Hide and Seek

Lately I have to catch the boys candidly in order to get something cute or funny to share with the world on our blog. When they were younger I could say, "Hey Ethan, show everyone your new trick and flare your nostrils", and ta-da!! Or on a whim they would perform the latest song they learned in music class. This morning I begged them to give me their rendiditon of Lady Ga Ga. But they just wouldn't do it. I told them if they both did it together then it wouldn't be embarrassing. They didn't fall for it. Oh well. I haven't given up on them so stay tuned.

This afternoon I caught Dominic and Ethan playing hide 'n seek with Carmine. It was so cute. I had about 5 mintues of video, but I've scaled it down in this clip. Oh, and please know, Ethan picked out his own clothes this morning. I hope that's obvious.

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2010 Pinewood Derby

Go Team Volini!

Brad felt the pressure this year to prove that last year was not a fluke. We were thrilled in 2009 when the boys took 3rd and 4th overall. Yes, quite thrilled. But even more shocked. You simply have no idea how your car is going to perform until you see it (hopefully) fly down the lane during it's first race. In fact, your car even making it to the finish line is in question. And if it does make it to the finish line with any speed, your golden. Being that last year was Brad's first ever pinewood derby he's ever attended, the first pine car he's ever constructed... I think my husband is pretty awesome. Needless to say, we reminisced in the after-glow for days. Well, actually more than days. We really enjoyed it and we really looked forward to this year's competition.

Team Volini basically constructed this years cars in the same fashion we did last years. Only Brad found a few more pointers on the internet that he wanted to try out. After the drill press, band saw, sanders, dremmels, funky oatmeal paste, graphite, glue, paint, tape, pipe cleaners, toothpaste, and weight ... Team Volini had completed their cars. #16 & #21. Blue Thunder and Bumble Bee. We took them to weigh them in on Friday night and found that they were slightly over the official weight of no more than 5 oz. So Brad had to remove some of the weight on both cars, which explains the blotchy paint job. But hey, it's not about looks is it? ... ...

This years competion was fantastic. In fact 2 other boys from Dominic's den placed 1st and 2nd in his rank. Den 4 dominated the Bears. It was a lot fun.

We would like to thank Uncle James, Lizzy & Walter for coming to support Team Volini this year. It was nice to hear the extra cheers for the boys. And Uncle James can really cheer.

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So Proud

Awards day for the first semester of the school year was on Friday. We're so proud of Dominic and Ethan. Dom made the A/B honor roll and Golden Eagle (conduct). Ethan made the A honor roll, Golden Eagle and perfect attendance. They each earned a free video rental from their school at Blockbuster for making the honor roll. And as promised from mom and dad, they get to rent a Wii game of their choice. Oh, and it was Hat Day.


Ethan. A honor roll. Golden Eagle. Perfect Attendance.




Too cool for school.




Dominic with Michael and J.T.




The honor roll kids.




"Mommy! Take my picture! Micheal will be like, "Aaaah! I can't believe it!" and I'll be like "What?! Aduuuuuh!!"

Gates! Where are our gates??

This is the second time I've caught him pulling up to his feet. The first time I saw him I didn't dare leave him to get the camera because his little legs were shaking and he was in such a state of shock. I didn't want him to fall, get hurt, then be afraid to pull up again. This time I happen to be waking with camera in hand (it was meant to be). Sorry about the Kermit/Grover/Big Bird soundtrack playing in the back. Oh and also, I'm doing my stupid narration again. I even scared my baby at the end causing him to land on his bum. Why did I have to yell so loud? On the other hand, if I don't say anything it doesn't seem right. Plus, I think when I talk it motivates him. I have that effect on some people.

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WHITE CHRISTMAS

May your days be merry and bright... And may all your Christmas' be white.

Wow. A white Christmas in Lewisville. Carmine's first Christmas was the first in North D/FW history with recordable snow. What a surprise treat. Usually when we get snow it comes down for an hour or two then stops and is gone in 24 hours. But on Christmas Eve this year it snowed all day. Nearly. And on December 26, today, we still have snow in our front yard. There are still snowmen on our street.

The first clip I attempted to narrate, but the wind was blowing so hard that you couldn't hear me most of the time. It was cold.

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Grandma Jean came up from Midlothian. She made it just in time. If she would've left any later the roads would have been too icy and she wouldn't have made it. After the boys opened presents from Grandma Jean, it was time to make a plate of cookies for Santa and go to bed. I wish getting to boys to bed every night was as easy as getting them to bed on Christmas Eve. For Christmas dinner we went to Uncle James and Aunt Heidi's for turkey, ham and everything else.

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I know that this Christmas will be one that we will always remember.

The Soldier Crawl

He's on the move. For weeks now I've been putting Carmine on the floor on his bottom in the middle of a donut of toys. He's pretty content and I LOVE this stage of babyhood. He's even holding his arms up when he wants me to hold him. I LOVE IT. However, as quickly as this stage has arrived, the next stage is sadly on it's way in. The dreaded crawling stage. Crawling is cute. Sure. But that means my floors have to stay extra clean. Sugar is a long haired cat and her hairballs are everywhere. I can vacuum and 20 minutes later more hairballs. I just can't have a cat and a baby spitting up hairballs. Besides getting rid of Sugar (which we've considered for this reason alone) there is just no getting around it except vacuuming every morning. Awesome. So lately I've been finding Carmine under the tree batting at the low hanging ornaments. It's really cute. But now I'm freaking out that he's going to be putting Christmas tree needles in his mouth. (Yes, we are one of an endangered species, the real tree people.) This is a 4 minute video of Carmine doing the soldier crawl.

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Taking Carmine to See Santa

Waiting in line to see the man in red. This was the first year that the big boys actually didn't want to sit on Santa's lap (wiping tears from my eyes as I type this). I didnt' make a big deal out of it, but I was secretly crushed, like most moms would be I suppose. Dominic and Ethan just wanted to get it over with because if they were good, I was going to let them look around at GameStop. Stupid video games are turning my little boys into.... well, little boys.

See, I think they were kind of excited about the whole thing. Even though they are getting big and just too cool to have their picture taken with him, they did remind me a few times that they did send him a letter anyway, so it didn't matter if they told them in person what they wanted.

Cake Auction

The boys slam-dunked the cake auction this year. Or, I should say, Brad slam-dunked the cake auction this year. Why does he continue to put the pressure on himself? It will be hard to beat the "campfire" cake he made this year. The boys and I are so proud of his work. The detail is amazing. I definitely don't think I have the patience to pull off a cake like Brad's-I mean, Dominic's and Ethan's. Allthough, my "cookie" cake was nothing to sneeze at.

The auction was a lot of fun. They boys discussed ahead of time that they would agree on a cake they both wanted, all the while keeping in mind the personal bidding allowance we set for them. Then Ethan would represent the both of them when it comes to the bidding. This was to prevent them from bidding against each other like they did last year. The cake they both agreed to bid on was, of course, the Lego cake. Their second choice cake was (get ready for it) the SpongeBob cake. They were not allowed to bid on the campfire cake, or mom's cookie cake.

Half way through the auction the cub master annouced the winners of the different categories. The boys won the "Best All-Around Cake" award. No doubt, due to all the blood, sweat, and tears (I think Ethan's cheek grazed Brad's elbow once) they surely deserve it. When the Cub Master called them up for their certificate only Dominic could bask in the glory because Ethan was... where? Where else. In the bathroom doing what Ethan does best.

At the end of the night, Brad's "Campfire" cake brought in $26 dollars and my "Cookie" cake brought in, what? $31. Yes, my cookie cake was the dark horse. (Go me!) Since the video I made was all about the beautiful "Camfire" cake I thought I'd pop in a picture of my beauty...



Here's a few pics of Brad's masterpeice. We are so proud of him. He really put a lot of time and effort into this cake and it was a little hard to let it go when the Wolf paid for it and walked away. I think I saw Brad get a little misty-eyed. Sigh. Good-bye lucious pound cake topped with chocolatey goodness. Hello Lego cake (Ethan ended up getting the highest bid on the crowd pleaser. $16.)

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Other honorable mentions that we liked...

This one was my favorite. Van Gogh's Starry, Starry Night. It won "best works of art".

The French Fry cake

The Lego cake

Very creative. Won "best scouting theme".

The Californian in me loved this one. Take a close look. The beach towels are strips of gum. I love it!

Thanksgiving 2009

Another successful Thanksgiving has come and gone. Good turkey (thanks to Brad) and a hectic scramble for time with Grandma and Papa. Too bad Keller and Lewisville are 40 minutes apart... But regardless, we were all able to spend a lot of time together and overall things went pretty smooth and we had a great time. It was especially nice this year because Alicia was able to come out for her first visit to Texas. She ended up spening most nights over at Uncle James and Aunt Heidi's (more girl friendly I'm thinking). Alicia was here for her 12th birthday and we had a party for her with pizza and an awesome birthday cake (which ended up having her favorite color around the trim - green. I didn't realize how good I was :D).

If I could sum up the Thanksgiving holiday in 5 words, they would be: Cooking, eating, shopping, driving... and slingshots.

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Carmine Takes His First Bite

Carmine turned 6 months old on Friday, which means it's time to start solids. We knew he was ready. A sure sign was him trying to grab food out of our hands or off of our dinner plates. His first bite of real food isn't what most would call appealing. But it is common for most babies - rice cereal, of course. Now with some real food in you belly, Carmine, will you sleep for Mommy?

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Carmine Figures Out The Buttons

Carmine recently figured out how to press the squeaky buttons on his saucer. He continued to slam his little palm on them for a good 15 minutes. He was so pleased with himself.

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Halloween 2009

Every year Brad spends more time in the yard getting it ready to freak out the trick or treaters. This year was even spookier than last year. He added a few graves and a zombie coming out of the ground. He also purchased a timer for our smog machine and ghoul for our front door. It looks cheesy but it made awesome sound effects! The boys continue to be scared of all the decor. They especially don't like the zombie head coming out of the ground (I don't blame them). In fact, they are so terrified of Drake, our pirate, that when Brad got him out of the box the day before Halloween we had to put a blanket over his head because they boys would't go near it. When Halloween came and we put him outside the front door, the boys wouldn't use that door. They left the house through the garage or the back door only.

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The Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch 2009

We almost didn't make it to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch this year. But I knew later that I would be kicking myself for not taking Carmine there for his very first Halloween. He just had to have his picture taken in that little pot (see pic). We went with some neighbors. The boys had a blast and PLAYED HARD. Needless to say, they will sleep well tonight. I noticed this year for the first time that Dominic and Ethan are almost the older annoying kids. You know the kids I'm talking about. The boys which all the moms glare at. The ones who are constantly being reminded by the employees that they need to slow down. That you aren't supposed to climb up the slide. I can't take my eyes off of them because I'm afraid they are not going to see the sweet little 3 year old Tinkerbell below them as they topple down the slide rolling and flopping around obvivious to their surroundings. I'm sorry mommies. But soon it will be your turn. A few years ago I was the skiddish mom giving the evil eye to the kids who I thought were too old to be in the jumphouses bonking into my precious babies (in which Dom is still 8 and technically still old enough to jump in them). So there!

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Eager

Last week we started noticing that Carmine would reach out for our cups when we took drinks. So Daddy thought what the heck, and tested Carmine to see if he could drink from the cup. He did pretty good. Messy of course, but better than we thought. So I made a trip to Babies R Us to pick him up a beginning sippy cup. He gets so excited to drink out of it. He sees it coming and squeals. It's a riot. He still has a ways to go before he can drink all by himself. But it's so darn cute.

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Yay! Carmine cut a tooth!

Make that two teeth.

I"ll Have What He's Having

Carmine's New Trick

About a week ago, when he turned 5 months old, Carmine started to sit up. He does what is called the "tripod sit" which means he uses his two hands like legs on a tripod to support himself and keep him from falling over. After a minute of the tripod he eventualy tips over (see bottom picture). It's funny, it's like he doesn't even notice when he starts to topple. He sort of does a slo-mo fall and lands on his side still in tripod mode.

And, timberrrr...

Yes that is another drool drop on his chin. He hasn't cut a tooth yet!

A Weekend With Grandma

This weekend Grandma came up to spend the night with us. It's been a while since she has seen Carmine and she couldn't wait to see how much he had grown. Within minutes of arriving Dominic and Ethan had her cornered and they were off to Wal-Mart to get their rewards for good report cards. Dominic picked out a Star Wars blaster to add to his toy gun collection. Ethan picked out a Star Wars Lego set (big shocker!) It was nice for Carmine to have some real bonding time with Grandma. She read him stories while he sucked on the pages.

The big hit was the set of finely crafted fake teeth that the boys couldn't wait to show their friends. Dominic's set looks almost too real. Scary.

Los Tres Amigos!

Lately I realized that I barely have any pictures of all 3 boys together. So after a healthy dinner of chili dogs and goldfish crackers, I mananged to get them all together for a mini photo shoot. You can still see some chili on Ethan's face. You can also get a good idea of how much Carmine is drooling these days. Uncle Tom knows. He always has a drop of saliva barely hanging on the bottom of his chin. This is why he is wearing bibs in every picture (thank goodness for all those bibs I got at my shower, they are really coming in handy these past few months). I cannot wait for him to cut some darn teeth!

Daddy and Carmine

No resemblance whatsoever.