Our Happily Ever After

…. Seems to be finally here! It has been so very long since I have blogged and it is SO nice to get back at it again! After leaving Gainesville and moving here, we were excited for this new chapter yet it felt like things were also on pause until we could get settled in and have Sam here with us. After he was laid off when the economy took a dive, we were apprehensive about him quitting his job without having a new one lined up. We knew it would take a few months but those few months turned into six months, and then a year, and then a year and a half and just when we felt like we simply could not take another day of living that CRAZy lifestyle..he got the call with an offer. It really is true, God never gives us more than we can handle. We have SO MANY friends and family to thank for helping us out as we lived the single parent life. First and foremost, our dear friends Justin and Jen welcomed my man into their home and let him live there on the days he worked in Gainesville. This allowed us to have renters in our home and was such a tremendous help, there are no words to adequately thank them! Also, my Aunt Sandra and Uncle Tom welcomed Sammy and me into their home until we found a house and closed on it up here & again, there are no words to express our gratitude.

Now with Sam in his new job there are no more dreaded good byes after his days off end, we are all feeling like we can finally exhale. Things are SO MUCH EASIER! I feel like I have my life back, I can actually have time to myself. I sure have developed a new found appreciation for single moms through it all. It was exhausting! We are settled nicely into a routine, Sammy is thriving at his prek, we found a great church, and Sam and I both LOVE our jobs. We have made some great friends and thankfully have wonderful neighbors who have become like family to us. We love living so close to both sets of our parents, we get to see them all so much more now. Our house is about 10 or 15 min from the beach and we have really enjoyed that. So, life is good. Life is GREAT actually. God has really blown our socks off with all of the blessings he has given us in this move to St. Augustine.

Hannah moved in for the summer and as I posted before & that went even better than expected. I was worried about going from having one child to two but life was easier with her here to be honest. She is such a good girl, HUGE help for me. She volunteered to clean and help cook and was great at entertaining Sammy. She loved her summer camp and made so many friends there and in our neighborhood. She got to have her first sleepover and yes I was a nervous wreck but it went well for the most part. It just warms my heart to see her with her little girlfriends here. She has grown up so fast, and is turning into a little lady right before our eyes. We just celebrated her 11th birthday, which I still can’t believe. How is my baby girl ELEVEN?? it is crazy to think she was Sammy’s age now, 4, when we were matched. Time flies! She went back to Gainesville for school and so now are back to seeing her only on weekends when we can work out a way to meet half way with her Gma, which is hard on all of us. Its hard to not be a part of her everyday. Sammy still adores her and includes her in all of his family pics he colors. We have such a weird situation b/c she is not a DeLucca officially but yet she feels like one of us and its hard to explain to him when people ask if its his sister. She really is like a sister to him so he gets upset if someone says she is not. Its funny though, sometimes when he gets in trouble he will try to blame it on Hannah, even though she is in Gville at the time!

All in all it was a great year for us, full of transitions, but each one brought unexpected blessings. I was able to travel with Sammy to visit our fam in TN, and my travel for work allowed for me to meet up with friends in several different cities for conferences, in fact I even made it up to Canada! Our mission trip to Guatemala was amazing and as always, we returned feeling like we were more blessed for going than they were in having us. We even picked up a new sponsor kid, Smith, while there and added him to our family. More on Smith & Guatemala later, that gets its own post.

Well this has grown long enough so I will end for now, I want to do my best to catch this blog up b/c I have learned I forget sweet special moments of this stage of our lives if it doesn’t make it on the blog. What’s a post without pics? Here are a few from the last year. Enjoy!

This is my baby when we were packing to move, look how much he has grown in a year and a half!

We are pretty sure that God had it all planned out for us to move right across the street from Ashley, or rather “Actually” as Sammy calls her, they have the best time together

May be hard to believe but yes, my man traded in his sports car for a giant honkin’ bubba truck- came about from the Dave Ramsey total money makeover, we love it!

Reading his Valentine’s from school

Sammy and Malia have known each other since they were babies but just this year Sammy declared that he is “gonna marry his girl” and loves her to pieces

We had to cancel our Disney plans thanks to my morning sickness but we still made it down to Downtown Disney for a few hours, Sammy doesn’t know the difference since we haven’t been to the real thing yet so he was as happy as could be!

Playing with friends

Ice cream floats with Hannah Banana at neighborhood garage sale

We have some awesome new parks to enjoy, this one was at Swing Park, our #1 fav

Monster Truck Show- fun night but we only lasted about 30 min of the show before we had all had enough, so we left and got a frosty at Wendy’s, they were just as happy there, can we say WASTE of tickets?

The artists at work.. Apparently these goggles helped him see the colors better

Hannah’s bff up here in St. Augustine, the two of them are two peas in a pod and have the best time together

I get him all to myself when big girls are telling secrets oh and by the way… our ice cream shop has RED VELVET ice cream. That alone was worth the move in my book

Meet Buzzy the Bunny.. he appeared here in our backyard on Easter morning and has not left yet. Buzzy now has a friend, Tiger the Bunny, who joins him each morning. Fun!

Catching up…Hannah’s Big Day

I have decided to do some quick posts to catch this blog up because I have learned I tend to forget a lot of awesome family moments if I don’t document them somehow. Senior moments I guess, hey, they happen to the best of us, huh?

So here is the first in my catching up series… Hannah’s birthday! Never mind that it happened in March. Just look past that part and focus on the amazingness of Hannah Banana. I STILL can’t believe she is TEN! How did that happen?

I feel so incredibly blessed that God picked me to be her Big Sister. She was only four when we were matched so I feel privileged to have watched her grow up and change so much. She sure has come a LONG way and I am so very proud of her. It has been surreal to transition into this new stage where we have such serious conversations about life and boys, particularly one boy. That’s right, she has the fever- the Beiber fever and she has it bad. Justin Beiber is a pretty big deal in her world. Hannah has such a fun personality, she is so silly and wild and all over the place but yet soooo soo sweet and loving and resilient. I love her outlook and take on things. Sure it is often “out there” but just when I laugh off whatever she is saying she will bust out with some crazy words of wisdom and I am left speechless. She has really become a part of us, of our family, and we just love her to pieces. She spices things up around here and makes us laugh, really makes things fun. I am honored to be in her life and to be the one to make her feel so special. I cherish all the secrets she shares with me and all of our sweet giggly moments. We have made so many memories together (though there are a few I would like to forget, Kmart comes to mind, ha ha). We have laughed and cried together, gone through some major life changes together, been mad at each other, but most importantly we came through it all stronger and closer than ever. I could go on and on about her but its late so I will move on to the par-tay!

So, way back in March before she “moved in” she came up every few weekends to visit and this particular weekend her sister Samantha came with her. We lived it up! We had a beach day, a beach night, and did so many fun things. Then on the big day, my INCREDIBLY talented and AWESOME friend Audra and her family came over and helped to do this……..

Audra totally surprised her and Hannah’s expression when she saw “her princess party room” as she called it was priceless. We invited her little friends in our neighborhood over and had a fun party and then headed to the pool for a swim. It was just perfect! Thanks again Gu, you are the best!!!!

I made a homemade strawberry cake for her, it wasn’t very pretty but it sure was yummy!

Birthday girl got the first whack at the pin-nata as Sammy calls it, this year I was sure to put candy in it =)

Malia taking a swing

Birthday crew! We heart Hannah Banana!

Present time!

Make a wish baby girl……

Blowing out the candles

Love this pic of her, too pooped to party!

My lil’ cutie batooty, isn’t he precious???

The local bike gang heading home from the pool

My lil guy biking with a lollipop in his mouth and one in both hands, cuz that’s how he rolls

The end of a wonderful day!!! We love you Lil Miss Priss!!

Snapshots of our new life!

Just a few snapshots of our new world here in Jax. We are finally feeling somewhat settled. A lot has happened in our world during my blogging hiatus that I hope to get on here one day but for now, I thought I would share a little of what life is like these days. 

So, apart from adjusting to life up in Jacksonville and our new routines we have added another big change. We went from operating as a family of 3 to being a family of 4 temporarily!! I think most who read this know, but for those who don’t Hannah Banana moved in with us for a short term stay, hence the lack of blog posts! It has been so wonderful having her as a part of our every day. She and I have had so much fun doing girl stuff after Sammy goes to bed that I just haven’t taken the time to get any memories down on this blog which stinks since I STILL plan to print our fam memories out one day (anyone have tips on how to do this btw??)

I have thought a lot about the differences in adding a newborn to the family verses adding a 10 year old. Believe it or not there are some very similar issues to resolve! We have a unique situation that may not make sense but I will do my best to describe. In a way that only God could do, He has “eased” us into the transition of going from 1 to more kids over the years. No we don’t have a second child, and I realize that, but there were so many days/weekends during our time in Gainesville that we went from not only 1 to 2 kids but 1 to FIVE kids. There were some days when all five (Hannah and her siblings plus our Samuelito) were at the house and ALL five were cranky or mad & we wanted to pull out our hair but overall we loved having the house full of kids. Even so, I won’t lie and say we weren’t a little bit nervous about having Hannah with us every day. Me more than Sam. I was mostly worried about getting to work on time after getting two kids up and ready then off to prek and summer camp. Plus, Hannah is not a morning person so I had envisioned battle of the wills each day but wow, have we been pleasantly surprised. Don’t misread that, we HAVE had our moments and I have been close to tears on a few occasions (maybe the looney bin is a better description), BUT those have been few and far between thankfully!

So, I am happy to say that things have gone so much better than we expected. I would like to think we were being realists rather than pessimists when it came to her arrival date but lets be honest. When you’ve been matched with a kid for 5 years you know what to expect in terms of not only amazing fun times but also challenging behaviors and possible problems. Sam and I went on the offensive and developed a great plan of action. We had “DeLucca Family Orientation” the night she came and explained how this would be a little different than just staying over night or for the weekend as it has been all these years. We went over our expectations of her, her responsibilities, and even what we expect when she has a meltdown or disagrees with us. She has done so amazingly well I just have to brag on her. She is so helpful, kind,sweet, and funny. She loves to surprise us by cleaning something up or helping Sammy out and she sure loves to pick on Sam! It has been MORE than fabulous having our heart to hearts and so much extra time together. Now I am dreading the day she leaves, our house will be so lonely!

She and Sammy are truly best buds. They often fall asleep in the car holding hands and are always loving on each other. Hannah brags on her “little nephew” every chance she gets. Sammy has assumed the annoying younger child role rather well and does things to irk and provoke Hannah but again, she handles it so well! She has had lots of practice in dealing with siblings so she takes Sammy’s torment in stride and tries to model good behavior for him as best she can. We really have been impressed!

Here’s a few pics of what we have been up to, hope you enjoy!

Hannah Banana is a good sport and joins in playing with Sammy a lot, oh the adventures they have! So fun!

Making mud pies

We LOVE our new neighborhood park, we’ve spent many evenings here

Fun on the beach with my family

They LOVED getting their package of souvenirs and postcards in the mail from Mom and Richard. Thanks again!!!

Hannah has done a FABULOUS job keeping her room clean, usually without being asked! No that is not a misprint, blink and read it again. Yes the earth is still spinning.

Summer fun! Popsicles, sprinklers,and water fun. Dinner on the back porch. Good times!

Dumping muddy water on her.. oh he sure can dish it out..

but nope! Can’t handle the retaliation a bit. Can you tell he is an only child?? We may need to work on that one… hint hint.

 

Sweet sweet! Love them!

This was one of our exploration nights. We headed to downtown St. Augustine to explore the old fort and a few other sights AFTER DARK and discovered quite a few things. Laughed so much! A night to remember!