Welcome Nicholas Vincent Cappelli!

Yesterday Nicholas Vincent Cappelli was welcomed into this world with love!!!

CONGRATULATIONS CAPPELLI'S!!!

Family Fun Run

Yesterday we went to Claire's school for their Family Fun Run.  Her school has so many family nights and fun events, I love it!  The Fun Run was a running activity in the gym and then we got a passport which we had to take to all of the special area classrooms.  When we visited each classroom we got to meet each of the teachers and get our passport stamped.  It was really great to meet all of Claire's "specials" teachers!  Also, they had their book fair too!  Claire loved picking out books!

 It was so nice to meet more of Claire's teachers.  They all had wonderful things to say about Claire.  They all knew her name and told us how well she was doing.  The librarian told us "There are only a few kids that I learn their names the first few weeks of school and Claire is one of them!"  I of course, was concerned that it was because she was "one of those" kids but Mr. Clark assured me that it was because she was so sweet!  Claire loves him and her computer teacher!  The computer teacher told us that "Claire is the only Kindergartener that can input her 9 digit code all by herself!"  I am so proud of how well she is doing!  We also got to meet a lot of her new friends.  It was a great night and I love spending time at her school and seeing where she spends her day!

Oliver loved the Fun Run too.  He kept dancing in the gym and he loved having his own passport to get stamped.  He picked out this Race Car book and we have read it about 97 times!  He loves visiting Sissy's school!

A Break From Cleaning

Yesterday we took a break from cleaning to drive out to Grandma and Grandpa's cottage for dinner.  It was kinda sad to be going there and not head down to the beach but, we still had a delicious dinner and relaxed.

Claire had fun making lemonade with Grandma.

After dinner the kids got their jammies on and we all got cozy and watched The Lady And The Tramp.

I snuggled up with Oliver to watch the movie.  I love snuggling with my man!

After the movie Oliver found Owen's trumpet and rocked out.

Here are some pics of Oliver marching and playing.

He was hilarious!  He wasn't actually playing the trumpet.  Instead he was making a screeching sound, that he must feel sounds like a trumpet.

We have spent the whole weekend cleaning and organizing our new kitchen and getting our house back to normal.  It is so nice to have everything back to normal.  And it was great to eat in our new kitchen tonight!

MY NEW KITCHEN!!!

IT'S DONE!!  IT'S DONE!!! MY NEW DREAM KITCHEN IS HERE!!!!!

It is finally finished!  My new dream kitchen!!!  They finished today!  We just have a few tiny things to finish but the big stuff is all done!!

We went from this...

To this.

And this....

To this.

 And this...

 To this.

And this...

To this.

Needless to say, we have made some changes.  

Here is my new light for over the table.

And my new pendant lights.  We are working on hanging them a little lower but, we have some work to do with that!

I had to add these in.  These are shots of my new kitchen with my new under cabinet lighting!  I am really big on dim cozy lighting so this is Heaven for me!

I just love how cozy the lighting is!

I am in love with my new stone tile back splash!

This used to be a plain wall.  I am so happy that we decided to add cabinets here!  

I am so happy with the final product!  It is so hard to choose everything because you have to pick it all separately.  But I am so happy with the way everything came together!  I can't wait to organize everything and decorate!  We still need a kitchen table and stools for the island.  This seems to be the hardest thing to pick out!!  But so far I am just thrilled with the way it came out!

Nana and Papa stopped over to see the new kitchen and we had a nice pizza dinner.  Since we still don't have a kitchen table we ate in our usual spot of the family room.  The kids loved having Papa sit with them at their table.  Claire and Papa are BFFs!  They have such a nice time every morning when Papa comes to get Claire on the bus.  Claire can't wait to see Papa every morning and I love the memories that they are creating!

Family Portraits Preview

Yesterday we had our family portraits done by a friend of mine.  Here is just one of our pictures.  We had a lot of fun getting them done.   I think this picture just shows our family to a tee.  Mark and Claire are being very serious and Oliver and I are goofing around.  When I get the rest of them back I will post some more.

I came home from school today and this is how I found Claire.  She has been slowly getting better but she still gets tired really quickly.  Feeling yucky or not, she is loving Kindergarten!  Everyday I am so excited to come home and hear about her day!!  Hopefully tomorrow she will feel even better and soon be feeling 100%!

Bedtime After A Long Week

We had a long week around here.  It was the first full week of school and Claire was sick so things were a little hairy over here.  Claire had a fever for a few days and the poor thing had to miss school yesterday and today :(  After all those years of judging the kids that missed days on the first week of school the bad angel got me and Claire had to be one of "those kids".  But after two days of rest I think Claire is starting to feel better!

Tonight we ordered Chinese food and just relaxed after I got home.  The kids had fun reading books and playing.

Oliver found a book about planes and he was thrilled.  He loves reading his books.  Every morning he has to "read books a minute" before he will get out of his crib.

We are slowly getting Oliver off of his binkie.  He no longer has it while we are reading books, he only gets in his crib right before he goes to sleep.  Here he is right after I laid him down.

And here he is one second later.  The second he gets the binkie he starts to fall asleep.

And Claire was half asleep while we read her books.  By the time I turned off her light she was half way to dream land.

Here is a picture of a worksheet Claire did on her first day of school.  Since there are going to be sooo many worksheets that she does at school I am going to take pictures of some of them and make an album to remember all of her hard work :)  Maybe I am biased but I must say as Kindergarten professional...that is some awesome coloring!! But I am not really sure what happened with her name!!!

Here is a sneak peek of the kitchen.  Here is my cupboards, stove, and microwave drawer!  I was promised that the whole kitchen should be done next Friday!!!!!!

Kindergarten Update!

HIGH: Claire is LOVING Kindergarten :)
LOW: I have not had time to take many pictures to blog :(

To say that Claire loves Kindergarten would be an understatement!  She is amazed by it!  Everyday she has come home with countless stories about how incredible her day is!  She did have a little fever last night but I think it is just because she is EXHAUSTED!  Once she has some Advil and took a little nap she is fine.  Yesterday her and Papa waited for the bus. And waited and waited.  Finally Papa drove her to school.  Thank God Claire is so flexible.  She marched into the office and informed them that the bus did not pick her up and she went on her merry way to her classroom.  Her favorite special so far is Computer lab.  Although she will tell you that she loves all of her specials.  She had Library today and fell in love with Mr. Clark the Librarian!!  Apparently he is hilarious and Claire told me "You wouldn't believe all the books they have there!!"  Claire is in love with her teacher.  She keeps telling me that she is so nice and helpful.  I am so proud of Claire and I love that she is so excited to learn new things!!!

Birthday Weekend

HIGH: It was my birthday weekend :)
LOW: There is not enough time in the weekends :(

This weekend we had two great birthday dinners for me!  On Saturday we went to Nana and Papa's for dinner.  We had a great time with the family.  The kids loved singing happy birthday to me!!  Then today we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for another great birthday dinner!!

Today was also Colleen's baby shower.  We had a great time and Colleen got a lot beautiful things for baby Brendan.  It was really nice to visit with the girls and celebrate another baby coming into our group.

Colleen and Jessica with their baby bumps!!

It was a great weekend.  I had fun celebrating my birthday with my family and seeing all of my friends!  It was also great to just hang out with the kids and snuggle them up!  But I am remembering there is not enough time in the weekends to do everything we want to do!!

Claire's First Day Of Kindergarten And The Komo Family School Year Goals

HIGH: Claire had a great first day of school :)
LOW: We are all exhausted :(

Claire had a great first day!!  She woke up a little nervous but once we got dressed and got her book bag ready she was super excited!!

My baby is getting so big!!!

Papa and Grandpa came over to see Claire on her first day.

Claire waited patiently for her bus to come.

My baby getting on her bus for the first time!

Claire was super excited and got on the bus like a champ.  

My baby waving goodbye as the bus pulled away.  I did great all morning but this is when I started to cry a little.  I was fine til the bus pulled away!  

Claire's bus was a little late so I was home when she got home!  She ran off the bus and talked a mile a minute telling me EVERYTHING that happened!!  Then I had some errands to run and she talked the whole car ride!  She told me she loves school and cannot wait to go back on Monday!!

Our Goals

Every year we come up with our goals for the school year.  Click HERE and HERE to see some of our past goals.

Mark

~ To be a great father and husband

~To make a positive impact on the lives of my students

~To maintain a healthy lifestyle

~To finish the kitchen remodel project

Natalie

~ To be the best mother and wife that I can be.

~ To laugh til I cry everyday!!

~ To be positive and always try to see the best in EVERY situation!

~ To be a great teacher to my students!

~ To make many memories that will last me a lifetime!

~ To try to change someone's life everyday, even if it is just something small.

Claire

~ To learn to read.

~ To learn to do crafts in art class.

~ To do great in Kindergarten!

Oliver

~ To read my books.

~ To play wit my fwends.

I am really excited to start another school year.  Claire is so excited to be in Kindergarten.  She is ready to learn and I am ready for her to be challenged.  She is so bright and I can't wait for her to learn new things and grow educationally!