The Mazzola's

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

Happy 2015!

Happy 2015 Family and Friends!
Wow, I'm so embarrassed that I  have not updated our blog since the end of August.  Guess we've been a little busy having fun and enjoying life! 
If I wrote all the details of our lives over the past 6 months we would be here for a while so I will fill you in on the big events and fun times we've had as a family and with our family and friends.  Both kids are at St. Michael together and doing great! I have to say I love that I only have one drop off and pick up each day.  Emilia is so cute, she carries Chase's backpack for him everyday when they get out of the car.  What a great big sister!  It's also nice because their classrooms are across the hall from one another.  Chase adapted to Pre-K like a champ and loves his new teachers and friends.  Emilia loves school but had a rough start to 3rd grade with adjusting to a new teacher who is very tough on the kids.  We found ways of helping her through the challenges and anxiety but after a month or so she was in her groove and doing very well.  Her grades are super and she enjoys doing school work.  I hope this is something that will continue but I doubt it as puberty starts to take over.  Chase is obsessed with football and played soccer in the fall at an indoor soccer place near our house.  He's getting ready to start on a team through St. Michael's this spring and is looking forward to playing some real games and hopefully having some of his buddies from school on his team.  He's ALL boy and school is on the bottom of his list.  Emilia is on a gymnastics team and LOVES it so much.  She works so hard, as she does with everything and it's been fun to see her progress over the past 6 months.  I even got to do it with her one night and thought I was going to die. They do conditioning for about an hour of their practice and work on their routines for the other hour.  It's amazing how much her strength has improved and it's crazy how much she likes the conditioning.  She is still playing the piano and her new teacher is wonderful!  She had her first real piano recital around Thanksgiving and did great.  She's getting quite good and it's not such a battle to get her to practice anymore, yay!  Joe and Emilia are continuing their YGuides together and Emilia loves the volunteering in the community.  Her favorite thing they did this fall was the Brown Bag Ministry, which is where they make sandwiches for homeless people and the church takes the sandwiches downtown to distribute to those less fortunate.  They just did a park clean up and made it into a treasure hunt, which she really enjoyed as well. We had season tickets to Duke Football, which the kids and Joe enjoyed.  I had fun too but was there just to hang out with them.
Joe and I got to go away on a couple of excursions together in September, one was to Florida and the other was to NYC.  We went to NYC with Becca and Trent, our travel buddies and best friends.  We had a blast that weekend and it took us a week to recover.  After that trip Joe spent a lot of October and November on the road traveling.  I have learned over the past 6 months that having a traveling husband, being a mom, wife and working full time is not easy.  The kids have a tough time when he leaves for the whole week, so we look forward to the short trips that are only for a night or two.  In October Joe was gone a lot so one weekend the four of us met in Ohio at Day Day and Grandma's house and had a wonderful weekend together.  November and December flew by with the holidays, Joe traveling and all of the kids performances at school.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at the beach with Joe's family and spent Christmas together in Chapel Hill with my family.  We were lucky enough to have Silly Uncle Matty and Corrie with us on Christmas Eve and night again this year.  I think we have started a tradition.  In the midst of holiday madness, Joe and I decided it was time to start a big home improvement project.  At the beginning of December we started finishing our 3rd floor so that it will now be a guest quarters instead of an attic.  The project is almost finished, thank goodness but it will be nice for our guests to have a place to stay when they visit.
Joe is still loving his job and his counterparts continuously give him more projects and responsibility which is a nice compliment to Joe.  Homewatch is still growing and keeping me busy as well! 
So far 2015 has been good to us and I can't believe it's already February! We have a busy couple of months ahead with gymnastics meets, soccer starting and some fun trips planned.  Life is good!
We hope you all are healthy and happy!

https://plus.google.com/photos/100686975836685272573/albums/6111801853892539905

Lots of love,
Les, Joe, Emilia, Chase and Fitz