Rodeo and District Food Challenge

I have so much to share from the last few months, but our laptop is still on the fritz and not loading new photos! I'll have to add in more as time goes by and just share these for now.  The big Food Challenge at the Livestock Show and Rodeo took place in mid-March. The Sugar and Spice Chefs once again did an excellent job and made it to finals, placing 3rd overall for the Intermediate division (8th grade and under). We are so proud of these girls and all their hard work. This is a nerve-wracking competition as their every move is scrutinized by judges and they have to be prepared for all kinds of nutrition and cooking questions during the interview. 

and with their dish and their little mascot in her matching apron!

The girls also won 1st place in their division at the District Roundup competition in early May. That will be the last food challenge contest they can do together for several years, as two of the girls will be in the high school division next year. So hopefully we will have teams competing in both the intermediate and senior divisions next year. Our other big 4-H event this spring was the county fair, and I'll save that for another post, because it was an exciting experience for the girls!

Here are some snapshots of the rodeo contest. 

I can't edit on my computer, so you'll have to forgive the haze, 

yellow casts, and the lack of cropping and straightening. 

I think all my settings were wrong on the camera that day!

A getaway for moms

One of the moms in our homeschool community had suggested a weekend getaway to the beach. It turned out that the family beach house was available that weekend, which allowed a large group to attend! It was such a blessing to have this time away with each other...to talk, to pray, to cook, to draw, to sew, to read, to walk along the beach, and to attend mass at the next door beach house with a retreat of Catholic high schoolers.

It was the first weekend of Lent and gave all of us some time to ponder this season and how we would spend it. The Saturday evening mass was such a lovely high point, as we sang praise and worship songs with the high schoolers and sat with our babies in bar stools and on couches as we entered into those moments of worship and receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion. He felt so very close, during a time of much struggle for so many moms. Homeschooling is a lifestyle commitment; we are going against the flow of society, and having some time to nourish ourselves is so very important on our journey. Thanks be to God for these friendships and this wonderful weekend!

Peter is 3 months!

Sweet Pete turned 3 months last week! He's such a little love. He's getting chubby and strong. Loves his swing, his floor seat, and watching all the kids. Usually hates his carseat. Sleeps great at night, just wakes for about 2 feedings.

He and I went on a mom's weekend away, and we had such a nice time. But I know he was confused being in a different place and not having his siblings to watch! But it was nice to get away for some quiet time, and there were 4 other baby buddies with us :)

Then we were blessed to attend a parish baby shower at our church! The ladies were so sweet to shower us with all kinds of goodies and lots of love. I didn't get to attend our homeschool group baby shower, so this was a lot of fun for the girls and I to attend with Peter!

Looking forward to the coming months of lots of new things with our little guy...sitting, crawling, eating, walking...But I'm happy with him right where he is and hope time will slow down for us!!!

(outdoor pics on the blanket by MC, indoor ones on the white bed by me)

 

Katie Grace is 3!

Our sweet girl turned three this month and was so thrilled about her birthday! It was on a Sunday, so we started with presents in the morning, she got a special blessing during the Mass, and then we had a few families and my parents over for a late lunch/early dinner of fajitas grilled by Steven, plus cake and ice cream. I'd say she had a pretty spectacular day!

She got a hand-me-down American Girl doll, an outfit for the doll, 

a veil for church which she'd been asking for, a new dress with strawberries 

(her favorite!), and a balance bike.

 She loved playing with the tea set treats 

from NeNe and PaPa with her little friends!

Katie Grace is such a little "rainbow" of color and light in our family!

Happy Birthday to our sweet Katherine Maria Grace!

Some other recent pics of our big girl...

Friday Five

--1--
Guests!
Our good friends who moved out to east Texas in December are staying overnight with their 7 kiddos this weekend! We are super excited and have a super big job ahead of us to get the house ready! We have friends over at least once a week and are pretty good at doing a quick blitz, but it's time again to organize the playroom, pick up Legos, scrub the bathrooms, and wash bedding. So tomorrow I'll probably be on Instagram Video documenting our progress to help motivate us!

--2--
Growing babies
Peter is now 12wks and Katie Grace turned 3 last weekend (next up on the blog!). Today I finally got bins from the attic and went through some 3-6 month and 3T/4T clothes. Now they just need to be sorted and organized! We have a serious clothing problem...too many clothes and not a good laundry system! Everyone just digs out of overflowing laundry baskets in their closets (or the back hallway for the boys). I've got to figure out a plan for this situation!

--3--
To Do
Normally I don't have too big a list...just homeschooling and housekeeping and making sure the kids get to their activities and the bills get paid. I have had some extra little things to get done this week though! We had to register for swim team for the boys and the county fair for the girls. And I must sit down with the hospital bills from Peter's birth, get them paid, and make sure we haven't been overcharged. I also have an online clothing exchange to do, a price adjusting with coupons for new knives Steven bought, and grocery shopping for the weekend! Oh and cleaning the whole house; that's all!!!

--4--
New Car
Steven's Suburban did him well. He had it about 6 years and put many, many miles on it. It was at 300,000 miles and was dying a slow death, which could've happened at any moment. So this week he finally found a used Tahoe that had what he was looking for. We are grateful for our big NV van but also happy to have a "smaller" car for his long commutes and road trips, and maybe for my own zipping around suburbia on the evenings and weekends!

--5--
Nineveh 90 and Lent
I've been working on getting back into a prayer routine as the Nineveh 90 campaign began. I'm trying to follow my phone alarms for prayer throughout the day, sometimes with the kids, and sometimes on Instagram Video or Live to pray with others. I want to get back into the habits of morning and night prayer, as well as the noon Angelus and 3pm Chaplet, and a Rosary decade too. As Lent starts next week, I hope to have even more motivation to do this, and also to work on my health with better eating and exercise. I'm praying for the grace to persevere because I can't do it on my own!

I hope to get our computer issues fixed soon so we can load photos and blog more easily! (I'll add pics later) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Friday Five!

It's been a few weeks, and I've been missing my blog! But the season is really revving up, and my energy level by the time homeschooling is done is at about zero! I'm going to keep trying though.

~~1~~
Peter.
Peter turned 10 weeks this week, and everyone is commenting about how big he is! He no longer looks like a little newborn and he's feeling thick and solid. He's interacting a lot and awake for long periods of time. He's started chewing on his fists and can hold his head up really well. He still gets fussy in the evenings, but is really happy in the mornings and early afternoons. We've been taking lots of walks to the park and spending more time out and about. He pretty much hates the carseat unless we're on the highway, so I try to avoid doing any unnecessary driving! He likes the swing and tolerates the bouncy seat. Mostly he just wants to be held by me, of course!

~~2~~
Katie.
Katie turns 3 in about a week and she is finally pretty much potty trained! I'd been feeling guilty for not working on this, so the past few weeks we just went for it! She's only had one or two accidents in the past week, so she's doing great. She loves her brother and wants to smother him with hugs and kisses. She loves reading books and playing with her Little People. She's dying for a "big dolly" (American Girl), so her big sisters are starting to let her play with their old ones a little. She's also been sleeping in Ellie's room for about six weeks now, so we have our eyes out for a bunk bed for them. One of her favorite things right now is using special glasses and plates! Her NeNe lets her look in the cabinets and pick out special glasses and plates for her snacks, and now she's wanting to use them all the time! She wanted to use her aunt's fine china at the Super Bowl party last weekend! She's ready for a little tea party time, I guess.

~~3~~
Big boys.
Steven and Thomas are starting baseball tomorrow (Well, today. It's after midnight)! The crazy season is beginning for me, with practices and games and baseball gear and all around insanity, especially since the girls have ballet and 4-H events, the boys will probably start swim team in April, and Steven is traveling a lot. I'm already ready for summer! Steven got some reading glasses this week; they look pretty cute on him! Both boys are just loving the warm weather, and they escape to the driveway or backyard for baseball, football, or basketball any chance they get! In the past few months, they've really gotten into watching sports and keeping track of scores and players too. They're becoming good buddies, which I love to see.

~~4~~
Big girls.
These two keep busy with school, ballet, and babysitting jobs. They both entered a 4-H photography contest this week, which was a bit of a hassle for their mom as we loaded and printed photos, then got them mounted and mailed! Tomorrow they have a 4-H food challenge workshop bright and early, as they prepare for the big one at the Houston Rodeo. They're both a great help around the house, and it's such a blessing to have babysitters now and to be able to go on some spontaneous dates with Steven every so often!

~~5~~
Steven and Me.
Steven has been busy with work and lots of traveling. He got to take quite a few hunting and fishing trips last month too. He even took the boys on a work/hunting adventure to Oklahoma! But even while busy and traveling, he's still checking up on our crew, grocery shopping and cooking for us, and especially spoiling me on my birthday weekend! Last Saturday I turned 39, which was celebrated with: gorgeous flowers and a date on Friday evening, Saturday brunch with the family and my parents, a Peter Pan play with the 3 oldest kids (and baby), and a mom's night out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. My friends spoiled me with some sweet gifts too. Sunday was the annual Super Bowl party with Steven's family, and it was just a great family weekend overall. I am so blessed! I'm also feeling more myself again these days. I was able to get out a lot the past couple weeks; we went to the trampoline place, to a nature class with the boys, and to the park quite a few times!

I have a bunch of photos I'd love to share, but the USB ports on my computer are not working, so it looks like I'll just be able to share this one from Facebook (Peter in a doll bed at my parents' house) and will have to come back with more pictures to share. Check me out on Instagram @blairsblessings where I tend to post a lot and do some Live Stories most days.