Recently in andrew's world Category

The kids are looking pretty in their Easter outfits. I let the boys go a bit more casual since anything fancier would have only been worn once.

Brian's parents made an Easter egg hunt in their backyard. They were as happy as the kids!

Today is Matthew's first birthday! Yay! We had a party for him at my in-laws on Easter. It has become an unintentional family tradition for my in-laws to get a cake with the wrong spelling. One year they spelled Andrew Joseph as "Josef" and last year John-Paul had a cake from a fancy French bakery and it was spelled "Jean-Paul." This year the tradition continues, but we're getting closer!

I can't help but think about how Matthew is grown over the past year.

Time is flying too fast! Savor the moments.

Wouldn't you know it. Yesterday I carved out a half hour where I could post this week's {p,h,f,r} and the power went off. Blast you, Murphy's Law. Once we got our power back on I didn't have time for the computer so I am posting this now instead. Enjoy. :-)

It's a Lenten Friday so of course I am craving meat. There is a juicy turkey burger in the fridge just calling my name. If that was not enough, I am also craving something sweet. Like a delicious pastry from one of our favorite Carmel bakeries. If you are ever in downtown Carmel, you must stop and visit there. It is a local and tourist favorite.

I was so excited and happy to take this photo! There was no wild craziness, screaming or wrestling. The baby was sleeping peacefully and the boys were quietly painting and I was washing the dishes. For a few precious moments I felt like one of those picture perfect families where the members smile and white sparks shine off their perfect teeth. It only lasted a few minutes but what glorious minutes they were!

Okay, this is more like the family photos I am used to. It seems that John-Paul finished his yogurt but still had a bit left in the container. Not wanting to waste, Matthew decided to finish it for him.

Is it my imagination or are kids getting tech smart earlier and earlier. JP knows how to work my iphone with ease and the other day I saw Matty playing for Andrew's Leap Pad. Kinda crazy.

I am a day late posting this but it was an insane day yesterday and I never had time to post this. Better late than never. :-)

I think it is funny that these pair of pajamas have lasted long enough to survive all three boys and their mischief.

I hope you enjoyed my week in photos.

Six years ago Bella went to a local Catholic preschool. I loved the fact that it was small, family oriented and shared the love of the Catholic faith with the children. Bella is in 4th grade now but Andrew started his first year at the same preschool. I don't know if I've shared this on the blog before but we were worried about Andrew because he had a serious speech delay. At the age of 3 he was speaking like a 2 year old who is just beginning to talk. Now at 4 years old he speaks much better but he is still going to speech therapy to help with pronunciation and clarity, especially with some of the more difficult consonant blends. When Andrew started school in September he was often quiet in class. Foremost because he was shy but I think he was also a little uncomfortable not being able to speak as clearly as the other children. Slowly, he came out of his shell and is speaking more in class and with his friends.

I've been busy lately with the spring fundraiser for Andrew's preschool. Last week, I had to attend a meeting at the preschool in the morning. At the end of the meeting, Andrew was playing outside having recess with his class and I watched him without him knowing. He was riding a tricycle with some of his friends, talking and laughing with them. He was happy and the same playful little boy I see at home. I was pleased to see that he was now comfortable at his school and with his friends. I am also grateful to his two teachers who have met with his speech therapist so they could better help him in the day to day learning of class. It brought peace to my heart to see him happy and doing well.

Unfortunately, this road has to be traveled a second time. John-Paul is showing the same speech problems at the age of two and we recently started him with speech therapy as well. As I mentioned, I had to attend that meeting at Andrew's preschool and I was a little concerned because I'd have Matthew and John-Paul with me. I knew Matthew would be okay but I wasn't sure what to do with JP. The principle offered to let JP visit the 2 year old room until I was done with my meeting.

I was happy for the opportunity because although we usually don't put the kids in preschool until they are 4 years old, I was feeling like I needed to put JP in next year at the age of 3. He doesn't have the same personality as Bella and Andrew. They were/are more sensitive and have a tendency towards timidity and they were more than happy to spend their time at home with me. JP is more adventurous and independent and he is not afraid to be around other people. I could see him benefiting from going to school sooner. At least this would give me the chance to see how he reacted in a classroom setting.

That morning when I took John Paul to the classroom they were starting circle time and I worried that my rambunctious boy would not sit still. He was a little nervous and clingy at first, but he soon became interested in the activity and had no problem letting me go. I went to my meeting and over an hour later returned to JP's class and watched him unnoticed. (I secretly love to spy. ;-) He was doing great and babbling away. I felt very at peace seeing him there. And I knew he loved it because he was so upset that he had to leave early.

I have been praying about what I should do with him in regards to school and his therapy and everything finally seems to be falling into place. I talked to the Brian, to the principle, to his speech therapist and prayed about it and I think Brian and I are going to try and put him in the preschool this March three times a week for a few hours. I never imagined having my two year old in school, but then again, when Brian and I got married we never imagined doing anything but homeschooling. We may still be homeschooling in the future but for now, this is where we feel God is calling us.

It is very difficult, and a little foolish, to get my mind set on one fixed way of doing things in regards to our family life. Circumstances change. Situations come up. Children have their own unique needs. As I grow older, and hopefully wiser, as the years go by I have to adjust my plans accordingly. There are some things that remain fixed - we will always try to love and serve God above all else - but the means of attaining that can change. I think the most important thing for me is to continue to learn to quiet myself down so I am able to hear the Holy Spirit whispering to my heart and then I have to have courage and trust in God's grace that I can follow through on whatever he is asking of me. These are things that don't come easily but I think Lent is a perfect time for me to put it into practice!

Please say a prayer for me, Brian and the kids that God continues to guide us on the best road for our family. Thanks!

Thanks to our complimentary stay at Pebble Beach last weekend, I have lots of photos to show! It's a little out of order so the story makes more sense.

My happiness was seeing the ones I love the most having a good time.

Maybe this should have been in the funny category but we were excited to be treated to such delicious food! On Friday, after dinner at the Italian restaurant Peppoli's we were too full for dessert. However, we were hungry later that night so we ordered their room service dessert special. It was chocolate raspberry cake/soufflé with a raspberry center, a dish of raspberry sorbet with vanilla ice cream on top and hot chocolate fudge to drizzle over it all. Ohmygosh, it tasted so good!

If that wasn't enough, in the morning they brought us room service breakfast. It's a good thing we had a lot of walking planned to work off our meals!

We are truly blessed to have this once a year mini-vacation but Brian always dreads me coming back home afterwards. It takes him a few days to reprogram me to let go of all the pampering, special treatment and being able to use the bathroom uninterrupted. I have to get back into the mode of stinky diapers, sticky hands, dirty dishes and piles of dirty laundry.

He says I'm like Lucy after she comes back from the home show...

After seeing all that luxury her own house makes her say, "Yesh!" LOL! (If you don't remember the episode, you can watch it here.)

Well, I'm happy to report that I'm back to myself again and ready for the next mini-disaster to photograph for next week. ;-)

The other day I ordered these heart notecards from my friend Caroline at her etsy shop peaseblossom studio. I thought they would be cute for Valentines Day. I was happy when they arrived in the mail in this pretty package.

If you recall, two weeks ago I shared about Andrew's current obsession with Spiderman. On the weekend he was able to spend some Christmas money at Target. He nearly fainted when we walked down the super hero aisle and saw this Spiderman mask. He knew exactly what he wanted. You can't tell by this photo but underneath that mask he has a huge, happy grin. (And yes, he still wears his Spidey outfit/pj's every second he is in our house.

Note to Self - Never leave the Cheerio box on the sink unattended because a certain two year old may try to serve himself a bowl. (Thank God I caught him before he got to the milk!) Oh, and this is considered "funny" because if I don't laugh at these things I will lose my mind. ;-)

Finally, after a long day of mischief John-Paul will sometimes just collapse wherever he may happen to be. Don't ask me exactly how he happened to fall asleep on his chair like this.

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

Last week I mentioned that I was planning on purchasing the book The World of Downton Abbey. I did get it and I love it. The photography is beautiful and it is interesting to read about how the life and times were back then - from the society in general and the war to fashions and the protocol of romantic relationships. It is perfect reading while I m waiting for the next episode to air.

While I have been obsessing over Downton Andrew there is another obsession brewing in our house since I hear this song everyday, several times a day.

Andrew, my four year old, has replaced his love of Pixar's Cars with Spiderman. The other day I bought him a pair of Spiderman pajamas and I had no idea the drama I was inviting into the house because now the only thing he wants to wear are those pj's! He was really upset that he could not wear them to school (in the rain) and I finally convinced him that during the day he had to bundle up and be Peter Parker and keep his Spidey identity "secret." When he got home then he could change into his Spiderman outfit. He finally agreed. So now every day after preschool he runs through the door and whips off his regular clothes and jumps into his Spidey pj's. Great. (Did I also mention that I had to go back to the store and buy another pair of the pj's so I could wash them in between crime fighting?)

Hmmm...on top of it all, Spidey's mom needs to give him a haircut.

Well, living with a boy that dresses like Spiderman isn't really a big deal but I felt so sorry for the little guy the other day. He walked into the kitchen with a roll of masking tape. He wanted me to help him tapes his hands to the wall so he could climb it like Spiderman. I told him he was too heavy and that tape wouldn't hold him. He said okay and ran out of the room. He came back with a gluestick. Surely the double strength of masking tape and a glue stick would hold him. I again explained that it wouldn't work. After several renditions of "It won't work" and "Yeah it do, Mom" he finally got the message. Poor Spidey accepted defeat and went to his room with tears running down his face. He broke my heart so I set dinner aside to help him find a solution. Not having monkey bars in the house I told him to play Spiderman under his bunk bed. There are several rungs above his bed and under top bunk bed. He could grab one rung and pretend to swing while he grabbed another. He was overjoyed. So I'm temporarily in the clear until he decides to jump off the top bunk onto his brother/Dr. Octopus. (I am sure anyone with boys or spunky girls can relate.)

Well, besides all the in-house crime fighting it has been rather a slow week. The kids got sick last weekend with colds and while Bella and Andrew got over it in a day or two little Matthew is still sick and has been extra clingy - to the point where he screams his head off when I put him down for a minute. Ugh. I told Brian I am having a hard time getting my work done since he just wants to be held. He told me not to worry and just give him the TLC he needs. Okay, but I told Brian that if he runs out of clean clothes he'll have to borrow one of Andrew's Spidey outfits.

On the plus side I have been able to get online much more often than normal. (Even now I am doing the one-hand typing thing while Matthew is resting in my arms.) For this quick take I'll link up a few of my favorite articles/posts that I've read this week.

It seems that contentment, thriving where you are in life, and not putting yourself down when you feel like you are barely surviving life with little ones is a common theme this week.

Comparison Kills Contentment {Catholic Mothers Online Post} by Misty

Moms of Young Children: The Time to Thrive Is Now by Jennifer Fulwiler

Thriving! Who does God want you to be? by Arwen Mosher

Don't Carpe Diem by Glennon Melton

Lastly, if you didn't see my previous post already, check out the interview with Mark Wahlberg where he talks about his Catholic faith.

Okay, Matty is finally asleep so I am going to put him to bed and pray he sleeps long enough for me to load the dishwasher and get some laundry done. Spiderman needs some clean pj's.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo,
B.

I'm not sure if I'd call him "pretty" but Matthew is darn cute and he is 9 months old today! (Photo courtesy of my sister JC. ;-)

This weekend Andrew attended a birthday party that was held at a fire station. He got a kick out of the fire truck's tires being so tall.

He was even more excited when he got a turn shooting the fire house into the street. (Free car washes for unsuspected cars driving by. LOL)

Matthew was having fun squirming his way into the bar stool.

However, the fun ended when he couldn't figure how to get out of there!

Back to the fire station..they were showing us how high their ladder went. One of the firefighters started climbing...

...and climbing...

...until he finally made it to the very top. I was dizzy just looking at him. Those guys are amazing!!

Lots of love to all our firefighters!! :-)

I never got the chance to post any Christmas photos last week so I'll do them this week. :-)

Overheard in the kitchen...

Andrew: (While making the sign of the cross after his prayers...)

"...Father, Son, Holy Spirit (pause) The End."

LOL. I think we need a quick prayer review. :-)

Here's a quick peek at our Halloween costumes this year.

Bella was an Angry Bird vet.

She bandaged up the birds that were hurt fighting the pigs. LOL.

Andrew the Tiger.

John-Paul the Packers fan.

Brothers

Matthew the Lion.

I was going through some old photos and found this one of Andrew kissing JP when he was a baby. I think it is so sweet! :-)

Andrew continues as a good big brother. Here he is playing with Matthew and making him laugh.

The other day I left Matthew on the floor in the family room to let him scoot and army crawl around. Since he just turned six months, he is slow but he has been practicing and has gotten much better over the past week. I found it funny when he crawled "for real" into the kitchen.

Although, Andrew worries about him crawling onto a hard surface so he drags him back to the middle of the room. Poor guy.

The snack thief strikes again. Last week it was a bag of baked cheetos.

This time it was a bag of candy corn. I think I need to do a better job at hiding the treats.

Where does the time go?? From her first birthday to her tenth birthday! Happy birthday my precious, Bella! You'll always be my baby. ;-)

I don't know what makes Brian happier - that his Packer football is back or that he has a new Packer fan to cheer with him.

Matthew could only take so much football cheering and then he conked out.

It's been a busy, busy week! Here are some things we've been working on. Besides getting ready for Bella's Angry Bird birthday party (which I'll post about next week) we also had two school fundraisers. Here is Brian working at the Mission Fiesta for Bella's school. Andrew was having fun throwing the ring.

Here are two gift baskets I put together for the Fall Festival/Auction for Andrew's school. I did a baby shower basket and a family movie night basket. I like the way they came out. It was fun to get creative.

Lastly, I've been baking for the Fall Festival bake sale. I made Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies. They are sooo yummy I hope they make it to the sale!

Okay, back to decorating. Have a great weekend!

I purchased this cross from FlorLarios and I love the way it looks in my kitchen. So pretty. And a nice reminder to turn my mind to the Our Lord and Our Lady as I'm busy in mommyhood.

I loooove this shot. It's a rare occurrence when I can snap a photo and have more than one person smiling and happy at the same time. Which makes me happy. Yay!

Andrew may be my oldest boy but he has the smallest frame of the fellas...as seen with his body sitting in this rather small wagon. (JP can get his rear in but his legs, not so much.)

Brian loves the novels by Michael O'Brien and he was excited to purchase his latest book A Father's Tale. When I saw the cover I though, "Oh, how nice...."

But then I saw how thick it was and gasped. It's over 1,000 pages! Dang, Brian can forget about reading in bed and holding that book up. If he accidentally drops it, it'll give him a concussion.

This morning the boys and I were in the car ready to run some errands but I didn't get very far. The van was dead in the driveway. Andrew was upset that we couldn't leave but he quickly became excited when I told him it seems like the battery was dead.

His latest love is changing the batteries of toys...and actually, anything electronic that uses batteries. He has his screwdriver kit ready and waiting. When I told him a man will come fix the battery his eyes lit up with the thought of what kind of huge screwdriver would open the van's hood!

UPDATE: As it turned out, it was Andrew who drained the battery, so to speak. Yesterday I let him play with the steering wheel while I took the groceries out of the car. Usually he just plays with the wheel and turns on the blinkers but this time he turned on the "headlight lock" which disables the auto shut off on the lights and it kept them running all day and night.

At least now I know what to check for the next time he decides to "drive." Oh, and I think he was a little disappointed that no screwdriver was needed to open the hood. :-)