First day of School



It has been a whole year since I've posted. Where has the time gone? After a fun and busy summer, the kids are back into the swing of things starting today.

I'm so excited for this year. Nicholas has a teacher that is new to our school but has experience at the middle school level which means she will have him ready for 6th grade. I know its a year away but I always want the kids to be prepared! He's excited about school this year too which also makes it nice.

Isabella has always been my school lover. She started counting down the days to go back to school at 63 days! She loves homework, her friends, and this year, she LOVES her teacher.She couldn't wait to get there this morning!!!

Now my sweet Gabby seemed excited this morning but when it was time to separate from her sister, me or Jeffrey, she wasn't real thrilled. Her eyes welled up with tears and when I left her sitting in her big desk with her name tag and purple play doh, she was a little sad. I'm just hoping it dosn't take her til Martin Luther King Day to stop crying (like her Kindergarten year)!!!

I didn't get many pictures of Nicholas this morning because he started his first day with Safety patrol. He was with the Vice Principal at 8:05 and helped the parents and students navigate the school yard and find their classrooms. My big responsible boy!!!

Bella on her first day :-)

Gabriella on her first day :-)

Can't get by without a funny face pic :-)

Jeffrey and the kids!

Time

I'm not sure where time goes but it sure does seem to go fast. Before I know it, so much has gone by and most of the things I wanted to write about are already forgotten.
The summer has flown by for us. Nicholas on a traveling soccer team, everyone swimming every chance they get, the girls just relaxing on days where there are no particular plans, and a lot of camping out in the back yard. I guess it qualifies as "lazy days of summer."
All too soon, the kids are going to be back in school. Nicholas heading to the 4th grade, Bella to 3rd, and Gabby starts Kinder. The school clothes have been bought, the rooms have been cleared of a lot of toys and readied for the school year, backpacks are purchased, and everyone already knows which outfit they are wearing the first day. This is going to be an exciting year for everyone :-)
While we try to fit in as much as we can in the last 13 days, the days keep ticking by at a high rate of speed.
Summer of 2011 keeps dwindling down....

Down to 2 wheels

Gabriella has been facinated with her bike lately. The kids ride from one side of the backyard to the other, through the grass, on the cement, through the patio, wherever they want. Jeffrey took off Gabby's training wheels and she has been practicing for a few months now. First Isabella tried to hold on to her bike while Gabby tried to balance but when she would fall over, of course it was Isabella's fault. Sisters:-) I took over and little by little she got it. One day she would be able to just go in circles until the turns got to sharp to make or she would run into the fence. A few days later, she would be able to go straight for a bit until she felt the need to turn. She would get frustrated when she would go in the grass because the bike wouldn't go (yea, the bike's fault! Not her needing to pedal harder!)
Now, after months of practicing, she is as free to go wherever and how fast she wants. Just last night, Jeff took her off the little 12" bike she learned on and put her on a slightly larger one. She hesitated at first but then realized it was the exact same thing, just a little larger.
Not long ago, Nicholas, Isabella, and I rode over to Jeff's parents for dinner and Gabby went in the truck with Daddy. When we finally made it, Gabby was so upset with me because she didn't get to ride. I just think she needs more practice before taking her out on the city streets for 2 miles. I was able to save face with her by promising to pick her up early from school the next day and take JUST HER for a ride.
So, I did! I picked her up early, took her home, and she rode in the cul-de-sac for an hour. I sat in the chair with my camera and video and took pictures of my little girl that is growing WAY to fast.
No more training wheels in our house!!!!!

Yosemite

Over Spring Break, the kids and I took a day and drove into Yosemite National Park while Jeffrey, unfortunately, had to work. We woke up early, packed the car with snacks, sandwiches from Port of Subs, water, and each had their own backpacks full of coloring books, journals, and whatever else they wanted to pack to keep them occupied for the 90 minute drive through the mountains.
Upon entering the park, you continue to drive for about 5 minutes and you are immediately staring at Bridalveil Falls directly in front of you. This particular time of year, the snow is melting and the waterfalls are overflowing and beautiful. We parked the car and decided to hike to the falls. Great short hike/walk but this particular day was raining too. I got some pictures but was afraid to have the camera out of my jacket for very long for fear it would get water damaged.
Managed a few good shots...
Bridalveil Falls

Hiking up to the Falls
Gabriella
Isabella
Nicholas
Thank you to the complete stranger that offered to take my camera and got this shot!
El Capitan
We had our picnic lunch in the car and a good sight seeing day!!! Despite the rain, everyone enjoyed their first trip into Yosemite :-)

Easter

Easter was the end of the kid's Spring Break. On Saturday, Nicholas had a soccer game in Fresno (tied 0-0), and then it was off to Friend's Easter. For each holiday, we pick a day close to the actual holiday and spend it with our group of friends. We have Friend's Easter, Friend's Thanksgiving, and Friend's Christmas where we are able to celebrate with each other and then we are with our families on the actual day. Great memories that the kids will have as they grow up!
Friend's Easter was at Tracy's this year and although we got there a little late, the kids were still able to swim, have great food, Jeff was playing horseshoes, and I hung out and played photographer :-)
The Kids

Sister Love

Daddy and his girls



Easter at Jeff's parent's started with a brunch for the family and a big dinner for extended family. The kids went on an egg hunt, played with each other while Aunts, Uncles, and parents hung out.

What Easter would be complete without the beloved CHOCOLATE BUNNY?? A few fun shots of the giant Chocolate Bunny at Grandma's house :-)

Wedding Bands

Shamrock half

Looking back on March of 2010, I realized I hadn't written about the half marathon this year. Not that it's memorable or that I did outstanding but next year, I'll read this again and want to remember.
The 13 mile race usually translates into a weekend away with our family, a couple of our friends and their families, a hotel, a great dinner, lots of laughs, and oh yea, the run. This year seemed completely different for me.
The same:
1. There was a hotel room.
2. There were great friends.
3. There was a great dinner.
4. There were some good laughs.
Different:
1. Some of our friends weren't able to go this year.
2. You had to run the entire 13.1 this year because the relay was taken away due to construction in downtown Sacramento.
3. I went alone. Jeffrey wasn't feeling well, the weather was cold and windy with a great possibility of rain, and for the 4 of them to wait for me to finish while standing in bad weather just didn't seem like a good time for anyone.
After the run, I really started to feel bad. I always feel that I push my body to the limit sometimes but for the first time, I felt like my body was pushing back. Age? Not training? Low blood sugar? No sleep due to bachelorette party directly across the hall? No breakfast? Who knows?
What I do know is I texted Jeffrey at mile 11 and told him I was never going to do another half marathon. I felt beaten!
My goal was to beat my first half marathon time. I told myself where I needed to be at each mile marker in order to keep myself on track.
At mile 9 I was 5 minutes ahead
mile 10, 3 minutes ahead
mile 11, 1 minute ahead facing an uphill
mile 12, 2 minutes behind
at the finish, a whole 4 minutes behind my goal.

Overall, not a good race for me but at least I finished. SEVERAL times during the run, I had to talk myself out of just walking back to the hotel. "NO, keep going and finish this crazy thing you started." "This is your last one, just finish it!"
Well, finish I did. Although I swore I was done, the next day while resting on the couch, I researched half marathons and tried to find another one.
I now have a new goal....I gotta beat my original time.
Better start training :-)

Isabella, the Real Original

Sat morning was spent with all 5 of us treading down to the post office to get Isabella her first passport. The plan was for all five of us to get them done but with each child being $110, Jeffrey being $135, and mine being renewed for $110, we decided to space them out a little bit. Since Isabella will be the first child to go on a trip, she gets hers done first.
Bella has been invited to go with Steve and Carol (Jeff's Mom and Dad) on vacation this summer to Washington state and visit her Aunts, Uncle and cousin. She has a few months to think it over although right now she is super excited. Getting her passport photo and the passport itself, she wanted to tell everyone where she was going. Knowing Isabella, the excitement won't diminish!
At any rate, I filled out all of the paperwork and there we stood handing over a check and her birth certificate. When I realized that I wasn't getting the birth certificate back, a moment of panic overcame me. After the govt checks everything out they will return it by mail but I didn't want to mail it away and risk the possibility of not getting the original back.
It was then that real and true PANIC hit me (along with a slight outer body moment). If I'm feeling this way over a piece of paper, how will I feel when Isabella (the real original) goes?
OMGoodness, she's going on a trip!
OMGoodness, she's going on a trip without me!
OMGoodness, she's going on a trip without me and leaving the country!
Before I let it my emotions get the best of me I reminded myself that she'll be with her Grandparents and the crazy boat that is my mind, safely came back into harbor. The sanity rope that had all of my crazy thoughts was reeled back in and my mind was returned back to the room where Isabella was asking the passport lady if she had processed Grandma and Papa's passports too.
She is excited.
I'm excited for her.
It will be a fabulous trip for everyone.
And where it will take 4-6 weeks for the passport to come in the mail, Isabella will only be gone for 2.

St. Patty's Day

Some St. Patty's Day fun!!!
The O'Butticci's.....
The kids with Grandma and Papa....

Nicholas the leprechan.....
Isabella the Leprechan....

Gabriella the Leprechan.....

Waiting on their green drinks....

Happy St. Patrick's Day......

Day 12

I remember this day so vividly! I was going to document the fact that, in our family, my husband and all three children have blue eyes and I am the only one with green eyes.
After their baths, I started taking pictures of the girls. My middle child, Isabella aka Rubber Face (my dad calls her that), called my name and as I turned around, this is what she looked like! Great silly picture of her eyes :-)

I laugh each and every time I see this picture!!!

Day 11

Now that the month of February is over, I guess the Joy of Love assignments are over. I, however, kept all of the e-mails and am going to continue the assignment since I had so much fun!

Day 11:

DREAMS

At the time of Feb 11, I fell behind because all three children got sick. Not all at the same time, mind you, but another child came down with the illness as soon as I got the other one better. Fever of 5 days, coughs, antibiotics, days home from school, etc. All I could dream of at that point was for everyone to be healthy again!

It took a few weeks but the kids got healthy and I regained some sanity :-)

Joy of Love: Day 10

This past week has been very draining. Nicholas started with a fever of 102.6 on Thursday, diagnosed with the beginning stages of bronchitis on Monday and wasn't able to go back to school until Tuesday. Isabella got the fever on Sat, diagnosed with an ear infection on Monday, went back to school Wednesday but got sent home early with a low-grade fever and is still trying to recover today. Gabriella so far has no symptoms of anything but has woken up in the middle of the night the last 2 nights. Not a big deal IF I was able to go back to sleep after shuffling her back to bed at 1:00am. So for me, no fever, no ailments, but extremely tired.

Which brings us to today's prompt...

Joy of Love: Day 10

Space-Where They are Comfortable

With Isabella at home and me working with 11 other children, it limits her "space" where she can go.
Today it's the couch with the tv, a soft blanket and a fluffy pillow.
Hope she's comfortable (and feels better soon)!

Joy of Love: Day 9

Joy of Love: Day 9

Passions and Hobbies

Anyone who knows Jeffrey knows that he LOVES and LIVES to fish. As previously written, if there is nothing pressing waiting for him, he is off to fish. He prepares the night before, hooks up the boat to the truck, and first thing in the morning he just hops in his truck and heads to the lake of his choice... he has yearly passes for 2 different lakes.

If the actual act of fishing isn't part of his day, he watches fishing shows claiming that he is "learning"how to do something.

At any rate, it is safe to say that most days, successful or not, he'd rather be on his boat than anywhere else!

One of his successful trips!!

Joy of Love: Day 8

*sigh*
This one took some thought.
Joy of Love: Day 8

Gift From the Heart

My husband and I have known each other for 17 years and we have given the other many gifts during that time. Some gifts are easy to recall, others need to be refreshed by pictures or stories. Our children are definitely a gift, our family is a gift, the home we've built, the life we've made....all gifts from the heart. But when I reflect on all of the things I have in my life currently, none of it would be possible or mean as much without Jeffrey.
When I first met Jeff, he was in the military so some of our 17 years was spent apart. Some overnighters, various training exercises that lasted a month or more, or the big one where he was in Germany for 2 years. During that time, I lived for phone calls that were sometimes weekly, other times monthly.
To pass the time, or when I just needed to "hear" his voice, I would read letters that definitely came more frequently. Some days, I would pull them all out and re-read each one. I knew in those letters were true thoughts and true feelings from a man that was away and only wanted to come back to me. More importantly, they were HIS words written by HIS hand.
Just recently, we pulled out the box with all of our letters and read each one. He would read, I would listen then vise versa. Those little while envelopes and lined paper hold promises, hopes for our future together, thoughts about children, and just words from our time apart. Sometimes it was nothing more than our daily lives, or counting down days til we could see each other, and other times it was all of our hopes and dreams.
When I think about a gift from the heart I think of these letters. Nothing is more personal than a handwritten letter on faded lined paper with the words from your heart written right there for your beloved to read.

Joy of Love

The prompt for Day 7 is:

GENERATIONS
While there are so many pictures I could post from both sides of our family, I settled on 2 old pictures from my side and a recent one from Jeffrey's side.
My side of the family lives on the opposite coast which has lead to the kids and I taking a trip every summer "back home" to see them. Jeffrey was actually able to make it with us this year for the first time since he and I left the East Coast in Dec 1999. While we are there, I tend to take SO many pictures so I have them with me when I get back. So for this project, I picked 2 older ones but both so prominent to me.

This past summer, my Grandma turned 88 and we had a nice dinner and dessert night. Although this is 2 tears old, this photo is my Grandma with all 3 of our children.

Here is another photo of my Grandma with my neice. Grandma is the oldest from our side and Logan is the youngest.

Grandma and great grandchild:

Jeff's sisters were able to make it in for the holidays this year and this is 3 generations of Butticci's. A perfect representation :-)


List of things to do:

Take pictures when Grandma Rose is feeling better!

Take current pictures with Grandma Pasden when we go home.

Take pictures when my Dad is here. Spending two weeks with us soon!!!!

Joy of Love

This weekend was a pretty busy one due to 2 soccer games, sick children, and a bunch of normal clean up to get ready for the week ahead, not to mention the Superbowl! Now I find myself a couple days behind on the Joy of Love project so I've got a little catching up to do.

Day 6:

Who They Love

Aside from the love the kids have for each other and members of our family, they all have a love for our pets. Gabriella is more of the pet lover and is the one who takes it upon herself to feed them, let them in/out, or seek them out for some love but all three kids love our two cats.

Gordon, yes, named after Jeff Gordon, has been with our family since Aug of 2007. We got him at PetSmart, the children picked him out, and he has turned out to be a terrific cat.

August 2008, Godzilla came into our family a little differently. While working on a blistering summer day, Jeffrey found him walking out of a cornfield. We rushed him to the vet where it was determined that he was a healthy YOUNG kitten although he weighed under one pound. Now at 2 and a half, this kitten is HUGE and is living up to his name.

Mutually, both cats love the children. Every single night Godzilla can be found sleeping with Nicholas and Gordon is usually in Isabella's bed before she is. During the day, both are snuggled into Gabriella's bed, wrapped up in her covers.




Our sweet beautiful Gordon.
Our beautiful soft Godzilla.

Joy of Love: Day 5

I have literally been thinking about this prompt since it showed up in my email inbox. At first it didn't make sense in my head (as is often the case). How can you love to hate something? You either love it or you hate it. How does it go together?? I asked my hubby what it meant to him, I called my Mom and asked what it means to her, I asked my Mother in law what it meant to her but still it really didn't mean anything to me.
DAY 5: Love To Hate
I first focused on Jeffrey but I couldn't think of anything that he does that I love to hate. I could think of a hundred things that he probably hates about me but I couldn't think of the vise versa. (A little wake up call) Then he laid across the bed, turned on the tv and started recording all of his fishing shows. THAT'S IT!!!! I could focus on Jeffrey and his love of fishing. His multiple fishing poles which I know are supposed to catch different fish but why do you need so many? Really, I should count them while he's gone tomorrow. Gone where you ask? Fishing of course! He fishes on his days off and on the days where he can't fish, he watches other people fish on the multiple fishing shows that he has recorded. BUT is it a love to hate??? Not really! Why??? Because he always asks if it is ok for him to go, if the kids have anything that he has to do/attend, or if I mind if he goes. It can't really be a hate if it doesn't interfere with anyone else and he's doing it just to have some time or if it's just a fun day for him and Nicholas.
Back to square one. *sigh*
Focus on me and the fact that I drive myself crazy when I repeatedly can't find my keys or my wallet or my sunglasses or my black bag or my..... The list is endless but I can't really write about me can I???
I decide to take a break from thinking and throw in a load of laundry while the kids are watching a movie when all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks. I FOUND MY LOVE TO HATE!!!! The thing that drives me crazy each time I see it! No matter how many times I say NOT to do it or SHOW them how to do it, they still do it! The thing that makes me talk under my breath! The thing that makes me say words in my thoughts that I can't repeat while the children are around!
What is it???
Socks that get thrown in the laundry INSIDE OUT!
I don't want to fix them, I can't wash them inside out because they won't get clean, and if they had just taken them off the right way.....blah blah blah!
So to everyone that lives in my house, I hate the fact that ALL of your socks end up inside out but I love you all enough to put them right before I throw them in the wash. Then when they are folded and put away and ready for you to wear again, you'll notice how clean they are and want to take them off the right way.
No??
I know I know...
Wishful thinking :-)


But I do love all of you!!!

Joy of Love: Day 4

I am having so much fun with this project. Taking pictures of the kids every day, going through old photos that haven't been looked at in ages, and talking with the family each night about what I posted that day and what the idea is for the next day. Conjures up a whole bunch of fun conversation!

Today's prompt:

What They Wear
With Nicholas sleeping in this morning recovering from a 102.6 fever yesterday, Gabby watching a few minutes of tv before she gets picked up for school, that left Isabella to be my subject this morning and believe me when I tell you that this child LOVES to have her picture taken. It turned into my lucky day when she walked out wearing her pink boots that are a staple in her wardrobe. (Again, going back to Day 2 of Project Joy of Love, the boots were worn with purple pants and a blue and gold West Virginia jersey...jersey day at school). Crazy kid!
Oh yea, the boots!! She's had her first pair when she was 4 or 5 and we keep replacing them as her feet grow. She loves them! This particular pair, we couldn't find anywhere but eventually got lucky when Jeff and I went to Vegas in Sept. Upon our arrival back home, having not seen us for 3 days, Isabella was definitely more excited to have new pink boots than give us hugs and kisses!
So this morning, we took about a dozen pictures of her boots but this one shows the love that is worn on and out of them....

While I was downloading the boot pictures to the computer so Isabella could put her own seal of approval on them, she walked into the kitchen, grabbed a glass of milk, and came back out to the classroom looking like this...
It occurred to me that she was "wearing a milk mustache" and I snapped about 4 pictures of her as she and I were having a great laugh :-)

Joy of Love: Day 3

Our prompt for today is:

Then and Now

SOOOOOO many pictures that I could post about how much all of us have changed over the years but after weeding through discs and discs of saved photos, I decided on a group picture of the kids!!!

Nicholas, Isabella, and Gabriella

APRIL 2006

Nicholas, Isabella, and Gabriella
January 2011
WOW

Day 2: Part 2

I was just visiting the facebook page of where some folks are uploading their photos and I've noticed that most are just posting a picture with one line of journaling. Definitely cuts down on time and while I did post there as well, I'm using my blog to further the story.

As I was looking through old photos, I found this one of a very sad day for Nicholas. In the spirit of keeping it simple, I'll say....
How he looks after hitting his head on a raised cement flower bed.