cleaning

Sam loves to vacuum. He gets my vacuum and his out ready to go.



And then does some awesome dance moves.

the big three

Oh my heavens, look who is three!



So we did what he likes to do best, throw frisbees. I'm being totally serious. This kid LOVES his frisbee.



All Jack asked for was a Costco cake. The one with "flowers and a sun!"



Love this crazy little kid.

cage

Remember way back when we were building something...

yeah...it's been done a while but if you haven't been to my house, you've never seen it.



And these are the inhabitants.



Their names were Orville and Wilbur, then "Sam and Jack again." Now they're kinda nameless.

They serve absolutely no purpose. But to look pretty.



Now if the rest of the porch could be as cute as the cage. Someday right?

Mamina

Funerals are never easy, even when they are expected.

Adam's grandmother Monica passed away earlier this month. Her funeral was this weekend and it was a great tribute to her life.



Not only did we celebrate her life, but it was the burial of Monica and her husband Aldo. Aldo passed away 4 1/2 years ago and was cremated. So his ashes were put in her casket.



I only knew Mamina and Papillo (those are the names they had as grandparents), while they were old and frail. Adam and I used to go over to their home a few times a week when we were newlyweds and Adam would do physical therapy with his grandfather while Mamina and I tried to communicate in her broken English how to cook. Most of the time she would ask Adam what the word was she was looking for, or if I couldn't understand, she'd shrug her shoulders and move on. Usually we'd end up laughing since our communication was so limited.

The boys handled it well. They did know Mamina. She would speak fast Spanish to them and they would giggle. Jack would talk in jibberish back to her.

The day before the funeral Sam said, "Mamina talks like this, blobby blobby blah blah." We tried to explain that it was Spanish, another language, and when Adam started to speak in Spanish, the boys just laughed.

It is sad to see a generation pass. We are so indebted to them. They made many sacrifices to bring their family to America, and for that we will be forever grateful.







Even though it was a funeral, we still had a little fun. Mamina would be happy.

halloween

Call me insane or blame it on pregnancy hormones, but Halloween is UP at our house!

Well, mostly up.

I still have more. But here's a peak.





I will wait to pull out all the birds, mice and bats. Although one just had to come out.



But the real action is with the spider rings. The boys are excited to be sporting them.



Sam keeps asking if we can dress up the baby for Halloween. I keep telling him the baby will still be in mommy's belly. One time he said, "Can we dress it up in there?"

I am so glad my kids love Halloween as much as I do.

preschool

How is it that we get so impatient with kids, counting down the days til school starts.



But then the day comes and we are sad.



This will be good for me and Jack. I'm excited for time together just the two of us...for 2 1/2 more months. Then he'll get some time to be the big brother with out the bigger brother hanging around.



I love my crazy boys, despite Jack not being able to take a normal picture. Good thing we have another one coming.