Return of the Jedi Mom!

It's been sooo long since my last post. Nevertheless, I am determined to get our loved ones back up to date with the growing DiParisi clan!
Well, the question now is "Where do I start?" So much has happened in the past two years since I've posted on this almost extinct blog.
Let me briefly recap the highlights:
To begin, we welcomed our third miracle, Sophia Noelle, into the world on December 24, 2008. Yes, Christmas Eve! She was our best gift that year!
The next milestone was Ryan's promotion to full Lieutenant in the spring of 2009. His mom, Kathryn, flew out for the ceremony and reception.
In July, we flew to New Jersey for a month long summer vacation. Mom and Dad Driscoll had us up to their timeshare in the Berkshires of Massachusetts for a delightful time together.
In October of that year, we moved off of Camp Pendleton into a four bedroom house in the conveniently located "Rancho Del Oro" neighborhood in Oceanside. I was especially happy to be closer to our parish, all of the stores, the YMCA and Hannah and Ben's preschool.
In December, once again, we flew to be with the family in New Jersey for Christmas and Sophia's one year birthday celebration.
In February 2010, we discovered that we were pregnant again!
In March, we nearly fell out of our seats when we were informed at the first ultrasound that we were pregnant with twins!
Also in March, Ryan left on his first deployment to Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan, where he will be until October of this year.
Here we are in May already! Ryan has been away from the family for 6 weeks now. So far, we have been able to Skype several times and speak on the phone weekly. The available communication in the 21st century is incredible. Sometimes it feels like he has never left and is just calling from work like any other day.
Ryan's reports have all been very good! He is working 14 hour days, 7 days a week. He is enjoying what he is doing there in Medical Supply Logistics. He feels like he's making a big difference and seems fulfilled in his role. He says that the food is more than adequate. He even had prime rib and lobster for Easter! (Thank you for feeding my husband so well all of you loyal tax payers! He's definitely eating better than we are!)
He attends mass in the chapel under a tent. He's up early for runs with his company and works out at the gym.
Meanwhile, Hannah, Benjamin, Sophia and I are keeping busy with regular play dates, three days of preschool, Saturday swim lessons, our "Little Angels" church preschool group, enjoying family visitors and putting together packages to send to Daddy.
Dinner and bed times are probably when we most miss Ryan's presence. We are still trying our best to get used to it, but probably never will. No one ever said that deployments were easy.
So that's all for now. I will do my best to put up a monthly blog at the very least until the twins arrive.
Please keep our family in your prayers. We so appreciate and feel them each day as we experience this beautiful gift of life.

Baby DiParisi #3: A miracle...even before birth.

We marveled at this glimpse into the life of our 7 mos. old baby in utero.

Patio Project

Okay crew! Let's start digging! This crew might need a little more training than I thought.
We're getting there!
Tile-laying party! This is getting fun!
Aaah! Three more feet of patio to play on!

Well, it's finally completed! It only took seven months! First, a little bit of history behind the "patio project"........We were gifted with some tiles from a neighbor who got stationed to Japan last April. Since then, the tiles sat in piles on our back patio. We never thought we'd see the day that we'd actually have an extended patio made from them! It was just a matter of finding the time. Then one sunny October afternoon, our "crew" put their minds to it, picked up their shovels and started digging. The result......a beautifully completed hand made patio! And in just TWO afternoons!!

A Date in the Gas Lamp Quarter

We had a wonderful feast at "Rei do Gado," a famous Brazilian steak house in San Diego's very hip Gas Lamp Quarter. There were sixteen different kinds/cuts of meat brought to our table. The red and green cylindrical object on our table was placed there for us to let the "meat guys" know whether or not to keep coming with their giant skewers (green) or to hold off (red). If you haven't done Brazilian yet, we highly recommend it!

World Famous Mud Run at Camp Pendleton

Runners going through the lake! What a way to cool off!

I still haven't figured out where my husband, Ryan, gets his endless energy. I'll give you a prime example of what I mean. This past weekend, Ryan was on 24 hour duty at the hospital. That was from Saturday morning til Sunday morning. When duty ended he stopped in at the house to grab his running sneakers. Then he was off to a very challenging 6.2 mile-run through muddy terrain complete with obstacles of steep hills and mountains and a lake with a water level that reached up to his shoulders! Not only did Ryan finish the race with only a couple hours of sleep the night before, but he came in third in his category!! That's my honey!!

April visitors

We had a special visit from Aunt Ellain and Uncle Pete who were on their way to Alaska! What a treat it was to be with them!
Our special friend, Majella (Susan's friend from her volunteer year in Bolivia), came to visit us from London, Ontario! We had a grand time with her! Hannah and Ben were so sad to see her leave!
Tick-Tock spent the week here! What a treat it was to go to Disney and the Zoo with her and the Byrne boys! It was just like old times!

Everyone enjoyed spending time with the animals and each other at the world famous San Diego Zoo!

Life in California---What's not to love?

We've been living in SoCal for about six months now. While our welcome here was a bit of a rocky one with the Santa Ana wildfires, housing not being ready, having our car broken into, Hannah going to the ER for a split lip (from falling on the boardwalk), among some other minor, unmemorable events, we are finally beginning to feel at home here. There are a number of reasons for our feeling more at home lately. For one, when you wake up to a warm sun shining into your bedroom and then walk out onto the patio to find that, YES, the sun really is warming the outside air as well, who wouldn't want to have that most days of the year!
We're also becoming more familiar with our environment-- streets, neighbors, beaches, parks, stores, church, etc. We've developed some friendships that we look forward to nourishing and enjoying. Hannah and Ben love going to Kindertime classes with Miss. Suzanne. Ben seems to be most interested in the snack, while Hannah always looks forward to the arts and crafts. I'm enjoying taking some challenging and fun classes at the Y. My favorite in 20/20/20---that's 20 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of strengthening and 20 minutes of ab work. I'm addicted to the Bosu ball.
We had a fun-filled week with Ryan's side of the family. Each day was spent at either some kind of amusement park or zoo, or at the beach. It was busy and tons of fun!