To our wonderful Friend

Happy Birthday Pastor Chris! We hope you had a great day & were shown how much you are loved & appreciated by all those around you. We feel privileged to be your friends and wanted you to know that we really appreciate your dedication to God & His ministry & how much heart & energy you put into our youth ministry! May you be blessed beyond measure and know that we love you very much! Enjoy this humorous video.

Happy St. Patty's Day

Top o' the mornin' to you! And a Happy St. Patty's Day to ALL!!!

Today is the day that I miss my Grandpa Mahoney the most. Why? Because if you called him he'd answer the phone by saying, "Top o' the mornin' to you!" I'm not really sure how much Irish he had in him but I like even knowing some of my heritage comes from the Irish. Green has been my favorite color for such a long time that I don't remember when I started liking it best of all colors. Was it that I liked the color green or was it when I found out I have a smidgen of Irish decent. Whatever the case...I LOVE green & I enjoy celebrating this glorious day. I like thinking about St. Patrick teaching people on the Emerald Isle about the Trinity using something that was so common to them as a shamrock to explain how one could have three things in one. God the Father, God the Son, & God the Holy Spirit. Did you know they get like 90 inches of rain a year to make it so beautifully green there? Fairly soggy to. LOL

One of my dreams come true would be to travel to Ireland and see some of the castles. Perhaps try to kiss the Blarney Stone in Cork. To hear some authentic Irish music and see their parade to honor the man who taught them about God. I'd love to try some of their traditional foods too. I've read that cabbage & bacon is something they eat. I'm not into drinking green beer but I do enjoy an occasional Shamrock shake from McDonald's. I know, the Americanized twist to the holiday.

All of my family wears something green on this special day. Morgan is just wearing a necklace & hair clips. Braly has bits of green on his jammies (he's still sick so we opted for Incredible Hulk jammies today), and Gabby is wearing a green dress, has a shamrock sticker tattoo on her cheek & an Ireland flag in the shape of a heart sticker on her hand. Adam is wearing a green shirt as am I (along with green eye shadown, earings, & necklace, & occasionally my small LOL green hat).

Hope your day is filled with fun, love, memories, & green! ;)

I finished a page today! AND made these

March is Reading Month and on March 2nd it would have been Dr. Seuss' 105th birthday. So in honor of Reading Month, each child in Gabby's class is to dress as his/her favorite book character. Gabby picked Cat in the hat so I did my best to make a Cat hat for her & made an extra one for Braly so he wouldn't feel left out. He may even wear it to the store tomorrow. Not too bad for not even having a 'real' pattern. Although I must say, one should NOT be sewing late at night & think that progress will be made. I messed up the 2nd hat and had to rip a few things apart & sew it back together the correct way...TWICE!

I'm officially a week behind in my online scrapbooking class (normally I have time warps of an hour or so but not a whole week...sheesh, not sure how that happened). But I wanted to share my finished page today. I know I posted about the story back in Dec when it happened but I tweaked the journaling a little & assembled the page & this is what I came up with.

The journaling reads:

I rocked and sang to Morgan as usual and she fell asleep enough that I thought I could lay her in her crib. That just wouldn't be happening tonight...she needed extra snuggles so I sat back down in my trusty 6 1/2 year old rocking chair. I did the whole routine again, singing, rocking, patter & rubbing her back & she fell asleep again. I tried to lay her down but she just hung onto my neck and wouldn't let go. I began to get frustrated thinking of how tired I was and all the things I still had to get done & wished she would cooperate & just go to bed. As I plopped back down in the rocking chair it was that moment that I realized she's always been like this. She was just being herself & how could I ask for something more. My thoughts jumped back to a little over 2 years ago and the struggles we faced when she spent almost her entire first month of life in the hospital with breathing trouble. At the time it was my prayer that she would have the strength to stay with us and not let go just yet. This little girl was still hanging on and had very good reasons not to let go.

After rocking awhile, I walked over to her crib & set her down inside and told her that I'd rub her head and hold her hand if she would just lay down. She plopped very quickly into position and looked up at me with her beautiful, trusting blue, sleepy eyes as if to say, "thanks momma for not leaving me just yet." I sang some more, rubbed her head & tussled her hair a bit until she was nearly asleep. She opened her eyes one more time to see that I was still there & grabbed my finger to hang on to just as she used to in the hospital, then fell into a deep peaceful sleep.

I feel completely blessed that God gave me the opportunity to reflect on events from two years ago till now. Remembering the strong desire I had to hold her all day long and couldn't made me appreciate my extra snuggles with her tonight. Morgan is strong and loves to be snuggled & held. God made her a touchy, feely child because He gave her exactly what she needed to make it through her rough start. Tonight was a moment I'll always cherish.

~journaling written on Dec 30, 2008 by Jeannette~

I'll have a Kindergartener again soon

Yikes,
Where oh where has the time gone? Seriously. I registered Braly for Kindergarten today & I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole thing. Bittersweet I guess. While I am excited for his new adventure I am also sad that he won't be a preschooler for much longer. The way they are doing Kindergarten this year is new because of new requirements and I don't know if I want him in the full day class or in the half day class. It's going to be so much for him & yet I think he can handle whatever is put in front of him. He should be at the same school as Gabby so they will either ride the bus together twice or just once depending on how they place Braly (full or half day). Sure would miss him if he was gone all day though. Guess I'll deal with whatever level he tests at next month.

Is everyone sick??? a video & some pics

Sometimes I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged. Things have been crazy around here. Last Sunday Braly got sick in the evening & then was fine when we woke up. Then Gabby was sick all of Monday which was supposed to be a fun day since there was no school. She spent the entire day throwing up. Poor thing. She had a fever in the evening so I couldn't send her to school on Tuesday according to the school rules (though I know that some parents do it anyway). My stomach felt awful on Tuesday & Adam ended up coming home & had been throwing up & spend the day sleeping/throwing up. I held down the fort enough & thought I would get to go to bed & then Morgan woke up & spent the next several hours being sick. I ended up having to sleep on the couch with her so I could get to her quickly if she threw up. Good thing I did because she was laying down one of the times & was having a hard time sitting up with she started throwing up. 4 trips to the bathroom, 2 baths & 2 changes of jammies later she felt better & slept for a few hours giving me some much needed sleep. Needless to say I have not been exercising much over the last week/2 weeks & its driving me crazy. I've got to get back into the swing of it because I was doing good for so long.

Now onto some cute stuff. I shot a few quick videos of Braly singing some of his Letter songs that he's learned at Headstart.

Haven't posted pics of Gabby lately since she's at school all day. So here is a new one of her. She picks her own clothes out every week & last week she got a little more creative with her outfit choices. I think she did a great job!

Then she got Braly dressed in a pirate costume & he picked out a princess costume for her. I love when they take turns & play nicely together.

And here is Morgan sleeping in a very interesting way. She was walking back & forth while laying on my chair & I walked out of the room. When I came back about a minute later, she was sleeping. Completely zonked.

Some day off of school

Poor Gabby. She had today off from school for President's Day and it was NOT a good day for her. Good that she didn't miss any school because of it but I think it was actually the reason she was sick in the first place. This is the 2nd time this has happened to her in the last few months. Gabby wakes up & since she doesn't have school she figures there's no need to be on a schedule. So she runs off to play with her brother & sister until she's SUPER DUPER hungry and feels sick. She then tries to eat something & a little while later the nausea starts & doesn't seem to go all the way away for the entire day. I hate seeing her like this but I am hoping this is the last time this happens. Perhaps she will have learned from this small thing that ended up becoming a GIANT mistake. oops

Add Morgan to the mix with the cold that she has with a cough that doesn't sound so good when she runs & it wasn't the greatest of days. I had to pick up Morgan's asthma meds so we went to Shopko for a quick trip. Gabby insisted on staying in the car & Morgan stayed with her. I ran to Joann's to see if they had any cute super sale items & then out to the car again. Morgan was sleeping & Gabby was finally resting.

It's no fun making dinner when no one feels like eating it. We may just do leftovers tonight since I will probably have to dedicate more time to the sick ones. Pray for their speedy recovery please.

Guardian Angels

Morgan has been really into playing by herself after her brother & sister go to school. So I didn't think anything of it when she put on Gabby's mini pink backpack & was walking around the house. Then she went into the playroom & was playing for a little while.

what I am about to disclose is of great embarrassment to myself as a mother. I'm not perfect & I guess I already knew that but I did think that I had a better memory than I did today. Let me just smack myself in the forehead one more time before I blurt this one out.

Earlier today when Braly & I were waiting for his bus to arrive we were outside working on clearing some of the ice & water away from the sidewalk so that when it refreezes it wouldn't be quite so slippery. Well after Braly got on the bus & left I let Morgan come outside with her snowpants, boots, coat, hat & mittens on. I knew she'd get drenched in the puddles because she kept talking about playing in the water. I worked on the ice some more while she got herself wet & then we headed for the house only we went in the back door because I knew Morgan was drenched & didn't want to track all that wetness in through the whole house. What I didn't remember was that the front door was wide open & Little Miss Morgan knows how to open the door now. Ya know where I'm going with this one don't you?

We ate lunch, played a little & then I did the dishes & proceeded to dance to a few songs with Morgan & then sat down at my computer to organize some files. That's when Morgan went off to play with the pink backpack & whatever other toys she felt like playing with. Only after a little while she was really quiet. I didn't hear her smashing around any Dora House friends or talking all cute so I started quietly looking for her so if I found her doing something cute I could watch for a little while. Oh she was cute alright. But not doing something I cared to let her continue doing. I knew EXACTLY where she was as soon as I saw the extra sunlight coming in through the open front door. I quickly grabbed slipped on a pair of shoes & ran outside to grab her. She was dancing around with her pink slippers on & was wearing her pink backpack. She even had on her mittens (that were still soaking wet from earlier). She told me she was going to school/church & she wanted to keep playing in the water. Slap forehead again!!! How could I be so stupid & forget to close & lock that door? I brought her in the house & explained that Mommy was scared that she could get hurt outside all by herself & that she must NEVER do that again. Know what her answer was? "I so sorry Momma, I so sorry!" Obviously I forgave her & now I've got to work on forgiving myself about the mistake. Talk about a humbling experience and making me ever so grateful that I know she's got Guardian Angels watching over her when I'm oblivious to her sneaky act. You had better believe that door will be locked all the time now & all this summer too. whew!

She's currently tucked away sleeping ever so sweetly in her bed right now.