So much to say...

I have composed this post several times in my head as there have been so many exciting things happen in such a short time.

Backyard Play Area:
It all started 2 weeks ago when Mario and I completed the play area in our backyard by shoveling and wheelbarrowing 5 yards of mulch to our backyard along with 1 ton of sand for the sandbox. (Wed April 1st) I hosted the rosary group among our friends here and some of the kids were able to enjoy that new playground. (Thurs April 2nd)

This is what the back corner used to look like (well, it was even worse and overgrown..all woodsy... the fresh new grass was what we had grown on our own last fall.)
The completed play area.
It's really nice having the sand box.

Retaining Wall:
We decided to build a retaining wall on the left front side of our house to help level and balance it with the right. We went with a dry stack method using natural fieldstone. We started with a bit of prep-work on Friday April 3rd. Saturday we continued to work on the wall. Sheila had a growth spurt and needed more milk, so when I wasn't hauling stone or nursing, I was eating and drinking as much as possible to feed her demands. The kids were actually really great in letting us get half the wall finished. That night we went to a small birthday party.

The kids helped outside sometimes, but also entertained each other well inside.


Joey is toilet trained:
I was determined to begin an official "3 day potty training" of Joey on Monday April 6th. So, despite our landscape being unfinished, I went ahead with my plan. I was completely amazed by Joey's success. Mario was skeptical of the plan and was not pleased with a half-naked Joey walking around for 3 days straight. However, he has agreed he cannot complain as it worked.

Sheila likes naps and can roll over:
Sheila and I have this agreement that she can sleep/eat/play whenever she wants as long as she is content. As a result, I just hadn't been keeping track of a schedule for her. So, starting with Joey's potty training on Monday, I thought I'd actually put her to sleep in a crib rather than let her nap wherever she happened to be. And it worked. I'm glad she can sleep just about anywhere, but happy to see she can also nap on her own in a crib. And Thursday night (April 9th) she decided to roll over. Sure, this is our 3rd baby to accomplish this, but it is still just as exciting.

MJ's bike without training wheels:
My original compositions of this email left it that MJ was just beginning to try to ride without training wheels. But Friday April 10th, I was able to watch Tony and Xavier while their new brother was being born. It was a beautiful day and MJ and Tony were out riding bikes with some neighborhood kids while the 3 little ones were napping. All of the sudden, MJ realized Tony was riding his bike without training wheels and he simply had to be able to do it as well immediately. So with a little bit of help, and a lot of determination I let go and he kept going! It was really great. That night, Mario worked with MJ even more and he continues to get more confident.

Sheila's 4 month check up:
This could have a post of it's own, but I learned she is healthy and doing well. I also took all 5 kids (mine plus the 2 I was watching) to this appointment. It was long, but the kids all did really well.

This doesn't exactly fit, nor is it a great picture of them, but I think Joey and Sheila look a lot a like.

A lesson that people are more important than things:
We captured all of these events on our camera of course, but Saturday morning, I realized that I lost my camera. (I am really good at this it seems). It was very painful to lose all those pictures and not have a camera for Easter, but it was also a great lesson for me to realize that people are more important than things. Plus, I will have to be much more careful with our next camera.

Not our Easter outfits...actually taken on Palm Sunday.

Easter:
I'll have to borrow some pictures from the Suarez family, but we had a fabulous Easter at Tabitha and Babu's house (the last huge party they will probably host at their current home as they are about to close on their new home later this week).

Catching Up

Things have been busy and fun lately. Last week the kids and I went to Manassas to check out some stone to build a retaining wall... since we were so close to the Kaza's we stopped by to hang out, and then returned with Tommy and Peter to spend the night. We were very happy to have them visit (as usual). Tabitha may not believe me, but it really makes my life easier to have the kids entertained.

Joey seemed to miss Catherine, but I think he still had a great time.


Sheila was super entertained by everyone.
We spent a good part of Saturday trying to nail down some landscaping plans. Joey thought he'd help out with a chainsaw. Hopefully the front of our house won't look like this by next Sunday. Saturday afternoon we put crown molding up in Mario's office and the boys' room, and will need to get more to do our room and the basement. Mario is getting very good at this crown molding stuff...anyone need any work done?
Sunday we had a quick party since Uncle Bob, Aunt Loli & crew were in town. We were very happy that the Kazas and Tompkins could come over as well. (Especially since they brought delicious food). The day started off kind of overcast, but ended up being an absolutely beautiful afternoon (until a super cold wind blew in a storm by late afternoon...gotta love spring in VA).

All the kids still love Aunt Mary and Uncle Ryan. Sheila's trying to get close to her newest cousin.
We took advantage of our guests to move this once garden "dirt box" into it's new location in our play area. We'll be getting the mulch and sand this week. SO much going on! Joey was very happy that Catherine came to play on Sunday.
A candid shot of some of the group.

Sunday afternoon was very quiet after our guests left. Mario was a little bored I think. When's the next party?!?!

Crown molding and cute kids

We had a busy weekend as we got more of our crown molding up - the first floor is all up but still needs to be caulked and painted. It was a bit more slow going than we had hoped as the beautiful weekend distracted us a bit. Plus, the nail gun is a little noisy - but Sheila and Joey managed to nap through it. We also shopped for landscaping supplies which we'll probably start next weekend if the weather is nice. And we finally sanded down one of our chairs and painted it darker. We think it looks alright, so I'll be doing the rest soon. Pictures of the finished product will definitely be posted. Poor Sheila still has her cough (and Joey does a little too). It's sad how sometimes the littlest colds take a long time for the little kids to get over. Still, I managed to escape for a little fun Sunday night to celebrate with Tara who is about to have baby #3. We are all very excited to meet this cute baby boy... but I forgot my camera.

Sheila is really starting to take in so much of the world now, and I think she's also realized that her arms belong to her and she has more control of them. Her brothers provide constant entertainment for her. This morning they were practically fighting over who could be closer to her and make her laugh.

MJ is quite the builder and has impressed us with some great K'nex creations. This is a recreation of the box to the movie WALL-E. In front are Eve & Walle (holding the fire extinguisher I think), in the back are MO and some other robot which of course MJ knows the name to, but I don't. After the picture he said, "Did I look good in the picture? See, I folded my arms like this and this is how I smiled." He's already working on his modeling poses.

some recent stories to share

Alright, I know I'm posting a lot. This story was more relevant Sunday night or Monday morning, but I think it worth telling:

It is Sunday evening, 5:50 - dinner is in the oven... Mario is out digging in the yard with MJ, Joey is off playing somewhere (I'm not sure where b/c I'm a lazy mother and let him roam freely), I'm trying to comfort Sheila who still has a cold and cough and wasn't sure if she wanted to nurse or not. I was just putting her in the swing when I hear Mario shout "Tricia, we have visitors" The tone in his voice made me realize this might be someone whom I should be worried about seeing the mess...otherwise he would have said visitors in a happy way... such as, the Kazas have arrived unexpectadly! And our house was TRASHED. Do you know what a house looks like after 4 days and nights of coughs in which the mother plays musical beds with the sickest child? Add to that our feeble attempts to get house projects started over the weekend such as yardwork and crown molding which usually involves sending the children off somewhere to play while messes accumlate around us.

Yes, well, our unexpected guests were our sweet older neighbor who goes to our church and the orinigal owner of our house. I was absolutlely mortified. I don't think there was one foot of the house that was clean enough to look at. And the poor woman was just trying to recall happy memories of the house. It turns out she lives nearby and is going through a divorce. She only went in our main floor and then the basement, but I think then realized it would be worse if she continued her tour (and the timer for dinner was going off). On her way out she tried to say something about wishing us many happy memories in our house, but was probably crying on the inside to see her beautiful former home in ruins. I want to invite her back... but in some way so as she thinks it was a suprise for me, and that she can see my house is always immaculate... the pain is slowly going away... i kind of wish I could have this memory removed.

Meanwhile, I'm sure our nice neighbor who knows MJ and Joey better than I as I always let my children play alone outside, unsupervised, while Joey eats dirt and MJ works up his excitement til he is foaming at the mouth...and now that she sees how messy the house is on the inside, I'm sure I'll be getting a call from CPS soon.

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I also should share MJs comments about God from bedtime tonight. Our library has some new Christian books, which was rather exciting. So I grabbed one about Easter and one about how God is our creator. They were innocent enough, nothing against the Catholic faith. And MJ really loves hearing about God and Jesus. Joey repeats everything now so he just kept saying "God" and "Jesus" in his cute Joey voice. After the book we talked about how God is real and MJ said, "Yes, but I cannot see him" pause "God is busy working in heaven. But when I talk to God, he stops working and listens." God is so good like that. Does this mean I should stop typing away on the computer when MJ calls for me to help him get juice for the 10th time?

St. Patrick's Day - more pics

Going Green

Here are a few more pictures from our celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Since everyone can be Irish on St. Patrick's Day, and since our family is Irish, we felt we should make an effort. So here we are decked in green, with green shamrock jello, green shamrock sugar cookies, sprite that has been dyed green, corned beef and cabbage, mashed potatoes, and Irish soda bread (compliments of our friend Kristin). The evening of fun continued with some Irish music and dancing on the coffee table.

Birthday Fun

Here are a few pictures from Mario's birthday on Saturday. He insisted that no one make a big deal about his birthday, and yet with the gorgeous weather we enjoyed a lovely morning with Tommy, Peter, and Catherine at the park. Tabitha and Babu arrived to pick up the kids, but we made them stay and talk with us out on our deck for awhile. Then we made a massive cleaning of the house in 5 hours before my friends from college arrived. (One is expecting her first baby, and I didn't want to scare her with the messes that kids make). However, they could not avoid a sick and coughing MJ and Joey who put his hands in his stinky pants and made a mess by the table after dinner.

Mario had some crazy birthday presents some of which were: a big level for upcoming projects and a fire extinguisher (in case those projects turn out badly). Though they weren't wrapped, he also got a mitre saw and nail gun. Some more thoughtful presents included: a photo book about him and Joey and a frame for an ND poster he has had since college. The Kaza kids made some cards for him, and MJ made a card that had 2 dozen WALL-E robots and some other intricate drawings.






Me, Andrea (and baby), Kelly
Here are some pictures from Sunday. Joey gave Sheila his blanket.

This is MJ and some of his WALL-E robot drawings.
Our new favorite place to hang out in nice weather.