Easter Saturday at Papa's

We are blessed to be able to spend the Saturday of Easter weekend celebrating at my Dad's house. The food is always super great and the company is even better. Nothing beats being with my brother and sister and their families.



We all have so much to be thankful for.

Here's our attempt at a family photo toward the end of the night.
We clearly kept the kids out way past their bedtime and the crazies started to set in. They were all really good though. Benjamin was sound asleep before we even got out of my Dad's neighborhood.



Thank you Dad and Alex (not pictured) for always being such wonderful hosts - we LOVE you both!

Memorable Moments in March

It's hard to believe that March is over! Where did the month go? Our days get so busy that sometimes I fear that I'm not stopping long enough to really cherish each moment as well as I should be. I also have a bad habit of letting the bad overshadow the good. I have SO much good in my daily life - sometimes it's just the little things that make me smile. Maybe it's something one of the boys says when I pick them up from school or a special picture they drew for me. These are very special moments but sadly they can easily be overshadowed by arguing siblings or vomiting little girls. I feel that sometimes I talk more about those things here on this blog or on Annabelle's and way too much to Branden when he gets home than about ALL of the wonderful things that happen throughout my day. Being able to stay home with our 3 little little ones is a blessing and I know this. There is bound to be lots of great and not so great moments every day - there's a lot of hours in each day :-)

So, in an effort to not let another month slip away without remembering it I've visually highlighted as a reminder for me some of the more memorable moments that happened this past month. There were lots more moments I'm sure but sometimes I just don't have a free hand to take a picture.

Taking my boys to the movies for the first time. It was just the three of us and we saw Gnomeo & Juliet


Celebrating Jack's 6th birthday with the family


Disneyland for Jack's birthday on his birthday!



Grammy & Auntie Mingie joined us! It was so much fun and we even stayed to see World of Color for the first time. Such a GREAT day (and night!)


Playdoh with the littles


Surprise swim days after school - me and all 3 kids!
Although it was nap time for Annabelle she is so great about being flexible when necessary and she really had so much fun splashing and kicking in the water.



Jack going out to lunch and the movies to see Tangled with his best friend for his birthday! (Her mom and I were there too)



Wearing super cute St. Patty's Day hair bows and hanging out with a super cool big brother


Jack's 1st Jog-a-thon. Thank you everyone who so generously sponsored him.


Playing in the backyard together!




Benjamin playing T-Ball - soooo cute!


Reading with Daddy early in the morning


Big brothers teaching their little sister karate before bed


Making homemade vanilla ice cream with dad




We have returned to doing weekday crafts during Annabelle's nap - yeah! The boys were "writing" their name with glue and Cheerios. We also did marshmellow rainbows earlier in the month.


Annabelle becoming more comfortable using her walker at home


Reading together with Daddy before bed


Jack made me this beautiful cross last Sunday because he knew I was sad that we missed church. I love his kind heart.


The kids happily building together (yeah - together!)


My brother and my sister in laws baby shower. They are having their first baby - a girl!


It was a "family shower" and the boys were SO excited to go to their first baby shower - it was so cute. Check out how great this picture came out! What I'd give to get a great family picture like this.


What a GREAT month! Thanks for taking the time to relive some of the more MEMORABLE MOMENTS of MARCH with me!!!

Hoping that April is super great for each of you. Feel free to leave a comment if you wish, to let me know you stopped by. I'd love to hear about any special plans you all have planned for April and how you try to cherish the moments with your families in our very busy world.

Long over due update

As we are approaching the one year anniversary (February 6, 2010) of my nephew Brent's horrible car accident I realized it's been quite awhile since I posted an update about him. I Feel bad that I haven't updated in so long and wanted to take a moment to update those that have been following his story and praying for him. For those that don't know the details feel free to clink on the "myfamily" link below or read some of my past post with the label Brent Sirignano.

Brent has made amazing progress these past 11 months. We are all so proud of him - well, actually we are all extremely proud of the whole family. The way they have come together through this scary situation and have pulled through a stronger, more connected family. They are an inspiration to us all. We feel so blessed to have spent some very special time with them this past Thanksgiving, at my Dad's birthday and Christmas and again for Benjamin's 4th birthday. These were really great moments that we won't ever forget!


*Keith, their oldest son, our oldest nephew is not pictured. He is engaged to be married and was unable to celebrate with us this year.



Here's the latest update on the "myfamily.com site" posted by my sister Mingie and brother in law Ed.

Hello to ALL,

Well 2011 is under way and Brent is off to a great start. Home tutoring and therapies are going well and Brent continues to heal and show improvements. We attended the ETHS varsity game last night and several of Brents friends came over to say hi and grab a hug. Then we watched the team pull out an amazing win in the last seconds of the game. Yes, we still Love this game and always will. Such an intense finish. Brent handled the excitement, the noise and even balanced himself on the unstable bleachers for the whole game. Good therapy for him! It was our first time being in the gym since the accident and of course being at the gym was a little bitter sweet.

On another note Eddies life seems to be getting back on track and he is showing improvement at school and just in general is a happier person and has regained the security in his life these days. Since Brents accident he has been and continues to be very protective of his brother and for most of last year he was Brents younger, but big brother. It was a very emotional year for Eddie, but as Brent continues to improve, we are seeing positive signs with Eddie too. Brent, however has now reaffirmed his big brother status and sometimes even acts like Eddies second Dad these days, questioning Eddie about his plans , when he will be home, who is driving etc. They certainly have formed quite a bond during this last year.

Keith and Amanda's wedding is approaching fast and we are finally at a place in our lives where we can really be happy for them and our family is getting very excited as the big day gets nearer. We Love you both and are very very happy for you.

May God bless ALL of you in 2011.

Love Always,

The Sirignano Family

Here are some pictures from Christmas of our AWESOME nephews with our boys.

The boys are so thankful to have their playful, happy cousin Brent back. Watching them interact was the BEST Christmas gift I could have asked for.

Whenever the boys and Eddie are together it's a constant giggle fest. He is such a fun and patient cousin. He is REALLY good with them. What a blessing he is. I only wish they lived closer (boo hoo)

Here's Keith and Amanda being as adorable as ever! Amanda is just a doll and we are so excited to have her as our niece and the kids cousin. Here she is being Jack's assistant for his magic tricks he was performing for the family. He was so happy to have her helping him!

WE HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR THEM ALL!!

We would like to send a big thank you to everyone who prayed for Brent and the whole family these past 11 months. We would be honored if you would please continue to pray for Brent as he continues on his journey of healing and regaining what was so quickly taken from him last year. Also, please let his experience serve as a reminder how quickly your life can change - in an instant everything can change.

Be safe when you drive, make wise choices and always, always, always let your your family know how much you love them!!

Family Friday!

I just wanted to share these two new family snapshots we got last week when celebrating Benjamin's 4th birthday. Can you even believe my baby boy is 4?





It's been a LONG week and I'm looking forward to some family time this weekend. Hope you are able to enjoy some yourself!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Sorry to everyone who didn't get a Christmas / New Years card from us. I wasn't able to get as many of them out this year. Please know that we are so grateful for all the love and support that we receive from you.
May God continue to bless you in 2011 ~ xoxo

Christmas Eve - 2010

JACK, BENJAMIN & ANNABELLE WISH YOU A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

So does their Mom and Dad!

Sweet dreams family and friends.
We hope your holiday was filled with many wonderful moments.

Baking with the boys

Okay, who am I trying to kid. I didn't "bake" the cookies, we just decorated them. We sure had fun though.

Jack - takes his time and is always so proud of his final product

Benjamin - plops it on and goes straight to eating part

"First Friday" Fun - Christmas Edition

The family (minus me - boo) in front of the Christmas tree on Atlantic Ave. here in Long Beach.

We were all bundled up. You know those chilly California nights (he he)

Such cuteness!

If I can be real honest for a moment - I want to put it out there that the ONLY Christmas gift I want this year is for my boys to be like this picture above - kind and loving to one another. Sadly, there has been WAY too much sibling rivalry dampening my Christmas cheer and saddening my heart lately.

We weren't expecting to run into Santa but were sure happy to snap a cute (and free) picture with him. Annabelle was quite intrigued with him. By the time we got her to look at us, the boys were pretty much over the whole smiling thing. Oh well, what can you do.

We ended our night with a Jamba Juice and our usual ride on the BIG RED BUS!!

Another fun family night. I sure cherish these super great times.