Christmas parade

This past weekend we headed to old town Leesburg, VA for a Christmas parade. We headed out in the cold and had a great time watching the floats, collecting candy, watching police cars and fire trucks, and of course seeing Santa!

Oh Christmas Tree

We were finally able to finish putting the ornaments up in the tree! The first two ornaments Dario put on the tree looked like toys and he could not understand why you would put the ornaments on the tree and not play with them. Once Dario realized they were there to just look at , he had to put them all in the same spot on his level to see. Well, I move some around later and blamed it on our elf :)

Sleeping Buddies

My food shopping buddy

Ever Saturday Dario and I head to Wegmans and then Costco. We have not been home the past three weekends so Dario has missed out of our routine, and has said," Oh, Mann!"We did our routine today and I had one little happy camper along with me!

Santa Train

While we were in Athens over Thanksgiving holiday there was a Santa Train. We thought this would be a great time to see Santa but also Dario's first train ride experience. Vince and I wanted to have this experience alone with Dario since we never seem to get alone time with Dario anymore and Danilo seems to need a lot of our attention. We often feel guilty about sharing our time between Dario and Danilo. So, we left Danilo with Grandma and off the three of us went.

Dario said, "All Aboard!"

Need to hand the conductor our ticket

Daddy and Dario having fun

It was so fun looking out the window

Oh my gosh, Santa is really here

Santa: "What do you want for Christmas?"

Dario: "Ultra Magnus!"

Santa: "What is that?"

Dario: "A TRANSFORMER!"

Mommy I got to tell Santa what I want for Christmas!

We all had a great time listening to Christmas music, riding the train, visiting with Santa. Dario was also lucky that he was interviewed by the Athens Messenger newspaper that day and was on the front page of two local papers this Monday! When I get the article I will make sure to post it!

Bath time with Grandma

Danilo loves baths, especially trying to grab the water from the faucet. Grandmas house has a great sink where Danilo can grab a hold of the water and splash around.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We headed to Athens, Ohio for Thanksgiving this year. Bette Jo hosted dinner and allowed all the Giardino's to invade her house. We ate a ton, played a lot, and enjoyed each others company. We had a wonderful time and there are so many things we are thankful for. I am especially thankful to have Vince home for thanksgiving this year, as he has missed a few holidays being overseas. I am thankful for all the men, and women who are overseas and sacrifice many things. We all hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hanging out

Hey, there!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I celebrated my birthday today with all my boys. It was so nice having Vince home for my birthday this year. Vince and Dario made me breakfast this morning before I headed to work,but Dario would not allow us to take pictures, and then Danilo and Vince got me my favorites for dinner. Maggianos and a Cravel Ice Cream Cake! I grew up on cravel and thought it was every where, until I moved to college and realized I was just lucky. Today was the boys first experience with Fudgie the Whale, and they fell in love with it. My birthday turned out to be a great day!

Boys Bath Time

The boys love bath time, especially now that Danilo is sitting up. Danilo loves splashing the water and trying to grab it. Dario on the other hand loves cold water and will not let you add warm water to the tub. While Danilo's tub filled with warm water is in the big tub filled with cold water, Dario loves telling me how warm Danilo's water is and how yucky it is.

Lollipop

Dario really enjoys lollipops, but it is rare that he is allowed to have one. But, grandma was with Dario so it was a special treat :)

Race Day

I have really enjoyed running these past few years and after having Danilo 5 months ago I could not wait to get back to running. I decided to sign up for a 1/2 marathon with my college roommate, Bree. Training for this race has been extremely challenging since I am also trying to get back into shape after having my second child. Each mile of my training had been difficult but I have really enjoyed the challenge and my time alone on the road. Running is my outlet for so many things. I can just lace up my shoes and head out the door for a run where I clear my mind, and enjoy my time that I have all alone to myself. I do my long runs on Saturday mornings and get up early and headed out the door for a nice cool, crisp run. Sometimes I come back and all the boys are still in bed, and other times there was a warm breakfast waiting for me that Dario and Vince made me.

I left all the boys at home on Friday and headed to Richmond, VA to get ready for my half marathon. It was the first night away from Danilo but I enjoyed the 6 hours straight of sleeping without waking up to feed Danilo or pump. We got up early Saturday morning for our 1/2 marathon to a crisp 29 degrees. We braved the cold and started our run, which was amazing. The crowd was really into the race, and there were people cheering you on throughout the race. There were bands playing at every mile, and over 100 motivating signs on the lawns that we past. Even though I was surrounded by thousands of people at the race, I was in my own little world. I enjoyed my alone time, soaking up every aspect of this race. I finished the race strong and beat my goal, and I was so proud of myself! I made training a priority, and really put my heart and soul into it, and it paid off in the end.

Sleeping Buddies

Cousin Monica is here visiting us and Danilo and Monica decided to pass out together last night while watching T.V. So, cute

Little Sleeper

It is so amazing how peaceful Danilo looks while he is sleeping. Danilo loves holding tight the Tiger that nanny got him while sleeping.

Halloween Night

For Halloween Night Dario wanted to be Darth Vader because as Dario said," Darth Vader is SCARY, you have to be SCARY on Halloween!" So, he dressed up as Darth Vader and Danilo dressed as a bear, and we headed to our friends GiGi and Alisa's house for some fun. The kids were great trick or treating, saying please, thank you, trick or treat, and happy Halloween. We had a blast trying to keep up with the kids as they wanted to go to as many houses as they possibly could, as fast as they could. They ran to each house with such excitement, and left each house in pure amazement that they got more candy.

We headed back to our friends house for some Hot Chocolate, play time and of course, CANDY!

I asked Dario through out the night if I could take his picture his response, "MOMMY, Darth Vader does not get his picture taken, he is scary!" So, sorry for only one really good picture of Darth Vader.

It was a night that brought me back to when I was a kid trick or treating and dragging my mom all over the place, going from house to house for hours on end, and having the time of my life. I remember all those Halloweens like it was yesterday, and I remember all the memories I made, and all the hard work my mom put into each of our costumes. Last night I felt like a kid all over again, reliving Halloween.