gang at the playground

The whole gang joined up at the playground recently. I think the little ones enjoyed the gravel over the swings in the long run but here is a great action shot. It's nice hanging out with you Stacy and Jessie (and Ava, and Brendan and Elsie)!

My poor Josie!

My poor Josie was watched recently by her loving Grandmother G.(mother of 8 I must add) and look what I found when I picked her up! She fell right down the stairs. Luckily she wasn't too smart to begin with or we may have been in real trouble. Mom I think it is a wonder that 6 kids have made it through your care. You have 2 at home-please WATCH THEM MORE CLOSELY!!

Bullhead Fishing...yuck!

We had the opportunity to see Mom, Rick, and Russell go bullhead fishing over break. Yuck! They were really busy landing their 40 something fish. Josie got a turn pulling one out and everyone kept Rick busy unhooking the buggers. I should have gotten a shot of that!

Playground fun!

Over spring break we took a trip to the playground then had a picnic lunch by the river. All in all it was a gorgeous day. I think we had nicer weather here at home than those that headed to Myrtle Beach!

At Dad's practice

Dad's coaching baseball again. He had practice a couple of times this week and we took advantage of being able to go.

We were waiting in the van for Dad to finish up and I gave Em his cell phone to play with. She usually just chews on it but she put it right to her ear and mumbled something that sounded somewhat like "hi".

More about the ducks.

I think Brad even likes his ducks!

just a couple pics

Cute little Em.

Georgia is signed up to play softball this Spring. Last week we went out to practice.

New Family Members!

I couldn't resist. We added three ducklings to our family this year. Right now their names are Dandelion, Daffodil and Daisy. They make us laugh you should see them- and hear us!

Here they are outside of their box for the first time. They especially love to swim in our tub. Pictures of that coming soon!!

A Blessed Day!

Baby Brendan was baptized Saturday. I thought I would share a few pictures. This is a mobile that the girls and I made for him.

This banner that Georgia made is worth sharing with everyone!

The girls looking on.

Brendan made sure he paid close attention.

Here is a wet head!

His Godmother Jessie held his garment of white.

His Godfather Matt, held his candle.

Stacy even fed the little guy a taste of his cake!

I made Brendan a little boys rosary. He will be the coolest kid praying with his rosary that turned out to look like camouflage.

Em's taking steps!

Emeline has been practicing!

Success!

SURPRISE!! Mom arriving!

What a great weekend. The party was a success (surprise 50th party that Stacy, Jessie and I put on for our mom). I only wish that I would have visited more. It felt like I had lots of time and then all of the sudden people were saying it's time to go!! I'm sorry about that.

LA on Broadway

Once again I am in LA on Broadway. It is a collaboration of singers from the village/school that put on a pretty good performance with their renditions of various Broadway songs. This year my solo is "Till There Was You" from The Music Man. It has been a month long process of practices (Every day this past week from 6:30-almost 9:00!!) This Saturday night and Sunday afternoon are the shows.

This is Georgia's first year. Here she is at dress rehearsal last night. The picture on the bottom is her with her LA on Broadway T-shirt that all cast members were wearing to school today. She looks pretty proud!!

Easter

My Three Girls
Some long lost siblings. Cassie had to work.

Russell wasn't feeling well.

The whole gang (minus Cassie). We missed you Cass.

Mystery Play

I wanted to take a minute to express how extremely proud I am of my brother Ben. For a couple of years now he has participated as a mystery player. Friday I went to see the play and was once again blown away. What an awesome experience it is to let go of your inhibitions and allow the Blessed Mother and her story touch your heart. Ben played soldier number 1 this year. If you go here www.mysteryplay.org , click on the sorrowful mysteries box as shown above and you can see a short clip. Ben would be the soldier seen doing the scourging. I think you all should try to book them next year!!

Happy Easter! Alleluia!

Stained Glass Cross

The first thing you do to make a stained glass cross is get a piece of wax paper and fold it in half. Find some old crayons and start sharpening them on half of the waxed paper until you have a little pile.

Fold the wax paper over the shavings and prepare to iron them. If you have a lot of shavings you may want to fold the edges of your wax paper over so the crayon doesn't leak out all over your ironing surface.

Next, take a piece of scrap paper to put down on the ironing board and put your crayon shavings on it with another piece of scrap on top. Heat evenly and check every few seconds!

Here is what our melted crayon looks like. Beware- it doesn't take long for it to melt. Our first one turned into yuck because I heated it too long.

Then, you fold a piece of construction paper in half and cut a shape through both halves. We chose a cross for Easter.

You need to make sure you cut out the melted crayon so that it is a size to fit inside your construction paper "card".

Lots of glue so it sticks real well. Josie's favorite part.

Last you fold up the paper to reveal the crayon through the cut-out cross.

Here it is!

This is the result. A beautiful cross that looks like stained glass. Josie is very proud can you tell. Georgia made one when she got home from school. She used shades of blue. It looks very nice in a color family.