Weekend highlights

A Saturday afternoon bike ride

Birdwatching-robins and flying turkeys
(I think that's what he called them?)

Edited: It was apparently not a robin and they are called "water turkeys"...you can tell I'm not the one with an Animal Science Degree!

We realized that the Saturday vigil mass was starting at the parish near the bike trail, so the dirty bike riders hid out in the cry room for a nice noisy mass.

Afterwards, I finally got my birthday present! And another present for the family was purchased today, an amazing Craigslist find!



















What's a pregnant mama to do? The Girl Scout cookies were ordered before Lent, but unfortunately will not be waiting until after Lent to be consumed!

Internet is acting spotty so last week's photos will have to wait. Getting ready for a new week and new month! I'm hoping my new iPhone alarms will keep me going this week, and my iBreviary prayers will keep me focused. I'll keep you posted! Have a magnificent March!

Here Comes the Sun!

I’ve heard many people say that February is a gloomy time for many moms. In my case, I started the “January Jitters” before this “February Funk” but am still longing to get out of these winter blues.

For some of us, we’re exhausted from homeschooling, for others the new year’s work load may be dragging us down, while other moms are drearily trudging through the daily carpool activities.

One thing for sure, spring is right around the corner! (read more of my newest Faith & Family article here)

Garden 2010

Steven got 2 crates from work and found one near a dumpster in College Station.
We spent a few afternoons painting them white.

We found some nice spots for them on our back porch


and added the dirt.


Later we added some colorful artwork too!


Steven has also planted 2 tomato plants upside down in plastic buckets.
We'll see how those work out!


Finally, late Sunday night they planted the vegetable seeds.


Hopefully we'll see some sprouts soon!

Introducing...

our newest family member! Baby is the little "dot" to the right of the circle (yolk sac), who had a strong beating heart and looks to be growing well at about 6 weeks along. I'll have ultrasounds again at 8 weeks and 12 weeks to try to determine a very accurate due date since the c-section will probably be 2-3 weeks early. Thanks for all your prayers! One little hurdle down...only about 7.5 months to go!

The Big Brother

Knowing that he's now a big brother has made me feel like
my little guy is growing up right before my eyes!


Still keeping me on my toes daily, doing things like this!

This was on Ash Wednesday, when one of his sisters must have felt bad
that he slept through the service and didn't get ashes. She added a few for him, in marker!

Little Man was THRILLED to go to the Chick-fil-A family night and find they were having a winter wonderland party, complete with an "Ice Fishing" booth. He must've spent at least half an hour there.

He is all about shirts with numbers. He calls them running shirts.
This one is his "Aggie wunning shirt"!

Singing away at the park for Friday's nature club.


Helping with the gardening this weekend.

Steven Joseph is now 26 months old as of yesterday. His vocabulary is just exploding! We are constantly surprised and amazed at the stuff he comes up with!

The other night he found a little onesie with the girls' doll clothes and put it on his legs. He was showing off, but Mary Clare started to admonish him. She was whining that he was going to stretch it out and the baby might need it! I told her not to worry and everyone calmed down. A few minutes later, Steven Joseph came up to me with the onesie taken off and tried to put it down my shirt "Baby wear shirt." He knows the baby is in my tummy and I thought it was so cute he was wanting to share!

One thing he's not quite ready to share is mama's milk. We're working on that one. This is the longest I've nursed any of the kids (the girls were both 22 months), but I kept going longer with him partially because I thought he'd be having heart surgery soon. I know that nursing will start to get painful as the pregnancy continues and so we're working on cutting down. He does great when we're out and about, but if we're at home he wants to nurse all the time! I'm sure it will work out as the weeks go by, but I admit I'm a little sad at weaning my baby boy!

He loves telling stories, particularly about fishing, the dog getting out of the house and Daddy having to chase him, and about his different balls/sports. He watched a friend play in a roller hockey game a few weeks ago, so now he plays "hockey team" with his golf clubs and balls every day.

Tonight the girls found him a baby boy doll and he was so proud toting it around the house with all the gear they'd set up for him. He named the baby "Aggie". We keep asking him if Mommy has a baby boy or girl in my tummy, but he forever insists it's just a baby. He did claim he saw a boy up high (on the ceiling?) in our room one morning last week. I was curious if he was seeing designs on the curtains, or an angel, or something else?

Well, that's the update on Little Man. Tomorrow morning I'll have my first appointment and hopefully the ultrasound to see his little brother or sister's heartbeat. Please keep us in prayer as I know it will be nerve-wracking for me. Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time there was a gorgeous morning on a February in Texas!

We spent the morning reading versions of Little Red Riding Hood in bed, then the kids wandered outside playing their own version of Little "Pink" Riding Hood. The toddler got another haircut (I'm an obsessive hair clipper with him), and big sis was making mud pies and salads of grass and surprises! Quite a lovely homeschooling day.

The birds were chirping, sun was shining. My toddler and I got suited up in our painting gear, and had a jolly old time finishing up the white coats of paint on the wooden crates for our vegetable garden. Then I got us all cleaned up, laid him down for a nap, took my own siesta on the couch, and all was well.

Then 3:00pm came.

First I needed to wake up the toddler and get everyone out the door for a quick trip to the doctor office and some other errands. All I needed was a blood draw, but if I had learned my lesson the past two times I would have brought a bag of activities or books or something besides a few mints and some Life Savers. The kids tend to last for about 10-15 minutes reading magazines and watching medical-info-TV, but then we start to have whiners, dancers, and sprint runners in the waiting room.

30 minutes into our comical experience, a nurse comes out with some forms and explains that the phlebotomist is gone for the afternoon and I'd need to go to a lab for the blood draw. Great. Back to the car. Keep in mind there are constant sisterly arguments. Who will press the elevator buttons, who holds the magazine, who unlocks the car door, who picks up the dropped pencil on the floor of the car? Etc. etc.

I also really need to pick up a package at the post office that will be mailed back to the Rodeo if I don't pick it up ASAP. It's for a field trip with 80 kids registered (that's going to be interesting!), so I can't let them down! I run home to get the postcard about the package and arrive at the post office for a quick wait. But ahh...the worker points to the card...I am at the WRONG post office! So off we go again...

At this point I'm closer to the lab, so I decide to do the blood draw before driving to the far-away post office. But the map to the lab was horrible, and after driving into several places and turning around, I finally call to find out it's right in front of our neighborhood! We make our way inside, go up the elevator, and sign in.

This guy was not happy to be in the stroller again. "Why, Mommy?"

Tick, tock, tick, tock. After 15 minutes no one has even opened the window to see that I've checked in. I knocked on the glass but no answer. Finally, someone yelled out for me to come to the door. I brought the kids back with me and after looking at my forms, seeing what the blood draw was for, she started laughing hysterically...more on that later...

After the blood draw and potty break, including one child who insisted on washing her hands 3 times, we were off to the other post office. I waited in line while the kids ran around, thankfully getting only sweet grins and compliments from those around us.

Only two more stops to go. It was time to break out my literal "Life Savers" again!

And another true "life saver" for me today!

The HEB trip was fairly uneventful, up until the end where Stevie was insisting on getting "in the back" of the cart which was full of food! Here the girls are trying to find pita chips and hummus while I try to console SJ to no avail.

We get to the checkout and the girls run over to redeem their "Buddy Bucks." Whoever invented the play money that allows them to win dozens of prize balls with numbered stickers inside that make it only to our car and the dumpster...well, I'm not sure what to say. At least the girls have 5 minutes of fun!

Meanwhile little man in the back of the cart insists that "Me Helper!" as he offloads all my groceries.

How to better end this day, on the dark and trafficked roads, than a trip to the craft store? Genius.

Only one thing we need. Only flowers for our Lenten craft. But SJ wanted this sword and hat, and screamed when he was pulled away. Ellie wanted miniature plates for her dolls and MC cried that she wanted to get a charm for her grandma. Somehow we made it home with only the flowers. Somehow.

The sacrifices and acts of kindness began immediately so as to earn some flowers for the Lenten cross.

And this pregnant mama certainly gave herself a flower for surviving that kind of afternoon! Wow.

(YES, baby is due in October! I am 6 weeks along and have an ultrasound on Monday. We are all thrilled. Please keep us in prayer for an uneventful pregnancy, and especially that we will see a sweet little babe with beating heart on Monday :-)

Along the Alphabet Path--Letter Q

Suffice it to say that Q is not the easiest letter to come up with activities for. We pulled some of our P activities and just did a few things Q. Here they are!

Q is for...

The Queen of Heaven and Queen of the Meadow Fairy


The Quilt Maker's Gift and the Quilt Story
(Great books that we own!)


Quilt-making (paper-weaving) with scrapbook paper:

Cut strips of paper and equal strips almost to the end of a full sheet of scrapbook paper
Let the kids weave them in and out and tape or glue the edges. Fun!


I realized this week that I should've taken pictures of the quesadillas we always eat for lunch, and we could've made some queso and chips!

Facebook Finds

a Valentine Brunch with my high school gals!


The internet can sure be a time-sucker, and some worry that sites like Facebook can be addicting as well as unsafe. But I'm just thankful to be able to stay in touch with so many of my old friends! A few weeks ago I had lunch with some old friends from elementary school, and this weekend got to visit with my high school buddies.

Saturday was a fun Valentine brunch hosted by one of my good friends from high school who has spent the past 14 years since graduation living all over the country, but is now back in town for a while. The rest of us have settled in the area and boast 11 children, including 2 in-utero.



It was great to get out for a morning away (thanks for babysitting, Mom and Dad!) and to spend time sharing stories these old friends. We went around the table to share what we'd been doing for the past 14 years since graduation. We looked through old photos and reminisced about memories from our high school days.

Thanks, ladies for a fun reunion, hope we can have many more over the years! I'm so blessed to call you all friends.