Happy Birthday Mommy!

Today is that day, the day 29 years ago that my mom, the most fabulous mom in the world brought me into this world! Thank you Mommy for the gift of my life and thanks mom and dad for helping mold me into whom I am today!

It's my 29Th birthday today...WOW! It is pretty hard to believe that I am 29, only one year away from my dirty thirty, HA! YIKES! After I had children, birthday's took on a whole different meaning, mostly because I can truly at-test to the feeling of a 'birth - day' and the feeling that my mom has felt all of these years watching her kids grow and get older year after year!

My family and friends every year make me feel so special and for that I am truly blessed! This weekend was nice and relaxing. Saturday Brad and I and the kids went to swim lessons and then ventured about the city for a bunch of errands that we needed to run! This turned into a whole day's worth of running around and we finally arrived at home to enjoy the wonderful afternoon weather and got in some play time outside!! Sunday we spent late morning and early afternoon with my Dad and brother having lunch and catching up as my brother is now back from college for the summer and my Dad and Keeley just returned from their overseas vacation. We laughed and got caught up, Grandpa snuggled on the kids and we had a very nice visit!

Sunday night we had wonderful company with the Eddins family as we ventured out for a wonderful birthday dinner! All of the kids were so good for us and it was fun to venture out with our family and theirs for a delicious Italian dinner, completed with a delicious chocolate cake dessert topped with a birthday candle too! Thank you Eddins family for taking us out for a wonderful birthday dinner!
Today brought my actual birthday and lots of hugs and kisses from daddy and the kids this morning! Then it was off to work for another crazy busy Monday! I was very surprised and blessed to get two of the most beautiful bouquets of flowers today! Brad and the kids sent me a dozen beautiful red roses and the Hahn's send me a beautiful array of fresh flowers! They both look SO pretty sitting on my desk in my office adding some vibrant color to my everyday work space! Thank you honey and my most favorite kiddo's ever and to the Hahn's for the beautiful flowers!! And, thank you Aunt Ellie, for my surprise gift at work this morning also!!!

My great friend Sara took me out for a wonderful, delicious Mexican lunch! It was very nice to get out for some girl time for a birthday lunch and Mexican food too...yum!!! Thank you Sara!!!Tonight Daddy is working late, but he always thinks of us first and has Zoey's pizza ready to bring home with him and a nice bottle of wine! This coming weekend we are very excited to have a weekend away with the LeConte family for a little extended birthday fun!

As the day comes to an end and I start the 29th year of my life, I realize how very blessed and fortunate I am to be surrounded with such wonderful family and friends!! The best family and friends ever, as a matter of fact, those of you who I am speaking to know who you are.....I hold you near and dear to my heart! Thank you all for helping me have such a fabulous day!~

Happy Mother's Day to ALL Moms...

I once heard the quote, 'the closest thing to heaven is a child' and how incredibly true is that!!!

Daddy and the kids let me sleep in a little bit today, I no more than opened the bedroom door, walked out and I see Dylan running down the hallway... he jumped into my arms with a card yelling, 'Happy Mothers Day Mommy'! Those words melted my heart!

Until I had children I never knew how purely 'natural' motherhood seems and actually is. I have never felt more love than the love I feel for my children. When they hurt...I hurt more, when they cry...I cry harder, when they smile...I feel my eyes twinkle, when they giggle....my heart melts. Our children are the biggest blessings in our life, the biggest testament of our love. I always wanted my Mom to have the very best for Mother's Day. The Mom's in our lives deserve to be saluted. But to me, I don't need anything special for Mother's Day, just a hug and a kiss from my loving husband and kids is all that I need.

Daddy planned the day for us today! He decided to take a rain check on our traditional brunch and instead we headed out for a little road trip! We packed a small cooler and snacks for the kids, a blanket and ball for Daddy and Dylan to play...and we were off! We headed up North, to McGregor, with our final destination being Pikes Peak State Park!

It was a beautiful morning/afternoon for a drive. The sun was shining, everyone had a good night's sleep in anticipation of a family day filled with lots of fun! We stopped in McGregor to have some lunch and we chose a pub/brewery called Old Man River. Here we had a fabulous lunch in this newer brewery/pub. They had a wonderful brunch menu special for Mothers Day. This is a place that we marked on the map and will definitely venture back to this summer. The atmosphere was great and the food was too!

After we got our belly's full we headed up to Pikes Peak! We couldn't have asked for better temperatures for a day at the park. We took a walk down a few trails, looked out the observation decks and stopped at the playground. Dylan thought it was so neat to look down at the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, and Daddy even got him pointing and saying, 'the mighty Mississippi'! We spent just over 2 hours playing and relaxing and enjoying the nature around us. Great job Daddy planning a fun little road trip for us!

That wasn't all Daddy had in store. We headed back into town and just before we hit home Daddy turned the car around and we headed to Biaggi's for a wonderful dinner! We dined and ate the best Italian food, had a glass of wine, listened to Dylan's re-cap of our day today...a perfect wind down to a fabulous Mothers Day.

There are SO many Mom's out there who are incredible women, women in our lives who I really love to learn a thing or two from. I don't like to think there is any special tricks to the trade of Motherhood. I like to think that it does come natural, to give to your children all they need to have... a wonderful life filled with lots of love and laughter. I just want to be the most supportive, nurturing, protective and loving Mom that our children could ever ask for. They are our world, our everything. They have taught me so much about life and how truly valuable it is. I am very honored to be the Mother of our fabulous children. I love you more than words can say, Dalton, Dylan and Danielle, I am so happy to be your Mommy!~

Celebration of Life....

There is nothing like the Celebration of Life.....

This Sunday we celebrated our wonderful Mike and Kirsten's little girls 1st Birthday! Lila Louise was born this day one year ago...

We headed to their house for Lila's 1st Birthday party. We were very excited to be sharing in Lila's special day. And check out this adorable homemade cake and adorable cupcakes that Lila's Great Grandmother made for her special day....absolutely adorable! Little flowers and bumblebee's on the cupcakes, the detail was amazing and they tasted very yummy too!

We tried to get a pic of the birthday girl with Dylan, it didn't work so much with smiles for the pic, but aren't they just so cute sitting next to each other! Dylan loves 'baby Lila' to pieces!

Anticipating this wonderful cake she gets to dig in to!And of course we all enjoyed singing Happy Birthday to this special little girl! Happy 1st Birthday Lila. We hope your 1st Birthday was a very special one for you!! Our next Celebration was for Grandma Martin's 80Th Birthday! We headed off to Anamosa for this birthday party. Grandma Martin had lots of family and wonderful friends sharing in her special celebration with her. The kids were very excited to see their Great Grandma and she was equally as excited to see them!

Danielle was dressed to party today! She was such a good girl...all day long!

And as often as we get to celebrate life, one time per year as birthday's roll around....there is occasionally those Celebrations that are a little different.

The Celebration of Life that comes when one passes....the sadness that surrounds us but the celebration of the person's greatest days on earth, with which ones life that has touched SO many.
My Step Grandma Martucci went into heaven on Thursday April 15Th.

A woman who was SO much to SO many.

I believe my mom summed it up saying it the best in these words...

" an incredible woman of God passed today, a prayer warrior that will be greatly missed, she is dancing with her husband and son at the feet of Jesus. The trumpet has sounded. I see her radiant joy for she prepared herself in this life for the anticipation of our king taking her home."

She was a devoted mother....

We have several cards, mass cards dedicated to our children, prayer requests and hand written messages for our children. She would send the kids messages often when they were so tiny and fighting for every breath, reminding them of God's love and the strength they have shown to so many. We will forever cherish these special messages for our children.

Memory....

MARTUCCI Anna P. (nee Paparatto), age 88, of Palisades Park, NJ on April 15,2009. Born in Bronx, beloved wife of the late Joseph. Devoted mother of Jo Ann (Henry) Klein, Joseph (Debra) Martucci, Richard (Kathleen) Martucci, Louis (Jeanette) Martucci, Thomas (LouAnn) Martucci, Ronald (Mary Ann) Martucci, Jeffrey Martucci and the late Christopher Martucci. Dear sister to the late Tino Paparatto and sister in law to Robert Martucci. Cherished grandmother of 23 and 13 great-grandchildren. Anna learned how to speak English upon entering elementary school as her parents only spoke Italian. She was always an excellent and gifted student, receiving a full scholarship to CCNY from which she graduated with Honors and her BS Degree in 1944. A teacher for the Hackensack Board of Education for many years, retiring in 1990. This mother of eight was perpetually involved with Scouting, PTA, Little League, and Sports in general. In later years her life centered around her parish family of St. Michael's; a daily communicant, Eucharistic Minister and Lector, a Rosarian, CCD teacher, the Parish Council and also served as a volunteer teacher in Notre Dame School.

Sailing away in heaven, her memory lives on. Rest in Peace....
We reflect today, we realize what a gift each day is. From celebrating the little life of the 1st year for a beautiful little girl....to the wonderful life of an 80 year old...to the celebration of life a wonderful Grandmother lived and now continues on in heaven.

The Circle of Life is a beautiful thing..we are very blessed.~

I've got a feelin....

That tonight's gonna be a good night, that tonight's gonna be a good good night, oo oooo!

Oh what a night! For 3 years now our friends have organized a Tiny Town Tavern Tour for 2 of our friends birthdays, Taylor and Mike. Due to either having a newborn home from the hospital, or being pregnant or on bed rest we have been unable to attend, until this year that is! Brad and I have not been out for a night like this since way before we had kids. We deserved a night out, we were ready for some Husband and Wife time out with friends, pretending like we were 21 again... and so we did just that! We had a wonderful sitter at our house for the night with the kids, they were tucked in bed and we were off!
We started in Robins at the Birthday Boy's home, Mike and Kirsten's house, Party Bus pickup location #1! We loaded on the bus with friends and favorite drinks in hand. Our cooler was full with a mixed variety, margaritas, Coors Light, Wine and even a frozen Mojito. Oh my!

This party bus was rockin'. We were very impressed. The back of the bus had a huge flat screen TV, strobe lights everywhere, very nice leather benches and cup holders, we were definitely in luxury for our Tavern Tour! The music was cranked up loud and we got the party started!

The next stop was at the Birthday Girl's house, Party Bus pickup location #2! And more friends and a lot more drinks loaded on the bus! Homemade Apple Pie, 2 huge bags of jello shots, champagne and more! Again, oh my! So we headed off for our first stop Agge's in North Liberty.

The laughs started on the way and continued the whole night! In North Liberty we picked up a few more along for the ride. Decided to try a few munchies to fill our belly and after a few drinks we were off to stop #2!
Stop #2 brought some Tether Ball action! Yes, outside this bar had Tether Ball and a volleyball court. The inside ceiling was layered with dollar bills. This place was a log cabin type with the vaulted ceilings and I could not figure out how in the world those $ bills got up there. Did we have to climb?! Well Alyssa was curious also and she found out! So you take a $1 bill and wrap 3 quarters around the middle of it and then just throw it up. Sounds crazy but it worked, we were intrigued. Was there something sticky on the ceiling to make it stick? Who knows....but it captured my attention!

Stop #3 was a Sports Bar that was newly redone. Very nice and the place was not very busy, until a party bus with 19+ of us showed up! The bartenders were a little shocked, but it was a very fun stop. Lots more laughs to add to the night!

We thought her earring was a goner! HA HA, nope, just taking a break on her shoulder...and then we find it on the seat over an hour later! Hilarious!

Stop #4 we skipped and moved onto #5! #5 brought a lot of karaoke! Funny stuff! A few people who had just fabulous voices, and a few that would have been pretty funny on American Idol! The dance floor was hoppin', Brad was out there bustin' a move. We laughed and laughed and laughed!

CHEERS!

Parents night out!

Then it was stop #1 to drop back off at Taylor's, at this point we got off and hit a cab ride home! We had such a fun night out with wonderful friends! It was a very fun Birthday celebration for Mike and Taylor and we were very happy to join in the fun. Definitely a night that showed our age by the way we felt on Sunday....but for not getting out like this since we had kids, it was okay to snap us into reality and the lifestyle that we aren't missing, we love parenthood! But it was needed for 'us time', and we celebrated with great friends...who could ask for more than that?!'

Happy Birthday Mike

Happy Birthday TaylorThe girls!

Happy Birthday Mike and Taylor! Thanks for letting us 'escape' our crazy life for a crazy night, we had a blast!!!~