Lightning...

never strikes twice...or so they say.

Our house got hit last weekend for the second time.  Our first lightening strike was about three or four years ago....we woke to lights flickering on in Brett's office and a broken stereo.  This time....we woke to a horrible popping noise followed by almost immediate cries from Sophia.  We jumped out of bed and heard a number of alarms going off but not knowing where they were coming from.  I immediately ran upstairs...Sam was fast asleep....Sophia was screaming and Joseph was laying in bed wide-eyed.  I flipped on Sophia's light....but there was no power in her room or J's.  We did not smell smoke....and immediately the alarm company called our cell phones.  They wanted to send fire trucks, but  B searched up and downstairs looking for signs of fire...and turning off smoke alarms and checking switches in the basement.  We checked the attic but thankfully there was nothing smoldering.  We were lucky....extremely.  The hours following...appliances that were not already not working...slowly started failing.  We lost a few tvs....the stereo, the garage door openers, the treadmill, the dishwasher, the central vac, the stove, all the phones, the alarm...and the list keeps growing.  Apparently the water heater flu at the top of the roof (located near Sophia's room)  was what was actually struck.  We found it mangled in the yard the next morning.

Every repair person and his brother have been to our door so far this week ...and every single one has been amazingly nice...and none could understand how we escaped fire....must have been God looking down on us...

Before this week.... I don't think I appreciated my appliances enough....I sooo miss having a dishwasher...and really missed my vacuum....But we are slowly getting things repaired and are just grateful that we still have our family and our house!!!

We've had to hang around the house for all the repair work but have still managed some summer fun.

This pic was from last week....when we had a dress up party with a few fun friends.  Don't you think blonde is his color??

I snapped this the other day of my soon to be 5 month old...he was eyeing his Big Sister...he simply ADORES her every move.

Today....we pulled out the paints for a project I hope to finish with the kids in the next few days.

Can you see Missy's BRIGHT red nail polish....we've been having fun playing beauty shop too! Sophia also started tennis lessons today!  She is a lefty...but apparently prefers playing with her right.  She played sooo well for her first lesson.  Her instructor swore she had taken lessons before:)  I have to brag a bit...b/c I am sooo proud of her!

And this little guy just likes to be dirty!  He just wanted to paint himself:)

And finally, while I should be out buying new phones and tvs, etc.... I purchased some mini donut pans instead....definitely a necessity...don't ya think?

We made it over the hump....Happy Thursday!

Surgery Day

Our little guy had a little surgery yesterday morning.... As you can see....he is already well on the road to recovery!  

He was a trooper....didn't even cry...although he told me he felt tears coming out when we gave him one last hug before he headed off to the operating room.

He didn't sleep much during the day afterwards...but seemed to enjoy watching lots of movies and cartoons...and was especially thrilled when his favorite neighbor stopped by to give him a new Cars book and some ring pops!!!

Here is little J in his gown ready for surgery...he brought Woody and a blanket with him.  Joseph chose to wear  his hospital bracelet around his leg rather than his wrist.  He thought it was pretty neat that even Woody got a hospital bracelet.

Here is Big Sister Sophia taking advantage of the all day tv marathon after her Vacation Bible School!  She is such a sweet sweet Big Sister.  She even woke up early to tell J good-bye and make sure that I had given him the sweet card and yellow car she had made for him:)

Here is her little card she made....she of course drew a race car for her brother who adores all things with wheels!

And little Sam couldn't miss out either! Here he is relaxing in his bouncy!

Here are a few pics of him I snapped last Friday when I was working at my desk and looked over to these super happy grins!

And last but not least....we've been on summer vacation for about 3 weeks now....and already time to invent a good behavior/reward chart.  I found this idea here and tweaked it a bit to work for us.

Every time I spot good behavior, good manners, etc.... the kids get to move a gumball into the machine.  We've chosen 7 as our magic number...so once someone has 7 gumballs inside the machine ( I glued magnets to the back of each and attached everything to a magnet board) then they get to choose something fun to do!  We'll see how this works...hopefully it will help us maintain some sanity here this summer:)

Little Swimmers

We took the plunge today...first day at the pool this summer and Sam's first swim!  I didn't bring my camera to the pool...b/c I didn't want to be taking pictures and missing out on the fun while we were there...so we took some pictures before we left the house!

Thanks Thea for getting this last shot of all of us....it's impossible to get a picture with all three kiddos looking at the camera...but at least we were all in one spot:)

It was pretty hot for an early June day....so the water felt pretty nice especially after walking to the pool with a heavy load of towels, snacks, pool toys, floaties, etc.  Sophia had fun going down the water slide, Joseph loved playing with his new toys and making new friends in the baby pool (not sure why he wasn't really into the big pool) and Sam....well he just relaxed and floated like a super champ in the big pool!  He had a pretty serious look on his face the entire time...but no tears! YAY!  Glad Daddy was there to help out for our first trip to the pool this summer!  That extra set of hands sure helps!!!

Four Month Findings and Funnies

The beginning of June not only marked the beginning of summer (YAY) but also Sammy's four month birthday:)  Can't believe that it has been four months already!  How quickly we fell in love....and how quickly we can't even remember what life was like before having three!  He is already so much a part of us....just another perfect piece to our family....I feel like I have loved him for a lifetime already!

I love to take a picture before every well-visit....despite Sophia and Joseph's lack of enthusiasm at this routine picture-taking:)  So...today was Mr. Sam's 4 month well check...so I ATTEMPTED to get a picture of all three!  

So... I hope you are all sitting down for the 4 month stats....Here goes...

Today:                                                       At Two months:

Height:
27 1/4 inches (greater than 95%)               24 1/4 inches  (90%)

Weight:
18 lbs 12 oz (95%)                                    14 lbs 3 oz    (95%)

Head Circumference:
17 1/2           (92%)                                    16 3/8  (90%)


He is our BIG BIG boy....and he is FULL of lots of LOVE and SWEET smiles.  I just want to squeeze those chubby little cheeks all of the time;)


I have LOVED having Sophia home for the summer so far!  She ADORES little Sam and calls him her "samwich."  He's not showing it in these pictures...but he absolutely is in LOVE with his big sister.  He smiles so big when she talks to him...and just stares at her with adoring eyes:)

The other night when we were saying prayers...Sophia noticed Sam had his hands together...she told me he was such a "Holy little boy" because he had "praying hands" already.....then she called him her little "Catholic charity." ( I guess Catholic Charities is a regular topic at school:) ) This girl is hilarious....the things that come out of her mouth that she doesn't even understand are just too funny!!!

Sam had the same shots he had at 2 months today....but he was a trooper!  Sophia teared up for him when he got the shots...what a sweet little heart she has:)

Four months means time to get the exersaucer out!! YAY!!! This has always been mommy's best friend! I do remember, though, we had to make some adjustments for little J....because he was so tiny!  We didn't have that problem with our Sam, though!

He loved it!

The monkey and the musical jeep were by far his favorites today!

A few other pics from our first official week of summer...

Enjoying the park on a hot and steamy day....S and J LOVED this teeter totter!

Sam loved watching the swings  and cruising around in his stroller.


And finally... a little funny... or a little "not so funny"

I was getting the bath and jammies ready and laid out the other evening when Mr. Willie came running upstairs.  His fur around his mouth was covered with white powder.  I immediately thought he had gotten into some of the cookies on the counter that I had been working on for an order.  We quickly ran downstairs to check out the damage...

Instead of half-eaten cookies...this is what we found...

Willie had found a bag of formula in the diaper bag.... I guess he didn't like it as much as Sam does!

Happy Weekend!

SEVEN YEAR STATS

Well Miss Sophie P had her 7 year well check yesterday.  Yesterday also happened to be her last day as a first-grader.  It was quite a day.....I was sweating by 8:15am...trying to make it to all-school Mass in time with both boys in tow.  Have I mentioned that Mr. Sam likely weighs close to 16 pounds by now....minus his extremely heavy car seat.  I'm sure it was a comical sight watching me carry that thing all across the parking lot while trying to keep Joseph close by my side.

School dismissed at 10am....and we made it home just in time for the tornado sirens to start sounding....oh my!  I was just thankful that Sophia was home when all that happened because I know it would have been scary for her had they still been at school when all the bad weather came!  Thankfully, the bad weather passed and we were able to make it to her appointment in the afternoon!

Here are the big 7 year stats:


This year                                       Last Year

Height:  47 1/8 inches                   44 1/2 inches
(40%)

Weight:  52 pounds                       47 1/2 pounds
(55%)

I'm always so thankful when we get a clean bill of health and of course when NO shots are needed:)

So today was officially the first day of summer vacation at our house....and I am already one tired mama!  It was a gorgeous day so we took advantage and went for a long walk this afternoon and played some tennis on the driveway.  Sophia spent much of the morning reading her Magic Tree House books (imagine that!) and styling Kanani's hair.  We played lots of Memory games and Uno, too!  All that in between reprimanding my once sweet three year old boy.   Oh my..not sure what has happened...but little J is sure keeping me on my toes these days.  He has decided he loves to pounce on everyone's back (when they are not looking), pull hair, and say NO to everything.  Then when he gets in trouble and I threaten to take his beloved cars away...he says he doesn't want his cars anyway....then I even get the..."I don't love you anymore mommy!"  Of course usually this is followed by random kisses on my leg and "I Love you's" about an hour later.  Is this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or what????

Sounds like it will be a fun summer at our house!  Did I mention Sam is teething already???:)

Wrapping it up

It is very hard for me to believe that another school year has almost come to a close.  The month of May has already been full of "lasts."  Last Daisy meeting....last library day...last soccer game....etc.  

I am very sad that Sophia's first grade year is almost over.  She has had such a wonderful year...wonderful teacher and of course she has had tremendous accomplishments.  We are sooo proud of her.  Last week she had her last meeting as a Daisy.  Here she is reading the opening at the ceremony.

Here they are reciting the Girl Scout Promise.

Here is her troop leader...Mrs. R!  WE ADORE her!!! She was helping her "cross over" the bridge to being a Brownie!

"Crossing the Bridge"

Receiving her Brownie pin.

Singing..."Make new friends, but keep the old...One is silver and the other gold."

Later in the weekend, Sophia had her last soccer game of the season.  She has played with these teammates and coaches for two years now!  We are so proud of her improvements.  She certainly did not get her athleticism from her mama:)

Here she is with her coach celebrating with ice cream at Twisters and receiving her trophy!

Saturday was also Mr. S's birthday.....Not a huge celebration here...the boys were not feeling well....Poor J has been battling allergies, sinus infections, and asthma for a few weeks now.....But of course a birthday is not a birthday without a cake at our house!

Robot cookies for daddy who does the best robot dance ever!

Whoops... I forgot to buy candles.  So we had to pretend....J thought that was pretty neat!

All of us:)

And today...back at the doc's office....doing another breathing treatment.  My poor little J.  May is not a month for good health at our house with all of our allergies...  Praying for some relief soon.

Happy Monday!

The smile on your face