Christmas JOY

WOW! What a wonderful Christmas we had! It was awesome! So much fun with friends and family.

I believe Christmas and JOY go hand in hand. All holidays are special in their own way. For some reason though Christmas is a little extra special. We feel JOY in celebrating and reJOYcing in the birth of our Savior! We find JOY in giving special gifts to those we love. We see JOY in our children's eyes on Christmas morning.
JOYfulness is felt throughout the day when you see and spend time with those you love.

I enJOY the fact that our Christmas doesn't end on Christmas day. We spend the entire week reliving Christmas moments with family and friends we don't get the pleasure of seeing on Christmas day. We were able to host our SEVENTH "Christmas" breakfast for Jer's family and on New Years we will have Christmas with my dad. So much fun!

We had a snowstorm the night after Christmas which brings so much enJOYment to our girls!
Despite some car issues this week we were able to look on the bright side of things...that even though it happened it was great that it happened while Jer's dad (who is a mechanic) was here visiting!

I hope you were able to find the JOY this Christmas with your family!

Fall into JOY

Wow, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. So sorry! Where did October go? Can anyone tell me? Please?!? One minute it was back to school and now we are 23 days away from Thanksgiving! What gives?
We had a month of JOYful happenings! October is a great month; don't you think? You can do so many things. It's not OVERLY hot (although there were some hot ones this month!), the nights are cooler, the scenery everywhere is just beautiful. How could you not feel the JOY during the fall?
We started out our month with visits to our local firehouses. The girls really enJOYed both open houses. We went pumpkin and apple picking with the cousins. Went on our annual Williamsburg vacation with the Campagna side of the family. Within the past few days enJOYed some Halloween festivities.
I am so thankful for my beautiful family and all the good times we had together these past weeks. This is my hubby's favorite season and I am so glad he has been able to enJOY it with us.
Check out our pictures from this lovely month and my next post will be posted much sooner than later!

JOY in Back to School?!?

My oldest daughter now has two days in first grade under her belt! She is learning to adjust to a new teacher and new students. The hardest part for her is not knowing all the kids in her class. She does enJOY morning meeting and lunch though!

It's hard for me to let my baby girl go. I love having her around!
I know that Abi enJOY's having momma all to herself during the school day. I feel that today she noticed Anna was gone alot longer. She said, "Anna school?", at least five times throughout the day! Hard to explain to a two year old what's going on at times.

Once the year gets under way the four of us will adjust to the daily routine.  
I must admit it brings pride and JOY to my heart when I get to witness
all the things my sweet six year old learns! I love hearing her talk about her day to us and others.

JOY in back to school is watching your child spread their wings, learn new things, and the smile on their face when they see you at the end of their school day!!!!

August JOY

Wow! Where has this month gone? August has been absolutely insane but has also been absolutely fun too! We started the month out celebrating our 7th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with our girls who bring the JOY to our family!
Anna had a fun time taking her cousins to Six Flags for their first time. We had a great, hot day riding rides and eating!

Jerry and I went the following week to Baltimore for a little JOY trip to reconnect and have fun. It was a blast and made us realize we want to do that more often...we realize that won't happen but it was nice to dream.
We've spent alot of time at the pool that Jerry is working at. Anna was able to get her "band" which allows her to swim in the big pool ALL BY HERSELF! Watching Anna accomplish so many little things this summer at the pool has brought me much JOY and pride.
We took our girls to the aquarium and Rainforest Cafe'. Seeing their faces throughout that day was so enJOYable and made me smile.
We also were able to go with family to the Safari at GA and had an awesome time together!Jer and I attended a wedding for a colleague of his which was so much fun. Whenever we go to a wedding (which isn't very often) it reminds us of the vows we took and the love we have for each other in a special way. I must say weddings bring JOY!
Last but certainly not least (we do have SIX more days!) we were able to spend time with friends and family out to dinner the other night. It was nice to get together as adults, no kids, and just enJOY one anothers company.
All in all August has been a JOYous month filled with lots and lots of fun! We are sad to see it come to an end but excited to see the JOY ahead of us in September!

Summer JOY

Over the past month or so I've had a case of the missing husband blues. My hubby took a job at a swim club for the summer. In June he worked every Saturday and since then we have seen him on Sunday's. He is also working at a school in Northeast Philly doing a PE summer course. It's tough to go from teacher hours to basically 80 hours a week of work. I am grateful that he has work this summer because we both said we didn't want another summer like last year where there was no work and no money. It's just extremely tough to be without him.
My girls are having a hard time not seeing him. They are both daddy's girls and they miss seeing him every day.

The JOY in all this is we are definitly learning how to make the time we DO see him much more special. We are learning to enJOY having breakfast twice a week together since every other night he is working and we miss dinner with him.
The girls and I are finding new things to do during the day. We do get to spend time at the pool where he will pop over to the baby pool occasionally to see how we are doing. We will enJOY not having to play catch up with our bills come September! Once the summer school is done we will finally have him three days a week for three weeks where we will finally get to do the things we love doing in the summer as a family!

We are looking forward to the beach, lake beach, Great Adventure, another trip to PA and many other things that we are hoping to fit in before the school year begins!

Independantly JOYful

It is so wonderful to share the JOY's of Independance Day with my girls! How exciting is it to celebrate our freedom and to remember who makes that freedom possible?!
We spent our Fourth of July with my dad and my grandparents. It was a wonderful time of eating, drinking, swimming, sparklers and fireworks!

Spending time with family we don't often see brings my little family JOY.
JOY in being with one another and just having a good time.

Growing Up

For those of you who know me you know I have a hard time with getting older. I think I have an even HARDER time with my girls getting older. Maybe because it just reiterates the fact that I am not getting younger.
My Anna finished Kindergarten this week. That was a toughie! How is it that I now have a daughter who will be entering school in the fall into an ACTUAL number grade?
Are you kidding me?!?
She has learned so much this year it is amazing. She started reading this year, writes her last name, spells, tells time, can add and subtract, knows some Spanish and sign language, asked Jesus into her heart, turned SIX, can swim and the list goes on and on. What a crazy time! 
My daughter's accomplishments, big and small, bring me JOY!