Show those pearly whites!

Wow, what a difference 6 months makes. In March, Josie was a screaming, crying, stubborn mess at the dentist. I was so embarrassed. This time, she was great! Dee, at the office, took this picture of Josie for me. She was the perfect patient. Thank goodness!

Goodbye to Our Uncle Bud!

My dad's Uncle passed away yesterday, just 15 minutes after my sister and I visited him at the hospital. He was a fixture at my parents house on our big Italian Thanksgivings every year. He would have been 94 years old later this month, and him and my Auntie Rina had been married 61 years! He was a funny man. Our family has many, many funny memories of him at the Thanskgiving table telling very funny and some inappropriate stories. Always a hoot! Alex and I have been drinking Manhattan's at home in his honor. My Uncle loved his Manhattan's, and Old Fashions, and also his cigars and cigarettes. Would you believe he smoked for about 70 years of his life? He loved to talk to Alex about duck hunting because when he was much younger he enjoyed that hobby very much. I think he liked to hear Alex's stories and live vicariously through him since he could no longer hunt anymore. I really hope I inherit the strong blood from that side of the family.

He was also a Crew Chief in WW2 and some fellow in Denver was making a documentary about his crew. He had interviewed Uncle Bud (a.k.a. Fred, Stag for Stagnaro) already, but is still in the process of editing the documentary. But, we have seen clips of my uncle's interview on youtube already. It will be nice to watch when it airs on whatever channel it will air on.

The picture above is special to me. It was taken last Thanksgiving. That was the oldest living Stagnaro and the youngest Stagnaro at the time, little Dana. 93 years apart! We will miss you Uncle Bud!

Playing together..

The last 8 months really, Josie and Dana have played fairly well together. Every week it seems to just get better and better. Funny how the older they get the worse it will probably get. I digress. Anyway, they sing together, Dana copies everything Josie does and says. This explains why Dana's vocabulary is that of a 2 year old probably. She amazes us everyday with her new words. I have a lot on video, but am trying to get shorter videos so as not to bore you all. She knows all her facial parts, and lots of body parts. She knows most her farm animals and the sounds they make. The cutest by far is when she says "neigh"....I've it on tape as well, but it's about 1 minute in, I'l have to get it quicker for your viewing pleasure.


Here are some photos of the girls playing together AND waiting for cookies. I love how Dana is dangling her baby doll in one hand while staring at the cookies.

I also posted a video clip of Dana asking for olives. Both girls love green olives with pimientos. She asks for olives, then apple juice, listen carefully at the end and you will hear her say "thank you" as well.

September Update

First and foremost, I really want to thank everyone who donated to the Diabetes Walk that our family will be participating in next month. Thanks to a bunch of you, we made our goal of $300! Whoo hooo

Now for some updated pictures of the girls and their cousins.

Josie loves to pretend to be a teacher ever since she started preschool. This is her pretending to read to her "class".

Sharing an apple -Occasionally they share nicely with each other. I had to take a picture of it, cause lately they fight over most things.

Corey's Crew

Hi. You all probably remember our nephew Corey. Last year was my first year walking to support the cause of Juvenile Diabetes. Many of you were very generous in helping me to raise money to walk.

This year I have cut my goal in half, in light of the current economic conditions. The walk has no minimum fundraising guidelines, so I have no pressure to raise a certain amount of money. But, it would be nice to raise at least a couple hundred dollars. If you can donate $5, $10, or $15 I'd appreciate it, and so will Corey and his family.

Last year the walk was in November, so I haven't been too concerned about posting this. However, I recently realized the walk is October 4th this year! HELLO! I only have a month to make my goal. Click on the link below to go to our fundraising home page.

No donations are too small! Thanks again for helping a great cause!

http://walk.jdrf.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=extranet.personalpage&confirmid=87412886

First Day of Preschool

Holy Cow, where has the time gone?

Josie started preschool today. Of course she didn't make a big deal about us leaving her there, and it also seems she has made a friend already. Here is a photo of her before going to school, and one of her at school.

After picking her up, I found myself getting just a little teary-eyed. She looked so much older to me after I picked her up, is that nuts? She says words like "appointment" now. This morning before school she was pretending to talk to the doctor on the phone and she told me, "I am making you a doctor appointment". WHAT?! She made a little art project at school, and when she showed it to me after school it had a tear in it. She said a boy with an orange shirt ripped it. I looked at the pictures I took of her at school, and look who is sitting next to her. Hmmm...one suspect, a boy with an orange shirt.

Well, another milestone bites the dust. Sigh......

Fun with Nonu & Nonuma on July 4th!

Celebrating Independence Day at Nonu and Nonuma's is always fun! In between dinner and fireworks we all wrestled and played on the floor. The kids all had fun dogpiling and rough housing with Nonu. How cute are Dana's watermelon shoes in the first picture? I couldn't pass those up. These are some of my favorite shots from the day. Obviously I had a hard time choosing.

Watching fireworks with daddy.

Dana was playing peek-a-boo around this pole. You can imagine there were a few comments as to what she might be when she is older. Oh dear.. Anyway, she's such a big girl now, kind of sad, but also kind of cool! She says: please, thank you, here you go. For some reason her favorite words are still MINE and NO!

These cousins love to spend time together, playing, eating and hugging.


Josie on the Plasma Car. Has anyone ridden one of these? I rode it around on Saturday also. It even goes with me on it, these things are pretty cool and Josie likes it alot.