My daughter!

I just LOVE my little girl's smiles......Lydia @ 12 weeks.

Update...

     September is here! Today Josiah started 1st grade...another milestone for our little growing and busy family. We enjoyed a wonderful summer and made plenty of memories to look back upon.



Nursing Home Visits:

Lydia @6wks.old meeting her GREAT Grandma Pat Ilardo! This is her 1st Great-Grandaughter.

Yields from my GARDEN:

Fresh Basil and Tomatoes! My family loves Tomato-Basil Chicken...use a little Red Wine VINEGAR, olive oil and spices, tasted wonderful!

 

Josiah and my niece Abigail LOVE cucumbers! We planted ALOT of them.

 

The BOYS LOVE the playgrounds in our areas!

Josiah finally figured out how to use these things!

Daddy made it to the top!

WELCOME to the CORN Festival!

YiaYia and the boys enjoying the sweet homegrown corn in Eden, N.Y!

Zechariah.

Obadiah.

My hilarious Husband.

My BRAVE children in top basket....they like wild rides! I used to as a teen BUT now it makes my heart squirm, OIY!

GO Zech GO!

 

 COWGIRL/COWBOY BIRTHDAY PARTY!

My COWBOYS.

Josiah riding a pony for the 1st time. It was soooo wonderful that our friends invited us and they rented a Horse and pony for rides AND had a small petting area that included a donkey, alpaca/llama mix and goats!

Elijah.

Elijah TRULY is my miniature REAL LIFE COWBOY son. He would sleep in his jeans and boots if I let him!

Zechariah.

Obadiah.

Love, Love, LOVE this pic. My Elijah!

 

 Family Reunion:

Our Family with YiaYia and GREAT-Grandma Pat.

 

 COUSIN TIME:

11 out of 15 cousins together. Ages 5 and under. My children, my sister Jen and Megan's too!

 

 Church Time!

I find Sunday mornings are a GREAT time to take memorable photos as the children are dressed nice and in a quiet mood.

 

 Vacation Bible School:

With some help I was blessed and able to make 52 bonnets for the girls attending VBS.

We wont disclose which of my sons HAD to model the bonnet, hehe.

 

On Friday night of Camp Meeting the VBS group sings. This year the THEME was "Hold the Fort". Civil War emphasis.
(Josiah in orange polo, Elijah in green polo.)

 

 



 65th WEDDING ANNIVERSARY PARTY:

On our way into the Nursing Home to celebrate GREAT Grandpa Gus and Granny Vera's special DAY!



GREAT Granny Vera meeting Lydia for the 1st time.

 

 

65 years of Marriage...wow, what a BLESSED THOUGHT.

 

 

 

 Lydia (9wks.old):

My brother is in the Army and will be coming home in a week from Afganistan. He's been there the last 9 months. Praise GOD for his protection and care. We LOVE Uncle James!

 

 

 Bapa's 60th Birthday Surprise:

Well, Dad LOVES farming and tractors SO between my 2 sisters and I we made all of the children (15 of them) John Deere dresses and T-shirts with matching hair accessories. Then we ALL got together at my house and used my shed as our barn backdrop and took photos. Then we had a 11x14 canvas made as his gift. IT CAME OUT BEAUTIFUL and he LOVED it.
These are Hannah's 7 children, Jen's 3 girls and my 5 kiddos!

For his party we went bowling. My kids have never been bowling so it was a FUN experience for them. Josiah is pictured above.

Alaina and Abigail.

Zechariah, Gabriel and Josiah making silly faces. BOYS.

 

 BIG/little:

Zechariah, Josiah, Obadiah, Elijah and Lydia.

 

 

 

 

 1st GRADE:

My oldest and youngest. I made Lydia an apple hat just for the special day and time of year. You also can see that Josiah lost his 1st baby tooth this summer too! Another milestone! MY BIG BOY!

Josiah was VERY excited to be heading back to school.

All ready to go...we freshened up his haircut the night before. I cant believe how time fly's.

7:30 am heading into our church and to his classroom...

Josiah and Paul----1st Graders!

Josiah.

Lydia- 11wks.old
"The apple of our eye"





Praise the LORD for our wonderful LIFE.










 

Precious Photo's.....

Mike with his mother....Yia Yia (Grandma in Greek) and children! This was YiaYia's 1st time meeting Lydia as she was in Iceland for Uncle Matt's wedding when she was born.

Yia Yia aka Sophia Joanne and Lydia Joanne!

 

Obadiah and Lydia.....he is very enthralled with her to say the least.

Pretty lil' SMILE!

Sweet dreams Princess.



-----Saw this on Pinterest...Well, I tried......forgot to steal her "binky" away.....AND the sun was very bright and HOT so the boys were having a hard time smiling. LOL.

 

What have the Ilardo's been up too?

     I have been wanting to share some of our family times with you all....we have been busy making memories and enjoying God's blessings.
Individual Accomplishments or Interests- 
     My husband, Michael has been blogging on his own website: www.ETVFC.org. He has a God given talent to write and strives to use it for HIS glory so others may come to Christ. 
Also, Mike has begun to enjoy "farming"....in year's past we have planted a garden in our backyard. Well, this year I was determined to get a NICE one going with as many veggies, herbs and watermelon as I could. Usually we have a friend come till the soil but they have moved out of the area SO we did it by hand! I started(being VERY pregnant) and Mike finished. He did a great job! The kids and I painted sticks colored coded for each plant as row markers....very messy FUN! Today the  garden is FULL of growth and I just love watching Mike and the boys going out to water and weed the garden.
     I kept busy with yardwork (mulching, hedge-trimming, planting flowers, painted the deck and backyard shed) and then inside the house re-painting my older boys bedroom, organizing closets and de-cluttering. Crocheting and hair bow making for the shop, haircutting, and regular mommy duties. Then came baby and after a few days right back at the busy wheel! I have a sewing project started for our VBS at church in August. 50 old fashioned prairie bonnets! Now..all this sounds like I'm super-mommy BUT trust me there were DAYS when all I could do was sit in my cozy chair and be in pain. On my good days is when I used every ounce of strength I had.
     Josiah (5 yrs.) graduated kindergarten!! Oh, it was such a tear jerker for me to watch him walk down the aisle in cap n' gown. My firstborn growing up way too fast! He reads to me now....spells words constantly and is such a helper with his younger siblings.
     Elijah (4 yrs.) is my "daddy-junior"..... he wants to be like Mike in every way.  His favorite thing to do is pass out chick tracts EVERYWHERE! We ate out @ Boston Market the other night and my boys fleeced the place with tracts! 
     Zechariah (3 yrs.) is hilarious these days! He just turned 3 and we had an awesome Dino-Mite birthday party to celebrate with friends and family.  He is self sufficient these days wanting to do everything his "ELF".....he cant say sssss's. Oh and did I mention that he is in LOVE with his new sister?!!! He asked me where her teeth went?!!! Crack me up!!!
     Obadiah (16 months) is currently cutting his 20th tooth and boy it's been a miserable time for him. Otherwise he his my sunshine boy....lotsa giggles and jumping around happily. He has new interests such as the kiddie pool, playground swings going down the slide on his tummy and vanilla ice cream cones with rainbow sprinkles!

     Lydia ( 11 days) is such a joy! She is our tiny princess. Not much of a peep comes out of her....such a content baby. She nurses every 2 to 3 hrs and just sleeps away until 3 am! That is her "awake" time. Can you tell I'm having fun dressing her up?!

Water Fun w/ cousins....

Obadiah getting ready to slide on his tummy!

 

Zechariah's 3rd Dinosaur B-day Party!

Dino Rock Candy...love the colors!

Bugle Dino Toe-Nails

I made a Dino nest and filled it with the take home  "Thank you" favors....I put egg shells around the nest for a nice touch.

Obadiah turned 1 in Feb...but due to my pregnancy we didn't have a party so we joined his with Zech's. I made this dino cake from scratch...homemade almond buttercream icing. My hubby loves it.

For activities I printed out dino coloring pages and borrowed some nifty dino books from the library. At the dollar tree I bought a bunch of dino hats. The kids LOVED them!

I made rainbow fruit kabobs (got the idea from Pintrest) they were a hit and very refreshing. We served the Carnivore food outside by the grill....burgers, hot dogs and sausage. Along with Macaroni Salad for the Herbivore selection.

Here is Zechariah at our Dino Dig Pit! We have farmers friends who brought us some bones...plus Mike bought cow femur bones from our local butcher. The kids were AMAZED!

I LOVE this guy! He was worth the 30 bucks I spent online to buy! Of course it made a nice backdrop for the kids to see when they came into my backyard...RRRRROAR!

Josiah dug this up!

Elijah giving that piñata a good WHACK!

Party FRIENDS!

 

Garden Time!

Josiah's last day of Kindergarten....we had an indoor picnic due to the massive rainstorm...it was still FUN! Josiah's teacher and classmates.

MY JOSIAH!!!!!!

Josiah (far right) with Kindergarten Buddies. They all did a GREAT JOB!

We took Josiah with some Family and friends out to Friendly's Ice Cream Restaurant after the Graduation.

Baby TIME! Mike took this photo....he cracks me up when I'm in labor. Usually sleeping til it's time to push. This time I told him he had to take pictures!

In the throngs of a DEEP contraction...debated on putting up this photo...well, I'm still modest- it's a memory!

Again, I look horrid...Oh, well...I FELT such RELIEF at this moment! No more pressure and PAIN and she was a she! AND....SHE was crying....what a BLESSED NOISE!

My little Lydia with her GIRL cousins (Jen's daughters) Abigail (4) Rachel (14mos) and Johanna (6wks)! These dresses were bought by mother in-law...so ADORABLE!

Yup, already polished her little toes! People gasp....when she starts being able to put her feet in her mouth I'll stop. LOL.

Zechariah LOVES LOVES LOVES his sister!

Daddy's little girl! They look alike...YIKES!

A bit blurry pic.....it's hard to get all 5 sitting still! First all Ilardo children photo.

1st bath!

Great Grandpa Gus with Obadiah and Lydia.

My sweet GIRL.

Ready to go to Wednesday evening church....

Aunt Jenn bought Lydia this outfit....my little dolly.

My favorite girl color combo...gray and pink. I love her carseat.

My PRINCESS! The story behind the tutu and crown: I had bought material to make her a fluffy pink tutu BUT never finished it due to her coming EARLY. The crown is made from lace that I used fabric stiffner on....also idea taken from pinterest. Well, my girlfriend Mrs.April Brough made Lydia this tutu....we love it!

I shoulda put her in a white onesie for modesty. Well, the rec. blanket worked. LOVE HER!