new post

coming soon...

i owe you guys a huge update on our thanksgiving, christmas, vinnie (still cooking) and so much more.

i plan to work on this over the next few days while relaxing at home over a long new year's weekend!

in the meantime i'll leave you with the christmas card we sent this year...our last with the 3 of us!

november 9 - the big 0-5!

5 years ago today, we received the most precious of miracles...the gift of our son, anthony john.

he came (literally) flying into the world at 11:32 a.m. after 28 hours of labor (only 30 minutes of pushing - thank you) and our lives have been forever changed.

as we get ready to embark on this journey again with the arrival of anthony's little brother vincent, we will never forget our first miracle and how he's made us the parents we are today.

here are a few pictures from his birthday morning at home before school/work. more pictures (and i'm sure video) to come after his birthday party this weekend.

he's pretty alert for 6:30 in the morning...wish he's be this awake every morning and not just on his birthday!

showing off his iron man 2 arc light

yeah toy story 3! mama is happy to rewatch this again too!

awesome! the iron man 2 3-in-1 repulsor!

iron man tony!

happy 3rd...

trimester that is!!

yes, today i am officially in the 3rd (and final) trimester of vinnie's pregnancy! 84 days to go until our little bug's due date! we are so excited to meet him and continue to be thankful for each day he's already been with us and pray that the next 84 (+/-) days continue to go smoothly!!

wrapped in love

as you may remember, i put out word that my sister was collecting baby blankets for the sweet pea project through the month of October to honor international pregnancy & infant loss awareness month. she received a tremendous outpouring of blankets in response to the requests as is evident by this photo. while it's sad to know that these blankets are needed and will be used for such a purpose, it's wonderful to know the thought and love that went in to the purchase and donation of them for the sweet babies that will be wrapped in them and the families that will forever cherish them. thank you to all who donated! it means alot to both corinne and myself!

post-it note tuesday

want to join in the fun? click here to find out how.

happy halloween

iron man...

and the great pumpkin...

hope you had a happy halloween!!

wordless wednesday

post-it note tuesday

remember to click here if you want to join in...

{this moment}

{this moment} a friday ritual. a single photo. no words. capturing a moment from the week. a simple, special, extraordinary moment. a moment i want to pause, savor and remember. see soulmama to play along.

post-it note tuesday

this is my first time doing post-it note tuesday. i saw it on another blog i follow and thought it was really fun!

click here to join in the fun!

25 & 76

today i am 25 weeks pregnant.

today my poppop would have been 76 years old.

while i'm happy about the first number, i'm saddened by the second and the fact that it's been 10 years (oct of 2000) since we were able to celebrate poppop's birthday with him.

happy birthday poppop. we miss you every day and hope we are making you proud.

10.15.10

once again, it's so sad that there is even a day for this, but today marks pregnancy and infant loss rememberance day. just as i did last year to honor our little angel whom we learned earned his/her wings 1 year 4 months, 3 weeks and 3 days ago today, and would be celebrating their 1st birthday in just a few short months, i will light a candle tonight at 7 p.m. to participate in the wave of light. although this is just one day in the pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, not a day goes by that we don't think about our little one. who's nose they may have had. would they have looked like tony?

while i am truly, truly blessed to be sitting here 25 weeks pregnant with tony and baby d's little brother vinnie, it still pangs at my heart that baby d isn't here with us and that we must participate in this month/day not as a support system for others, but because we have been affected on a much more personal level.

if you have time tonight, please consider participating in the wave of light. to honor the memories of those babies you may know that have gone to heaven too soon, or in honor of those you may not know. i will once again be lighting 3 candles tonight...one for our sweet angel, one for our little nephew oliver and one for all baby's lost.

here is a link to last year's october 15 post and candle lighting.

also, as posted before...my sister is collecting blankets in conjunction with the sweet pea project during october, pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. here is my post from a few weeks ago about that. if you have blankets to donate, please contact me at 610.587.1096 or my sister who's contact information is on the flyer.

our new addition

no not that new addition. hopefully he'll stay put cooking away for a few more months.

the new addition of our puppy, sookie, to the family.

call us crazy. no really, go ahead. call us crazy. we think we are ourselves, but the timing was right when we saw this precious little thing.

we decided with abby reaching the age of 11 very soon (and some of us missing molly awfully bad), and knowing what a big help it is to have an older dog around to train a pup and show them the ropes, it was now or never. we decided to bite the bullet and get one before the baby arrived. we've had her since saturday and she's been amazing. sleeping through the nights, no accidents and generally being a good girl. she's really put a little spunk back into abby too.

she's a mix of 1/2 bassett hound (her mama was a non-rock eating bassett) and 1/2 jack russell (her daddy wasn't one of those off the wall, bouncy [read: crazy] jack's).

she has stolen our hearts.

even the heart of her tough-guy daddy.

october

october is right around the corner. while many are thinking about fall, halloween, candy and costumes, many more are thinking about the sadness that is international pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. you may remember my post last year from international pregnancy and infant loss rememberence day.

my sister has organized a local blanket drive in honor of this awareness month and in memory of my precious nephew oliver. please consider donating a blanket, which will be delivered to local hospitals to give to parents who have gone through what she and my brother-in-law have and sadly, many others will go through. all the pertinent information is in the flyer below (you can click to enlarge). in addition to contacting her for blanket drop-off, you can also contact me via email at cdangelo@ironmount.biz or by phone/text at 610.587.1096. thank you!

thank you in advance for considering a donation to the sweet pea project organization and cause.

happy birthday troy!

on sunday we spent the afternoon celebrating troy's 3rd birthday at a yo gabba gabba party!

the weather was beautiful and all the kids (and grown-ups)had a great time. shannon had the yard decorated so cute and had organized crafts and other activities like pin-the-tail on the donkey, a pinata & pumpkin painting. sooooo much fun!

shannon snapped and shared some cute pictures of tony from the day.

tony hamming it up for shannon
tony taking his turn at pounding the pinata

tony's masterpiece

the look of total concentration

following the party, tony and troy decided to cool off by using the leftover ice from the drinks to cool off.

soaked and still having fun!

oley fair fun

on a lazy saturday evening, we decided to venture down to oley for the annual oley valley fair. i grew up having a dad who worked at the fair every year and a mother that hated the fair because of that, so i didn't get to go too often, unless it was to "work" the fair with my dad. we thought it might be a fun tradition to start with anthony. not to mention, how could you ever pass up the fair food. cheeseburgers, hot dogs, french fries and funnel cake! oh and we had it all!

first, we ventured through the animal barns...the above picture is tony (in the orange hat) pointing to the different cows. he also got to pet piglets, goats, sheep and bunnies. he was in "hog" (no pun intended) heaven.

next tony decided to subject daddy to a ferris wheel ride. tony was excited to be able to see the whole fair from the top of the ride...you can't see his face behind the entrance sign, but daddy's expression did not match that of tony's.

the other ride of tony's choice was the cars/motorcycles. of course, as soon as the "carny" opened the gate to let them in to pick their ride, tony hopped on the motorcycle. like father, like son, i guess.

and no trip to the oley fair would be complete without a stop at the f.m. browns booth. this is the booth where poppop worked for years and years, and years and years (and even more years if you ask mimi). mommy has many memories of her daddy, my poppop, "workin the booth". mr. brown even gave me an extra pencil when i told him who's grandson i was!

the weather was a perfect fall evening (as you can tell by even john wearing a sweatshirt). we are hoping for some more fall fun and look forward to the fair again next year!

giveaway fun!

i stumbled across a great blog today, and bonus...

she's hosting a giveaway!

a personalized burp cloth of your choice from "your baby's room".

follow the link to

(click on the blog button above)

and follow her instructions for entering.

the giveaway started yesterday, and runs through midnight on september 22nd.

happy birthday aden!

this past saturday, we headed to

to celebrate aden's 6th birthday!

the birthday boy aden, and tony d!

it was the first time tony (and john right behind him) got to experience ballocity.

he and john were all over the place, shooting ball guns and climbing around and sliding down twisty slides.

it certainly made for one small sweaty boy

after the fun in ballocity, we headed downstairs to play some games and win tickets. after a nervewracking time deciding what to spend tickets on, he selected a knock-off transformer and some fake matchbox cars (all a.k.a: junk)!

thanks aden (and his mom and dad marjori and bobby) for the invite to the party...we all had a great time!

labor day weekend - 2010

on friday the 3rd, i, along with

this little guy and fuzzy girl

and this big guy

packed up and headed to warwick woods for a fun weekend of camping...
just the 3 of us!

we enjoyed the most beautiful weather we'd seen in months.

we ate what we wanted to eat, went to bed and got up when we wanted to, and had a fun time being together. saturday we took a walk around the campground and enjoyed a fun hayride. tony took a lazy afternoon nap in his tent outside enjoying the fresh air and cool breeze. sunday warmed up enough for one last swim in the pool (for tony only - still too cold for the rest of us). lots of campfires, smores, and worms to play with. we had a great weekend!

(click on the collage to enlarge for a better view of the pictures)

tony's first homework assignment

tony could not have been more excited to get his first kindergarten homework assignment. he received it the afternoon that i was away for the show in nyc, but i received this text from john...

"tony got homework!! i told him we could work on it tonight. he said, 'that's o.k. i can do it tomorrow.' he's a real christy mohr!"

for those of you reading that knew me "back in the day" of school/homework, you know i was a huge procrastinator in this area. i'm already dreading the days of flashcards and studying now! i guess daddy will be in charge of homework time!

my big gay italian wedding

what a fun night we had in new york city!! not only did we enjoy a fun-tastic limo ride (thanks to uncle jim for the limo in celebration of aunt cathy's birthday) to/from the city, show and dinner at rue 57, but we saw a fun show that had us laughing and got to see live and in (rather) close person, the real housewives of new jersey!


the girls were guest starring for 4 nights in the show being co-produced by housewife, dina manzo, herself. nice production in a small, personal venue. so much fun. caroline manzo and her daughter lauren stole the show and i was actually quite impressed with their acting skills. jacqueline lauretis, caroline's sister-in-law was just funny and i didn't realize she had as much of a sense of humor as she did. theresa was, well, theresa and her part actually allowed her to read her lines, word.for.word out of a book...which was obviously very much needed! jacqueline's daughter ashley...she was a wet noodle and the show could have done entirely without her.