Christmas

 Eric's Kindergarten Christmas Concert was last week and it was soooo cute!
Joe's parents and my sisters, Martha and Miriam came to see him and it made him so excited.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

Eric was concentrating so much that it was hard to get him to look at us to take a picture. He told me later "I was so embarrassed, Mom". That's his way of saying he was shy to have people looking at him, lol.

He got every word and really enjoys singing.

Shawn started to fuss until Grandpa held him and let him see the performance and then he sat there the content the whole rest of the time. It was so cute!

Eric and his Miriam

June, Jessina and Jeannie

 Our Italian family has always had a tradition to eat raviolis on Christmas. Growing up we always made our own and we have continued that tradition which is really neat to pass on to our kids. This year we had my extended family come over, my aunts: June and Jeannie and my cousins: April and Jessina. It was so fun to visit and "help" Martha make the raviolis.

April, Martha and Monica

Martha, Lynette and Kendra

 On Christmas Eve, Joe and I go to his parents house and this year we took some my family with us. We had a wonderful meal of lasagna, green salad, ham, scalloped potatoes and green beans! Then we did a little white elephant game which is always alot of laughs!

Cody (BIL), Gareth, Shawn, Kip and Sandi (FIL and MIL)

Jon, Joe, Shawn, Monica and Jennica (SIL)

 Christmas Morning

sideways pic....Opening the stocking

A book...my favorite

So excited to get Woody from his cousin Will

A phone...my favorite toy, thanks cousin Jake!

Mark

Monica

Mom

My favorite picture

 Eric made Joe a framed letter, painted him a mug and gave him a big bag of gummi bears!!

 For gifts we did a secret Santa exchange for the kids: 10 on down.

For the adults we usually do a secret Santa too but this year we all got a $30-$50 present and then we played a "while elephant" type game where we got to pick and steal presents from others! It was so fun and everyone ended up with some great stuff!

Joe playing with the hover craft I got him for Christmas. I was really proud of myself because I have a hard time coming up with stuff to get for him. Joe's brother, Ted, gave me the idea (Thanks, Ted!) It was a big hit with not only Joe but all the other guys too!

All the grandkids!

 Back row: Lee, Lynette, Hans, Kendra, Paul holding Shawn
Front row: Eric holding Ellina, Eliza, Gareth and Tony

Shawn but he was grumpy cause his teeth hurt

Joe and his wonderful and silly helpers, Lynette and Kendra

It was a great Christmas and I am very thankful for a nice relaxing day and wonderful family! 

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Christmas Letter

Hey Everyone,

It’s almost Christmas again and we are surrounded by piles and piles of snow. By now they have turned into piles of slush and ice, which isn’t my favorite. Hopefully we get some more nice fluffy stuff for Christmas!

We have really enjoyed our year in our “new” house since we built our addition last fall. We finally got a lawn and Joe had a fun time this summer building an elaborate tree house!

Shawn's First Christmas

Shawn and his twin cousin Eliza: 9 days older

The view from our bedroom window

Eric's new ornament

Shawn's baby ornament

We did a few family trips this year which I was nervous about doing with a baby but we are blessed with a pretty laid back little guy.

In July we went to California to visit my Grandparents. Joe finally wore me down into getting a mini-van so we were able to drive very comfortably in our new Sienna!

 

We took my sister Gina and little brother Mark. It was pretty special because my brother Michael flew over from Philadelphia to visit them at the same time.  He and I have birthdays a week apart so we got to celebrate them together. We had a great visit and got to introduce Shawn to his great-grandparents. It was so relaxing; swimming every day, visiting with family, going Disneyland, Knotts berry farm and being in the wonderful California weather!! Eric and Shawn both couldn’t get enough of swimming and loved our trip. Shawn is very easy going and did really well on the long trip to California.

 

In October, Joe’s grandma and uncle Brett came for a short visit from Idaho and Eric had a wonderful time getting to meet his great grandma and great-Uncle Brett whom he called “Grandpa” Brett. Eric has a total of 6 grandmas altogether so it’s like he’s always getting to meet new ones!

For Thanksgiving we got to fly to Chicago to spend time with some of Joe’s family and attend his brother Dan’s wedding. It was Shawn’s first time flying and he did very well on the flights. Eric was ecstatic and couldn’t get enough of the airplanes! We had a wonderful 10 days staying with his brother Ted and his wife Kellie and their two boys. Eric loved playing with his cousin Will who also has a love of Toy Story and Buzz Lightyear. Jake and Shawn are close in age and had fun and fights over important things like toys and food! The wedding was beautiful and we loved getting to visit with all the relatives. Unfortunately we all got the flu, which put a slight damper on some of the funL

This year I feel like the kids have grown up so much, too fast!!

My little Eric is not so little anymoreL He has had a year of big firsts. After finishing off a fun year of preschool, Eric was very sad to say goodbye to his friends that he had spent the past couple of years with. We had a lot of adventures in preschool, “visiting” other countries and taking field trips to the skating rink, doing plays and creating our own art at the art studio. 

 

He turned 5 in March and had a fun day of roller-skating with his friends and then a family party at home. 

One of Eric’s firsts was playing T-ball in the spring. He was so excited and did really well listening to the coach and learning to hit the ball and catch. It was a lot of fun and he can’t wait to play again. Eric loves summer just like me. We got him a bigger bike and he is able to keep up with me now so we took a lot of bike rides together. Every chance he got he would be playing outside: jumping on the trampoline, riding bike or playing in the woods.

And then, it was time to start kindergarten. It came way to fast for me, and I definitely had a lot of anxiety about which school to send him to. He ended up going to a great school and his teacher is someone we already knew! He is doing great and loving it. Eric has always been very advanced and when kindergarten started, he was already reading at first grade level! They tested him and now send him to the first grade class for reading. He reads books to me everyday and I am amazed at what he is able to read. We are so proud of our little guy!

 

My little baby Shawn is 15 months old! He has grown up so fast over the past year. We have enjoyed him so much. He is daddy’s little buddy and spends a lot of time cuddling up to his daddy!  He was always a pretty chunky little guy but around 10 months lost a little weight and thinned out a little. The doctors weren’t too worried because he is very active and developmentally on target but we did regular weight checks to keep an eye on it. He is gaining normally but is still a little small. However I am pretty small and I’m told Joe was a scrawny thing himself so I guess he takes after us!   

Being small hasn’t slowed him down any. He rolled over at just a few months old, was crawling all over and pulled himself up standing at 6 months and walked around the furniture. He has always been quite the climber and could get himself on the couch and up and down the stairs at around 9 months. He really liked crawling though, (more efficient you know) and wasn’t interested in standing by himself or walking until a year old. Now at 15 months, he’s walking around like a pro. He is a very happy little baby.

He loves to play with puzzles, talking on the phone and playing with remotes. He takes the remote control and points them at the TV so he can be like us! He says a lot of words: uh oh, all done, Eric, mama, dadee and ball. He says “Mam” in a very demanding voice until I say what. Then he proceeds to tell me a story. It’s so cute.  He also says hiya and biya for hi and bye.

Joe and I are very thankful for our little ones and the life that God has blessed us with. We’ve had some very difficult times in the last year and although it’s easy to get discouraged, it helps to think of all the good things we have and be thankful.

I hope that all of you are doing well and have a great Christmas full of happiness and relaxing moments.

Love,

Moriah, Joe, Eric and Shawn