The Priano Family

Fall Fun

2010-10-31T20:31:00.011-04:00

Erika wasn't thrilled with the costume, to put it mildly. She lightened up about it a little bit after we gave her some candy though.

Here's the cast of Toy Story!

Here's the lot of us at Danny & Laura's church.

Tim coached Bekah & Joey's soccer team this fall. He did a great job - all the kids loved him. Bekah & Joey each scored a bunch of goals and had a lot of fun.

First day of school!

2010-09-01T09:08:00.006-04:00

Today was Bekah & Joey's first day of school! They were super excited.

The last two days I've gotten to take Bekah and Joey out one at a time (thanks Mom!) to do some school shopping, have lunch & see a movie. It was a really special time for us. Joey picked out this glow-in-the-dark batman shirt and reversible shorts. Super exciting!

Bekah loves to clothes shop. She picked this out for her first day, and the headband, and a necklace. So pretty and grown up!

We also went to see Ramona & Beezus. Yeah, I saw it two days in a row. It's a pretty good movie!

Here's all my sweeties -

Me & the group -

Finally time for the bus!!!!

Another Build-A-Bear

2010-07-29T10:31:00.003-04:00

Ryan and I went to Build-A-Bear last night to celebrate his success in potty training, a "tradition" of sorts in our family. You might recall the illustrious Spidey Rex from a few years back...

Here is Ryan's new friend, Woody. He may not be as memorable as Sir Spidey, but he is very cute and we are happy that he's joined our family.

Ryan Update

2010-05-26T21:33:00.011-04:00

So where's Ryan? All these posts about Bekah & Joey & Erika... let's not forget the "middle".

Ryan is a happy boy. He is full of energy and is very good at making us all laugh. And he still makes the "Ryan face".

Ryan likes to carry things around. Currently he's very into Toy Story, and carries around his beloved blanket, 2 hard plastic Buzz toys, and a stuffed Buzz & Woody. It's a big armful.

Joey & Bekah recently sported crazy hair for a crazy day at preschool, so we let Ryan join in the fun with his own mohawk, which he liked to call "shark hair"

He also has been enjoying playing with a puzzle of the US that recites the state names, nickname & state capital. I thought he just liked it, but discovered recently that he's really soaking in the information when he regurgitated "Pennsylvania, the Keystone state, state capital: Hairburg." Shortly after, he asked me how to spell Boise. A boy after my own heart, loving geography. :-)

He's such a cutie. His whole face smiles and I just can't help but squeeze those cheeks.

Preschool Graduation

2010-05-26T21:24:00.006-04:00

Time certainly flies. Back in November I was mourning the start of preschool. Now I'm mourning it's end! Bekah and Joey graduated from preschool today. I thank God for providing such a fantastic experience for them. They attended preschool with 2 loving teachers and 40 enthusiastic, caring teenagers who are just beginning their paths in elementary education. Graduation was beyond adorable. It just made me even more aware of how quickly 2023 will be upon us.

We were so encouraged to hear from the teachers today that Bekah and Joey are wonderful, intelligent, kind children who will excel in kindergarten. We're thankful to God for the wonderful children He has placed in our care.

Happy 5th Birthday, Bekah and Joey!

2010-04-18T17:37:00.004-04:00

Here's our annual picture of the twins on our front porch on their birthday. Weren't they tiny yesterday? I'm so proud of how them. We have two very nice five year olds. It used to seem that school was a lifetime away, now it's lurking behind the corner.

Here are some more pictures from their party.

The first lost tooth

2010-04-11T20:45:00.002-04:00

Bekah lost her first tooth tonight! The tooth wasn't *quite* ready yet, but it decided to pop out anyway when colliding with Ryan's head. Bekah is all excited to go to school tomorrow to show her friends her new look. I wonder what the tooth fairy will be leaving for her.

I just loved losing teeth as a kid. I'm excited (maybe even more excited than they are) about entering this new phase.

Happy Birthday, Erika!!

2010-03-05T05:38:00.017-05:00

It's hard to believe Erika is already one. Where has the time gone? She's such a happy, easy going girl. I'm so thankful that God brought her into our lives.

That's a big yawn for being just born!

I remember this moment so clearly, piling all the kids on the bed and thinking "wow... there's a LOT of us."

She's always liked to stick out her tongue a lot. So cute.

Erika's first trip to the zoo was at just 1 week old (and to the science center at 10 days - we were a little tired of being in the house). Here she is at a visit this summer. She likes the zoo - both the one she lives in and the ones with animals. This is one of my favorite pictures, all of us sitting on the metal tortise.

Erika is the youngest of 8 cousins on my side of the family.

Such a precious face...

Erika is happy *most* of the time. However, for the first 6 months or so, she REALLY hated bath time. She's since started liking it, but only if she's in the big tub with several siblings.

Have I mentioned that's she's extremely happy?

Erika attended her first Penguin game in October. She was a peach through the whole thing and didn't fall asleep until the third period. We managed to snag a visit with Iceburgh. Is it just me, or do they have very similar smiles?

As most babies, Erika sleeps a lot, and she has a real gift for falling asleep anywhere, and in some rather odd positions. This is her on Thanksgiving Day. Tim is holding up 3 fingers as that was the third time that day she had fallen asleep on him. He's got a gift.

We all thought she'd be an early walker when she picked this up around 8 1/2 months, but she's still taking just 2-3 steps occasionally and speed cruising everywhere else.

A star in the making...

Erika hasn't yet discovered, as her siblings have, that DADDY is the best thing on earth. She loves her Daddy, but for now, I'm quite content having her be Mommy's little angel.

Erika LOVES to empty the cupboards. Here she is "guilty as charged".

Here she is saying she's one. She is also saying, "chewing on my finger really makes my sore gums feel better." Sweetie girl only has 2 teeth that have poked through and is in great need for more to follow suit.

We love you, Erika.

Joey's Hockey Game

2010-02-15T10:17:00.012-05:00

When the hockey schedule came out, Tim let Bekah and Joey each pick a game (with an afternoon start time) that they wanted to go to. Joey's game was yesterday (Bekah's is next month) against the Predators. Joey has been counting down for about two months... literally asking every day how many days left until the game.

There are many advantages to having your dad as the team organist...

Like being in the bowels of the arena before the game and seeing the game nets.

And getting to go right down by the glass for warm-ups.

And getting an awesome view of the game, albeit a bit scary for mom.

And spending the time during intermission playing the (unplugged) organ.

And going down on the ice after the game.

But maybe the best part of the whole thing is spending the whole afternoon - just Daddy & you...

The Snowstorm of 2010

2010-02-09T14:44:00.010-05:00

We've had quite the weather lately! Tim measured 19" of snow in our backyard on Saturday... and on Friday afternoon we had 0". Here's some pictures from Saturday. We're supposed to get more today. Yikes! This first picture is of our van. We parked it on the street knowing that our long driveway would be very difficult to shovel. It took Tim about an hour to shovel the van out of the street.

Ryan had so much fun outside that he fell asleep on top of Tim's back after coming in.

Erika didn't go out in the snow, so I'm not sure she really needed to wear the snowsuit, but it sure was cute.

Sometimes I miss living in western New York, but a storm likes this reminds me that I'm really glad that I moved "south" and only have to deal with these storms once a decade or so.

Pirate Fest

2010-02-09T14:30:00.011-05:00

We went to the "Pirate Party" at the end of January. This was my first time going. Tim said they had a lot more to do last year, but they still had fun with what was there. Grant went with us too.

Erika got to meet Pirate Parrot. She was way more excited about it before realizing what was holding her.

Much to the dismay of real baseball fans, the highlight of the night was Mike the Balloon Guy. We waited in line for 45 minutes, and it was totally worth it.

(And yes, that is me in a We Are Fam-A-Lee shirt behind Grant.)

Ryan's 3rd Birthday

2010-02-09T14:18:00.008-05:00

Ryan loves all things cow related. However, about 2 weeks before his birthday he started talking about wanting a Batman or Toy Story cake. I wasn't about to give up on having a cow cake though, so we compromised. Introducing the Batman cow cake. Tim said it was the best Batman cow cake he'd ever seen.

Ryan was given lot of "Toy Stories" for his birthday (meaning Toy Story toys). And some super hero things. And what's a birthday without some cow presents?

And of course, no post about Ryan would be complete without a picture of the "Ryan face". What a cutie.

Ryan is such a sweet boy and makes us laugh every day. He's such a joy to have around and I'm so thankful for such a terrific not-so-little-anymore boy.

Erika Dancing

2010-01-04T12:35:00.003-05:00

She loves that Fridge Phonics!

Thanksgiving to Now

2009-12-17T15:33:00.007-05:00

My sister posted about our Thanksgiving on her blog, so here are just a few of my pictures.

Erika spent most of her first T-day asleep on her Daddy. He's got the special touch. He's holding up 3 fingers in this picture because this is the 3rd time that day she had fallen asleep on him. Cute.

Tim and his mom took the kids to a Candy Land party at the library. They had a great time... except for a slight fear of Lord Licorice.

I celebrated my 29th birthday on December 9. My very sweet husband sent me these very beautiful flowers.

Sometimes Daddy's are too comfortable for even themselves to resist a little happy nappy.

Thanksgiving Cookies

2009-11-20T12:21:00.005-05:00

Ryan and I made the dough while the twins were at pre-school. Then after lunch we rolled out the dough and cut the shapes. I should have taken a picture then. They were completely covered in powdered sugar!

Erika really wasn't much help with the cookies, but she was quite excited about the frosting I let her lick off of the spoon!

1st Day of Pre-School

2009-11-16T11:36:00.011-05:00

Things went well! They had a great time, and Tim and I weren't complete basket cases, so all things considered, it was a success.

It hasn't take Ryan long to adjust to being king of the castle at home while they're in school. His biggest concern is that I'm going to make him go to school too, which does not interest him in the least.

Erika is always eager for their return home.

The beginning of a new era...

2009-11-10T18:02:00.005-05:00

I've always prided myself in being a mom who didn't want to hold her kids back, who let them grow up in the timing that they ought... I've changed my mind. They must stop now. Tonight, as a matter of fact.

Bekah & Joey start preschool tomorrow. I have no idea how this happened. I swear - this was them just yesterday.

But alas, all good things must come to an end, so it is with a heavy heart that I send my kids into the real world... Sure, it's just preschool, but to me, it seems like the rest of their lives are out of my hands. It certainly is good to know that they're held in God's hands (which I do realize that they've never been in my hands, but it feels even less so now).

They, of course, couldn't be more thrilled, or any less sensitive. Bekah just told me today, "Mom, I know you're sad that we're going to school because you'll hardly see us anymore." Yeah. Thanks. Just what I needed.

It seems hard to believe that these memories even ever happened.

I'm not sure who came up with the phrase that for those with little kids the days are slow, but the years are fast, but I'm finding that so very poignant right now.

Seriously, I must just be the most blessed mom in the entire world.

Update - Vacation

2009-09-28T21:18:00.005-04:00

We spent some time at my aunt's shore house in Ocean City, NJ. While the weather wasn't fantastic, we still had a great time.

Update - September

2009-09-28T21:10:00.007-04:00

It's been a while. We've been busy!

Tim turned 30 on September 12. We had a very fun party to celebrate.

I'd like to introduce you to Lord Stanley of Cake.

I based the sausage choices on some of my favorite characteristics of Tim: hot & sweet. hehe

Here is Tim showing off some of his cornhole skills.

I went away in September for a ladies retreat with my church. Tim took the oldest 3 mini-golfing. Cute.

Glasses

2009-08-11T12:27:00.009-04:00

These glasses are from the doctor's kit we have. It's actually Bekah's, but Ryan is obsessed with the glasses. He wears them for hours at a time. Tim and I put them on Erika a few nights ago. She didn't mind, and probably enjoyed watching Tim & me laugh about it.

Summer has been going quickly. Here's a nice family picture from the last game we attended. It was give-away day - kids got a Ryan Doumit jersey. They were "adult small" size, so I got to wear Erika's.

Those Pirate games sure are exhausting. Even Tim fell asleep on the walk back to the car.

Haircut

2009-07-16T17:44:00.002-04:00

I just got back from a major chop & highlight. The husband likes it, so I guess it's all good. :-) In the background you can see the cherry pie that I baked this afternoon. I should have also taken a picture of my very stained fingernails (I don't own a cherry pitter, so my fingers & a paring knife pitted 4 cups). I hope it tastes good.

A weekend of fun

2009-07-01T12:58:00.006-04:00

Last weekend we attended a wedding of a family friend in New Jersey. This allowed us to have the chance to stay at Andrea's house. The cousins always have such a fantastic time together. When I was a kid, we always took pictures at my Uncle Gary's house with all of my cousins on the steps, so I always like to try to get pictures of all of my kids & their cousins on the steps too. Surprisingly enough, we got a couple with all of the kids looking & smiling! We also got a few that looked like this...

Erika just wouldn't cooperate and make a silly face. :-P

Erika also got to spend some really enjoyable time with her Grammy.

Erika will be 4 months this week. Where has the time gone? She is a wonderfully pleasant and easy-going baby. She's generally very happy & smiley. And in case you were wondering if her eyes would stay blue, we're gonna go with a definite "yes"!

New Erika pictures

2009-05-20T11:46:00.006-04:00

for those who have been asking...

Who is happy?!

And getting a little pudgy?!

All that smiling really can wear a girl out! Good thing Wendell is sympathetic to her being tired.

2 Months

2009-05-14T18:39:00.006-04:00

Time certainly is flying by these days. Erika is now over 2 months old. She's doing very well - growing quickly. Here she is enjoying a snooze with her Daddy (with 1.5 series worth of "playoff beard". Lets Go Pens!). She's very cute and pink. :-)
The kids and I (and Grandma) went to the Zoo this past week. Here we are sitting on the metal tortoise... not that you can see much of the tortoise! We had a very fun time and look forward to many more trips to the zoo this summer.

Happy 4th Birthday, Bekah and Joey!

2009-04-18T21:37:00.003-04:00

How on earth did this happen?!

here's a picture of them each year on their birthday (0-3)... they seem so grown up all of a sudden.
here are some pictures from Easter, the party and the little girl.

We had a beautiful day, so we had the party in our yard. It was so nice. And in case you were wondering, we never instruct them to hug like that for pictures... they just do it. Sometimes they sit like that to watch a movie - so sweet.

One of the best things in life...

2009-04-09T20:55:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite memories from each of my kids' births has been introducing the kids to Tim's grandparents. Grandpap was in the hospital with some lung problems around when Erika was born, so the intro had to wait a little while. Here's a picture of them with her. I feel so fortunate to have married into a family that treats me like one of their own; and I feel especially fortunate to have fantastic grandparents. What a special relationship for my kids to have - great grandparents.

Cousins

2009-03-23T14:54:00.002-04:00

My sister came to visit last week. With her came her friend Sara (Ryan's new best friend) and her 4 kids, Hannah (8.5), Jay (7), Daniel (5) and Julia (3). When I'd tell people she was coming with 4 kids, people thought we were crazy... but it actually was easier for me than just having my 4 kids as mine are so entertained by their cousins.

Andi & Sara were so very helpful and spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing things in my house that I just can't get to right now. We also went to the zoo and the Children's museum. They were here from Sunday night to Friday morning, which was great - though I don't think I could ever say they stayed "long enough". I love having them around!

All dressed up

2009-03-10T21:40:00.001-04:00

We all went to church on Sunday - our first outing with Erika. Quite the cute group!

Erika Lynn Priano

2009-03-05T20:49:00.005-05:00

Here's our newest sweetie. There are a lot more pictures here.

Erika Lynn Priano

March 3, 2009

9:25 am

7 lb, 12 oz

20 1/2 in

Holy Cow

2009-02-24T12:18:00.005-05:00

There are 2 things in this world that Ryan really loves: Veggie Tales & cows. Every time we go to Mops, Ryan is soothed into staying in his room by the cow toys available for him to play with. One of the workers in his room, who has an especially soft spot in her heart for Ryan, brought this cow in for him today as a gift. It's ginormous. He's really funny with it. He's got quite the collection of cows now, but this is by far the biggest.

***

I have just one more week until #4 is born. I'll be posting here sometime after his/her birth with more information. So exciting!!!

Here We Go, Steelers!

2009-02-06T07:42:00.002-05:00

Here's a picture of us in our black & gold. We had a nice time watching the Super Bowl. The kids stayed awake for most of it, but fell asleep half way through the 4th quarter... so right about the time it got REALLY exciting.

Bekah's First Boyfriend

2009-01-25T14:19:00.003-05:00

Tim & his brother Danny took Bekah & Joey to Piratefest yesterday. They had a great time doing a lot of different things, including batting, catching, going through an obstacle course, and the biggest deal - meeting some of the Pirates. Joey's favorite was Nate McLouth and Bekah's favorite was Ryan Doumit. She was just giddy about getting her picture taken with him. Now we just have to hope that he doesn't fall victim to being traded, as most Pirates do at some point or another.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!!

2009-01-19T07:53:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was Ryan's 2nd birthday. We had a party for him on Saturday. He's just such a sweet and fun boy. He felt a little bit shy about all of us singing happy birthday to him (as seen above), but warmed up to the idea once he realized he got cake out of it. If you'd like to see the cake, click on the Cake link on the side.

I'm really looking forward to another fun year with Ryan. I'm sure this year will be full of big changes for him - becoming a big brother, being potty trained (hopefully!), watching Bekah & Joey start preschool - should be an exciting time!

Click here if you'd like to watch the video of Ryan from ages 1-2 that we showed at the party. For some reason the music didn't seem to upload. I'll work on that.

Build-A-Something

2009-01-06T09:09:00.003-05:00

This past summer, we told Bekah that when she started using the potty all the time, I'd take her to Build-A-Bear. Joey decided that he'd like his reward to be going to a Pirate game with Daddy. So all this time, Joey has been antsy to get a build-a-bear. We told him when he started staying dry through the night all the time, we'd take him to Build-a-Bear. Rebekah picked an adorable pink bear with white hearts on her, and a Jessie costume (from Toy Story 2). Since that time, Joey has said he'd like a Buzz Lightyear Bear. Sounds good to me.

So over the last little while, Joey has had success at night, and his elephant memory has served him well and he has been very eager to go to Build-a-Bear. Last night was the night. We talked about Buzz Bear for days. He was so excited yesterday. We all went to the mall. Tim, Rebekah & Ryan went to the play area and Joey & I headed for the store.

We walked around and I wasn't seeing any Buzz costumes. Uh-oh. So we went and asked the worker if they had Buzz. Nope. Joey was disappointed - more confused than anything. She started telling him other things he could get: Bob the Builder. No reaction. We could dress one up like a cowboy. Yeah, not happening. On and on. And then... Spiderman. I had no idea Joey liked Spiderman. But there was no talking him out of it, which is fine. I really wanted him to have whatever he wanted. I wasn't going to inject my opinion. Oh, and he HAD to have a cowboy hat. Okay...

Now to pick a "bear". Cute brown bear: no. Penguin: no. And then he saw it: T-Rex. He was in love. So T-Rex got stuffed, we picked up the costume, got the birth certificate & paid. Then we dressed T-Rex. It was... interesting. The lady working there commented that she thought it was WAY cooler than Buzz Lightyear. Right. I commented that I'm guessing that it's not one of their more common combinations.

Upon arriving back to the play area, Tim kind of responded with a wow... what happened to Buzz? Joey ran off to play with Bekah & Ryan. I sat with Tim to discuss Spidey-Rex. Tim had me crying and not really breathing in laughter within minutes.

I seriously don't think there has ever been an uglier stuffed animal. I guess love really is blind. So without further ado, I'd like to introduce the newest member of our family: Spidey-Rex.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2009-01-03T11:04:00.001-05:00

We had a very nice Christmas & New Years and hope you did as well!

Ryan's Prayer

2008-12-22T14:29:00.006-05:00

Each night Tim prays with the kids right before bed. He asks Bekah & Joey what each of them thought was the best part of the day, then they thank God for that thing/person/whatever. He just started trying to incorporate Ryan into this too. Here was their conversation a few nights ago:

Tim: Bekah, what was your favorite part of the day?
Bekah: Spending time with Aunt Laura.
Tim: Okay, why don't you thank God for such a nice Aunt Laura that you get to be with so frequently.
Bekah: Okay. Dear God, thank you for a nice Aunt Laura and all the nice things we do with her.
Tim: Okay Joey...
(Repeat similar to above)
Tim: Okay, Ryan, Say "God, thank you for a fun day."
Ryan: You're welcome.

Hmm... we might need to work on that.

I'm back!

2008-12-21T07:51:00.002-05:00

Apparently whatever problem I was having has resolved itself. But apparently I can only upload one picture per post. I'll take what I can get.

So... an update. Tim's been playing with the kids a lot more recently as he got a new position at work!! Yippie. We've been hoping and praying for about a year for a job change. He stayed with the same company, but switched departments. His new spot doesn't require evenings & weekends & overtime like his old spot did, so we're seeing a lot more of him. Praise God. He heard he got the job 2 days before Thanksgiving and started there on 12/15.

I'm doing well, for the most part... I ended up getting the stomach flu in mid-November, and then again on Thanksgiving. T-day is my most favorite day of the year, so it was quite upsetting to be so sick for it. I didn't even get any turkey :-( Baby remained fine though, so I can handle that! Things are pretty much normal with me for now. I'm in the third trimester now and am getting so excited about meeting #4.

The kids are doing well too. Crafts are the daily excitement around here. Bekah & Joey are always looking for a new craft to do. Ryan spends his days looking for mischief to get himself into, usually with great success.

We're looking forward to Christmas. The kids are very concerned because we keep going to buy gifts for other people, but they haven't seen us buy any for them. I keep assuring them that we buy them when they're not around so it'll be a surprise. It should be a fun morning! They're very excited for Jesus' birthday and want to sing Happy Birthday to Him. I'm glad they at least sort of understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Happy Early Thanksgiving

2008-11-20T07:47:00.006-05:00

I love Thanksgiving - everything about it. I get so excited when it is time to make Thanksgiving themed crafts. Here are the kids turkeys.

Joey did not want his picture taken with his turkey. He also didn't want yellow hand-feathers or a gobblet part. I'm not sure if you can see too well in this picture, but he wrote the J and the Y in his name. Too cute.

Ryan was so excited about getting his picture taken that he wouldn't hold his turkey. It was stealing his spotlight. So Bekah was the helper and held it for him. Ryan had a *bit* more help than the other two... as evidenced by the placement of things and the ability to distinguish what the eyes are. He did do some mighty nice coloring by himself though.
Bekah is very excited about her turkey. The eyes are slightly below the beak and those pink circles are cheeks. Turkeys must have cheeks.
This was a great craft as they are really into anything involving markers or a stapler. The older two did cut out some of the hands by themselves (with assistance) too. I'm so glad that they're into crafts. It's one of my favorite things!

(I'm having problems with blogger - hence my infrequent posts... I can't seem to upload pictures on my home computer. It tells me there's a server problem. No idea what's going on with that!)

Welcome home, Houndy

2008-11-09T18:52:00.004-05:00

Wendell has been at my parents' house for the last little while as we worked on our kitchen. He wasn't so fond of the demolition, so instead he vacationed in Fredonia. We were glad to see that it didn't take him long to adjust to life here. At least he didn't forget where his spot on the couch is. He is, however, slightly frighted of the fridge when the ice maker makes noise.

I may need to start a second blog just to catalog Ryan's accidents. Today he split open his eyelid. Fortunately, we avoided stitches this time. It's very tough to be the Ry.

Happy Halloween from Sesame Street

2008-11-02T20:38:00.007-05:00

Most of the night was slightly happier than this moment for Ryan... though he wasn't too fond of the hood part of the costume. 1 1/2 year olds will, however, put up with almost anything for the promise of receiving candy. That's their cousin, Joshua, in the penguin suit. He's way too cute.

A real update...

2008-10-20T11:57:00.000-04:00

We had our follow up appointment this morning with the perinatologist (high risk pregnancy doctor). Since this morning was their first morning in a new building, things were running exceptionally slowly, even at 8:00 am. Nothing like dragging out the waiting! It was easy to see immediately that the heart rhythm looked normal. We watched it for a while on the ultrasound and saw that both the atriums and ventricles were beating at exactly the same rate (around 158). Praise God. But of course, we were still not certain that there wasn't a problem, and had to wait for quite a while longer (see a pattern here? maybe God's trying to teach me something!) to see the doctor, who had my blood work results. Thank God, my blood work came back completely normal for the 2 antibodies we were concerned about. It was barely positive for my ability to carry those 2 antibodies, so it is something I may deal with later on (negative is anything less than 20, mine measured at 20). The doctor was stunned. He told us that seeing an abnormal heartbeat like what we saw last week was explainable for a few minutes, but said that he reviewed our scan from last week which documented the irregular activity for 50 minutes. He said he has no medical explanation for this, and even said it just had to be a higher power. We certainly think so!! The doctor said he considered writing a paper on the situation... this just does not happen. I will continue to see the high risk doctor for the duration of the pregnancy. I will have a non-stress test next Wednesday in which they chart the heart beat for a while to check it. I'll go back a week later for a regular appointment and back for an ultrasound 2 weeks after that. If everything is still looking fine at that point, I'll be considered "normal" (there's a first for everything!). We know that God orchestrated all of this for our little sweetie. We know that He is the only way we can explain away this medical abnormality. We certainly thank all of you for praying for this during this time and appreciate them continuing. We'll continue to keep you updated as we learn more.

Not much of any update...

2008-10-17T19:08:00.004-04:00

I called my doctor's office (as instructed by my doctor on Monday) this morning to try to get my test results. Come to find out, yesterday and today their office is moving to another building. No one bothered to tell me that last Monday when I made an appointment for this coming Monday. I'm glad I found out or I would have shown up at the wrong place!

Anyway, I was told that they would not take a message and that I could not speak with the doctor on call as it wasn't an emergency. I guess it's not an emergency, but it is pretty important in my life! So I have to wait until Monday to find out. The waiting is really difficult. I haven't been sleeping well at all. It's not so much that I'm upset or anxious... I just can't get my mind to slow down when I need to go to sleep. It's been an exhausting week.

I have another ultrasound on Monday, so I assume I'll find out the results then. I'll post when I know more. We really do appreciate all the prayers we know are being made on behalf of this little sweetie.

On a lighter note, here's a conversation with my 3 year old sweeties that we had tonight while snuggling on the couch. Bekah and I were sitting together and Joey came over to join us.

Joey: Where can I sit?

Bekah: I skootched. You can sit next to me.

After Joey sat down...

Bekah: I'm in the middle!

Me: Are you the monkey in the middle?

Bekah: YES!!!

Joey: I'm the bear on the left.

He really enjoys the grizzly at the zoo.

Baby Update - Please Pray

2008-10-13T14:16:00.001-04:00

I had my ultrasound this morning. They discovered a heart problem with the baby called congenital heart block. The ventricles are not receiving the correct stimulus, so it's setting its own rate, about 70 beats per minute (should be around 140). It's still pumping enough blood to the rest of the baby, but has to work a lot harder to do so. We watched it for around 15 minutes at the ultrasound, then the doctor sent us upstairs to a specialist (praise God, she had a cancellation and could fit us in immediately). When we got there, it was like looking at a different heart - it beat perfectly, so the problem was either a fluke, or is in beginning stages and is having difficulty intermittently.

Congenital heart block is caused by an antibody that I produce. So they sent me to the lab to have blood drawn to see if I do in fact carry the antibody. If I do, then it's congenital heart block and they'd put me on steroids for the remainder of the pregnancy to minimize the damage to the baby's heart. If I test negative for the antibody, then chances are that it was just a fluke, and we'll continue monitoring it just to be sure.

If I do test positively, the antibody is associated with auto-immune diseases, meaning I have a 50% chance of contracting one sometime in my life (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc).

If the baby has congenital heart block, there's a really high chance that the baby will be put on a pacemaker a day after birth. It's not a really invasive procedure, so the baby would just stay in the hospital a few extra days for monitoring. This would also require replacement pacemakers for the duration of his/her life.

As you can imagine, this is quite a shock and a lot to take in for us. We are praying that I test negative for the antibodies, and that our little one just decided to play a trick on us for a few minutes.

We're praising God that the rest of the baby looks completely perfect. If there is a problem, we're very glad to have caught it early.

My blood work results should be back on Friday. I'll have another ultrasound on Monday to recheck things.

It's Hockey Night in Pittsburgh

2008-10-11T18:55:00.004-04:00

Not too much is new with us, hence the lack of blogging. However, hockey season officially starts in Pittsburgh tonight. Tim, of course, is beyond excited. So if you happen to catch a Penguin game this season, but sure to listen for the organ in the background!

Next year...

2008-09-29T15:10:00.004-04:00

We'll have one more kid to pose on this bench. We're very excited about adding Priano #4 to our family, expected arrival: early March 2009.

Happy Birthday, Timmy!

2008-09-12T22:00:00.003-04:00

Today is Tim's 29th birthday.

I'm so thankful to have such a great husband who is a FANTASTIC daddy.

(Not to mention, incredibly strong as shown above.)

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Sorry for the delay in posting...

2008-09-12T21:47:00.006-04:00

We've had some computer trouble lately, but I'm happy to report that we've become a Mac family. It's nice to have a computer that turns on when you push the on button.

We recently returned from a very nice family vacation in Ocean City, NJ. My aunt has a home there and is kind enough to let us use it each year.

Bekah really enjoyed the pool this year.

Joey made a lot of progress with his bike riding skills.

And Ryan was just happy to have some leisure time, what with his hectic schedule and all.

You should see the other guy...

2008-08-03T21:15:00.005-04:00

For those of you who are squeamish, you might not want to scroll down. For those of you who like medical gore, if you click on the pictures, they get bigger.
Poor, sweet Ryan had his first trip to the emergency room on Friday night. Actually, it's our first trip there at all. I've always thought that Ryan would be our "ER kid" as he's pretty daring and fearless.

Ryan somehow crushed a glass between his hands. Tim was outside and I was upstairs. When I came down, he was covered in blood, sitting on the floor, completely calm. Kids are amazing. So off we rushed to the ER. He handled the whole thing really well. I was very impressed. He cried pretty much only when someone was bothering him as it was really late at night and he was tired. He has 8 stitches in his left hand (nasty), and they were able to glue together his right hand (sounds worse than it is). He's done really well with the bandages... he ripped his stitched hand bandages off the next morning during his nap, but since then has been fine. We say he looks like a little boxer.

Tomorrow morning we'll take him to the doctor to have them checked. The stitches will come out in 7-10 days. They told me he'd probably always have a scar, but hey, chicks dig scars, right?

We changed the bandages tonight. Here's some gross pictures.
(The cut goes across his palm... those two vertical flecks toward the pinky side are blades of grass that made their way into the gauze. You can't exactly expect an 18 month old to stay inside and clean all day!)

Tim and I have pondered the circumstances over and over in our heads... it could have been so much worse - what if he had fallen on the glass or put it in his mouth? We're so thankful that God protected Ryan and that we have the medical care we do so that he can be taken care of even more. While this situation went really well, all things considered, we're really hoping that we don't have more trips to the ER.

A new toy...

2008-07-26T15:25:00.002-04:00

A while back I posted about how much laundry I do... well, apparently my washing machine agreed that it was too much, and decided to quit working. Last weekend we purchased this new beauty. I can actually watch my laundry, thanks to the clear lid. It's fantastic. So much for multi-tasking. I just want to spend my day watching the washing machine!

The Zoo - Again

2008-07-13T19:58:00.020-04:00

Tim had to work this Saturday. I decided to take the kids to the zoo as I couldn't figure out anything else that would be fun for them to do at home. Sometimes going out is way less difficult than staying home! I'm so thankful for a zoo membership. It's great to know we can go anytime without having to pay extra. Though, it is MUCH more fun to go when Tim can go too.

Bekah is a big fan of bugs (well, at least until today when she was stung by a wasp). Here she is with a large preying mantis art type thing at the zoo.

I never seem to get a good rhino picture. They're always hiding. But not this time! Here it is for your viewing enjoyment:

One thing I was surprised/impressed by was how much my kids remember from our last trip to the zoo... they remembered the order of the animals. Bekah remembered that after the rhino was the "baby frocodiles". I didn't even remember that they had frocodiles!

Ryan hadn't napped yet, so it wasn't long before he was getting restless. Nothing a picture couldn't cure. Later in the day, I pulled out the camera and Ryan started yelling "CHEESE" over and over. (I was attempting to take a picture of an animal, not him.) This lady next to me commented that she'd never seen a child that small be so excited to have his picture taken. He's a nut!

Not long after this picture, he looked like this:

I got an email on Thursday that one of the elephants had a baby! We waited in line for quite some time to catch a glimpse of 3 day old Angelina. She's 3'-7". There's another baby expected any day. Elephants are pregnant for 22 months. I'm certainly thankful that God didn't decide to make it that long for humans too! Maybe that's why elephants don't have many babies. Here's "little" Angelina. The picture isn't so good since they were behind glass.

Joey really liked the grizzly bear last time as he was playing in the water a lot and was really fun to watch. This time it was almost 90 degrees outside and all of the bears looked pretty much like this:

Don't worry though, it's wasn't too hot for the dear. This is Melvin and he's 17 years old. They told us that dear in the wild rarely make it to age 5, but that dear in captivity can live to be upwards of 20. I'm guessing at this point in time, Melvin was wondering if they had returned him to the wild.

Last time we were at the zoo, we some how managed to miss the reptile house (yeah, I wasn't THAT sad). This time I made sure we found it as I think it's important for me not to pass on my irrational fear of snakes to the kids. I did shiver at one point while trying to force myself to look at the rattlesnake, but other than that it went pretty well. Here they are in the meercat habitat.

When we went to the zoo with the cousins last fall, we took a picture of Ryan by the naked mole rats as he had managed to poopsplode and no longer had a shirt... kind of resembling a naked mole rat. I tried to take a picture of him there this time too, but it's up in a wall, so I had to somehow hold Ryan up there and take the picture... so yeah, no naked mole rats present.
Here's a link to last fall at the zoo.

They have a misting station near the end of the zoo. I vote they install several more. We spent a while here cooling off.

Right before leaving, the kids rode on the carousel. Joey went by himself, and Bekah & Ryan rode together. For any of you who argue with me that Ryan looks more like Joey than like Bekah, I rest my case!

Oh okay, one animal bum picture... but only because you asked. How could I resist this one - these zebras were asking for it. Two for the price of one!

Blue Puppy

2008-07-05T11:09:00.005-04:00

Anyone who spends much time with us knows that we are actually a family of 7: Tim, Mandie, Bekah, Joey, Ryan, Blue Puppy and Purple Puppy.

Tim's Aunt Karen (a frequent commenter on my blog) gave Bekah & Joey stuffed puppies when she came to visit us when they were about a week old. Shortly after, Joey claimed both puppies as his (Bekah has never minded). They have affectionately been named Blue Puppy and Purple Puppy. Here's an early picture of Joey (6 months) with cousin Jay (3 1/2). You can see a sliver of Blue Puppy all shiny and new in the corner.

Here's a sliver of shiny Purple Puppy about a month later:

Well, 3 years later, suffice it to say, Blue Puppy has seen better days. Just last week he suffered an almost life threatening tear. Just this morning I spent a good bit of time performing major surgery - a stuffingectomy and transplant, followed by major rattle repair, ending with a large suture across his belly. He also received a much needed bath. Sure, he's not exactly "good as new", but I'm happy to report he'll be with us for many more years.

I'm amazed at how attached I've become to these little guys. Joey has never wanted any other stuffed animals or toys - just always his puppies. I'm so glad that I'm able to keep in shape - sort of. haha. I worked on them for about 45 minutes. It's all worth it for this reaction:

What a face!

2008-06-27T13:07:00.004-04:00

Ryan loves to have his picture taken. He yells CHEESE anytime he sees a camera. (This is quite the opposite of my other two at this age).

This one is midway through a very excited CHEESE.

Now, I understand that I'm biased, but how could anyone not think that Ryan has just the cutest face - even with a slightly black eye?

Hans & Tami's Wedding

2008-06-17T10:51:00.020-04:00

We went to my sister's house this weekend to attend her sister-in-law Tami's wedding. Andi and I were able to do a lot of things for the wedding, which we thoroughly enjoyed doing together. We also had a LOT of help from Andi's friend Sara Garms. While I don't get to spend a lot of time with Sara, I thoroughly enjoy every time we get together.

I made Julia's dress to match the one that Hannah already had. Julia may just be the cutest little flower girl ever.

We also had the pleasure of making the cake. Despite never having used fondant before, the cake turned out beautifully. The roses are real. You can also see the Superman cake in the background that Andi made for Hans as the groom's cake.

My nephews Jay & Daniel (the middle two) handed out programs.

We also arranged the flowers. Here's my beautiful sister Andrea with her bouquet. I did learn through all of this that wrist corsages are not my friend.

Hannah had the fun job of escorting little Olivia down the aisle. Too cute.
Tami looked just beautiful.

I was surprised to see that Bekah was quite the dance machine. First she just slow danced with her daddy, but then decided that fast dances, and something that sort of resembled break dancing, was more her thing.
Joey joined in too, though he's a little more Pilgrimesque in his dancing than Bekah is.
My brother-in-law Johnny is quite the dance machine too. He was trying to get my sister to dance. Slim chance. Pilgrims don't boogie so much. Johnny performed the ceremony. He did a wonderful job. He was much better at that than he was at getting Andi to dance.

Ryan just wore himself out with all of the excitement.

So did Julia.

We had such a great time at the wedding. Thank you Hans & Tami for letting us be a part of your day.

Joshua Daniel Priano

2008-06-15T20:31:00.007-04:00

On June 6 we welcomed a new Priano to the clan. Tim's brother Danny and his wife Laura had a beautiful baby boy.

Bekah had been eagerly awaiting his arrival.

Joey loves baby Joshua too.

Ryan's still deciding...
Congrats Danny & Laura. We love you and can't wait to share lots of great memories with sweet Joshua.

A Trip to the Zoo

2008-06-03T17:56:00.016-04:00

Tim took the day off of work today and we took a family trip to the zoo. It was so fun, but very tiring too. For anyone who might be interested, the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium is just wonderful.

Here they are looking at the Komodo Dragon. We told Joey to put his arm around Bekah. I think it looks like an awkward Prom picture.

Ryan wanted to push the stroller like Daddy.

Here they are looking at elephants, but Bekah was more interested in the fish.
Elephants:

The grizzly bear was very playful while we were there. We watched him for a while.

Even the PPG Aquarium is rooting for the Pens, appropriately enough, in the penguin exhibit. I think Tim was excited that he had a better playoff beard than the penguins there.

Ryan was VERY excited about the fish. They were a favorite of Bekah and Joey's when we went last fall.

Here's a nice family picture: Joey, Ryan, some random kid, and Bekah. I tried to wait for the kid to move on, but he was pretty insistent on being in our picture. You'd think he could have at least smiled.

Tim hadn't yet seen the newest exhibit there: the polar bears. I was really excited for him to see them. We watched them for quite some time last fall. Come to find out, polar bears spend about 90% of their time on the land. Unfortunately, we weren't there for the six minutes that hour that they spent in the water. Bekah enjoyed the tunnel anyway.

Joey's a fan of anything he can touch. I'm fairly sure this deer remembered him from last fall and now is considering early retirement. To sum up: the deer wasn't quite as thrilled to see Joey as he was to see the deer.

And also the sheep. (FYI, this sheep's name is Andrea. The goat in the same area is named Hannah. The other sheep is named Bonnie, so I guess the Stanges will need to have another girl, or change Julia's name.)

Nothing like a family picture sitting on a tortoise!

Okay, well, I tried to resist, but I just have to post one rear-facing animal picture. I don't know why, but I find this just too funny. All of our zoo trips involve multiple pictures of the backsides of animals. Maybe it's because it seems like this is what the animals want... So many people spend so much time trying to get "good" pictures of the animals, and this is what they give you. So, I just go with it. I will resist posting the backs of the sheep, zebra, and bear. The best are the giraffes, but they were non-compliant today. Though I may have posted one from our vacation last year. Tim made me promise to include a disclaimer that none of the animal bum pictures were taken by him.

Laundry Laundry Laundry

2008-05-27T09:31:00.007-04:00

My friend from high school Ruth recently posted about her washing machine dying and how much laundry she had to do after replacing it. I'm frequently perplexed by the amount of laundry that accumulates at my house so quickly. Did we go on vacation? Did I have a memory lapse and forget to do any for a month? No... It just piles up at the speed of light. I'm not sure how it happens. There are only 5 of us. I remember hearing while pregnant with the twins how much more laundry I'd have to do. I guess I didn't understand at that point that I'd be doing so much more laundry for ME, in addition to the kids. I didn't realize the effect that grubby hands have on mommy's clothes. I'm not complaining... Laundry is one of the few household chores I actually enjoy (anyone who knows me knows that cleaning isn't high up on my list of fun things to do). Now, putting the laundry away... that's another story. Anyway, I find laundry piles to be one of the great mysteries of life. Fortunately, I have 3 very willing helpers in the laundry department. Heaven forbid I try to do laundry without letting them help. (I'll have to remember this time in life when they are teenagers!)

Bekah is always my most eager helper.

Where are helpers #2 and #3, you might ask? Well, Joey was given roller skates for his birthday and doesn't have time to help (this picture was taken at 8:15 am). (And to answer your question, that is a 3' tall Stanley Cup next to the lamp in the background. His name is Lord Stanley of Foil.)

And Ryan isn't feeling too good these days (those annoying back teeth are trying to make their way into his mouth), so he just decided to chill on the couch.

Cookies!

2008-05-20T14:31:00.002-04:00

This morning we made chocolate chip cookies. Some of my most fond memories of times with my mom include making cookies, and more specifically, how she would allow me to eat the dough. This morning, that was how it went at my house. I think about half of the dough ended up in the tummies and half ended up as cookies. I know it's not a good thing for them to have, but I hope when they grow up they remember that their mom let them eat cookie dough. I hope they remember these memories and treasure them as much as I do.

And I hope they learn to appreciate the cookie as much as the dough.

Mr. Ry's New Do

2008-05-19T09:44:00.008-04:00

This morning my boys both got haircuts (by me). Ryan isn't especially fond of the process, so I let it get rather long before torturing him.

At first, he wasn't so sure he liked the results...
But it seems to have grown on him...

And fear not: it hasn't hindered his drool production at all...
That boy sure can slobber.

Happy Mothers' Day to me!!

2008-05-11T20:10:00.004-04:00

I've sort of been out of commission for a while with the blog because my camera hasn't been working very well. I've had to rely on stealing other people's pictures of my children since Ryan's birthday party. Well, today that all changed. Tim bought me a camera for Mothers' Day!! I'm so very excited. So just in case you have forgotten what our kids look like, here's some pictures taken with my new camera.

Happy Birthday, Bekah & Joey

2008-04-18T22:12:00.004-04:00

I started taking pictures of the kids outside in front of our house when they turned one. Here's the progression over the years. It's hard to believe that they're three. Seems like just yesterday that we took that picture in the hospital. But also, it feels like they've always been with us. Both of them are such nice children.

Rebekah is such a girly girl. She loves shoes and hats especially. She loves to help out and is always excited to help with laundry, dishes, cooking & anything with Ryan. She's an excellent singer and speaks very eloquently. She's very precise and methodical. She's a beautiful girl and her smile just lights up a room.

Joey is hilarious. He makes me laugh so often. He loves doing anything that Daddy does - hockey, baseball, yardwork. He is very intelligent. He loves practicing letters and putting together puzzles. He's warm-hearted and cuddly, well, when he'll sit still that is. He's charming and easy going.

God has blessed me with great children.

(Joey left, Rebekah right)

Happy Easter!

2008-03-25T08:22:00.001-04:00

Dress

2008-03-17T17:26:00.001-04:00

Recently I was asked to make 2 flower girl dresses. The wedding was last Saturday. Here's one of the girls in one. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out and had a lot of fun making them.

Snowman

2008-03-17T07:43:00.003-04:00

We recently had a really big snowfall. The kids really loved playing in the snow. We built a huge snowman - the snow was perfect for packing.

Now that the snow is gone, we're really ready for spring!

Ryan's Party

2008-01-28T18:46:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we had a birthday party for Ryan. He kind of just had this puzzled look on his face the whole time. He was very pleasant and really enjoyed his cake :-)

Ryan

2008-01-17T22:19:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow my sweet Ryan turns one. It's hard to believe. I just keep thinking about all of the anxiety and anticipation I was feeling a year ago at this time. He's grown into such a fantastic child. Of course, I'm a bit biased, but honestly, you'd be hard-pressed to find a sweeter child. Ryan has recently started walking... he waves, claps and is just a joy to be around.

Ashamed...

2008-01-17T21:58:00.001-05:00

It's been a month since I've posted. I have no "real" excuse, but my pseudo-excuse is that it's been taking a long time to upload pictures here, and as you all probably know, I don't have a lot of excess time.

So, here are pictures from the last month:
This wasn't our Christmas card. I was going to use it, but couldn't get the resolution good enough to print.
The weekend before Christmas, the kids and I went to visit my parents in Fredonia. My sister & her family were also there. Here are 6 of the 7 cousins... not sure where Ryan is.

Christmas was a big hit this year. We were so excited to give the kids their presents. Ryan really appreciated his new keyboard.
And here are Bekah & Joey trying out their new sleds. Unfortunately, we haven't had the chance to try them out in the snow yet, so they're still just living room rides for now.

Here is our annual Al Priano Family Christmas Picture. Let's inventory this picture: Jonny, Danny, Laura, Mandie, Ryan, Tim, Uncle Jeff, Al, Bekah, Cheryl, Joey... WAIT... UNCLE JEFF? how did that happen?? Never a dull moment when Uncle Jeff is around ;-)

The weekend before New Years we all went back to Fredonia (on the road again...). Here's a picture of Tim & the kids enjoying some great Western New York weather.

Tim and I were able to go to the Ice Bowl game on New Years. What a blast. It was definitely one of the coolest (literally & figuratively) things we've gotten to do.

Sheep

2007-12-17T10:43:00.000-05:00

Last night at church we had a kids' Christmas program. Bekah & Joey were sheep. It was the first time they were part of a program, so I was very excited to see it. They did great!

Christmas Tree

2007-12-17T10:24:00.000-05:00

A cute little slimy reindeer
That's Ryan hanging onto my leg as I take pictures... hence the reason the picture with Tim & Bekah is kind of crooked.

So we got our Christmas tree last weekend and decorated it this weekend. We bought a HUGE tree. I'm not sure how that happened. It was raining and cold... we looked at a bunch and I think when we saw how pretty this one is, we forgot about our 8 foot ceilings. Tim cut about a foot off of the top and 6 inches off of the bottom... and you can see in the picture with Joey where we scraped the ceiling putting it up. Hmm... must try to do better next year... but it is really pretty.

Happy Late Thanksgiving

2007-12-07T10:34:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I posted. Here's a picture from my Thanksgiving. This is all of my cousins' kids. 17 under 14. Quite impressive!

Each year we gather around my Aunt Patrice's piano and Tim plays while we all sing Christmas carols. We're not as musical as the Prianos, but it's still a good time.

My sister was trying to take a nice picture of us together. Yeah... I didn't know this was going on. Silly Tim. We did end up getting one nice one...

Tim's in the Paper!

2007-11-12T08:08:00.001-05:00

Tim's mom saw an article in the paper a while ago about doing stories about people with interesting jobs, so she emailed them about Tim's job. They did a story on him and today it was in the paper. So cool. If you'd like to see the article, click here. Also, there's a great slideshow that goes along with the article. To see the slideshow, click on the link on the right-hand side of the article.

Happy Halloween!!

2007-10-31T20:54:00.001-04:00

We had quite a fun night trick-or-treating tonight. We went to the grandparents', great-grandparents' and uncle's house. Bekah, who is most always very shy, was very outgoing and happy to talk to anyone willing to give her candy. Joey did okay at first, but he didn't nap today, so by the end of the night, he was a not-quite-so-bouncy Tigger. Ryan had an okay time too. That first picture pretty much sums up the feelings of the night.

We're Off!

2007-10-26T10:17:00.000-04:00

The kids and I are leaving in about an hour for our semi-annual pilgrimage (pun intended) to see my sister. I'm sure I'll return with plenty of cousin stories to share!

Pumpkin Patch

2007-10-16T11:22:00.001-04:00

We went to a pumpkin patch this past weekend. It's actually just a church with pumpkins in the front yard, but the kids think it's wonderful. Tim had the day off which has been a rarity lately, so we all really enjoyed our time as a family.

Long time, no post

2007-10-16T11:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the hiatus. We've been keeping busy, that's for sure!

A few weeks ago my sister Andrea came to visit with her 4 kids. We took them to the Pittsburgh Zoo, which is fantastic. 2 adults, 7 kids. It was quite a day! My sister blogged about it already. If you'd like to read about it, click here.

30th Anniversary

2007-09-24T16:43:00.001-04:00

Today is my in-law's 30th anniversary! We had a party yesterday to celebrate. What a great example they are to us & their other kids of a loving marriage.

You can do it. We can help.

2007-09-24T16:38:00.000-04:00

Uncle Danny got these Home Depot aprons for Bekah & Joey. They wore them for hours. They LOVE Uncle Danny. He plays with them a lot and is generally just a fun guy.

Let's Go Pens!

2007-09-22T18:46:00.000-04:00

Today is the Penguin's first home preseason game. Tim has been so excited for the beginning of the season. That picture is from Ryan's first Penguin game last February.

(In case some of you don't know, Tim is the official organist for the Pittsburgh Penguins.)

The Shirt

2007-09-17T14:36:00.000-04:00

So we have this shirt that all 4 of the Pilgrim grandsons have worn. Ryan wore it for the first time this past weekend, so I guess he's officially "in". ;-)

We have taken each child's picture in the shirt with Tim who is wearing a similar shirt. Oddly enough, Tim really doesn't like his version of the shirt, so the only time he wears it anymore is for the picture.

Unfortunately, I can't find the picture of Tim & Joey together digitally, but I did find one of Joey in the shirt, sitting with Rebekah, so that'll do for now.

Ryan & Tim - September 2007

Bekah & Joey - January 2006

Daniel & Uncle Tim (before Lasik) - Winter 2004

Jay & Uncle Tim (sorry about the half-closed eyes on Tim, but in the other picture, Jay was looking at Tim, so you couldn't see his face) - Spring 2003

Hello, Welcome to My House!

2007-09-10T15:07:00.001-04:00

My mom taught my kids to say that. :-) This past weekend we installed a new front door on our house. It had been a long time coming. We still have to put up the trim and paint the door, but I think it looks pretty nice! As with every improvement project at our house, it didn't go as smoothly as possible, but we got it in eventually.

Field of Dreams

2007-09-09T21:44:00.000-04:00

Tim turns 28 on Wednesday, September 12. Today we had a family party for him. We did a "Field of Dreams" theme. Above is the invitation I sent out. I'm such a dork. hehe.

This afternoon a bunch of the guys went and played baseball for a little while, then came back here for dinner. I made baseball park themed foods - nachos (actually taco salad), French fries, pretzels (made from bread stick dough), cotton candy (whipped cream with pineapple tidbits & blue jello mixed in), hot dogs (pigs in a blanket), and lemonade. We also had chocolate covered pretzel "bats" and popcorn, peanuts & cracker jacks for during the movie.

However, I must say that the best part, and Tim's favorite part, was the cake. I made a 2 layer cookie cake with marshmallows in between layers. He told me he wanted a baseball field cake every year :-)

One Man's Trash...

2007-09-04T14:58:00.001-04:00

Last night on my way home from grocery shopping, I saw this car in a neighbor's garbage, so I stopped, threw it in the car, and went home. Joey discovered it this morning - he's thrilled. He's having so much fun with the car - though he hasn't quite figured out the correlation between steering and direction. We'll keep working on it.

And when it's not his turn, he's completely happy to help Bekah by either pushing her around or inspecting the car to make sure every thing is working correctly. Guess he got some of his Grampy's genes.

P(r)iano Lessons

2007-08-25T17:54:00.001-04:00

Anyone who has met the Priano family knows that they are very musical. Here's a picture of Bekah having a "piano lesson" with her Daddy. For being not quite 2 1/2, she does pretty well with Chopsticks. Watch out, Uncle Jonny - you're going to have a challenger in a couple years ;-)

On the go

2007-08-25T17:51:00.001-04:00

Ryan is now 7 months. He's recently started becoming VERY mobile. Here's a picture of him from a few minutes ago when he climbed up to standing at the kids' trampoline. Not that we don't already have our hands full, but with him now moving it's going to be a circus around here!

Wheeee

2007-08-23T17:05:00.000-04:00

This is another picture from Blast from the Past. They set up plywood for summer sledding. So fun! Here's a picture of Joey sledding with his Grandpap. Looks like Grandpap was having a good time too!

Blast from the Past

2007-08-23T16:52:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, the kids & I went to a kids' carnival type thing at Tim's brother's church called "Blast from the Past". It was SO much fun. They played games, did crafts, listened to Uncle Danny sing, played with Aunt Laura, and so much more. The highlight for me was watching Joey ride a pony. Despite his rather serious look in this picture, he really enjoyed it. Bekah wouldn't get on, but in her defense, she did get rather harshly bludgeoned by an angry goat.

Smile!

2007-08-14T17:45:00.000-04:00

Ryan's first tooth poked through today (his bottom left, fyi). Here's a picture of my sweet little guy from June. I would post a new picture of him, but he currently has a pretty nasty cold, so I figured one without snot would be nicer. Despite being sick, Ryan is still such a sweet boy. He's looking more and more like his daddy every day.

Eeeee You're Cute!

2007-08-10T19:52:00.000-04:00

This is my sister, Andrea Stange (with Ryan a few months ago). She's wonderful and beautiful and smart and good at EVERYTHING. Best of all, she posts comments on my blog. Love you, Andi.

She has a blog too. Click HERE to see it.

Prianos & Fentons

2007-08-08T21:49:00.000-04:00

We went to camp with some friends of ours, Tim & Tamim Fenton and their kids Karis (almost 4), Kelcie (2) & Makayla (7 months). Needless to say, with all our kids together we had quite the group. My kids really enjoyed spending time with the Fenton kids. Yesterday while I was shopping, Joey started asking me where Kelcie was. Unfortunately, they live in Erie, so we don't get to see them too often. We hope to spend many more years together at family camp with them.

Paint Ball

2007-08-08T21:46:00.001-04:00

Tim had the "privilege" of playing paint ball while at camp. He had never played before, and that coupled with a bad cold made it rather exhausting for him... not to mention it was over 90 degrees that day. Despite all that, in the second game he captured the flag and got it within 10 feet of winning before getting shot by a member of his own team. His reward for playing so well is several long-lasting welts. No pain, no gain, I guess.

Here he is (on the left) with Tim Fenton before the game started.

Water Slide

2007-08-08T21:39:00.001-04:00

Here's Tim at the bottom of the water slide.

Camp

2007-08-08T21:34:00.000-04:00

Camp was great! I hadn't been to Bethany since 1999, so I was really eager to get back and see all the changes and enjoy all it has to offer. Tim had never been there, so I thoroughly enjoyed showing him where I grew up. The staff was wonderful and really made things easier for us.

Joey really liked the pond (aka, big big pool). He even went down the 75' water slide 2 times with Tim. They added a blob this year. I don't have any pictures of it, unfortunately. Tim got blobbled by a rather sizable man and did 1 1/2 flips before hitting the water. Very impressive.

Stacking

2007-08-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

Rebekah has recently started to like to stack things a lot... like obsessively. She did this while at my parents' house and I thought it was quite impressive. Those jars are slippery!

Shortly after Ryan was born, I was watching ESPN in the middle of the night and watched competitive cup stacking. Maybe while Joey is at the spelling bee we can get Bekah into cup stacking.

Baaaaa

2007-08-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

Joey really liked the sheep. He kept sticking one finger into the pen to touch their noses. I was trying my best to warn him not to let the sheep bite his finger without making him scared of the sheep. It worked - he didn't get bit, and he spent a good part of his time at the fair trying to climb into the animal pens. Guess he wasn't scared.

Ryan's Pig Twin

2007-08-08T21:25:00.000-04:00

This picture is a little blurry, but I wanted to post it because the pig in the picture has the same birthday as Ryan. I pasted his card in the corner of the picture. Notice - he's a blue ribbon pig. Must be a good day to be born. Way to go, Rosie.

We're Back!

2007-08-08T21:21:00.000-04:00

We visited the Chautauqua County Fair last Friday with my parents.

Bekah was given this stuffed bird by some random guy while we were eating. She decided it would be nice if she shared her lemonade with the bird. I think this picture is just great... if you've spent much time with The Boo, you know it's not easy to get a picture of her smiling.

We're off!

2007-07-26T22:05:00.000-04:00

We're going to Bethany Camp for family camp next week. The kids and I are leaving tomorrow morning to spend a couple days with my parents. Tomorrow afternoon we're going to the Chautauqua County Fair to see the farm animals (at the EIEIO house, as Bekah & Joey call it). I'm sure I'll have all kinds of fun stories and pictures to blog about when I get back.

2007-07-26T21:57:00.001-04:00

Recently we've had the pleasure of attending a few of Tim's senior league hockey games. Tim plays with his dad, brother Danny, and a few other relatives. The kids LOVE watching his games (or perhaps just playing on the bleachers and yelling). Joey repeats "Go Daddy, Go Danny, Go Grandpap!" over and over and over. He now has a small hockey stick at home that he likes to play with, so I guess it won't be too long now before he's on the ice with them.

A few games ago, the kids' Great-Grandpap attended the game too. I cannot tell you just how much I love watching my kids with him. What a unique and special relationship for a kid to have (and I'm pretty sure Great-Grandpap enjoys it as well). I get choked up just thinking about how thankful I am to have married into a tight-knit family with such a respectable patriarch.

2007-07-26T21:52:00.000-04:00

Here's the most recent picture of Ryan. He's now sitting unassisted and crawling rather well too. He's a very happy baby and smiles almost all the time - despite currently fighting with some pesky bottom teeth. His outfit in this picture is a hand-me-down from my sister's oldest son Jay. Jay wore this outfit in our wedding in 2002.

2007-07-26T21:43:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, we built a playground in our backyard. Joey couldn't be happier. There's only one things he enjoys more than swinging - reading. The boy is nuts over books. He's recently started learning his letters. He recognizes about half of the alphabet now and learns things so quickly. He can also spell book. Maybe we should start preparing him for Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Where to start...

2007-07-26T21:27:00.000-04:00

So I've been wanting to start a blog for a while. My kids do so many fun things these days that I feel if I write them down, perhaps they'll enjoy reading them when they've grown up.

This thought came to me a few months ago... we were on our way home from a family birthday party when I noticed that Bekah was praying to herself in her car seat. It was so precious. She was thanking God for each member of our family. What a sweet girl. That night when we got home, I asked her to show me how she prayed so I could take a picture of her.