Happy Birthday, Brian!!

Our first birthday of the year! My most handsome husband, Brian turned 37 on the 11th which turned out to be a really special day for him because the Steeler's were on and they won :) We started out his birthday weekend eating at Romano's Macaroni Grill ~ fabulous food and the restaurant was so busy and loud that we hardly heard the boys LOL. I made him a cake that he randomly picked out of a cookbook and it was pretty delish. I whipped up some heavy cream and added toffee bits to it. It was hard not to have more than one piece :) Brian enjoyed it and that's what matters so I made sure he had LOTS of it. Brian definitely deserves all the joy we can give him. Unfortunately life with children sometimes gets hectic and his needs are pushed aside ~

We all love you Brian and Daddy ~ Happy Birthday ;)

A New Year

Welcome 2009!! Hence a new chapter in the Lamantia household. There are already lots of plans for the year. The plans range from fun to not so fun... but we'll focus on the fun :P
Lots to do to catch up! I've finally been able to get up a new layout and that's what was holding me back from updating. Now that I have that taken care of, I'm ready to start doing lots of typing :)

Winter is in the air...

Ah, can you feel it? That cool breeze that just won't let up. Your nose is froze. Your fingers are as cold as icicles. Where did fall go? We went from summer to fall back to summer a couple of weeks ago and now it's feeling like winter.

I think Walmart is confused as well. While grocery shopping this morning, in my turtle neck and sweater... Christmas music was being played, very loudly, in the aisles. Why rush Christmas? Are they thinking that if they play the music now, that more people will want to start spending money on gifts? Start early so that they spend more than they can afford for the next month and a half?

Let's get through Thanksgiving first please! A time for lots of laughter, football and more than enough food for everyone. I see this as a time to thank God for all that he has blessed us with. Our families, our health and good fortune. Kind of like a cleansing of our souls before celebrating the birth of Jesus.

I look forward to spending Thanksgiving day with my family and catching up on what's been going on with those I haven't talked to for a long time. Once Friday comes, then we can sing and dance to all of the Christmas tunes til we can't sing and dance no more.

Trick-or-Treating 2008

Well, another fun Halloween has come and gone. Unfortunately the copious amounts of candy will stay with us a little while longer and then even longer on my hips! Sure, it would make sense to move the candy out of reach for everyone but what fun would that be? I've noticed that more chocolate was being handed out this year. That's a good thing because I think we still have those little suckers from last year that none of us will eat... and I would have felt guilty passing out year old candy. So I suppose we'll keep holding on to them until they get all soft and sticky. Yuck!

At any rate, Brian and I took Iron Man, a Steeler's football player, and Tigger out after dinner, around 6pm and got home around 7:30. We met up with a friend of Joshua's and walked around with him and his Mom. It was a beautiful night and freakishly warm so we stayed out longer just to take advantage of the weather.

Here are some photos of the night:

~ getting ready to go ~ ~ Zachary ~ ~ Joshua ~

~ On the trail ~ ~ Cute Nathan ~ ~ Ready for some candy ~

~After all the hard work ~ ~Brian ~ ~With our ghost~

~ Go, Go, Go ~

Nathan Walking Oct 2008

Beasley's Apple Festival ~ Danville, IN

It was a cool crisp morning and sunny... a perfect equation for the apple festival. We started out around 9:30 to go on our annual trip to Beasley's. This tradition all started when we first moved to Avon. One day, Brian, Zachary, Joshua and I were taking a drive to scope out our new surroundings and saw this orchard along the way. We decided to give it a whirl... see what it was all about and have gone now for 4 straight years.

Our day is filled with a hayride to the pumpkin patch, apple tasting, drinking warm cider, a puppet show for the kids, live music from a local band (The Accoustic Catfish), pork burgers (add cheese, please) and apple dumplings from St. Augustine Catholic Church (add ice cream, please ) :)

This year was just as fantastic as the past years. Nathan, Joshua and Zachary enjoyed all of the activities. The one thing different from previous years was the corn maze. I went with the two older boys and it took us maybe 15-20 minutes to get through it. There were 10 stations that we had to find and each one had a question. If you answered correctly you were on the right path, if you answered incorrectly, you were on a wild goose chase trying to find the next station. I really thought they were going to have to send a search and rescue team for us. Then, the longer we were in there I wondered what I was going to do if one of the boys had to go to the bathroom since they love to wait until the very last minute to do anything about it. It was all good though!

We came home with apple butter, Jonalicious and Cortland apples. Time to make some carmel apple crisp :)

Everything in between...

Pictures: My 39th(can't tell I had surgery) :) , Brian with Zachary and Nathan, my stitches

So we had the first day of school for both Zachary and Joshua. Joshua and Nathan celebrated birthdays. Zachary started flag football (see link to his page) and then there's me and Brian. Ha!

Little ole me turned the big 3-9 this year. I'm almost afraid to admit it, but I don't feel anything different than when turning 30 or 35. I feel like I'm in the best shape as I've ever been and according to my Dr's, I'm completely healthy. Numbers? Ages? Who needs 'em!? The day I let it get me down is the day I want Brian to place slippers on my feet and hand me the remote, because I won't be going anywhere but the sofa. I seriously want and need to stay as active and healthy as I can so I (we) can be around for a very long time for our sons and future generations. So to get back on track... my birthday... I actually scheduled an outpatient procedure on that day to get a cyst removed from my face. I know, lovely timing. However, everything went smoothly and I didn't look near as bad as I had thought. I really thought I was going to come out of there with a shiner the size of a baseball. Wouldn't you know it, I didn't even bruise and only swelled a little bit. So Mom and Dad were over, we had some beef stroganhoff and a spice cake that Brian made for me. Yes, my wonderful husband wanted to make a cake for me but wasn't feeling adventurous enough to attempt a German Choc cake from scratch, so instead, I decided on the spice cake. He did awesome and it was deliciously moist and yummy. It was a great day!

So with Brian. As with everyday, I have to thank him for being so fantastic. He's going through lots of ups and downs with work. The economy is putting a strain on his division (as with everyone) and the future is constantly changing for them. But you know, he comes home, tries to put work behind him and gives his children and me all the love a person could give. We are very lucky to have him in our lives!

Nathan is ONE!

Pictures: Nathan a couple of days old, on his birthday and digging into his cake.

It's so incredibly hard to believe that our little baby has turned one. Not that I want to stop time, I just wanted the infant stage to last a little longer this time around.

The day was filled with balloons, decorations and a train cake that I had made for him. I think it's safe to say that he enjoyed every bit of it! I made a special t-shirt for him as well that he'll be able to have as a keepsake.

At this time, it appears as though Nathan is going to save walking for a later date ~ I'm just fine with that because he gets along just fine by crawling or cruising the furniture and walls, tables, chairs, toys... anything he can prop himself up on. Our kitchen is an open playground for him and I've had to rearrange a few cabinets to meet his curious needs. It's not uncommon to see tupperware scattered on the floor. What we're most happy about is his vocabulary and how much he tries to immitate sounds and words that we use. Just the other day, I sneezed and he said "a-ch". Brian said ouch the other night and Nathan followed with "ouch". It's getting to the point that I'll have to start writing down the words he says or attempts to say because he's saying so much. But wouldn't you know it... the one important word that he's still foggy on... MAMA! He JUST started saying it, thanks to Brian, and is oblivious as to who "Mama" is. In fact, that same night he started to really say it, we were also teaching him "more", so now we don't know if he's saying "mama" or "more". It's craziness! But I wouldn't trade it for the world. We're all having a blast with Nathan and are so thankful to God for having him in our awesome family.

It's been forever...

Wow, who would have guessed that keeping a journal of our lives would be so taxing? LOL Here I was all gung ho about a blog and I've neglected it for a couple of months. Lots have happened and I'll be as complete as I can...



Joshua celebrated his 5th birthday. We had Spiderman decorations and a cake that he picked out. I've seen him grow so much this past year, both physically and mentally. He's quite the charmer and little jokester still but following in his older brother's footsteps as far as interacting with others and pretty much coming out of his shell.



We were able to get him in Kindergarten this year! We had to appeal because his birthday fell 12 days after the cut-off. After some ups and downs about whether he would get in we ended up getting in at Hazel Dell with the teacher that we wanted for him. He's doing so well and already reading simple Dick and Jane books. He's also doing easy addition and subtraction facts and thinks he's ready for multiplication.

St. Maria Goretti Italian Festival

Our church had their annual Italian Festival over the weekend. Despite the rain, it was a great time! They moved everything inside except for a few tents and tables to eat the yummy food on. The boys devoured their pizza, I had a meatball sub and Brian ate the lasagna. Afterwards, we ate some tiramisu, canolli's and snow cones. Zachary and Joshua were able to play a few games and bounced around in some inflatable bounce houses... they had a blast! Can't wait for next year.

Lisa'a Visit July 2008

Boy oh boy, it sure was great seeing Lisa again! Zachary, Joshua and Nathan certainly kept her busy (and Annie) when they came to visit us in Noblesville. The first day here, we ate lunch and then grabbed our suits for a fun day at the pool. Splashing, laughing, playing tag and swimming were aplenty! and the boys weren't going to let Aunt Lisa rest. Luckily Annie and I were able to take the less active roll and make sure Nathan was happy and fed. :) That night, Lisa, Zachary and Joshua slept out in the tent. They finally got to sleep around 11pm and woke up all smiles the next morning.

We ended up taking Lisa back to Kokomo the next day and stayed over night at Mom and Dad's where again fun was the top of the list. Can't wait to see Lisa again!!

Happy 4th of July!

Our celebration this year was fairly low key, but fun none the less. We bought sparklers for the boys and let them stay up to have fun with them. There were plenty of fireworks going on around the neighborhood that we could see from our yard, so we just went up front and watched for about a half hour. Next year, when Nathan is older, I think we'll head to the high school to watch their display, but for this year, it worked out well with us staying home.

Myrtle Beach June 2008

Wow, we had a fun time at Myrtle Beach this year! We started our vacation driving to Hendersonville, NC and stayed at a Ramada Ltd. Believe it or not, this was the first hotel that I actually felt comfortable with having a baby crawling on the floor... heck even I sat on the floor without wondering what I was putting my hands in. It was very clean and just renovated. It's too bad we were only staying the one night.

Getting to MB the next day was fairly uneventful. The boys traveled pretty well considering their ages. Zachary spent most of his time either reading books or listening to books on CD. Joshua looked at books and talked, talked, talked, talked and talked some more... ack, he was a motor mouth! :) They also watched some videos. Nathan did as well as expected. The poor little guy wouldn't sleep more that an hour at a time and played with his toys for a while. He didn't enjoy being strapped in his seat for long periods of time. We stopped as often as needed though and gave him and everyone a chance to stretch their legs. It all worked out considering it was a 15 hour trip there.

Zachary and Joshua LOVED the beach and rode the waves everyday. Eventhough I said I wasn't going in the ocean, I walked with the boys in hand out in the water and we tackled the waves. Brian and I took turns with Nathan so that we could both enjoy the sun, sand and water.

We also visited Broadway at the Beach where we went to Ripley's Aquarium. The boys (Brian included) pet horseshoe crabs, that Brian actually picked up (yuck!) and string rays. We saw fish, shark, eel, stringray and many other aquatic animals. It was a really neat place. We also went to Barefoot Landing and ate there twice.

So all in all, it was a fun vacation. It would have been great and wonderful if we didn't have to deal with the awful "resort" conditions. Sands Ocean Club Resort is 30 years old and filled with all the maintence problems with it. Not going to go into detail.... too crazy!

We're heading out...

FINALLY... vacation! After months of talking about it, we're finally heading out this morning for Myrtle Beach. Pictures and fun details will be making it on here in about a week :)

Saturday Tea

It was a great day on Saturday! Barb, Terri, Annie, Mom and I met at The Ruby Pear to celebrate Mom's birthday and a late Mother's Day. We were able to chat, enjoy tea (5 different kinds) and fill up on sandwiches, scones and fat rascal cookies. It was a great time. It's been a long time since I've been able to just escape for a couple of hours without the boys... in fact, it's probably been over 2 years!! Ack! I'm not even going to tell you how long it's been since Brian and I have set foot in a theater for date night... oh but that's another story.

Anyway, it was a great time and I'm so happy that we were able to make it happen... we missed you Lisa :)

Mom, Mom, Mom

What can I say... I love my Mom! She's one tough little cookie.

Dad... another tough cookie and a great big heart to go with it.

I love you both to pieces!!! :o)

Fun week so far

Wow, we've really had some awesome weather these last few days and have taken full advantage of it.

Monday I took the boys to a sprinkler park in Westfield. They had a blast! After getting tired of that portion of the park they moved over to the playground and continued to run around and get rid of some of that lovely, loud energy they seem to have lots of. Nathan was enjoying the view from his stroller...thumb in mouth. I'm sure he'll be right there with them when he starts walking.

Tuesday the boys helped me wash the van and then we met Liz, Fiona and Sean at Forest Park for a couple of hours of fun. We always have a great time when we meet up with them. Nathan got to swing for the first time and he nearly fell asleep. He was so relaxed in there while sucking his thumb.

And lastly, today I was able to mow the lawn while Nathan napped. I truly love mowing the lawn... especially when I'm getting a tan :). After lunch the boys and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. It's a fun workout for me and since they ride so fast, I have to walk fast to keep up with them ~ all the while Nathan is sitting in the stroller... with thumb in mouth. Brian took Zachary out again tonight after dinner but this time, Zach was out on a real road. I was a little apprehensive about it but just thought "no, I have to trust Brian. He'll watch out for him". And lo and behold, Zach did a wonderful job. He was only on a road, road outside of a subdivision for maybe not even a quarter of a mile.

For Joey!

You wanted lasagna.... you got it. This is the best I can do ~ enjoy the view!! :)

Our weekend

What a fun weekend! Saturday morning, Brian took his annual Father's day out to just relax and do some of the things he can't fully enjoy with the boys in tow. After lunch Zachary and Joshua put on a little puppet show titled "My Dad is Special". Each one of the boys, even Nathan, had a puppet and said why they think their Dad is special. Zach spoke for Nathan :) I'm going to try to get the video on here because the boys' did such a great job. They worked on it for a couple of days. So then it was off to Cincy. Brian's Mom and Dad were visiting so we wanted to see them to celebrate Mimi's birthday, Megan's birthday and Father's Day. It was nice seeing them all again... we just don't get to see them often enough.

Today is going to be a day of relaxing and getting Nathan back on his schedule. All day yesterday in Cincy, he fought a nap and to top it off, he hadn't pooped :/ so today I'll be giving him lots of juice and water to get his system moving again. He slept a little on the way home last night and then went directly to sleep once in his crib... thankfully.

Looks like this afternoon I'm taking the boys to a sprinkler park. It'll be our first real summer water activity this year and the boys are very excited. I'd like to take them to the pool, but I'm just not ready to watch all three without Brian. I'm sure I'll get brave after coming home from vacation.

Touch A Truck ~ Westfield

I took the boys to the Touch A Truck today. It was another great day, hot but low humidity so the drip factor was minimal :) Joshua's favorite was sitting in the police car and Zachary's was the cement truck because it had the loudest horn. Both boys agreed that the best part was watching the medic helicopter take off. This is our third time visiting the Westfield one and we've been to the Carmel one a couple of times. It's amazing that little adventures like this amuse them so much.... I think it's kind of fun too.