Summer is ending

I'm sitting here, feeling a little bit emotional, thinking about how my boys are gearing up for Kindergarten and 1st grade.  I'm thinking back to when I first found out I was pregnant, to their birth day, all of their firsts, and it is just a bit overwhelming.  I just can't believe how fast they are growing.  And it's great.  I really do love the stage we are at,  I'm still "cool", they don't need me every second of the day, but I admit, I miss miss miss, holding them and rocking them.  I'm lucky that they love to give me hugs and kisses and we do have our little bedtime routine which is pretty amazing.  But, I look down the road, and I'm definitely NOT ready for what I see.  So, can we just please hit the pause button for a little bit.  Please.

Climbing to the top with Daddy

The boys are adapting very well to our new house.  They absolutely love it here.  They have a pretty cool play room, where we are trying to keep the toys.  And they have pretty awesome rooms.  One thing that Austin said when we were driving there on moving day still makes my heart melt.  John David said something like, "we are own our way to the new house" and Austin said, "No, John David, we are on our way home." So sweet. 

One thing we did not anticipate was the difference in temperatures upstairs vs downstairs.  It's pretty cool downstairs but pretty hot upstairs, we have been sleeping with the ceiling fans and even slept with the window open when it was cool outside. I do look forward to sleeping with the windows open when it's fall outside.  All nice and cozy in my bed with the cool air coming in. 


John David has been loving t-ball and he is a star.  He has quite the arm and is always asking Kevin and me to play catch outside.  He's even starting to catch.  He has his own bat and brings his bag to t-ball.  I think he loves it.  He does awesome with the ground balls too.  We are definitely proud of him.

Austin has mastered the monkey bars.  He has successfully gone across.  He has quite the serious look on his face as he is doing it, but the big smile on his face afterwards are great.  We joke that he will be on American Ninja Warriors because he loves creating these obstacles at the park.  And now he can add monkey bars to it.  He also loves the show!

Austin has a huge heart.  Lately at daycare, he has been making bracelets with one of his friends, we even got him his own kit.  Toy day is on Tuesday and every Tuesday he would come home with 3-4 bracelets on his wrist.  His friend Dana made them for him.  Dana this, Dana that.  So one day, he tells me, he is going to Dana's house on Saturday.  Ok buddy, how are you going to get there, maybe I should talk to Dana's mom, maybe we can set something up, you know the drill.  So I give Austin my number on a piece of paper, so he can give it to Dana, so she can give it to her mom, so we can talk.  The chances of my number ending up in Dana's moms hand is SLIM, I know.  I told the teacher, so she knew why I was giving my number.  Austin's teacher said, "Austin, didn't tell you?"  So apparently, Dana was moving to Texas in 9 days.  I pick up Austin from school, and say, "Hey buddy, how come you didn't tell me that Dana was moving to Texas?"  "Oh yea, no problem mom, we'll just drive there".  Poor guy doesn't know its not a quick drive.   Fast forward to this morning, Dana's last day was on Tuesday.  We are driving to daycare.  "Mommy, are we going to get on a plane to go to Texas? ..... On Saturday?"  He was legitimately upset, when I told that we were not going to Texas.  Poor guy and his little sad heart.  I feel for him.

Almost at the top with Daddy

John David is a comedian, he's always coming up with the funniest things.  I woke up with a stiff neck.  I asked Austin to get me an ice pack, thinking he would bring me, my blue or green one.  Nope, he comes back with a frog one.  I ask Austin, "what do you think the people at my work will say when I show up with this frog ice pack.  Austin thought this was funny and had a huge smile on his face.  John David was a few feet away putting on his shoes and says "Ribit"  -----Where does he come up with this stuff!?!?!



All is good with us!  We are very happy in our new house, we are getting ready for school to start in 2 weeks (seems really late this year) so stay tuned to see how the boys first days of Kindergarten and First grade go.  I truly can't believe we are here....they say it flies by, and when you are in it you don't think so, but when elementary school rolls around, you really start to see it! 

Happy 5th birthday, John David

Happy birthday to my little man, John David.  Today you are 5 and such a cute 5 year old you are!  Mommy and Daddy are so lucky to have you in our lives.  You are so much fun and you teach us so much.  Your smile lights up the room, your laugh is contagious and your generosity is so natural.

You have all of us cracking up.  You are such a funny kid.  Grandpa thinks you're going to be the class clown.  You're always making these funny faces and sounds and you love a good knock knock joke!

I was looking at my birthday post from last year and a lot of it is the same.  I was looking at your favorite foods and while I have some to add, you still enjoy all of the food you ate last year.  You still like your blankets a certain way on your bed at bedtime and you still change your nightly routine.  You love balls, throwing, catching, rolling, kicking, shooting, all things balls.  And you still love to make pancakes with grandma and make daddy and me our morning coffee.

You love tacos!  Last year it was cheese roll ups, and now it's tacos, with meat, cheese and sour cream!  And you can eat!  You like the rice that goes with the tacos.  Let's talk about your sandwiches!  You like and I still think this is gross, Mayo, mustard and cheese sandwiches!  EWWWW.  Put that turkey back on ;-)  Sometimes, you'll eat the turkey, sometimes you don't, I guess it all depends on the mood you're in.  You love love love daddy's cheeseburgers (I agree, they are the best in the world), spaghetti, sausage, brats.  I make crunchy pork and chicken and you stick your nose up at it, but once you eat one piece, you say you like it.  You just gotta try it and if you don't want it, that's fine, but just try it!  You never know, you just may love it.

This year, t-ball is going to be awesome.  Last year was awesome!  But I swear, you just have a way with the balls.  We can play catch and that is so much fun!  And the best part is daddy is going to be a coach!  Woot woot!  And I can't wait for you to open up Austin's present to you.  Spoiler alert, it's a big boy bat.  One you can bring to t-ball.  And we got you sports bedding.  After all when we move next month, your room is all ready a sports room, so it's perfect for you!  I can write this because, one you won't be seeing this before you open your present after school and 2 you can't read quite yet.

But you know all of your letters and numbers and are starting to read words here and there.  You have been having fun playing sight word bingo and the new game grandma got for you and Austin, Zingo!

You love playing games on the computer at school, and my phone and i pad.  You have been playing daddy at Mini Golf on the phone.  That game is quite addicting!  I've been playing it too.  You like playing I spy, and Morgan taught us a new car game too.  Alphabet, where you look out the car and look for things that start with the letters in the alphabet. I rocked it ;-)  and you will too!  Grandma got you Don't break the ice so that will be fun.  And let's not forget about Infinity with all of your guys.  You and Austin love playing together and I think  know daddy loves watching you!

You are going to have a bunch of nicknames.  We call you John David, or John, then you have JD, Johnny, Johnny boy blue, Johnny Longsleeves (why, because you always want to wear longsleeves, even now that it's hot outside), the names keep coming.   I really miss when Austin called you on babid.  And then of course, I miss when you called Austin, utin.  You boys are really growing before our eyes.

You love making things and coloring.  You like putting your letters in envelopes and giving them to us.  You like taping your pictures to the wall.  I think instead of bedding for your room, we should have gotten you tape and paper!  You are very creative with all the things you make.

At the park, you love the swing!  You love when I push you, I think you could swing for hours.  You also love the spinning thing at the park and the slides.  When we go to the park, you have a blast.

 You and Austin have such a cool relationship.  I'm so thankful you have each other.  You both look out for each other and love to play together.  I hope that you are always close and truly cherish each other.


You love Buster!  You are constantly giving him hugs and kisses.  Before we leave in the morning and before bed you need to give him some love.   You're constantly petting him and loving him.  He's lucky to have you too!

 We love you so much!  You are such a joy to be around.  We look forward to celebrating with you today and look forward to enjoying your 5th year.

Happy 6th birthday, Austin!

 Happy 6th birthday Austin!  Can you believe it, you are 6 years old!  You just finished kindergarten and are now ready for first grade.  We look forward to celebrating with you on your very special day.  Austin, we love you so very much and want only the best for you.  You are such a sweet boy and we are lucky you are our child.  We've had a blast for the first 6 years and can't wait to see where life takes you. 

Austin, you have a new nickname, all of your friends are going to start calling you "chips,"  because every day after school, you come home and ask us, "Can I have chips?"  Your favorite chips are Cool Ranch Doritos and Nacho Cheese Doritos. Regular chips, Cheetos, Fritos, will do but your first choice are the Doritos.  You're going to turn into one.

You love Red Lobster and we're not really sure why, you said it was because of the mac and cheese and biscuits, well the mac and cheese is Kraft (I can make that) and the biscuits can be made too, so why pay Red Lobster prices?  Maybe it's the scenery?  You also love their shrimp, so often times, we want you to get the shrimp because why go to a seafood place and get mac and cheese ;-)  You love Shrimp!  Whenever I get shrimp, you are always taking mine!  I should start just getting you your own because I know you'll eat it.  This is where we will be tonight celebrating you at your favorite restaurant!

Lately, you have been playing with Legos and checkers and you are awesome!  You play checkers at school, home and on daddy's phone.  You are getting very good!  And you have been a master at legos, look at you following the directions and building.  And when you don't follow the directions, you are so creative with what you build. Even when it's not legos, anything from paper to blocks, you are so creative and just love to make things.

You love riding your bike and going to the park.  You make friends all the time and love to climb.  It's so fun watching you interact with other kids.  You're constantly laughing and giggling that it's contagious.

If you are tired, or hungry, you can go from fun and loving to crabby!  So we must feed you every 2 hours and make sure you get enough sleep.  You are constantly eating, " mommy, I'm hungry" you'll say and if I don't respond quickly, it turns to "MOMMY, I'm HUUUUNNNNNGGGGRRRRRYYYY" (insert whiny sound).  So we must have snacks on hand at all times, just in case, because you can EAT.

And you'll eat just about anything I put in front of you, crunchy pork, regular pork, chicken, steak, sausage and some of your favorite foods are: Shrimp, burgers, CHIPS, CHIPS, CHIPS, yogurt, cottage cheese, pickles, spaghetti.  You always have been a good eater! 

You have been doing a great job reading to us!  We just love hearing you read.  To think, this time last year you knew your letters and some of the sounds and now you're putting it all together to come up with the word.  We can see your brain working and it's amazing!  You love it when we read to you too.

What is up with the Pokemon cards?  One day you came home from Daycare, with Pokemon cards that you made out of paper because a friend brought real cards to school (again with the creativity).  You asked us if we could get some real cards at the store, we decided you could use money in your piggy bank to buy the cards. You've been having a blast playing with them.  I'm not sure if you are playing right but you have it all set in your head.  Although sometimes, I think you change the rules a bit.

You have been tying your shoes a bit, you've been doing a lot of practicing!  Soon you'll get it completely and won't need help.  We found an easier way to help you do it, but you like to do it mommy's way. 

And let's not forget about soccer.  You have been doing so great at soccer!  Last year, you weren't quite as into it as you are this year.  You tell us that you like soccer games but not practice. You are so so close to scoring a goal!  We have one more game and I hope you do it!  We will be there cheering you on because we are your biggest fans!

You have been having a blast with daddy.  You guys still like to wrestle and I know one day soon you will lock him down.  Daddy got you Infinity for play station and has really enjoyed watching and playing the video games with you and your brother.   He likes playing basketball with you but isn't a big fan of you knocking over the hoop when he shoots.  Daddy is so proud of you and he loves watching you play soccer!

Your brother loves you and you love your brother.  You guys are always looking out for each other and I hope that you two will be the best of friends.  He had me write you the sweetest letter last night and I can't wait to read it to you today.  I'm so glad you have each other.  


You have such a sense of humor that we are all cracking up.  You can say the sweetest things and give really good foot rubs.  It's hard to believe you are 6 as it went by so fast and I'm sure the next 6 will be even faster.

Just know that with whatever you do, we will love you and support you.  Enjoy your day, buddy!  And we can't wait to celebrate you!

Spring time happenings

I have been just so busy that I haven't had time to update.

We are definitely enjoying this warmer weather.   Boys love going to the park and riding their bikes.  I'm curious when the right time to take training wheels off is.  Last summer, I told Kevin, I thought we might want to try this year.  So we will see.....

Soccer just started and Austin is rocking it!  He just ran out there at practice and really gave it his all.  We are so proud of him!  We have had 2 games and won both!  Go Sharks.  

So the other day, we were at the library and the boys wanted to pick out a CD to listen to.  When we got in the car, we listened to both, but when we got home, we didn't have a cd player.  I told the boys we'd have to grab a lap top to listen.  Well, grandma had a cd player with headphones, so the boys took turns to listen to their cds. We went to Savers and Good Will and found each of them a cd player for a great deal, I think we spent $8 total.  The boys are happily listening to their music in their rooms.  We do have to teach them to leave them in the rooms and to quit opening and closing the top, but I'm happy to say, they are happy.  It was very cute, listening to John David sing his songs and use his hands to wave during a song.

We are moving along on the reading.  I have seen so much improvement with Austin on reading, but we do have a long way to go.  Practice, practice, practice, they say.  It's so awesome hearing your child read to you.  I just love it.  We started reading a chapter book over the weekend.  Mainly, I read it to them, and ask questions throughout, and yesterday we left at a good part, so I can't wait to get back to it tonight.  I hope this helps the boys enjoy reading more!  We also have been practicing our site words, I must say it definitely helps when we play games with the site words.


John David rocked it as his spring sing.  He was singing all the words and doing the hand gestures.  He brought daddy up when it was time to bring up a parent.  It was so cute seeing my guys up there.  Melted my heart!

The boys have been very helpful lately with "chores."  They both help me fold the clothes, which I HATE doing.  But socks, towels and their clothes are their job and they do a pretty good job.  I won't complain at all, if it's not folded, how I would, I don't care as long as they do it!  Nice work boys.  They have helped me empty the dishwasher, cleaned up their rooms and even helped wash walls.  They rock.

That's it for now.  I'm sure I'll be posting more in the next couple of months because we have a lot coming up!  Boys are turning 5 and 6 :-( :-) :-( :-)  I'm both happy and sad because they are growing WAY TOO FAST!  John David is getting ready for kindergarten, I still can't believe it!  And the warm summer months!  Can't wait.

Christmas and general update

I can't believe I haven't posted since November, where is my post Christmas post?!?!



Christmas was amazing.  We had so much fun and the boys loved every minute of it.  They were your typical crazy, loving every minute of it, spoiled boys!  We did a lot of activities this year, which included, my annual Christmas at the Zoo party, Seeing Shrek and Santa, Seeing the house that lit up to music, using our hand prints to make a tree, making cookies for Santa, and of course Christmas at Grandmas, Grandpas, Aunt Karen and Uncle Marty's and Christmas morning.  It was amazing, exciting, and overwhelming.  I'm glad we have 365 days until our next Christmas season as we definitely need to recover ;-)

Austin's favorite toy was the Batman Robot.  He asked everyone for this today.  Lucky for him, Santa came through!

John David's favorite toy was his Superman Robot.  He loves the noises it makes.

Kevin celebrated his birthday this week.  I surprised him with tickets to Michigan Wolverines basketball game in Ann Arbor.  The smile on his face when he saw that we were going was awesome!  He was so excited. We even got him a program and a souvenir cup! We made it to the jumbotron after tweeting a picture of us at the stadium.  Lucky for him, he's going to another game soon, but this time at Northwestern!  My guy and his Michigan sports! 

We have John David's first school conference in next week. I'm excited to hear how he is doing.  He's writing on the board at school, and it's so fun seeing his writing and his art work.  He has a creative mind. I know he's ready for Kindergarten and he will enjoy it.  I'm looking forward to no naps for him during the week.  He stays up til 830 ish because he's not tired.  Austin goes straight to bed and for the most part doesn't come out, I guess that's what a long day does to you!  Every night JD comes out 3-4 times, to give us another hug and kiss.  I try not to complain because I sure do enjoy the extra hugs and kisses.  John David has been so cuddly with Buster.  The kid won't leave him alone, always hugging him, getting his pillow, so Buster can rest his head on it, it's so cute!

Austin has been a rock start.  I'm so impressed with everything he is learning.  The other day, he said, "Acutally, no".  What?!?!  Where did you learn actually?  Crazy, the things that come out of his mouth.  We were reading together the other day, and he is remembering words.  So cool to see my little man read!  Homework is another story!  I think we do better to do the 4 sheets on the weekend, because he is just too tired to do it when he gets home.  He can be so crabby, and then having him do homework on top of that, well, it never ends well.  Austin is so creative with his pictures too.  You should see all of the stuff that comes out of his backpack, fortune tellers, paper airplanes, pictures of the family or whoever he's making that day, it was batman the other day, so much paper!  But it's cute seeing his artwork. He has been so creative at building, whether it's legos, blocks, or these new locktagons.  He built this cool car!


I'm excited to announce that I won an award at work, "The President's Choice" award.  Our President gives this award out to one person each year.   It goes to a person who shows outstanding contributions towards the success of Edlong.  I just celebrated 10 years in December and I know I had a tremendous year this year, but for the President to see that as well, just makes me feel so accomplished and happy.

Stay tuned for more.

Rock and Rollin

The Artinghelli household has been very busy lately.

We have been adapting to life with a Kindergartner.  Let me tell you, our routine has been changing.  No more are the days when we could go to work, come home, eat dinner and play.  Now we have to somehow get homework and 20 minutes of reading into our routine.  Sure, that doesn't sound too bad, but it's hard after having a jam packed day.  We are all tired and the last thing we want to do is homework.  We want to play and just have fun. I'm not sure how it's going to be next year, with 2 children in school.   When Austin's teacher first started giving out the sheets of homework on Friday, I thought, okay, we can get most of it done on the weekend, but some weekends are busier than others, and when we don't do the homework on the weekend we struggle to get it done after school. Okay, so 5 sheets not so bad, but then to throw in 20 minutes of reading and now worksheets to go with the reading, and then practice the site words, so he can read, and oh here is some modeling clay so he can work on his fine motor skills, that will really help with his writing.  It's just a lot!

But I must say, Austin is a sponge.  He is learning so much and it's so cool to see how he uses his brain, the questions he asks, are priceless.  We played a card game, much like war over the weekend.  And Austin knew right away which number was more than the other, which one was the less and which one was the same.  Proud mom moment.  And John David did too!  It's so cool to be able to play more "games" but also reinforce the learning that he is doing at school.  And I feel that John David will be one step ahead, since he is listening to everything Austin is saying. 

The time change just about killed me, but I'm happy to say that we are finally over the Time Change Hangover as I have been calling it.  Austin had the HARDEST time.  Up at 4:30 a.m. a basket case when I picked him up from school.  He was just so out of sorts and making us all crabby.  John David was the lucky one because even though he was up early like Austin, he got to nap at school.  The first day, I was telling John David how lucky he was, that Austin, mommy, and daddy didn't get to nap.  He was upset that he had to nap, and I told him, No no, we are wishing that we could nap too!  Lucky duck.

Halloween was cold!  We managed to go around the block and that was it.  John David's hands were so cold that he just wanted to stop. Austin was beaming, from house to house, across the street.  He wanted the candy!!!  Even with that, they haven't eaten much candy.  They forget about it since I put the candy away.  Unfortunately, Kevin and I know where it is ;-).  We carved pumpkins and the boys had a blast.  They drew the faces on the pumpkin and Kevin and I carved them out.  None of the boys would get the "guts" out so mommy had to do it.  Eewwww.  Austin and John David really enjoyed seeing their pumpkins light up outside.  They are definitely "proud" of their work. 

The toys r us toy catalog came in the mail and the boys freaked out and went to town circling items they would like.  I think they circled everything on the page!   The boys didn't particularly like it when I said, that we would have to give some toys away to make room for the new toys that Santa would bring. I would like them to get invloved with giving their toys to someone who is less fortunate.  We are also going to adopt a family, like we did last year, but this year, I really want the boys to help out with that.  They get a lot, almost everything they want within reason, and it's time for them to start understanding "giving".  I too, would like to give more.

I really enjoyed my time in San Francisco, the Dreamforce Conference was amazing and I have a lot of great ideas to bring back to Edlong.  I was very happy to make it to the Golden Gate Bridge.  I was just in awe when I stood beside it.  



 Thanksgiving is next week and the Christmas.  We are gearing up for the holiday!  Can't wait!

Living Life

Best friends climbing trees

We are rockin it over here.  We have been super busy, from soccer practice, soccer games, birthday parties, homework and just every day life.  The days are quickly passing us by and the warm weather is turning cold much to quickly, pretty soon pumpkins and Halloween Costumes will be upon us.  It's crazy how time really does fly.

Austin is doing awesome at Kindergarten.  I'm so impressed with him.  He's getting green cards at school, which is awesome.  It's a behavior card, green means great day, yellow means good day and red means bad day.  We want Austin to get the green cards!  And so far, that's all he has gotten.  After 30 green cards, he gets to pick a prize out of the prize bin at school.   He gets 5 sheets of homework on Fridays, and this week he had them all done on Sunday, he has a week to complete it all.  Someone mentioned when they don't have homework, to have them read for 20 minutes.    I'm going to incorporate some of that as well as working on our speech words.  He has 2 sheets of speech words to work on too.  I'm not ready for this homework, it's definitely a new concept for us, but we are doing our best.

Austin doesn't really like to talk about his day.  Although in the past couple of days that's gotten much better.   I read a blog post about questions to ask, so I have to remember that.  Kevin, tickles Austin until he tells him a few things about his day.  Oh and at bed time after things have calmed down, he likes to talk about his day a bit more.  Hoping that gets a little better.

The transition between picking him up at school and coming home has been awful.  I've been really stressed out about it.  He's tired and probably hungry.  Going to start bringing a snack in the car to see if that will help his mood by the time we get home.  It's been rough, that and this whiny stage we are in.

John David is doing very well in pre-kindergarten!  I've been getting great remarks on him!  I knew, I would, he is such a good kid, and wants to please you.  They were a little concerned that he still wore a pull up for nap/bed.  He doesn't nap at home, so I haven't tried to stop the pull up during naps.  So all of a sudden, he just asked to sleep in underwear during nap, so they let him and he's doing FANTASTIC!!!! Woot woot.  He has also asked for underwear at bed time.  And that's a work in progress.  As long as I wake him between 12:30-2:00, it seems to work fine, he pees, goes right back to sleep and wakes up dry.  When I didn't get him at that time, he was wet.  I don't know if what I'm doing is right.  I know I'm exhausted waking up and having both boys go potty and then back to sleep.  It's a good 20-30 minutes of interruption.  5-10 minutes getting them up and back to bed and then another 10-20 falling back asleep <---- I wrote that about a week ago, update, I no longer wake him!  Sometimes, he wakes me up when he wakes up to go and other times, he makes it dry all night.  Here and there he is wet, but I say JD is done with DIAPERS!  Woot woot!!!

JD doing yoga, kids got style too

John David has been a comedian lately, his facial expressions and the way he makes these faces has us cracking up.  And his remarks, one day, Kevin, John David and I were laying in bed, and Austin started walking towards us and John David says, "he comes trouble maker"  just how he said it out of the blue was hysterical. He is definitely a character and we love him.

Austin self portrait

Austin has this new thing, making books.  We get some white paper and fold and staple.  He has been having a blast making these books.  I love how he draws him and John David.  Really shows how much he loves him.  Austin is quite the artist!  He loves making people, self portraits and coloring pictures.

looking good in uniform

I'm not sure if Austin likes soccer.  I'm not sure if it's just too much with school and being tired.  The first game wasn't good.  He got tired quickly and wanted to be done. The second game was better and by the 3rd game, he almost scored!  They take turns in the different positions.  Last week, he was goalie and I have to tell you that is the most nerve wrecking position.  I was timer that day and was constantly looking at how much time was left.  Luckily his team kept the ball on the other side.  I was just so glad when I got to call time.  We still have plenty of games so hopefully it continues to get better each time.


The Artinghelli clan participated in the 2014 lung run.  I ran a 5K and Kevin and the boys walked a mile.  The best part about that run was running in to the finish line, seeing all three of my guys cheering for me.  It made the run.  Kevin and the boys saw a butterfly while doing the walk, and for those of you who don't know the significance of a butterfly, I will tell you.  When someone in your life passes, there is a sign that they leave you, at least for us there has been.  For my mom it's the numbers 333 and for my Father In law, it's a butterfly.  So whenever we see those numbers or a butterfly, we know that our loved ones are with us.  It's nice to take a moment and think about our loved ones who we miss oh so much.  So, since we were doing the lung run in honor of my Father In Law, it was significant to "see" him or the butterfly.  We feel that it was his way of showing us that he's okay and moreso that he's with us.

Can't believe fall is on us.  We have already seen pumpkin decorations and the boys are talking about Halloween!