Happy Holidays!

Hope this finds you all doing well after celebrating the 2009 holidays and looking forward to 2010!  I've posted new photos from the last month or so...we've been busy-We start the holiday season off with baking the annual fruitcake for PopPop.  We had breakfast at the Air and Space Museum and Santa joined us, after he flew in on a helicopter!  Simon had his first visit to Daddy's hanger, and we took our annual trip to Zoo Lights with Anita, David and Rory.  And we've also been busy with the typical holiday preparations of decorating the tree and the house, shopping, and baking.  We also spent Christmas Day with the McGuire's, which was also a lot of fun!  Enjoy the pictures and keep in touch!  

We are looking forward to our February visitors -Snavely's and Jerm and Mali and Nana and Pappy's visit in April!

love the Semonsky 4.

We Welcome Simon Charles Semonsky!

Can't believe it's almost been a year since I last posted...oops!  We definitely have reason to celebrate and update the blog as we welcome Simon to our family.  Elliot is enjoying his baby brother...giving him lots of kisses and loves to push him in the stroller.  We are adjusting to being four pretty well so far...although we haven't ventured out much in the past two and a half weeks, so we'll see how that goes ;-)  We were very fortunate to have Marmee and PopPop help us out for the past 3 weeks-after they drove across the country to be with us!  Nana and Pappy were also here for a short visit to spend time with the boys...and us and were also very helpful.  We look forward to more family meeting Simon in the near future!  

We miss you all -

please keep in touch and check out the newest pictures...!

Hope to be better about updating so keep checking back.

love

Beth, Sean, Elliot and Simon

Holiday Festivities

Happy New Year!
We've had a great holiday season and winter break...sad to see it end, but we have lots of fun (elliot and I even got to play in the snow!!) memories and pictures to share! Elliot really seemed to 'grow up' over the break-He wrapped up a box full of his "stinkies" (pacifiers) and we brought them to the baby monkeys at the zoo-and he has really not looked back! I think it's also pretty safe to say he is finally totally potty trained-for all necessary duties! We are VERY excited about that!! He really is such a big boy now!
We look forward to the visits from family that are already scheduled and welcome any new ones....
love ya all
we3

Fall Happenings

Yes, I know it's been a long time since I posted new pics-but they are finally up!!! There are 4 new albums so check them out! Hmm let's see we went to the Botanical Gardens in Aug. b/c they had a dinosaur exhibit-my last outing with Elliot before school started. We went peach picking again with the McGuires-and again it was super hot-but peaches were good. Sept. we went to Flagstaff for the Bluegrass Festival, which Elliot LOVED. And I celebrated my 35th bday (gulp!) October is always full of pumpkin fun and dress up time...this year a singin' guitar playin' cowboy made his debut! Sean celebrated his 40th bday (gulp, gulp!) and I surprised him with a trip to Vegas! We saw the Beatles Love Cirque du Soleil show, rented a Harley and rode out to Hoover Dam/Lake Mead, and had dinner at the Eiffel Tower restaurant-We had a blast! Marmee and PopPop came out for a visit and stayed with Elliot-This month we went to a fall festival at a preschool with Rory, and a car/vehicle show and we hung out at the wash on Veteran's Day-Hard to believe the holidays are right around the corner!!!

Best Wishes, much love, and please keep in touch

we 3

East Coast Misson 08 Accomplished!

We had a really fun visit with family on the east coast. 4 weeks away and still felt like we didn't get to see everyone and do everything, but we definitely did a lot! Got to the beach, Hershey Park, Philadelphia for dinner, an engine/tractor show, ate lots of icecream, and I even got away to the "spa"! Elliot loved the rides and the motorcycles were his favorite-not a big surprise....but I think he enjoyed sitting on Uncle Steve's motorcycle the best....or was it Pappy's digger....or the lawn tractor...? In any case he definitely got his fill of vehicles. He also became very interested in air conditioning compressors....go figure! Check out the tons of new pics and please keep in touch-and the Tucson Bed and Breakfast is now open again for guests....
love
we 3

Early Summer Fun

Hi Ya'll

My ever so subtle brother brought it to my attention that it's been a while since I have updated the blog and pictures...."It's been like two months!" Well, low and behold it's been a little over 2 months so I guess it is time for an update. Thanks for the heads up Jerm.

We've just been pluggin' along here enjoying the day to day stuff-celebrated my third Mother's Day and Sean's third Father's Day-even though Elliot is only 2 years old...kinda cool. Elliot's been doing lots of "big boy" things-he can screw in a screw by himself, he can get in his carseat by himself, he takes lids on and off of things by himself, he puts his shoes on by himself, and much to our dismay and surprise he's been caught plugging things in by himself..."I do it" seems to be his favorite phrase these days. Ahhh independence. He's also starting to figure out the potty thing-although not so independent yet with that!

We're looking forward to our trip to the east-lots of visiting ahead. Enjoy the new pics til then.

love

we 3

Spring has Sprung and Elliot is No longer one!

Hi Ya'll

Check out the new pics from our Spring Break trip to PA and Pat and Phil's visit to Tucson....

It was a fun time had by all....

We had a great birthday celebration with our little man.....2 years old!!! Wow-what an incredible journey it has been. Looking forward to what's to come but enjoying each day along the way.

Please keep in touch -

miss you and love ya

we 3

Winter Fun in the Sun

Wow-I can't believe this is the last week of February already! 2008 is off to a fast start.

Not too much new news from us-just been enjoying the nice winter days-taking hikes, going to the zoo, lots of parks, festivals, and trying to get some things organized around the house. Elliot wants to do everything Daddy does. He is very much into tools and his workbench these days-and Sean just built himself a workbench in our shed. Elliot likes to ride his motorcycle-Sean has one too-the same color red. And of course they both enjoy jammin' out on their guitars. They are quite a pair!

Looking forward to spring-but not super hot days yet...although we are prepared with the pool this year!

We haven't had many visitors this year (hint, hint) but we are looking foward to Mom and Dad Zito's (Nana and Pappy) visit in March.

Please keep in touch-

love

we 3

Happy Holidays!

Well, it's been a while since I posted-kind of got caught up in all of the holiday festivities. We had a pretty quiet Thanksgiving -spent the day with the McGuire's and then got to visit Erin, Brian and Dylan at the MacFarlane's house. Shortly after that, Sean and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary....Where does the time go? Then we started getting ready for Christmas-We visited Santa, put up lights outside, got our tree, decorated the house, did some shopping and mailing, visited with friends, went to the Zoo lights, whew-just a busy few weeks. We spent Christmas at home, just the three of us, and we all took turns getting sick...but the highlight of our holiday was having Stephen and Sathana come visit! It was their first time in AZ and visiting us-it was fun to have family here during the holidays. The sad part of the holidays for us was losing Sean's Grandma Hobbie. We feel so fortunate to have had her in our lives for so long...and that she was able to meet Elliot a few times.

We wish you a very Happy New Year and may 2008 bring you much joy and peace.

lots of love to all

check out all the new pics in the Holiday album!

Jerm and Mali are MARRIED!

Well the day finally arrived....Jerm and Mali got married last Sunday (Nov. 11) Wooo hooo!

The rabbi lead a really nice and personal ceremony, as Jerm and Mali stool under the Chuppah that Mom Brodt made with the ties from Mali's late father. Of course Jerm wore a penguin tie (would you expect anything else?!) and Mali looked absolutely beautiful! We had a really fun time at the reception-lots of dancing and yummy food. I even got lifted up in "the chair" following Mali and her mother, Judith! -I seemed to be the least stubborn of the Brodt family in terms of "letting loose" at the party-Hey, somebody's got to represent the family, right?

Check out the wedding pictures on the link-Wish we could have gotten more pics of the wedding and of the bride and groom, but being in the wedding, trying to get pics taken and keeping tabs on Elliot proved to be a little challenging (in fact after the wedding, Elliot pushed the button to the elevator and when the doors opened, he hopped on!-Luckily Sean and I were close by!) If anyone has better or different pics from the wedding, please email them and we'll post them too.

It was great to see all of our family, and Pat and Phil also came up so Elliot got to visit with both of his sets of grandparents! We also got to meet the rest of Mali's family which was also a lot of fun! We wish we would have had a little more time there to visit and explore Boston-We did get to visit the aquarium with Rachie. Elliot loved watching the fish and the penguins, and the ride over to the aquarium on the "T" (train) and the bus was just as exciting for him as the aquarium!

Unfortunately Elliot got some sort of stomach virus on Wed. night (the day after we got home)-So that was not fun...and I got a touch of it yesterday-luckily just for the day. We're trying to keep Sean in good health!

We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving and much love.

come visit!

Trick-Or-Treat

Finally getting the pics up from Trick-Or-Treat/ Halloween! It was pretty quiet. We took Elliot over to Susan and Richard's house first. Elliot was really more interested in putting the rocks from their front yard into his bag than anything they had to offer inside....well until Susan offered him a banana (What else do monkeys get on Halloween?!) So, he went inside, ate a banana, and walked around their house. Then he found a little turtle lamp. He became fascinated with how it turned on and off. He had Susan turn it on and off a few times to figure out how it worked, then he practiced a few times until he finally turned it on and off by himself! He definitely has that mechanical-gotta know how it works-mind! (hmmm wonder where he gets that from?!)

He's been helping out with the cleaning a lot lately-he loves using the floor Swiffer-and I let him use it as much as he wants! Sometimes he even Swiffers in the nude- ;-) He has recently started saying an approximation of his name when he sees his name written on his cups! And he FINALLY says "down" now. Everything used to be up or out-even if it was really down.

Well, we're leaving in 2 days for BOSTON! We're looking forward to Jerm and Mali's wedding and visiting with family....I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures to share when we return!

It's still in the upper 80's here....anyone interested in visiting for the holidays?!

Open invitation-

love to all-B.

It's Pumpkin Time!

Wow, It's been a busy month so far...and now we're getting ready for Sean's birthday and Halloween! We've had an "event" every Saturday. We went to Vincent's 2nd birthday party, went to a pumpkin carving party last weekend, and to Buckelew Farms (the pumpkin patch) this weekend with the McGuire's. We have also been going to the park, we had a playdate/group with Rory and Clara, and we are always entertained by Elliot's new tricks. We've been having lots of fun. Elliot did have a little set-back about two weeks ago: another ear infection! But he's much better now. He is trying to say so many new words these days and last night he started figuring out how to make the /k/ sound at the end of words!!! I know, the speech therapist in me gets a little carried away-but I think Sean was actually more excited than I was!!

Check out all the new pics-there are a lot!

Happy Harvest, Happy Fall!

Well, here's the latest installment of the Semonsky family updates....

It's festival time here in Tucson. Two weekends ago we went to the Greek festival-mmmm lots of yummy gyros, souvlaki, spanokopita, baklava and many other yummy pastries! Not to mention live music...Elliot's favorite part of the festival! Then this past weekend we went to the Oktoberfest. The German food was definitely disappointing (we knew it would be from remembering last year's food) but again there was live music-and Elliot was busting his moves out on the dance floor. He even has a signature move called "the donkey". Unfortunately we forgot our camera! And of course both festivals were extra fun because we were there with our buddies-Anita, David and Rory!

Elliot seems to be going through another growth spurt. Lots of new vocabulary, comprehension and "tricks". I took him to the park yesterday and he climbed UP the slide by himself (with me spotting him of course) and he went down the twisty slide by himself too! I believe he has the Semonsky Dare Devil in him -just like his Daddy, Uncle Lee and Uncle Steve! (Did I mention he is on his 3rd Ouch Report from school?!) He also likes to feed Petty now, put on his Crocs by himself, and he knows exactly which button(s) to push to turn on/off the TV, stereo, answering machine, and CD/clock radios. He is SO observant. Elliot also has learned to say "PopPop", "Nana", "Marmee" and "Pappy"-which made Nana very happy on the phone! I know it seems like I say it every week, but he is just SO fun right now!

Check out the new Pics

Until next time....Peace and love to all-

Hey-is anyone going to come visit us soon??!

Camping Fun

Hi There.

Lots of new stuff to catch everyone up on...Elliot and I both started new classes this past week. Elliot started a "Little Movers and Shakers" class through the city parks and rec. dept. It is held in a big gym-type room with lots of mats, springboard floor, obstacle courses, balance beams, bars, etc. The teacher opens the class with a music and movement circle-then lots of play climbing and running...Elliot even learned how to do a forward roll (with my support) and we played with the parachute. It was a lot of fun (for both of us)!! I started a 3 credit class I have to take to recertify. It's half online and half in class for 8 weeks. So far so good...but already looking forward to the end. And Sean got to pick up Elliot a couple of times last week and even dropped him off one morning-Luckily Elliot didn't cry when Sean left...Oh but Elliot did get his first "ouch report" from school last week...He went down the slide head first and busted his lip-it healed pretty quickly.

So for fun we got to hang out with the McGuire's a bit two weekends ago. It was fun to have the boys (Rory and Elliot) together again. Elliot continues to do new things to amuse us. He had a green mesh bag he uses to put little books in, sometimes he puts little animals in it, and sometimes he puts it on his head and says "Hat" and walks around the house with it on his head. Fortunately he can see through it!

And the big fun we just had this past weekend was CAMPING. We took Elliot on his first camping adventure. Went to Mt. Lemmon (close by) on Saturday. We had lunch in the little town of Summerhaven and then spent the night. Elliot loved being outdoors-lots of rocks, sticks and dirt to play with and Petty enjoyed it too. So, in addition to it being Elliot's first night sleeping in a tent, it he also experienced his first bee sting, first scraped knees, first campfire, and well, it was actually his second car sickness experience! I guess he inherited that from Sean, poor guy! But watching the expression on his face when he woke up in his own little sleeping bag in the tent.....PRICELESS! Then Sean made us a pancake breakfast and we headed home. It was a fun way to celebrate my birthday!

That's all for now-Keep in touch.

love ya'll

Take a Hike

Some of us are hiking and some of us are being hiked....Can you guess who is who?? We bought a new backpack for Elliot and decided to give it a try on Mount Lemmon last weekend. It was so nice to escape the heat and be in the woods with lots of trees and wildflowers and even critters! Sean found a horned toad. We have never seen this trail so lush and overgrown. It was a lot of fun and even Petty found water at the end of the trail...

Erin and I were feeling rather adventurous and decided to take our yearly journey north to Chinle (over Labor Day weekend) but this time with the kids. Chinle is where Erin and I met and we love going back to visit the canyon and our friend Betty Kay. We were a little nervous about the long car ride which usually takes us 6 hours....but the kids were so good and really entertained themselves pretty well in the back seat with toys and books. It did take us 8 hours to get there....and 7 hours to get home, but we made a few extra stops this time...We hiked down and up the canyon with the kiddos on our backs-and the canyon was so beautiful and full of energy. We also took the kids on the playground at Betty Kay's school and just enjoyed being together with old friends and away from the heat and hustle and bustle of the city.

So besides our outdoor adventures, Elliot has just been exercising his independence and now wants to "help" with the vacuuming, fixing things in the house, and lots of other tasks around the house. He has also been practicing some new dance moves. He seems to be settling into the school routine now and he didn't even cry when I dropped him off this morning!!!

Hope you all had a fun, relaxing weekend-Keep in touch and check out the new pics.

XOXOXO

Back to School

The two school-aged Semonsky's are now starting their third week of school already! Elliot has had an expected adjustment period...He and I both shed some tears the first three days of school, but by the fourth day I dropped Elliot off in his classroom, he stopped crying by the time I got to the front door of the school-SO, it made leaving a little easier. Over the weekend of the first week of school Elliot slept 11 hours Sat night (unusual!) and then a 4 hour nap on Sunday!!! I guess school tuckered him out! Then the second week was complicated by Elliot's eye surgery. The procedure went well-they inserted a tube into his tear duct, and it is sutured to the inside of his nose. The first day was difficult for all of us-and Elliot only wanted "Dada" to comfort him (in addition to his twinkle baby, puppy, and "stinky thing"-the pacifier) but by Tuesday he was back to himself. And the best part...No goop in the eye anymore...let's hope it stays that way!! Going back to school on Wednesday was hard since he had been off for four days. Finally this week it seems like we are getting back on schedule with sleeping, getting out of the house, and separating from each other for the day. I am definitely very anxious to leave school on time so we have more time to play before bedtime. Sean is keeping busy too and helping out with the new routine.

Elliot seems to enjoy playing with the steering wheels on the playground at school, he loves the music and dancing, but his most favorite thing about school I think are the snacks!!! They tell me he only eats his fruit out of his lunch everyday...but he eats ALL of his morning and afternoon snacks-requesting seconds and thirds sometimes!....That's our boy! He is so much fun, and he does new "things" all the time. He will now do motions to familiar songs, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed....And he's using words to make requests and his needs and wants known!

I'm posting some new pics-check'em out.

lots of love-

Peachy Keen

The rains continue to grace us with their presense. However, the rain is not all good...There has been a lot of damage due to the rains, and this week a few people have even lost their lives in raging washes here in Tucson. It is very scary how powerful and intense the monsoons can be. The other thing the rains bring is ANTS...Elliot and I both were bit by fire ants this week. Thankfully Elliot's bites didn't result in a severe reaction like mine...but they are definitely painful!

We decided to head out of town toward Wilcox, AZ to pick peaches! There is a pretty big farm/orchard(s) called Apple Annie's. Anita and I thought we should leave early (to avoid the storms)...and wouldn't you know just as we arrived it started pouring! Luckily, it only lasted a few minutes and then it cleared enough for us to pick about 15 pounds of peaches!! It was a lot of fun tasting the different varieties right off the trees. Elliot didn't like the peaches so much, but enjoyed pushing the cart and picking them off the ground saying, "ball, ball". Rory, on then other hand was chowing down and loved the peaches! We did get to enjoy some homemade peach icecream too.

Elliot continues to show off his independence and likes exploring and trying out new things, like Petty's crate, putting our shoes on, and today he was really into taking care of his "bubu"(baby). In fact, he held his baby through lunch and even fed him some zucchini. Today I took him to the grocery store and he ate 3 bananas while we were shopping!!! And when "Dada" is home, I am pretty much invisible...I guess it's a guy thing.

So, tomorrow is our last day of "freedom" then back to school for me...and Elliot will also be starting his school. We visited this week again, and I left the room for a while-Elliot was expectedly upset at first, but then engaged in play and seemed to be happy. Hopefully this week we will fall into a groove and routine.

Have a fun week. More to come....

Monsoon Madness

We are definitely in the middle of an active monsoon season! We've been getting rain almost everyday-and Saturday parts of Tucson got 3 inches of rain!!! Our pool even started overflowing on one side (it's not exactly on level ground...) There have been some pretty incredible sights-rainbows, raging washes, beautiful sunsets, and lots of wildlife. Last night we took a walk over at David and Anita's house. On our walk we saw a tarantula (a big one!)...and since I had the camera they told me to take a picture of it "Get closer, get closer" they all shouted!-I took two pictures and got creeped out. So, Sean took the camera and decided to get closer...At first the tarantula jumped, and then Sean took one more picture and it started running after him-We all (David with the two dogs, Anita and I each with a stroller and little guy, and Sean) high-tailed it outta there! Then we saw a coyote, but it was a less climatic encounter. Oh, and then when we woke up this morning-our night blooming cactus had bloomed-YEAH!

SO, other news this week...Lily got her annual shave. She's looking a lot smaller, except for her belly, which now is very prominant. Elliot and I went to visit his new school. He enjoyed it-especially all the steering wheels on the playground. We got to storytime, and we got to meet Erin and Dylan at Cracker Barrel for lunch! Dylan is getting so big and is crawling now!! Yeah!

Elliot is imitating just about everything we do now...he wants to wash his hands when we do, talk on the phone when we do, and Sean usually squats down when he hands Elliot a banana in the morning, so now Elliot says, "Adada" (translation: banana) and squats down to wait for Sean to give him a piece ....Too funny!

Check out the pics-and keep in touch!

loveya all-

Back at Home

We had a fun and busy first week back in Tucson-

Elliot had his 15 month check-up and he's now weighing in at 27 pounds, 8 ounces and 33 inches tall! He got two vaccinations and didn't even cry! What a brave boy! We're also looking at another eye procedure probably the middle of August.

But back to the fun stuff....We took lunch to Sean at the airport and Elliot got to sit in, and pilot, a KingAir. He is very into transportation stuff right now-steering wheels, the wheels on the stroller, his tractor and rocket-anything that moves! We took him to one of the big city parks on Saturday, and they had a little electric train that you could ride in...It went around a small part of the park. It was fun-and it was another hit with Elliot, "Whoo Whoo!"

We also got to hang out with Anita and Rory! Rory is getting so big, sitting up and just starting to crawl! They boys are really becoming more interactive-It is so fun to watch!

SO, two weeks left for me and Elliot to tear up the town...then back to school for us! (boo hoo)

talk to you all soon...

beth ;-)

East Coast Mission Accomplished!

Greetings-

We've been back in Tucson for about 5 days now...Being back here makes us long for the cooler days and nights of the east coast, the lush green trees and grass, and of course the company of family and friends....BUT it is good to be in our own home and together with Sean again.

We had a wonderful, fun visit with everyone! Elliot had lots of new adventures-walking in grass, playing with cousins, riding on Pappy's tractor, playing at the beach and in the ocean, riding the rides at Funland, chasing rabbits in Marmee and PopPop's yard ("hop hop"), and he even picked up some new words, "OH JEEZ!" You can check out the ton of photos I took in the East Coast album-just click the Semonsky pictures link....

Thank you for all of your hospitality and for rearranging schedules to visit with us! We hope see you out here in Tucson in the near future!

Love ya all....