The Puccinis

Josh - Jag award Oct. 6, 2008

2009-10-05T09:47:00.004-06:00

Last year, as a senior, Josh had a gym class that also consisted of a freshman boy that had Down's Syndrome. Josh's teacher, who had known him since freshman year, told me that he saw such growth in Josh and was impressed when he saw Josh take that boy under his wing and encourage and help that boy each day in class. That teacher nominated Josh for the school's Jaguar Award that month and he was picked as the winner. This is a picture of him after the assembly where he was presented with that award and at which a speech was read from his teacher and also the man who had been his basketball coach since freshman year. (He shaved before the official picture was taken the next day that was put up at the school for the month.)

A visit to the Staniaks 7/24/08

2009-10-01T15:29:00.001-06:00

Eileen and Ron

Avery and Josh

Reese and Carissa

Avery and Mark

Sammy and Noah

July 2008 - A visit to Jonathan and Jen's

2009-09-19T15:38:00.001-06:00

Jessie, Reese and Josh

Nathan and Bella

Sammy and Noah

Alex

Avery

2009-09-16T09:37:00.001-06:00

Some of my favorite pics from Life Can Be 2008.

2009-09-14T14:26:00.002-06:00

I am going to play catch-up now with pictures starting from June 2008.

Here are pics from Carissa and Dave's visit.

Winter Formal '07

2008-05-07T09:38:00.005-06:00

I'm a little late but here are some pictures from the beginning of December '07.

Nathan, Sammy, Jessie and Alex.
Nathan, Jessie, Aaron, Sammy, Alex, Brandon, Kasey, Justine, Lyndsie and Kerry.

Josh and Lexi after the dance!

Easter 2008

2008-05-05T14:30:00.002-06:00

What lovely girls! (I may be a little prejudiced.)
Still taking pics with the Easter Bunny.
Our friends Gary & Deb joined us again this year..
..along with their sons Spencer and Drake.

Spring Sports

2008-04-21T11:52:00.003-06:00

Alex is finishing up with volleyball and will have her last tournament the last weekend in April.
Sammy and Jessie are enjoying school soccer and usually play left or right midfield.

Nathan is "team manager" for the school's JV girls soccer team but also helps out with the Fresh/Soph team. (That's him out there with the khaki shorts on.)

Of course, Josh is still doing basketball and has practice twice a week but hasn't played any tournaments yet since ending his school season.

2008-04-02T16:26:00.004-06:00

Ok, here is my surprise picture! Josh was amazed at how much this pic of mom looked like ???? Can you guess? When asked, without hearing what Josh had said, all the other kids had the same answer.

2007-12-11T12:20:00.000-07:00

It was family picture time again and the kids handled it like troopers -- 173 pictures in 25 minutes! Here are some you probably won't see in the pictures we hand out.

2007-10-18T00:20:00.000-06:00

We don't take pictures as often as we used to when the kids were little so I thought I'd post an older one. This is last Christmas when we visited Eileen and Jenny and Megan were there too. (Look at how little Reesey is.) We get to see Megan (and sometimes Jason) more regularly now that they are in Colorado and it is nice to have some family around. If anyone else wants to come out we'd love to have you for a visit or to stay!!!!

Homecoming 2007

2007-10-02T14:34:00.000-06:00

The three girls getting ready to go to meet up with their friends.

Josh and Lexie 'How do you get this thing on?'

Josh and Lexie all dressed up and ready to go.

Lucky Nathan among all those beauties. L to R: Jessie, Nicole, Sammy, Kerry, Nathan, Casey, Alex, Lyndsie, and Bree.

Sammy, Alex, Jessie and Nathan

2007-10-01T14:38:00.000-06:00

My friend Katie, from Chicago, came to visit and we got to spend more than just an evening together (which we haven't gotten to do in years). It was wonderful. We took her to our club for brunch and since everyone was dressed so nice (or as nice as it ususally gets) I thought I'd take some pictures. Now I'm sharing them with you.

Back to school -- High School that is!

2007-09-22T12:03:00.000-06:00

Four new freshman taking off for their first day of high school.

Second day for the freshman, first day for Josh, the junior. (He thinks I'm lame still taking my pictures but it's a mothers right!)

2007-09-20T15:19:00.000-06:00

What a good looking pirate wench!Bob was hanging out with Madisyn Berggren for awhile.
I guess that's how you can sleep when you don't have a care in the world.

We were lucky enough at the beginning of August to be home when Jonathan and Jen came to visit (Bob, Josh and I missed their first stop). We also got to spend some time with Jen's sister and parents and yes, even the little dog, Bailey. We enjoyed seeing everyone and especially the sushi with Jen and her sister -- sorry Jonathan.

2007-08-30T11:25:00.000-06:00

On our July trip to Chicago, we got to enjoy John and Janets (my brother and sis-in-law) annual Life Can Be bash with this year's theme being "Pirates". Here's Sammy holding her newest cousin, Avery.
The party was a blast and the karaoke was great. Here Carissa, Jenny, Sabrina and Jen wow the crowds.
Jonathan, Carissa and Eileen took a turn (I'm not quite sure but I guess Jonathan is the back-up singer).
Mark, Sabrina and John had a go.
One of the cutest little pirates: Reese Staniak.

The party was a great time as usual and I will post some more pics in the next day or two.

2007-08-25T11:12:00.000-06:00

We went to Chicago in July and celebrated Josh's birthday at Maggiano's with some family. Here's Mark and Noah.
Josh with Reese, and Sammy too. (Carissa's there at the other table.)
Avery Connelly, the newest addition.
Josh with his birthday cookies!
And, last but not least, Sabrina (we were celebrating on her birthday).

We were also joined by Jenny and Ryan, Jonathan and Jen, John and Janet, Mauro and Kim, and Nonna.

Montana with the Berens

2007-07-15T14:34:00.000-06:00

We had a great time in July with our friends Kevin and Lynn Berens at their place in Montana. (Yes, the same place mentioned in an earlier post.) We went out on their boat... (all seven kids) They rented a water trampoline that the kids greatly enjoyed...

(Sammy and Nathan) Everyone rode at least one of their two jetskis...

(Jessie and Erika) and all the kids experienced chills and thrills tubing...

(Erika and Josh) a great time was had by all and we can't wait to go back next year (If they'll have us -- 7 is a lot to endure.)

More Montana pics

2007-07-15T14:16:00.000-06:00

Alex, Lyndsie, and Sammy tubing.
Lyndsie and Sammy.
Josh and Nathan ready to go for a ride.
Jessie and Alex on the jetski.

Josh is 16. Happy Birthday Josh - 7/12/07

2007-07-13T00:32:00.000-06:00

2007-07-12T16:55:00.000-06:00

We had more visitors from Chicago in June. Our friends Daniela, Hugo, twins Stephanie and Lexie (10), Matthew (4), and Daniel (6) came for a week and we had great fun showing them around.
We went to our favorite little hiking spot at Garden of the Gods, and to Waterworld Water Park another day.
Daniela, Hugo and the two girls went rafting one day while the two boys enjoyed hanging out with Josh and the other Puccini kids.
We also took a ride up to the Continental Divide where it was quite chilly way up there.

2007-06-23T10:23:00.000-06:00

We had a visit from Jenny, Ryan and Reese and Carissa. We had quite a great time and hated when they left.
Reese is quite a happy, content baby.

We went down to the 16th street mall (I made everyone stand behind these silly animals), we also went and bowled, played laser tag, miniature golfed, and rode bumper cars. Everyone over 10 and under 40 went to the show, most went to our outdoor zoo and we were introduced to "So you think you can dance" on TV. We had a great time and can't wait till they can come again.
Nathan is showing off his new metal-less mouth!

2007-05-17T11:40:00.000-06:00

The girls and mom, and two of their friends, drove to Durango (just 370 miles away) on May 11th for a soccer tournament. This was the view from our condo -- beautiful!
Sammy,
Alex, and
Jessie all made up to play hard.
And play hard they did, the results weren't what they'd hoped for but they all played well and had a great time too.

2007-05-15T13:27:00.000-06:00

Josh and Lexi! Bob went to Amsterdam again and all Josh got was that lousy t-shirt (jk)!!

2007-04-29T10:46:00.000-06:00

April 24th: on my return from Montana this is what we get.
April 25th: the kids have a snow day from school.
Nathan and Sammy aren't working too hard!
Alex had to come in and unload the dishwasher. She wasn't happy, believe it or not she wanted to stay outside shovelling (I think she was actually playing/fighting with Sammy and Nathan).

2007-04-28T12:04:00.000-06:00

I went for a girl's weekend with my friend Lynn to her place on Canyon Ferry Lake in Montana. It was a great weekend and I can't wait to go back in July when the weather's even warmer.
Another view from the back of the house.
The back of the house.
Lynn and her mom (it is a nice picture Lynn).

2007-04-17T11:05:00.000-06:00

We had Easter brunch at our club.

Our friends, the Stachlers, were nice enough to join us.

Disclaimer

2007-04-05T10:37:00.000-06:00

Although it looks like it at first glance we unfortunately were not able to take Carissa and Sabrina with us to Cancun (although we'd love it if we could)!

2007-04-02T14:32:00.000-06:00

We all went to Cancun for 5 days at an all inclusive resort and a great time was had by all. (Even Bob, although it was not really his type of vaca -- no sight seeing for us.)
The kids "swam" with the dolphins and all enjoyed that.
Our last nights dinner we all got dressed a little nicer and went to a Japanese restaurant.
Alex got her hair done on the last day.

The weather was great and although we had a horrendous trip home (30 hours) we would all do it again!

2007-04-01T22:35:00.000-06:00

Bob and I went to New York (my first time) for St. Patricks Day weekend. Here is Grand Central Station.... Times Square.... and walking past a bank on Sunday saw Lucy Liu filming...

... we had a great time and saw so many things.

That boy can JUMP

2007-03-13T14:33:00.000-06:00

That's Josh 'in the air' at his last school basketball game of the season. His team won what was a very hard game. Although they didn't have a great record for the year they improved towards the end of the season.

2007-03-12T13:48:00.000-06:00

I was told that since my kids aren't so young anymore and I don't take pictures of them like I used to that I can go back and show old pics so get ready for quite a mixed up bunch of pictures. These are Alex in her school's production of Annie Jr. from April of '06. She played Molly and had quite a bit of stage time along with a couple of solo singing lines. She's doing great and amazes me with her bravery at standing up in front of so many people and performing.

2007-02-25T10:40:00.000-07:00

Josh went to a girls 16th birthday party complete with 10 VIP boys and girls and about 200 guests. He fixed his tie and shirt when he got there - not a moment sooner.

2007-02-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is what we came back to in Colorado. Thankfully our neighbor shoveled a path for us or we wouldn't have been able to get in the house. We had missed two storms and the snow was about 3 feet deep in our driveway.

Home to Chicago for the Christmas holidays. We got to spend some time with the new babies in the family which was so much fun.

2007-02-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

Jessie with Noah.
Sammy and Alex with Reese.

2007-02-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

This pics a year old but I figured I'd better put something on here. I couldn't send a message to Brian and Amie till I opened an account so here we are.