Randoms...

Since I have not downloaded any pictures off my camera...all I have is random stuff from my phone. 

I know this is kinda boring...but I keep telling myself I need to post more...so here it is..

Luke's Baseball camp....can you find Luke ???

 ** Hint...he is in the top row...second from the left. 

Adriana's newest hobby these days is singing.  Ever since American Idol started all she does is sing...really loud. If you did not know she was singing you might think she was screaming at the top of her lungs just to see how loud she can get.  At any give day she will be singing a variety of songs...from  Justin Bieber 's  "Baby", ABC's,  Tangled songs, nursery rhymes she learns from school...and the dreaded "I'm Sexy and I Know it"  That's right..she loves this song. Apparently she now picks up all the bad songs from the radio.  As we drive, I am starting to learn that Adriana is a clubber. She only likes songs that that have tons of beats...as in B96 beats!  Oh and she insists on wearing her Bell dress almosts every day!

Finally we went to the Sweetheart dance at the kids school and Luke walked up to the face painter and said, I would like a Wolf....and this is what she painted on him. 

 Random Pic...we went Roller Skating for Reese's birthday.  Since Luke is very independent these days, he wanted nothing to do with me, so I pretty much re-lived some of my skating glory days and entertained Mandy and Addie with my turns, and backward skating.

Good times! Not going to lie..I was pretty awesome at skating!

Winter Boredom

We are starting to get sick of being inside all the time....Luke has now resorted to taking up his face out of sheer boredom....Please spring come soon!

Happy 100th Birthday Grandpa

He was born in 1912..the year the Titanic sank and Oreos were invented. 
Annual income : $1033
New Home: $2075
New Car: $941
Milk: $.08
Bread: $.05
Eggs:$.30/dozen

4 Kids
12 Grandkids
25 Great Grandkids
= One Blessed Life!

Happy  Birthday to one of the Greatest Men I know.  At 100 years old, he is still the same sweet and loving Grandpa that I remember picking me up and twirling me around as a kid.  My family and I celebrated his birthday a couple of weekends ago...he are some pictures of the evening..


Grandpa always goes with the flow...he hung out with 100 antlers on for quite sometime...that is until all the little ones wanted to try...anything he can do to entertain us.

25 Great Grandkids..only two are missing..

The Chiovari Family and Grandpa.

The lovely ladies who put together a great party...his daughters...Josephine, Mary & Rose

Grandkids..only missing 1

The birthday cake...he has so many names...

While we were doing a toast, I noticed some random lady in the room. She literally walked in....sat down and fell asleep. Hard to believe she was able to snooze with all the noise we were making!

Baseball

Now that Football is over, we are on to Baseball....well its actually Baseball Camp because clearly its way to cold outside to play. Luke is loving it so far.  We had to go out and purchase a special left handed glove, for our little Lefty and a baseball cap.  I have to say, I love Luke in a hat!

"Please stay home with me Luke"  Adriana is so sad when Luke has to go. I can not wait until she turns three so she can start doing activities.  BTW doesn't Luke look really tall in this picture ?

Messy Girl

This is Luke getting sick of me saying  "Ade...smile...just one smile for the camera...c'mon..smile pretty please"  so he decided he would help her out and just pull her cheek...hey it got her to smile ..so I am happy!

The Kids...and Callie

Shoot the Puck

A couple of weeks ago, Brian went to the Hawks game with some friends from work. As they were grabbing a couple of beers a man walked over to Brian and said..."Hey do you want to Shoot the Puck ?"  Brian's response.."Absolutely!"

Moments later I received a text and numerous calls from the guys that he was with to turn on the TV to see if I could see him.  My first reaction was...are you sure ...is this a joke ?  But it was not..Sure enough Brian appeared on screen "Shooting the Puck"..it was pretty cool to see him on TV.  After he missed both shots, he was pulled aside by the commutator and interviewed.  It was such a fun moment! 

 Brian actually found the recording and posted to Facebook, so if you get a chance, try and go to his "wall" and check it out.  A couple of days after, he received this picture from the Blackhawks...

Florida 2012

After the holiday we took a road trip to Naples, Florida to spend some time at the condo.  This was our first time driving as a family...I have driven to Florida numerous times as a kid...and to be honest I hated it...but I gave in and decided to give it a go.  We decided to leave SUPER early in the morning... I mean why not..our kids are up early every morning anyway so this was pretty normal  for them.  We left around 5:00 AM and hit the open road.  We made awesome time, and to be honest my kids were great.  I had tons of stuff for the kids to do.  Luke and Adriana  each had one box to fill up with  stuff for them to do, along with our handy portable DVD player.  Which I would say never stopped running. Disney Movies pretty much carried us to Florida drama free. 

We arrived the day before New Years Eve and hung out with my sister Angela and her family, and then Fran and my Parents came down over the next couple of days. We did so many things...we swam at the pool, went to the beach, dog track, enjoyed the Hyatt pool , went to the Tampa Zoo, ate a ton of food  and so much more..  To be honest, I am so embarrassed by my uploaded pictures, I honestly had such a nice and relaxing time that I barely wanted to lift a finger and take pictures in fact I forgot about my camera most of the time.  But here are some....

This was New Years Eve...on the dock eating dinner with the family...

All the kids with their party hats...
this about sums up my pictures of New Years..I know lame. But we enjoyed ourselves..

On the Beach...it was determined at the beach that some of the kids are beach kids..and others are pool kids....Adriana - pool kid for sure - only went into the water up to her ankles and ran and screamed in fear every time a wave would come in...which was every 30 seconds.  Hated having sand all over her and was freaked out  by all the birds.

Luke on the other hand is such a beach kid...he loved running in the water...diving in head first, digging holes in the sand, collecting as many shells as he could  and trying to build a sand castle.  Totally my little beach bum.

Luke & Anthony enjoying the sun

Hanging out at the Hyatt pool.  So the first couple of days we stayed at the condo with my sister and her family, and then when my parents came, we moved to the Hyatt so we would have more space.  7 Adults and 5 kids in one condo just is not going to work. So to keep our sanity, we enjoyed the comfort of the Hyatt for the remainder of our trip.

We decided to go to the Tampa Zoo on a day that was colder than most.  Actually most of the time we were there it was in the high 70's but on this day...it was around 46 degrees..hence the hats, and sweatshirts.  But of course we made the best of it

At the petting zoo..of course Adriana would not let Brian put her down....she was not liking all the goats and lamas walking around..

More Beach time...

And of course the pool.

So there you have it...some pictures from Florida....not one picture of the whole family, not one picture of just the four of us....I suck at capturing these great moments..But I know we all had a blast.

Christmas Day Part 4 - Bartilotta & Gormsen Xmas

After our exciting Xmas morning, we got ourselves in gear and headed over to my Mom's house to celebrate Christmas with my Mom's side of the family..otherwise know as Bartilotta Christmas.  We stayed there a couple of hours and then headed back to our house to host Gormsen Christmas with Brian's immediate family.  It was an extremely busy day, especially since we were hosting.. ..hence the shortage of pictures.  Only three measly pictures...and none from Bartilotta Christmas...so sorry.  All in all it was a great holiday season.  One that I know will stick in my mind because both of my kids finally get the whole Santa part of Christmas. They are also starting to learn the whole giving gifts to others and being thankful for the people in our lives. I am doing my best to really explain the religious meaning of Christmas but that one might start to click once Luke attends CCD next year. At this point his attention span and imagination seem to get in the way every time I tried to explain it.  Its a work in progress..ha..

Liam & Adriana showing off their hats from Uncle Jody.

Briana's Hat

 Gormsen Cousins

A big thank you goes out to all of our families for spoiling all of us this holiday season. Love you All!

Christmas Morning - Santa Came - Part 3

My kids must have been really good this year because Santa came and was very generous!  As you can see from this picture...my kids were up VERY early..just before the sunrise.  And yes Adriana is in her winter coat because she INSISTED on wearing it to bed when we got home from my Auntie Teresa's the night before. I guess it must have been extremely comfortable..so why take it off.  She did however take it off when we started opening presents..because it was getting in the way. HA.

Santa left Luke a skateboard..OMG this kid is growing up way too fast. No more baby toys for Luke!

He already has moves...and has been practicing in the basement so he is ready when the weather gets nice.

One word...Trashed!

Adriana sat in Luke's inflatable car forever and was ready to hook it up to the Wii and play Mario Kart. She did receive "girly" toys from Santa.....but wanted to go for a ride!

Our new Sleeping Bag.

So Santa was good to both of my kids...barbies, dolls, Wii Games, DS games, Sleeping Bags, Pillow Pets, Movies, and so much more. I would say being good (for the most part, wink wink) payed off for these two!

Part 2 Christmas Eve

We spent Xmas Eve at my Aunite Teresa's house this year...Chiovari side of the family...some pictures of the evening...

Before heading out to Church. 

Luke ready for the night to begin..

Adriana...he dress was super cute..although she INSISTED on weaing her sweater closed so no one could see the cute top half of it. 

Almost all of the Chiovari side..only missing a few families..

Sanat visited again ...Luke was very happy!

Demi..not so much..

 Adriana on the other hand was okay with Santa..as long as he came by our house later that evening to drop off gifts.

More to come...

Lets Recap Christmas - Part 1 - Chiovari Xmas

 We started Christmas a week early this year...my sister Angela hosted our immediate family at her house.  Always a fun chaotic time.  Just a couple of pictures from the night....

Demi & Adriana...when can we open presents ??

Rose and the newest little Elf in the family..Bobby B

.

 Long gone are the days when Anthony & Luke smile nice for the camera

OMG we all fit.  This took a couple of tries..but this is everyone!!

Santa even came...and that's right..he picked me to be his elf this year.  He needed a helper with all of the gifts to pass out...

Adriana...a little scared of Santa....when he came down she freaked out and started screaming.."That's Nonno, that's Nonno!" after everyone telling her No Ade..that's Santa...she freaked out and Auntie Fran had to rescue her. Thanks Auntie Fran!

We tried to get a shot of the kids with Santa...

He survived Chiovari Christmas!

The Christmas tree and thousands of gifts!

Thanks Angela & Josh for letting us trash your house this year!