Sunday, August 31, 2008

Dominic's best bud


We are very blessed to have friends that have kids the same age as ours. Dominic and Jude love playing together. Here is a great shot of them having fun on the swings.

Happy birthday Daddy


We celebrated Daddy's birthday a bit early since we had family in town to share his day. I made his favorite Mocha Torte.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Family visit





Uncle Jeffrey, Papa Paoletti and Amy all came for a visit and the kids had a great time. Isabella announced that she wished that Jeffrey was her brother because he is so much fun. She then informed me that she would still keep Dominic as her brother and that Jeffrey would be an extra brother. They got to play football, superman, Wii and Jeffrey even took them to the store to pick out a toy. Which sealed the deal for the kids. It is awesome to see the kids enjoying time with family. We are looking forward to our visit to Springfield the end of Sept.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Birthday Breakfast



It is here again, my 29th birthday! It was a wonderful time spread out over two days. My mom came down and watched the kids so Michael and I could go out on Sunday night, then she stayed and helped Michael make a wonderful breakfast complete with a cake decorated by the kids. It was awesome! I didn't do any cooking or cleaning all day and even had some time to read a book. My 29th birthday gets better every year or maybe the third year was the charm?
The best part of the day was getting to hear that my brother has been blessed with another little girl. I now get to share my birthday with my cute little niece.

Birthday twins


Isabella went with her dad over the weekend on a secret mission to find a birthday present for me. What she didn't know was that Michael secretly got a matching one for her too. She was very of the pink butterfly shirt she selected and was so happy to match her mom. I never thought I would be a matching mom....but I have to say seeing her face so proud made it all worth it. We were twins all the next day.

The New Baby: Trinity Kayden




Thank you everyone who has been praying for my brother Jeff & his wife Traci. They just gave birth to a very healthy (9lbs 5oz) baby GIRL!! Trinity Kayden. We finally got to go down last night and see the new baby. She had fluid on her lungs when she was born so she has be in the NICU since birth. They are still monitoring her to make sure she is ok. They said she will most likely stay in the NICU until discharge on Thursday. We were able to go and see her and got to see Jeff hold her for the first time. We were able to get their first family picture in the NICU last night. Please pray that Traci and Trinity recover well from this week. Congratulations Jeff & Traci & big sister Trista Jayden. For more on them go to here.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Feast of Saint Dominic


Since we were on vacation during the actual feast day for St. Dominic (August 8th) we celebrated a little later this year. Last year we made a Rosary cake this year we decided to be a bit crazier and make a Rosary out of cookies. The process took a bit longer but the kids had lots of fun making the cookies and Isabella iced almost all of them! She chose green icing since her new school Rosary was green. It was a very fun way to celebrate the feast and to top it off the kids said the specific prayer of the cookie they ate before they ate it!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Day at the Zoo





We spent the morning at the zoo with a few friends. Here are some pictures from the day. After lunch we went off on our own and the kids had a great time playing in the big tree. It was a beautiful day to be at the zoo.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Crazy kiddos


Happy 4th birthday Trista. Here are some pictures of the kids being goofy.

Friday, August 15, 2008

First day of school


I know what you are thinking...."why in the world are the kids on the porch looking like they are ready to get on the school bus when you are homeschooling?" We just wanted to make the day special so that we could document her first day of kindergarten. So far she is doing great! We are loving it.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Just that Fancy


The library hosted a "Fancy Nancy" tea party and Isabella and I got all dressed up "fancy" to attend. It was lots of fun. (For those of you who don't know, Fancy Nancy is a book about a little girl who likes everything to be fancy even though the rest of her family isn't. She gives her whole family a makeover and teaches them about accessories.) It was a great girl's night out.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Papa's birthday


We had a Bray family reunion at Jeff's restaurant to celebrate my dad's birthday. The kids helped in making him a cake. Here is a picture of Papa and 2 of his grandkids. The cake had a picture of him with all his Grandkids.

A boy and his Papa



We got to spend 2 days with my dad the week of his birthday. One at the restaurant and one at their house the next day. While we were there Dominic got to help Papa cut the grass with his rotary mower. Dominic was pretty proud of his new found mowing capabilities and Papa was pretty patient to mow with the little half-pint. Here are some pictures from the mowing session.

Enjoying nature




Dominic was so thrilled when he found a blue-jay feather at Grandma's house. He also had a grand time picking out flowers to take home.

Tomato time



The kids got to pick tomatoes with Papa. Dominic was very happy to find a "ity-bity baby tomato" just his size.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Dominic: the Entertainer

This video was taken after Dominic turned dinner into a comedy routine.

Vacation fun at Paradise Park


















We got the pleasure of visiting Paradise Park in Lee's Summit, it was a great time. We spent the whole day there, the kids loved the different activities and pretend rooms. Isabella loved the grocery store and Dominic loved the water table. Here are a few pictures from the day. Michael and Isabella spent a long time perfecting the doll house while Dominic and I went to do an art project, which he is wearing in the picture. The kids had a ball in the balls and greatly enjoyed the tricycle track they could ride on. Overall it was a great day.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Water Park Adventures




After we returned home from our lake vacation the fun didn't end. We went to the Tiffany Springs water park for an afternoon of splashing around. We had a great time and the kids loved all the water activities. Here are some from the water umbrellas, the loved hiding under them.

Water fun





The afternoon was great. The weather wasn't all that warm, only in the upper 80's with a breeze that could cool you off if the sun went behind the clouds. Overall the day was a great success until Dominic loaded up on too many snacks and too much chlorinated pool water....and ended up throwing up in the pool. Super yuck, we took this as a sign it was time to leave. We watched briefly as the life guards took care of the yuck factor before exiting the park. Dominic was perfectly fine after wards and was running all over the place reinacting what just took place by saying "bleeeh" over and over. Boys!