The Catanzaro Family

Sunday, March 06, 2011

Father Daughter Dance

February at Jamacha means the Father Daughter Dance! Olivia was very excited to pick out a new dress and get all ready to go to the big party. Here's my big girl and her daddy.

Checking out her hair before leaving for the dance.

I can't take credit for the actual heart braid but I did do the curls on the rest of her hair.

Here is Livie and Dad all dressed up and ready to go.

Too cute!

Surprise! Dad even bought her a coursage.

Olivia got fancy beads and a mask at the party in celebration of the Mardi Gras theme.

Sunday, January 09, 2011

We had our big family Christmas party at Brandie and Sean's house on Christmas Eve. We were lucky to mix all three families and have so many people to celebrate with! Sean's mom Joyce and brother Patrick (from Italy) were there, Michael's mom Dottie and his Aunt Judy and Uncle Lewie made it and then the Arnolds (Great Grandma, Aunt Carol, Jason, Leah, and the girls), Cagles (Auntie and Uncle Bill), and Moon's (Grandma Vickie and Grandpa) were in attendance.

Merry Christmas from the Catanzaro Family!

The Cousins - Victorie (5), Jordan (6), Jacob (8), Olivia (5), and Kelly (2)
In case you haven't heard the story, Jason and Leah are in the process of adopting these three little girls (all sisters)! Jacob and Olivia are so excited to finally have some cousins to play with.

A great picture with Great Grandma!

The Arnolds gave us this beautiful frame with their family Christmas pictures.

The girls opening up some new dolls.

Olivia got a doll too!

Jacob made out!

Grandma Dottie showing her holiday spirit!

It's not a family party without Auntie's famous cookies.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Happy Birthday Kids!

In the frenzy of the holidays we make birthdays a priority! Olivia turned 5 on November 30th and Jacob turned 8 on December 15th. Both kids had fun friend parties and family parties too. Here are a couple quick pictures from our family celebrations.

Olivia chose Tinkerbell Fairies for her cake.

The big gift...an American Girl Doll that she named Flower.

Jacob picked football for his party theme!

Here he is on his brand new bike!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

School Started

Well it's been a month but it's still important. School started August 23rd and this year Olivia and Jacob are both with Mom at Jamacha. Jacob started second grade and Olivia began Kindergarten. Both are off to a great start and love school.

Out the door and heading for the car. One quick picture before you go!

Olivia finally gets her picture on the sign.

Where does time go?

Here are the boys! Jacob, Jack, Kai and Thomas - when will they stop growing?

Olivia is in Mrs. Cajka's class, just like Jacob was.

One last hug for Mom before we all start our first day. Mom's teaching second grade this year.

This is Jacob's desk.

Mrs. Gates (aka Auntie Cheryl) is his teacher.

This is Olivia's desk.

She settled in with no problem.

Kindergarten parents stay for awhile on the first day so we have some nice pictures of Olivia getting into the routine.

Story time on the carpet.

Olivia's first art project.

Putting paper Olivia onto the wall!

Monday, August 16, 2010

The Home Makeover Continues

I need to stop watching HGTV....my home projects are snowballing. We have now painted the living room and bathroom. We bought the house almost seven years ago and I swore the wallpaper in the bathroom would be the first to go. It finally went yesterday. Yea! I'm still trying to figure out why we felt the need to do all the painting in one day and right before going back to work but I'm glad we did. The simple idea of putting a little paint on the wall has now turned into a new bathroom mirror, light fixture, towel bar, and toilet paper holder. It has also created a need for a whole new window shade (on the largest, most expensive window in the house, yikes). That has progressed into the desire for new carpet which is leading into a new kitchen and then a new master bath. Of course you won't see that blog until probably 2020! For now enjoy the pics of some hard workers and don't call CPS for breaking any child labor laws. They really begged to help out.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

HGTV Inspired

So I finished planning my 20 year high school reunion and found myself at a loss for what to do next. (Yeah right, there are thousands of things that need to get done around here) I've been addicted to HGTV this summer and started looking around the house at all the things that needed to get done. Number one on the list was a new set of kitchen chairs...then I figured out what they would cost. So on to plan two I would get them recovered...then I figured out what that would cost. On to plan three...thanks to HGTV...I'd try it myself. That's what happens when you are a teacher on summer vacation without a paycheck.

Olivia and I dropped off Jacob for a playdate and headed to the fabric store. Olivia found a color that looks pretty good with our couches and hopefully will be durable. For $35 we left with enough fabric to cover all six chairs and some extra just in case. After a quick lunch we decided to get started on the first chair and here's how it went.......

Fourteen years and two kids later this is what the chairs looked like. This one isn't even the worst of the bunch.

I got the seat off.

There were at least 50 staples holding on layer one.

Finally all three pieces are apart.

After an hour and a half here is the finished chair! Much cleaner but I'm not happy with the corners. Not bad for the first one. Just five more to go!