It's been a rough afternoon....

Here are the girls praying in the hospital after suffering snake bites on their faces.



And the culprit...



Vicious looking isn't he? Thankfully, they both made speedy recoveries and are back on their feet.

A little prayer

Some of Allia's best friends are boys, so she has been learning how to play "bad guy." This has sparked a lot of curiosity and discussion around here. We talk about how bad guys can change their ways and hearts (like the repentant thief in Sunday's gospel...good timing!). So yesterday as we were talking about that, she asked to lead a prayer for the bad guys:

"Dear Lord, please help the bad guys to change their ways and be good so they can go to Heaven someday. Amen."

Thanksgiving

A little late due to all of our projects, but here are the girls all dressed up for Thanksgiving mass.



And here is our meal eaten in the living room courtesy of our flooring project...Mom brought a smoked turkey and Dad made his yummy mashed potatoes, so I only had to do a few sides and pies! :-) It was very yummy!

Some results

Well, I wish I could take credit for the biggest and best project here...the new kitchen floor! The only thing I can really take credit for is the whining commenting on how terrible the used-to-be-white-ten-years-ago linoleum floor looked! I have a very loving, generous, talented father and husband who both did this for me! What a gift! They are so sweet to share my nesting. :-)

BEFORE:




This is just after mopping...see how dingy it looked?!

AFTER:








Here is my homeschooling bookshelf complete with a basket on top for Library books, inspired by Lillian, so that we do not mix them up with our own book collection and hopefully avoid big fines! Quite a few of our books are actually missing out on loan since we are not using them yet, but we still really needed a single space for everything. This seems to work perfectly!



Other projects not pictured are:
One closet reorganized
Our family scrapbook caught up
Stamped and addressed envelopes ready for Christmas letters and birth announcements

Hopefully lots more will be getting done around here...only 5 weeks left (I HOPE!)

Nesting

It is such a divine invention. I mean, when better to suddenly have the motivation to clean out closets and complete household projects with record energy in record time than when you are about to welcome a sweet but very needy little person into your home who will likely put everything on hold for a while?! So I will post some great photos of the projects going on around here soon...but unless something amazingly cute happens, Happy Thanksgiving and I will update the blog in a week or so! :-)

A 2 year old's question

The other evening as I was preparing dinner, Mariana ran in from the backyard excitedly to ask, "Momma, can I play in the ant pile?" In good conscience, I had to say no. However, I quickly clarified, you may play in the neighbor's leaf pile if that is what you mean. She grinned from ear to ear, said "OK" and ran back outside. Ahhh...the back neighbors, to whose yard we have a "secret" gate, have trees that actually shed leaves in the fall. Thankfully they share that joy. We just have immature live oaks that shed tiny leaves in spring...where is the fun in that?!

Happy Baptism Day

to Mariana!

We started out the morning with a yummy doughnut and bacon breakfast then had play group at our house all morning. After naptime we will have a "real" tea party complete with snack and then will go to mass this evening when Daddy gets home. What a happy day for our sweet girl!


(A photo from the birthday tea party)

Surprises

Surprise! Look who I found in the bookshelf that is to become our homeschooling shelf...moved from the garage in front of the fireplace we never use. (Who needs it when you have 80 degree weather in November?!)



Also, we received a wonderful surprise visit from our Godson and Allia's godparents Sunday evening. What a treat...and what a cute little guy. The girls just loved him and so did we!!!

A vocation prayer

Today, Allia made her first personal prayer for her vocation (not one prompted by us). She was telling me how she wanted to have a baby in her tummy someday, so I told her that she needed to pray to God and ask him if he wanted her to get married someday or if he had another plan for her like becoming a nun. If he did want her to get married, then after that she could have a baby in her tummy. She asked me to say a prayer with her as follows:

"O Lord, please let me grow up and be married so that I can have a baby in my tummy someday. Amen"

So sweet. Not quite the open attitude of discernment I was thinking of but still very beautiful! I am glad that my example of being pregnant makes her want to have a baby in her tummy not the opposite!!! Sometimes on my cranky, tired days I wonder...:-)

Big sisters

The girls went to the sibling class at the hospital today and really enjoyed it. I forgot my camera but they didn't mind dressing up again at home for a photo!

Happy All Saints' Day

and happy baptism day to Allia! Lots of celebrating around here!

Here are some photos from our festivities yesterday...All Saints festivities not Halloween ones. We don't do the Halloween thing, so I was thrilled when the church moved their All Saints' celebration to last night. We usually just take that night to go out (somewhere without ghouls) and do something fun as a family. We had lots of fun yesterday getting ready for the party, and we had a picnic in the park to celebrate Allia's baptism today for lunch and will go to All Saints' mass today. Busy fun times!


Making their Grottos...Allia was St. Bernadette, so we did a Lourdes Grotto craft in the morning


The proud crafters displaying their final products (Allia accepted NO help, while Mariana needed a lot!!!)


Saints Therese and Bernadette ready to head off to the church


A lineup of little saints (and one happy Mommy) having fun!