Hmmmm. Looks like I put off posting long enough....

Well, I am so bad at organizing this stuff, but here are some of the many adventures of the past few months. I know it has been way too long, so I have a lot of pictures including some of the fun things we have done, the construction zone that was our home for a few of the months of this year, the start of the school year, and Lilliana's baby pictures. I could not figure out (once again) how to move things around, so nothing is in any particular order, but hopefully that doesn't matter. Enjoy!


The new house front. Now all we need to do is paint.

Our new closet (nice and big)

Allen and Simeon and Lilliana's new bedroom (this is the part that used to be the master bedroom).

The boys at the Museum of Natural History.

Our new bedroom after the drywall.

Our new family room area.

he boys on their way to (or from?) the baseball game.

Our new bedroom in progress.

This is where the old house is being transitioned to the new part. Once that hole in the wall was cut, the real fun began. Mike and I moved into the living room along with all of our stuff. I wish I would have taken pictures. It was definitely an adventure, especially teaching piano lessons in there. Sometimes we had a hard time finding the piano. In spite of all of that, it is wonderful now, and we love having the extra space. I cannot thank my parents, my brothers, and my Nonna enough for helping with this. They all put in much time, energy, and even money. It is wonderful to have a good family!

Mike took the older boys to a Diamond Backs game.

The beginnings of the new bedroom.

the new house front.

Renaissance Festival

The Renaissance Festival.

Sometimes we get a lot of visitors in our bed at night.

Juicing the many oranges from our tree. The boys love to help with this.

Renaissance Festival after the joust

This was back in February.

Lilliana's baby pictures (they turned out so well).

Misha and Allen both got glasses this year before school started. They help them a lot in school, and they look adorable.

Lilliana's first pig tails. I am having way too much fun with her hair. I hope she doesn't resent that some day....

Simeon started school this year. He is doing really well and he likes his teacher a lot. He started out a little scared (can you tell?), but I am glad that he decided to actually talk to his teacher and participate.

Allen's new glasses. Doesn't he look cute (I mean handsome)!

The boys take such good care of their little sister. Especially Misha, who loves to pick out her clothes, dress her, and put her to sleep.

Misha learned how to swim this summer at Dan and Mary's house. He was very proud and excited (as was I).

Lilliana back in June. She has grown a lot.

I will miss my wonderful Nonna who passed away last month. I have so many great memories with her, and I hope my kids can also remember the fun times that we had with her. I wish I had been better about bringing my camera when we visited with her, because I do not have many recent pictures, but I have so many pictures in my mind from the fun things we did together, the funny stories that she told, the yummy food she cooked, and the times that we spent with her. I will miss you Nonna!

I have been having a little too much fun dressing up Lilliana and taking pictures, but I found that I am not the only one. Mike came home on Sunday and decided to have a "photo shoot". Poor Lilliana was very patient, and we all had a lot of fun (except Ben who did not understand why he had to sit under the white sheet). Anyway, here are some of our pictures ( Mike was testing his artistic abilities). Some are sideways. Sorry I couldn't figure out how to turn them on here .

Welcome Lilliana

Lilliana finally made it into this world on January 4th. She was 8lbs 4oz and absolutely beautiful. We are getting used to the idea of having a little girl in this household of boys. Now that the boys have seen her, they are pretty excited about her. Especially Misha who offered to kick Benjamin out of their room so that he could share a room with Lilliana. Here are some pictures, and I am sure there will be many more in the weeks to come!

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween was another week long party. On Wednesday we got to go to Grandma's trunk-or-treat and dress up, play games, and eat a lot of candy. On Friday, we then went to Mike's work to celebrate. It was insane the amount of work they had put into decorating. The pictures do not do it justice. Each team had a theme. Mike's was care bears (you will notice him dressed as Papa Bear with the kids). There was also Peter Pan, Super Man, and Sesame Street to name a few. The kids had a great time there and got a lot of candy. On Saturday we went to our final Halloween celebration at our own church. The kids dressed up again and had more fun and way too much candy. When we got home, Mike told them for just that night they could eat as much candy as they wanted. Allen fell asleep with a lollipop in his mouth and there were candy wrappers everywhere, but they did not eat as much as I thought they would. I think they actually got a little overloaded. Benjamin was the only real trouble maker of the lot. He did not like any costumes and it was very difficult to dress him up. You may notice that he has on a different costume in each picture. You may also notice that they only times he is not crying is when he has a lollipop in his mouth. Oh well, maybe next year! Anyway, it was a fun Halloween. Enough talk. Enjoy the pictures!

Mike dressed as Luigi for the party on Saturday at Allen's request. They looked very cute!