i thought he was five months old...apparently i was mistaken

two teeth (thanks mom! i really enjoy having you lay me down and shove your fingers in my mouth for the benefit of my internet audience!)

crawling. that's right folks, crawling. but you ain't seen nothing yet...

i am standing up!



mike took isabel and mikey to an indoor play area to celebrate jackson's fourth birthday. the pictures speak for themselves...he cannot be a mere 5 months old.

punk. growing up way too quickly.

i'm thankful for...

four beautiful, healthy, loving, funny, blessed children
one awesome, giving, involved, always-trying-to-make-things-better husband
two wonderful sisters who couldn't be better aunts to my kids, one of whom completed a 3-day breast cancer walk and one who just completed a half marathon
one great sister-in-law who also couldn't be a better aunt to my kids
two great brothers-in-law, both of whom are willing to play endless games with my girls and never seem to run out of energy
a wonderful, giving, loving mother-in-law who loves my kids without end and always makes me rice with almonds and raisins :)
a loving, goofy father-in-law who always has a compliment for everyone
a wonderful, giving, always-there-when-I-need her mom who's thoughtfulness I can only hope to mimic
a giving, concerned dad who also goes out of his way to help and who loves me despite the way I vote ;)
two wonderful, giving, thriving grand-parents who always welcome us and let our kids be kids in their home
a group of awesome women who have become my best friends online, who are out there raising their kids to be awesome human beings despite the culture we live in.
a job that provides us all benefits and allows me to be home with my kids every afternoon (even though our income is "poverty" level - LOL!)
the hope of a job that will provide a bit more $ and allow me to advise students
a wonderful family of almost 9 that has become our best family friends
my many other friends, who i may not see as often, but are always there in prayers and thoughts
our modest home in a crime-free neighborhood where i can feel safe about my kids going out to play
our family van and car that even at 190,000 miles and 8 years is still going b/c we can't afford another car payment!
the wonderful school and community that provides a perspective for my kids that religion and God are not just a "Sunday-only" thing
good food to eat
bills (because even though we've had to take out a loan to pay them, they mean we have a car, a home, a wonderful school, heat, electricity, gas, water, insurance, groceries, the telephone, the Internet, etc.)
being at poverty level b/c to be "poor" in this country would be "rich" in almost every other place on earth - we truly "want" for nothing...nothing that is necessary anyway ;)

somebody turned 4yo yesterday

somebody turned 4yo yesterday! we had cake with grandma, grandpa and tita tina and tito kevin.

as you can see the guinea pigs made it after much swearing on my part...baking/
frosting/
whatever you call it is so not my thing, but hey! it doesn't take much to impress a 4yo lucky for me!

tita brought a beautiful coat for isabel. unfortunately 4yo fashion sense says that "brown is not for girls" but after the promise of a bag of chewy sweet tarts, she conceded to trying it on with a smile as long as it was "outside where no one can see."

mikey is not nearly so picky so he was happy to try on his new outfit and doesn't he look so dapper!?!

that's all folks - happy thanksgiving, pix of that to come...

so i guess you'd call this the guinea pig guinea pig

the test cake. yes, it's a little scarey, but it was good enough for isabel. when grandpa joe cut the head off and ate it, she cried "i didn't want anyone to eat it! i wanted to save him!" LOL so we'll see how she does with the real deal.

guess what's next?!?! little turkey cupcakes for thanksgiving! woohoo!

let the guinea pig cake making begin!

ok, so if you know me at all, you know enough to know that i.don't.cook. but my little isabel has been asking for a guinea pig cake for two years now and something has possessed me to give this the old college try! so, i just baked two cake mixes into little mini loaf pans that will hopefully become something that resembles 3D guinea pigs. i'm going to use the loafs as the body, a cupcake for their little noggins and then frost in alternating chocolate and vanilla for that guinea pig look. shredded coconut may or may not end up mixed with the frosting for that "furry" look - but i did dye some green for grass and each guinea pig will have it's own little cupcake dish with green coconut and a few orange slices in it as their little food bowl. sliced almonds for the ears. m&ms for the eyes and nose and those little white candy toppings - 3 each for whiskers. i hope it turns out! i promise to post some pix either way so you can see my masterpiece or disaster as the case may be...LOL.

speaking of the birthday girl, she received two packages from Aunt Erin this weekend - needless to say - LOVES them!



she's been really into mikey lately and 'taking care' of him - she was teaching him how to pat the ground and crawl the other day


he was so chilled out last night, just really mellow and all giggly for no apparent reason, he even sat through a story that maria read to him.


yet, another pouch that i have made out of a pair of jeans in the last few days. one of the girls took this pic.









so much to look forward to! the girls are spending the night at grandma paula's tonight. mike is zonked, his cough is really getting to him and i think he finally resorted to OTC cough medicine, put him right to sleep! i'm up baking and mikey is down...for now. next week we've got the thanksgiving feast at school, isabel's birthday and tita tina and kevin arrive on the big day. we're making turkey cupcakes and cranberry/orange jello to take to grandma paula's. then in early december we'll have st nicholas' feast day (which is when we do our stockings) and we'll be making a trip up to TC and will finally get to see the blanchard's new digs! can't wait for that! and the following week is our caroling project for little flowers and then before you know it! Christmas is here!

okay - love to all y'all out there - back to baking for me!

we have a tooth...

more like a tooth bud...but out of the gums it has come.

i'm selling this pouch that i made with a pair of old jeans and some batik fabric. a girl i know online is having a really hard time financially so all profit will be sent to her.





of course it won't look AS cute without mikey in it...but what can you do?














heard on both jobs...both went to very qualifed candidates with more internal experience than I had so I can't feel too badly, but ugh...still. it's a bummer. why can't they just tell you when there is someone else so you can at least not ever get your darn hopes up. i'll still interview...it's good practice...but just tell me upfront that someone has the darn job already...things go so well and i start to get giddy thinking about being able to do what i really want to do - and do it full time - and get paid more and then...no call.

worked this a.m. then went home to pick up mikey and isabel, made lunch and took it out to a mom from school who is laid up with a bum ankle. broke it on a summer vacation and while recovering from surgery got an infection and has since had like 3 more surgeries involving skin grafts...guess i should shut up now about my piddly problems, huh? anyway, we took lunch to her and had lunch with her and then isabel and mikey and i played with their dog. isabel was excited and then scared, but very brave even though the puppy knocked her over, she still hung in there. then off to run some errands. pick the girls up from school. feed mikey. leave for work again. teach class. come home and put kids to bed and then go out grocery shopping. ugh. i am so pooped.

i'm going to attempt to make some guinea pig cakes for isabel's birthday. i got some very small loaf pans for the bodies, a cupcake for the head and some chocolate and vanilla frosting to alternate and get the colors of a GP. going to use some coconut for fur and dye some coconut green for grass. please tell me if you have a better idea! i don't know what i'm doing, but she's so sweet it's worth a try! LOL

my "baby" sister is 27 today. wow. we talked for a bit on my way to class. i'm so bummed i can't be at her house (w/the rest of my childhood family) for thanksgiving, but ah well. tita tina and tito kevin are arriving on isabel's big day so we will all go out for dinner together and isabel is excited...she just keeps saying "I can't wait! It's taking SOOOOOOOOO long!" :)

okay better get to bed.

hat's off to our very own veteran!

the girls helped me make a carmel apple pie for Mike today in honor of veteran's day. it was a nice, relaxing saturday. slept in until 8am (woo hoo!) and did some housework, then off to kohls to buy a birthday present. now that was a mistake. i had no idea it was the "holiday season" already...the place was packed! ay yi yi. it wasn't too bad though...got in and out relatively unscathed and with three kids!! then we picked up maria and headed to my friend Colleen's store in Northville. it is SO wonderful, full of awesome toys and baby items...she really has the coolest stuff. we met Hannah there and gave her the birthday present we had picked out. sterling silver earrings since she was going to pierce her ears today on her 10th birthday! what fun. then back home to mike's chilli (YUM!) and some more bumming around before we got to the pie making.

i cut the apples and the older girls made the crumbles (which they did perfectly...and it can be hard to mix together the flour, brown sugar and butter just right - they really worked hard at it!), isabel took the apples from me and mixed them in a bowl with spoonfuls of sugar. mike was out (b/c this was a big surprise for him) and mikey managed to sleep through the whole process (which is a minor miracle in itself, as i said, he's been really clingy lately). i made some carmel and we poured it on top and YUM it was good. we at the whole thing.

girls went to bed early b/c we have to be out in royal oak for church tomorrow at 9am so maria can present her letter to Jesus...should be a crowded mass and i'm not keen on the earliness of it all, but she worked so hard on her letter that i'd like her to be able to present it with everyone else and then we'll have all day at grandmas.

well, i said the girls "went to bed" early but there are still things going "bump in the night" on the other side of the wall, so i'm off to put the smack down.

God Bless all our troops abroad and at home - keep them safe and sound and let them know how much they are appreciated! God Bless all those who have defended us and paid with their lives, may they enjoy the blessings of heaven! Happy Veteran's Day!

it's been awhile...

last friday the girls had the day off so we traveled to jackson to visit w/the pelletiers. carmen got to have a sleepover and saturday did a workshop at home depot. maria had a first communion retreat so i volunteered to be a "shepherd" mom so she wouldn't be alone. it was a nice day. this sunday at mass she presents her letter to Jesus.


sunday of last weekend we went to visit grandma alice and grandpa bruce. grandma let us "organize" her jewelry drawers and it was so fun. we also had lunch at pizza hut, mikey wasn't really a fan, but the rest of us enjoyed the buffet.



last thursday we had little flowers and sang christmas carols and it snowed... wouldn't you know it, this thursday just one week later, it was 70 degrees for our meeting with Sister Maximillian Marie. isabel was beyond cute. Sister talked about the acts of mercy and asked what we could do to help people and little isabel just raised that hand and said "if someone is hungry, you could bring them some food" - it was just so genuine and cute and just melted my heart...she's really been a "big girl" the last few meetings we've had, doing the crafts and sitting well in the circle, etc.



this is just a quick pic of the lastest homemade sling. it's actually a pouch i made out of an old pair of jeans and a piece of fleece i had laying around. it's become my go-to carrier of late b/c it's so easy to pop mikey in and out and it's nice and cozy with the fleece...








it's been just crazy busy of late. i feel like there's no time to keep up with anything...just constant go-go-go or basic maintenance mode...the piles of laundry just never end! and we're all fighting an ugly cough.

mikey is very clingy lately. a happy guy but he wants to be held all the time...even while he sleeps. he's pretty cheerful for the most part if he gets his constant body contact though :) he's started grabbing faces and holding his hands out to people to be held. he's really a little ray of sunshine.

the girls are all good. carmen is getting more confident in her reading. maria is the recipient of many "I love Maria" notes in school...sigh...i guess i should be happy it's the boys writing her and not the other way around. isabel is a cutie patootie as per usual. she got to color in kindergarten today and of course that's just the coolest!

well this mama is pooped, so i'm off 'til next time!

this is what 32 looks like...

ugh. doesn't seem to be any time lately to put in a decent post. Had a nice birthday - pretty low key except for a surprise visit from my sister from California! It was so nice to see Erin, but a little bit of a bummer because she and my dad had tickets to game 6 of the world series and well, ahem...we all know what happened to that dream!



trick-or-treating was fun. we went over to grandma paula's directly after school and went through her neighborhood with the girls while she passed out candy with mikey (who passed out - i guess he thought it was boring?!?!? LOL) carmen was a renissance princess, maria a panther (yes, third year in a row...same costume) and isabel a leopard. mikey was the cutest teddy bear skeleton EVAH!!!!! (no pix sorry)



busy day today. work, Little Flowers, parent-teacher conferences. the girls' teachers said they are both doing very well. wonderful girls, my girls! and Little Flowers was so fun - we are practicing Christmas Carols for our service project - a little early yes, but with the lovely snow today, it felt "just right" so we had a sing-a-long with one of the mom's on guitar - I can't say how much I loved it! it's so nice to hear them sing! it's not from today, but here's shot of our meetings:













work is going well. i enjoy it - the people are nice, but i am still trying to get a job servicing students and full time. right now the organization i work for really isn't a part of EMU and i don't really get to work with students so i'm hopeful that i'll be able to find something. i've been on two interviews since returning from maternity leave, but so far...nothing. also, i have to admit it'd be nice to change my office - right now i am in the basement of the dorm i lived in when i was on campus, no kidding! it's very dingy. i guess that's the word. the account specialist said she thinks she killed a roach today. that's information i just don't need, yk? gross...

one of the staff at school had a stillborn baby boy on Monday. it's just so sad. as far as i know there was no suspicion that anything was wrong prior to labor/delivery. it's all i can think of every time i hold mikey. i know that little john is a saint in heaven now, but it's just.so.sad.

wouldn't want to leave you on that note, so here's a little clip of mikey making a fool out of mike - LOL - that little boy can sure crack himself up!


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