Balloon Glow and Tree Lighting

I just love our town.  They have so many family friendly FREE events.  This was the first year we went to the Balloon Glow and Tree Lighting.  Of course, I go to take my first picture and the camera’s batteries die.  So these pics are compliments of my cell phone (not too bad).  Unfortunately, the picture of the tree didn’t turn out.  But, boy, were the balloons awesome.  We got to get up close and personal with them. 

We were so close we could feel the heat from the fire and smell the propane burning.  It was awesome for ML and I and for the girls.  We had never been that close to hot air balloons.  And getting to watch them from beginning to end was soooo cool.  Now if only we could for an actual ride.

Gingerbread House Fun

We always end up doing Gingerbread Houses at some point doing the Christmas Season.  We have become “honorary neighbors” to some friends of ours even though we live several miles away.  Our friends were hosting breakfast for their neighbors and we were invited.  It was such a cool thing, I hope to do it for our neighbors one year.  But anyway, my friend Veronica bought the simplest stuff for the kids to make gingerbread houses with.  My girls had so much fun and it was so easy.  I will definitely do it this way next year (just use graham crackers, frosting, and candy).

 

Thanksgiving Reflections

What a fun month November was.  Looking back, I can’t remember everything that we did, but I do remember a lot of baking.  I can’t tell you how many loaves of my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread (to die for!) I made.   I also found a recipe for Pumpkin Cream Cheese Truffles and tried those…to die for!!!  Those were a bit hit and I made 4-6 batches of those (I can’t remember now).

It has become our tradition to host Thanksgiving and I love it!  ML always helps clean the house which helps and my mom even helped this year.  It makes it so nice that everyone chips in and helps cook so ML and I aren’t stuck cooking everything.  It turned out to be a nice, relaxing even with family.  And of course, we ended the night with our family tradition of watching “Christmas Vacation” with Chevy Chase.  Can’t get any better than that.

One thing I didn’t do this year was the 30 days of Thanksgiving.  But everyday I am so reminded of things to be thankful for.  The Lord has blessed me and my family so much that I am reminded to be thankful for more than just 30 days in November.

Saturday Random Play

I love listening to my girls play.  They are so creative and hilarious with some of the stuff they come up with.  Their favorite things to play are drive-thru (now that it is cool enough they play through the open window), dentist, beauty pageant, and now that I am in physical therapy, they play physical therapists. 

Some of the things they come up with you now are things they hear from us as parents.  Miss G and Little Miss A were playing Barbie’s and this is what I heard:

G:  Let’s go on a ride (in the Barbie car).

A:  Ok, I want to sit up front.

G:  No, You and your husband sit in the backseat and me and my husband will sit in the front.  That way we can each have some quality time with our husbands.

 

We were also talking in the car the other day and Miss E tells me that she doesn’t want to marry a tall man (because she is going to be short).  And Little Miss A blurts out “I want a husband that will carry my boxes!”

Boy, I just love these 3 girls the Lord has brought me!

R.I.P. Grandpa DiVito

 

Dominic Charles “Pop” DiVito.

4/17/1923 – 10/21/2011

Father of Frank, Robert and Margaret (McGuire)

Husband of Polly

 

DiVito, Dominic Charles 88, of Surprise AZ went peacefully to the Lord on Friday, October 21, 2011.  He was born on April 17, 1923 in Boston, MA to Italian Immigrant parents Antonio Vincente DiVito and Margaret Cenci. He was a Veteran of the WWII Army Air Corp and retired as a Civil Service employee from Luke Air Force Base in April of 1985. He was a Third Degree Mason and a member of Chalcedony Lodge #6 F. & A.M. in Holbrook, AZ for over 50 years. Dominic is survived by his wife of 66 years, Polly; his sons Frank (wife Dixie) and Robert (wife Cathey); daughter Margaret McGuire (husband Mike); half brother Anthony DiVito of York Harbor, ME; 11 grandchildren, Beckey Clow, Claire DiVito, Daniel DiVito, Sarah DiVito, Tim DiVito, Kara Gentry, Erin Holland, Conlin McGuire, Shauna Ross, Mike Stone, & Nathan Stone; and 16 great grandchildren. His favorite term of endearment to us all was "Dopey Kiddo" which will forever remain in our hearts. His hobbies were to tinker in his shed and collect old or rare reference books. We kindly appreciate and thank Hospice of the Valley for all their help and support during his last days. In lieu of flowers we ask for donations to be made in Dominic's memory to Hospice of the Valley, 1510 E. Flower St., Phoenix, AZ. 85014.

Flagstaff Fun!

This July we went and spent almost 3 weeks with my in-laws at their cabin in Munds Park.  We have spent about 8 days with them in the past and weren’t sure how 18 days would go.  But they were awesome.  We had tons of fun.  The older girls participated in a drama camp that ended with them doing a performance of Grease.

It was also awesome because it rained almost everyday we were there and reached about 79 degrees each day.  This was great for my Fibro and made it so hard to come home. 

 

We did our annual 4th of July Parade Celebration up there and added a breakfast this year.

 

The Girls got to go on their first ride in the forest in Rhino’s.  They absolutely loved it and loved riding in Poppy’s golf cart.  ML even taught Miss E. to drive the golf cart.

 

We just had fun playing and relaxing.

 

We all kept feeling the windows as we drove down the mountain not looking forward to the heat that was about to slap us in the face.  I think that staying in the cool pines for July should become our family tradition.

On the Outs!

I’m not the favorite, boo hoo hoo.  Little Miss A. has made it clear to me the last couple days by telling me that

“Daddy and Grandma are my favorite, but not you!”

And then she also told me that…

“Daddy and Grandma are IN and you are NOT!”

But do you think this has changed her wanting/needing me anymore????  That would be a big fat NO!!!  Good thing Miss A. is such a cute thing and I love her so much.

Me and ML

          













        What can I say, I am so in love with him!


                                                                            

Merry Christmas!

Wow, I can't believe December is here.  And before we know it, it will be 2011!  Can you believe it????  I am almost all done Christmas shopping, just need to start wrapping now.  I hope you have had little stress so far and take time to enjoy this month.

Happy December!

Happy Thanksgiving

What a successful day!  Thank you Lord for the strength and energy to get through (and the help of pain meds.)  We had 18 people total in our new house.  It was awesome.  We had enough places for people to eat.  The weather actually feels like it should, nice and chilly and breezy all day.  I actually got to wear winter clothes and we had a fire in the back yard. 

Thanks family for coming over and letting us host you.  It was a blessing having you.

Thankfulness

Today I am thankful for modern medicine.  With all of my breast issues, my mother surviving breast cancer, and a friend getting a mastectomy this morning, where would we be without modern medicine.  Technology and medicine changing almost every day, staying on top of all the illnesses and disease that plague our world. 


Thank you Lord that I didn't have breast cancer, thank you for saving my mom, and thank you that my friend has a treatable cancer.

Thankfulness

Today I am thankful for my wonderful hubby.  He is another year older and that means another year I got to spend with him.  Lord, thank you for this wonderful man.  He is a blessing to me and our girls.  No matter what we are dealing with, I am with him in sickness and in health (even though there has been a lot of sickness :). 

Mourning the Loss

It was almost 6 years ago that we "up sized" from our very first home.  Moving is such a hard thing, this move was going to be it for a while.  We were planning on staying in our new house for a long time, it was going to be our home the girls new.  Slowly as the years started to go by, we made friends with neighbors, second families were born with them.  All the kids in the neighborhood were growing up together, celebrating birthdays together, making memories together. 

And then the economy failed.  We tried hanging onto our home for over 2 years and it just became impossible.  Teacher salaries kept going down, cost of living, gas, groceries, and insurance kept going up.  ML has been so dedicated to support our family and I am so proud of him.  However, it became time that we make that hard decision to let our house go.  It was only the Lord that new that ML would not have a job by the time it finally all went through.  And we only trusted the Lord as to where our new home would be located.  It has been 4 days in the new house and we are slowly making it our home.  We are both mourning the loss of our old house, our old neighbors, and our old familiarity.  But we know the Lord has us where He wants us and have to trust that. 

In these past year or two, so many families have lost their home.  We are now one of them.  I only hope and pray that they have the Lord in their lives to see them through...to give them hope...to show them the positives of the change. 

So to our "old" neighbors...even though we don't live across from each other we will still consider you neighbors.  We will try hard to see you on a regular basis and keep up with your families.  You have made a great 5 1/2 years in our home, you have made a long, lasting impression on our hearts.  You will forever be friends.

S. Africa Part 1

ML and I were blessed with an amazing trip to S. Africa (thanks mom and dad).  We were going to my brother's wedding (he married a S. African girl).  Our 3 Loves stayed with family, so ML and I had a kid free trip.  (Our 10 year anniversary is in October so we used the trip as our anniversary trip too).


It was an AMAZING trip.  We can't say anything different.  We met so many amazing people, had some amazing experiences, ate some different food, and will always remember it.  I wanted to highlight some of the best stuff, so here it is.

People

We met our new SIL for the first time (yes, I know a different situation, but it's all good). We really feel like we have a whole new side of the family now. They were just the nicest people. Most everyone of the S. African people we met were very friendly and welcoming.

 

This lady was going to tell a friend that her relative had passed away.

My parents and I.

Animals

ML and I were absolutely blessed with all of the animals we saw.  We were the only ones to see the Big Five in one day (Elephant, Leopard, Buffalo, Lion, Rhino).  We have learned that this is a very rare experience and I personally believe the Lord brought the animals to us.  We went to Kruger Park and spent 2 nights.  And that's where tons of fun was had.  We saw animals as we drove through Kruger Park, went on a night safari, and visited the Lion and Rhino Park. 

 

The elephants were awesome.  We saw babies, we heard them breaking trees and branches and saw them eating.  We heard them talking to each other.  It was an amazing sight.

The buffalo's were huge and dangerous.  They would just stop and stare at you.  Seeing them in a herd crossing the stree,t in front of your safari truck, in the dark was awesome.  They just stood there and stared us down.  Thank goodness they didn't charge.

I was the one who spotted a set of golden eyes.  It turned out to be a female leopard (which seeing a leopard is supposed to be another rare sight).  She walked out from under the tree to the road and just walked in the middle of the road.  Our safari guide turned the truck around and we followed her as she walked.  She eventually went back into the bush and was gone.

The lions were hard to find and so was the rhino.  They are all the most amazing animals ever.  We also saw many giraffes and impala's were everywhere.  Another rare siting, we had was a hippo out of water, which was so cool.

The best animal experience EVER was playing with lion cubs.

They were so much fun.  It's an experience we will never forget.  They aren't as soft as you would think and boy are they strong.

As soon as ML layed on the ground to play with a female, the male crawled right up on his legs and back. He just played with his pants and had fun.

And boy are their teeth strong, even at this young age.  I just looked away from him for a second and he had my wrist in his mouth.  It made a mark, but wasn't strong enough to draw blood.  But boy, it still hurt.

In Kruger Park, we had so much fun sitting around the campfire for 2 nights.  Hyena's would visit us, and one night we decided to entice them to come close to us.  The next morning there was a wart hog family that decided to visit us.  We were able to touch them and they ate out of our hands.

Food

We had some great food, but it was definitely different. Some of the meat we ate was impala, springbok, and lamb.

Wedding

Of course, we can't forget about the wedding.  Hands down, I think it was the funnest wedding we have ever been too.  My brother and SIL (who was the most gorgeous bride ever) just wanted it to be a party and for everyone to have fun.  Being a part of some of the S. African wedding traditions was very cool.  Their dancing is so much fun and the music was pretty interesting.  The photographer had us doing some crazy stuff, especially in our red stiletto's.  (We were running through the forest and traipsing through burned grass.)  This was my first wedding I had ever been in so it was pretty exciting.  It was just a fun morning of getting ready and getting our hair and make up done.

 

We were so sad our girls had to miss this, but ML and I will never forget this trip.  It was a once in a lifetime trip.  It helped renew family values and helped renew our marriage.  We are closer than we have ever been.  We will be talking about this trip for years.  We froze our butts off, but that was way better than the heat in AZ.

We had fun shopping and brought back some really cool pieces for our house.  I got this most amazing coaster set out of a dark wood and the big five animals are carved all over it.  I also found a matching, large bowl that is hand carved too.  I love this red platter and also came back with tons of hand made jewelry.

Fibro Note:  Going from heat to extreme cold put my body into shock, but in a good way.  I also know the Lord had a big part to play in it too.  I rarely had pain and was able to have enough energy to get me through each day.  ML was really surprised at how well I was able to stay up with everyone.  I truly thank the Lord for giving me the relief that I needed to get through this once in a lifetime trip.