7 Quick Takes

Coming up out of the depths with what's been going down here...

1.  Our week started off with a Daytona 500 win from our (Ryan's) beloved Dale Earnhardt, Jr!  That's pretty much been the high of the week.  Especially since the last time Dale won that race was in 2004 after we had been married about 6 weeks.  I realized then what I had gotten myself into.  Ha ha.    

2.  It has actually been a pretty low-key week here, which I actually like.  It's nice to be home with Ellen and Michael and not rushing about.  I've actually made a few freezer meals this week (for days/weeks that are a bit more hectic), caught up on laundry, role-played Barbie in a Pony Tale more times than I care to admit, and have a full day of cleaning ahead of me today!  

3.  Michael has learned to pull himself to a standing position and now stands everywhere and anywhere.  He has also discovered the stairs which pretty much means my life is over.  I'm not looking forward to resurrecting the baby gate at the bottom of the steps, but I'm also not looking forward to rescuing him off the steps 23498758 times a day...

4.  I've made 2 batches of these muffins over the past few weeks.  Mostly because Post raisin bran was on sale for $1.77 a box...and Clare informed me after I bought 2 boxes that she only likes the grocery store's (generic) raisin bran granola.  So I've been enjoying many muffins for breakfast!  And there's still an unopened box in the pantry...   

5.  Another link to this gem that the adults in the house have watched several times...  Ryan's video editing skills are impressed by this wonder. 

6.  This girl.  

She's been into straightening her naturally curly blonde locks, and looks so different with her hair straight!  Too funny.   

(And while shopping at Target this week, we passed by this wall decor and she wanted to buy it for Ryan...because the glasses on it reminded her of her BFF.)

7.  Wrapping up with words a friend shared with us this week that I have heard a million times before but needed to hear again...

Never underestimate the power of prayer!

Go see Jen for more!

Balmy

We are being spoiled this week with a spell of warm weather.  Daily highs have reached almost 60 degrees and the snow is a-melting!  Michael, Ellen, and I have coasted around the block after lunch and my baby boy loves crawling around the deck in the sunshine.  Spring/summer (baseball!) jammies have even replaced footie pj's this week.  

Jude told me that Punxsutawney Phil was wrong and spring is here.  He also requested his summer shorts and tees be placed in his dresser while he was at school today.  (He hasn't checked the forecast for next week.)  Yesterday after school he changed into shorts and a T-Shirt, but left his dark socks on with his summer attire.  I'm hoping he looses those when summer officially arrives...  

2014

Happy New Year! 

The 6 of us celebrated with friends (and cousins!) and still made it home by 10PM.  :) 

We were out of town for Christmas (enjoying new baby cousins!), so things are slowly getting back to normal around here.  Gifts have found new homes, laundry is mostly caught up, and the fridge and pantry are restocked (as best I can when Jude is home from school).  I have my new calendars and have been penciling in all the important dates we have this year...from Michael's 1st Birthday in March (-sniff-) to Clare's First Communion in May.  Looking forward to what lies ahead!  Many wishes for a Happy 2014!    

10 on 10

Linking up tonight with Rebekah for 10 pictures from our 10th day of December...

6ish

Tree lights are always the first lights on.

7ish

I will never grow tired of these pudgy hands!

9ish

Story hour craft by Ellen.

11AM 

New library books (and books on tape and DVDs) for all to enjoy.

Noon

Lunchtime!

2 or so...

A lovely gift from friends in the afternoon sunshine.

3PM

Sunshine in office - real life still life.  

5PM 

Love the quote for February on this gift-to-be calendar that arrived today.

  

6 PM 

Bubbles for the baby while Mommy washes dinner dishes.  

7 PM 

Sister snuggle under the Christmas quilt.

Hope you had a wonderful day!

Thanksgiving Long Weekend In Review

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  

Both Clare and Jude donned Native American apparel for their respective Thanksgiving play and Thanksgiving feast to start off the long weekend.  

We put our Christmas tree up on Friday, but not before cutting out all 1000 lights on our pre-lit tree. That was an all-day event in itself.  As we were nearing the end of that ordeal I began to wonder if the time we had "saved" by the ease of the pre-lits in years past was catching up to us in the time we spent cutting out the lights...   

We have our hay and manger out for Advent.  (Ellen is especially excited about this and has already put ALL of the hay in the manger several times.)

And she was very pleased with her seasonal Sunday best yesterday and asked Ryan, "Just how gorgeous do I look!?"  (She also wanted to show her puffy slip to the man and son behind us at Mass.  Thankfully she asked me first and was told no.)  

Happy December!

Happy Advent!

5 Favoritas

Linking up with Hallie today for some favorites...

1. New-ish jeans.  

I got my sewing machine out last week and made easy alterations on 2 pairs of jeans, hemming one piar and taking in another.  This tutorial by Refashion Mama on hemming jeans, and keeping the original "jean" hem was great - I'm going to keep it in mind the next time I'm shopping for my short self.  

And this tutorial by Freshly Picked on altering jeans by taking them in on the sides was very helpful. Glad I took the plunge on both of these are have been loving having 2 "new" pairs of jeans to wear!  

The only picture I have of my work was of me in the mirror, standing on the toilet in my altered jeans for my fashion grad sister...not worthy to post.  But she did approve!  

2.  Cartwheel by Target.  

Have you heard about this???  It's a free app that lets you choose deals/coupons (5-50% off!) to use at Target.  Just select which deals to add to your cart and then present your phone when you check out to be scanned.  So easy!  Love me some good dealz!

image

3.  Clementines.  

They're herrrrrrrrrre!  

And I love that Clare loves them so much.    

4.  The color fossil grey by Glidden.  

Color matched in Sherwin Williams cashmere paint.  And purchased during their 40% sale.  

Win - win - win.  And currently being rolled out by my husband.  :) 

5.  Crock pot soups!  

The Cheese Tortellini Soup I shared yesterday is a current favorite here.  But I also love making Potato Soup (and I know you do, too, Kathleen!) and Chicken & Wild Rice Soup is another one of my very favorites!  Delicious, hot, easy dinner - check! 

  

Happy Hour

A day in the life of...after school edition.

3:15 - Pull into garage.

3:16 - Unbuckle, unbuckle Ellen, carry Michael in the house.

3:17 - Realize Ellen has boarded a bike and is riding to the neighbors.

3:18 - Door to the house remains open to every fly in our city as Clare and Jude walk in.

3:19 - Clare tosses her backpack/lunchbox on the island and heads upstairs to get changed out of her uniform.

3:21 - Jude comes in the house in his socks, which are wet from his lemonade that spilled in the car.  (Thank goodness for good car mats.)  His shoelaces were undone when he walked out of school, so he just took his shoes off in the car.  And left them there.  Along with his backpack, lunchbox, and drink thermos.

Jude asks for pumpkin bread for a snack.

I tell Jude to take his socks off and put them in the washer.

3:22 - 3:24 - Jude entertains Michael with his 2 wet socks for several minutes.

3:24 - Jude asks for pumpkin bread for a snack.  

I unload lunch boxes and disassemble drink thermoses and water bottles.

Remind Jude to put socks in washer.

Ellen strolls in with the flag from the yard being sprayed earlier in the day.

Wash Ellen's hands, throw flag away.

Load drink thermoses in dishwasher, remove straws to be hand-washed.

3:32 - Clare comes downstairs dressed and starts homework.

3:34 - Jude has retrieved backpack from car and shows me his new book from the library "The New Baby" by Mercer Meyer.

3:35 - Mix cereal up for Michael who is getting fussy.  I know he is hungry, but if I feed him cereal now in the high chair I can monitor homework in the kitchen.

3:38 - Jude asks for pumpkin bread for a snack.

Empty Jude's backpack.  He has already started on his "Family Homework" that is due Friday and requires one action a night.  He is drawing a rug as something at home that is the shape of a square.  He asks how to spell rug and writes "R-U-D."  I say it's a "g" not a "d."  He erases and corrects the paper to read "rug."

3:42 - Clare helps feed Michael.  Now she needs me to quiz her on the spelling portion of her phonics.

3:43 - Listen to Clare read and spell her phonics.

3:49 - Ellen is in the junk drawer.  She sees a Santa PEZ dispenser and wants the princess one.  I tell her it's in her room.  She settles on playing with princesses from a game in the coat closet.

3:52 - Continue feeding Michael.  Clare needs timer set for her nightly math facts drill.  Find phone, set stopwatch.    

3:53 - Find word list in Jude's folder that he needs to read for homework.  He reads 10 words!  I'm amazed!  I'm proud!  I glance over at Michael in the high chair and realize someone left his bowl of cereal on his tray and he has dumped! it! all! over!  Stop stopwatch for Clare.

3:57 - Get Michael out of high chair and wash him off.  Remove his pants that didn't survive the cereal dump.

3:59 - Review Clare's math fact sheet - 100% in 1 minute, 32 seconds.  Initial her paper.  Initial her phonics.  Initial her assignment book.  Initial Jude's calendar.  Make sure all papers have made it into correct folders.

4:03 - Nurse Michael.  Quiz Clare on her vocabulary for her Friday test.  Ellen is getting the full pitcher of lemonade out of the fridge.  Ask someone! to help her!

4:08 - Michael is done.  Pour Ellen lemonade in her specifically requested La La Loopsy cup.

Realize Ryan will be home in about an hour and thank the crock pot gods that dinner is 99% done and wonder if it's too early to pour a glass of wine...  

Phone Photo Dump

I'm cleaning and caulking and dusting and reorganizing our entire first floor....but here's what else is going down...

School is in full swing and my kindergartener leaves his beloved magnetic belt carefully laid out on his dresser every afternoon.  Instilling good habits here.  One magnetic belt at a time!

Someone took the scenic route in phonics...

This is one of our favorite Mad Libs to date.  Enjoy a laugh on us!

(Some spelling errors here with speed typing...)

Enjoying the swing outside - such a big boy!  And big sister helper! 

Two top teeth are f-i-n-a-l-l-y in!  Although those suckers have messed up our former quiet nights big time!  Boo!

6 Months Old

Michael officially reached the 6 month mark...I can't believe he's half-way to being 1 year-old!  

celebrating Ellen's birthday

Moves: Rolls, scoots, arches back, kicks, wiggles.

Latest Accomplishment: 3 new teeth!  He cut his bottom 2 and is p-a-i-n-f-u-l-l-y working on his top 2 teeth.  And has already figured out how to grind those itty bitty teeth together.  

Sleeps: Still likes to nap 3 times a day.  

Diet: Wasn't too sure about cereal the few times he has tried it.  

Hangs out: In the exersaucer or any place he has a good view of the action.  (He liked watching football this weekend!)

Favorite Toys: Starting to broaden his horizon and reach for "big kid" toys.  Likes to "play" Transformers with Jude.  Also was found with R2D2 this weekend.

Talks: Babbles a lot!  Says "Da-da."

Disposition: Still very pleasant although his teeth can quickly turn his mood.

Week in Review - Quick Takes Style

Linking up with Jen!

1. 

Our drama last week was that Jude chipped a tooth.  He and Ryan were rough-housing a bit and when Ryan walked away, Jude lunged at his calf and somehow chipped his bottom tooth.  (We are very-odd-accident-prone people.)  It chipped to the nerve and Jude kept telling me it felt "weird."  I took him to the dentist last Monday and then Tuesday night woke up and told me his tooth had chipped again.  (Most likely the result of teeth-grinding...)  So we went back for round 2 after the first day of school on Wednesday and things have remained in place since then.  And Jude is very proud of his "new tooth."  

2. 

Speaking of teeth...Michael cut his first 2 teeth!  I had a feeling something was going on when he was up once at night as opposed to his usual full night of sleep, and when I peeked in his mouth he had one tooth cut and the other one wasn't far behind.  Such a big boy!

3.  

This book = funny book.  

And sadly probably the only book with more words than pictures that I've read this year...  

4.

Clare has been writing newspapers for Ryan to update him on the events of the day.  One particular day (before school started) Ellen was a bit whiney.  She made the paper that day with this headline:

It was fair and balanced reporting! 

5.  

I took said "Miss Fussy" to her own Story Hour at the library this week.  She loved it and it was nice to enjoy a one-on-one activity with her.  

6.  

We are under a bit of construction on the home front.  We are working on closing up the wall between two rooms on our first floor and the funny thing is that it has actually made those rooms seem bigger. Now I'm working on paint colors...the only fun part of painting!

7. 

We survived our first f-u-l-l week of school and I feel like I earned Friday's hot lunch "Pizza Day" right along with the kids...it certainly is nice to get a break from packing lunches even though they still need water bottles and snacks today!  Happy weekend!

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter

for {Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} today.  Because I'm still playing catch up after our beach trip, or maybe just playing catch up with the 4 kiddos around here...

{Pretty}

Blue-eyed boy.

{Happy} 

Michael is officially in his crib AND slept in it until 5:45 yesterday morning!  

(Then came to bed with me until 7 in the am...I have zero complaints!)

{Funny}

Ellen's look of fear of the water even though she's safe in Ryan's arms and far from said water.  

{Real} 

School shopping.  Already.  Kindergarteners need 20 glue sticks.  At this rate I should buy stock in Elmers!

Head over to Our Mothers Daughters for more!

Destin 2013

We enjoyed a week of rest and relaxation (as much as possible when traveling and vacationing with 4 children!) last week in Destin, Florida.  The kids love the "squeaky" white sandy beach, and I'm a pretty big fan, too.  It was great to spend time with family, especially aunts, uncles, siblings, and cousins that don't live nearby.

Hang ten!

Looking for seashells.

Bathing beauty.

Grandpa treated us to a Pirate cruise on Tuesday and Clare and Jude had a blast!  

Jude wanted to keep his mustache for the whole week.  

He is the sweetest and most laid-back baby I've ever had!

Just the 6 of us!

Michael was a trooper in the car.  I'd have 100 babies if they all traveled as well as he did!  And now I'm somehow back to the reality that is Laundry even though our house had a washer/dryer...  

All worth it, though!