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