Small Successes (vol. 4)

Faith & Family has a regular Thursday meme called Small Successes. They describe it as follows:

It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that.

I’m trying to put more focus on the positive these days so let me share what went well this week:

1. I started a new fitness program with JR that requires 75 minutes of high intensity workouts six days a week. We are into our third week and I’ve only missed one workout (due to illness). It feels really good to be so active and even better to spend 75 extra minutes a day with my workout buddy.

2. I got our belated Christmas/New Years’ cards out this week.

3. I got my sewing tub out from the back corner of a closet and was re-inspired to make some baby blankets for several friends who have just had new babies. Nothing fancy here – just some flannel swaddling blankets, but something soft & something homemade.

Simple Woman’s Daybook (New Year Edition – 2010)

Around the house…

Picking up, staging the house for Christmas photos, taking down the Christmas decorations, organizing & decluttering.

One of my favorite things…

nativities. I have a collection of nativities (including Fontanini, Willow Tree, and Heartwood Creek – though not complete sets of any of them and several non-name brand sets as well). The girls also have the Little People nativity and they each received their own nativities from St. Nick this year. It’s a good time of year to buy nativities, so happy shopping to those who are in the market for extra pieces for your special set.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:

Liv starts back to preschool & catechesis, Epiphany is Wednesday, and “Madoninnas Mothers” rosary group on Thursday morning. Oh, that and start everyday with a P90X workout at 6am!!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing…

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus! Thanks for not complaining about the pink bassinet – we’ll try to get it painted blue for you for next year!!

Be sure to visit Peggy for links to more daybooks.

Happy (Belated) 4th Bday, Olivia Grace!

Yikes, there are only a couple days left before Christmas and I am just now wrapping up this post for our dear Olivia’s birthday (Dec. 6th). This was the first year that Olivia showed any real interest in the guests and theme for the day. She wanted all things pink and we followed a pink poodle theme rather loosely (in fact, the evite was the only thing with a pink poodle on it!). It was very cute & we all had a fun afternoon of crafts & cake. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

We spent the bulk of our time doing crafts. The girls really enjoyed making necklaces with pony beads and playing with pipe cleaners at the card table.

At the main table, we made sweet little manger scene ornaments & painted butterfly suncatchers.

Molly & Daddy spent most of their time at the playdough table.

The birthday cake, puppy chow & our first attempt at cake pops.

The whole crew – Corrina, Farah, Molly, Violet, Olivia, Sofia, Reese & Rosie!!

The guest of honor with her good pal, Farah.

Gifts from the family – a Butterfly Pavillion, a book, preschool cards, and a watch.

It was such a joy to celebrate our happy, loving, talkative Livy. At four years old, we are getting to know this little person in a whole new way. She has mastered all the basics and now it is her personality developing. She can tell us what she thinks, how she feels, what she likes and what she doesn’t. She is sweet & affectionate, and has started giving genuine compliments to those around her. I have been enjoying this development very much. The other day after her nap she exclaimed “Wow, Mama, you’ve been cleaning up around here. Good job!” Olivia is happiest doing crafts/art or singing. She was adorable during the Christmas program and afterward wanted to know, “Did you love it, Mama & Daddy?” We sure did, sweetheart, and we love you, too!! Happy Birthday!! May the dear Lord bless & keep you all the days of your life!!

Happy (Very Belated) First Birthday, Violet Frances!

Violet with her birthday gift from the family.

Today Violet turns 15 months old. Because the first year of her life was such a whirlwind, it is really hard for me to accept that reality, even though there are signs everywhere that our little Peanut is hardly a baby at all. Violet has a very sweet disposition – she is almost always happy and wants nothing more than to follow around her big sisters and imitate their play. She started walking in Nebraska and is a total pro now, carrying babies & stepping over things and making her way where ever she wants to go. Most often, Violet can be found toddling around the house with a baby doll under one arm or crawling into a child-sized chair to rock her baby or read a book. For talking, she mostly squeaks & squawks, but there are a few words – Mama, Daddy, cheese (for pictures not for food), chuchu (what we call her pacifier), no, uh-oh, uh-uh (as in ‘no’), and yes (not verbal, just a head nod). She has two sentences that she repeats – “I want chuchu” (but that can mean I want anything) and “I need go potty”. I swear that’s what she says. It doesn’t mean anything to her, but she usually says it when she’s unhappy about something. I suppose we talk about it enough with her sisters that she sees that they get attention for saying it! She knows where her nose & pupek (Czech for belly button) are and could probably learn the rest if we worked with her a little more. She added 5 teeth while we were in Nebraska so her little smile is full of pearly whites (7 total now), which makes her look a lot more grown up. I’ll be curious to see how much she weighs at her well check on Monday – seems to me that she’s put on quite a bit of weight in the last few months. She’s got a nice round belly now. I used to call her piglet a lot (hence the pig cake below), but now we call her Peanut quite a bit – probably too much – she definitely thinks that is her name (though she does respond to Violet, too). Here are some photos of her birthday since I didn’t get them up back then:

Violet enjoying her birthday pasta dinner.

The Piglet Cake

Singing Happy Birthday

Enjoying the Cake

Everyone joins in the fun

SNOW

Just had to share that it is snowing in Central Texas! They are saying it is possible we could even have one inch of accumulation. Thank God naps are next – I’m not sure I could handle 3 hours of “Is there enough snow to make a snowman yet? How about a snowball? Just a little one?”

Update: Good thing we did  a small video of the flurries ’cause that’s all it was.

Small Successes (vol. 3)

Faith & Family has a regular Thursday meme called Small Successes. They describe it as follows:

It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph. So on Thursday of each week, we do exactly that.

I’m trying to put more focus on the positive these days so let me share what went well this week:

1. Livy made it to school on time on Tuesday with the five extra things she was required to bring (in addition to the 3 regular things she takes – her lunch, her backpack with a change of clothes & her water bottle):

1. show & tell – she took field corn & pheasant feathers!
2. pictures of her family
3. Froggy (the class “pet” – a huge stuffed frog that was with us for Thanksgiving weekend)
4. playdough (it was our turn to make homemade playdough for the class – Liv chose pink – go figure!)
5. snack (it was also our turn to take snack – she chose oatmeal raisin granola bars). This morning she took blueberry muffins for her birthday treat.

2. I started Weight Watchers on-line last Monday and lost 5 lbs the first week (over Thanksgiving!)!

3. I had my Advent Wreath on the table for dinner Sunday night with candles in it (and they are the hard-to-find tiny tapers!). We also have our new Advent Calendar up and have opened one door each day to count the days until Jesus’ birthday. And I even have our gifts from St. Nick ready to go for Sunday (thanks to after-Christmas sales last year)!! We are actually on track to follow the plan I made for Advent last year (and then had a hard time getting through)! Might have something to do with not traveling for Christmas this year . . . or maybe not having a newborn is a bigger factor!

Looks Like a Duck

This is a little random I know, but at bedtime snack tonight we spent five minutes trying to decide if Livy’s cheese puff looked like a duck. Violet’s nickname is “Peanut” and she has a habit of sticking out her lips so that she looks like a duck. So now you think I’m weird and have too much free time to blog about this. At least I didn’t make the website www.thispeanutlookslikeaduck.com. No really, you should go there. Leave us a comment letting us know how much time you waste.

Princesses

The last line in our Cinderella book is, “The prince asked her to marry him and Cinderella became a princess at last.”

When I’d finished reading it last night, Olivia asked, “why was Cinderella a princess?”

“Because she married a prince,” I said, “if you marry a prince, that makes you a princess.”

“So you are a princess, Mama?”

“Yes, sweetheart. Yes, I am.”

A Wrinkle in Time

In mid-September, we packed up the van for a two-week vacation in Nebraska. We had a full schedule planned with lots of fun activities (like JR’s first marathon, a fishing party at the pasture and a trip to the pumpkin patch) and, of course, plenty of quality time with the grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins. Shortly after arriving, however, the focus of the trip changed pretty dramatically. We learned that JR’s dad has colon cancer and things moved pretty quickly toward his first surgery on October 1st. A second surgery followed, and he spent 3 weeks in the hospital before it was all said & done. All the while, JR took up the work on the farm (making fence, hauling cattle, getting ready for harvest, doing chores, etc.) and the girls & I settled in at the Andrews farm. We made some adjustments when Grandpa came to “live with us” (a quote from Livy) at his house, and got pretty used to farm life. But after eight weeks in Nebraska, Grandpa was getting around on his own, the cattle were sold, the bean harvest was complete and the corn would get out whenever the weather cooperated and extended family could get to it. Grandpa had chemo left to do, but they could manage that with out us, so back to Texas we went – in mid-November! And here it is Thanksgiving and Advent starts on Sunday and Livy’s 4th birthday is next weekend. As shocking as it sounds, time did not stand still while we were away. And it certainly hasn’t stood still since we got home either. We have big plans for updating the website and the photo album and writing about all our adventures, so stay tuned . . .

Thanks so much for all of your prayers and well-wishes during our 8 week odyssey. We are hopeful that JR’s dad will have a full recovery and grateful that we were able to play a part in making the best out of a bad situation. It’s really good to be home, but we’ll miss all y’all in NE, too!

My New Motto

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
-Mother Theresa

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