Month: March 2011

  • St Patrick's Day

    We had our first beautiful spring day today....highs in the 60s and sunny with almost no breeze.  Perfect for March.  I actually opened the windows in the kitchen today and it was wonderful to smell that fresh air.  It was easy to forget that there is still snow on the ground.

    Everyone wore green today, some more than others.  Samuel wore a green shirt, but after finding this sweatshirt Mamma made Parker years ago, he doesn't want to take it off.  I loved how happy he was this morning drinking a cup of milk and eating a granola bar.
     

    Veronica finally got to wear her new St. Patrick's Day dress I found.  I've been waiting for about 3 weeks to put this on her and she looked so cute.

    Grant looking handsome in his green shirt

    Parker felt his "green" sweatshirt was enough

    Augustin

    Matthias must have been camera shy because I have almost no pictures of him until they went out to enjoy the beautiful day. I sent them out TWICE it was so nice.  Samuel even went to the chicken coop with Grant for the first time since November I think.  He had so much fun.  Other than that, they just hung out on the driveway and played in the patches of grass.

    Samuel found a stick and had the best time playing in the water with it.  Notice he's still wearing the dinosaur sweatshirt, paired w/ a cute striped hat and winter boots...looking as cute as ever.
        

    Augustin was so happy to be able to ride his scooter outside again.
     

    Matthias loves this hat he got at the circus

    Just hanging out
     

    Mom and I got a 2.5 mile walk in.  Our half marathon is coming up May 1st so we've got to get busy training. It was beautiful today.  No big dinner tonight, just a meat pie (so good), a wonderful black and tan

    And Brad brought some Murphy's home for me.  It was a great surprise; I love beer, he hates it, but there is a great beer store by his work and he will pick me up a couple beers for a treat on days like today. I was very excited.

    Grant and Matthias waiting for dinner

    Veronica decided that spending time in the exersaucer during dinner wasn't her idea of a good time, so this is how Brad ate his dinner...holding the princess...she was happy though
      

    After dinner was cleaned up, I made "green" egg nog for the boys and they thought it was great.  Almost as good as the leprechaun that came and dyed our toilet water green and left a note for the boys.

        

    Happy St. Patrick's Day

  • Random Pictures

    I'm loving my new camera and am in a huge picture taking mood lately.  So lots of random, around the house, pictures.

    Veronica hanging out in the Bumbo seat while the boys ate cake.  She loves it now, after screaming every time I put her in it for awhile.  She looks so small in it compared to the boys.

    I love her face in this picture

    Watching the boys eat Parker's "Arrow of Light" cake.  She watches people eat as if she wants to dive in and start eating too.  If only she knew how good the cake really was.

    I cleaned out the entertainment center cubby where I'd been storing diapers, wipes, miscellaneous cords to various electronic devices (some of which I don't think we owned any more) in my attempt to declutter.  Augustin thought it was a great place to crawl into

    Veronica just laying around on the couch...just begging for her picture to be taken!!!
     

    Augustin loves her and just can't help himself when it comes to talking to her.

  • From Cub Scout to Boy Scout

    After 4 years of hard work and lots of fun, Parker is now officially a Boy Scout.  He is so excited.  Thursday night marked the end of one phase in life and the beginning of another for Parker.  It was his last Cub Scout meeting ever as he and 9 of his fellow Weeblos officially earned the Arrow of Light arward, the highest award given to a Cub Scout, and "crossed over" into the Boy Scout troop.  It was bitter sweet for me. I have been waiting anxiously for him to be a boy scout with Grant so there is one schedule for everything, but at the same time, it was a little sad to see him leave Cub Scouts behind and grow up and become a Boy Scout.  I know he has years of fun and exciting scouting activities ahead of him and he can't wait; this has been something he's been looking forward to for a long time.

    Parker got to be one of the flag bearers to start the night out.(The pictures aren't that great; the lighting in the building is terrible)

    Reciting the Scout Oath

    Receiving his Arrow of Light Award

    It's hard to see Parker, but he was sharing his favorite scouting memory from Cub Scouts.  His memory was the night he spent sleeping on the field of the baseball stadium after a Fisher Cats game and getting to set up his own tent.

    Crossing Over and receiving his Boy Scout neckerchief from the Senior Patrol Leader...quite a special moment

    Standing with the Boy Scouts and one of them for the first time

    Posing for a group shot

    Proudly showing off his Arrow

    We celebrated with a cake that night when we got home.

    Congratulations, Parker!!!!  I am so very proud of you and just know you are going to have a wonderful time as a Boy Scout!!!!

  • A photo update

    My camera has arrived which means two things....1) I can now get pictures off the camera in one easy step so all the pictures I've been taking on Grant's camera have been downloaded to the computer and 2) I have taken a ton of new pictures; I had to try out the new camera.  And I guess it means a 3rd thing too....lots of pictures to update with.

    Veronica is now if the Exersaucer and loving it.  I took a picture of her in it one of the first times...she is so tiny in it, but loves it.

    And these have to be some of my favorite pictures.  Samuel loves Veronica's hairbow head bands.  If he finds them, he puts them on and walks around the house.  Well, that combined w/ his beautiful curls resulted in a beautiful boy who looked a little girly, even I admit this.  He has since gotten a hair cut; this was the catalyst for that.  But, check out the beautiful curls.  I'm hoping Veronica can have some curls like this; such a shame to waste them on a boy.

    Getting a little bigger in the exersaucer; this was 2 weeks after the first shot and she'd grown enough that her feet now touch the ground.  She is still very tiny looking though, isn't she?

    Fat Tuesday and our King Cake.  I hadn't made a king cake before, but took a stab at it this year.  Last year we gathered with some friends for a Shrove Tuesday celebration and we were going to host this year.  So the king cakes were made and then Samuel got sick.  It was bad; that's all I'll say.  So I dropped the second cake off with our friends for them to enjoy at their own house, away from our illness and germs.  The cake turned out to be very good and everyone here loved it.

    Veronica in the bumbo.  She's liking it more and more now, which is good because I need more places to put her to keep her entertained as I get things done.

    Ash Wednesday....Samuel was still sick, so Brad and I split up Masses.  I had just gotten the new camera that day, so the first pictures I took were of the boys just before leaving for Mass.

    Here is Samuel sick and in his pajamas, laying on the couch

    Grant

    Parker

    Matthias

    Augustin

    Samuel home with Daddy

    And Veronica

    Parker hanging out after Mass

    Ash Wednesday Mass was just beautiful and such a great start to Lent.

  • Matthias cracks me up

    Tonight at dinner we were talking about chickens, turkeys and goats. I mention to my parents that Brad thinks we need to get 4 goats...1 male and 3 females so we can breed them ourselves and not worry about finding someone.  We want to get goats next spring.

    So anyway, Matthias says, "If we get a male and female goat we can have baby goats."  Which we responded was correct.  So I asked him how he knew this and his answer...

    Well, if we had a rooster, which is a male chicken, and a hen, which is a female chicken, then we would get eggs that hatch.  So if you need a rooster and a hen, then it works the same way for other animals.

    Way to go Matthias. I guess farm animals teach some important lessons. And I'll thank Parker for the education on rooster and hens since I'm assuming he's the one who educated him on one of their many trips up to take care of the chickens.

    Such a proud Mom I am right now.

  • Update time

    I don't know why, but I have such a hard time blogging w/o pictures to add.  I know it isn't essential, but they make everything more fun and everyone knows I love to take pictures of the kids and what we are doing.  The great news is....my camera is ordered and should be here in about a week.  I can't wait.  I've been using Grant's but it doesn't take the best pictures and it's a pain to get them onto the computer...no cord to hook the camera to the computer and no port for the memory chip in my computer.  So I end up having to put them onto Brad's laptop, then transfer them to a thumb drive and then put them on my computer.  So no real pictures to speak of.

    So what is up around here....

    1.  Everyone and I mean everyone was sick.  We had the fever, sore throat, coughing illness that seemed to hit everyone. And it lasts forever.  Augustin was the worst hit I think and he's just now starting to feel completely better two weeks later.  Thankfully Veronica and I were the least effected, although I did spend two nights sleeping in her room, one of them holding her in the rocking chair for most of the night.

    2.  The weather is typical for winter....cold and snowy.  This is probably the worst winter for me in a long time.  I typically don't long for spring, but this year I am LONGING for it like never before.  I want to be outside, I want to be gardening and I want the kids to be able to be outside for long periods of time.  I want to send them outside without taking 10 minutes to get them all bundled up and ready to go out.  I'm longing for green grass, warm breezes, flowers, leaves and veggies in the garden.

    3.  The chickens are finally done molting and are laying an incredible number of eggs each day.  A few weeks ago we were only getting 7-9 eggs a day, but in the past week we haven't gotten anything less than 11 days and now we're up to 13 on most days.  Yesterday we had 15 eggs...we've never had that many before.  We want to know which chicken was the slacker b/c at 15 eggs that means only one chicken didn't lay.  I went up at lunch today and only got 11 eggs so I don't think we're on track for another day of 15 eggs. 

    4.  Veronica is getting big...well not technically big b/c she only weighs about 10 pounds, but big as in older and what she does.  Looking at her size she looks about the size of a couple week old baby...10 pounds and a little of 23 inches at 3 months. However, if you look at her face and see that smile you know she's older.  She is just a tiny thing, but oh so sweet.  She's smiling and cooing all the time, and just this week started laughing when I tickle her.  She no longer looks at me like I'm strange and actually laughs now.  She is still my best night-time sleeper since Grant.  If I could get her to bed a decent hour it would be perfect.  Once sleeping she'll sleep for 7-10 hours the first stretch, wake up, eat and go back to sleep until she's slept about 12 hours total.  Getting her to sleep is a different story.  She's my worst in that department.  She is a night owl and typically won't go to sleep for the night until around 10pm, but we've had night where she's been up until 12:30am.  I like nights, but these days I like to get to bed earlier than that.

    5.  The other boys...all getting big.  Grant and Parker are doing remarkably well with school.  Their CLAA courses are going very well and they are making lots of progress.  They are both enrolled in Grammar 1 which is Latin Grammar and Grant has passed the half way point as far as number of lessons which has exceeded all expectations.  he still has a lot of work to do before reaching lesson 40 (the last lesson), but I'm confident he'll do it without much trouble.  Parker has reached lesson 10, which I think is more of a surprise to him than the rest of us.  Let's just say it isn't his favorite class, but he's good at it.  He loves Catechism and is more than 1/2 way through the first course.  He's a natural at it and loves the lessons.  Grant is almost done with his geometry course and we're making plans for his Algebra2/Trig course for late spring.  And he's getting ready to start chemistry in a few weeks.  Parker is enjoying history as he studies Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome this year and he's already finished his first math book of the year and is moving forward.

    Matthias is doing well and loves math and handwriting.  He has moved onto subtraction and is having no trouble with that.  His reading is coming along.  He doesn't like to read, but he can which is something to be proud of.  He also enjoys handwriting and these days is enjoying drawing pictures and writing notes to people.  Augustin is almost 4 and while struggling with being left behind a little as Matthias does school and really enjoys big kid games like chess, he's trying to keep up.  He and Matthias now play chess and while frustrating for Augustin (he loses all the time) it's good for him.  Another few months and he'll be doing better.  He's also discovered that Samuel isn't as bad a playmate as he once thought, so they have each other to play with now.

    And Samuel....he's 2 and very good at it.  He's definitely pushing the limits and seeing how far he can push things, but that's normal. He's also very funny and chatty.  He has a great vocabulary and Brad was surprised the other day when Samuel was helping him make granola bars and he knew the difference between baking soda and baking powder.  He could also identify all the other ingredients too. I guess cooking with Grant is paying off. 

    So that's about it.  Kids are doing well and getting big.  I'm waiting for spring and other than that, life is fairly normal around here.