not much going on...

not much going on...it was a slow week for the d'angelos.

due to my lack of anything interesting to post, i thought i would post a picture of the diaper cake i made as the drawing prize (along with a $50 bru gift card) for the reading hospital baby your baby fair i attended yesterday. this was on our genspan baby group display table we had set up to get expectant mothers (oh, and the dads too) to sign up for our research group.

the little baby bath products scattered throughout the diaper cake are burt's bees baby products, hence the bee bear attached. if you know me at all...you know how i love my themes!!

oh yeah...and that's my very own tony d. in the framed picture to the left. he was a genspan baby before he was even here...and way before i was even on their payroll!

make new friends, but keep the old...

that's just what we did today. tony and i headed out on a road trip...destination, hershey, pa.

first stop was sinking spring to allow our old friend bobbi-jo and her brood (ryan and kara) to join in the fun...

we hopped on the turnpike and headed toward hershey to meet our new bloggie friend jannica and her little guy owen! it was such a funny turn of events that allowed bobbi and i to meet our "internet" friend in real life...it all happened so quickly, but i am oh so glad it did!

jannica and her son were in harrisburg to meet up with her husband who has been working at the eastern sports and outdoor show at the farm show complex all week. while reading jannica's blog on friday, i commented how it would have been cool to get together as harrisburg is only about an hour from us. i thought she had been there last week, but no! she was still in town!! we quickly made plans and i called bobbi!

it was great to finally meet her and her son owen in person after chatting with her over the past year after hopping to her blog from bobbi's. we enjoyed chocolate world and the ride and then headed to red robin for a yumm-o lunch. turns out, red robin is one of jannica's favorite restaurants (as well as mine) and bobbi had never been there...it was a good time for all. the hostess even came around and gave everyone carnations in honor of valentine's day. the boys thought that was cool and ryan was even sweet enough to get one for his baby sister!

bobbi with kara and ryan, jannica and owen, me and tony d

we had a great day and can't wait to see jannica, owen and meet her husband mark on their next trip to pa for the show next year...or before on our next trip to the finger lakes...which may be sooner rather than later as i am out of my favorite, glenora bobsled red wine! hee hee!

here is a slideshow of the rest of the pictures from our fun day in hershey.

double digits for sam

saturday evening we headed to hershey to celebrate my cousin sam's 10th birthday...double digits...woo hoo! sam gave specific instructions to cici (my mom) who is in charge of cakes that he wanted a steelers cake with yellow and gold "ribbons" and the superbowl #'s...too bad for the giant that they weren't exactly sure what superbowl the steelers just won...should have read XLIII, but instead they wrote XLXXX...whoah! no one cared...especially sam who just loved that santonio holmes made it on his cake!

the cake...just a few years ahead of the game

the "big" sandwich that sam requested...

tony hanging out...he loves to look through and play with jack and sam's old toys.

john and nanee making their plates for dinner...

sam requested the "eagle eye" dvd as a gift...i put it in a popcorn tub with some sour patch kids and whoppers "movie theatre boxes" of candy!

i still can't believe he's 10...i was working in disney when sam was born. i can remember the call from aunt cath like it was yesterday.

as you can tell, sam is a huge steelers fan! my mom just returned from tampa where she was able to score some superbowl loot!

road trip...

tony and i will be hitting the road tomorrow to meet a special bloggie friend (and her little guy) at the sweetest place on earth...hersheypark! well, actually chocolate world...it's too darn cold for the actual park (which is closed anyway).

i think another special person and one or both of her little ones will be joining us for chocolate world and lunch! it should be a fun afternoon!

look for a fun post to come tomorrow night!

sharing the love

happy valentine's day...

"call me"

no lack of love from this guy...

showin' his love for mom!

tony picked spiderman valentine's to give to his friends at school...

we've been working on him writing his name...he signed all his own valentine's cards this year...no help from mom or dad!

tony helped me make heart-shaped rice krispie treats (on lollipop sticks) for his valentine's party

he helped me make a lot of them...

wishing you all a "love"ly valentine's day!!

adventures with mr. slurpee

i've been meaning to post this for a while now as tony's first visit to the dentist was at the end of january...where has the month of february gone already? anyway...

tony has been eagerly anticipating his visit to the dentist since his pediatrician at his 3-year well visit said that now is the time. he was on me to make the appointment, and me being me, procrastinated and when i finally did, was told the dentist i was taking him to see was out on maternity, so i made the first appointment available after her return. well, thank goodness his excitement hadn't worn off til the visit actually came around.

let me just start by saying, i will never go back to that dentist office again, but it wasn't because he didn't like it or didn't do well...it just wasn't the "experience" i expected when i made the appointment with a pediatric dentist. ok, the place actually scared me...just looking at the place scared me. misspelled handmade signs telling you to turn off your "sell phones"...and that was the english...i can only assume the ones written in spanish were spelled correctly. it was dimly lit and i'm not sure if it was that in combination with the [dirty] shag carpet or "mood" music that made me feel like i was walking onto the set of a porn movie rather than a pediatric dental office, but needless to say...all of that combined with the fact that the dr. barely spoke english and didn't say 1 word other than "open" to anthony made that our first and last visit there!

but we were there, and i didn't want to upset him, so we hung tight...enjoyed the "cultural experience" and waited our turn in the love nest...i mean, waiting room...amidst the screams of a small child having their teeth pulled with no anesthesia...yeah, that was fun watching all color from my child's face drain at that sound...but he was still so excited. yeah, weird, i know.

we headed back and the very nice assistant got anthony set up for his x-rays...

doesn't look as excited in these pics (sorry, i took them with my phone)...but trust me, he was!

here he is biting down on the cotton to keep his teeth apart for the x-ray

here he is holding mr. slurpee (he thought that thing was hilarious...and asked if we could take it home with us), waiting for ms. personality...err, i mean the dr. to come in

and here he is in the car (i had to get the he!! out of there), showing off the finished product...his nice clean teefers...no cavities (hopefully he'll continue with mama's teeth history...knock on wood for both of us)!

we already have another dentist all lined up for his next visit in 6 months. i already feel much better about this one as it's been recommended to me by no less than 1/2 a dozen people already!

she likes me. she really, really likes me!

much love to my friend bobbi for sending me my very first blog award!! i am slacker for not accepting this award sooner as it was given to me back in january, but as most of you are aware...life is a crazy thing and sometimes just gets in the way.

there is the award...isn't it cute?

"these blogs are exceedingly charming. these kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. they are not interested in self-aggrandizement. our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. please give more attention to these writers. deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

so here goes...this was tough because i can't give it back to bobbi and she already gave it to another great friend of mine and her awesome blog...check out luci's here...and a bunch of other friends have just started theirs...but here are my eight...

heath & jamie from the frey family - heath and jamie are the ones that got me into blogging. yes, my family can blame it all on them...although i do remember them warning me. i'm hoping in giving them this award, maybe, just maybe, they'll find time to update their blog. it's been waaaay tooo loooong...err...hint, hint!

heather from the watson family - heather is heath's sister and her husband kevin used to work with john before. we also spent a few camping trips and fun nights with them before they moved. i've been able to "reconnect" with them through our blogs and keep up with the happenings of their adorable kiddos victoria and logan.

rebecca from the schmidt family - unfortunately for all of you, her blog is private. rebecca and i met years and years ago when her grandfather was the pastor at my church. rebecca lived in hawaii at the time (i know...jealous, aren't ya?) and we became great pen-pals and remained that way even through college, getting to visit occasionally on her trips east. we lost touch towards the end of college. i kept tabs on her through her grandparents when i would see them (he had since retired from our church) and we reconnected last summer on facebook. i am looking forward to meeting her husband and adorable daughter this june when they visit east.

mario and anne from the matesic family - i've known ann all my life as we grew up one street away from each other and i went from nursery school through college with her sister karyn...only to start my job at penske to find that my co-worker mario was anne's then-boyfriend...now husband. small world, eh? the matesic's recently joined the blogging world in order to keep everyone up-to-date on the recently-added-to-the-family son brady.

alison from uncomplicate me - i began reading alison's blog when i was blog-hopping on blogs regarding infertility/trying to conceive. alison is now pregnant with her son "cletus" (nickname...not his real name) and is due "any day". she and her blog has been a wealth of information to me and i wish her and husband "j" all the best with their new addition

jannica from the moskal family - unfortunately again, this blog is private, but take my word for it...you are missing out! sorry! i came across jannica's blog (before it was private) hopping off of bobbi's. she was just getting ready to give birth to her adorable son owen...that was 8 months ago. i hope to be able to meet jannica and her family some day soon as they don't live too far away.

tamara from the deloretta family - tamara is just beginning her blog and unfortunately has had to take some time away from it after her dad's stroke a few weeks ago. i've written and asked for prayers for her and her family before. please keep them in your prayers. he seems to be doing well and they even had him "walking" the other day...God's work continues to amaze us all concerning her dad Dan!

the last one i am going to split between two blogs because they are both just starting and are doing a fantastic job as well...kylene from the knepp family and marci from the tolley family. both ladies work with john and have recently given birth to their first children...both boys...caden (kylene) and lucas (marci)...adorable. check them out.

to accept your award, save the award picture above and copy the award explanation...paste both into a new post and you're off. don't forget to post your award on your side bar too!

congratulations and my thanks again to bobbi for giving me the award!!

sixburgh, pa!!

well, they did it! the pittsburgh steelers (and d'angelo family 2nd favorite nfl team -- you can't go to school in western pa without becoming a steelers fan) became the first nfl team in history...yes, history, to earn 6 superbowl champion titles when they defeated the arizona cardinals this past sunday in the superbowl!

we had the pleasure of joining our friend the kutzler's at their homestead for a black and gold (doreen is from pittsburgh) party to watch the steeler's bring home a victory!! it proved to be a great time just as we expected as we got to see some friends that we haven't visited with in waaaayyy too long!

the lovely hostess and i

wave that terrible towel...there was a lot of this going on here in robesonia...

...and in tampa (via the big screen of course)!

here is a little slideshow of the rest of the pictures and some video from the party! thanks dor & paul (and all our other friends that were there) for such a fun night...and i sure am glad johnny and i took off the next day!

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