Vincenzo Alan Mangini has arrived!

Vinnie was born yesterday at 8:06 pm December 5th, 2008 weighting 7 pounds 14 ounces and is 20 inches long. He is a great baby, we have only heard him cry once! Susie is recovering nicely and loves her new baby! Thank you everyone for your phone calls and texts.

Put a Fork in Me...

'Cause I'm done! (Can you not tell??) That's right. I go into my doctor's office at 2 then head to the hospital for my c-section. HOORAY!!! Giovanni's wound up so tight, I sent him off to Tot Lot with Jeanette this morning and he'll probably end up spending the rest of the day with her family. Thank you SOOO much Jean!!!

Next time I post it'll be pictures of Baby Vinnie!

An Attitude of Gratitude

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. The running joke for the day was that we were all ruining Ryan's Thanksgiving. We took it easy, for the most part. Ryan and I spent the morning putting up Christmas trees at our house. This year, we went over to my mom's for our Thanksgiving feast. She made the most delicious turkey! My own contribution was a pumpkin cheesecake made from scratch. It turned out pretty good - Ryan thinks it might be the best dessert I've ever made. It's interesting to me how much things change over time. Growing up, Thanksgiving was a pretty huge party with so many friends and family in attendance we'd bring in several extra tables. But so many people have moved. This year, it was us, Jim & Amy, Matt & Resa and my mom - much smaller. This was also our 2nd Thanksgiving without my dad. I miss him so much. Rather than dwell on what and who is lost, I'm trying to focus on what's here. I'm grateful for so many things at this time. I'm grateful for my loving husband who also came with a great sense of humor. I'm grateful for my crazy three-year-old whose antics I don't usually understand but who has the ability to drive me up the wall and make me laugh at the same time. I'm grateful for the little miracle I'm about to meet next week (and for the heartburn, backaches and leg cramps to end, too). Especially at this time of economic hardship in the world, I'm grateful for a roof over my head and Ryan's employment. I'm grateful for food in my cupboard and leftovers in the refrigerator. I'm grateful for a grandmother who listened to the missionaries and my dad who wanted to know what made the pretty red head in the office (my mom, duh) so different and special. Without knowing it, they both made the same decision that has had a vast impact on my life by enabling me to be raised in the gospel. I'm grateful for my mom and all her encouragement. I'm also very grateful for my sisters and girlfriends who are always there for me.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Uh-Oh

Tonight, I was explaining to Gio (who's 3) that if he didn't start being a good boy I would have to call Santa and tell him not to bring him his Polar Express Toy he's been telling us he needs (every minute of every day). I furthered explained, once again, that Santa only brings toys to good boys and girls and that it wasn't mommy's job to do so. Gio gave me this puzzled look and replied, "Wait, you're not Santa???"

Insanity

Seems the closer we get to delivery of our little guy, the more insane our lives get! We're just 3 weeks (and a few hours) away from meeting Baby Vinnie and the list of things to do just keeps piling up. I've nearly finished painting the changing table, an brilliant idea I had when my mom bought us the crib from Ikea I wanted/needed (Gio's was just too tall for me) that's white, not cherry stained. This project has turned out to be a literal pain in my rear! Ryan has successfully rearranged the boy's room but every time I turn around there's more baby stuff to launder. Today we ordered a new swing from Babies R Us (Gio's died & the one we got from eBay fell through) and, also today, I had to get all four new tires on my car. Aside from all this, my watermelon-sized womb has rendered me pretty immobile and there's Girl's Camp/Stake Young Women's Nights '09 to prepare for....wish us luck!

What do you think?

Last Saturday, I was officially 34 weeks pregnant. I get SO many comments from people that I was wondering, am I bigger with this pregnancy? So, in the picture on the left I am exactly 34 weeks pregnant with Gio and on the right I am exactly 34 weeks pregnant with Vinnie, wearing the same shirt. What do you think?

Halloween Adventures

I cannot believe I let the entire month of October go by without putting up a single decoration in my home, baking and decorating sugar cookies (for friends, neighbors, visiting teachees, etc.) and not starting "the Phantom Ghost Treater" in our complex! This baby must be sucking the life out of me.... Without these things, however, we did end up having a pretty good Halloween:

One week before Halloween, our good friends, the Machado's, hooked us up with tickets to "Mickey's Halloween Treat" at Disney's California Adventure. It was so much fun! There were, I think, 16 of us total and we all dressed as dominoes. It was the easiest costume (almost, keep reading) I've ever worn. We all wore black and our friends, Joey & Gabbie, provided strips of paper for our center lines and cut out circles for our dots (we taped it all on). I was really blown away by how many moms of young children wore skimpy costumes. Honestly, one mom's outfit looked like it came from Fredrick's! Only two rides were not open that night (Grizzly Run Rapids & the Sun Wheel) and they handed out SO much candy that we put it out for the trick-or-treaters Halloween night rather than buy anymore. Gio & I actually only rode one ride that night (Toy Story Mania) while everyone else also got to ride the Tower of Terror. Thankfully, our friends also provided a wheelchair for Ryan to push me around in or I would not have made it through the night. The event is supposed to be from 7:30-11:30 only but I'm pretty sure we didn't leave the park til way past midnight 'cause we didn't get home 'til after 1! Thank you again, Machado Family!

We don't usually give Gio options when it comes to what he's going to be for Halloween, we just choose for him, but this year we at least ran the idea past him before assembling the costume. He was THRILLED when I asked him if he'd like to be Charlie Brown. We spend a lot of time watching Charlie Brown DVDs around here. When I pop popcorn and tell Gio we're watching a CB DVD in the afternoon he knows mommy's not gonna stay awake for the viewing of it (a frequent occurrence). He's very good at sitting right next to me and even occasionally will fall asleep himself.

Halloween was a very busy day. We started off with a party at Tot Lot. There was story time, 5 or 6 different"projects" (crafts), and viewing of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." For snack time they had pizza and mini cupcakes - definitely not the norm. It ended with dancing to Halloween music until all the mommies picked up their kidlets. Each kid also got their own pumpkin bucket full of treats and goodies. Gio followed a girl who was dressed as Jasmine from Aladdin all over the place, asking her to dance, take a picture with him and even come to his house! He has been asking to watch that movie every day for the past week or so.

Later, we attended our Church Halloween party. Here, I took off my shoes, making my costume "being barefoot and pregnant." Ryan dressed as a Disneyland tourist/annual passholder. There were lots of game booths, karaoke and sweets to eat. Ryan won me a soda at the ring toss soda booth. He's so thoughtful! They had trick-or-treating in the hallways and didn't mind when the kids went through multiple times. My friend, Cathy, handed out glow-in-the-dark earrings (not pierced), bracelets and drop necklaces. Pretty cool!

After that party, we headed to Nana's to trick-or-treat on her block (the only real trick-or-treating I let Gio do). I was pretty sad to see how many people weren't handing out candy and how few kids were out. Gio had a great time, though. Several people, throughout the day, asked how we even thought up his costume, much less found it. A big "thank-you" to my friend, Aaron, for printing it. It was actually amazingly difficult to find a yellow t-shirt and black shorts. Must be the time of year.