I'm a sassy mama and I blog to prove it
Lily and Louis attend
their 1st Father Daughter School Dance last week. She had a great time and ran around with her friends the majority of the time.
I guess the Fathers & the Daughters don’t really dance together, they just show up and the Dads hang out while the girls run around like crazy loons.
Sounds just like the Mother Daughter Luau we attend last spring. LOL. Well whatever, she had fun so that is all that matters.
Wow, what an awesome day. Today Lily graduated from Kindergarten and while at first it seems like this is the ‘end’ of something it is really the beginning it is the is the beginning of her school years. Kindergarten was really just a ‘practice’ for the next 8 years at St. Mary School. It was practice not only for Lily but for our entire family. The Kindergarten years are for Lily to make new friends and get used to the school environment and the school routines. As a family we had the opportunity to use this year as practice as well with learning about fundraising activities, volunteer opportunities, where to park, and most importantly what items are hot sellers at the school silent auction and even more important that that is learning when to leave the house so we are not late.
I did not cry when I dropped her off for her 1st day of school last August, but today I held back those tears. The class entered the gymnasium to their “Good Morning” song, which I have heard just about everyday at drop off and I realized that I wouldn’t be hearing that song again because she was leaving behind the fun world of singing songs, coloring and dancing around. Soon we will be back on campus for Summer Camp but shortly after that she will be in 1st grade where they get down to business with the school work and before we know it we will be at her 8th grad graduation.
I think that this year has taught our family to breath and enjoy the moments because it all goes by so quickly.
Well, seriously it is almost the end of 2010 and it has been filled with a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Maybe not ‘downs’ in the sense of tragedy, more like a few not so fun days mixed in there. I think the theme of the year was ‘exhaustion’.
Last January 
we kicked off the new year by adding Abigail to our family. I spent the first part of January trying to make her come out, but the little bugger stayed in there until the 18th and wanted to come out at 3:45 am during one of the worst and first storm of the year. My family almost didn’t come to see me in the hospital because the storm was so bad, whatever! I just pushed a kid out of my &$@# you better get your booty down here to see her! LOL. I kid, no really I do. If you want to read Abigail’s birth story and my rant about pain medication during labor you can go here – http://dawncullo.com/from-cheerio-to-soda-can-with-no-epidural-but-not-by-choice/
The first few months of the year were a complete blur. I was trying to do it all, run my business, deal with a newborn and help Lily with her transition of being a big sister. I felt bad for Lily, she really didn’t know what to expect. We tried to prepare her as best we could about what to expect with a new baby in the house but I know at times she felt out of place and that makes my heart hurt a little bit for her. We included her as much as we could in the care for Abigail such as her helping us get a diaper or choosing Abigail’s outfits for the day. But the funny thing is that most times she just wanted to go play.
Once Abigail finally reached about 3 months things started to get better. The weather was better and we could go for walks in her stroller and go play at the park with Lily. As the months rolled on we started to do new things with Abigail such as solid foods and she started to scoot and crawl and her Baptism at St. Ignatius. Soon it was time for Lily to say goodbye to her Preschool life and venture on to the world of Summer Camp.
The summer time opened up a whole new world for all of us and it came in the form of a Taxi. I got a glimpse into what Kindergarten would hold for me, the Taxi. You can read more about this experience here - http://dawncullo.com/taxi/
During the summer I also made a business mistake and disappointed a few people. They know who they are so I don’t really care to mention specifics in my blog but I still feel terrible about what happened but I needed to do what was best for my family and I made a tough decision. At the end of the summer I made a huge leap in my business and opened up a multi-VA firm. At the time I did this I felt like I couldn’t breath, I was so busy with clients that I felt like I was juggling so much responsibility. I am still working on growing the team and figuring it all out but having a great time knowing that I have a solid team of people working with me, I am not alone.
The fall brought us into the world of Kindergarten. At first is was a fun new experience, now 4 months later I am ready for 1st grade to start. I am so ‘over’ Kindergarten at this point. The 1/2 day schedule is killing me and the crazy lack of communication from the school is driving my Type A personality to drink. Yes, I’ve had a Rum and Diet Coke recently and it tasted awesome. =) You can read more about Lily’s 1st day at Kindergarten here – http://dawncullo.com/chapter/ and you can read more about my coming to terms with my past behavior in school here – http://dawncullo.com/as-the-world-turns/
We also finally had the opportunity to upgrade our cell phones and just in time too because both of our Crackberry phones broke as our contract ended. We upgraded to Android phones and just love all the things we can do with our phones.
Finally we have arrived at the end of the year and Abigail has started walking now, she pretty much walks instead of crawls. It is so cute to see a little 2 foot person walking around your house. You can see a video here of her 1st steps – http://dawncullo.com/abigial-walking/
3 new Cullo grandkids (Abigial, Karina & Charlotte) have been added to the mix to bring the total of grandkids to 8, holy cow. We had a everyone over at our house this past week for a few hours and I was pretty sure that they were all going to come rolling down the stairs or crashing through the ceiling. Look at them…aren’t they so cute and innocent looking? Needless to say but Abigail’s 1st birthday party will be off site this year at The Little Gym. =)
My goals for 2011 include starting a Virtual Assistant Coaching program, adding more products to my company such as Ebooks and Audio programs for sale. I also want to loose weight and eat better but everyone says that too and that is boring so maybe I will gain 5 pounds and eat some cake. =)
Happy New Year to you.
By the way, the picture that is the thumbnail to this post is of me and Louis at the infamous NYE “Party Like It’s 1999″ party at George & Claudia’s house.
Merry Christmas from Louis, Lily (5), Dawn, Abigail (11 months) and Roxy Cat.
Well, here we are again…another Christmas season and personally since we have been married (for 10 years now) each Christmas has been crazy. I look forward to the days when I can relax and have a stress-free holiday, but not sure that will ever happen. LOL. I think that with the fast paced life that I lead now it doesn’t leave much time for the holiday planning and enjoyment that I would like. When the girls get older and are teenagers my life (hopefully) wont be as crazy and I can take time to slow down and enjoy the holiday season, but when that time comes I am pretty sure I will be longing for the days when they were babies. I suppose the lesson here is to just enjoy the holiday no matter how crazy it may be.
We had a fantastic Thanksgiving, I hope you did as well. We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and had Lou’s sister Michel and her family over as well as both sets of our parents and my grandmother. The house was buzzing with people and the smell of turkey in the oven was awesome.
I decided to take the week off, but still checked in on my email to make sure none of my clients had any emergencies. It was really nice to be ‘unplugged’ for a few days. Ok, I do confess that I updated my work website, but that was fun. It sure was hard to get back to work on CyberMonday. Thank goodness I have a system in place to keep track of my clients project using Basecamp. It is an nifty project management online application that helps me to organize all of my clients ‘stuff’ so when I had to jump back into work today it didn’t hurt as much. =)
Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving.
Abbity Rabbity
Ok, well it wasn’t really madness but I thought that it was going to be. Now having two young kids makes everything take longer and just seem like more of a pain in the booty. Don’t get me wrong, I love my girls but holy cow now we have even more crap to lug around, especially on a Holiday visit to the in-laws.
However, this Easter I was pleasantly surprised, it went very smooth….omg did I say that? I could not believe how awesome my Easter was.
Lily was so well behaved and I was so proud of her as she didn’t gather ALL of the Easter eggs during the hunt at Grandma’s, she left some for her younger cousins. Abby was the best baby EVER! She cried when she wanted to be fed, took naps when she was tired and even did some socializing. I just couldn’t believe how un-stressed I was….it was a very nice feeling.
However, the days before Easter were a bit stressful for me. You see, I am a very organized gal…ok I used to be before I had the girls. Normally, I would have had all of my Easter stuff done at least the weekend if not a few days before. This time, I didn’t start until Friday and I was still putting things together on Saturday night, which drove me a bit batty. The whole time I was putting Lily’s Easter basket together I was so sure she was going to come bounding down the stair and ruin the surprise, but she didn’t and I stressed for no reason. She slept through the night, unlike me though. I was up every two hours with Abby and then up at 6:30 when Lily woke up to see what the Easter Bunny brought. *sigh* So we started our day pretty early and I had a headache the entire day, but it was still a good day.
Are you looking for something F.R.E.E. to do with your kids on a Saturday? If so, you might want to head on over to your local Home Depot and check out the Kids Workshops.
Louis and Lily happened to be at The Home Depot a few weeks ago and found out that they have F.R.E.E. Kids workshops on the first Saturday of every month from 9-Noon. You don’t have to stay for the entire 3 hours, you can just come and work on the project between those hours.
Your kid will get an Apron and a special pin to put on it for each project that they complete and a certificate. The projects come in a kit that you put together and they provide the decorative elements such as stickers, paint and markers.
Lily had a great time working with Louis to put together the house, she even “bammed” in some of the nails. Of course her favorite part was the decorating. Lily thought that the whole thing was pretty darn cool and is looking forward to the next one in May.
We celebrated Super Bowl Sunday by putting on our Raider gear and making some yummy snack foods. We really like Franks Red Hot sauce so Louis made his “Hot Nuggets”. It is simple to make, just dice up some chicken and bread it then fry it up in a pan. In another pan melt butter and add Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and mix well. When the chicken is done place it in a serving bowl and pour the sauce over the chicken and turn to coat. Serve with blue cheese dressing or buttermilk dressing.
Abigail in her Raider gear
Our first family portrait
Lily Decorated
Daddy's
Daddy's
Lily's
Happy Holidays !! We are glad you found us. We are currently working on a new and improved Cullo Family Blog, so until it is finished you can read all about our family on Dawn’s personal blog site.
We are currently working on getting ready for the newest Cullo to join the family and she is due to arrive mid January, we have decided to call her Abigail Grace.
Lily is very excited to become a big sister and really jazzed to be able to teach her fun things like how to play with all her toys, the kitties and baby signs. We are so blessed to be able to grow our family and can’t wait until she arrives.
You can read more about Baby Abigail Cullo 2010 updates on her blog.
Lily turned 4 in September and is in Preschool, she just loves it. Each day that she comes home she is full of all kinds of stories about what she did at school and you can tell that she really enjoys it.
When she is at home she loves to play with her kitties Sassy and Roxy as well as read books with Mommy and Daddy and she loves to draw.
It seems that her new favorite thing is to play with my Flip video camera and take all sorts of Videos. You can see her videos by visiting our video page on this site or on our YouTube Channel.
Louis is still working for Delta Dental in Rancho Cordova as a workforce analyst and still enjoys helping Lily with her math questions, teaching her card games and playing guitar with her.
He is also busy around the house getting things ready for Abigail’s arrival by putting furniture together and rearranging things around the house.
If you would like to connect with Louis you can do so on Facebook or email at zzlou@comcast.net.
Dawn is a Virtual Assistant and sells Avon. Having these home businesses allows her the freedom to work at home during wacky hours and be home for Lily and the future Miss Abigail.
Dawn owns a Virtual Assisting business helping small business owners with their Social Networking strategies. She currently has several clients but happy to assist more, you can visit her company site at http://www.SunriseVirtualServices.com
If you would like to connect with Dawn you can do so via Facebook or email at DawnCullo@comcast.net.
We hope that you all have a wonderful Holiday Season and a fantastic 2010!
Louis, Dawn and Lily Cullo
We went to the Discovery Museum and had a good time. It is small but just the right amount of stuff for Lily to do. I was excited to see an Owl but then disappointed that the Owl was very tiny and hiding in his tree. Oh well.
We pulled our tree out of storage and threw some lights and ornaments on it. Lily had a lot of fun pulling out the ornaments and trying to put them on the tree. She wasn’t very good at it and finally got frustrated and went to play with the cats.
We put up our Holiday lights too. Lily helped out Daddy by bringing him the clips for the lights. We use a handy tool to put up our lights which virtually eliminates using a ladder to put up the lights.
Lily loves her Mickey Mouse stocking.
We hosted the Cullo and Winston Family for Thanksgiving. We had 12 people and two kids for dinner, the kids slept through the dinner which was wonderful. However, I have come to realize how hard it is to host a party and take care of a kid. It is stressful because I really want to be the host and get people drinks or help out in the kitchen but it is near impossible when a two year old is screaming for your attention. Lily was also a little bit sick on Thanksgiving so she really wanted her Mama to hold her and play with her. I think that she was also overwhelmed that there were so many people in her house. She didn’t really want to be in the same room with everyone, she wanted to go into a room where no one else was hanging out. Like I said, eventually she went down for a nap and I was allowed to eat my dinner in peace. I have no idea how my mom juggled hosting parties and taking care of me.
The Veverkas
Everyone ready to eat !!
Louis ready to eat a Turkey Leg
The first character that she got to meet was Mickey Mouse. We went to his house in Toontown and meet him. The look on her face was worth the drive down there. She hugged him and did nosey nosey with him. At one point she hugged him and then looked at me while she was hugging him as if to say “thanks Mama”. I had a kleenex moment. There are more pictures on Lily’s Blog too.
She was so jazzed to meet Minnie Mouse. We really had to wait a long time during breakfast to meet her. Lily did really well waiting for her I thought we were going to have to leave with out seeing Mickey’s lady.
(Still at the park) I think I’m gonna hurl.
Hanging out in the Backyard with Mama and Dada
Yoga class with Mama. I got to roll her up like a Burrito…whatever that is.
We took Lily to the Sacramento Zoo to meet the Penguins and she had a great time.
Dadda and Lily laughing at the Monkeys.
Lily petting a snake. ICK!
I went to see Mickey Mouse last night and he was on ice skates! Mommy and Daddy took me to Disney on Ice: Disneyland Adventure. I had a great time and I can’t wait to go to Disneyland for my Birthday in September. We had great seats and sat in the second row. I had a great time sitting on Daddy’s lap and I also danced around to the beat of the music during the second half. At the end of the show Chip & Dale came up to the edge of ice and told me to come close to them. Mommy picked me up and we went to see Chip and Dale. I stood right in front of them and waved to them, they are so tall.
Ok, so the Raiders didn’t do so well this year but at least they are first in something….THE DRAFT!! Here are a few pictures from our Superbowl Sunday party.
So again has passed another Holiday season and Louis and I are exhausted. We moved before Thanksgiving and also had to do all of our Holiday fun (shopping, decorating and FaLalalalaing) while we were unpacking and making trips to IKEA and Home Depot. Hopefully next year things wont be so crazy and we can just enjoy the Holiday season instead of being so tired from unpacking and putting together bookcases and other fun things for the house.
Lily took bows off of the presents and put them in her hair.
Nona & Grandpa Bill got her a wagon and a Tickle Me Elmo. She loves to ride in her Wagon with her Singing Mickey Mouse.
The best present that we all received was from Michel and Stuart, they are going to have a baby at the end of July. We are all very excited for them.
Louis and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on Saturday November 18th. We also renewed our wedding vows at St. Ignatius Church witnessed by our immediate family of the Ty’s, Cullo’s, Winston’s and Veverka’s. It was a very nice ceremony and Louis and I celebrated later that evening….with our first dinner out without Lily Belle. We went to Ruth’s Chris and had a wonderful time. Much to my surprise Lily Belle behaved very well at her Grandma Cullo’s house and loved playing with her cousins. Guess we will have to go out to dinner more often without her.
Here is the only pictures we got from the ceremony. Lily Belle was pretty tired and didn’t want to take pictures. She looked so cute in a black top and white silk skirt with black kitties on it.
Lily Belle was running away from me and I told her to stop running so she laid down on the ground instead. UGH!
Now that I am fully walking I love to play in our backyard. I only have a few more weeks to play in this yard because Mommy said we are moving.
Me, Mommy and Daddy had a good time in the sun. I am in my frog floaty thing from CostCo…love it.
Lily’s Baptism took place at St. Ignatius Church on Saturday, July 15th. She was great through the entire thing. She didn’t even cry when the Deacon poured the holy water on her head. She thought it was time for a bath. We were very blessed to have so many people in attendance for her Baptism. Her Aunt Daria is her GodMother….or as we like to call her Daria Cullo, GM.
Contratulations to Louis!! He finally landed the job that will take him to the next level. He is going into Management at Delta Dental and heading up their Work Force Mangement team. We all knew that he could do it and it was just a matter of time before someone stole him away from Bank of America. He starts on June 1st.
We finally got our Family Portrait done. We went to the the Picture People and they ROCK ! We got some pretty good shots and it was done so quickly.
Mommy explained this Easter Rabbit thing to me the other day but I still don’t really understand. However, when I woke up on Sunday morning there was a basket full of fun things for me to play with.
Mommy and I went to the Picture People to have my Easter picture done. I had a really good time and Mommy really likes the pictures too.
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