Happy Birthday Jesse!!!

Well - I think (hope) Jesse had a nice birthday. *I* would have enjoyed such a day for my birthday. We started off with mass, then headed back home for lunch (eggs, sausage, biscuits, bacon, and sliced peaches). After a few minutes to hang out a bit we headed over to the Miles Christi St. Joseph House for their annuel picnic. (www.mileschristi.org) What a blast that was! There was a pinata, volleyball, bouncy castle/slide, family rosary, a water balloon toss (where mommy got quite soaked!), balloon sword fighting and tug of war. There was also food and lots of GREAT company there! :D After we came home we sang to daddy and enjoyed the wonderful, homemade German Chocolate Cake that Hannah made yesterday. It was wonderful!!! Now we're putting kids to bed and Jesse will put his new birthday gift webkinz online :) I hope Jesse had a great day because he surely deserves it. God Bless Your Day!

PS - I know it looks like (in the video) that Brandon is covering the baby's mouth. He's holding in her pacifier, LOL.

Brandon on Borders

http://www.bordersmedia.com/shows/bookclub/paolini.asp

A Party for Cecilia

We celebrated a belated Baptism party this evening at a local park. I think it went pretty well. When we woke up this morning it looked like rain but by evening the weather was perfect. Not hot, not cold, and no rain. My perfect day :) Today is also the feast of St. Augustine. I had to mention it as he is one of my favorite Saints. I did a much longer post on St. Augustine and St. Monica last year on this day. I'm too tired to put out anything involving research and links at this point but wanted to at least mention the feast.

You'll notice Jesse above putting together his *secret* recipe lemonade. Mary is trying to learn the secrets but hasn't as of yet ;) I think Colleen got ahold of the recipe, though.

God Bless your day!

The Last Bits of Summer

Jesse took the four boys camping this weekend. They had a really great time. I stayed home with big girls and the babies. It's all a blur. I'm afraid I was disappointment to the girls as they wanted a big "girls weekend" but I still had a nursing infant and Mary to deal with on my own. Sorry ladies. Some are stronger than I am. It's all I can do to survive these days. And if one more person tells me that they know what I'm going through because they watch "Jon and Kate plus Eight" I'm going to vomit right directly on them.

Anyway - we're all healthy and ready to begin schooling on Sept 2. Owen got a head start with his math already. We've been spending alot of time with the Denja's lately. They started school today (but fit us in for a play date after :) ). Mike took some of the kids geocaching.

That's about it from here. Jesse is trying to get Mary to bed but it isn't sounding good up there so I should go.

God Bless Your Day.

15 Minutes of Fame

Brandon met with Christopher Paolini today in a small group roundtable discussion put on (and recorded) by Border's book. Jesse took him and said it was a great experience. I was relieved to find out (from Brandon) that Mr. Paolini is "like a regular person" LOL.

In addition to meeting with the author, being recorded, getting a DVD of the recording, and a $100 gift card from Borders, they also handed out brand new copies of Eragon and Eldest for the kids to take. Brandon brought his old (and a bit ratty) books to be signed. So, being the "big brother of the year" that he is - he gave the brand spanking new ones to Owen and had the author sign them "to Owen". What a great guy!

I think this tops Brandon's list of "best day ever" so far in his life :) God Bless your day!

First Smiles

Well, here it is Thursday already. We've had a busy week and it's not over yet. Cecilia is 6 1/2 weeks old already. It's so hard to believe! She seems in between newborn and infant now. She started smiling around two weeks old. But now she smiles *on demand* when we talk to her. It's very sweet.

Brandon has an exciting day tomorrow. He's going to be involved in a "round table" meeting with one of his favorite authors, Christopher Paolini. http://www.alagaesia.com/index.php Brandon emailed Border's Books and was interviewed (and picked) to be involved in the taping of a roundtable discussion with the author. Jesse is the lucky one that gets to take him tomorrow. I will post info on where/when to watch the show when I get it.

The boys leave for a dad/son camping trip early Saturday morning. Even Sammy is going so it will be just the girls at our house. I'm not sure what we have planned yet. I'm sure the boys will have a great time. And I'm a tad jealous at the "get away". I'm always nursing a baby/toddler so can't get *away* with the olders alone. Good thing the baby's smiles are so cute ;) So, pray for a safe trip for my guys and that I don't go insane at home with an 18 month old and 6 wk old! I know my older girls will help me out. :)

Have a blessed day!

God Bless Baby Peter!

Today was Peter's baptism. What a beautiful Baptism it was! It was at the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak. I have been there for Mikey's Baptism and Maria's First Communion and both times vowed to go back and just walk around checking things out. I haven't done that yet but really need to! After the Baptism we went to grandma Paula and grandpa Joe's house for a party. They throw a good party and we stayed until dark! The kids were all tired and fell asleep on the way home (except Cecilia). That's a good deal. We should go to Paula's at least once/week ;) My mom is home from the hospital and recovering great! I'm sure she'll be feeling good as new in a day or two. Thank you for the prayers!

This and That

Earlier in the week we met the Denja's at Jungle Java. Then on Friday we met my brother, niece, and nephew at Greenfield Village. After they left we got a visit from the McInnis ladies! What a wonderful day it was! Cecilia was an angel! The weather was perfect and I was so glad that we went.

Please pray for my mom who is in the hospital right now. She was supposed to have an outpatiant procedure but has been in the hospital since Thursday. I pray she can come home tomorrow.

My parents celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary today. Congratulations mom and dad! What inspiration, especially in this day and age!

Have a blessed night!

VBS Homeschool Style

A big thanks to Colleen for planning and hosting a VBS for a couple of families (including us) this week. It was nice to be at someone's house, have yummy snacks, and a solid Catholic Vacation Bible School. The kids had a great time! Thanks to the leaders - Brandon, Caitlyn, Hannah, and Nicholas. What good sports they were even when it was time to sing along :D We had the last day at our house and Jesse joined us for a pizza party (actually he brought the pizza!) and a quick tug of war. We'll let you see who won the war ;)

My SIL, Teresa, came over for a visit yesterday. She brought lunch (yummy!) and my niece and nephew. It's tough getting pictures of my nephew, Thomas, so I was glad to snap one of him holding Cecilia :D

Brandon and Allison Follbaum did a day of disecting for biology class today. Jesse was on hand to help out. I hid in the back room trying not to think about the dead creatures being ripped apart on my kitchen table...ah homeschooling. Gotta love it! :)

One Month Old Today

Cecilia celebrated one month of age today :D Mary hasn't gotten sick of her yet (and neither have we ;) ).

Leigh Anne brought the kids for a visit yesterday. Mary was happy to have two babies in the house. Samuel and Mikey played some trains. It was a very nice afternoon.

Finding Grandma

Nothing too exciting going on here today. I took six of the kids to Jungle Java this morning. Mary had an absolute blast and grandma Jackson showed up to help out, thank goodness!!! I'm still not all that good at this. I know lots of people with lots more kids can manage but I still have a tough time going out alone. Especially without Brandon and Hannah (and they weren't there today). Anyway....I was thinking about how lucky MY kids are to have their grandma live so close to them. They get to see her almost everyday and have second set of parents to ask for rides to the library or whatever when I say "no" (they check w/me before calling grandma, generally). Anyway - it made me think of *my* grandma Jackson and what a fun and loving grandma she was. I think of her daily as I go along doing different things. She was always a very *up* person, an optimist for sure, and seemed to have the energy of an energizer bunny. As it happened I was looking downstairs for school books and found a picture of grandma and I from a Texas trip in 1989. Oh how it made my day! I was just thinking before that how I needed some kind of pick me up (but I was thinking chocolate, LOL) when I found grandma. Family is so important. We carry the memories (good or bad) of our family with us wherever we go in life. I'm so glad I have grandma to carry with me. Of course I have wonderful memories of both of my grandmothers but this picture made me think of Grandma Jackson.

Saturday night at the fountain

Jesse and I took Mary and Cecilia up to the fountain in our subdivision tonight. The weather was great. We didn't stay long. Mommy's tired ;)

Mary's new thing is saying "me" or "I do" whenever we say ANYTHING that remotely sounds like something she needs to be in on. Tonight it was going to grandma's house. And who wouldn't want to go there? She also tends to follow me around with a bowl or plate saying "I do" when she wants something to eat. That was cute for a very short while....Anyway - here she is saying "me" which is not as cute as her "I do" but it was the best we could do tonight :D