Fiat Christmas Letter 2008

Yes, I'm still working on my Christmas cards....here's the letter. Don't read it if you want to be surprised and read the actual paper. ;)

Fiat 2008

Twas the day before Christmas and time to stop stalling,
the annual holiday letter was calling
The kids were asleep or in front of the telly,
while I was at work, stuffing my belly.
The task set before me was daunting and great,
how to sum the year 2008?

With so much activity, and me getting senile,
I was beginning to think the attempt was quite futile.
Giuliana keeps growing – she’s in second grade,
And the house is packed full of art projects she’s made.
She plays rec league hoops with growing success,
though she skips down the court – our Italian Princess.

Angelo (Tré) is in preschool this year,
where he builds his friends airplanes – our young engineer.
He’s starting to read, and can count pretty high,
and he comes with a soundtrack of rockets that fly.

Ali, at two, is embracing her age,
where meltdowns meet giggles, and “No!” is all the rage.
She’s quite independent, our help is in vain.
But how we do wish that she would potty train.

There were Chiefs games, and basketball at WSU.
Wingnuts baseball, and Thunder hockey games, too.
Erin made it to Crop Camp and for business I traveled.
Though the annual road trip, our sanity unraveled.
I could say so much more, but I’ll spare you the rest.
Suffice it to say, we feel happy and blessed.

So in conclusion, as I finish this letter,
We hope you had a great year, and your next one is better!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
-Angelo, Erin, Giuliana, Tré & Ali

Tree trimming....

I can't believe how long it's been since I've had a case of bloggerrhea!
For those that didn't know, I had a hysterectomy on Dec 18. Life leading up to the point and life since, aren't back to normal yet. I hope to, in the new year, keep up with the blog better. :)
Here are some tree trimming pics.

Thanks to the Daddy person for taking most of the pics. :)

Something wierd going on with the photo post. If you want to see the whole picture, click on it. I'll see if it's something I can fix- they're all horizontal pics.

Happy Halloween :)

Photo op at the church party:

Lil' Punkins...

Edited in update: Apparently blogger is having a little image issue this evening.
pics are: http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee137/erinfiat/?action=view&current=Tre-Pumpkin.jpg
http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee137/erinfiat/?action=view&current=Ali-Pumpkin.jpg
http://s232.photobucket.com/albums/ee137/erinfiat/?action=view&current=pumpkins.jpg


Occasionally, we do really fun things during the day. Today, being Ali's Mom's Day Out day, gave me some morning free time. Hence, I was a little energized. :) So, Tre and I came home and did his pumpkin.When Al got home, I was feeling brave. For the record, the only place she used the Sharpie was her pumpkin. ;)

Ali thinks Tre's pumpkin is "too scarey!!!"

It's a new week...

Last week was "what else can break?" week. So far, this week is poor health week. Tre and I went to the doctor this morning. He has strep & has been miserable. I had no clue. I have bronchitis. No wonder I've been so worn out.

Ren Festival- 9/20

Another catch up post. The annual renessaince festival with Grandma. This year, Grandpa was in town and able to go too.

Ali was easy to feed- brisket and more brisket. Next year though, we take ketchup. The bigs were certain they just couldn't choke anything down without ketchup. Oh, well.


Each of the kids had a budget (great idea from the grandparents) and their own money envelope. So, if they wanted a ride, food, toys, etc, it came out of their envelope. G & Tre were both more than willing to shell out $5 for the bungee ride.

Ready...

Set...
GOOOOOO!

G's turn. :)Set, and very excited...

There she GOOOOOOEEEEESSSSS!

A little later on, Little Miss was redirected to the fairy wing store. She had lots to choose from and chose the purple ones. She also picked out a lovely wand to go with it as well.

Summer Flashback- Shop class with Grandpa

Those that know my dad, or my brother for that matter, know they have a certain affection for tools. Well, Tim's boys do too. In fact, they spend a lot of time in the garage building and learning with Grandpa.













After hearing about what the boys refer to as "shop class," they couldn't wait to get out there. My dad, being the ultra cool Grandpa, was more than happy to oblige. He tracked down plans on the net for a simple birdhouse.

Weston & Brandon, being experienced acted as the assistants and helped G, Tre & Lauren use the tools, etc.
















Giuliana, while having very girly coordination, did a great job. Dad was concerned about their clothes and had them wear his shirts over their own. Which, I think was also really really cool to G.
















No lack of focus here. He was so proud of all the hammering he did. Brandon even helped him practice pulling out nails he had hammered in.












Don't let this sweet smile fool you. She can so totally hold her own- those brothers of her's better not try pushing her around. Lauren was so much fun this year. She's really come out of her shell. Last year, I'm not sure I got any pictures of her smiling. She talked to us all- especially Tre (but she liked him last year too). The pictures don't do justice to their bright blue eyes either. All 3 of them have gorgeous eyes.

The Pumpkin Patch

Giuliana and I went on a field trip with Flower Girls to the pumpkin patch yesterday. It was rather windy, a little dusty, but so much fun.

The most amusement was watching them pick their pumpkins. G chose one she could barely lift. She had to roll it back to the flatbed.

They also got to feed the goats, llama and pony. The goats ate like pigs. If they weren't so fat, I'd wonder if they ever got fed. ;)

Poor, neglected middle child finally gets a birthday party

Only a month after his birthday. Oh, the excitement. You'd never have known by his excitement that it was delayed. He was over the moon excited.

He had picked out his Batman cake around his birthday.

We're talking some serious blue frosting.

They even made a banner. And, uhm, gave them sharpies to do it. I'm guessing whoever buys supplies doesn't have little kids.
Pedal to the metal!
Got cautioned for "bumping" other drivers. Aggressive driving, I think he's been riding with Daddy a little too much lately. ;)

Uh huh, oh YEAH!

For starters, we had Giuliana's parent teacher conference tonight. She is doing awesome in academics and classroom skill. We're very proud of all her effort.

Now, I get to be proud of me too. ;) Several hours & some superglue later (the kids broke a major part while I was building)...Behold, "it seemed like a good idea at the time...":

When we bought it, I had the idea that it would be kind of like legos. Then again, maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, this will be a special father-son bonding thing for future builds.

Miss Stephie

Ok, so I'm not sure what you elevate from sun rising & setting on face to- but Stephanie has again made Giuliana's day, week, year. ;)

She went and took her lunch at school today. Then, she came to visit me (ok, so the littles think she was here for them) and provide the pics. I so love this picture. I'm thinking it should be framed.

FDOS x 3

While the starts were staggered, I chose to combine them all for 1 post.

With 4 first days now under her belt, G's a professional. :) She was up, without an alarm. Ready, no feet dragging.

While they look happy here, they weren't as thrilled to have her gone all day. They missed her, lots. Not to mention, in Tre's world, it wasn't fair that she got to start before him.

The only consolation for him was that Ali didn't start until a week later than he did. Which, thanks to the storm last week, meant she started this week. Which also had to be discussed since she gets to have lunch at school. Now, that's ok because he gets to go 3 times a week and she only gets one. Uhm, no rivalry there.

I know, shocking choice of camo pants. Huge smile. Hardly said goodbye. He's in a class of all boys this year. Not originally intended by the school, just how it all shook out. Awesome teaching team. The lead was his teacher last year. We love her.

He found his hook with no issue. Funny side note- at Sunday school he likes them to call him Angelo. When Mrs. B asked him, he wanted to be Tre at school.

Another runner here. Seriously. She ran into her classroom. No need for coaxing. She had a blast and has decided she needs to use the potty at school. Teacher has asked me to send pull ups. Uhm, ok. I guess she is in fact going to potty train herself. :)

She was ofcourse not fighting nap as soon as we got home.

Riverfront Park, 7/9

Riverfront Park is always fun. However, for some strange reason, we decided on this day to walk back on the suspending bridges.

As you can see in the pic, it was no big deal for my mom & G. What you can't see is that heights don't much appeal to myself of my father. You also can't see that Angelo is either behind or beside me to make sure I make it across the bridge. And yes, on windy days, the bridge moves. Eek.

Need the slideshow code

Photobucket Album

Lake Fiat

Fixing pic links...Scratch that. I think blogger doesn't like the shockwave code (as evidenced by the other "need code" post). I'll figure things out later. Time to get back to organizing.

Rather than posting individual pics, I uploaded it all into a slide show. Being as we're doing a hundred other things right now, the pics aren't edited and I didn't worry about lighting.

While I've never seen so much water & was mildly concerned with our lack of flood insurance, I was blessed with God's peace. Our neighbors all banded together to triage water damage. Cindy's seemed to be hit the worst, so we started over there. Katelyn, the awesome neighbor girl came over to watch the littles (G was still at school)- so yeah, I scored a new babysitter our of it all as well. People just kept showing up. It started with Cindy's pastors & Angelo, then Ryan from across the street...then Ron & Shelley got home. Then people started coming from down the street. (The other side of the street doesn't have the drainage issue we do.) What a way to get to know the neighbors. :) I'm quite thankful to say we had minimal damage. Giuliana's room had the most moisture. Toby (my small group leader) showed up with Candace's dehumidifier & fan, completely ready to step in and help. Talk about blessed. (More below the slideshow.) Edited in: if it takes forever to load, just click on the "view all images" button and it will take you directly to the photo host site. Or, if you don't see the buttons, click



Later in the day, our other neighbor got a load of sand (their basement is unfinished- hence not as big a priority). Angelo had just showered. But, we both felt that conviction to just get out there and help. So, off he went to shovel. I was on the phone with Candace, updating her. She asked how much longer I thought they'd be at shoveling (little did I know, Richard was tying his shoes to head on over and help). "Uhm, I dunno....WAIT, you won't believe this, a large group just showed up." Yep, in total Vineyard-esque fashion, a group showed up with sand bags, shovels and a cooler full of beverages. They gently pushed Brian & Angelo aside and started shoveling. That pile of sand was gone in minutes. This group had been going up and down the street just helping anyone that needed it. I really wish I'd gone out with my camera...

Yes, I took pictures...

We're all good. Thanks to those that prayed, helped, etc. God is good. While we saw more water come down than I've ever seen, we also saw a lot of other cool things. Neighbors pretty much came out of the woodwork. We all worked together sandbagging, sucking up water and laughing hysterically.

My computer is somewhere...in pieces. This laptop might slow down even more if I try to upload pics. We'll see. We're going to do some more clean up and moving stuff around. Just wanted all y'all to know we're ok. If you want to see area pics, go to www.kansas.com :)

Lost something...

She came home wiggling...

Then, while she was playing Webkinz, it just came out. :) We took the picture with my camera phone so it could be messaged to Daddy.

He's Finally 5!

He's finally 5! It's so funny to look at his personality now, compared with when he was less than 24 hours old. When he was first born, I had to pretty well convince him that eating was a good idea. Totally laid back baby. I know, what happened. ;)

He's really excited that not only is it his birthday, but Cubbies starts tonight. Cake, presents & Cubbies!

In mere moments, he'll be opening his Hot Wheels Race Track & accessories!

Tre's skin...

Pick up your jaw, this is an actual current post, not a catch up!

Remember "Strep Boy?" Even with the blood work that was done at the time, I'm pretty sure (after a visit to the dermatologist this morning) that our diagnosis was wrong.

In July, he broke out with these blistery things on his legs. There is still evidence of them. We thought maybe they were bites. We were at my parents and there was all sorts of things for him to get into. So recently, he broke out again. He had no symptoms, just these water blisters on his foot. I was just keeping an eye on them and mentioned them to the dermatologist this morning when we went to follow up on his excema. It's apparently a really common childhood virus: molluscum contagiosum. I elected not to treat it unless it starts to bother him or spreads.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/molluscum/index.htm

7/4, Travel Day, Must Cache along the way.

When we originally logged this cache (taking a picture with the GPS & Snoopy), PrincessFlower didn't have her own account yet. How could we not stop in the pass this time through. Being as Angelo has the memory of an elephant, he remembered where it was. I, on the other hand, have had 3 children and lack the capacity to remember such things.

I never knew this was here. This is in Cheney, home of Eastern Washington University. It's a monument for The Battle of Four Lakes. Apparently, caching can be educational. ;)

7/4, morning, Little Farmer Fiats

We've talked about the people that make Tery's house so great. Well, we haven't talked about the 4 legged varieties. Meet, The Boys. There are 6 of them, yummy, Angus cows.

Farmer G was pretty sure they needed more food. Seriously, look at how low the hay is in the feeding trough! ;) She was dedicated and took her job seriously. Even at one point trying to hide the grain with hay so they'd have a surprise at the end of their meal. Uhm, cows aren't that smart.

Thankfully, Tery guided Ali. Otherwise, I'm not sure where the grain mixture would have gone. My mind just won't commit to thinking like a 2 year old this morning. She was however quite tickled to be wearing her patriotic doggy shirt and new skort.

Again, my little farmer, intent on his job. He didn't much care for all the flies that hung around the cows.

Homework Procrastination

I have homework. It's for a class I'm taking in the evenings this week. I know I should be working on it. I'm kind of blocked. I need to do a question tree & a lesson/session plan. The question tree example was for a teenager and Friday night. Total conversation in Leave it to Beaver world. I hate to admit, I laughed. Definately not a typical conversation I'd expect between a teen and their parent.

So, here I sit, blogging.

Tre brought his GeoTrax airport over a few feet from my desk and is practicing landing. I'd really appreciate a volume switch on it about now. Weekend before last, we did a major re-org of the kids' rooms. They've found toys they forget they had. Nice.

"Lookit Mommy! The plane's flying backwards."

On that note, I have my last Idaho post to do (editing the pics down first). Then, homework, then work. My day is about to be nonstop until about 9 this evening.

7/3, again, Splash pad with Jennifer & Tami

Angelo went hiking at Tablerock. He was really sweaty when I picked him up after 5+ hours in the heat. Gave me plenty of time to catch up with my friends and their kids- hence 2 playdates in one afternoon. Poor Devin came along with the thought that Angelo would be there too. It was nice to have an extra parent there, especially when it came to the time for a picture with all the mommies.

When we moved, Settlers wasn't quite done. The play structure was, but the splash pad and sound garden weren't. Way cool!

Tami had the great idea to meet here. Jenn had the awesome umbrella- seriously huge & rainbow colored. Perfect for a park young enough not to have much shade yet.

These buckets took what seemed like forever to fill. So they'd stand and wait, and wait some more. Then, they'd give up, go to the other side & come back to get splashed on. :)







But when they did come down, lots 'o water.


In this next one is Jennifer's daughter, Alex. She and G are pretty close to the same age (Jenn & I met on a pregnancy & parenting board).

Here's the herd. Jenn's girls, the two beautiful blondes on the left. Tami brought an extra, hence the little guy in the middle. He is her nephew. Mason and Jackson have grown a ton! But, I didn't see them last year, so this is 2 years of growth. Her newest addition is Olivia. Adorable! Not quite 2 yet in this picture. Devin and I were both taking pictures at the same time (hence some of them are looking to my right).

Another 7/3, Piglets & Puplets Reunion

Ok, so maybe I'm a little beside myself to have yet another out of order post. Uhm, yeah....I'm just not gonna go there with any lame excuses.

To answer what might be your first question- Piglets & Puplets stems from nicknames that came about when the daddies (long before children) met while playing an online strategy game.

Leave it to them to have the coolest backyard entertainment. What the kids are sliding on is a huge inflatable slide/wading pool. It was later in the evening (after dinner), the water was cold & the giggles were much. Also, not surprising, nobody really wanted to be done- blue lips be darned.

We all know how good Tre is at immediately honing into something potentially obnoxious to torment his sister. Remember how I said the water was cold? Yeah. The water pressure was enough that when it sprays say, into an ear, it's painful. So, we banished the playing with the sprayers idea.

Van & G again. They picked up like we'd never moved. It seems not that far off from when I held Van while pregnant with G (with her kicking up a storm any time I'd hold him).
Here's the crew, minus one sleeping Meg. Meg & Ben had quite the time when they were supposed to be napping earlier in the day. Meg finally went to sleep shortly before we got there and slept the whole time- regardless of how much noise the kids made. For the record, Ali, "was NOT tired." I know, real believable by those eyes. She was just sure the beach towel was a blanket and nobody was going to take it away from her. With how much they are all growing, I don't know that we'll be able to take our annual picture on the coach again next year. ;)