It's Lent!!

Lent began just five days ago, and I'm already behind on what we *should* be doing.  But we have jumped in to Lent and have started with some of our regular traditions....   We've started our devotional and our Jesus tree.  The stations posters are hung (although we have yet to pray them so far). Our printable Lent calendars are hung.  But we have lots to do still.....  We need to make our crown of thorns.  Need to start Holy Heroes Lenten Adventure.  Get out our Easter books.  Just another reminder to say "yes" and accept each day as it comes with what He has in mind for us and our journey of faith and renewal.  

Here's a little peek at our Lent journey so far....

Mario turned 12 on Ash Wednesday.

We had his birthday party on Friday.

Saturday, Neil took the two big boys skiing with the Community of St John.

And, today, we had Mass and a birthday party for my nieces.  For our family prayers tonight, we did 5 days in 1 for our Jesus tree (yeah, we have many "catch-up" days like that!)

Busy, busy, busy!!  

Yes, Lord, yes!  

Your will be done.  

12 things we love about you!!

Oh honey, how we love you so!!  What a blessing it is to be your momma and raise you up into the handsome and talented kid you are growing to be!!  

May God bless you today and throughout this next year abundantly!!!  

I love you!!!!

To celebrate you turning 12 today, we wanted to share 12 (of the many!!!!) things we love about you.....  

#1-  That he's funny (Ariel)

#2-  That he's fun to be around (Melody)

#3-  That he's my M&M brother (Max)

#4-  That he helps me fish sometime (Pookey)

#5-  He makes me smile, laugh, and coo (Yoda)

#6-  He reads to me and is nice to me (Rose)

#7-  We both like similar video games (Fone)

#8-  You're my best friend! (Fone)

#9-  You are loyal

#10-  You are so sweet and tenderhearted 

#11-  How you are genuinely caring about your littlest siblings

#12-  Your love for geeky things (movies, video games, etc...)

And, of course, we all love that you are the co-founder of Funny Boys Productions!!!

Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for "Mario", who is celebrating his birthday today. Bless him with your love and friendship that he may grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. May he love his family always and be faithful to his friends. Amen.

Wordless Wednesday

Celebrations for our new 7 year old

Max turned 7 just a week and a half ago, and we're about to celebrate another birthday in our house tomorrow. Makes for a busy, blessed month of celebrations!

We took the day off school for all the kiddos - a birthday makes a great vacation day, eh?

I cooked a fun breakfast, Neil had pizza delivered for lunch, and then we ate a quick and simple dinner because Max wanted to have a fun family swimming night...

Since he turned 7, he was able to have a friend party.  We decided to have his party at a local gym, since they had a large room for the boys to run and play in.  It was great fun for all!!

Baby "Bandit" Bibs

Sometimes baby #8 just needs some new things of his own, right?  I splurged and went shopping on amazon for some new bibs for Yoda.  They just don't make bibs like they used to, and the bibs with the velcro attachment just doesn't hold up.  I've found out after purchasing many different styles that a good bib MUST have the snap buttons to keep it from coming off.  We made it through with our last couple drooley babies with cheap velcro bibs because the snap ones were impossible to find.  And our drooley little guy is wetting his sleepers so much, I thought I'd do a quick search for "snap closure baby bibs".  What a pleasant surprise it was to find these absolutely adorable and might I add - super unique - "bandit" looking bibs!!  I didn't know which brand to buy, so I bought two different brands, both in the "bandit" style.  And, I absolutely love them already!  Cute as can be and going to work perfectly for keeping lil Yoda's clothes dry, although I'm sure he'll still go through a few bibs each day!

Drooley baby, he is!  

Cute bibs, they are!

4 months old now

Babies growing too fast - nothing new.  Always wish you could keep them little, but then you look at your big kids and thank God for all those growing stages - their cute squishiness of being a babe, learning to walk and talk as toddlers do, getting into things you shouldn't in the 3's and 4's, growing up and the maturity that comes so natural at that starting-school age, and then it just flies after that.  Each grade, each level, and then before you know it, you can't keep up with them.  Our oldest, Fone, is translating Latin paragraphs and doing Algebra problems even I don't remember off the top of my head.  So, as much as I want to "keep them little", I know I can't and I do my best to cherish each stage.

This little guy - cute, squishy, sweet, smiley, and another one of those miracles that God gave us through our "yes" with many risks and fears.

++Thank you, God, for the last four months with Yoda and the blessing he is to us all!  Please continue to shine your life and grace and love through him!!++

Catholic "Book Detectives" book club ~ Little Nellie of God

We are so blessed to have so many active homeschooling groups and opportunities for homeschoolers in our area.  A couple weeks ago, I had received an email about a "book detectives" book club group starting up soon.  It was being offered by a homeschool group that I haven't really done much with and I was hesitant going (it's always hard to be the "newbie").  But I was so happy when I recognized a friend (from a different homeschool group, which we are both active in) who was commenting and interested as well.  And, then the thought hit me.... maybe we should have a Catholic "book detectives" group and we could use books from Catholic Mosaic!  She was all for it and today was our first meeting.  What a hit it was!  My friend chose to "dissect" the book Little Nellie.  She had the kids take turns reading the book out loud (such great practice!) and then they broke the book down into the different parts (see picture).  She also read Brigid's Cloak since it was her feast day a couple days ago.  I helped entertain the toddlers, babies, and older kids upstairs with my sister-in-law.  What a wonderful learning opportunity it was!!!   Here are some pictures from our afternoon together....

Bigger boys entertaining themselves with games....

Sweet little girls tearing apart the house and playing so sweetly with each other...

 "Book detectives" playing the how-many-kids-can-you-fit-on-one-couch game while they are dissecting and learning about the book...

(and maybe you recognize this sweet momma friend of mine- she blogs at Annery at Home.  Go now and see her beautiful blog!!)

++Thank you, God, for fun in learning, especially when it includes learning with friends!!++

(for more info on where the "book detectives" idea came from, see this site!)