I AM THE COOLEST MOMMY EVER!!

Yes Friends... this year EACH one of our precious children got a miniature Christmas tree in their rooms!  They have been begging for this for years!!  I FINALLY did it and really feel like....well..."I Rock!"

 Here is Nicholas' special BLUE tree with some of his favorite ornaments on it

Here it is in all of it's lit splendor!

 Here is Savannah's special "PURPLE" Christmas tree with some of her holiday favorites hung on it

Here is it glowing with Christmas cheer

 Here is Madison's special PINK Christmas tree (very teen!)

How beautiful it looks lighting up her room

The kids were so excited to have some Christmas extend to their rooms!  The smiles that these little tokens of Christmas bring is so worth all of the mess!! Preparing for Jesus' birthday is such a special event in our home!  I always want them to remember it, and how important it is

A LITTLE MORE CHRISTMAS JOY

We decorated a little more for Christmas today!! I cannot wait for Christmas!!!

 Is that a be-dazzled snowman on either side of Santa???

 Why, Yes it is!!......and I thought you'd never ask : )

Look at our new Nativity honoring Our New Born King!

"And Man Will Live Forevermore, Because Of Christmas Day"

 New Garland to be-dazzle our stockings (you can never over be-dazzle......can you?)

What a perfect Altar in honor of our King!  With Nutcracker Soldiers watchfully protecting His crown

HOLDING BABY JESUS

My girlfriend Lizzy and I are getting the same Nativity Scene this year from no place other than "Hobby Lobby"!  (Yeah!! We are Nativity Sisters....I know..... I am such a Dork!!) It is such a glorious and beautiful set and I was texting her a pic of it from the store.  Nicholas wanted to hold the little Baby Jesus to show Lizzy exactly how big the nativity actually was (All Christmas decor 50% off this week)  I came home with a car full of Christmas treasures and Jeremy smiled (a bit sarcastically) as he told me how much money I saved him! 

I will get some pics of all of the new decor as soon as I get it set up....RIGHT WHEN I GET HOME!!

I JUST LOVE CHRISTMAS!

NEW SMILE

Our little Savannah has a new smile!! She has been counting down the days until Daddy would fit her with her own set of new braces. Well, here they are!! I'm going to miss her precious pumpkin smile!! But even though she is growing and changing, she is still so Darling to me!!

SAVANNAH AND DADDY

Savannah and her Daddy (Two of my favorite people) went out on a special date this evening.  They went with some of Savannah's friends and all of their daddies!  They went to see the play, "Joseph and the Techi-colored dream coat"  They first went out for a private dinner (just the 2 of them) at Dickey's BBQ (Savannah's choice...but Daddy wasn't too disappointed) and then met up with their friends for the play.  What a special evening together that neither of them will forget.

What a precious couple of special friends

I love them so much!!  Thank you Jesus, for little girls...and Daddies!!

MY LITTLE BOYSCOUT

Here are some pics of my Little Nick collecting leaves for his leaf rubbing project for his Den meeting today with Daddy.  He takes his meetings very seriously.  They are so good for him and daddy!  What special boy time they get to have together!  I love my boys.

 These seemingly small projects are SO VERY IMPORTANT in the formation of our little man. He needs that time and affirmation from his father....Jeremy is Nicholas' firsthand example of our Father in Heaven. 

 He worked so hard to find the perfect leaves for the project.  I love that he has this great work ethic to do his best on everything...I pray he never loses that

We love you our precious little Scout!

PREPARING FOR JESUS

The one holiday that we really decorate for in our home is the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus. What a joyful time preparing for the little Baby!  Having the house adorned with lights and sparkle warms my heart to know that our family can honor Him in such a special way.  Of course our little ones are excited to St. Nicholas, but they also see the true reason for our important preparations (in our homeschool we will really focus on Advent, preparing our hearts for the coming of our Lord)

It is a new beginning, being the start of our Holy Liturgical calendar.

 We were all just laughing watching Savannah schlep all of these bells down from the attic.  We kept joking with her to be quiet as she walked

 We had Christmas music playing while we decorated! I just cannot describe how much fun we were having together.  It is still early in the season, so there was no haste or anxiousness to get the decor up so we were able to just enjoy each other (our tree is 15ft tall and a true BEAST, so there would have been a lot of opportunity for frustration...there just wasn't any)  WHAT A BLESSING!

 The one gift that we can and are expected to give our children is their faith in our Lord.  We have a great opportunity to do this during Advent...they love arranging the Nativity...and playing with the pieces and resetting it up

" Hanging the stockings on the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there"

 Acting like he was wearing his stocking on his foot

Being funny pulling out the Easter bunny ears to wear during our Christmas decorating!!

 Here is a pic of the tree right after we decorated it!  It fills that room with warmth and wonder!

 We have a 15 inch statue of Baby Jesus that we put out for Christmas time and Nick decided to cover Him up with his favorite blanket (his guggle) and put a toy into the crib as well.  Of course our children know that this statue is not really (physically) Jesus, but it is a tangible representation of our Lord Jesus that they can see and express their love with.  We teach the kids that it is like having a picture or special item that reminds you of your best friend.  You would put it in a special place of honor in your room to show the importance of that person and to remind you of them whenever you look at it.  

We love to surround ourselves with pictures of our loved ones or important happenings in our life.  We have a lot of holy pictures of Jesus and the saints all through our home so that we along with our children and anyone who enters our home will be reminded of Christ and how He is at the center of our lives and of our home!  I feel a closeness when seeing these holy and beautiful images of our Lord.  I just thought "how beautiful Nick's faith is" when I saw the way he is trying to show his love for Jesus.  How pleased our Lord is with him and how we ALL need to approach Christ as little children with such great fervor and innocence

 My little Nick is so please with himself (his daddy and I are too)....Dear Lord, please keep him and all of our family close to You

 My kids LOVE the Christmas village.  They all want to move there.....me too

 Here is our fireplace with the stockings and small trees on either side....garland to come later

 Our Christmas tree all lit up.  How grand of a welcoming for Baby Jesus

 St. Nicholas on the table....more pics to come as we add more decore

SAVANNAH GOT A 100%

My baby girl was SO EXCITED today when she got a perfect score on her spelling test.  She even got to wear a special sticker!  They were hard words this week.  She worked really hard and was really pleased with her grade!  We couldn't stop celebrating!

BTW:  I love that she wears that hat (It is just so her)

She is just so precious! I love being her teacher!

LET JESUS LOVE YOU

I was blessed to have the Sacrament of Confession last Sunday with our wonderful Father Jim.  He gave me an awesome 3 day penance....what did I do to earn a 3 day penance you might be asking...well that is only for God and I to know....and Father Jim : ) In all seriousness, he is such a kind priest and often gives penitents things to do over a period of time to really mold their soul to receive the Lord more deeply (which stresses me out a little...seeing that I am rather scrupulous) but it is very beneficial to my soul...He is an amazing shepherd for His flock and always gives such beautiful advice, allowing Christ to truly speak through him.  He told me to look at an image of our Lord and just sit in His presence....Telling Him that I love Him and then just allowing Him to love me back.  I did just that.  Madison and I had that perfect opportunity to go up to church last evening  while the little ones were at CPAC and sit in the sanctuary all alone (I love being alone in the church...it is just so intimate)  I did what Father Jim suggested and told our Lord that I loved Him out loud and then just allowed myself to sit and feel Him loving me back (listening to Him with the ears of my heart).  Father Jim said that if I look at an image of our Lord, I will see that He has no condemnation in His Eyes...only love for me.  He is Love, and He loves me so much!!  I liken it to the way that i love My children only His love is a million times more perfect than mine.  It was so beautiful and I want to take the time to do that more often.  Father Jim asked me to focus on it for the next 3 days but it is something that our busy world does not allow for us to do very often at all....if ever.  I invite you to do the same.  It does not have to be in a Church.  It does help to have an image of His beautiful Face to look at.  His eyes are filled with so much Gentleness.  It just has to be in a place where you can really be in silence and just "be".  

Thank you, Jesus for our holy Father Jim to guide us home to You.

NEW P.E. EQUIPMENT

Our homeschool got some new PE equipment thanks to our wonderful principal (and daddy).....we got a trampoline!  It is a really cool "spring-less" trampoline and it's not THAT horrible looking either.  "Beyond Backyards" was scheduled to install it today and I had 3 sad faces looking out the window at the rain early this morning.  Then our faithful Lord Jesus....who loves His little ones so much, commanded the sun to shine and the rain to stop mid morning and guess what.....the men showed up!!  Here are some pics of the kids trying it out

It was supposed to rain all day. These little miracles are so soon forgotten, but stained in our souls.  I love that I can look back at this post and remember how happy that blessing made my kids!

HALF OF MY LIFE WITH YOU

This day on November 6th, I have officially spent 1/2 of my entire life with my Jeremy.  We met when I was 18years old (he was 19yrs old) on November 6, 2011.  Both Freshmen in college.  Dated for 4 years and married a couple of weeks after college graduation! (as soon as our parents would let us)  Now we have been married for 14 1/2 years, but together for 18.  I am just so blessed to have found such a wonderful guy that just loves me so much.  He is an amazing husband, father, and spiritual leader for our family.  I feel so fortunate to have him as all mine!  Here is a picture OF A PICTURE of us dancing at our wedding.  I keep it on the kitchen counter.  I heard that you should always have a picture of your wedding day out on display.  I felt like such a princess that day......even more so today.

Matthew 19:4-6

“Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human must separate."

As I have said before, Jeremy and I understand about what it means to love one another now, more than ever!  The more I learn about Christ and the Trinity, I see that divine love mirrored in our marriage to each other, the way that God intended (so much of the world portrays marriage all wrong)  Not that we have it down perfectly....we are still learning as well.  But  I can look at Jeremy with the eyes of my entire heart and vow to him to never leave and I can guarantee that until the time that God calls me home, He will never be alone!  He has my heart and my devotion for life.

I sometimes even threaten him with that when he is bugged with something that I have done...I just say very plainly...."Well, you have me forever and I am all yours...you picked me and you are stuck with me so I hope that makes you happy!"  Then we usually laugh because there is true joy in realizing that what I say is really true.  We wouldn't have it any other way.
(BTW: believe it or not, I do some pretty stupid stuff sometimes)

Happy 18 years Darling!!  I love you!!

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Gala

Here is a quick pic from Gala this weekend.  Hopefully more to come. We had such a great time.  We stayed the night in the hotel so we started in the afternoon with cocktails and bunko with friends.  Then dressed up fancy and went to the Gala.  We ate, visited, laughed, and danced the night away with our great Catholic friends!  What a magical evening!  I really get to re-live my prom each year at Gala.  The only difference is I get to be there with the one true love of my life and get to come home to my 3 beautiful children.  With that said, Gala is MUCH better than prom!

(left to right: Therese, Carey, Michele, Becky, me and Liz)

Lori, Michele, and me

 They had a Christmas Tree backdrop so we thought that it would be fun to pretend that we were decorating the tree!

 Look at Jeremy Robert's face!  We were laughing SO HARD!  We were acting so obnoxious!  It was so much fun!  Luckily, our friends were in charged taking the pictures so they thought that it was funny too, as opposed to annoying!

Our friend, Michael came over to say hi too!  I love laughing so hard that you just cannot stop!
  We had so much fun taking pictures......we were like kids again!

 Here is the group after settling down a little

Here are the handsome boys.....they envisioned themselves as mob bosses
(Tim, Jeremy, Felix, Nick, the one in front is Steve)

 They could only stay serious for so long....

(Therese, Mr. Boyd, Debbie, Michele, Me, Carey, Steve)
It was SUCH a fun night!

RACE CARS CAN BE BLESSINGS

We were coming out of the grocery store last week and saw a truck pull up housing a REAL RACE CAR!!  Nick made sure to get a picture and then check if I was planning on putting it on the blog

Not only did he get to see a real race car but in the store, the bagger gave Nick a sticker and said that it was his last one....Nick said that it was a blessing that he came with me that day.  I love his little Christian heart

GOTTA LOVE LITTLE BOYS

Really the pictures say it all.  This is how Nicholas looked while cleaning up his toys the other night before bed.  Why do little boys love capes.  I wonder if Jeremy would wear one if it was age appropriate.....Probably!  The best part was, he was fresh from the bathtub and smelled so yummy!!

He is even wearing home depot "eye protection"  Thank you Jesus for my little man.  These precious moments make me stop and smile

I love you so much, Nick...stay little as long as you can!

MEALS ON WHEELS

Madison's Challenge Catholic Girls Club collected Canned food for our local meals on wheels.  Here are some pics of the girls delivering the cans

After we delivered the cans, the director came out and talked with the girls about meals on wheels...they just have that missionary heart!  They CAN change the world!  We all could, but kids don't let practicality stand in their way!  We are the hands of God.  He is bigger than time or space, we just need to trust and take chances!