Birthday Boys!

Will and Joe both celebrated their birthdays in February. Joe the BIG 3-0 and Will the BIG 0-2! Unfortunately, due to a bad bout with the flu, celebrations were delayed. Will had his "Mickey Birthday Party" a week late, but had a great time nonetheless. We can't believe our little guy is already 2. He's grown and changed so much and we love him dearly! What a wondrous, blessed, magical two years!!

Will helping Dad blow out his birthday candles.

Uncle Damon and Aunt Amy bought Will a flight jacket for his birthday. He's so excited to have one, "just like Uncle Damon's"!

The sick little birthday boy and his Mickey balloons.

Wearing his ears from Nan and Pap!

In his new tent from Mom and Dad.


Finally his party! With buddy Benjamin.

Will's cake (yep, I made it!).

The big event!

Ella bored by the whole ordeal.

Madeline cheesing it up!

The kiddos taking a whack at the pinata! Most of the grown-ups stayed upstairs away from the flying bats and candy!

Over it...

The snow that is. We have 30+ inches and we are all feeling like spring can't come soon enough! Friday into Saturday we got about 2 feet and lost our power at around 11 PM. We made it through the night with no heat, I got up every hour to check on the kiddos who never stirred, but by morning it was about 55 degrees in the house. Thankfully we have a wood burning stove in our basement that kept us toasty the following day. Saturday evening we packed up and went to my parent's house so we didn't have to try and keep the fire going all night. The power came on that night and we've been ok ever since!

The first foot. Joe gets the driveway clear the first time.


The morning after... Joe and the neighbors working on finding our cul-de-sac. Driveway clearing #2.

Will showing me his snowball.

Will and Mr. Kevin working hard! Yes, our cul-de-sac turned into a block party that afternoon... there was even beer. We have the best neighbors :-)

Will and Anthony building forts.

Silly kid.

So this week we got about 10 more inches of snow... driveway clearings #3, 4, and 5. Poor Joe.
Our poor little buried house.

Ella eating some!

Anthony and Maria came over today for a play date. They haven't had school all week and are going a bit stir crazy. We made play dough and Will and Ella loved the company!

Random fun...

So I got an email yesterday from Tim Malyszko that I think was a sneaky way of commenting that I hadn't updated the blog in a while ;-) So here are some new random pics of the munchkins from the last month or so.

Ella is loving eating table foods with her fingers. Here she is celebrating her sweet potatoes and lima beans.

Warning baby nakedness follows!!
Hanging out, post-bath in their Elmo towels, Christmas gifts from Grandmom and Grandpop.

Here are a few pictures of Ella's pretty curls.



Some love from Will. Will spends the majority of his days pushing Ella down, taking her toys, and then kissing her saying, "Will make Ella feel better." Ugh...

Ella and her bunny lovey.


Will and his "baketball ball" and "back-a-hoop" from Santa. I think I'll be really sad when he pronounces everything perfectly. The little mistakes are SO CUTE!


Happy now, Tim?? :-)

Snow Day

The last month we've had quite a bit of snow! We took advantage one day and took the kids out. Will only wanted to shovel and Ella wasn't sure what to do with any of it. She did like the sled, even though the pictures don't show it!

Getting ready to go out. Bundling up in Will's old snowsuit... gotta love hand-me-downs!

Everybody is ready and nobody can move because they are so stuffed into their coats and pants!

Seriously, can we just go outside already???

Woo hoo!

You mean you are going to push me down this hill on this piece of plastic??

"Will hoveling" as Will says.


Daddy's girl...

Snow baby.

Baby on the Move!

A picture of Ella walking with the play hamburger in her mouth. This is the Stewie look...



And a little video of her on the move!

Exciting News!

So Will said to me the other day, "Mommy, Ella walka walka." And, he was right! Ella is walking! At just a week before her 9 month mark she took about three steps unassisted and now is taking about 6 before she "ba booms!" as Will says. She grins like crazy when she's going on her own. My brother calls her Stewie from The Family Guy because she has this little evil genius look when she's getting into things. I will most certainly post a video soon!

Congrats to our little walker, Ella!

Santa... nice guy.

This is Will's favorite phrase as of late... and with good reason. We've had quite the Christmas season! Will has been obsessed with "Hanta Quas" (trans. Santa Claus) and Baby GeeGee (trans. Baby Jesus) since we started talking and reading about Christmas after Thanksgiving. I really didn't know how much he would understand this year, but he certainly got it, and was really excited for all of the events. We've been to numerous light-up nights, train shows, and Christmas celebrations. We went to Mass Christmas Eve in Connecticut at the high school auditorium where the kids of the parish do a Christmas pageant. Next year, they can eliminate the narrator because Will narrated the whole thing- "MARY! JOSEPH! BABY GEE GEE! SHEPHARDS! ANGELS!" During the Consecration, they rang bells and Will felt free to start singing Jingle Bells. People for about three rows around us couldn't keep their composure and burst out laughing.

Here are some pictures of our fun, blessed and beautiful extended holiday season!

Getting the tree! It was REALLY COLD, so we picked quickly...

It turns out to be a beauty!

Santa came to our house a little early as we were headed to Connecticut for the real deal. These are some pics of our "Christmas Eve" at home.
Will, getting rested up in his Elmo pj's.

Leaving cookies, carrots, and binkies for Santa.

Dad, putting things together after the kiddos went to bed. Christmas Eve was complete with a midnight run in the snow to the local convenience store for very expensive batteries... of course.

WHOA, Christmas morning.

Hmmm... not sure what's going on.

Christmas in Connecticut!


Will's workbench from Grandmom and Grandpop. Look out...


Christmas with the Antonetti's!
Reading with Uncle Damon.

Everybody's favorite noisy new toy, the ball popper from Nan and Pap.


Will's third Christmas dinner... chowing down.


Merry Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!