Portraits

We had their pictures taken yesterday at Portrait Innovations. I really recommend this studio. They always offer a HUGE package for only $9.95, although it's very hard to leave with only the one-pose-package!

I thought they turned out great! We had no blow-out diapers, no big criers, and Mary Clare's big bump on her forehead from the night before was hidden by her hair wispies. I'd say it was a successful day! Thanks to NeNe for this wonderful gift...now we have the CD with all of the pictures to share :) Here are some of my favorites. Bear with me, the gloating mama!















And we have DOZENS of pictures, so please if anyone wants some let me know!

Back to the cleaning...

Organizing update

NEW BOOK: I started reading "Confessions of an Organized Housewife" today. It's good so far and has lots of helpful hints. I'll update more once I get past chapter two.

NEW BLOG: Something I found tonight, which got me "sucked in" like many internet sites, was a blog called the Nesting Place. I love her "window mistreatments", and am totally wanting to run out to the fabric store...well, more like to the $1 fabric section at Wal-Mart! I thought I had no hope at making window treatments or throw pillows until I got a sewing machine and learned how to use it, but now I have new inspiration! Fabric, a glue gun, upholstery tacks, and some fringe...and I'll be having fun!

NEW SHOES: One lesson I've learned over the past few years is that (usually, especially with new items) you get what you pay for. Sometimes spending more initially helps you save more in the long run. Take our sofas for example. Several years back we couldn't imagine spending hundreds on furniture. But now I'm so glad we waited to get this leather set! It should save us money and headache! So back to the shoes. Almost every time I buy cheap shoes I regret it. So tonight I went out to buy some Stride Rite sandals for the girls. I'm hoping they'll last all summer...we'll see! But I decided to check out Payless first and what did Mary Clare want to try on? First a pair of tennis shoes with Bratz dolls on them, a pair of fancy flip flops with heels, then these that I snapped a picture of:


Haha! Glad I am still choosing her clothes and shoes or else she would look like a 21 year-old! Here's what we bought instead:


SCHEDULE: I've been doing so bad the past few days! It's 2:06 am and I'm still awake! What am I doing? I'm really going to try to get back on track this week and STAY OFF THE INTERNET. I'm going to limit myself for Holy Week. Not sure exactly how, but maybe I'll just turn off the computer. If you don't see me this week, give me a big congratulations for Easter. I'm not sure I can do it though. This is my recreation. Maybe I'll stay away from forums and other blogs and just check email and my own blog. I'll have to pray about this more...

CLEANING: The house has been staying somewhat clean. And Mary Clare has been really good at helping me out, especially with the playroom and schoolroom, which get the messiest. Tonight I had a revelation. Certain parts of the kitchen really gross me out. The baseboards are one of them. I look at them thinking, "there's no way I can ever get the grime off of those. No use trying." But I need to take BABY STEPS. I cleaned one wall of baseboards tonight with a rag and toothbrush. The flooring leaves a space at the bottom, and in other places the baseboards are coming off, but I can still at least TRY to clean them!

before:


after:


AND LASTLY, DIAPERS! I've been trying to get back into the swing of cloth diapering but haven't had much motivation. But then came the issues with the nighttime leaks, and then my sweet friend Megan loaned me some covers. That has really helped. Something about the velcro covers as opposed to the pull-on pants really makes a difference for me. Maybe it's just the newness factor. But anyway, today I found a great internet deal and bit the bullet and ordered some Proraps covers! And I've even left the house several times with him in cloth. I'm not sure I even did that with Ellie. Yay me! (trying to keep up the motivation here!)

Okay, I've GOT to go to bed. We're trying to make 9:00am Palm Sunday Mass! That's in 6 1/2 hours! Nite Nite.

How to feel like a bad mommy

Miss the big Easter egg hunt by 2 minutes! We got there at 11:05 and ran up just as the kids were all walking back from the field with their goodies. Ellie didn't understand but Mary Clare was sobbing. We had gone to confession and then I made a quick run into the house for water, a bag for a dirty cloth diaper, and a cereal bar. That made us miss it.

Some very sweet little boys came up and started putting eggs in the girls' baskets. So sweet! And they had a wonderful afternoon with NeNe and PaPa! I'll have to redeem myself at the parish egg hunt next weekend.

Girls with their baskets afterwards. They got over the disappointment when they started opening the eggs!


So happy at the park!


My mom and dad


Me and my mommy :)


Playing at the house afterwards

Another week gone by...

It seems like the weeks are flying by! I can't believe we are entering into Holy Week already! My little boy is almost 3 months! We've been keeping busy with our weekly activities and trying to keep up with housework. I've had a hard time staying on my schedule after the time change. I just couldn't seem to wake up early this week! But I'll have new motivation with Holy Week. Tomorrow is a neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt, and although I don't like the idea of celebrating Easter while we're starting Holy Week, we'll probably make the exception for this. We'll also need to get busy on our garden, and I'm continually brainstorming about how I want to finish up the living room.

Last night we had a curriculum share for our homeschool group. It was nice to get to look through a lot of the books I had been thinking about using. For the most part I'm happy with my choices for this year, but I found a few things I might like to try next year: Real Science 4 Kids, The Image of God Religion series Who Am I?, the CHC Little Stories books, and although I like Singapore Math for the Earlybird series I'm considering switching to Math U See next year. I was outside the church visiting with other moms until after 11pm. I'm ready for an early night tonight! I'm hoping we can attend a Catholic homeschool conference here in a few weeks and I can finalize what I'd like to order for next year.

Here are some pics from the week...

The B boys hanging out on the new loveseat


The girls and their friends at Nature Club today. It was in the mid-80s!!!


I loved this one of Ellie at the park


MC loves to hold her brother


Sweet siblings!

Will there ever...

be a night where I'm not awakened by the feeling of a wet bed? Yes it's 3:30 a.m. Yes, someone wet my bed and needed a change of PJs. At least that someone was less than 6 months old, but the night before it wasn't that someone. Now I understand why my friend with 10 siblings said her parents spent ~25 years in a wet bed, LOL :)

Contest with myself

How many books can I read at once?

The Vaccine Book by Dr. Sears
The Legion of Christ--A History
Real Learning by Elizabeth Foss
The Legacy of John Paul II by Ratzinger
Swimming with Scapulars

and those I haven't started yet:
Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
Confessions of an Organized Housewife

Newest sibling pic

FOUND

Finally. Thank you, Lord. An affordable, used but new condition, sofa set! Yay! Now what to do about the wall color and coffee/side tables to go in here...

Big boy!

They change TOO quick! Steven Joseph at ~2 weeks and 12 weeks

Rodeo pics

Our little cowboy ready for the big night!


Forgot my camera, so Steven's blackberry had to do! Here we are watching the rodeo events...


The kids and I by the tractors


And a fun Friday morning pic playing with baby brother!


Have a fabulous Friday! We're off to First Friday classes...

RODEO here we come!

Steven got Rodeo tickets from work so we'll be heading across town tonight! Hope the baby does well, please God! This afternoon we were privileged to have an amazing Catholic singer/songwriter named Michael John Poirier sing for our homeschool group at the park. He told lots of beautiful stories and sang some wonderful songs. What a gift!



Organization update: I did order Confessions of an Organized Housewife for a penny (and $4 shipping), thanks to the recommendation! We'll see if it helps. I'll try to write a review soon :) I have yet to really get busy with my new planner, but I hope to sit down and work on that over the next week. The laundry method is still working well. I can't believe how much this is helping. I felt like I did a load a day before but I'm sure I skipped a few days each week, and the backup then gets worse and worse. No skipping days!!! Yesterday we cleaned the playroom. Today was supposed to be the schoolroom and the bookshelves but daily mass, the park concert, and the Rodeo have kept us busy! I don't think we've eaten out since the furniture auction Sunday, although Steven probably has because I've only made his lunch once this week so far. Speaking of furniture, we are getting really worn out with this leather sofa search. But I'm convinced that it will be the right material for our family (after reading a blog today about someone's sons peeing twice on their new couch), and I know the right set is out there somewhere...just finding it is the hard part. It's now been about 2 months of searching...please Lord, I know it's just furniture and totally silly in the grand scheme of things, but my visual tendencies are really messed up in our living room and I'd so love to get this checked off the list! Soon, hopefully!

Another new plan for me is Wednesday morning daily mass. I hope to make a morning mass once a week with the kids, and today was our first in a long while! It was great to see some other homeschooling families, and was easier since we're usually up by 7:30 these days. We have yet to do any schoolwork, but at least the house is somewhat clean! Steven also went into the attic to get the 6-9 month boy clothes last night!!! Yep, that's our big boy! Really it's just the bigger onesies that we need, but I really am amazed at how quick they grow!

Okay, better get dinner in the oven before we head off to the Rodeo. Hopefully I'll have some Rodeo pics up tomorrow. Have a good evening everyone!

Family Resemblance

I've really been noticing how much Steven Joseph looks like the girls did at this age. Here are 3 pictures of all of them at about 8-9 weeks.

Mary Clare at 8 weeks


Ellie at 9 weeks


SJ at 9 weeks

Weekend Weview :)

I'm glad I'm not the only one concerned about being that close to alligators!

On Saturday Steven and the girls started our first vegetable garden! We still have to clean out the garden area so we started with little planters.

Watering


Planting the seeds. The radishes sprouted the next day!



You can see here what a beautiful weekend it was, perfect for a bike ride (Yes, she did have a helmet on when she left the driveway)! Mid-70s and sunny for the most part. Today we're back to dreary weather with the temperature dropping by the minute!


Saturday night was a fun FAMILIA Family Dance at church!



My two cute dates in their plaid shirts :)


And my chub-man this afternoon!


We went to a furniture auction on Sunday, still on the lookout for a nice brown leather sofa set for our living room at a price we can afford. No sets to be found at the auction, but it was fun watching! I'm hoping March will be the magic month for a good furniture find. This week is First Friday, so I've got to start working on a lesson plan for the homeschool preschool group. We'll be talking about St. Joseph the worker!

The organization around here was a bit lost over the long weekend (since we had a family day on Friday), so I'm trying to get back on track today. I've got my new cool Catholic Women's Planner and need to start using it. The best thing about the past week though is the improvement on the laundry, my hardest chore! Doing one un-sorted load of everything each morning REALLY helps me stay on top of it. No more huge sorted piles of dirty clothes, and baskets with mountains of clean clothes messing up our bedroom. Thanks for this idea, Veronica! Now I really need to do some clothes-sorting. I'm really wishing I could cut down and be like Kristen in her minimalist lifestyle. Then this household organization thing would really be easy! Baby steps...

Hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

Our Alligator Adventure!

Today we went on a State Park adventure with Bop-Bop (Steven's dad)! Here it is in pictures:

Snacking before our hike (This is unfortunately the only picture with Bop-Bop in it, in the background. How did he keep avoiding my camera?)


How baby spent the afternoon


The first alligator sighting (the girls and I only saw him from a distance)


Some father/daughter moments



Next alligator sighting...this was the path we were walking down. Look how close he is! We walked as far away as we could and he didn't move. The girls were terrified!


Steven gets a close-up of this guy


We make it to the observatory (or the "playhouse" as Ellie called it!)


Looking out over the park. SJ is asleep in there!


Yes, those 3 brown spots along the water are ALL ALLIGATORS! We had to walk by all 3 of them. This was the one time Steven asked for Mary Clare's walking stick and apparently had a plan to use if he needed to, one that included poking alligator eyes!


Deep breath...we made it!


MC in a tree


Sliding Stevens


Baby's First Park Swing!


What a day!

Happy Leap Year!

Steven is taking the day off (when he gets back from a quick visit to his office with Mary Clare), so we can have a fun family day! We're not sure yet where we're going, but I'll be sure to take some pictures! Hope you all enjoy this day that *doesn't* come once a year!

Note: Anyone who has been trying to call my cell phone: it's been broken for about 2 weeks now but hopefully I'll get a new one today!