Gingerbread Baby Birthday

Digging in the yard

Big sisters


Making gingerbread houses

Gingerbread boy cake!
made with mini cupcakes

Happy Birthday to you!

He wasn't too interested in the cupcake
and fell asleep right after this
his sisters had to open his presents!

Perfect presents for our first little boy
Balls, books, and trucks
He's one happy toddler!
Thanks for all your sweet birthday wishes!

The nasty tonsil/fever virus has now taken over the younger two. Hopefully they will be back to themselves by Christmas! We're hunkering down and staying warm inside this week. I'm a little worn out running from one crying, coughing, feverish child to the other, but I'm hopeful that we're almost over these weeks of sickness. Hope you are all having a calm and hopeful last week of Advent!

ONE

One year ago
One ready mom
One more c-section
One newborn baby
One firstborn son
One special name, after his
One cool daddy
One little brother
One other child to love on
One more forehead to kiss
One new day with him is like
One lifetime of laughter
One minute with him pulls my
One worn out body into
One too many directions, but this
One year with him, makes me thank my
One true God for my
One baby boy who now is
One rambunctious toddler as well as a big
One year old boy.

Happy Birthday, Steven Joseph.
We love you so much.

Oh it was so cute!

The Homeschool Christmas Showcase, a talent show of sorts.

The girls and their poem, "Love Came Down at Christmas"


Ellie with her preschool class


Mary Clare and her Little Flowers Class


More later...
Oh, and MC is MUCH better. The first good night sleep in over a month. Thanks so much for your prayers.

When in doubt

post pictures.
Since I can't write coherently with no sleep.
These are pictures from the past week or two.

Painting flour dough ornaments

Reading with NeNe

How I love my house...full of kids!
This was a baby shower last week

Love this SJ photo

Big sisters lovin on the poor baby at the park

I'm free!

Love this one in his high chair last night
Ready for somethin good to eat
Tired eyes ready for bed.

Now my tired eyes better go to bed...
Please pray that MC's throat will feel better tomorrow! She REALLY wants to be in her Christmas program. We're all ready for everyone to be WELL. Please God.

7 Quick Takes Sunday (since I didn't get around to it Friday)

I've been off the radar this week, but here are my 7 Quick Takes for today:

--1--

All I want for Christmas is some healthy children! We can't seem to stay well over here, and we had to cancel our trip to visit my grandmother in the nursing home this weekend. Lots of big events this week...hopefully we can get Mary Clare well and keep the rest of them from catching whatever nasty tonsil thing she has. No fun, poor girl.

--2--

We baked cookies last week with our new Christmas cookie cutters from St. Nicholas! I used to have such a hard time making sugar cookies that turned out well, but these turned out great, thanks to JoAnn's Rolled Cookie recipe from the NFP message board cookbook! I just wish we had time to ice them, oh well.

--3--

I got my early Christmas present..iPod dock with CD player and radio!
Stevie likes it a lot, especially the remote.

My sweet hubby bought me an iPod for my birthday, and slowly over the past months have fallen in love with it! The girls LOVE to dance around the house and listen to music, but I didn't have speakers for it. This way we can bring the iPod anywhere in the house and dance to all the wonderful classical, children's, Christian, and Christmas music we've bought over the past months. We'll also get to use it for our homeschool group's Christmas Showcase this week, if we're well enough to attend!

The kids are having a blast with it!
Here's their Friday night PJ performance!


--4--
Oh, how I love the Advent season!
Such anticipation!
I made a wreath for the front door this week,
with flowers, ribbon, and bells from the dollar store.
Pretty good for $3, eh?
Had to add in another pic of my Christmas tree too.
I fall in love with my tree every year.
I just sit in the living room and stare at it :)


--5--
How many attempts will it take to get an acceptable Christmas card picture?
Sibling pics, family pics...I don't like any of them.
I'm very picky.
Here are some fun outtakes.






--6--

Well, time to get dinner ready...
5 takes will have to do for now.
Maybe I'll think of more later...

Snowing!

You can't tell in this picture, but it was snowing!
Mary Clare was absolutely delighted...
Her winter dream come true!

Busy week. Sorry for the light blogging.

7 Quick Takes Friday

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday over at Conversion Diary. I thought I'd link up and try it this week!

--1--
Does anyone else teach school like this?

Yes, my daughter is on my shoulders, in her PJs
and I am writing her math answers for her.
While taking my own picture.

--2--
Remember this guy from the summer?

Mr. Kungfu Panda nebulizer man?
He's visiting again every 4 hours.
Along with some inhalers for the girls.
I'm ready to sleep again, someday.

--3--

If you haven't found it yet, hulu.com is an awesome site where you can watch TV and movies for free! Great for us, since we don't have a TV in the house. Don't worry though...you won't find us watching those morally rich shows like The Office and The Biggest Loser when the kids are asleep ;)

--4--

Today my almost-6-year-old threw a toddler type tantrum over a candy cane. In public. In the classroom where I teach homeschooled preschoolers. Can we say e.m.b.a.r.r.a.s.s.i.n.g.? I called my husband and told him it was the worst morning of my entire life. Let me also say that this morning included a jammed printer, a missing iPod cord (both needed for my class), a craft plan that kept falling apart, 3 breathing treatments, and no less than 5 dirty looks from various people, from the church to the Chick-fil-a drive-thru line. I was totally disorganized, totally frazzled, and totally late for everything today. A 9pm trip to Target made me feel much better :)

--5--

I've heard good things about those egg shell things that scrape the dead skin off your feet. Any of you use those? I saw them at Target but was able to refrain from putting one in my already-full cart! Maybe Santa will put one in my stocking!

--6--
Happy Feast of St. Nicholas, since it's now after midnight!

Mary Clare lined up all the shoes.
Looks like he visited our house already!
He even put a treat in the little doll shoes on the left :)

--7--

And last but not least, Please pray for my friends Devin and Katie today! God-willing, they will be meeting the baby boys they will foster and hopefully adopt. I am so excited for them!

Mr. Santa Claus

Naughty Stevie

Blue marker tip in the mouth

Green marker tip in the mouth

Purple lipgloss

This boy keeps me on my toes!

And you should've seen the diapers
on the days following this incident
Add in about 10 bites of crayon,
Makes for a rainbow poo!

Getting Ready

This morning's homily was about being in the "ready" position. (I actually heard the homily since the kids were all at home coughing, Steven and I switched off for mass and I even sat in the front row without having to take a child to the potty!)

I hope this past week of rest and fun and "nesting" has helped to prepare me for the Advent season! I know I need to ready my heart some more...with consistent morning prayer, better attempts at weekday mass, and more frequent confession. I'll be readying the children's hearts by reading lots of good Advent and Christmas stories and starting our Charlotte Mason approach this week with "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Jan Brett and "Country Angel Christmas" by Tomie dePaola, and doing lots of St. Nicholas activities as we get ready for St. Nick's Feast Day on Saturday! They are getting a bit too Santa-obsessed for my liking, so hopefully this focus on St. Nick will help us turn their hearts more towards Christ and Christmas.

Here's how we've been "readying" our house!

We put up the tree while Daddy was on his hunting trip Friday night

And today I decided to follow The Nester's garland tutorial...

Started with a measly garland strand,
then added 2 more at $1.50 each from Michael's!

Bought a few poinsetta stems and
"shopped" around the house for some more greenery...
and VOILA!

I changed around the mantle
and added the new Christmas portrait!


Put all the good Christmas books on the fireplace
and the nativity on the kid table

Bought a new wreath at Michael's ($1.99),
so it will fit on our kitchen table
Put the old purple ribbon around it
and found the old Advent candles from last year
they melted a bit in the Texas attic heat...
oh well, they've got personality!



And readying my tummy...
OH, that's not part of Advent.
The last helping of the apple pie I made for Thanksgiving
Midnight snack for me!


Night night.