Welcome to Kansas...

We had our first tornado warning last night. Yippee! Oh the excitement. Thankfully the storm missed us. Nearby areas did get 1 inch hail. It was enough to motivate Angelo to clean out the garage today. Yes, we still had the cardboard from the swingset/play structure. So, he's off recycling. He's also fetching gatorade for Giuliana. She woke me up around 4:30 (ok, so I was already awake, feeding Ali) to let me know she was puking. Poor Baby Puppy. She had to have a bath (aka a trip through the washer).


Yesterday, before any signs of sickness (seriously, I took her temp and everything), we met some friends at the zoo. Here's all 4 older ones standing on a rock in the "African Farm" area. The kids of course had a blast and loved having friends to run off with. The youngest 2 were both on the mommies' backs and thus not in any pics this time. It was cute though, if Ali wasn't yelling at her siblings, she was trying to talk to Simon while he danced in the sling on his mama's back. Tre was rather unhappy with the friendly sheep who hoped we'd feed them in the petting area. We're talking meltdown... "I don't wike sheep!!! I don't wike SHEEP!!!!"

Angelo surprised me for my birthday with the Cricut electronic die-cutter for my birthday. Giuliana is in hog heaven and hopes I'll keep practicing. The little artist loves that she gets the practice cuts to add to her collages. It's definately motivated me to finish organizing my desk area so I can scrap/card make. I'm a year behind...

Anyway, we're housebound for the day with pukey. I'm hoping it stays contained and doesn't move onto a new family member. Ali, Tre and I are still fighting the respiratory bug.

Please pardon the formatting. For some reason, it won't space between paragraphs...I've edited twice at this point. Now it's choosing which ones to space...oh well, you get the point. ;)

She's 1!!!

Today is Ali's first birthday! :) It appears she is celebrating by cutting more teeth. I kid you not, it looks like she is due to cut 4+ teeth. She's sleeping right now- much needed nap.

Giuliana is tickled that it's Sissy's birthday. She's been squeaking out "Happy Birthday" all morning. Ali's not sure what birthday means, but she's pretty sure it's good (as indicated by the giggling).

Tre doesn't care that it's birthday day. Surprisingly, he's said as much. I'm sure he'll like it when the cupcakes come out.

Making it to their next birthdays?

Yesterday, I was wondering if Tre would make it to 4. See, he decided yet again to play with toilet paper and the toilet. I'm sitting here, relaxing while he's supposed to be down for his nap. It was his 2nd potty trip, but hey, he's potty training. Then the screaming started "a mess, a mess MAMA!!!!" I thought perhaps he had plugged the sink and it was overflowing (it's another one of his tricks). Uhm, no. It sounded like the faucet on full, but it was the toilet...overflowing. As I grasped the full extent of the situation, it occurred to me that we have a water manifold here. Ran in, ofcourse dropped the tool to turn off the valve. Figured out that the toilets are all at the bottom. Went back to survey the damage- at least an inch of standing water. Oh, crap. Grabbed towels. Thought I had at least stopped the river. Again, uhm, no. It was going under the walls into each of the storage rooms- the big one with the hvac system and under the stairs. Talk about a mess. He redeemed himself this morning. Woke up jolly. Went upstairs for a granola bar and ofcourse brought one down for sissy too. He has such a cool concept of sharing and serving.

On to Ali...if tomorrow wasn't her birthday, I wouldn't be so sure. After a night of games, one of which included snapping Daddy's waistband and screaming if she was moved away, she got up at 6:30. This from the child who usually is much closer to 8, 7:45 at the earliest. Ofcourse, she was back down for a nap at 8:30. Good thing she's so cute.

Giuliana is just plain Giuliana today. :) She's pretty squirelly still over not being outside. It was way too rainy today. She was jonesing for hot chocolate today.

Alright, dinner's ready.

To those I promised pictures...I'm workin' on it. I'll try to get to it later tonight. :)

At long last...

Here it is. The Fiat kids' blog. I thought it might be a fun way to keep in touch with everyone.

So here's the brief synopsis for today...

Giuliana, miss social, worked on her Valentines for school today. She has a flaky mommy who forgot they were supposed to be at school today (the party is Friday). I was quite proud of her. She really hunkered down from the git-go and got-r-did. ;) I did notice she got pretty bored with the task though. She started to get silly and come up with different ways to label her list, etc. Her couture du'jour is black velvet pants, t-shirt from a bike race we did and boots. Yes, I completely let her dress herself- I only draw lines when it comes to inappropriate for weather, etc.

Tre is on a hunger strike at the moment. Apparently the mac and cheese he asked for for lunch today wasn't the mac and cheese I made. Right now, he's watching "The Toy that Saved Christmas." He has quite the repertoire for favorite videos. Earlier, it was the Bella Dancerella video. He has taken over my chair and is pretty certain it is his. Each time he walks by Ali, she giggles. :) I love that...

Ali is standing, talking to the Veggie Tales movie. She's in baby jail- too much stuff out right now that wouldn't be so good for her to get into. Once Tre goes down for nap, maybe I can get a little bit done. She doesn't look like she slept long enough for her mid morning nap. My guess is I'll get a good PM nap from her.

That's it for now. :)