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.