Playdate with Mya

Thanks for the playdate "Baby Mya"!

Backyard Fun

Fun from last weekend's nice weather (I had already posted Leah's)...

A Moment of Silence for...

Today after school, I was nursing Anne and the kids were all in the kitchen...sitting silently, happily, for quite some time, maybe twenty minutes. The reason? ... watermelon! Yum, yum.

Happiness is...

My Sweet Little Boy

I have been thinking about Jacob a lot lately. Not that I don't think about him usually and not that I don't think about all of them a lot. But, I feel like there have been some extra things on my mind with my sweet Jacob. Now approaching 4 1/2, he still has such a sweet smile and tender heart. I met with his teacher last week and was so touched by all she had to say about my young man. She actually was brought to tears telling me how much she just loves Jacob. It was so nice to hear especially from the perspective of someone who knows our family because of him, from someone who knows Jacob first - not his parents as much or brothers or sisters, but Jacob for who he is.

She went on and on about his patience, his good heart, how much he is loved by his peers, how well he plays with all the kids, how well he shares, and much more. That was aside from the fact that he's doing so well on his cutting, tracing, letters & sounds, and counting.

And then there's the other things I see - how much he genuinely loves his baby sister Anne, aka, his "little sweet pea." He always calls her that and he is always watching out for her and loving her. He loves everyone in the family, but you can tell he has an extra special spot for Anne. He also loves playing with his Play Mobil toys. He has such an active imagination and can occupy himself all day just thinking and playing. He'd stay home and play 24/7 if he could. He also has a cute sense of humor. He'll play tricks on you and pretend to hide a lot and then just shows up smiling and giggling.

I have often thought he has a tough position in our family with 2 older brothers who always get to do pretty much everything together - like he may feel like the odd man out or 3rd wheel, and then 2 little sisters. But, he handles it well and is fun to watch - rough and tumbling with the boys, or sweet and loving with the girls.

Jacob, your smile can melt my heart and you've won over lots of other hearts as well. I love you and thanks for being you.

Hello Miss Mya

What an exciting and fun-filled day! The big boys were out of school today and tomorrow so we are making the most of it. Today we went to Jumpin' Jax - a fun place with lots of huge moonwalk type things and joined a large group from school to play for a while. Then, more excitingly, we went to visit Aunt Beth and Uncle Robert at the hospital to meet baby Mya who was born early this morning (a mere 10 days after the due date). Then after a quick pitstop at home, it was off to soccer practice for 1.5 hrs. Quick trip back home for dinner and more outdoor fun. What a day - we're all tired!

The happy family looked great and we were so blessed to meet such a beautiful addition to the family. Congrats to Beth & Robert.

(Interestingly, I saw that baby Clare got a tooth today...so did Anne - her fourth - her second in a week!)

Hello in there...

Hello, baby Lee, this is your aunt. We're wondering when we will get to meet you. We are all anxiously awaiting your arrival, but know that no one is more excited than your mom & dad. You are already so loved. Have a safe trip & don't be too hard on your mom. Maybe today can be it!

Waffles, Part II

Yesterday morning, Leah ate a waffle. When finished, she was sure to let me know her pride in eating a good breakfast, "Mom, I ate all my syrup!"

Easter 2010 Pictures

Princess Leah

Oh she is such fun. We had a morning last week of multiple clothes changes. Finally, she came up with an outfit for the 80+ degree day...well worth the wait!

FWEW!

Wow, so in the past hour, I have had many thoughts primarily focusing on Patrick's childhood memory regarding the condition of so many items in their six child family. He often reminds me in our household of this thought. He remembers his mom often saying, "Can't I have anything NICE?" Usually, this was in response to something being destroyed. And the answer, apparently, is/was no. I love my family, but let me explain why this thought was in my mind. Let me also say that I haven't uploaded pictures in quite some time due to being busy, on vacation, and having the office dismantled from our recent flooring project.

I took my card from my camera to upload pictures to the computer. My laptop doesn't have the right type of slot, so I typically use either of my picture printers (I used to have a card reader - it got broken...another example). I decided to use the newer printer that I bought in September of last year; a nice one that I hope to have for a while. I tried inserting the card - wouldn't fit or even come close to fitting. Then I peeked into the slot and had memories of Leyton & Nathaniel at the age of about 18 months and the reason why Patrick hasn't had a functioning CD player in his car since then. Curious boys, happy to see Dad come home from work, climb into driver's seat and...insert business card into interesting CD slot. It still doesn't work as it's not made it high enough on the priority list. Why did I think of this? Well, I saw a small plastic object inside the printer card slot. Hmm. Not supposed to be there. I dumped it out and tried the card again...still no luck. OK, so I'm now disappointed that the card slot is broken.

Next step, I tried the card back in my camera and figured I would connect my camera to my computer and get the pictures that way. When I put my card in the slot, I got a reading that typically means, guess what, the card is shot. At this, I was literally about to cry thinking of all the pictures I had taken and not uploaded. I started to beat myself up about why I didn't upload sooner...you never know what can happen and I never know who, what, where, and when I'll get some great pictures of my precious people! I thought about trips to Washington on there, vacation, funny pictures at home, and then of course today's wonderful Easter memories and seeing the kids dressed so nice. All the pictures believed to be unrecoverable.

I paced around thinking, of course, I was going to try & actually get to bed earlier tonight but now couldn't focus on sleep. I tried one last time on my other picture printer and connected that. Here comes the FWEW! It could still read them! Without a moment to spare, I uploaded them to make sure I didn't lose them after this. I'm so relieved I was able to get the pictures and now...I'm too tired to work on it anymore tonight.

I would say, though, that even though I was very sad in thinking of losing these pictures of my family that I can't get back, I do realize that it wouldn't have been the end of the world. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful family and my great kids - unrecoverable pictures is one thing, but irreplaceable kids are just a whole other ballpark and I love them dearly. Even with this and some other recent property damage (will have to make a list for my own entertainment) - I think of their smiling faces and know that the things are all just things, it's the people that matter most and I couldn't do without them.

Good night.

Happy Easter 2010!

What a beautiful day! We started out with cinnamon rolls for breakfast, then Mass at 9am. We came home to find that the Easter Bunny had visited. The kids had so much fun. They enjoyed their new treats and then Grandma Donna, Grandpa Jerry, Aunt Beth & Uncle Robert joined us for lunch. We had a nice afternoon of visiting and playing outside.

It was extra special for Leyton & Nathaniel at Mass when we renewed the Baptismal promises as today is the anniversary of their baptism, 4-4-04.

The boys looked handsome in their suits and the girls were pretty in pink. I need to get a few pictures posted (and then a few from the past week to make Beth happy!).

I was very worn out yesterday in getting things somewhat taken care of, but it was worth it to have such a wonderful day with family.

Vacation addendum: Jacob's quote about the drive...

I came across my reminder about Jacob's quote on the way to Wisconsin:

"Mom, since it was such a long drive, my bleed turned into a scab!"

Priceless.

Jacob's Waffles

This morning, Jacob asked me to make him some waffles. I should have known that it was somewhat of an odd request. However, I of course made the waffles. As I was making them, it sunk in as to why he wanted them. Same philosophy with his cake eating (aka surgical removal of frosting as to avoid any bites of cake). I gave him a waffle and he got the syrup and proceeded to fill each square with syrup. I asked if he needed a fork and he said no. He proceeded to dip a finger in each square to get a taste of syrup. Once he got a number of licks, he was finished without taking a single bite of a waffle. At least the big boys came through and ate two or three.

Twirly Girl

Leah has really been enjoying twirling her hair lately. Just in the midst of conversation, she takes a tuft and twirls her curls. It is the cutest thing.

She & I went on a little shopping trip today...she gets so excited about new clothes and very excited about shoes. Today she got Easter shoes, a pair of pink canvas tennis shoes like shoes - she calls them her "running shoes" (so cute). And, then tonight she got a sparkly pair of sandals. She was very excited. She's a doll.

Tonight when we were on our way into the store, our conversation was:
"Leah, are you my sweet girl?"
Leah: "No, Mom, I a boy."
Me: "Why would you say that? You're my sweet girl."
Leah: "No, I a boy."
Me: "Why?"
Leah: "Because I'm taller than Jacob."

I am pretty sure she can be rough & tough, but I'm also sure she's quite a girly girl, too! I love her.