our way of saying good bye to gino...rest in peace dear friend.

wednesday, november 10, 2010.

my parents and i were hoping to go visit with gino this afternoon, but audrey called to tell me when she called to see how gino was doing, loraine said he had passed away at 6:00am this morning! she had said that yesterday he was totally unresponsive...even when being bathed. so glad we saw him when we did on monday night. even if we went yesterday we would not have heard him speak. God, i feel, was definitely at work the night we went. deep in my heart i'm actually happy that my last moment with him was blowing kisses to eachother. ugh. tears.

i decide that tonight we should have pasta with sauce made the way gino taught me.

maaa... came down today to watch the boys so i could go to target alone. poppy drove down later in the power wagon and is leaving it for the parade tomorrow. unfortunately, abraham became ill while maaa was here and actually ended up becoming fevered while i was gone and puked while i was putting groceries away!!!

i love the look on every one of their faces!

limoncello, pasta, and fire in honor of our dear friend GINO whom we shared many a meal with.

even the parmesan/romano cheese is thanks to him. we used to grate our own cheese, which i disliked doing.

one night we had dinner with gino and he busted out this canned version from trader joe's. i told joshua that if it was good enough for gino, a true italian, then it was good enough for us:)))

a bottle of joshua's limoncello based on gino's recipe.

da boys.

joshua poured us all some vino as well.

then he found a bottle of limoncello made by gino himself!!!

he wrote down all the info on a label.

...

getting ready to toast our friend.

we'll miss you GINO!!!

...

so glad my whole family stayed to dine with us and share the moment.

salute.

...

abe in poppy's glasses.

ice froze to the bottle.

this is the set up we always do when one of the kiddos has thrown up. papa was so out too.

little abey perked up and didn't act sick the rest of the night. he did have a mild fever though:(

i made levi pop corn and we read wacky wednesday.

mama and levi time.

***we will always remember gino in our hearts and pray for God's comfort for his grieving family and friends. his was a good man and will be greatly missed.***

abraham's has food poisoning, we think, we hope. oh, and a...(you have to read the post.)

monday, july 26, 2010. YESTERDAY abraham woke up from his nap and was talking gibberish. i think he was still dreaming. i just held him and all of a sudden he peed all over me! he felt a little warm too. we took a bath and he seemed better. then we went to go check out the TEAR DROP TRAILER. g'pa pulled it down and set up the tent that attaches to it. it was raining so levi, abraham and i were keeping dry inside it and abraham ended up falling back asleep. maaa...left for wickenburg and poppy left shortly thereafter. so, joshua moved abraham inside to the downstairs futon. he didn't sleep long. he woke up and PUKED all over!!! we were so not expecting that. he started to have a FEVER, but NEVER THREW UP AGAIN. so today we took it easy and chalked it up to his eating ruby red grapefruit that had EXPIRED 7 MONTHS PRIOR! and the mac-n-cheese that expired that day. grandpa was the only other person to eat the grapefruit, but he was fine. poppy and maaa...decided to not come back to yarnell today. they wanted to wait and see if any of us end up getting what he had. fortunately we didn't!!!

the boys on the rock outside the front window.

i just watched them. they were pointing things out to each other. i couldn't hear them, but it looked like a serious CONVERSATION and they were getting along so well.

levi must have sensed me through the window and turned around.

abraham, levi, and the triangle.

the boys and i went for a walk around the property while joshua was on another expedition.

this is what we found!!! a TARANTULA.

we followed him all over the place. this shows how big he is compared to cement blocks.

quite a few creepy crawlies around here lately.

dr. appt., visiting the farm, lightening bug fun, and a cook-out at benji and mandy's.

thursday, july 1, 2010.

abraham and i got little sleep last night:((( he could barely breath and kept waking up coughing, tossing, and turning. no fun. we're gonna get to the bottom of this today!

eating fruit loops. (aunt mic let levi pick out his own cereal at the grocery store yesterday. hahaha).

abraham checking out the room while waiting for the doctor.

all done. total sinus infection. she's giving him an antibiotic he's never had before in case he's built up a resistance to all the others he's been prescribed.

 entering onarga for lunch. levi was excited about the "longest train ever!"

we ate at a yummy mexican resturant. after lunch the boys got ring pops.

this guy was in the middle of the road with his extended parts down, but he pulled them up and pulled over to let us pass. we are on a total "country" road, as they call it around here.

abraham peeing on the farm.

abraham climbed up here all by himself.

lidy looking handsome.

levi saying, "whoa...look at that hitch!" this is the barn/shop at andy's house.

joshua wanted me to get a picture of this peter wright anvil. he's totally obsessed with anvils now.

driving the golf cart.

papa pushed the pedal and levi steered us all around the farm.

all done.

abe playing with random things he found in the golf cart.

one side of the the barn/shop.

and the other.

heading up to the second floor.

tons of cool stuff up here.

it's a crazy tall barn. we're on the 2nd floor and it just keeps going.

crazy.

abe buckling a seat belt.

heading down from the 3rd level.

abraham making his way back to the ground floor.

some tiling equipment behind abraham.

aunt mic and levi watching uncle ralph's brother and kids put soaker hoses in their patch of garden at the farm.

on a country road.

abraham tinkering.

"i made a hammer."

levi giving a lightening bug a ride on a tractor.

then he put him on a road.

look at him go.

laken came over for a visit.

we headed over to benji's for a cook out. we hung out in their new garage. and the rest of their new addition is incredible inside!

great g'ma chasing levi. she's a total firecracker!!!

levi stacked all these cups up while we weren't lookin'.

mmm mmm. g'ma made pineapple pie today!

levi's getting really good at catching lightening bugs!

abraham was afraid to go outside because of "the bear." he has a love/scare relationship with bears.

sweet little ava loves her g.g.

who knew. pink mega blocks.

abraham trying to catch mosquito's...thinking they were lightening bugs!

yep. it's cold!!!

it was chilly when we left.

laken stayed the night. the kiddos reading books.