Happy Birthday Nicoletta!!!!!

happy birthday Nickle Pickle!!!! I love you so much!!!! YOU are a gorgeous,sweet,funny,fun,understanding,WONDERFUL SISTER~teresa

Happy Birthday Nickle Pickle!

Happy Birthday Nickle! You have blessed our lives with your thoughtfulness, selflessness, sweet nature,  strength, and affection! In each of your stages of life as being a Mother, Wife, Daughter, and Sister, you have radiated with love and grace. We love you so much and may God continue to bless you and let His Face shine upon you!

All our love, Angela and whole Family!

the MORE phases of Robby

happy birthday!!love you. love family.

Happy Birthday Robby!!!

                                   

"the many phases of robby" Love u boogez!! xoxoxoxoxoxo. love Mom,Dad.Teresa,and Angela.

Tompkins Trio Update

Hello family! Here is a little of what the Naples Tompkins have been up to these past two months:

Our latest adventure was in early October, when we traveled to Minnesota. Kathryn, my best friend from high school, had asked for me to be a bridesmaid and for Joe to be an usher in her wedding. Genevieve and I flew up on Wednesday and I had the pleasure of experiencing the role of “that mother who just can’t get her baby to stop screaming” on the plane. Joe flew into the small local airport on Friday evening and made it in time for the rehearsal dinner. On Saturday, Joe took care of Genevieve all day (with the help of the Posch ladies) and skillfully performed his usher duties. I was proud that I made it down the aisle without tripping in the required 6 inch heels! It was a packed weekend and Genevieve was over stimulated for most of it, but a great experience overall. I was able to see my dear friend get married, spend time with the Posch family, and I finally got to show Joe my hometown. Besides, due to that weekend’s abnormally cold weather, Genevieve experienced her first snowfall!

Well Genevieve is now six months old! In the last two months, she has learned to sit up, turn her head when she hears her name being called, play peek-a-boo, and eat solid food. When placed on her tummy, Genevieve can pull herself around in a circle, scoot herself backwards (much to her confusion!), and she’s even gotten up on her hands and knees a few times. She loves to eat paper, books, cell phones, remote controls, glass cups full of liquid, plates full of food... pretty much anything she can get her hands on.

Genevieve enjoys eating rice cereal and so far she has tasted pureed apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, and peas (which she hates). She has moved into her own bedroom, sleeps in her big girl crib, learned how to blow a raspberry, and perks up whenever she hears Daddy’s voice in the house. She is quite the ham and will growl or shriek at Mommy and Daddy when they play with her. Genevieve's favorite songs sung by Mommy are “This Little Light of Mine” and “Following the Leader” (Peter Pan). Daddy can sing any song and Genevieve loves it, but one of her favorites sung by him is “Part of Your World” (Little Mermaid). In fact, when Mommy tried to sing that same song to her, Genevieve promptly screwed up her face and started to whine. As you can guess, that was the end of Mommy’s attempts to sing any song out of her vocal range.

Joe sprained his ankle three weeks ago and it is still giving him trouble. We know this because he tried to jump for joy when the Bucs won yesterday and he ended up collapsing on the couch in pain. It has been a long couple of weeks for Joe, with no relief in the near future. This entire semester he had to pull seven all-nighters just to complete various law school projects. As a reward for all that hard work and to prepare for the upcoming misery of finals, Joe didn't work AT ALL the following weekend and we had such wonderful family bonding time! We had a movie night on Friday, an evening of wine and great conversation on Saturday, and then on Sunday we visited our relatives in Ave Maria town, followed by a trip to the beach to watch the sunset.

For the Law Review, Joe must write anywhere from 25-40 pages for a legal note that is due in early January. He has chosen to write about the Catholic faith’s influence on the First Amendment and a couple of the professors have really taken an interest in Joe’s work. They are determined to get it published! Michael Novak has also taken an interest in the article and has offered his help to Joe. He is advising Joe to contact some priests and historians that he knows in Rome, as well as a descendant of Charles Carroll! Joe will have his hands full over Christmas break, but he is excited to devote his energy to such a worthy topic.

As for me, I am keeping busy with my duties as a wife and mother. I find that I do a lot of online reading about all things concerning Genevieve, like introducing baby food, baby sign language, the different stages of a baby’s growth and learning, etc. I have also been reading some classic books that I missed during my childhood: Robin Hood, King Arthur, The Three Musketeers, and The Count of Monte Cristo to name a few. Now that the weather is nicer, I hope to take Genevieve out for a daily rosary walk and start working on this post-pregnancy body.

Due to a receding gum line over the years on my bottom front teeth, I had surgery on Nov. 14^th. The surgery consisted of a labial frenectomy (snipping the band that connects the lower lip to the gums) and a gum graft (taken from the roof of the mouth to fill in where gum was lost around the bottom front teeth). Since I am nursing Genevieve, I could not be sedated for the procedure and I couldn’t take the usual prescribed narcotics for the pain afterwards. However, I was prescribed a high dose of Ibuprofen and have been recovering slowly but surely without too much pain. I have to wear a stent (retainer) to protect the graft site on the roof of the mouth, but can eat most solid foods at this point. I’m just glad that I’ll be able to eat on Thanksgiving day! I will get the stitches removed from the bottom gum line in about two weeks.

We were so happy to have Mom, Dad, Angela, Teresa, Robby, and Vanessa come to visit us in Naples a few weeks ago! They came to All Saints Day mass at the law school and got to see Joe in action as the Schola Master/Music Director. Then we were treated to a wonderful meal and got to catch up for a few hours before they went home to Tampa. We are looking forward to seeing them during Thanksgiving weekend -- and hopefully Jack, Christina, and the girls too!

Well that’s all that we’ve been up to these past two months! We are counting down until we are all together again at Christmas! Lots of love to everyone!!

For Ryan & Joe :)

Tireless Tompkins!

Whew, where to begin?! Prepare yourself, this will be a long post that took me days to complete!

August was a month of projects (well the projects haven't really stopped)! Jack and my Dad replaced our very steady leaking shower from behind the wall. Not an easy task, but after about 6 trips to home depot, nonstop working from morning to night and beer as their right hand man, the project was completed in a day. Almost like a mini makeover because those faucet handles were old and ugly! This project was a blessing because we were told by several people that the handles couldn't be removed from the shower (which is why it was repaired from behind the wall) so we'd have to tear down and replace the entire shower. We were thankful (and so was our wallet!) that they were able to repair the leak with the shower intact. 

August

Other projects: Jack is working on closing in the bookcase in our main room and making a wall so we can put our piano there; we are almost done painting our house; and in the coming weeks we will be preparing our concrete floors to put down tile. Our lawsuit is continuing at a slow pace. The first half is over and that money went toward the mold remediation we had years ago. We were originally told the second half could be over this year, but the insurance company is being difficult (surprise!) and is refusing to proceed without a hearing. The soonest date is set for January. We can't wait anymore, so we're going to start the floor process and hopefully this lawsuit will end soon enough.

September

October is always a busy month with family birthdays. The highlight was my birthday weekend {smile}. Friday morning Jack took care of the girls while he got ready for work so I could sleep in a bit. Being my Moms birthday as well, we went out for some Greek food. Chris dropped off a dozen roses in the morning, Michael gave me a dozen roses at lunch, and Jack came home from work with a dozen roses. 3 dozen roses on one day, a record! Jack cooked me dinner and we enjoyed some pinot grigio he brought home for my birthday. Saturday morning, Lisette and Therese cleaned my house for my gift, Jack took care of the girls and I went to have a massage! While having my massage, Dad and Teresa came to pick up the girls to keep them for the day so Jack and I could go out. It was a beautiful day (low 70s) so Jack and I ate lunch at a park overlooking the water. Then we went shopping, per my request! It's been a while since I've shopped without kids! We arrived at Dad and Mom's around 6 and enjoyed some dinner. Dad and Mom surprised us by having our car washed, waxed, and cleaned for my birthday gift. Thank you Dad & Mom! I loved my day of cleaning (that I didn't have to do) and relaxing! Jack and I had a wonderful time together. Thank you Dad, Mom, Angela and Teresa for watching our girls! And thank you for all the birthday messages! For halloween I made peacock costumes for Isabella and Veronica. I could not get enough of it. They were so adorable! Isabella was very excited when she first saw Veronica dressed the exact same. Here's a little clip of their greeting. And then Veronica started acting all aggressive, maybe she misunderstood Isabella's intention?! They look like fighting birds!

October

Another video from October.

This past Saturday, my siblings and I threw my parents 50th birthday celebration. Thank you for sending me memories. They were surprised and pleased to read them! It was quite a day. My siblings arrived early to get started on all we had to accomplish. Of course that had to be the day where Veronica finds a heating tool Jack was using and burns her two first fingers. Terrible blisters! Then at the party Jack was jumping on the trampoline with Isabella and she hits her chin on someones knee and busts her lip. So she's crying and bleeding all over (I wasn't there, Jack didn't come for me because he didn't want me to worry about it or take me away from party) and because she was so upset... and had a full bladder... she pees all over herself... and Jack... and the trampoline... and cries even harder because now she's peeing all over everyone and thing! Sad!!! Sooo Jack wisks her away and takes her home to get cleaned up. Thankfully we were at a home in our neighborhood. Oh and the only other trouble was Veronica choking on some food. Which was quickly resolved. After that situation was when I learned about what happened to Isabella since I couldn't find Jack. Exciting day, huh?! :) But we had a great party celebrating my parents 50th!

We are all doing well! Isabella is slowly progressing in speech therapy, but she is progressing. She is saying a handful of words and a lot of her words are not complete. For example, down is own. Sounds like down just without the d. In January she will have an x-ray to see what her palate is doing when she verbalizes. The x-ray will help determine whether or not she needs to have surgery. I'm not sure how many of you know she was diagnosed with hyper-nasality, so the concern is her palate is not functioning correctly. This is most likely a cause from her genetic disorder. Hyper-nasality is basically where too much air is escaping out her nose (which is why she is having trouble with consonants). There is not enough pressure coming out of her mouth to form words. But she is just as loving, affectionate and a silly little girl! We love her too much! Please keep her in your prayers. Veronica is always coming up with new ideas to keep mommy busy! She is saying over 10 words and lately trying to repeat everything we say. And she loves to sing/hum songs. Adorable. She is very silly and tries to make us laugh with her "I'm up to no good" smirk. Isabella and Veronica are so sweet with each other and are the best of friends!

Veronica "singing"

We hope everyone is doing well! We love and miss you all. Holiday's are just around the corner - yay!!

Ryan's birthday bashes

We have enjoyed a great weekend-long celebration of Ryan's 27 years of life, as you can see from the slide show below. We were so sad to not have Mom, Dad, Angela and Teresa with us as originally planned, but we were thinking of them and missing them always! We tried to eat more food in their honor (at least I know I did), and the Lantiguas helped to represent the Tompkins side of the family by joining us for some partying.
On Friday Ryan had a party with the Kaza family that included his requested meal of Cuban pulled pork, black beans, rice, and plantains, followed by ice cream cake. He enjoyed his presents and the company of the Kazas as well as many phonecalls and messages from his other family members and friends. On Saturday morning he had the special treat of a conference put on by Opus Dei on the topic of Fatherhood. After some great spiritual and intellectual nourishment, he came back home to yet another wild party, this time with the Lantigua family. He watched the Notre Dame game with David and enjoyed a few beers and brats, followed by, you guessed it, another ice cream cake. Since then we've enjoyed a relaxed Sunday with the very best present of all: a Buccaneers win. Ryan is one happy man. Thanks to everyone who made his birthday weekend with your thoughtfulness and birthday greetings!

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!!!

happy birthday ryan!!! you are a sweet,loving,kind,prayerful,peaceful,HILLARIOUS,WONDERFUL, GREAT BROTHER!!!!!!! i LOVE U TONS!!! XOXOXOXOXO.
~teresa

Happy 27th Birthday Ryan!

Happy birthday Ryan! Your joy, humor, faith, and kindness are a gift to all who know you. And yes, you are still as adorable as the day this picture was taken!

Now hurry up and get home from work so we can all PARTAY!