What a week!

Our Bonfire well contained one! The kids Loved it!!
Bryce Loved the Ocean it was so nice it was Low Tide!
Naked babies before bath time!
Daddy and the birthday Boy enjoying his Turtle Cup Cake -Cake
Such Beach Babies!!

Here is a Picture of My Pop-Pop a year ago on Bryson's 1st Birthday!!
So sweet

Wow, what a week we have had! As I posted in my last Post that My Pop-Pop passed away, I have to add that I wrote his wrong age, He was 84 not 83! We had the viewing on Tuesday from 4-8 and the funeral Mass (my dad's whole family is Italian Catholic except him he converted when I was little) was Wednesday and burial and lunch following! My kids stayed with My Aunt Sandi and Uncle David and their 2 kids Lauren and Chris Who are 12 and 14 (That's my mom's bother and his wife and kids), Bryce and Mady had such a BLAST!! I'm sure they all slept well after my little ones left!! But luckily My aunt and uncle said that the kids were great and well behaved! I'm so thankful!

But I must admit it has been a rough couple of days! Both Jayson and I were talking on the drive home last night and both said how drained we were! So many emotions good, bad, memories, thinking of stuff, saying how good it was to see soooooo many people and all of my dad's extended family and hear all the stories and see pictures and Video's of my dad and his siblings and cousins and everyone when they were all kids! It was so neat to see it all!!

It's so nice to be home and to get back to somewhat a "normal" routine! Bryce is down for his nap, he needed his sleep the poor little man has had a runny nose the last 3 days and has a tiny cough too! Madyson is up playing with her Doll house for relax time! I 'm hoping she lays on her bed and reads for a little bit! They were both up late and everything so it's nice to have a down day! We went food shopping this morning and then headed to the Produce place to get all of our fresh stuff! The kids were good.....now it's to folding laundry and getting some more done cleaning and what not! It's crazy how messy things can get when you are away, for only 2 days but it's always a work in progress in the house!

I also need so badly to get somethings done around here! WE are still in the process of moving the rooms around and such! Next week is my OB appointment 18 weeks next Wed. and I'm so...excited because they send me for my ultra-sound to find out whether this little baby inside me is a baby brother or baby sister! Both Jayson and I and the kids are really excited and ready to start planning for this little baby!! Oh I'll post some more pictures of the kids from last week, I realized that I posted 2 of the same pictures! HaHa! Sorry !!

Summer Begins!

My it's been a while since my last post...Let's see if I can get all caught up......Summer is finally upon us, after almost a straight month of rain here in NJ! The weather the last 2 weeks here in our neck of the woods has been well GLORIOUS! Low 80's down to the 60's at night it's been wonderful and I think we've save some money this year on the central air as well!! It's been just great to have the window's open!

Last Saturday on the 4th of July we not only celebrated our nation but we celebrated my little man Bryson's 2nd Birthday! I can't believe he is 2 already and we spent the weekend up at my parents! We had a great BBQ at my Aunt Sandi and Uncle David's house with all my aunts and uncles and cousins! WE also had cake and celebrated Bryce as well! I made a cup cake cake of a Turtle for him with my mom's help but as you can figure I forgot to take Pictures of it! But I am hoping next week sometime we can have a little get together for Bryce with Jayson's family down here and I'm planning on doing the cup-cake cake again so Hopefully then I can get some pictures of it!! The kids and I stayed up a couple of days longer (Jayce had to be home for work), but we were able to get to the beach with my mom and it was just awesome!! Can you believe my little man is 2 and this is the 1st time on the beach! I know it's a shame! We only like about 1/2 hour from the beach and I grew up in a tiny town called Ocean Grove it's 1 square mile and the furthers part is 1/2 mile to the beach, I spent every day of my summers on the beach as a kid and teenager you would think My kids would've too but opps!! Its just so hard sometimes! But you wouldn't guess it was his first time! He did wonderful and was a complete beach bum!

This past Saturday we went to visit my in laws camping and it was so fun! The kids played and played and we enjoyed a beautiful day outside spending time with the family and Jayson's sisters and their family! It was so nice/but yet sooo tiring! Madyson stayed overnight with Nanie and Popie and enjoyed some time with them and we went home afterdinner! Before we left, we got Bryce's jammies on and then headed home, only a 15 minute drive but bless his little heart he fell right asleep on the way home!! He was soo sleepy!! Poor little man but he had so much fun!

On a sad note, my Pop Pop (my dad's dad) went to meet Jesus on friday...He was 83 years old lived a good full life, but was stuck by cancer a number of years ago and then around April he took a turn for the worse and in May he was sent home on Hospice..Not that you are ever prepared for death but it was a little bit of a shocker because he was up and down the whole time on Hospice! The only good thing about all of this is it will be nice to see extended family that you only see once a few years or so....So please pray for all of us this week it's going to be a hard long week!

Next week we have a ton of doctors appointments, Between Ear Nose and Thoart doctors for little man a dentist appointment for Mady and my OB appointment its going to be busy but nice to get all these things done! I better go and get my day started I have lots to get down today!

Rain Rain Go away!

Ughh! Another Raining day here in South Jersey! I feel like it's been raining or gloomy forever now, even though we did have a nice sunny cool day on Saturday but since then it's been Overcast or raining since! Our lawn is in desperate need for a cut but with this weather Jayson can't get out there! But it will get done, Maybe the sun will grace us with it's presence this weekend! We are praying it does!
I told the kids that today would be a "movie" day! We would lay low and just hang out in our comfy cloths and watch movies and have a Nice quite day! We have been quite on the busy side all week and I think it's time for a day just to hang low and catch up on a few chores that need to be attended to and some laundry and relax!!!!! We had such a busy day yesterday I didn't get a chance to wash out sheets and stuff so I need to do that today amongst a ton of other things!!
I've been working on our summer schedule somewhat and can't wait to get it more filled up with some fun stuff, We have one mini-trip planned the weekend of Aug. 8th to go up to a cabin with Jayson's parents and his sisters and their families to Benton Pa. We usually go camping up there in the fall but I think we are heading to Lancaster this year in the fall instead! Jayson's parents gave all of us for Christmas a gift Certificate to Lancaster to stay at Willow Valley for the weekend! But we LOVE being outside and LOVE spending time with family so it's the best of both worlds for us!
Other than that the week days are filled with trips to the Cove, which is a little beach here in Mays landing right on Lake Lenape which is great for the kids and I! I plan to spend most of the mornings I can there with the kids and since its so close we will have out lunch there come home in time for nap/rest time! I figured it's an inexpensive way for the kids to have fun and enjoy the summer! Even though we live close to the Jersey Shore I refuse to drive the 25 minutes to the beach everyday! I know that sounds funny especially to those who would love to be able only to drive that short distance! i grew up in a tiny town in Central/North Jersey called Ocean Grove, It's a very small town only 1 square mile and we always lived so close to the beach the longest walk would be 10 minutes! So I think it's just silly to drive anything more than 5 minutes! Haha I feel silly even saying that!
I am trying to think of fun ways to celebrate Bryson's 2nd birthday! I can't believe he will be 2! Our little man just LOVES Monkey's so I am thinking of going with that theme of some sort! But with his Birthday being on July 4th it not only makes it hard but also a little tricky to plan! It's so funny that he loves Monkey's so much because ever since he was born Jayce and I have always called him our little Monkey! I think this year we have it on a little bit of a smaller side b/c last year we had a blast but we did a whole BBQ! I've been keeping my eye out on some things I love that are Monkey themed on Oriental Trading! They have the greatest things and so inexpensive!
Well while my kiddies are watching "Super Why" I think I am going to go start some laundry and get a head of the things I have on my list for today!! Oh my list! I just love them!! I always said I wouldn't be like my Mother but I guess I ended up a lot more like her than I would like to admit! HaHa, Truth be told though I'm glad I am getting to be a little more like her she's an awesome women and is so incredibly organized it gives me such hope!
Praying for you all and praying you all enjoying the sunshine where ever you maybe!!!
Blessings,
Stacey

Dance Recital and some other stuff

I don't know why I didnt post a few pictures up from my Mady-girls dance recital, but I guess life just gets in the way! She did excellent! This was her 2nd year of dance and she just absolutly Loves it!! Enjoy! I don't know why Blogger put them up first but it works! I can't believe how big my little ones are getting and before we know it we will have a 3rd on the way! Time really does fly by and God is so good to us! We are so amazed but the things he has done in our lives and the things he is doing day by day! We are so very excited to add to our family and can't wait to find out if the kids will be getting a little brother or sister!! Madyson wants a sister but says "Whatever God wants is fine by us right Mommy?" Which just cracks me up because I always say to the kids The Lord knows whats best for our family!

We have still been really busy re-arrangig around the house a bit but there is still so much to do good thing Im only 13 weeks! Oh I just trash picked the best find! I'll post more pic's up later of before and after! It's such a neat peace I dont know quite where I'll put it but it's a neat little piece! I think I'll head to the hard ware store tomorrow for some sand paper and a bottle of spray paint! I'll leave the a mystery so it's a mystery to us too!!

I can't wait to get the summer started! I've been busy trying to plan out our days between "the Cove" and play dates and boardwalk nights and such!! Maybe even alittle camping trip or a little get away! We shall see!!! We do wanna have the family and friends over for a "Smore Night" but thats to be plannes also!

Enjoy the weekend! I know we sure will!!! Have a blessed night and enjoy the family!!
Blessings!
Stacey

Pregnancy Pimples!

First of if most of you haven't heard, Jayson and I are expecting Baby #3 in Dec so that puts me at 11 weeks now! But this is my 1st pregnancy where I can say I am breaking out so bad! My face has all these little pimples on them and they are driving me insane!! I haven't changed my routine as far as washing or anything although maybe I should or is it time to try Pro-Active? I used it in high school and it worked great I have never been one who say I suffered terribly with acne but as a women , don't all of us dislike having pimples?? This is driving me nuts!! Since I already have 1 daughter and 1 son, I have NO clue what this baby is and so far no clues point either direction! I guess it's true what they say about EVERY pregnancy being so incredibly different! I hope I didn't gross anyone out but this is just on my mind !!

On a lighter and less gross note, We have been doing some serious re-arraigning! I feel like it's been forever since I even last posted! But we defiantly have moved our bedroom downstairs. We were able to give away a ton of toys via Free-cycle! Have anyone used it?!? Its a yahoo group and they are pretty local in every area but its a great thing, you post what you would like to get rid off of what you are in need of or would like, and people get back to you and they come to your house to pick it up and u just leave it outside on your porch or grass or whatever it's great! Then when you receive something you do the same thing! It's great! Oh I recently posted that Jayson and I would like a contained Fire pit thing or a chiminea , and if anyone is getting rid of them we would glady come and pick it up , well 2 days later someone emailed me and said they had one and we scored this awesome contained fire pit!! It's fabulous! So far we have enjoyed some nice family time out in the back yard enjoying it!! A friend of ours who I do hair for , have older children now and had a wooden swing set and offered it to us and they graciously gave it to us! How awesome is that? Isn't so amazing and cool to see god provide not only our needs but our wants as well?? I'm so thankful for all of our many blessings!

Since it's a nice rainy day out I am hoping to do some serious cleaning out of our back room today! Well I'm hoping but we will see I 've been dying to get back there and do some serious over-hallen but who knows what the kids will let me do it or not! Here's hopin'!

Spring re-arranging!

Ahh Who doesn't Love spring?? Our family Absolutely LOVES Spring and we just LOVE to be outside!!! But I'm really talking about our home and sprucing it up a bit!!! We have a split level house so as of right now all of our bedrooms are upstairs so 3 bedrooms and a full bath and on the the 2level or the main floor is Living room dining and Kitchen and on the 1st floor or downstairs where u come in is what we use presently as our Playroom, Laundry room storage area and another full bath! So after much thought Jayce and I thought it would best if we moved down stairs for a number of reasons One being it's the coolest area of the house and if you know my husband you would know that he DOES NOT like to be hot, not even in the least bit, so by moving down to the coolest part of our home it may help our air conditioning bill also! But there are so many things that need to get done in order for us to move down stairs like where are we going to store the toys, and I think presently we will move it in to our bedroom upstairs until I get the kids bedrooms ready for some toys! Just the thought of all there is to do is a bit overwhelming but I know it will all get done it will just take some time! Then we would like to paint also downstairs but then again we can wait for all of this it will just take some time!!

Also We have a big bay window in our Living room and the curtains I have up now were only suppost to be Temporary and here we are 3 years later in our home and they are still up HaHa! SO I finally found something i wanted so now all I have to do is find the fabric and with the help of my Lovely Mother in Law She's going to teach me how to do it! I'm very excited about Learning how to do it!!

These past few weeks have been mighty expensive I must say and busy busy!! In a few weeks we are having a Bridal shower for one of my dearest friends who happens to be marrying Jayson's cousin!! I can't wait! Mady and I are both in the wedding and are so looking forward to being apart of their special day!!

Tonight we are having dinner with some friends of ours from Church and another fellow MOPS Mommy! We are really looking forward to it!! I was even able to find a babysitter at virtually last minute! SO much more exciting to go out without the kiddies!

Okay enough blogging right now, b/c I need to clean up a bit and do some more Laundry.....does it ever end?!?! While my little man is a sleep!!Have a blessed day!!

Blessings!
Stacey

As Easter Appraoches

Lately I have had a heavy heart as Easter approaches. Just really thinking about the things that took place this week hundreds of years ago. I just can't take my mind off of Good Friday and the Sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us, but more personally It's hard to believe that Christ loved us all this much and the fact that he knew that he had no other choice, In Luke 22: 39-46 Jesus says while he was on the Mount of Olives Jesus knelt down and prayed "Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place he said to them "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed "Father, if you are willing to take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done and an angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him and being in the anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples he found them asleep exhausted from sorrow, "Why are you sleeping?" He asked them . "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation."

It just always gets me when he asks God and says to him "Father, if you are willing to take this cup from;YET NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE" Wow, it's always gets me. It think each year it gets harder and harder for me to even imagine as I grow in a deeper relationship with God. As a mother it gets me really gets me, but now with our son I believe it hits me even harder....Check out this video and see what I mean! It's one of my favorite praise songs, it's At the Cross by Hillsong, but the video brings me to tears and really brings me to my knees : http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c609c679b81dc8139cb2

So this week I have decided to spend some time at the Cross and read in Matthew Mark and Luke to see their takes on the events that are happening this week and I pray that Jesus reveals himself in a real way to me and I draw even closer to him!