late night

i came home tonight from doing a tupperware party and found my 3 guys watching a movie in the basement. after soccer practice, ron took the kids to best buy and purchased the original willy wonka and the chocolate factory. they've been watching little clips on you tube whenever we'll allow it, so it was quite a treat to get to watch the movie in it's entirety. and don't worry, ron's not naked in this picture; he'd been riding his bike (as seen in the background)...

this picture was taken during luke's favorite song. he was bee-bopping away! i love my little sam in the background.

iPhone images

So here are a few pics I've taken on my phone. This first one is from the morning we left for Disney. I took this picture early in the morning when I gave the kids the monster bags I made them (stuffed with crayons, paper, and other goodies).

Luke and Laney. They have such a special friendship.

Sam, Luke, and the neighbors decided they would play with their shirts off last week. Oh well, boys will be boys...

I didn't stage this at all. Sam and Luke were so giddy while we were eating dinner at Baumhower's. They were leaning in and kissing each other over and over, laughing with such giddiness. I had to press the button on my phone a second or two ahead of time due to the delay. I finally got one picture right in the middle of a pucker.

This is Ron's favorite thing that Luke is doing. When he waves or tells you something, he sticks his hand up like this. It's so cute...

Tube and Adenoid Day

Our little Laney went under the knife again for her second set of tubes. She has continued to get ear infections over the past year. Her tubes came out over the past few months and the poor thing has had fluid in her ears constantly. She even failed her recent hearing test due to all the blockage. So they went a step further and removed her adenoids as well. We scooped her up out of bed and got to the surgery center at 6am.

She didn't mind getting her blood pressure checked. Those are the cutest little bp cuffs I've ever seen. She loved roaming the halls in her pink car. By the way I loved the Children's Health facility. They had plenty of cars and toys for the kids to play with. The kids were allowed to have fun and roam until it was time for surgery. She didn't want to stop playing so that the nurse could listen to her heart. She gave her "the look". :)

After surgery, the nurse brought her to us and she was pitiful. She wanted to cough, but it hurt so bad that she couldn't. Her poor throat was sore from the breathing tube. She asked for Daddy right away so he held her tight.

After a morning nap she made her throat better by enjoying a popsicle. She had 5 of them today. She's spoiled I guess. She looked pitiful until noon, but quickly bounced back and has had a great day. Thanks for your prayers!

our new plant

I planted a new snowball vibernum in our backyard. I've watched the one next door to my mom's house grow beautifully over the years. I figured this is finally the right time to plant it since we have found the home we're hoping to stay in for a while.

While Laney was sleeping off her pain meds (from getting tubes for the second time), Luke and I went to water it. He was so helpful. :) He even picked a few weeds flowers for me.

Look at that dimple! His MDO teacher told me once that she gives him whatever he wants when he flashes his big dimples her way.

St. Patty's Day Party!

My awesome neighbor held a super party today! She invited a few girls and their kiddos over from Sunday School. She had an obstacle course which involved going through tunnels, climbing over tables, jumping over obstacles, sliding down the slide, running around a little track, jumping on the "Lucky Charms" (drawn with chalk on her concrete porch), and climbing under a tarp kind of like I would imagine a soldier doing in boot camp. It was great fun!

Every child managed to wear green, along with all the moms, so no one got pinched. :)

She made some great snacks, like this marshmallow on a stick. It was covered in yummy white chocolate and sprinkles.

The kids made a fun craft: rainbows with a pot of gold. We ate a yummy hot dog lunch and even decorated cookies for dessert.

Laney gives this look often...

She thoroughly enjoyed playing in the bird bath. Little stinker was even smart enough to make her way to the sloped side and drink the water from the bath. Gross! I immediately put an end to that.



What fun! Thank you Erin for hosting a fun morning. Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone...

yesterday

i was quite optimistic yesterday. i decided ahead of time that i would make bread (for the first time in about 4 months) and make colorful pancakes. making bread is about a 4-hour process with all the mixing, rising, punching down, rising again, baking, and cleaning.

the pancakes were a success. the kids loved them.

only thing i didn't consider is that while i was busy making a mess in the kitchen for four hours, the kids were busy making a mess in the rest of the house.

sam decided to "be" Wall-E. if you've watched the movie, you know his job was to clean up trash. so sam starts going around the house with pretend robot arms pretending to pick up trash.

what he was actually doing was picking up all the little boxes filled with toys that were stacked so nicely on their target toy rack and dumping them out. yes, he dumped out toys throughout the house. somehow in his sweet little mind dumping out toys was equal to Wall-E picking up trash. i know, i don't get it either.

so i pulled out my swiffer sweeper and just gathered all the toys in a big pile. it gave me an idea: garage sale items. so we're spending the next day or so getting rid of a few toys.
hope your day was as crazy and fun as mine!

St. Patrick's Prayer

I post this every year because it's just so beautiful. I've come across several versions today (in fact, the one I'm posting is a little different than last year's). I even found an article that suggested St. Patrick didn't write this prayer. I still love it though... St. Patrick's Breastplate:

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,

The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,

The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,

The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today

The virtue of the love of seraphim,

In the obedience of angels,

In the hope of resurrection unto reward,

In prayers of Patriarchs,

In predictions of Prophets,

In preaching of Apostles,

In faith of Confessors,

In purity of holy Virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today

The power of Heaven,

The light of the sun,

The brightness of the moon,

The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,

The swiftness of wind,

The depth of sea,

The stability of earth,

The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today

God’s Power to guide me,

God’s Might to uphold me,

God’s Wisdom to teach me,

God’s Eye to watch over me,

God’s Ear to hear me,

God’s Word to give me speech,

God’s Hand to guide me,

God’s Way to lie before me,

God’s Shield to shelter me,

God’s Host to secure me,

Against the snares of demons,

Against the seductions of vices,

Against the lusts of nature,

Against everyone who meditates injury to me,

Whether far or near,

Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues

Against every hostile merciless power

Which may assail my body and my soul,

Against the incantations of false prophets,

Against the black laws of heathenism,

Against the false laws of heresy,

Against the deceits of idolatry,

Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,

Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.
Christ, protect me today

Against every poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against death-wound,

That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me, Christ within me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ at my right, Christ at my left,

Christ in the fort,

Christ in the chariot seat,

Christ on the deck,

Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today

The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,

I believe the Trinity in the Unity

The Creator of the Universe.