At year's end...

So many memories to look back from 2012.  Too many to list so I put together some collages of some of my favorite images from the past year. Good times with family and friends, trips, birthdays and just some random shots from day-to-day life in the Palumbi home.

2012 was quite the emotional roller coaster for our families too as we said goodbye to the girls' great-parents. We are fortunate for the time we shared with them, they saw our daughters grow and we are so thankful that they were a part of their lives. With death comes life too and we welcomed so many babies into our lives this year too. Between my cousin, Anthony's sister and many friends, we have many milestones to share with these precious little babies.

Holidays, birthdays and day trips...oh my!

Milestones reached - Sofia has her last day of preschool, we celebrate my sister-in-law's 30th and our good friend Leandro made a surprise visit to the USA.

Italy is always a special time for us and deserves way more than just 2 collages, but there are just too many pictures to share. Some of our highlights...being in Mesagne with my whole family and spending one last summer with Nonna Linda top our list of most memorable moments this summer.

Forever blessed to call Italy our second home.

Great time with family and friends, the girls meet Thomas the Train, I am honored to have been asked to be godmother to my cousin's son, Sofia donates 10 inches of hair and the girls helped me decorate my birthday cake. A little bit of this and a whole lot of that...

Anthony ran his first race, the girls both began school which meant mommy had some time to herself - practically unheard of!, we celebrated a good friend of the family's 90th birthday, Zio Antonio turns 17 and gets his license! and it was time for pumpkin picking again!

Trick-or-treating, Thanksgiving, our annual trip to New York City, we had 2 Christmas concerts to enjoy this year both of which brought together both sets of grandparents, Daddy turns 35 - I mean 25 and of course the Christmas festivities. One memory after another and thankful to have captured them all.

So much to look forward to and that I want to accomplish in 2013. But for tonight, just focusing on my family and the year we've had is all I really need to do.

To a hopeful, happy and healthy 2013! Buon Anno!

Sofia's Christmas Program

I wanted to put the couple pictures I took of Sofia's School Christmas Program on here before I forgot. It was AMAZING! Each class performed and they were all so adorable but seriously could not take my eyes off my big girl when the Kindergartners came out. She was front and center and just looked so happy. Olivia sat so patiently during each performance and clapped when she saw Sofia. It about made my heart melt.

Thankful to have had our parents there with us too. Sofia was excited to have both sets of nonni there, Olivia was excited about the candy cane she got at the end.

They had SNOW much fun!

It literally took us a bit to bundle them up all the while they're just itching to get outside and not understanding that I wanted to make sure they were warm. BUT once they were bundled and ready to go you couldn't have found to happier little girls. They "helped" Daddy clean off the driveway and cars and then built 2 snowmen.

My 3 kids! Love them so much.

Christmas Day with the Pitocco's

After opening presents from Santa at our home in the morning followed by a breakfast of champions - m&ms and chocolate milk, we got in the car headed for Maryland for the next couple days. It was SO nice!

Arrived to open presents with my family, a delicious 2 hour lunch with everyone including great friends of the family and cousins and aunt. Girls happily put on Christmas dresses, played with their new toys and ate way too much sugar.

Olivia and Chase both missed their naps that day but both were rock stars. Sofia is always ready for the funny face picture, Chase is totally on top of it smiling for the camera and Olivia is completely zoned out.

Zio Toe-Toe. Yes, Toe-Toe is what Chase is calling Zio Antonio. And I'm totally encouraging it too!

How can you not love them? Baby numero 2 will be here before we know it!!! Can't wait to meet the new little man.

Chase is going to be an awesome big brother. Scott will make sure of that seeing how he is a pretty awesome brother himself.

Most family and friends have left, the house is quiet and the dishes are getting done. Girls sit down with friends to put on the finishing touches to the gingerbread house cousins brought for them to do. They loved it!

The next couple days were filled with sitting around the fireplace, taking the girls to see the Lights on the Bay, playing with new toys, visiting good friends, eating and more eating. It was perfect. Oh and Anthony and I made it to 2 movies! That is pretty much a record for us lately considering we get to the movies every couple of months, but 2 in one week!? That's unheard of! But we loved it.

Time for one more Christmas picture before we pack the tree up, store the Christmas pjs and bask in the memories of another great holiday come and gone.

Christmas Eve with The Palumbi's

Christmas Eve is spent each year with Anthony's family. We go to mass and then head over to his mom's where we eat, eat and eat some more. Glad I got a picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses, seriously they are adorable. They were great during mass and then just hyper for the next 48 hours. Can't blame them though, all the anticipation leads up to the one evening and morning and add a few dozen cookies, cakes and anything else sugary and you're bound to wind up super hyped up.

Christmas cuginis

Dressed down but still cute in their Christmas pjs.

Home to place out cookies and milk for santa and throw out the reindeer food on the front lawn. Not surprisingly, they were asleep in no time Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Much to be thankful for this Christmas. But most of all for our family for without these two little sweethearts Anthony and I couldn't call ourselves Mommy or Daddy. We are so very blessed and happy.

Of course no photo opportunity is complete without the funny face picture!

Hot Chocolate Tea Party!

Another Advent calendar activity from last week...a hot chocolate tea party! With homemade chocolate chip cookies. The cookies didn't last too long in our home. We have a lot of sweet teeth over here!

Olivia Maria - prima ballerina

With so much going on in the last few weeks, I have not been posting as often as I would like about all the awesome things going on around our home. I'm going to try and remedy that with a couple posts when I can today and tomorrow before I won't be on the computer for a few days for Christmas.

2 weeks ago we had Olivia's last day of ballet until the New Year and the parents were allowed to come in to watch and clap along to all they have been learning. Saying it was cute is a major understatement.

Waiting patiently for her turn...

I took a video of her and then snapped a picture of this last move but for some reason I am having difficultly uploading the video. Maybe I will get around to looking into it and posting it. It was adorable! 

Like her big sister, she's a natural at ballet. My little cutie-pie holding her instructor's hand and looking ever so dainty. 

Prima Ballerina!

Making sure I take a picture of her perfect arabesque. 

Happy Birthday amore mio

Today is Anthony's birthday and we celebrated by having both of our families together, minus Antonio since he was working - we missed you! Some food, some gifts and good times all around just by being together. Happy Birthday my love!

More pictures to come...

Christmas trip to the Big Apple

Yesterday we spent the entire day together as a family basking in an annual tradition of visiting New York City during the month of December to take in the Christmas hoopla. Usually my brothers come with us but this year both had to back out. While sad that our tradition going with them didn't happen this year, we still went and had a really great day.

Plenty of Christmas things to see and do...

The city was a lot less crowded this year and it was strange to have room around us during our annual family picture at Rockefeller Plaza.

Love me some Sofia Vincenza

My parents gave the girls some spending money for the day and they were excited to pick something out in the Disney Store in Times Square. They were awesome about picking out one thing for themselves and getting in line to pay.

Can never go wrong with the roasted nuts found on every other street corner.

Of course she had to have her picture taken with this guy.

Freedom Tower on our drive down to Little Italy.

How excited was she to find a restaurant named after her? The doorman gave her a business card and she was all smiles!

So glad to have continued with our tradition and we had a really great day. While I love going with my brothers too, it was nice to just have a family day and really enjoy one another and doing something that we all love to do.