This is what happens

when the almost-four-year-old gets ahold of the camera:

What a crack up!

Who's That Baby?

Four Gasperini cherubs are featured below.

See if you can guess who's who... ANSWERS ARE IN! MAJORITY RULES!

Baby A: The serious one--M

Baby B: The squished one--MG (I tried to hide her hair to make this one a little tougher!)

Baby C: The contemplative one--T (all the way!)

Baby D: The chill one--J

If you're stumped, no worries--I'm even having trouble distinguishing them!!

Pucker Up, Baby

My ying and yang babies

Gasperini-Ville got the first of its lemons yesterday afternoon--one of our A/C units went kaput!

Temps in the upstairs began climbing and by bedtime, they were in the upper 80's and GG and I felt it was borderline child abuse to subject our children to such heat. So down they came... all FOUR of them. And so began the family camp-out in our family room! Little MG was moved to the kitchen(!) in the bassinet part of the pack 'n play. M and T were in sleeping bags between the bar stools and couch. I was on a mattress (luxury thanks to my sweet GG) near the older boys. GG was on the couch and J was in the rest of the pack 'n play over by the TV. Cozy! Thankfully the downstairs unit kept running and we were all relatively comfortable.

MG woke us up at 6am and our day has been going full force ever since. The boys and I ventured out for our first Catholic moms' playgroup and then rushed back when we got the call that the A/C guy was there to repair... I had to apologize when we finally arrived back home to meet the guy--"I'm so sorry we're late--I have four kids and we never get anywhere quickly these days".

You can be sure I'll be milking that excuse quite a bit in the near future. A mama never passes up the opportunity to blame her own personal tardiness on her children! lol Just kidding, of course! ;)

Hope you all are making lemonade!

Blessings,

My Funny Children

As the family sat watching a PBS special on the Vatican tonight...

T: Daddy, where's Touchdown Jesus?

lol,

Loving On Our Girl

Dear MG,

How is it that in just over a week's time you've completely captured our hearts? How is it that your biggest brother never wants to stop holding you? How is it that a little girl can be followed and loved and soothed by so many besides her mama? How is it that I look at you and already see my future hopes and dreams?

You are so dearly loved.

Praising God for you, our little Miss American Pie!

Happy Independence Day!!

First Outing

We had the privilege of taking our sweet one to the botanical gardens on Wednesday. It was her local debut! She handled it with much grace and poise, sleeping throughout and even eating amidst the shade while mom and dad sat on a bench and brothers played in the sand. It is a beautiful set of gardens and has the most wonderful children's area--a splash park, craft center, shady sand box, gardening spot, etc. The boys have taken to it and I can foresee many-a-morning spent there while MG and I sit... How lovely!

We said farewell to my parents this morning (sniff, sniff!!) and couldn't quite convince them to stay another couple of weeks! What fun its been having them here--the boys have reveled in their presence and with our third floor guest quarters, we hardly knew they were here! My mom cooked and cleaned and both parents cared and loved on the boys. My dad did some yard work for us and moved a sprinkler to boot... Can you tell why we were so sorry to see them go? Not to mention we just love having them around and spending time together. LOVE YOU, Gramz and Pappy, and THANK YOU for everything! :) Come back soon, okay?!

Next week starts Phase 2 of our MG transition. GG heads back to work and I will be the full force mama! Praise God for meals starting from friends and the help of Mimi and Papa in the area. All will be well... all will be well.

God bless,

Sister Protection 101

The "Don't You Dare Touch My Sister" Fortress

by big brother M

complete with fan for cooling, pillows for deflecting, and (to be added later) a football helmet for "catching bugs". What a lucky little girl!