sharing the love

so i just finished up another order of lollipops for a co-worker. they are for a tasteful 2nd time around bachelorette party...thought i'd share in case you or your friends know of anyone in need of some shower (bridal/baby) favors!!

holy bad blogger bat-man

testing...testing...is this thing on? just checking. wow - i can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. no excuse really except for shear busyness in the lives of us 3-amigos here in pennside. but you don't really want to hear about what we've been up to...do you? oh, ok, you twisted my arm...let me bring you up to speed.

alright...since i last posted, friends of ours, chris and bobbi-jo welcomed their second child, a daughter, kara ellasyn. she made a grand, grand entrance a bit earlier than planned (you can read about it here) but is doing just fine! ryan is the doting big brother and we couldn't be happier for this new family of four!

the week after the pasta run (6.21-6.28), the 3 of us and corinne, dave and harrison loaded up the cars (yes, despite the horrible gas prices)and headed to rehoboth beach/dewey beach searching for a week of fun in the sun! we found it. it was a fun time and the weather couldn't have been better. we had 1 night of rain/thunderstorms but it was after we were all tucked in bed some of us already sound asleep. this was t's first real experience at the beach (we were in sea isle city for a weekend when he was around 10 mos, so he doesn't remember anything), and he absolutely loved every part of it...the sand, the ocean, the boardwalk (i love when he says that word - it's more "bode-wok"), and the rides. he slept well even taking 2 hour naps bundled up on the beach blanket under the umbrella. here he is dancing up a storm on the boardwalk to a rod stewart impersonator. you can click here to view the photo album from our vacation.

he loved his time with harry! who, by the way, began crawling while at the beach that week. it was a fun milestone and i was excited to be able to share it with him.

we went to several picnics this summer so far and have been having fun with friends and family which has been occupying every weekend we have...guess it's why this summer seems to be going by so fast. here are a few pictures of anthony and his girlfriend abby at our friend sue and jd's pool party this past saturday.

tomorrow we head back to the reading phillies for berks homes' company picnic. it will be nice to visit with john's co-workers again (especially the ones from out of town that we don't get to see often except for the christmas party every year). john and mike lutz (and the lutz boys) will be leaving immediately from the picnic to head to hickory run and skirmish to meet up with dave and the rest of the men (and their [older] sons) from church for the 2nd annual camping trip. they should have a great time playing paintball and having "manly talk" by the fire - oh, and i'm sure there will be some stuffing of faces and beer drinking too.

in other exciting, yet sad news...next thursday is tony's last day at miss michelle's. she will only be working 3-days a week this coming fall and that just doesn't fit in with my 5-day work week and needing 5-day care for him, so as of 8.4 he will be starting at kindercare in exeter. we visited back in january and made the decision that's where he'll be attending, however we are going for a "trial" run tomorrow to spend a few hours (with me there with him) so hopefully he won't be as scared on the 4th when he has to do it by himself. i can't type too much or i'll get sappy, but i will really miss him being at michelle's. she's been caring for him since he was about 9 weeks old and i can see how much of an impact she's had on him and his behavior. i don't know how i will ever thank her enough for the love and care she has given to him these past (almost) 3 years. we will be making a stepping stone for her to place in her new landscaping by her patio with his handprints as a reminder of him.

i know i've probably missed so much, so just take my word that if i think of something i forgot, i'll update it pronto...i'm back on my [blogging] game.

oh, and have i told you all recently how much i love these two guys?

pasta run 5k

wednesday evening brought about a fun family event outdoors. heat and humidity aside, i'd say a fun time was had by all of the brumbaugh, d'angelo, mohr and mulligan families! this 5k race really was a family affair for us as john, corinne, dave, my dad, aunt cath, uncle jim and cousin jack and even harry...yes, harry, ran in the race (ok, he was "pushed" into it...ha ha!)! tony d, my cousin sam and i cheered from the sidelines!

this event is organized by my uncle jim every year and is held on city island in harrisburg (where the harrisburg senators stadium is located). proceeds from the race go to the american lung association so it's not only fun, but it's for a great cause as well!

i even got what has become the traditional "tony & harry" race picture as i seem to have a picture of the two of them in their strollers from every race we attend. ok, so tony wasn't actually looking at the camera...he was too into the banana!

it's getting harder and harder for anthony and i to go to these races and support john without t himself wanting to run and join in the fun, so after john finished the race, he handed off his number to tony who proceeded to run all over the place "running the race like daddy" before throwing his hands in the air to say he won!

the night ended with the awards where my uncle won 1st place in his age group (congratulations!) and a catered pasta dinner (hence the name pasta run) by cantone's and olive garden. yummy!!!

you can see more picture from the evening here!

1 in 150

did you know 1 in 150 children will be diagnosed with autism?

i know 1 very special boy with a form of autism known as pervasive developmental disorder. a wonderful friend of mine, luci, has a son adam who in 2005 was diagnosed with ppd-nos.

luci, in addition to being an amazing mom to adam (now 6) and abby (1), has an incredible way with words and recently got into blogging herself. wow - her site is great and truly an inspiration! the site also includes a lot of stuff aside from her life with adam and autism. please, please take the time to visit it if you have a free moment. you can link to her site here or on the right under "sites we love", schaeffer family.

luci's site doesn't have a comments section, but please feel free to leave any comments for luci here and i'll see that she gets them.

well he's moving on up...

well, actually i guess it's down...either way...tony is out of the crib! we set up his big-boy bed (toddler bed) last night with his help and removed the crib to the attic. i have to admit i teared up as i started disassembling the crib bedding and prepared to wash/store the crib bumper and other items. that turned into a full blown sob with rolling tears as the crib came apart and was moved to the attic. tony was cute and said, "why you taking that down?" to which i replied "because you're a big boy, not a baby and cribs are for babies." he then said, "you gonna have a baby and it will live in there?" john and i had a chuckle with each other muttering, "if it were only that easy".

the transition seems to have gone well. so far so good...he's been in bed for about 2 hours now and hasn't gotten out (or fallen out) once! i don't think he realizes that he can get out when he wants to...we'll see. i hope it's a sign of how easy the next steps will be!

next on the plate...the "b" and complete potty training! he still does well peeing on the potty when asked to and every once in a while he'll ask to himself, however we had come to a screeching halt with the potty training when he started having complications with "number 2" and we had to forgo the potty-training in order to just get him to go and not be blocked up for weeks at a time like he's been. poor thing! i hope to start working on it again over the next few weeks so that when we are at the beach for a week (and i'm off with him that whole week) we can really concentrate on it!

as for the "b", i am going to take the suggestions of many books i read that said to stop the use of it following a trip as their little minds are still wrapped up on what they did on vacation and returning home to familiar things. we'll see. they are slowly "disintegrating" anyway as we've already thrown a few away that have gotten holes in them.

wish us luck...we have a lot to accomplish over the next few weeks, but i think we can do it! i think we can...i think we can...i hope we can!

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weekend update

live from pa...it's your weekend update! ok, so maybe to you, our weekend was not as fun as an episode of saturday night live, but for us it was pretty darn fun!

john and i both had off on friday so it was another 3-day weekend after the long one the weekend prior. the weekend kicked off with haircuts for tony d and i on thursday evening. we went shorter for tony than ever before using the clippers this time. miss alicia did a great job! here are some after shots of tony posing so silly!

we packed up thursday night/friday morning and headed to oak creek for the long weekend. corinne and david got there on wednesday so they had all the "kitchen" stuff set up already which was nice and made it an easy set up for us this time so it was done in no time. tony enjoyed hooking his "car" up to his camper and pretending to tow it "like daddy does in his big truck". it was adorable!

friday evening we enjoyed the company of our friends marjori and bobby who stopped by with their son aden for an evening by the campfire. they brought pizzas and marjori's (now) famous mac & cheese (she uses brie in hers with another secret ingredient which i've not been told yet)....it was fabulous! it was fun night and tony loved playing with aden.

saturday was an exciting day. first thing in the morning tony and d caught a frog (on the picnic table)! we let him go but not after tony wanted to pose with it for a picture. it was very cute and scary thing was...it wasn't all that much bigger than our frog carmine at home (the same frog that we grew since he/she/it was a tadpole).

after the crazy tornado watch and storms blew over, john, david and the boys went down to see the firetruck display at the main office of the campground. the local bowmansville ladder truck was there and the kids got to climb around in/on it and john got some great pictures and video of anthony and harrison. t just loved being in the driver's seat and turning the wheel!

the boys each received a "fireman hat" and tony was very proud of his! he was in his glory!

anthony and harry really just enjoyed playing with each other. harrison is really becoming more active and tony is always his usual helper with him and just in general. here are some cute pictures of anthony leaning in to kiss harry when surprisingly harry grabs tony and end up munching on his nose...those darn new teeth! the progression of the pictures is quite funny!

what is also funny in these pictures is the obviousness of the toning of the boys skin color. harry (for being the irish/german baby) sure has the italian olive coloring (that somehow corinne got too) that anthony (being the italian/german baby) somehow didn't get. but you can sure tell they're related, can't you!? that first picture says it all!

all in all, we ate well...

had some fun...

and did plenty of relaxing...

hope you all had a good weekend too!

click here if you'd like to see more pictures of our weekend!

odds & ends

my man jason is still in the running towards being the one deanna chooses on the bachelorette! i predicted it back during the first episode and there is some definite chemistry going on there! he fessed up last night during their one-on-one date about having a son and deanna was so ok with it...so much so that she presented jason with a scroll stating that a star had been named for his son ty. it brought jason and deanna (ok, and me) to tears! keep being yourself jason...that's who she'll fall in love with!

and last but certainly not least...

introducing...the newest member of the d'angelo family...the sue d'angelo family that is...zoey! zoey joins wolf, sue, luis and dominic and is the sweetest dog you'll ever meet (ok, aside from all the current d'angelo dogs).


she' s a greyhound/dobie mix that sue rescued from the animal rescue league (i don't even know why pet stores exist - they should be outlawed)! congratulations and have fun with the new pupp!