Candace and will give you clue into his Halloween costume.

The MRI itself went really well. The anesthesiologist was the nice guy and our 2 nurses were just as sweet. We were there for about 3hr. The MRI took about 1.5hrs.


This is him about 30min after he woke up! He looked like he totally looked drugged, and was starring off in the distance laughing. It was pretty much the funnest thing I had every seen.

We are so happy to have all this behind us now. We can for sure say he has Cognital Horners!! YEAH

Regusci Winery

You wont believe it....



hold your breathe...



I finally am going to post about our family vacation this past summer...with pictures!!



I know your excited!!

So this summer we decided to head up north to the Windsor/Napa area to spend a few days tasting wine and relaxing. Our main goal was to get over to Regusci Winery. One because they are cousins of Matt's grandfather and second how cool is it to go to a place that has your name written all over it!! We went up there with my Nana, Papa, Popop Bill, Noni, Nono, Karlee & Jeremy, and Mario and Christin. While we were there we also meet up with Matt's aunt Linda and her son Cory and Noni's cousin Tamara, her daughter and a couple of her friends. We were a traveling circus.

We spent the first night on the town green of Windsor. There they had a little farmers market and a great concert in the park. The place was packed, we sat around on the grass, ate corn dogs and just enjoyed the company of all our family.

I snapped this picture note the finger in the bottom corner, but really like it!!


I took this picture one for the family shot and two for my friend Jeanette, I thought she would appreciate our strollers that I LOVE!!

The next day one group of us stayed back in Windsor and offered to let my big kids hang out with them. Which meant Matt and I got to run around Sonoma county like a young couple in love with only one little baby tasting wine and of course not missing out on Korbel, since champagne is my thing!! YUMMY.


Then the following day came our crazy adventure into Napa to visit Regusci Winery. Since we were a crazy, load, large group of 21 people, it was decided we would take our car, my parents would take there car and everyone else would pile into a huge motor home!! OMG you should have seen them driving that thing down all the curvy roads it was fantastic. We all had a great time. We ended up visiting a little train park and headed over to castle winery as well. It was a long day but it was so much fun just spending time with the family!!

This is a picture of the motor home and our car illegally parked in front of city hall, that's what you get when you are running around with a bunch of Italians.



The two Matthew Gene Regusci's

They had a great green area for the kids to play, which was awesome because we spent 2 + hours there. Here I am attempting to help Matteo play leap frog.

We quickly turned to red light green light.


The youngest vintage!


The whole gang (-minus the camera man Jamie)


What vacation would be complete without sleeping with a shark.
(our hotel gave the kids pool toys, Matteo decided to sleep with it!)

All in all it was a great trip! Everyone had a blast.

Moments

One thing I have learned is that life is full of ups and downs but it is the little moments that make it so special:

Like when AJ rolls over for the first time.

Matteo announces on the morning news that "his favorite train is red." (yes he had is 15sec of fame)

Serafina jumps in the car after school and tells her baby brother "AJ did you know that God loves yous.'

Sam loses his soccer game but doesn't let it get him down because he tells you that it was the best game his team has played and they will win next time!!

And...

When your brother and sister-in-law/best-friend since high school announce they are pregnant.....




with TWINS!!!



Yes twins....holly molly!!!


There they are. I tried marking them with a blue and pink arrow because I believe there is a boy and a girl in there. But that is only speculation.


Needless to say, as the self proclaimed multiple expert (whom has no biological multiples of my own but have many dear to my heart), I am beyond excited and can not wait to squeeze them.

It is still early on, she is due June 1st. But OMG!!

My question is: Can I now say multiples run in the family?!? That would be awesome I want twins. HAHA

CONGRATS JEN AND TREVOR

oh and yes they are 100% natural.
Craziness

Baubles and Brunch

In case I forgot to e-mail you, or you didn't see my event on face book, or I didn't snail mail you because I don't have your e-mail or face book.....We are having a party and would love everyone to join.

Saturday,
October 9th
10 am - noon
join us for baubles and brunch!

What better way to celebrate Fall than with food, friends, and fabulous jewelry?!

Come enjoy a fall brunch, fun with friends old and new, and shop for beautiful, affordable high fashion jewelry. Perfect for early Christmas gifts!

Check out Premier Designs jewelry’s versatility and get new ideas to bring your fall wardrobe back to life. The jewelry is awesome and at a great price. I tried uploading a couple pictures but with no luck, so you will just have to come!

RSVP to Tracy or Lynn

The party is at the compound (our house) if you don't know the address just e-mail me or leave a comment with your e-mail and I will get it to you!

Thought of the Day

Society thinks it is perfectly acceptable to dress small dogs in clothing,




carry them around in tummy packs, or purses





and push them in strollers.....



YET



Look at me like I have lost my mind and seriously dove off the deep end when they find out we have 4 kids, and might not be done?!?




Please explain.