Pirate cake and party outfit

What a weekend! I'm a little tired to do a whole post on the party or my beautiful 3 year old right now, but here's a picture of her party outfit....

When we went to Party Tree to get her plates and napkins, she saw the pirate hat and hook that she just HAD to have. She really wanted to wear them to her party, so I designed her party outfit around the hat and the hook :) I made her tutu - totally winged it but it came out great. I ironed on her pirate patch on her shirt, made her legwarmers (I guess you can't see them here but they're black and gray stripes), and she got her shoes from our friend Mary. She didn't feel well when she woke up from her nap, but as soon as she saw herself in the mirror, she was ready to go :)

And here is her Pirate Ship Cake!

I thought it came out pretty good. I brought the kids over to Mom's house this morning and decorated it. It's just two round cakes cut in half. Rolos for cannons, Mom made the sails, and some Playmobil pirates.
Also Pirate cupcakes. These were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Delicious!
And one more view of the pirate outfit. I'm afraid she's going to want to wear it everywhere now!
We really missed Uncle Mike, Aunt Jenni, Eli and Jude! And both of my kids are sick. But other than that it was a great party. I'll post more later - right now I'm going to lay on the couch :)

Last day of 2 years old

I'm so looking forward to Madeleine's birthday tomorrow! We discussed what to get her, we thought maybe a little bike, or a kids digital camera. But there's still snow on the ground so she wouldn't be able to ride the bike for a while. (We still want to get her one, closer to the summer - craigslist or freecycle!) The digital camera is a good idea, since she loves to take pictures with my camera. We suggested that to a set of grandparents. :) I found this kitchen on craigslist for super cheap. I mean it was a fabulous deal, I just couldn't pass it up. I had to drive about 45 minutes to get it, and their house was pretty gross. They had several cats and dogs and their house was filthy. The kitchen was in great shape, but pretty dirty and the kids had written on it with pen. Also the floor was totally ruined by their cats. I almost decided not to get it, but I actually felt like these people really needed the money. I didn't even try to talk them down :) They gave me a bag of accessories, like some food and dishes, but it was missing quite a few of them. So I called Step 2 on the way home, ordered a new floor, new set of food, new set of dishes, new phone and new microwave panel. All that stuff was super reasonable, even with expedited shipping. So today was a little warmer than usual, and I took the kitchen out to the driveway and scrubbed the whole thing down and used a magic eraser on the pen and crayon marks. I got all the stickers the kids had put on it off, and scrubbed every piece of food and the rest of the accessories with lysol. I'm not kidding, the thing looks brand new! It looks like I took it out of the box and set it up. I'm SO happy with it! So after Madeleine went to bed, we set it up in her playroom with all her food, dishes, new floor, little stool, etc. It looks so great. I can't wait to see her face tomorrow when she sees it!

I also bought her a little wooden table off craigslist a while ago, and I have it set up with some little plates, flowers, and knitted cupcakes I made her. That's going to go up in her room. She's going to have a great birthday!

Her party is on Sunday, and I have a GREAT idea for her cake. I hope I can pull it off :)

Morning naps

One of my favorite times of our day is John Paul's morning nap, because for an hour I get my girl all to myself. We do all kinds of things that John Paul can't do yet, like play with all these tiny animals.



We've also been doing "school," and we're using a book called Before Five in a Row. We read a classic book together, and then there are little lessons that have to do with each book. The first book we are doing is Blueberries for Sal. We read it, and then the math lesson was to collect blueberries (or something - we used blocks and pretended they were blueberries.) I put them all over the house, and we "picked" them and put them in a bucket. Then we counted them, and I said, "If you have 5 blueberries and you eat 2, how many do you have?" She did fantastic and now she wants to play with her "blueberries we don't really eat" all the time. The next day we did an art project about the book, and then a history lesson. There's also music and we're making animal flashcards, and practicing classification. I really love this and I love doing it with her! She is learning so much.

This week we're going to read Corduroy. It's her birthday week! I can't believe my girl is going to be 3 on Friday!

The Thrasher

So we tried to go to Stations of the Cross tonight. As soon as we walked into the church, the thrashing started. Then the random loud yelps and screeches. I ended up standing outside in the narthex with the culprit and heard exactly, oh, ZERO of the Stations. Oh well, it was a good try.

Before we get too far away from the little Bud's 10 month birthday, let me tell you about his recent accomplishments. He's standing on his own for a few seconds, and now he says "Hi" and waves, in addition to his other four words (Mama, Dada, Tee tat, and ball.) He waves at EVERYONE, and everyone comments on what a sweet, smiley baby he is. Of course they don't see him every time I'm trying to cook a meal, hanging onto my pant leg and screaming his fool head off. He is pretty cute though.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The best thing we've ever done for our house

The carpet before (and we were cleaning the room so stuff is piled everywhere!)

The playroom. And I didn't even take pictures of the kitchen and dining room, but picture awful linoleum and more awful carpet.
AFTER!!! I LOVE it!! Dining room:
Looking from the playroom into the kitchen and dining room:
Playroom:
I love our new floors!!! I feel so much better about having John Paul have the run of the downstairs. It's easier to keep clean (especially since I got a Shark!) It just makes our older home look so much nicer. Thank you Uncle Sam :)

Now to get everything put back together.....

Rough week around here

At Grandma's funeral, John Paul was pretty irritable and didn't look like his usual smiley, happy self. He went downhill from there, and today spiked a 102.6 fever. I spent the day holding a whiny, cuddly, runny-nosed baby. (It wasn't all THAT bad :) Also our floors aren't done. I would have gone to my mom's house today but since the Bud was sick, we were stuck in one room. I did call the doctor, and the nurse told us to come in tomorrow if he still has a high fever. I'm praying no one else gets it. I think he got it from Ken, who had a "man cold" while we were gone to Florida (thank goodness we missed THAT one! :)

The floors look fantastic, even though they're not quite done yet. I cannot wait for it to be all done and to put everything back to normal.

John Paul is 10 months old now, and I haven't done his post yet. He turned 10 months on the day of Grandma's funeral. I sure have a lot of stuff to blog about.

We decided to give up meat for Lent. I got a few new vegetarian cookbooks and I've been trying out some recipes. I have to say, with all the delicious food I've been making, it might not be that much of a sacrifice! I might have to come up with something else in addition to the no meat. If anyone is worried (MOM), don't worry. I'm making sure everyone gets plenty of protein and all the necessary nutrients.

A lot can happen in a week

We flew down to Florida on Monday, and my Grandma died on Tuesday. So we ended up flying home Thursday and went to the funeral home today, and we'll go to the funeral tomorrow.

We did have a great time in Florida, and it was really nice seeing family today. I'll have some more stories and pictures later, in the meantime please pray for my Grandma Irene. Apparently she went around to everyone in the nursing home on Tuesday saying, "I was just coming around to say goodbye, I'm going home today." The nurses said she must have said that 20 times, and she died that evening. She knew.

Destination Jesus and Valentines Day

We had a great weekend, even though as usual for Valentines Day, we spent most of it at Destination Jesus. We didn't get a picture together this year, so here is our Valentines Day last year. This is the same table I worked this year, but this time I got to leave Bud at home with Grandma :)
I worked the 8pm-12am shift last night front door security. It was slow for the first few hours, so I actually got to attend the last of the Eucharistic Procession, and even hit Reconciliation and hang out with a few Franciscan Sisters. After that though, it got crazy as we had to get all the kids (900 of them) on buses with their chaperones to go to their sleeping locations.

Earlier in the day I had taken Madeleine and John Paul over there for a half hour to see Ken play in the band. Madeleine was so funny and had a great time. She started dancing in her little uncoordinated way (think Elaine on Seinfeld), right next to the bleachers filled with kids. They were all smiling at her and then they all started dancing just like her! It was so funny! I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. And boy did she love all those kids dancing with her! She did not want to leave.

Today they got dressed up for Valentines day and we went to mass with the Bishop. I figured out a way to get a good picture of Madeleine - I have to say, "Don't you smile!"
Waiting to go in to Mass. Bud had a shirt that said, "Mom's little Love Bug" and his bib says "Future Pope" which was quite a hit with the priests and sisters!
This was the altar they set up in the gym at Guerin Catholic high school. It was absolutely beautiful.
Madeleine has a friend Olivia who is the daughter of the drummer in the band. She LOVES Madeleine and always wants to dance with her. This was last year.
and dancing with Olivia this year. She had a great time although she got really dizzy!
So, we are headed to Florida tomorrow for the week while our new floors are installed. I'm really excited about seeing Madeleine's Godparents and their kids. I'm also quite nervous about traveling with both of them again. We did ok in November going to Florida but we have some new issues now. One is that Madeleine is still fairly newly potty trained. I'm going to make her go before we get on every plane, and as soon as we get off. I am really hoping to avoid a situation where we can't get to the potty, or worse, that I have to bring both of them into the bathroom on the airplane. The other thing is that John Paul is really mobile now and doesn't like to be held for extended periods of time. I am hoping he gets his own seat at least part of the time....

So if you think about it, say a prayer for us tomorrow morning! We will be back on Thursday or Friday. Happy Valentines Day!

Global warming

We've basically been snowed in since last weekend. Schools have been canceled, they never plowed our street, and other than a quick trip to the grocery store with everyone else in the state before the last big snowfall, we've been here. Madeleine was banned from TV for 3 days (more on that in the next post) so we've been cooking, playing, having tea parties, decorating the playroom, drawing pictures, coloring, doing puzzles, etc. It's actually been pretty fun. I've gotten some knitting done too. Here's John Paul's latest vest. I LOVE it. Poor kid, I make him wear it about every other day :) It has cables shaped like owls on it.

And here are the four snowman hats I made for my blog friend. Now that she got them I can show them on here!
And we've also gotten outside a little, even though it's been super cold. Madeleine enjoyed making snow angels,
playing with Daddy, (while I watched from the screened porch!)
and trying to wade through the snow drifts.
Unfortunately, the Colts lost but we had a great time watching the game anyway (the first part anyway!) Now that the Superbowl is over maybe Ken will quit bugging me to get a new TV :) Actually we're about to make some pretty major home improvements. Ones we WANT to make this time, not like the furnace, dishwasher, hot water heater and water softener. Let me tell you, I LOVE spending money on things like that. Yeah. But next week, we're getting new "wood" laminate flooring in our playroom, kitchen, and dining room! I am SO excited. I should take some before pictures. I can't wait until it's done, I think it's going to make this house look so much better.

Keeping God in the little things

Today I went to a talk at our Mom's group about Keeping God in the little things. I think I had a big grin on my face the whole time because in the first 5 minutes of the talk, the speaker quoted one of my favorite bloggers, Mum2Twelve! (She's really Mum to 13 now.) How cool is that?? The speaker had some great practical ideas about keeping focus on God during the day, even through mundane tasks.

One suggestion I really want to emulate is to put little inspirational quotes, scripture verses, poems, prayers, etc around the house. For example, she read a little poem called "Thank God for Dirty Dishes." I'd love to print that out and put it right by my sink. I'd also like to put some things like this around in cabinets, by the changing table, etc, and keep my mind focused on God throughout the day. My mom had a needlepoint picture that she made the whole time I was growing up that said, "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep." I must have read that 1000 times growing up and it stuck with me! (Probably a little too literally, just ask my mom!) So I'm going to ask you guys, can you give me any of your favorite inspirational short quotes? I was thinking I'd put the Kimberley Hahn quote, "I'm changing culture, one diaper at a time" by the changing table. What else do you have for me?

Some other ideas were pray for each member of the family as you're folding their laundry, pray the rosary in the shower, have a special prayer place in your home with books, holy cards, rosaries, medals, etc, pray when you see an ambulance, fire truck, or police car, bless your children before they go to sleep or before they leave for the day.

Another thing I am going to do is put a little statue of Mary by my sink, and light a candle while I'm preparing dinner to remind myself of how the Blessed Mother prepared meals for Jesus and Joseph. I'm sure she did it with love even when baby Jesus was hanging on her leg just like John Paul has been doing to me!

I'm also going to start looking at Catholic Cuisine and incorporating some "holiness" in our meals. In fact I'm going to add that to my sidebar. I'm also going to add Gayle, the speaker today, to my sidebar. She is pretty great!

By the way, I'm totally open to other suggestions to keep my focus on God through the day! What do you have for me?

Pirates

Madeleine is obsessed with them. Why? I do not know. It all started when we got this book from the library.

We got it about 3 weeks before Christmas, and read it probably 5 times a day. She got really sad when it got closer to the time we had to return it, so Santa brought her this book and the first one, Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies. She LOVES these books. She makes me read them several times a day, and knows each one word for word. When I put clothes away upstairs, Madeleine sits in her chair and "reads" them to John Paul. It's really pretty impressive - it's kind of a long book and she doesn't miss one word. I'm kind of getting an idea about doing a "Henry" cake for her birthday. Surely I can do a bunny with glasses, right? :)

Ken got her another pirate book at the library yesterday called Dirty Joe the Pirate. Guess which book I had to read 5 or 6 times today?? What is it with pirates?

In other Madeleine news, she is completely potty trained! She hasn't had an accident for over a month. I was putting pull-ups on her for bedtime but she never got them wet. So I asked her about a week ago if she wanted to try to wear big girl underwear to bed. She has done perfect! It's SO great to have only one kid in diapers! Today I picked up a Winnie the Pooh wooden step stool on Freecycle, and she LOVES it. She calls it her "stander" and has washed her hands about 20 times today, and also washed several of her babies' hands.

So I watched 19 Kids and Counting today (after I taped it last night.) It was about the newest baby, Josie, being born at 25 weeks at 1 lb 6 oz. As Michelle was being wheeled back, not knowing if the baby would live or die or if she would live or die, Jim Bob said, "We praise God in the good times, and praise God in the bad times." Wow.

Snow. Not a fan.

We were planning on going down to NC tomorrow for little Lucy's baptism. Unfortunately they're going to get up to 10 inches of snow and ice, so we decided to postpone our trip. I'm super bummed. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting Lucy! But luckily we fly for free, so we'll play it by ear and head down in a few weeks.

We were going to rent a car and two carseats, but that was totally not working out. It was going to be close to $200 for just 5 days. So I decided to look on their craigslist and found two carseats for a great price. They picked them up and we'll be able to use them when we come down, and save a ton of money, AND not have to drag two carseats through the airport in addition to two kids, a double stroller and a suitcase. That right there makes it totally worth it.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home, seeing a good friend from college, and visiting our friends really soon.

Guest post

I forgot to add, my friend Jenny asked me to do a guest post. To get the whole story, first read

Part 1, by Jenny.

Then read

Part 2, by me.

And leave her a comment!

We have had some issues lately that made me wish we had stayed in the apartment! Home ownership can sure be expensive. And boy is it fun to spend hard earned money on stuff like a clogged pipe or ruined carpet. Luckily we're getting a nice check from our taxes so my dad and Ken are installing a new dishwasher as we speak. We also had some issues with that. We're also going to do some other home improvements, and I'm SO excited about this. This is the first time we've actually had a little breathing room to do anything to the house. And we've been here over 5 years. And the house was built in 1968 and pretty much everything is original. We got a new sink and in a few minutes we'll have a new dishwasher. Yay!

Colts are going to the Superbowl!!!!

YEAH!!!!

Miss Smartypants

9 months!

John Paul is 9 months old today. He's sure getting around! He's been standing up for about a month now, but he gets up really quickly these days, and in the past few days he's started cruising around the furniture. I wonder if he'll be walking by the 10 month update??

He is still such a cute smiley baby. He's developed a few, uh... less than cute habits though. For one thing he is extremely LOUD. He just likes to make himself heard. All. the. time. He "talks" and/or "screeches" constantly, especially when Ken is around. I can't hear myself think half the time!
As I wrote in the previous post, he's started saying some words. He's good at Mama, Dada, Tee Tat (kitty cat) and ball. He says ball all the time, and Mama too. He likes to be with his Mama. For example, when I'm trying to do the dishes or cook supper, he thinks he needs to be held. Or he's hanging onto my pants. If I try to contain him, he makes his loud noises or cries. I usually end up sitting him in his high chair and giving him some food so I can cook dinner!

Speaking of eating, Oh. My. Goodness I have NEVER seen a baby eat this much! He is totally off baby food now - the only thing he'll let me spoon feed him is yogurt. Otherwise he likes to do it all himself, so I've been cutting up little pieces of fruit, veggies, chicken, cheese, etc and he gobbles it all up and makes a huge mess. He can pack it away. I think our grocery bill has gone up at least $20/ week because of him!
He's getting some curls!! Sometimes he has lots of curls on the back of his head. I think it'll look so cute when he gets some more hair.
So, he started sleeping through the night now for a few nights! Like from 7:30-6. I hope I'm not jinxing it! It's been wonderful, even though he's ready to go at 6am. I hadn't had a full night's sleep in 9 months.
I love the Bud!

Whoa!

So today, John Paul woke up at 6am. I brought him into bed with us to nurse him. When he was done, he sat straight up and said, "mama. Dada. Tee tat. Ball." All in a row, all the words I've been telling him to say! I think we have another smart one!

On eating

I know everyone makes New Years Resolutions to lose weight, get in shape, etc. We're joining them this year and hoping it sticks! We've always eaten pretty healthy, but the biggest change for me is that I'm making myself eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and supper. I used to wake up, drink a few iced coffees and then not eat until like 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We're also kind of following the Superfoods diet, which isn't really a diet. Basically it's eating 5 times a day but eating the most nutrient dense foods. The 14 original superfoods are beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts, and yogurt. They each have their "sidekicks" too. The additional superfoods are apples, avocado, EVOO, etc. There are a ton more. But we just try to incorporate all these into our diet. I've been packing Ken's lunch and two snacks, and also having Madeleine eating regular snacks too. I've been trying all kinds of new recipes and they've been great! I've been having oatmeal every morning with walnuts and blueberries. Oh and great news at our house, I've given Madeleine almonds, walnuts, and cashews now and she is fine with all of them! So I made some almond butter and we've been having some great sandwiches. Today I made us turkey and cheese sandwiches on rye and stuck them in the waffle maker. It was delicious and Madeleine was all over that! We had salmon, brown rice pilaf and kale chips for supper tonight.

John Paul was ALL over the kale chips! (Excuse the pink bib :)

So I've lost 5 pounds in a week and a half, which is fabulous. Really, my goal is to lose about 2 pounds a week for 10 weeks or so.

My favorite part of this eating style is seeing my kids eat super healthy foods all the time. I love seeing Madeleine eating oatmeal with flaxseed and all the other great stuff I put in it. She is SUCH a great eater - she will eat anything I give her. She loves broccoli, greens, salmon, everything! It's awesome. John Paul is turning into a great eater too. I really want to be a great example to them on how to eat healthy, so I hope we stick with this forever.

This is the day the Lord has made!!

Let us rejoice and be glad!!


Welcome to the world, Baby Lucy!!!

The last of the Christmas posts! (Finally!)

First of all, Happy Birthday Mom!!

John Paul had a great first Christmas. And Madeleine had a terrific Christmas! Here's our tree after Santa came :) She also had a dollhouse that we set up in the room so she could see it when she came down.

Stockings and Nativity Scene.

Daddy and a tired little boy on Christmas morning.

Opening her stocking, made by Grandma.

She LOVED her dollhouse. I think I'm going to get her a few extra rooms of furniture for her birthday, right now she only has a few. She loves to play with it, especially now that we have a dedicated playroom... more on that later.

Christmas at Grandma and Papa's house. Madeleine's favorite present - have you ever seen a drummer suck her thumb??

Grandma and Papa with all the grandkids, John Paul, Madeleine, Jude and Eli. Last Christmas they only had 2 grandchildren, this year they have 4! They're multiplying!

John Paul and his favorite present. This is the only toy he'll play with for an extended period of time. If it's not something he's not supposed to have, for example a tube of toothpaste or diaper cream, tylenol bottle, pen, important piece of paper, etc, he's not interested. But he really likes this, and it's quiet so we bring it to church.

It's hard to get a picture of all 4 of them at the same time - 4 under 3 years old!

Eli really liked Ken. He kept asking for him and looking for him if he stepped out of the room.

We had a great Christmas, but I have to say I was pretty happy to get the tree down this year, since I spent every single day trying to keep the crazy little boy away from it. We also got rid of our couches in the family room, moved the other ones in here, and now we have a dedicated toy room. These couches are much smaller and make the room look bigger, and it is so nice to have a room just for the kids to play in. Also my sewing machine is in there so a few times I've actually got to work on a project while they're playing. It's really nice.

I got commissioned to make 4 snowman hats for a blog friend, and I've been working non stop on those. I am on the 4th one and I hope to be done by early next week. Ken and I had a great Christmas break together, we enjoyed our evenings watching movies and having a few beverages :) It was a wonderful week! Now I'm ready for spring.....

Christmas Eve

I should clarify, that when I say I had 3 martinis, they were not "real" martinis. More like fruit juice and a splash of alcohol :) In fact the waitress was totally making fun of me and even brought me a little umbrella for my drink!

So Christmas Eve was our busiest day. In the morning we went to my Mom and Dad's house for Dad's side of the family Christmas. Here's Dad and John Paul.

And here's my stubborn little girl who wouldn't let me take her picture! I love her curls anyway :)
We ate brunch at Mom's house and then took the kids home for a nap, then when they woke up we went to Ken's parents' house for supper. Here's the Bud with Ken's mom, Nanny. Of course the kids were spoiled rotten by Nanny and Pa and their Aunt and Uncle.
Before we left, we changed the kids into their jammies. John Paul fell asleep as soon as we left and slept the entire way home. We drove by our church around 8:15, and decided at the last minute to try to go to 8:30 mass, even though it was WAY past everyone's bedtime. We changed Madeleine back into her dress and she got to pretend to "drive" in the parking spot after we changed her in the car. I think that might have been the highlight of her evening!
John Paul woke up and we just let him go to mass in his jammies. I am not kidding, it was the BEST they've both ever behaved in church. Ever. I think this might have to be a new tradition. It was just beautiful and I actually got to pay attention to the homily!
We performed the song we wrote at the first Christmas Eve party. My cousin took a video on my phone but I can't figure out how to upload it! More on that later :)

The first of the Christmas 2009 posts

Ok this was my birthday, but since it's on December 23, it's close enough to Christmas to be included! Ken took me out to a very nice dinner and Mom babysat. John Paul was already in bed and I loved this picture right before we left. This is her favorite Dora nightgown :)

This is number 3 martini - right Ken? I don't remember :) I do remember the people at the next table though. It was a family with a boy and a girl, probably 13 and 11. Twice during the meal the mom and dad cut. their. kids'. meat. If my kid can't cut her meat by the time she's 13, she's just not getting any!
Thanks for babysitting Mom! When we got home this is how we found her and Bonzo :) Oh and that's my new Droid on the arm of the couch!

So after we got home, we polished up the song we wrote for our family Christmas Eve the next day. It was a good thing we had a few drinks first. Details coming up!