Caldiero Cousins

Yesterday Cassie and I had a fun afternoon visiting our cousins, Lola and Vinnie. Aunt Nichole was brave enough to let all of them paint in her kitchen! They did a really good job and had a great time. It is wondeful to have cousins so close by!

All I want for Christmas is a fixed front tooth!

Natasha chipped her front tooth. Thank heavens for a wonderful dentist and staff that could get us in really soon. Little did Natasha know that she would be getting a $102 tooth for Christmas!

First Recital

Natasha started taking dance this August, and her first recital was this week. She has really enjoyed her Combo II class which includes ballet, tap, and jazz. She is one of three girls in the class and it is great to get so much personal attention, we love teacher Pam!

They danced to "When Christmas Comes to Town" from the Polar Express, and they all did a great job. Natasha is very graceful when she is following her teachers instructions! Great Job Tash!

The MOST wonderful time of the year!

I LOVE this time of year, and truth be told, I get ready for it all year long! My favorite part of the holiday season is the decorating. I love to come up with a new theme each year. As I gather things for my tree throughout the year, I never know quite how it will come out when it is all put together. I am really happy with how this year's Polar Express tree came out. My sister Jordan came and decorated with me the day after Thanksgiving, a tradition since she was 7. We have never put so much on one tree at a time, but it turned out great, and we had a wonderful time together decorating and enjoying our Christmas usuals - A Christmas Story, and White Christmas.




A few close ups of our hard work!

Jordan also helped by doing a beautiful wreath. Hopefully Aaron will help me get it hung up in our vaulted entry way this weekend. It will be beautiful!

I also let the girls decorate their own trees in their rooms. They were in heaven, and I am sure they will have a long future of Christmas themes coming their way. I hope their husbands are as kind about it as mine is!

I can breathe!

I had surgery on Monday - my third laparoscopy, and finally the air seems to be almost gone! Anyone who has had these types of surgery knows that the air they put in you gets trapped after the surgery and it is VERY painful! This time it was stuck under my collar bones and in my diaphram/lung area. I couldn't take a deep breath and couldn't get comfortable to lay down for a while, but am MUCH better now. I slept through the night last night, and now can even cough to get some of the crap out of my lungs that has been building there since I haven't been able to take a deep breath or cough in almost 48 hours.

Strange to post this type of personal thing, but I guess that this is part of the blogging world too... this surgery has given us the realization that I am not meant to have any more babies. Finally we know why I have been having so much pain and problems, and we know what needs to happen to make it better. Many of you know what a struggle it has been for us to get the two darling red heads that we have, and we are thrilled to have been given two miracles. TWO miracles, I couldn't ask for anything more.

Thank you to everyone who has been so wonderful to bring us meals, treats, and phone calls of concern, you are the best! I was sad to miss last nights Girls Night Out, the first one I have missed in over a year, but it was still great to see those who stopped by and called.

Halloween Activities

We had a lot of fun with our pumpkins this year. Daddy even let Natasha use the drill. She loved it!




Natasha was a beautiful snow princess and Cassie was a darling "monkey George".

We went to a tri-ward trunk-or-treat, it was a zoo, but a lot of fun. Daddy even got into the action by being Cassie's partner in crime, the man in the yellow hat.

We tried to get a picture of all of the Caldiero cousins together, but it was a bit difficult to get 5 kids from 6 to 4 months to work with us.

A day with Aunt Jordan

We are off track right now, which is quite the adjustment. We have been busy taking Natasha to Super Sport, sleeping in, being lazy, and yesterday we went up to Logan to visit Aunt Jordan at USU. The girls have missed her a lot, and didn't even complain on the almost 2 hour drive! We got to see her dorm, meet some of her friends, take her out to an off campus lunch (very exciting to someone who doesn't get to eat out much!), and walked around the beautiful campus. Along our walk, we couldn't help but notice all of the beautiful color and the leaves all over the lawn. Taking cute pictures in the leaves turned into a leaf fight, but the smiles are well worth it. Miss you Aunt Jordan!

My how times have changed

We went to Gardner Village over UEA (us and the rest of the world!) with some of my highschool friends and their kids. When we went to lunch and had to add up how many seats we needed, we were shocked to find out that although there were only three adults, we were a party of 11 - 8 kids!! Times have certainly changed, now we talk about potty training, dicipline books, and funny things our kids do. A little different from the lunches at OHS dreaming with our Bride's Magazine!

The Binkie Fairy came

The binkie fairy came to our house a few weeks ago. Yes, Cassie is almost two and a half, and still used a binkie at nap and bed time. Enough was enough so we put all of her binkies in a bag for the fairy to take away. The girls also added a small table with treats and water for her, along with a bed just in case she was tired from the long "flight". The fairy took the binkies and left her a stuffed bear, "Penny". She was really excited about it. Although it took her a little while to adjust, she has done really well, and hasn't even asked about her "di di" for over a week. It has made the potty training go back a few steps, but hey, one thing at a time.

Our little Conan, Gateway, and a 2 wheeler

With all of the changes with Natasha's hair, it has made me want to play around with Cassie's more. Since we have more time for the two of us during the days Natasha is at school, we play more than we ever have before. One day I decided to try to blow out her hair to see what she looks like with striaght hair. Well, lets just say, the Lord knew what he was doing when He gave Cassie curly hair, she looked like Conan O'brian! This photo also shows the other two things she is all about right now. 1. Potty training (she is wearing a pull up in this shot), and 2. She wants to show us her teeth all of the time. Big sister is loosing a lot of teeth right now, and gets a lot of attention for it, so she doesn't want to be out done.


We took the "train" into the city on Saturday with the girls. They loved the fountain, Natasha tried to be in it without getting wet, and did a really good job. Cassie only wanted to watch, no desire to get wet on her part.





Last night we planned that we would take Natasha to have some serious biking lessons without her training wheels. We are far behind on this one, and it has been frustrating for her that her friends have already learned this. What can I say, Philly didn't have a lot of places to teach her. Anyway, she did great, and Daddy was a wonderful teacher. I am also trying out some new photography techniques. We had a great lesson at our last Relief Socity Enrichment night, thanks Denise. I got her in some open shade, got closer up, and turned off my flash. I still haven't read the owners manuel to my camera, but I will get there!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Natasha cut her hair today! After YEARS of only letting us give her tiny trims, she decided to cut off over 10 inches to donate to Locks of Love. She looks darling, thanks Heidi!

Before

During


After

She loves her new sassy do and couldn't get enough of playing with it during homework time tonight.

NY trip

We had a wonderful trip. Here are some of the highlights!

Even though the picture didn't come out very well. I had a WONDERFUL time visiting my friends and eating at my favorite restaurant, Maggianos!

This picture is for Camille - in case anyone was wondering, Ben Franklin's grave is in Philadelphia, not Boston.


some of the fun sights.



Our hotel was right by Aaron's work. The hotel is the red building on the left, and the huge one on the right is the World Financial Center. In case you are wondering, we got in trouble for taking Aaron's picture on the outside of the building. Security is very tight there. We could see the Statue of Libery from a walking area by the hotel.

We had a ton of fun on Canal Street in China Town.

We saw Jersey Boys on our anniversary (11 years!). We still have all of the great music stuck in our heads.

Cassie loved the China jammies we brought her.

This weekend we went up to the mountains to see the beautiful leaves. Natasha figured she would get a wedding bouquet ready - just in case.