Happy early 2nd Birthday Ari, Matthew & Kiera!

Today the Manzello's and the Deehan's surprised the 3 kids with a trip to Sesame Street Live's "Elmo's Green Thumb".  The kids faces were priceless I got teary eyed watching them!  The show was in Lowell, MA at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium.  For the most part they sat there the entire time watching the show, but after intermission the kids grew very tired!  Our seats were excellent!  We were in the front row of the first level up from the floor!  It was great because no one was in front of us and the kids could stand if they wanted to!  Lisa and I bought the kids Elmo wands and during Intermission, Matt disappeared and came back with 3 giant Elmo balloons! LOL The characters came into the audience and Ari even got to shake Burt's hand!  She was SO excited!!  The show was 1hr 45 minutes long and it was adorable!!

Baby it's cold outside!

On the drive to drop the kids off this a.m. - our thermometer in the car read -10 degrees!  WOW it's cold!  We're due for another big storm Tuesday - Thursday with the possibility of 2 feet of snow.  I'm ready for the snow to be gone, the sun to be out, and 90 degree weather!  It's hard with the kids because they hate wearing hats, mittens, socks and shoes!  Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We had a fun weekend celebrating Daddy's birthday!  On Friday night, mommy took Daddy and some friends out to Midevil Manor in Boston.  It's a R rated comedy show set in midevil times - we weren't allowed to use silverware to eat our 5 course meal!  I got called onstage to do I'm a Little Teapot - so my table could go to the bathroom! I cant' remember the last time we laughed so hard!  We had so much fun!!!

On Saturday we were low key! Mummu and Papa surprised us in the afternoon and we had them for dinner & dessert. Mommy made Daddy a German Chocolate cake - and it was gone the next day - so on Sunday - she made him another cake - this time Angel Food!  Yummm 

On Sunday, we celebrated Connor's 1st Birthday (our friend Marci & Andy's son...KK's brother)  Since the Patriots were playing in the playoffs they had everyone wear Pat's gear.  Too bad the Pats SUCKED!

Today we woke up and Daddy went to pick up Dominic.  We went sledding on the hill near our house.  We lasted about 4 runs - and the kids had enough!  So did Mommy!  Ari and Matthew both went down the hill by themselves too!  It's hard hiking a sled, yourself and a 30 pound child up a steep hill!  I'm lucky I didn't collapse!

We then headed to Mummu and Papa's house for lunch.  Sunday was Papa's birthday, so we celebrated both birthdays together today! 

Snow Day

Today we were blessed with a snow day!  We ended up getting about 18 inches of snow and both David and I had the day off from work.  We took the kids outside and played with our neighbors Lynn and Val!  We were outside for about 2 hours and the kids had a blast!  Once the kids went inside the big kids (Lynn, Val and I) went sledding!  They showed me this great hill next to our house that I didn't even know existed!  Overall it was a great day!

Merry Christmas (x4)

We had a very exciting Christmas season!  We were able to celebrate with all 4 sides of the family.  It was a lot and the kids were overwhelmed and exhausted, but it was fun!

The celebration started with Christmas Eve Eve on Dec. 23rd.  We went to Fall River for my birth family's celebration at my sister Mimi's house.  The kids had a lot of fun!  Matthew was so in love with my niece Mia - he was star struck!  The kids were spoiled and we came home with an entire SUV full of toys!

Christmas Eve we started off at our house opening gifts with Dominic.  The kids had fun helping him open his presents!  We then went off to Templeton to Greg and Sheryl's house for the Italian Xmas celebration.  They had fun playing with the dogs, eating tons of food and their high light was getting their mini 4 wheelers from Mummu and Papa!  We headed home around 8 and the kids went to bed so Santa could come in the morning.

Christmas morning was pretty funny!  Matthew woke up first (6:15 a.m. SHARP) but Ari decided she was going to be a sleepy head.  So we brought Matthew downstairs to our room to watch Sesame Street. Ari then woke up around 7:15 and I brought her down to our room to give her milk and change her diaper before opening presents - but the kids didn't want to open presents - they wanted to watch Caillou!  So...we watched a 1/2 hour episode of Caillou and then went upstairs.  They saw all the presents and both went...WOW!  They enjoyed ripping the paper off the 1st gift and then that's all they wanted to play with, so David and I got to open all of their other gifts from Santa!  Fun fun!  After opening presents we all showered, got dressed and got ready to go to Grammie and Grampa's house.  Before leaving though, we went across the street to Vinnie and Z's house for their annual Xmas breakfast!  The kids got more gifts there...can we say spoiled!?!  Vinnie made eggs, bacon and english muffins for us and boy was that yummy!!!!!

We then headed to Grammie's house.  The kids had fun playing with Stella (grammie's new kitten) and every few hours they would open another present.  It worked out well because they weren't overwhelmed with a lot of presents at once.  They got lots of neat little things in their stockings and they even got a cleaning caddy.  It came with a vacuum, broom, dust pan etc.  Right up Matthew's alley!  Grammie and Grampa got the kids a really cool sled and since there was snow on the ground, Uncle Brian pulled them around the yard!  Crazy Uncle Bri!  The kids even had fun in the bathroom when Uncle Brian forgot to shut the door!  OOPS...Good thing Grammie had extra toilet paper! We stayed over Grammie's house but had to leave pretty early the next day because we were due for a blizzard!

Monday we lucked out - the state of Massachusetts was in a "state of emergency" due to the anticipated snow storm - that both David and I had the day off from work! Yahooooo!  We ended up only getting 7 or 8 inches of snow - which is a lot less than the 24 inches we were due for!  The kids had fun playing out in the snow with their new sled!

On Monday night Nana, Papa and Jake arrived from Nebraska.  They made the 1500 mile drive and stayed with us for 4 days.  Nana made an AMAZING Prime Rib - David is still talking about it - so I guess I need the recipe!  The kids had fun playing - but we all came down with pretty bad colds over the weekend - so Mommy didn't feel too well.  Dominic was also able to spend a few days with us as well and he and Jake played out in the snow for hours!

Overall it was a crazy week - but a special one!  We were able to see all 4 sides of our blended family!  There's no doubt our kids are truly loved by so many people - they are VERY lucky!