All Things Girl

I was delited to hear Teresa Tomeo speaking about her new series done with Molly Miller and Monica Cops called All Things Girl. http://www.bezalelbooks.com/BezalelBookstore.htm#pre-teen%20and%20teen We ordered the book yesterday morning and it arrived today!! The first book is called Friends, Boys, and Getting Along Hannah gives it two thumbs "way, way up" as Sammy would say. I will take a look at it tonight. What a blessing it is to have strong, Catholic publications available to us!! God is so good! Christmas came early yesterday when Grandma Jackson arrived with McCain/Palin stickers, bumper stickers, and yard signs. My goodness the kids were excited, LOL. You really would have thought it was Christmas :) We are anxious to celebrate St. Therese's Feast Day tomorrow (October 1). Our own Mary Therese was named for this wonderful Saint and Doctor of the Church. Our plan is to celebrate with donuts or bagels in the morning and watch the Therese movie in the afternoon sometime (or perhaps tomorrow evening). For more information about St. Therese please visit this website : http://www.sttherese.com/ May God bless your day and thanks for reading!!

Weekend Update

Well - we had a FULL weekend. It was great. Tomorrow I'll have post weekend let down.

Friday night Jesse and I went to see Dr. Ray Guerendi (www.drray.com) at Our Lady of Good Council. He is a child psychologist and absolutely hilarious! Great advice and a wonderful delivery. I first saw him 11 years ago at a middle school in Plymouth. At the time we had Brandon, Hannah, and I was pregnant with Owen. I was not active in my Faith (to say the least) and while I really liked his parenting philosophy I also thought he was a little nuts. He had 10 kids, homeschooled, and wasn't ashamed to be a Catholic. Wowza did I think he was off his rocker. Isn't it funny how God humbles us? I'm glad He does ;)

Saturday I was able to clean up the house a bit (Jesse had the kids at Hannah's soccer game) and then head out to the *new* Baby Bliss. Darn it, I meant to take pictures, but it looks so great! Colleen and Trevor have done an excellent job!! I got to hang out there for a few hours and even saw Leigh Anne, Peter, and Isabel when they stopped in. The Denja's were wonderful enough to go to Katie's soccer game too. That made her weekend :) And she scored a goal!! :D Yippee for Katie!

After Baby Bliss I headed to Trader Joe's for the "essentials" (you know - wine, kettle corn, and organic corn chips). Jesse and I had a quick dinner at home and then went to see the new movie "Fireproof" (www.fireproofthemovie.com). I have to say it is a MUST SEE!! It was fantastic! Cecilia was an angel and slept or nursed through all of the movie. Jesse and I both thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Jesse especially loved the music and got the soundtrack on itunes. We have listened to it several times already ;) I hope many of you are able to go out and support this film. If only we could have more movies like this in the theaters.

This morning we had mass and then headed out to Greenfield Village. We got there mid afternoon so didn't have too much time but we did have fun. The weather was really nice. Now I'm waiting for Jesse to get home from picking Brandon up from Lifeteen at Christ the King in Ann Arbor.

I'm so thankful to God for this wonderful weekend with my family. I hope you all had such a wonderful weekend!! God bless you!

Reading Class

Just a quick video. Here's Mary *reading* to Katie. Very cute.

A lifetime in a day

Do you ever feel like you've lived a lifetime in a day? I'm sure you do. That's how I feel today. We spent a ton of time in the kitchen today making apple pie (yum!), dinner, lunch, breakfast, etc. Schooling, soccer practice, and taking Brandon to an appointment with an admissions counselor from Franciscan University in Steubanville, OH (the appt. is in Ann Arbor, though, LOL). Laundry, dishes, nursing, diaper changes, phew....the day's not over yet. Oh, and I managed my Wii Fit workout. I killed Jesse's high score on hoola hooping ;)

OK - time to really get dinner on the table. Here's a couple pictures. That's Mary in the cat costume and there's rice in the water table. I'll clean that up later, LOL.

Have a blessed day!!!

This and That and The Other

Today Cecilia belly laughed. I'll have to get it on video because it's so darn cute. It was in the car after I dropped Hannah off at her soccer game and before I took Brandon to Border's Books to get his new Christopher Paolini book. Owen was in the back seat making faces at her and apparently she liked what she saw :) Or maybe she was just excited that Brandon was going to treat Jesse, Grandma, and I to a coffee from Border's. Either way - it was very cute! :D

Life goes fast around here. It seems there's never enough time for the little things. I have to remind myself to stop and enjoy these little ones even in the midst of getting the big ones to where they need to be.

Mary is talking up a storm, now, and refuses to drink from sippy cups. When she says "Cecilia" it's just about the cutest thing ever.

Samuel is very into doing "shows" for us and even wanted to put on a show for the moms that were here for our homeschooling meeting the other night. He really only knew two of the moms but insisted that he would do a show for us, LOL. He's like no boy I've ever had. Brandon, Owen, and Jackson are all pretty reserved in that respect. Jackson is like a cat and goes into hiding when there's "other" people here, LOL. Owen used to do the same. Not Sammy. He's all about the "shows". :D It's cute, I must say.

I think Cecilia will roll over soon. She's really working at it. It's hard to believe she's that old already. 11 wks on Monday. Time really flies.

Speaking of time flying I really need to get to the grocery store. Just wanted to put up a few pics. I didn't get to Owen's game today (it was in Dearborn and at the same time as Katie's) but made it to Hannah and Katie's. Here are some pics.

Also have to plug for Todd LaJoy. He's running for state rep as a Republican. He came to my door the other night and while I usually lash out at anyone "soliciting" he looked quite friendly so we chatted. I asked him if he was pro life and he said, indeed, he was. He is endorsed by Right to Life of Michigan so I said that was good news :) I told him I'd tell all my friends so here I am making good on my promise :)

God bless and have a great day!

Happy 8th Birthday Katie!!!

Katherine Elizabeth Maureen Ekblad was born on Thursday, September 14, 2000 at 4:32 p.m. She weighed 9lbs 6 oz and was 22 inches long. She had a sparkling personality then and still does. We are blessed to have her in our lives!

Katie got a lot of fun presents including a leotard and gymnastics classes. She is excited to start those! We went to mass where she got a special blessing from Fr. John. Then we were treated by Grandpa and Grandma at Red Robin. Uncle Andy, Aunt Teresa, Ellie, and Thomas joined us there. We came home after that and just hung out with eachother, played a little Wii Fit, and mommy took a much needed rest. Katie requested tacos for dinner so daddy made those, we did a family rosary, and finished off the evening with a yummy cheesecake. Brandon treated Katie to some playing with legos and now it's time for bed!! Hopefully the kids will agree to that ;)

I think Katie had a nice birthday! God bless your day!

To Vegas and Back and Cecilia is 2 Months Old!!!

Cecilia and I accompanied Colleen to Las Vegas for a Baby and Children's Show to buy items for her store. It was a quick trip but lots of fun. While there Cecilia turned 2 months old! She was th perfect baby on the plane and at the show. She is such a sweetie. Mary took over my role as housecleaner while I was gone ;)

Now it's back to the normal stuff of life. Katie turns 8 next Sunday (the 14th) and the decision about which cake to have is very controversial in the house. Some have voted for cheesecake with a side of cupcakes while others just want a regular cake. Katie has left the decision up to me. Hmmm....I'll let you know the decision when it's made ;)

Fall Soccer Begins

Soccer season officially begins today. The kids were shining in their brand new uniforms. Jesse just left for the triad of games. Brandon, Cecilia and I will follow shortly.

In other news - Cecilia and I are leaving for a convention of sorts in Las Vegas with Colleen. We are excited to see all the fun things Colleen can buy for her store. They recently leased a larger store and I get the privelage of helping to fill it ;)

Take care and God Bless!

First Day of School

We began our 7th year of homeschooling today. Jackson is an official kindergartner this year. We are all very proud of him. So we have kids in grade 11, 6, 5, 3, and K this year. Plus three "pre schoolers" LOL. (See Mary's picture where she is *reading* her book - she kept saying "I need book too" ). I think Jesse and I are both still very happy with our decision to homeschool. It's a lot of work but we feel it's God's will for our family and the price is worth it :)

Enjoy your day and your "back to school" days! :D