Gerard...proud to call him our friend!

Gerard is our friend that spent last Christmas with us... again, he is a WWII veteran who fought on Omaha Beach.. it has been a long time coming for all of us to get together again... so we had Gerard over for dinner, he loves Gia and it was his first time meeting John... Gerard never will let me live down how I did not tell him when I was in the hospital after giving birth to John because he wanted to visit us so badly.. well Gerard, now you can spend all the time with Gia and John because we all will be making it a point to be together much more than we have been. It was a great night as always and an absolute honor once again to have Gerard in our company.

Happy Thanksgiving 2013!! John's 1st Thanksgiving!!

Our little guido in his Armani track suit from Aunt Tami and Uncle Craig

Auntie Dake/Blake with Jeej

Grandpa and baby John in camo haha!

Priceless

Uncle Craig and Sal

My girl

Look at those legs!

3 generations in camo haha!! Got to love it! 

Gootzy is 33 weeks!!

What a love!! What a love!! Gootz is doing awesome, eating like no tomorrow and laughing and laughing and laughing God Bless him... he gets such a kick out of his sister it is hysterical and I will get video of him watching the train go around our Christmas tree... yes we put up everything so the kiddos can really enjoy the decor etc.. yeah right.. not just the kiddos Sal and I love out house all decorated at Christmas time! Anyway, John can't stop giggling when he sees the train go around the tree and make the whistle noise. I will get video of it and post, it is so funny.. anyway his eye looks great.. we found some blood spots on his sheet this week because he rubs his eye/face into the sheet but it has not reopened and is not infected, the surgical tape is still on and both Gia and John go a week from tomorrow for the post surgery appt. All is good in Mastropolo land!!

Under my projector screen....

Today was the last day of school before we break for Thanksgiving. It was important to me to do a lesson on being grateful and being thankful. I found a wonderful article on 60 things to be grateful for and read them to my students and they received their own copy as well. After doing this, I then asked each student to tell the class, our 303 Family, what they are grateful for. It was just magnificent to hear really and truly, from their hearts', what they are each thankful and grateful for. I then passed out to my students thank you cards I wrote out to each of them, 50 in total, and each personalized, and yes it took me 2 days to do. I wanted them to all know how very special they all are to me and how much I am thankful to be part of their lives' and how I will always be there for them. In my period 3/4 block I had to leave the room to go to the office.. when I returned I noticed my projector screen was down and my students wanted me to pull it up and I did not want to because I knew what was under there. I started crying and it was super emotional yet again for all of us. This is truly a year that is going down in the record books of all my years teaching thus far. I can't begin to express how special and connected we all are to one another all 51 of us and that includes me. We are a family. Below are pictures of what the students wrote to me when I was out of the room under my projector screen.

My Gia girl!

John is 32 weeks!

Boy oh boy has John found his voice, everything from high pitched screams to goat noises which make me so weak from laughter! He is eating like a champ and his eye area looks so much better! He is in the walker now, but does not know what to do.. he is only in it limited time, he gets so much mat time and really sits up by himself now from a tummy position and does the downward dog yoga move often.. he is a scooter when it comes to crawling... Gia was a late walker, I wonder if John will be the same. We shall see. Teething is in full effect right now as the next to come in are the two front top...John, I love it when you just stare and smile at me, it is just priceless my little gootzy... and you are just so cuddly!!  WE LOVE YOU our handsome boy!

2 days post surgery!

Baby John's eye is looking much better today.. swelling has gone down considerably..  and Gia's area is black and blue and a bit swollen still... she is out today on a parking lot picnic "PLP" with her dad... on today's lunch menu.. grilled cheese! What precious times these are.. Still giving both ibuprofen, but both of them thank God are coming along just fine.... praise God!