wow

tony arrived home from florida safe and sound last night. wow...i didn't realize i missed him as much as i did until i saw his big, dark eyes looking up at me and hearing him say, "i missed you mama".

we didn't do much at all this weekend, and you know what...we loved it! we spent the rest of the weekend just enjoying our little family of 3 again.

following church, we came home, had lunch and just spent the day together. we watched a movie, watched some football, played domino's and with cars.

we had sword fights in the living room with a new light sabre from disney and an old light sabre from disney (one can never have too many)...

daddy & tony - sword fighting from Christy D'Angelo on Vimeo.

listen to that giggle...i could all day!

oh, and laughing...there was a lot of laughing going on...to the point of tears! especially after tony ran upstairs to use the potty and mama jumped up to grab the light sabre to "fight" against daddy...i'm not saying who won! it was a great day and i can't wait to have another weekend like this with my boys!

it's O-VAH!!!

from people magazine, october 15, 2009...

our long national nightmare is finally over. jon & kate plus 8, which in recent months had become just about as fun as reliving your parents' divorce, will stop filming new episodes next month, according to the new york post. after jon gosselin, 32, forbade tlc from filming his and 34-year-old estranged wife kate's eight children for their show, the network will try to squeeze out a couple remaining episodes from existing footage before putting the show to rest, according to sources. kate, who's previously said she relies on the show for her income, and who says the kids have been crying since the film crews left, hasn't commented. neither has jon, who said he put the kibosh on the show because had an epiphany about the harm the show was causing the family – and not because he'd been axed from a future version of the show to be called kate plus 8. it's not clear whether tlc would restart the show should jon change his mind about filming the kids.

sorry kidd-o's (as a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e as you are, with the exception of the one bitchy twin who acts just like her mother...monkey-see, monkey-do)...looks like mommy and daddy will have to get real jobs now!!!

(mostly) wordless wednesday

boy do i miss my little mouseketeer!!

overload.

now that i've completely overloaded your google readers with my catch-up updates, you're probably wondering how the heck i had all this time on my hands the past two days to spend on the blog...that would be because this little guy isn't here...

up, up and away...

yep - you looked right. that would be tony strapped into his southwest airlines seat headed to sunny florida this past saturday 10.10.09 with his mimi and poppop by his side.

my dad has a "family-friendly" work conference this week in orlando, and tony got to hitch a ride for all the fun. he's attended two cocktail parties and has a dinner party tomorrow night. here he is at tonight's cocktail party...the hosts of the conference even arranged for crafts for the kids to keep them entertained through the evening.

cocktail party crafts

the conference is being held at universal studios. they arrived in orlando and headed off to their first cocktail party before heading back to their portofino bay hotel (on property) to enjoy the pool. tony loved it...maybe also because it had a jumbo screen wall tv showing scooby-doo cartoons poolside.

they spent today (and will spend tomorrow) at sea world before heading over to check-in to their disney hotel at all-star sports on tuesday for the rest of the week. they'll be in the disney parks wednesday and friday with a trip to visit the berger's just outside of cocoa beach on thursday...heading home saturday!

to say he's having a good time would be an understatement...to say we don't miss him would be lying. it is so weird after almost 4 years of scheduling your life around someone, to be left to your own devices to go about your day as you wish. john and i spent a portion of this evening just staring at each other with that blank look like "what do we do now?"...and he's only been gone a little over 24-hours.

we did get to skype with him last night and see him for a little, and they are going to continue to send texts/text pictures and check-in through skype when they're able. he was in his swimsuit headed for the pool and looked waaaay older than he did when he left yesterday a.m.

i have a lot to do (surprising him with a new room upon his return), but again, would be lying if i said i didn't think saturday could get here soon enough.

summer (fun) - in - review (september)

september flew by in a blink. faster than the entire summer i think. one minute it was here...the next minute. gone-zo.

we camped 3 weekends in a row and i didn't take a single picture. our first of three weekends...it poured. second of three was bea-u-ti-ful. third...it poured. but you know what? we made the best of it and had a fun time anyway. we played card games and watched movies. took naps and played at the playground when it wasn't raining.

the brumbaugh's were there the first and third weekend and we have some guests the second.

our camping trips have ended for the year now and after a great season (we did more camping this year than any year in the past), we are so excited for next year.

even though we did so much camping, we still managed to be able to enjoy several other occasions such as my aunt's birthday, mom's birthday, and dad's birthday, corinne and dave's anniversary, and our god-son troy's birthday all on the same day! i forgot my camera for all of these events as well, but trust me...we all had a great time.

summer (fun) - in - review (august)

the beginning of august we celebrated harrison's 2nd birthday at my aunt's house in hershey. it was a fun day of swimming and relaxing in the sun. apparently i didn't have my camera at that event, so i will have to enjoy my sister's/mom's pictures and unfortunately, unless you're friends with my sister on facebook (yes, folks, my sister is now a facebook junkie -- actually worse than me!), you won't get to see them. sorry. bad kiki! next up...

deep creek lake, or bust! that's right folks, august brought vacation with the scollick-d'angelo family!! once again, john's mom and step-dad gary rented a house and boat at deep creek lake in western maryland for a week. it was 2 1/2 years ago that we did this, and this year was even better than that trip which i talked about here and here.

when we weren't boating, fishing and swimming in the lake, we were hanging out at the beautiful home, spending time with each other and just relaxing. we played wii, poker, had pleeeennnnnttttty of wine and margaritas...and the occasional mo-ji-to too! we stayed up late and slept in and plain just had a good time!

we all had so much fun in fact (as evidenced by the 150+ pictures i took which you can view here) that not even a week after returning from the trip, a different house (this one with a pool for some of us folks that are freaked out a bit by swimming in the lake) was booked along with a yellow pontoon boat for next year's trip...kathleen's crossing, watch out for the scollick-d'angelo family trip 2010!!

front of our home-sweet-home for the week

side deck overlooking the lake

tony, ready to head to the lake

what a ham!

daddy and his little buddy sportin' some shades

mommy and her little guy

not one's to stay at home for any period of time, the weekend immediately following our return from deep creek, we loaded up the camper and truck and headed to knoebel's for a long weekend with jack and sam for our annual trip!

despite the downpour of rain (which also seems to have become part of our annual trips) we all had a great time. my parents, and sister, dave and harry joined us for the day that friday (the worst rainy part of the weekend) and after a brief hour+-long downpour and waiting it out under some shelter, we enjoyed the rest of the day together.

tony on his "international harvester"

in line for his first roller-coaster!

tony ridin' rides with harry b!

tony and sam

tony and jack

i think jack and sam were pretty excited that tony can go on all of his rides alone now and they don't need to cram in kiddie-rides with their knees up to their eyeballs anymore! we are already excited about next year's trip...if jack & sam aren't done with it yet!! i didn't take a ton, but what pictures i did take, you can view here.

summer (fun) - in - review (july)

the beginning of july brought about more camping for the d's. we spent 4th of july weekend camping with the brumbaugh's and enjoying a reading phillies game. not too many camping pictures, but a few cute shots from the game can be seen here.

also in july was anthony's first year of vacation bible school (not the same bible school my friend luci refers to here). he spent the week with betty nana and attended at her church, st. benedict's in mohnton. he had a great time and although he spent much of the program not singing the songs...he definitely enjoyed it as he sings them for us all the time. here is one video that actually shows him singing and dancing...

tony - bible school from Christy D'Angelo on Vimeo.

the middle of july allowed for a night out for john and i with corinne and dave (thanks to mimi and poppop for watching both boys). we headed to philly for a little sushi and drinks mass quantities of sushi and wine at raw and then headed to walnut street theatre to see mel brooks' producer's. it was a great night and i can't wait until our next show with them the end of this month! here are a few pictures of our night.

one of the best pictures of john and i in years!

dave & corinne

the last bit of sushi and edamame left on the table

all 4 of us...stuffed and feeling good...ready for the show!

the end of july brought my sister and my "girl's get-away" weekend. we loaded up the convertible (thanks mom & dad) and cruised our way to delaware for a long weekend in dewey/rehoboth! this trip was a first for my sister and i as the two of us never went away together just us...it was a lot of fun. no husband, and no kids allowed us a lot of sleeping in, followed by a ton of time on the beach. yummy late dinners and boardwalk fun too. it was great and something we may need to turn into an annual trip!! there weren't many picture taken, but here were just a few.

on the beach @ dewey

following a delish dinner at la la land

headed to rehoboth on the jolly trolley

it was a lot of fun and the weekend (albeit a long one) was too short! thanks for a fun time corinne! can't wait to do it again!