Back from a loooong drought

We have been a busy bunch in the past few months. Having time to type at all has not been on the front burner... we've had two wonderful C.R.H.P. retreats, two confirmation retreats with over 100 youth, a mother-daughter fashion show, and a father-daughter dignity ball to put on for our parish as well! Plus there was Ash Wednesday, Lent, Easter packed in there too! It has been a busy few months!

But now we are in the full swing of Spring and Easter timies! Finally seeing green grass, hearing birps chirping, feeling the warm sun, it finally feels like spring in Minnesota! We can play soccer, basketball, attempt to grow gardens too!

Between these months, we have had constantly growing toddlers, and a baby who wishes he was big enough to play with his big brother and big sister. I'm trying to enjoy every second with these little faces as I watch them grow before my eyes! I can't believe my two and a half year old is speaking sentences, singing songs, and being a good little leader for her brothers to follow. Meanwhile, there's a wonderful little one and a half year old who is running around, dancing in little circles, and singing his heart out! I can't believe how incredibly blessed we are to have three healthy, beautiful children. Well now that it's setttled down on our home front, I can pick back up on the tales of the busy Catholic home!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated our son's baptism. We had lots of family and a few friends come to our parish, where we presented our son to our Church. We were so excited when we arrived and our daughter, Bumblebee, decided that she wanted to lead our family in prayer. LOVE it!

Not only did she start with the sign of the cross, she asked Mommy to pray for different family members and friends. It was too cute!

The readings for the mass this day was also perfect for our son's baptism, Matthew 3:13-17... all about the Lord's baptism.

Our monkey and Mommy

The godparents, SuperHubby and myself with Monkey and the awesome Fr. David blessing over us.

Crazy-ness

Crazy-ness has ensued in my life the past few weeks, between preparing for the CRHP retreat in Feb., the National March for Life for the archdiocese this past week, two confirmation retreats in March, then a so I apologize for the lack of blog entries.... so I'll try to catch up in life....


BumbleBee:
*The picture to the right is of my little curious daughter; recently, she was able to grab a couple of chocolate chips while Mommy was changing Monkey's diaper... the evidence was all her over face. I couldn't help but laugh...

* She LOVES to color and work on some great crafts... but more on that later...












T-man/Tiger:
* He wears his sunglasses every where... mad scientist or super hero hiding his identity? Not sure...
* Recently this little man has sprouted up 3 new teeth and has become very vocal about his life, which is wonderful!
* Tiger LOVES to run around the house and burning energy with dancing from Veggie Tale songs.

My Monkey

* At 3 months old already, his wonderful personality lights up the room!

* He LOVES to smile, giggle, and now blow bubbles with his cute little mouth

* This little man also really enjoys trying to hold himself up in a standing position while Mommy or Daddy holds his sides... can you believe he's already trying to be a little man??

* His tummy time is going great, he loves to roll onto his back when on his tummy, with little smiles after this big accomplishment!

Christmas 2010

Unforunately, this post is one without pictures of Christmas. As I was uploading my pictures, I found out that someone had accidentally erased ALL my Christmas pictures, and left me with a few pictures of feet, the ground or the ceiling...which leads me to believe it was my beautiful BumbleBee who wanted to be just like her mommy and capture the moments with mommy's camera. :) Gotta love it! Actually it's quite sad since I had taken some ADORABLE pics over Christmas...

But back to Christmas! I will say that there was a chance we were going to be snowed in due to the "Snow-nami" that came by Thursday afternoon through Friday morning... however SuperHubby being so committed to the holiday spirit made sure we were able to get out of the driveway and street. After five hours of driving, we made it to Fargo for the family Christmas Eve, full of yummy foods Grandma Ellie made everyone, and lots of present opening that followed. The mounds of presents were overwhelming, and even though the family agreed on drawing names for one gift per person, it seems everyone's generosity was overflowing! BumbleBee, Tiger, and Monkey received so many beautiful presents! Between LOTS of art supplies, fun Little People sets-Noah and the Christmas Navity, and even rosaries, our children were truly blessed with lots of wonderful things!

We love our family so much and are so glad to have them.

One fine Saturday, the snow was a'falling... in fact with the drifts, our front door was piled with snow! Enough for us to consider it a blizzard! So what's a family to do but decorate the Christmas tree!

In fact, we had so much fun, with all the kids tacking on the ornaments, having fun dancing to Christmas tunes, getting excited about the navity! Advent has gone by so quickly, and with only 4 days left until Christmas, we can hardly believe it's almost Jesus' birthday!

So as we prepare for the birth, we find ourselves closely watching our Advent calendar, exciting our souls for placing the baby Jesus in the nativity scene, and wrapping our gifts for our loved ones. YAY! Christmas!

So what are your Christmas traditions? I'm all ears!

Preparing for Christmas

As the season continues with strong force (and faith :), our little family is gearing up for our first Christmas "brag" letter. Granted, I don't think it's too braggy, but it is super cute! We incorporated each of our children and their bubbly personalities with a GREAT photo "film strip" instead of the regular family photo card. Think of going to a mall, and being in one of those photo booths and you get the strip of pics after? Yup that's what we were going for :) PLUS it's small enough to fit in a wallet/purse yet the pics are big enough so that you can actually see the kids faces ;)
So how did I do it? Let's just say... a lot of patience, stuffed animals to occupy hands, and a blue sheet that I used as a backdrop :)

Hope our family and friends enjoy them :) Let me know if you'd like an update letter/photo :)

Below are some fun "practice shots"

He LOVES animals!!
She is just a little model!

Sharing their animals

On the time out chair... but as a prop :)

BAM! PERFECT SHOT of the timples,

granted I do note that there's a little too much lighting on it.... next time :)

Cooking Cuties

My two year-old LOVES to bake! Although I enjoy my kitchen, I've never been gifted in cooking, I have grown to love the time I get with my daughter to bake different recipes. Since it is the holiday season, I finally busted out one of my favorite cookie recipes: the peanut butter Kiss cookie! And Bumblebee LOVED every minute of it!

First thing to do while waiting on the preheated oven: unwrap the Kisses!

BumbleBee LOVED doing this little task!

T-man was our watch-boy!

He kept track of his big sister and made sure she was on task!

As BumbleBee worked hard, she LOVED making the peanut butter dough balls

Awaiting her creation with her "friends", note each one has a bib on too!

After all the fun, it was time to take care of her baby

while Mommy took care of her own baby boy!