Big helper!

This boy loves to take the trash out...if he sees me tying up a bag he comes, grabs it, and heads for the door! I videoed him tonight to see how far he could make it carrying the bag. He almost made it all the way!

My turn!

Rope swing

Austin built this swing for the children yesterday. It is a hit!

Activism

Our children love to go grocery shopping at a certain store and strongly dislike another. Why? Well, one offers samples to munch and a game to play after shopping, but the other does nothing of the sort. So Allia decided to take action and write a letter. What a girl! (and yes, we are mailing it to them).

Solemnity of the Annunciation

May we say, like Mary, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

In need

"Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." - Matthew 25:40

This seems to be our theme this last week. The poor can seem so far away sometimes in our culture of abundance. We were just talking with some friends about helping the poor, and then as we went out on errands Saturday were approached by a poor man asking for help. It is sad how tempting it can be to turn away from people like that. "They will just use the money for drugs" or "I have my kids in the car...what if they try to do something to us". Thanks to the Holy Spirit, after seeing him rummaging in the dumpster, we took the opportunity and gave him what little cash we had which brought tears to his eyes. It has bee so beautiful to see the effect of this action on the children. They have been talking about and praying for the poor more than ever this week. Then, our reading lesson today had a story about this exact thing. St. Martin cut his cloak in half for the poor man freezing in his rags, even though he was chided by his friends. Thank you, Lord, for this message to our family!

15 Months Old!

And lovin every minute!

Balloons

Sometimes it takes the simple toys to span the ages. I just thought this was so sweet that all the kids were having fun with their green St. Patrick's Day balloons from Pawpaw and Manah.

Perfect match?

3 year old Gloria and 1 year old Stephen are a perfect match on the seesaw...both around 25lbs! Such cuties!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We painted some t-shirts last night and did a little craft this morning...

Spring Break!

Our break started with a visit from Pawpaw and Manah this weekend. Allia, Mariana and myself snuck off during naptime to a local nursery and tea room, Martha's Bloomers, for a little date and some plant shopping. I will have to upload those photos later because they are stuck on my phone with no cable to download them. :(

Yesterday we paid a visit to the children's museum with Daddy. He scored a bonus day off since his office is in the process of moving across town! We all had a great time!

Pawpaw's boy

Pawpaw and Manah are here, and Stephen is Pawpaw's boy this visit. He will hardly leave Dad's arms, much less his side!

Medal winner!

I was a little slow on this one, but last week Allia found out that she won 4th place in her piano practice competition (who can practice the most in 7 weeks of all her teacher's 52 students). Here she is wearing her medal. She also got to go to her teacher's home for special treats and a ceremony where they each played a favorite piano piece and received their trophy/medal.

Stephen's words at 14 months

I have recorded the words each child was saying at 14 months, so here it goes for Stephen:

Dada
Mama
Allia
Gloria ("Ria")
Pawpaw
Jesus (see-sah)
Mary (May)
All Done (ah, duh)
Cracker (kah, kah)
Ball (bah)
Bear (Boe)
Bite (Bie - as in want a bite of that)
More (moe)
Bye bye
Up (as in pick me up)
Book (Boo)
Ah-Oh
Awwww (whenever he hugs anyone, because that is what we all say!)
outside (ah-die)

If I discover any I forgot I will add them in later. :)

Small bath project

We actually did this one a few weeks ago but I am just now posting it. This little half bath is our only one downstairs and therefore it receives much use. Most visitors to our home see this little space, but it was so plain and always bothered me. I found it tough to dress up easily since there is no shower curtain and really no need for bath rugs (though I may add a washable decorative rug later!). So here it is...

Before: (I didn't think to take the before photo until after I had removed the standard frameless contractor bathroom mirror, so use your imagination on that part


After:


And my special little addition across from the potty (I have wanted for many years to find a simple way to display the weekly gospel in the bathroom so we can see it frequently and let it permeate our minds throughout the week. Hooray...finally accomplished!

Pretzels?

Stephen likes to sneak into the pantry and help himself to a snack if he can shake the clip off the bag!

Strange Pianist

Allia received this disguise as a prize at the dentist yesterday. Too funny!