Pioneer Day - Ward Activity

Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and sweated and lagged behind and wanted to drop dead in the middle of the street.

One thing is for sure, if we'd had to walk the plains - Capri would have made it, and would have been one of the first there in Utah. Rome would have fallen beside the road and told us to just go on without him.

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Where oh where do I belong??

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city soul with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets And gorgeous Italian people - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

Color me shocked. Not really.
I guess I really did name my son correctly (Rome Valentino), and married the right man (Served in the Rome mission, is 1/4 Italian), have the correct brothers (Spencer served in the Rome mission, Rob is serving in the Rome mission now), and took the correct vacation in high school. Good for me!

Kid Dates

A few weeks ago Jeff suddenly decided that we really needed to start going out on "kid dates" with. . .well, the kids. Meaning we each would take each kid out by ourselves. I thought this was a very mature and parenty thing to do so on Jeff's next days off we did it.

Kid Dates, Day One:
1. Jeff took Rome to play sports at a local field. They headed out with a soccar ball, frisbee, bat and ball. They came back SWEATY and happy.

2. I took Capri to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I let her take the lead and we went on a 4 year old art tour, meaning we saw pretty much EVERYTHING in the musuem, not stopping to look at anything for more than 2 seconds. This wasn't because she didn't like it, in fact she LOVED it. But she's 4 and 2 seconds was all she needed to appreciate each piece. There were a few things that were so totally gorgeous to her that she had to stop and look for a few extra seconds. The first was this tea set:

The next was this room:

And then she found it, her most FAVORITE thing in the entire museum. This painting literally stopped her in her tracks, made her clutch her heart and say, "Ohhhh Mommy! This is the most beautiful painting I have ever seen!"
It's a Georgia O'Keefe, and it's so totally, completely, perfectly Capri.


Kid Dates, Day Two:
1. Jeff took Capri out to lunch at On The Border, one of her favorite restuarants. She came home all smiles with a strawberry lemonade in hand. Capri has had a crush on her Daddy (and now so does Sable big time) pretty much since she was born, so it was very special for her to go out just with him.

2. I took Rome to see Kung Fu Panda. We both LOVED it. Seriously, it is a really cute movie and made me laugh out loud. Especially the end, "Ska-doosh".

Kid dates, Day Three:
Rome and Capri went to Juliette Frost's birthday (thank you Emily!!) which gave Jeff and I a chance to take Sable out on our own. Sable loves to eat so that's what we did. Sometimes it's easy to think that babies don't notice things, but they so do. Sable was fully aware that her brother and sister weren't around and that she had us to herself. It was all smiles through her mouthful of pasta at Bravo!.

Conclusion:
Do it. Take your kids on kid dates. Don't make excuses, just go. It's something they and YOU will never forget. We'll surely be doing it again soon.

Un Film di Due Fanciulli

That was a jump for joy you saw Rome do there. And no, he's not injured or anything. He just laid there like a slug for a minute, "It was his only defense".

She's a Walkin' Girl

Jeff and I have yet to figure out how to put videos from our video camera onto our computer and then into our blog. This has saved you, the reader, countless videos of our oh-so-cute kids and their antics. I'm sure you're devastated. But some things are just too important to not get to see - I mean this mainly for Grandparents, "the Uncles" and those who might actually care. So since Sable's main form of transportation now is walking I figured I better film her on our digital camera (which has poor quality and NO sound, but which I CAN get to post) so that Gramma, Papa and the likes could get to see this tiny girl toddle around.

Isn't she just oh-so-cute?

Independence Day in Independence, MO

We had a great fourth this year, made even better by Jeff's mom who volunteered to watch the kids and send us to the movies. This, to put it lightly, was quite a treat. We jumped at the offer and found ourselves at a matinee for Indiana Jones 4. As the movie got started and Indy showed up on screen, I leaned over to Jeff with a HUGE goofy smile on my face and said, "This is SO much fun!" I gotta admit, I love Indiana Jones. He is by far, to me, one of the greatest characters ever created. So to get to see him in action again after all these years was really great. I got even happier when Shia LaBeouf came onscreen, who is also great and in the top five on my innocent crush list - something I'll have to put together in a later post.
Thanks so much Cathy, we had a great time!

For fireworks we headed to Independence, MO for the show they put on there. We've gone every year since we've moved here and can't see going to any other show. This one is just too good. It's a solid 30 minutes of BIG fireworks, at least 2 at a time. The weather was perfect, cool and clear. We laid on our blanket and watched and watched. Sable even loved the show which last year she heard from my tummy. We ate shaved ice as we waited to get out of the crowded parking lot, and didn't get the kids to bed till nearly midnight. For us, it was all just perfect.

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As the kids would say, "Happy July Day!!"

It's Business Time Jenny

I saw this on my friend Emily's blog. I laughed so hard I nearly fell out of our hand-me-down pink wingback chair from my Dad's old office in DC. That's right. . .pink.

Enjoy.



Then, while I was looking on Youtube I found this. And I DID fall out of our hand-me-down pink wingback chair from my Dad's old office in DC.

Josh will be so proud.