Thanksgiving - Take 2

We were down to my parent's this past week for Thanksgiving numero 2 and had a great time. My family made two turkeys (one fried and one baked) for the 17 dinner guests. Sofia's nap fell during the lunch/dinner, but she woke up just in time for dessert! We didn't dare brave the stores on Black Friday and stayed inside ALL day sitting by the fire, eating leftovers and watching Sofia run around like a crazy girl.

On another note, with all the rest and relaxation, I was able to finish the 3rd book in Stephanie Meyer's Twilight saga and immediately started re-reading it because I loved it so much! Honestly, they keep getting better and better! 2010 couldn't come soon enough for the next film to be out in theatres!

Hanging out with Zio Antonio Thanksgiving Eve


Anthony and Antonio "helping" my mom slice potatoes


My cousin Daniela with my god-daughter Grace


Playing with the Thanksgiving balloon from Zio Scott & Chaela

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our little girl

Bathing Cutey

I could not resist posting this picture of Sofia. We were playing in the bathtub and when I brought out the camera she put this face on. How cute!!!

Organizing your wires - the results!

This is a guest post from Anthony.

Last week, I posted about how I wanted to organize the wires under our desk. Well, I got a chance to do it over the weekend and I am really happy with the results.
I was able to move a couple of things around and get a better use of the space in our office as well. The whole process took a little longer than I would have liked, about 5 hours, but some of the time was wasted since I had to change ideas about an hour in.

Here are the results:

The router and modems (phone and cable) now attached to the desk



Look ma, no wires!



To accomplish this, I basically created a guide rail for the cables along the back of the desk. I was then able to group the wires using cable ties and lay them in the guide rail. It was also pretty easy to add a new cable (since I forgot about our printer until I was finished). I just laid the cables into the guide rail, plugged them in and it was done.

Next stop, the garage...

Twilighting

I had the pleasure of seeing Twilight with my sister-in-law this afternoon and I was not disappointed. I literally could not put the book down and read it in a whopping 6 hours, completely neglecting sleep, but it was well worth it. The movie was enjoyable, the actors did a good job of portraying Stephanie Meyer's characters and being the hopeless romantic that I am, the storyline was all I could hope for. I'm definitely looking forward to reading her other books and most likely losing more sleep because I won't be able to tear my eyes away.

Playing in the leaves

Sofia and I went to visit my family for a couple of days, my family got in some good Sofia-time and I was able to relax and get caught up on my Christmas shopping. I am almost finished - Yay!

Despite the freezing temps, on and off flurrying, Sofia played outside in the leaves with my family and had a great time. The pictures aren't great and don't show how much fun she actually had outside throwing leaves around.

Happy Love Thursday!

So, a lot of blogs participate in 'Love Thursday' in which they feature anything and everything that they feel embodies the word 'love.' I have always enjoyed their posts and feel ready to include myself in the mix. We'll see how it goes.

Some graffiti heART on the side of a house in Italy


More graffiti art in Mesagne's villa - I thought my sister-in-law would appreciate it!

Thanksgiving - Take 1

We alternate Thanksgiving each year between our families and since this year we will be down in MD with my family, we decided to have an early Thanksgiving dinner with Anthony's family. I don't think I'm going to need to eat for at least another day since there was food galore! My mother-in-law makes her traditional holiday soup (wedding soup) and then there was the 18lb. turkey with all the trimmings - mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, peas, corns, etc. I made my very first Pumpkin Pie for dessert and while I'm not a huge fan of that type of pie, everyone else said it was yummy. That, or they were just trying to make me feel good!


Carving the "gobble, gobble" as Sofia lovingly calls the turkey


Ready to mangia!


Mommy and Sofia


Paola, Mom and Simon (38 weeks down, 2 to go!)


This was my favorite out of the few pictures I took...the heart on the suitcase is perfect!

Sofia Bella

She's just too cute for words. I do apologize for her eating and talking at the same time, obviously we need to start teaching her table manners!

Ham - just in time for the holidays!

Whenever I get the camera out these days, Sofia is pretty much saying "cheese" and doing something silly for me. She was playing with her "jewelry" and completely hamming it up that I couldn't resist posting these few shots. Enjoy!

Attack of the daddy tickle monster

The Runaway Bunny

We are big fans of the children's author, Margaret Wise Brown and own several of her books for Sofia. Lately, Sofia keeps pulling out The Runaway Bunny for us to read to her and yesterday I walked into the room to her leafing through it all by herself. She had been saying "hoppy" for rabbit or bunny, but because of this book she is now saying "bunny" since it's used often throughout the book.

I hope she always enjoys books as much as she has the past 19 months!

Organizing your wires

This is a guest post from Anthony

We have a lot of wires behind our TV. In a typical household you may have a cable box and a DVD player and if you included the power cables that is pretty manageable. But when you a couple of video game consoles, a receiver and the HD cables things can get pretty messy. Same thing goes for our computer desk. It is a knot of wires.

So, a couple weeks ago I took some time to reorganize the wires that come out of our TV stand. Sofia has been getting curious back there and I thought it was a good time to redo them. The project took a little bit of time but it was fun and the end result was pretty satisfying. Here is a pic:



My next project will be the wires under the computer. I did some research and found a couple of examples of other peoples attempts at cleaning up.
There is a great blog post about it here. Some of the examples are pretty impressive and inventive and I will draw some inspiration from them. I will keep you posted with the outcome.

Here is what it looks like now:

Homemade Playdough

This morning was Sofia's last class at the library and today we got to make our own playdough!!! While she was not at all interested in following instructions (tsk, tsk), she enjoyed playing with the measuring cups and wooden spoon while I tried to memorize the recipe for some free and easy fun at home.

Ingredients:

1 cup four
1/2 cup salt
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup warm water
5-7 drops food coloring (optional)

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients with oil. Add food coloring to water and mix together. Add water to flour/salt/oil mixture slowly and mix together with a spoon. Once all the water has been added to the mixture, knead the dough with your hands. You may need to add more water or flour to get to the consistency that you would like. Store in airtight container or plastic bag and will last you about a week.

There you have it! Super easy, fun AND will wash out of clothes, hair and carpeting!

Italy anyone?

It's been awhile since I posted pictures from our Italy trip and we still have a few more days left of our summer vacation. These are just a random grouping of other incredible moments of our two nights spent in Alba Adriatica. Our second night there Anthony's good friend Leandro and his fiance Alessandra came to visit and we spent a few hours eating good pizza, catching up and watching Sofia run around like crazy on the balcony. The morning that we left to head back to Garrano we took a long walk up and down lungomare basking in the warmth of the sun and soaking up our last moments at the beach.


Anthony hanging out on the balcony of their apartment at the beach


Childhood friends, Anthony and Leandro


Helping Daddy play cards against Zio Leandro


Teaching Sofia things that really matter - the importance of choosing the right flavor of gelato



Nothing beats a good cappuccino first thing in the morning


Wouldn't it be nice to be sitting here right about now?

We hope Sofia makes a great big sister...

because we're having a baby! I'm waiting to confirm the due date based on the ultrasound we had on Friday, but right now we're looking at May 23, 2009. I still can't believe it but my growing belly, nauseous stomach and hormonal attitude is a nice reminder. Here's to a happy and healthy pregnancy!!!

This is the book we bought for Sofia and a fun way to let our families know



Our little bean


12 weeks pregnant and already with a little bump...me, not Anthony

Weekend trip to Maryland

We spent the past weekend with my family in MD and had a great time. There was a lot of eating, hanging out and relaxing and of course, marveling over how fun Sofia is. I feel like I've said this at every stage, but this is really such a fun age when she's figuring out more each day and getting her hands into EVERYTHING. My family had a great time playing with her, reading books together, spending time outdoors and watching her run around like a crazy little 19-month-old.


She is so cute in her little pigtails


I couldn't get enough of the hair!


Playing outside with Zio Antonio


Halloween II in MD

A trip down memory lane 2...

Here is the first one

My nonna with Antonio



This is a picture of me when I was young...who do I look like?



My brother Scott and I



Cute little Antonio

My little ballerina in the making

Our little girl LOVES music and dancing!

Taking it easy

We had a couple gray days this week and took advantage of lounging around the house a couple afternoons and taking it easy. After busy mornings of activities and errands, it was a nice change of pace to just lay back and relax. I think Sofia enjoyed herself!