Birthday Girl's Weekend

 Happy Birthday to Baby Veronica! She turned 1 year old on Saturday!

Mike and I were able to take 2 days and went down to Lanesboro for the weekend. We stopped at Little Oscar's Restaurant for breakfast on Saturday morning on Hwy 52. It was good! Mike said it was the best French Toast he has had. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast and just rested and relaxed.

Meanwhile, the kids were at home with Sarah. She took them to the Minneapolis Art Museum and they loved it! Here they are checking out the art work. She said they were quite taken with all the different art.

From the mouth's of babes:

Agatha to Sarah: I had fun at Church this morning and so did God!

Benedict is helping Mom bring in groceries from Costco. I am carrying a bottle of Vodka:

Benedict: Mom, is that a big bottle of Holy Oil?? (half of the cuteness is hearing in Benedict's still boyish/babyish voice, I lOVE IT!)

Me: hhhmm....well.....not exactly....

My baby bear

This is my baby doll. I sounds like such an old Mom and it sounds so corny. But, it also is so true. Veronica is a good baby. She is so petite and cuddly. She is crawling all over (even though she doesn't roll over very readily!). She is not even close to walking although she turns one year old in a little over a week. She has such a good temperament. The more kids I have, the more I love the infant stage. They are so sweet and easy (my kids are easy babies, thank goodness!). And the infant stage goes fast.

Lately, she has been doing this hilarious snort laughing. Do you see those 4 little BIG teeth!? She must be getting more teeth in too, last night she was unhappy and crying for several hours which is not like her. Pretty soon we'll be celebrating her 1st birthday!

9 years later!

On the 20th, Mike and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. We celebrated with a nice dinner out. It is hard to believe everything that has happened in the last 10 years. Here are a few highlights I am so thankful for over the last couple years.

- All our kids! They are good kids. We love them dearly. It is a privilege to raise them, teach them, and learn with them. Seeing them discover life and grow is a daily adventure and blessing.

- I love having people live with us! They make our life so much more rich. It is fun to have other people (women, in our current case) to share life with and laugh with. Anna who lives with us is incredibly smart, witty and fun. Sarah is our senior in highschool and keeps us in the loop of current events in pop culture and fashion. She is absolutely fantastic with kids - she is gifted!

- Our community of friends is extraordinary. We are so blessed to spend time with all the generous hilarious friends we are lucky to have.

Of course, the list goes on.

On another note, we had a 4 day weekend because of MEA. I am beginning to miss the kids when they are at school! So, it was fun to have everyone home and together on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, I took the kids to the fabric store and let them pick out some fabric they liked and we made pajama pants. It turned out well and the kids really love them.

Here are the kids in their pj pants - Agatha missed out on this activity. They are happily eating the popsicles Grandpa Lee and Terry left them.

Mother Teresa's Prayer

This is one of my favorite prayers. I copied it from Mike's Aunt and Uncle's cottage in Michigan years ago.

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy over night. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

- Mother Teresa

Locked out!

Hhhmm....here we are again, after almost a year! Hahaha!

There were a few months that I was trying to get on our blog and couldn't - something weird with the login. Clearly, we haven't updated whatever we needed to update and I'm not even sure how to.

Anyway.

Life is going along swimmingly and Veronica is quickly approaching her first birthday. We'll see if I can keep it going.

Updates.

Faustina is in 2nd grade and she recently just lost one of her front teeth. I love it.

Faustina wants me to put up another picture of her. ;)

Jude is in Kindergarten and I am pretty sure he is made for school. He loves it and then he comes home and sits for 2 more hours coloring and drawing. 

Benedict is his own man and his reputation precedes him. He keeps life interesting and he is growing up. He helped me make 2 lasagnas yesterday and butter my garlic bread. He is in his second year at Montessori school. He loves it and he loves his teacher. AND he loves his 'batmin' costume. He wears it about 80% of the time around. 

Agatha is just an absolute delight. She is so fun.

And Veronica is my little doll. (I remember when I could say that about Agatha. She may be a dolls still, but she is not little anymore!)

Looking back at Christmas

Hard to believe February 2015 is right around the corner. Wow! Before we get out of January, I want to put up a few pics of Christmas. I haven't been blogging much the last year, but I just spent the last 30 minutes looking back on a few years ago when I was blogging more - it IS fun to have a record of some of the pictures and memories. My, how the kids change quickly! Here are just a few pics from Christmas 2014. It was a bit more low key since the kids all got high fevers the week of Christmas, but it wasn't anything too bad, thankfully.

This was Faustina dressed up for her Christmas show at school. Doesn't she look like a teenager? What in the world??!

Here is Jude with his present and picture for his teacher, Miss Trojak. He loves his school and he loves his teacher!

Here is the picture he dres for his teacher. He signed it, "I love you. Jude" It doesn't get any sweeter than that! And, of course, that is a picture of Jude and his teacher. She has long brown hair. ;)

Agatha in all her glory.

This is one of the pictures from my attempt to get a Christmas picture for a Christmas card. It didn't get it the mail this year! I'll try to get an Easter card out though. We've got the 3 santa girls!

Grandpa Lee made absolutely stunningly beautiful handmade (of course!) boxes for all the kids. Each on of them is unique, with a lock and key!

Making Christmas cookies

Agatha really is a goof ball! She makes the funniest faces, most the time I can't capture them on camera...

Little princess Agatha!

He is officially The LEGO man! He can spend up to 3-4 hours a day on these project - usually making his own creations.

Dici is going to school!

Benedict turned three years old on Christmas Eve and he is going to school!

I love that he still has baby chubs on him! He was very excited for the first day. Then, the next couple days, he actually showed signs of missing Mom/home - I couldn't believe it! This week, however, he seems well adjusted and it has become routine. Mike and I were just commenting last night how we have already seen signs of him growing up, listening better and maturing a bit. We have absolutely loved both Jude and Benedict being at the Montessori school. Just the other day, Anna was playing piano and Jude ran into the piano room to say - that is Beethoven. Nice work Jude! They're growing up!