Adorable Kid Feet!!

When we were in Boise visiting, I took my kids and got a picture taken of their feet. I got the idea from my sis-in-law and I absolutely love it. I think it turned out so cute!!

Walk to Cure Diabetes - Please read

On September 20th, we will be doing the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. (This is a 4 KM walk in Akron, Ohio.) This is JDRF’s largest fundraiser, with the proceeds going toward Type 1 diabetes research.

Since Jacob was diagnosed in November, he has had to get “poked” 4-5 times a day to check his blood sugar, and has had to get 2 “shots” a day (insulin injections). That means so far ~2200 pokes and shots.

Our goal as a family is to raise at least $1 for every poke and shot. We are asking for your help. There are lots of ways to participate. Please take a minute to read through this, and to help out any way you can. (You can get all the information at http://walk.jdrf.org/ - just search for our name.)

Ways you can help:

1. Join us on the walk: If you are in the Cleveland area, you can sign up to walk with us. (If you do, please join our team!) Registration is free. They just request that you try to find others to sponsor you walk, with a goal of collecting $100. (But you can still walk, even if you don’t reach the amount.)
   
2. Join us in spirit: If you cannot physically walk with us, you can still register for the walk as part of our team. You can determine to walk 4 KM wherever you are at that time. Then you can still reach out to others to sponsor your effort.
   
3. Encourage others: Even if you cannot join the walk, please consider telling others about what we are doing. Donating through the website is easy, and every little bit helps.
   
4. Sponsor us (especially one of the kids): You can make a donation through the web pages at JDRF (each member of the family has a site). A donation of $7 sponsors one day’s worth of pokes and shots.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this. Please don’t feel obligated to participate – we aren’t going to keep tally and chase you down. If you do have a chance to help, we would really appreciate it!

Thanks

Fun in the pool

There was a pool at the reunion, and the kids had a great time. So one day we got a water proof camera and took a bunch of photos. It was a lot of fun, and we got some very cool photos. You can see them all here.

Bertasso Family Reunion

For the first time in at least three years (maybe longer), we had the whole Bertasso family together for a reunion. Of course, there are a lot more of us now then there were any time before. We met in Utah on July 24th, and the whole crew included Mom and Dad, 14 sons / daughters, and 17 grandkids (with Katelyn as the oldest grandchild).

We did lots of fun things together. It would be more than anyone wants to read if we tried to write about it all, so we will cover the highlights (especially the ones where we have photos). We will add more posts / photos as we get them from the other siblings and mom and dad. (For example, we did family pictures -- a feat with 33 people -- but we haven't seen the outcome yet.)

One of the first activities was a trip to "Kangaroo Zoo" -- a collection of giant inflatables. The kids had a blast (including the "old children"). We lost a little skin on elbows, and had a few crashes, but for the most part, everyone had a great time. You can see more photos of the fun here.

We also had a chance to go back to "Brick Oven Pizza" -- the best pizza in Provo, and a popular spot for BYU students. The food was great. Even more fun for the kids, they had a balloon guy there that folded balloons like nothing we had ever seen before. Katelyn got "The Little Mermaid" and Jacob got Spiderman. You can see the final products here.

Of course, no trip to Provo would be complete without dragging the kids around campus. They saw the buildings where mom and dad went to classes. They even got to see their Uncle Brent. (And of course, had a picture taken with one of the statues on campus.)

There were many more activities, including Family Home Evening, games, (lots of) eating, swimming, and just enjoying each other's company. More posted later, but to see more photos, you can check out the ones Andrew took.

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

(Can you tell it has been a busy month since we last posted?!?)

July 5th was Katelyn's seventh birthday, but it kind of ran from the 4th through the 6th. (Another tradition we seem to have continued from David's family.)

We were in Indiana to visit Matt and Julie (and gang), and Grandma and Grandpa were there too. On the 4th, we went to a minor league baseball game. (Katelyn's favorite part was the cotton candy.) After the game, they had fireworks. It was not the Boston Pops, but the kids were plenty excited about them.

On Katelyn's actual birthday, we went putt-putt golfing (no threats to Tiger, although Jacob has the Tiger celebration down). Then, we went to dinner, and then back to Matt and Julie's for cake and ice cream. Katelyn wanted a fairy princess cake, with blue eyes, blue nose, and red mouth. We did the best we could!

On Sunday, we went to church and got to see Megan be blessed. Afterward, the kids all wanted toe rest of the cake for lunch.

We are so glad to have Katelyn in our family! And we are thankful to Matt and Julie for hosting, and for letting us share the weekend with Megan. (You can see more photos from the birthday here.)

Welcome home!

On July 1, Mom and Dad (Grandpa and Grandma Bertasso) came home to the states! They had been in Brazil (Sao Paulo) for the last three years as mission presidents for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Before that, they spent over three years in Singapore working for Heinz.

We are so excited to have them back in the USA. Our kids (and we assume all the other grandkids) are so glad to have Grandma and Grandpa back. All of the kids think they should come live at their respective homes.

It has been funny to watch them start to readjust to America. They are constantly making comments about how "open" everything is. And they are still learning about all the technology and fads they have missed out on the last few years.

This is our ool...

... notice there is no "p" in it - we like to keep it that way.

Jacob and Katelyn are so excited for summer and the chance to go swimming. David doesn't always make it home early enough to get to the pool, so when he does, they love to go. They are both becoming much better swimmers. Jacob is a regular fish!

We also brought Maya for her first time in the water. After a little while in the water, she decided she prefers relaxing in the chain by the pool rather than in it.

Happy Birthday Sharyn

It has taken a while to get the photos posted, but we really did celebrate Sharyn's birthday. (And although we are posting a month late, we celebrated only two days late. )

Unlike Jacob, Sharyn was able to blow out the candles on the very first try. (Of course, this was her 29th birthday, so she has had a lot more practice than Jacob.)

(And no, Sharyn was not working that hard to blow out the candles. She had done running between dinner and cake.)

We are certainly very glad to have Sharyn in our family. Happy Birthday Sharyn!

You can see more photos from the fun, as well as some of Maya celebrating too by looking here.

Jacob blowing out his birthday candles!!

Here is the video of Jacob trying to blow out his birthday cake candles. It is funny because it takes about 15 times before he gets them blown out. Enjoy!!

Happy Birthday Jacob!!

Jacob turned 4 years old on June 4! He has been so excited about his birthday for the longest time. For about 2 months now, every time he saw a toy or object that he wanted, he made sure to tell me to get it for him for his birthday. Of course, there were so many things that I couldn't keep track and neither could he.

He spent part of the day doing his favorite activity- mowing the lawn and "tweeding," that means using the weed eater to edge!! Then we headed to the party store so he could pick out some balloons. After lunch, he helped me decorate with streamers.

He chose to have pizza for dinner. And then we opened presents. He got some underwear, a few Transformers, 2 outside balls, a game called Zingo and a Hot Wheels racetrack thing! He was most excited by the racetrack. Then we let the kids do silly string! They really love that stuff, but what a pain to clean up.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and had cake. We got a little creative with his cake this year because of his diabetes. Cake with frosting is really bad for diabetics!! David found an idea where you bake the cake and then cut out the middle and put in blue Jello, sugar-free of course. Then you frost the rest of the cake with Cool Whip and decorate it like it is a swimming pool. I think it turned out pretty cute. Jacob had a hard time blowing out the candles though and it was really funny. I'll post the video of it later.

End of the Soccer Season

Katelyn played soccer this spring for the first time and now the season is over. When asked, she will tell you that she loved it and wants to play again. I am so glad that her first experience with team sports was a positive one. And she did get better with each game. After the last game, each of the kids got a trophy and she is so proud of hers!! So, I guess we have more practices and games to look forward to in the fall.

This is Katelyn getting ready for a kick off.

Here is her team slapping hands and saying "good game" with the team they played.

Here she is getting her trophy, after the game. She is shaking her coaches hand.

And here she is with her trophy and her soccer ball.

I have video of her playing during some of the games that I will post on the next post. So, make sure to come back and check it out.

First Camping Trip

David took Jacob on his first camping trip this past weekend. They went on the ward's Father & Son campout. It was held in the Metroparks about 15 minutes from our house. Jacob was super excited and Katelyn was sad that she didn't get to go. She wanted to know when the girls were going to get to go camping!!

They had a good time and Jacob loved roasting marshmellows. Although he wouldn't eat them roasted, he just wanted to stick them in the fire!! Such a boy :) They slept in a tent and Jacob actually did sleep, once he fell asleep. The next morning they went for a short hike in the woods and then had breakfast and headed home. Jacob was filthy and they both smelled like a campfire, but Jacob had a great time and that is what is most important!!

9 Months Old!!

Maya was 9 months old on May 1- time has gone by so fast. I am already feeling sad thinking about her turning one. At her Dr. check-up we found out that she weighs 19 lbs 8 oz. and she is 28 1/2 inches long. She can sit up, feed herself small foods, laugh, smile, cry, scream and melt my heart :) No teeth have appeared yet, but it seems like she may get her top teeth in first. She has yet to master rolling over and the doctor said she thinks it is more an indication of her personality, than a develpmental delay!! Mmmm, should I take that as a compliment or be worried!!! She really just has no interest in rolling over or crawling or really moving at all. She likes to just sit and watch, or be held. And she is a mama's girl, which I really love on the one hand and also really hate sometimes. I am sure it is because she is our third, but I have really enjoyed her as a baby. I am in no hurry for her to grow up or roll over or crawl or walk for that matter. It's funny, now that I wish she could stay a baby forever is when I am the busiest and seems like I have the least amount of time to enjoy her as a baby. So I am trying to savor every moment and really enjoy this time, because all too soon, it will be over.

Of course I think she is the cutest baby ever! She is not smiling in the second one, but she makes that serious face a lot and it always makes me laugh!! My neighbor keeps telling me that she looks just like David, but I don't see it. What do you think?

Spring has finally Sprung!!

It has been awhile since the last post, so this one will probably be a long one, just warning you. Spring has finally arrived here...see picture. The temps have warmed up and the kids are outside every chance they get. We have been pretty busy, especially the last couple of weeks. There are many nights where David gets home and I immediately leave for something. It seems like lately all we do is say hi and bye to each other!!




Grandma and Grampa Blaisdell came for a visit and the we had a great time with them. They helped finish a bunch of small projects around the house that needed to be finished and I am so grateful for their help. Thanks mom and dad. We drove down to Amish country for one of the days and got some great baked goods, yummy!! I got to go shopping for ME with my mom, which was a great treat. I even found some shorts, pants and shirts to buy, yippee!!!

Katelyn started soccer and really enjoys it. The games are rather entertaining, but as long as they have fun, that is what is most important. She is not very aggressive and tends to stay outside of the pack. She looks like she is dancing around the field at times instead of playing soccer!! I hate to admit it, but I am embarrassed for her sometimes because she is so funny to watch.

But hey, most of us probably were the same way and I am trying to remember that the purpose is just to have fun for now!

Maya started sleeping through the night (cue the Hallelujah chorus please!!). I have no idea why she chose now, and we have done nothing different, but she finally sleeps all night. Yeah!!!!! Sleep is such a wonderful thing. She has no teeth yet and has yet to roll over, I think the doctor may get on my case at our next appt, but oh well. She just loves to sit up and watch. She hates her tummy. She loves real food and has gotten very good at feeling herself Kix and such.

Jacob loves to be outside and to swing on the swingset. He learned how to "pump" by himself, which gives mom a nice break from having to push him!! He still loves to mow the lawn and said he wants to be a "mow lawner" when he grows up. He recently got a blister on his foot, or in his words a "blizzard that boomed (popped)" He used a lot of bandaids trying to make it feel better. We are currently working on getting him potty trained, ugh, double ugh. I hate potty training. But since he will be 4 years old in about 7 weeks, I figured the task could no longer be put off :) Wish us luck.

Happy Easter....Cleveland Style!?!

So, it was Easter and it is almost April, but it sure doesn't feel like it here in Cleveland!! But we had a good holiday anyway.

We had a storm come through and left us with this Easter treat on Saturday. I think we got about 4 inches of the white stuff. The paper said this has been the snowiest March on record!!

After David finished shoveling the driveway, he left a little message on the front lawn.

We colored eggs Saturday afternoon and the kids had a blast. And I have no idea why Katelyn felt the need to wear earmuffs for the project.

Katelyn had a hard time trying to decide which color to do next.

Jacob was disappointed when we ran out of eggs.

For the last week, Jacob has been asking everyday if it was Easter, so he was so happy when Easter finally came. David had early meetings at the church so he missed the festivities. But Katelyn said they couldn't find all the plastic eggs until the afternoon, so they only found the "real eggs" before church and found the others after, when David was home. A family in the ward invited us over for dinner and I was so glad I did not have to cook,although really David probably would have ended up doing the dinner!! We only had to take a dessert and then we also made Jell-o eggs (like jigglers, but shaped like eggs).

Due to his diabetes, we got the kids more tangible things (i.e. toys) instead of a lot of candy. Jacob had been asking for a new "mow lawner" so that is what the Easter bunny brought for him. He spent all day Sunday, mowing inside the house!! Love the bedhead hair:)

Katelyn had been asking for some new baby dolls. She got twins!!! And she got the movies "Enchanted" and "Charlotte's Web."

I wanted to get some pictures of the kids in their clothes before church, because after church would be impossible. But they weren't exactly cooperative. Maya was not happy (and was looking at her siblings like they were crazy!) and Jacob kept making funny faces. Katelyn kept freaking out because she was trying to keep Maya on the stool and she was afraid she was going to fall. This is the best I got, but when I looked at them all together, they really made me laugh, especially Jacob. He just can't seem to do a "normal smile" for pictures nowadays:) And yes, he does go to church with his tie on the outside of his sweater. He won't let me fix it, but he will let dad fix it when we get to church.