OUR FAMILY

There's nothing like a great family picture to capture what is important in life!  This is our first semi-professional picture (thank you Nicole!) and we had it made into a canvas.  What a great way to do something a little non-conventional!  The quality is absolutely superb and with the help of Groupon, the price was just right.  Check out Canvas On Demand to see how easy it is to showcase your important family photos! 

IT'S THE SIMPLE THINGS...

...that make my Pepper happy!

Things like...
*apples
  and
*horses

We finally got to celebrate her birthday in a somewhat proper fashion.  When asked what she wanted for her birthday, every single time she would answer, "apples"!  Although it was disappointing that we had to celebrate 1/2 the day with one family and 1/2 the day with another, it was still a partial success.  I guess it is the small things that make comedy and memories.

Things like...

* losing out on tables at Arlington because their employees are not well trained
* losing out on riding the ponies at Arlington because their employees are not well trained
* losing most of our food at Arlington because of their employees (just kidding..it was because of the 95 degree heat that was shining directly upon us ALL AFTERNOON)

Sad to say that we have no pics from our daytime adventures, but we did have SOME fun betting the horses, eating melted chocolate, getting sunburns, watching the cousins play together, eating nothing but snacks and ice cream, going to the petting zoo and getting some cool goodie bags. 

I do have a few pics from the nighttime...

Not surprisingly, Pepper's cake did not make it back to the house in one piece.  At least we got a laugh from the fact that it now read "APPY BIRTHDAY" which would have been funnier if Nonno and Nonna were there to see it!  Get it?  Cuz the "H" is silent!  Funny Italian reference...

Just for fun and to cover up the mess, I gave her a great cake topper!

See?  It's the small things that make her happy...

We decided that since we were so late in singing to her, we might as well cover everyone else who had a birthday that had passed or that was coming up in the future.  Yeah, we sang FOUR times.  She wasn't happy that she had to share her cake.  Don't stand between this girl and her desserts!

Someone else was having a fit because his name wasn't mentioned during all the Happy Birthday's that were going around...

Just as we were about to call the day a bust, she got her wish and the PERFECT birthday present!

She did end up riding a pony, albeit 2 months late and it was a PHONY (hehe...you can make the "h" sound or leave it silent...hehe), but do you see her smile?

Like I said...it's the small things...
*

SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW

Today was a really sad day. It was Nicholas' last day of preschool and it did not go so well. He was tearful all day about his friends that will be "lost" over the summer. I tried to explain that he would find them in a few months, right back where he left them! We went out to dinner to celebrate his summer freedom and ran into some old friends of ours. They had their three beautiful kids with them and I didn't give it a second thought until I asked how old their youngest is. As my friend said "almost two", Joey reminded me that we both kept getting pregnant at the same time...didn't I remember?

Of course I remember.
Of course I remember all the time.
How could I forget what was "lost"?

Seeing their three kids and our two, how could I forget that a little one was missing from our table? Thank God that we were on our way out because I could not hold the tears back for long. The tears were coming hard and fast, just like the horrible rain storm that had just passed. And then, just as soon as it began, it ended as I turned around and saw a beautiful rainbow shining through all the clouds and rain and sadness.

And then I remembered
somewhere over the rainbow,
our other little one was at God's table
and I thought to myself,
what a wonderful world!

Sometimes it takes darkness
to see the light...

SING, SING A SONG

Sing out loud.
Sing out strong.
Sing of good things, not bad.
Sing of happy, not sad.
Sing, sing a song.

I love when the unexpected happens. I love that my day started out really bad, which was an overflow from yesterday. I guess since I don't sleep, I couldn't sleep it off! Do you know what I loved the most about today? Somehow and quite unexpectedly, music found it's way into almost every moment of my afternoon and evening and turned things around! It was always the right tune, even though I was mostly OUT OF TUNE!

I sang out loud and
I sang out strong and
I sang out with my family and
They took aspirin :)