Spring 2017 Memories

I think these are all on my Instagram feed and in the Chatbooks we print, but I felt the need to put them here too! Fun memories from Spring 2017!

trampoline park with homeschool group

my birthday gifts

Valentines breakfast

family game night

rodeo baby

st paddy's day

fishing tournament weigh in with daddy

county fair

houston zoo

Easter

Atrium

Pickwick

Their first swim of the season

Aggie brothers

a fun birthday party

Mother's Day

a trip out to the local airport restaurant

Moving days...

Where do I begin? Life has been a whirlwind the past few weeks, but I finally feel like we're settling into our new home. We had a lot of emotional days leading up to the closing of our house, but now we are here, it's a joy, and we are so very grateful to God for this gift of a new home!

I have so many more words, but there is just never enough time to sit and share here. Now I have a laptop to use, so hopefully once we figure out how to transfer photos to that computer, I'll be all set for blogging! For now there is so much to do...decorate a new house!!! Oh, and continue to move things out of the old house, clean it up, plan more renovations, and then pack and move my parents!  And that pesky little thing I'm responsible for...schooling all of my children!

Here are some iPhone moments of the past few weeks until I can share more...

Top row: babies schooling, little ones reading amidst the boxes, museum baby friends, little siblings during museum classes, and dinosaur buddies!

2nd row: a little moment at Barnes & Noble, MC and our sweet neighbor friend, Katie owning the world, Daddy walking the littles into mass, and kiddos at the zoo

3rd row: Daddy and Tommy in the reptile room, Tommy by his favorite animal--Komodo dragon, his new microscope in the closet "science lab" his sisters made him, SJ playing with water balloons one morning in the driveway (in 24mos swim trunks, the day before his heart surgery anniversary), and our first 4-H meeting with games outside

4th row: My little getaway for a mom's night, Katie enjoying the new house, kids on moving day, friends at the moving in pizza party, my mom hanging with us in the new house, Ellie with a new used furniture find, Katie at Old Town Spring after Sunday mass, Tommy reading his new favorite reptile book, Ellie my shopping buddy, and our new front door!

Summer Lovin'

It's funny because I look back at these photos and feel like these events all happened just yesterday. But these actually go back to early July and mark special events and daily moments of our summer. Now Labor Day has just ended, and like a thief in the night someone ran away with my summer! We'll still enjoy the sunshine and heat for awhile here in Texas, and will even enjoy a few days away at a resort for a conference. But now we are back to schedules and school, and fall is in the air!

I'm printing out my Instagram photos as little "Chatbooks," but I still worry that those will get lost and my journal/scrapbook here on the blog is hopefully what will remain for my children and grandchildren one day! I do need to have it printed too, but now with eight years of memories chronicled here, printing it out seems very daunting. One day!

So here are snapshots of our summer, ending today...

Top row: huge lunch party at a Thai restaurant after mass, a photo shoot of my dear friend and her family, kids playing games together one summer morning, and girls in the baby pool

2nd row: Mom's Night Out, LaMadeleine for lunch with my kiddos, Chickfila Cow Appreciation Day, and our new doors and siding (before paint).

3rd row: sleeping angel, Ellie's tiny clay creation, another game day, and Katie loving playing outside with a basketball

4th row: The park finally opens!, book baby, splash pad baby, and our anniversary steakhouse date

Top row: MC's new haircut, K's first carrousel ride, sweet girls at the home of an old family friend, and VBS fun

2nd row: a little throwback to baby ballerina Blair, the mall with my girls, an evening at the park, and SJ picking out baseball books at the library

3rd row: watercolors one morning, my morning glory with a book, cream puffs made by the girls, and cousins playing chess

4th row: a dance for part of a scavenger hunt at Grampatti's birthday, visiting a model home street, beach week begins, morning baby at the beach

Top row: Beach baby, chess boy, spaghetti-lover, and sweet sisters

2nd row: braiding the pianist's hair, some of the girls' peg creations, and sisters after dinner 

3rd row: playing by the waterway, running up stairs, bloomers and babies, and brothers

4th row: in the new house!, sunset at a baseball field, reading to her babies in the garage, and one messy kitchen!

Top row: BBQ at the park, a mom's night for a friend's birthday, Katie at the Lego store, and kids playing Just Dance at the mall 

2nd row: an afternoon at the lake, baby by the lake, boys starting their new math books early, and baby at the splash pad

3rd row: these two always want DADA, me up until 1:30am planning special back to school breakfast, kids on the 1st day, Katie kept sneaking into the dance studio and closing the door!

4th row: Tommy's first piano lesson (loved it!), my baby's after First Friday mass, Daddy's birthday, and boy buddies at the farm

What we've been up to...

I realized I hadn't posted iPhone/Instagram pics since May. I definitely update on Instagram with our day-to-day goings-on, and I'm printing them out in Chatbooks, but it's nice to record things here too. We've had a busy and eventful summer so far. I can't really summarize it, so I'll just share through these collages and I'll be back soon with better photos from specific events and a few words...

Top row: Katie eating pizza, Ellie sneaking away from schoolwork, Katie getting into dog food, and the boys working hard to finish their school year.

2nd row: Kids at the farm listening to MC tell about trying to capture a fawn, Ellie and Katie at the mall play land, Katie playing in the rainwater, and three kids camped out in the hallway since they didn't want to sleep in their rooms that night.

3rd row: Heading into Sunday Mass, taking their food drive items to the local food pantry, watching the piano tuner, and Tommy and me with Leo sitting by our heads!

4th row: Procession on Corpus Christi Sunday, MC reading to Katie, our fence in summertime, and Katie at Chuy's

Top Row: Family at the Symphony, and Katie at the Symphony for the Disney concert, my new Dansko shoes, Katie in the windowsill in her new dress

2nd row: the girls, the girls and Steven ready for Daddy Daughter dance, the boys going with me and baby out to Cane's that night, and my blondie girls at a BBQ restaurant after a farm day

3rd row: beekeepers, honey harvesting, Father's Day, and Ellie after brunch

4th row: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Training day 1, the mini altar at the training, a night swimming with friends, and having a little fire for the Eve of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Top row: kids playing clay together happily, Katie at the training playing with beans, Katie eating Mexican food, and Katie at the hospital while visiting my dad

2nd row: playing piano, playing dress-up with cousins, Katie in skinny jeans, and playing birthday party with cousins

3rd row: Food Truck place soft-opening on the 3rd, coloring with cousins, heading to the symphony (Steven with one on back and one on shoulders! Superdad!), and parade on the 4th

4th row: Steven sitting in the shade at the parade, my babies on the 4th, wagon rides in a church parking lot waiting for...fireworks! Happy 4th!

So Much Crazy

 (I wanted everyone to wear their Easter clothes so I could take a photo, but only 3/7 of us ended up in the same clothes this Sunday! At least I got one decent shot and a cute one with the grandparents!)

This season of spring sports and finishing school and having colds and a teething baby and a traveling daddy is a bit rough. We've all recovered from the crazy Easter weekend and the latest cold viruses. We got to enjoy this past weekend together, with a busy Saturday including two baseball games, a ballet practice, and a trip out to the farm for the others while the baby and I rested at home with my parents and later with my friend Beverly.

Sunday mass was a bit reminiscent of the Easter Vigil due to another standing-room-only crowd for a group First Holy Communion mass.  Neither Steven nor I got a seat. The big girls sat with friends and Steven Joseph sat with my parents who came to visit the church. The cry room was total insanity with shoes and colored pencils flying, lots of loud talking, and a mic system that wasn't keeping up with the noise level! We retreated to the vestibule, but couldn't hear in there either. Thomas pretty much throws a fit before church every Sunday, whines during it, and Katie Grace is now loud and active, so I think this is going to be our Sunday mass situation for awhile.  It's all about the grace though; thankfully we get to receive Holy Communion, whether we can follow the mass or not!

On Monday, Steven headed out of town on a work trip, and we were back to school. I was saved by "my Maria" the cleaning lady, otherwise I think I would be losing my mind. I also started back with the Couch to 5K program this week, so hopefully that will keep my mental and physical health in check. We were triple-booked for evening activities with swim team, baseball, and ballet. We skipped swim team (after an attempt to at least buy his gear, but the one-day "swim store" wasn't opened yet), dropped the girls at ballet, and arrived at baseball practice just as the youngest two kids fell asleep. I figured I'd just stay in the car since I had a decent view of the batting cages. But the ending time for his practice came and went, and his team was nowhere to be seen, and I still had a sleeping preschooler. I tried a frantic text to some other moms on the team who I don't really know, but ended up schlepping the cranky, fussing 4yr old and hungry baby around the ballpark to find them practicing on the k-ball field. We got home at 8pm, and thankfully the girls had a ride home from ballet.

We had a little scare that night when SJ got out of the shower and showed me the GIANT bug bites all over his legs. He had about eight, and they were huge, hard, red, and hot. I got some topical creams put on him and hoped for the best (no big reactions, so I think he's okay). After an evening nap, I knew Thomas wouldn't be able to fall asleep with the others, so I let him stay up and watch some Netflix shows. The only problem was that I fell asleep around 11pm before turning off the computer. SJ woke up crying about his itchy legs at 5am, so I got some more medicine on him and went to make sure Tommy was soundly asleep in the living room. WRONG! Yes, I do win Mother of the Year! My 4yr old watched TV until FIVE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. I think I probably shouldn't admit this, but oh well. He fell asleep immediately and slept until 10:30am.

Things could only go up from there, right? Tuesday wasn't too bad; I actually got a haircut! That is, I gave myself a haircut which had to be fixed by the 12yr old after she took a photo of it for me and I realized how bad it was. The haircut was done with dog scissors, because they're the newest and sharpest scissors in the house! We were about 10 minutes late to piano in the afternoon, but that was because I got a last-minute offer by a friend to keep Thomas and let MC come over to help. The teething baby would hardly nap all day, until right when I needed to take SJ to swim practice. I left the girls to watch her at home, and let the boys bike down the street while I walked. The lack of sleep started to hit Thomas while I was letting him ride his bike around parts of the pool parking lot (they're doing "dry land" practice). He wanted to bike around the parts of the parking lot where I thought there were too many moving cars, so he just cried and fussed for about 15 minutes and continued all the way home.

Tommy Boy had a dinner of strawberries while I baked a (frozen) lasagna for the rest of us. He fell asleep at 8pm, so hopefully he will catch up on sleep. Katie, on the other hand, would not go to sleep. I tried about three different times, tried the stroller, and tried letting her play. But it was after 11pm before she finally crashed.  Typical day-in-the-life, with maybe a little more crazy thrown in for good measure the past few days! We only have about a month left of school, so we are anxious to finish things up and have a nice summer break! Right now, though, there are quite a few things I need to get done, so here is my very-late-night checklist to refer to...

1. Two items to the tax guy
2. Locate math solutions manual and catch up on grading MC's math
3. Complete grading for last semester and mail the work items and report cards to the consultant
4. Make sure MC is caught up on current work that the grader needs
5. Three returns to Amazon
6. Two returns to local stores
7. Just noticed that I'm supposed to bring snacks to Wednesday game (if not canceled)!!!
8. Wednesday Noon Mass?
9. Friday 4-H and Park Day
10. Confession, Baseball, and Ballet on Saturday
11. Start making peg saints for the exchange!
12. Re-enroll with MODG for next year

And I'm finally posting this late Wednesday night/Thursday after about 24hrs of trying to get my computer to load the photos! It finally worked. We did make mass today, made it to the store for baseball team snacks, and Daddy made it home! Inching closer to the weekend and to summer break! Thanks for following along with my rambling.

And some snapshots from the past week...

Top row: watching another game as we left the ballpark, Katie loved the car at a friends', moms hanging out, and the Resurrection Tea we put together for their girls' club

2nd row: two photos of the lake at our friends', Katie enjoying some baby toys, and exploring nature outside the dance school

3rd row: Couch to 5K with Leo, mega bites on SJ's legs!, Tommy not happy during brother's swim practice, and Katie refusing to sleep

4th row: my trainer following me and encouraging me to run faster, MC's flower arrangements made it a week!, sleeping angel baby, and a selfie found of MC :)