Blog Abandonment

I abandoned my blog...
Just stopped recording our moments...
So, I shall "catch up" a bit...
We had some birthdays occur around here.

Like this guy who turned 4.

I made spider web snacks.

We ate blue & red M&M's.

Enjoyed some Spidey Juice.

This young one is growing.

I just like this pic.

It is "old" now - back in April hence the flannel jam bams...

I have been putting pigtails in her hair.

I like car pictures.

We made play rice awhile back... 

It was soooo pretty!

I may not bother coloring it next time.

Although Cyrus and Lydia loved that process. 

It was pretty easy.

This was from Easter!

So was this.

Currently she is missing both front teeth.

She caught up with Evan who is 20 months older.

Family pic...

the best one.

Evan has a really hard time

when he knows his picture is being taken!

My twirly whirly girl.

We went to Chicago back in April.

I still call this Sears Tower...

I think the locals even forget to call it Willis!

On Skydeck.

The glass box

or the "ledge"

Evan is actually pretty scared of heights,

which I thought was a "made up" thing,

but he truely has issues...sorry for judging anyone!

But he did well, even stepped out on the ledge-

totally surprised me!

Baby on "ledge"

Family at top of Willis Tower.

Pic #2 of family...

Couldn't take the kids to Chicago

without eating here.

There was hardly anyone there,

so it was not as "lively" as it can get.

But who needs more liveliness

when you have this party animal!

Or better yet this one!

It wore this one out cold!

We walked...

a lot..

she did this

a lot!

I did not get a ton of pics.

Naturally the first day my camera battery was dead!

This pic was in the evening towards the end of our trip.

It was at that perfect lighting time of day!

That is all for now....

I will be back to record more of my digital journal (soon!).
Someone turned 2 on us and another one turned 6!

But before I go I will "announce" - we are expecting baby #5 in December.

Yikes!...

Teacher Appreciation Gift

We have teacher appreciation week at our school, I don't know maybe that is a national thing for all I know!  Anyway, I saw the cutest and simpliest idea!

We packaged up a little assortment of mint candy.

We put them in paper sacks.

(The PTO actually sent home 1 paper sack/child to place something in - so we stuck with that, we probaly could have found something cuter!)

We glued the cutest little note on the sacks.

I changed it from the original version.

(And added some clipart!)

The kids signed their names.  They will pass them out to their "main" teachers/para and then to the art teacher, PE teacher, music teacher, computer teacher, and the 2 librians!

Here is my version of the note:

Thanks for your commit-"mint" to help me learn.
Thanks for your encourage-"mint" to always do my best.
Thanks for your involve-"mint" in my life.
Thanks for your invest-"mint" of time and energy to make school a fun place to be.
Thanks for creating a great environ-"mint" for me to learn and grow.
Thanks for making each day an enjoy-"mint"!!!
You have really “mint” a lot to me this year! 

This was so easy - would it be tacky to do this year after year!! ha, ha!

Valentine Boxes - R2Q2 & Paper Roses

We finished our Valentine boxes.  
I think they turned out
pretty -  darn - cute!
                         
Maybe the cutest ones on the block,
if there was a contest or something. 

Here is Evan's R2Q2 (from Star Wars)

All things Star Wars for that boy.

It is not perfect nor "accurate".

We my husband bought the wrong kind of paint!

We made it from a plastic trash can.

The lid opening/rotating is just too much fun to drop

Valentines in! 

He is a keeper though!

We plan to use him next year.

Evan wants to add the legs for next year too!

Then we have a some roses.

Lydia and I spent all afternoon making these puppies.

They are time consuming,

but we were determined.

We glued them on her valentine mailbox.

Lydia is 5 1/2.

She did pretty well making these crepe paper streamer roses.

I origianlly saw them here - which I want to do for Lydia's room!

(I also made a tree form for Valentines day, to put on our mantel

but ran out of red crepe to finish it!!! ugh...)

Happy Valentines Day!!



Picture Valentine Cards

In the past I have helped the kids

write their name and their friends name on the

teeny tiniest cards that you buy for the kids school exchanges.

(Could they make those cards any smaller?) 

Well, this year I decided to skip those

teeny tiny cards!

Tried my skills in Photoshop Elements.

I am not good.

In fact, I am down right pathetic.

I am just hoping none of the other childrens parents are

graphic designers...eek!

(We will glue a treat on it - if we don't eat them all)

Lydia's ~

It is hard to see without a border.

I would have put a border around it,

but I got tired of messing with it... 

2 down - 1 more to go (for the preschooler!)

We have got one valentine box finished.
Still need to make a R2Q2 Valentine box.

Little update:
Here is our Cy Guys!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1) I am almost finished reading The Boy who met Jesus - Segatashya of Kibeho by Immaculee Ilibagiza.  Honestly there are some parts that scare me in the book when Jesus speaks of the end of days.  I know Segatashya's apparitions have not been "approved" by the church and even if they would be I know I am not "required" to believe, but I do believe this young man - too many circumstances for it to not be true, there is no way this boy could have made this stuff up, just no way. 

2) I finally am catching up with the rest of the techy world.  My husband bought me an iphone 4s - I have not tried Siri yet - I read a review that she thinks everything is related to restaurants - we will see.  Technology is not my strong suit.

3) My baby could probably win the naughtiest baby contest at church - It was down right embarrasing last Sunday - I cannot even describe it. 

4)  Speaking of naughty baby - she managed to do this!

 

Seriously this cantaloupe was on mock speed ripening steroids because it was not ripe when I bought it 2 days prior.  Seriously.  And I failed to snap a picture of unwrapped foil wrappers from her moving a chair to get to the chocolate on top of a hutch.  I was thankful she has learned to unwrap the foil.  But I am down right tired of her moving chairs!!  How am I supposed to hide all my chairs?!

5) Continuing with the baby theme.  This video cracks me up!  I know it is old news, but I just saw it on my new phone and all, and I have waisted much time watching it too many times!

6) We "had" to buy a new dryer this week as ours went out.  There are so many pretty washer and dryers on the market.  I almost wanted to buy for "looks" - you know the sleek and modern looking ones and not the one that was shoved over to the side of the show room floor that looked like it was made (style wise) 25 years ago.  Almost.  I did not.  And I could not be happier!!  I wanted to post a picture, but only our Speed Queen dryer came, we are still waiting on the washer.  Speed Queen.  Such a funny name.  Old School to the max.  But, these babies are American made and in just about every laudromat around.  Comes with a 3 year warranty.  Stainless steel inside.  No computer.  Washer uses lots of water.  Oh, I know that is so not enviromental of me, but I have kids.  They get dirty.  I need water to clean our clothes! (note- our water where we live is "free"! -it is well water but "free")

7) I am out of stuff...  Unless anyone reads this can tell me how to put the "safety" feature on my youtube app on my new iphone?  I do not see anywhere when I scroll down to the bottom to do that like there is on the full screen "computer" version.

More fun this week over at Betty Beguiles!

Someone's Story I Do Not Want To Forget

I was listening to Catholic radio - a rerun of Mother Angelica show.  Sometimes she is slow to listen to and I almost flipped the station, but I am glad I did not.  This is just a wee simple story, but powerful to me.

So Mother Angelica is telling us there was a man, who fell off a roof, on his head. The man was in the hospital hooked up to every machine you could think of. The doctors said the man is "gone", there is nothing that could ever be done to help him. (Basically Mother Angelica's point was that the doctors were ready to "pull the plug".)

Mother A asks if she can go in the man's room.  The doctors/nurses, say he is really "gone".  Mother asks again and the doctor said yes.  She went in the man's room.  She whispered prayers in his ear and said a prayer for the dying.  She continued to whisper in the man's ear telling him to tell Jesus he is sorry for all his sins of his whole life and to ask Jesus for mercy for all his sins.  The man opened one eye and had the biggest tear Mother A had ever seen roll down his cheek.  Then the man died - on his own - in God's timing - no plugs pulled. 

I don't want to forget that story - I did not tell it as well as Mother Angelica told it - but none the less it is told for me to remember...

Pink Ribbon - I will not cringe anymore everytime I see you!

So, happy to here from One Million Moms (love their work/mission) that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure is going to discontinue funding to Planned Parenthood. YAY!!!  Now I can freely buy the yogurt I like and the box of Hamburger Helper I feed my family and not feel guilty that my pennies are indirectly going to the biggest abortion provider in America. 

I am not sure what sparked the Susan G. Komen's change, maybe word was getting out and people were speaking up.  Whatever the case, it was a life changing decision - literally!

UPDATE - I should remove this post, as it is not true any more - their decision lasted for what a day?  The Komen foundation yanked their decision - they will indeed still give funds to Planned Parenthood - sad, sad, sad.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1) I have never posted one of these -feeling slightly intimidated as everyone's blogs are so fancy schmancy - lots of buttons and lists/links

2) I took a mens mulitivitamin this morning (I only had 2 left in my 'womans' bottle and when I looked in I saw a hair, eww!! - I had to throw them out)- hope I do not turn into a man or anything.

3) Cleaned under the coach this morning - found some stuff.

4) Thinking how I feed my kids pizza waaay too often.

5) I have buttons on my mind.  Not the html code buttons.  Just sewing buttons, wanting to craft with them.  So, I have been searching ebay for buttons.  I want to make my girls "names" out of wood letters and decorate them with buttons.  I can't wait to get started!

6) I love how kiddos use words in ways grown ups do not. This was my conversation with my 3 year old.

Cyrus -  "Mom, can I have a dessert"

Me  -     "Ok, what do you want?"

Cyrus -  "How 'bout chocate"

Me   -    "Ok"

Cyrus -  "I want the shiny chocate"



7) Finally, I just got a little book in the mail from Covenant House.  You know those free gifts they send in the mail when you make a donation (which is a whole nother topic).  Anyway, I started reading some of it written by Sister Mary Rose McGeady, sad, sad, sad.  So, I know I must Pray, Pray, Pray!!! 

You can check out others over here!