Splashing Out of the Old Year and Into the New

A big thanks to grandma and grandpa for taking us to Splash Universe in Dundee for an overnight trip. http://www.splashuniverse.com/ The kids are very much enjoying their time here (we're still here :) ). Daddy was able to drive here from work and will go back to work in the morning so had to miss the water park part. He was greatly missed but we are glad he was able to at least spend the evening with us. We all very much appreciate all the hard work daddy has put in over what was supposed to be his Christmas vacation. Thanks Daddy! We're lucky to have such a good provider!

We're certainly ending this magnificent year on a good note. Time with family is the best! Andrew, Teresa, Ellie, and Thomas (my brother, SIL,niece, and nephew) were also here. The grown ups got to go to dinner in the hotel while the Red Cross certified sitters held down the fort in the room. Cecilia also accompanied us to dinner, of course ;)

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Season as much as we are. God bless you all!

The Day After Christmas - St. Stephen's Feast Day

Happy day after Christmas! In the Catholic Church we get to celebrate for 12 whole days after Christmas until Epiphany when the three kings visited the Baby Jesus. At the Ekblad house we are celebrating by organizing... OK - that's how mom celebrates. The kids are celebrating by playing with their new toys, still enjoying our Christmas tree/decorations, and music. The three kings in our Nativity are making their way closer to Baby Jesus. Today is also St. Stephen's Feast Day. St. Stephen was a young martyr who was stoned to death for preaching about Jesus during the early Church. The weather is warming up and we are, unfortunately, losing our snow. I'm hopeful we'll get some more cold and snow very soon. Well, speaking of organization - I better get back to it. Cecilia is done nursing and Mary is up from her nap...oh good - a helper.

Merry Christmas To All....

Minus a little crabbing from Mary we had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning! Happy Birthday baby Jesus! We went to Mass yesterday with my parents and then headed to their house where my brother and his family were. We had a lovely dinner and opened some gifts. Mary was pretty darn crabby (which made mommy a bit crabby too) but we got through it. ;) Jesse and I were up until 1 a.m. making preparations for Christmas morning. I felt that I did alot of planning ahead of time it still took alot of work the night before. Jesse was a trooper and stayed up with me (and Cecilia) to finish everything. This morning we awoke bright and early for a prayer of thanksgiving and then on to the gift opening. Grandma and Grandpa joined us for that. We prepared a lovely breakfast of waffles, bacon, quiche, fruit, fresh whipped cream, and lots of other yummies. Jesse was the bacon guy and did a great job cooking it even with a baby on his back. After breakfast we opened our stockings. Jesse got me a beautiful crucifix necklace which I have coveted for a long time now. It's beautiful and I'm very happy to have it. Even Scarlet got a bone for Christmas. Since the stockings I have seen little of Brandon and Owen. They have been building legos for hours now. We'll head over to my parents house early evening sometime. I hope you all have a Blessed Christmas Day!

Below is a video I put together for my parents for Christmas. That cute little girl in the glasses is me ;)

Christmas Memories

We made our annual trip to The Henry Ford today with my parents, my brother, SIL, and their two children. It was a wonderful time, as usual. Happy 6th birthday to my niece, Ellie!

Kids are buzzing about here. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve already! I cannot believe it. Truly, I cannot. I feel ill prepared for Christmas Day. Mary is recovering from a nasty cold. I have gotten little to no sleep in the last week between Mary's coughing and needing comforting and the fact that it wakes Cecilia up each time Mary coughs.

Even sleep deprived I am very grateful for all that we have been blessed with. Speaking of those blessings - they are upstairs fighting right now. So I am off. Thank you all for your beautiful Christmas cards and wishes. We have enjoyed them all!

God Bless!

Let it Snow....

We are enjoying a winter storm here today. The kids were outside before 9 a.m. !




Above is Katie and Jackson playing St. Joseph and St. Mary on a "donkey" on their way to Bethlehem. Unfortunately for St. Mary, when she had Baby Jesus he was taken by our own Mary, LOL. It was all very traumatic.

Prepare Ye the Way

As we light the third Advent wreath candle (pink) we celebrate the joy of Christmas. At the Ekblad house we are plodding along in our Advent adventure. We are continuing our reading of Jotham's Journey

( http://www.amazon.com/Jothams-Journey-Storybook-Arnold-Ytreeide/dp/0825441749/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229292235&sr=8-1 ), working on our Jesse Tree, decorating outside, doing some baking, and today we put up the tree. It's an experience putting up the tree with all the kids. We also discovered this year that we will need a second tree if we want to display all of our ornaments.

Other than that we've just been very busy. We will finish up our last week of school until after the new year this week. The kids are very excited about that (and so is mom). We will hopefully squeeze in some baking and hopefully get in some good family time. Family games are the best!

I was just alerted that my light up nativity has died. I'm very sad about that. It was my favorite :( Maybe I'll find one on sale after Christmas.

May God bless this season for you and your family!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom and Thanks for everything you have done for us!

Here's What the kidlings have to say,

Katie: I'm thankful that she's my mom.

Sam: I'm thankful that she got me toys.

Jackson: Same thing as Katie.

Hannah: I'm thankful for EVERYTHING!! But one of my especiallys is, her paying for me to do musicals and plays. and driving me to soccer and stuff.

Mary: "I'm thankful that Mama got me wiggles."

Brandon: I'm thankful for everything but especially her taking me to lifeteen.

Owen: I'm thankful for EVERYTHING but especially her taking me to soccer.

Cecilia: I'm thankful that mama has milk...

Thanks for everything and we hope you have a Happy and Blessed Birthday!

Love, Brandon, Hannah (I wrote it :)), Owen, Katie, Jackson, Samo, Mary, and Cecilia.

Happy Birthday! We hope you have the bestestestestestestestest birthday in the whole wide universe!

Best Friends

I am so blessed in that many of my kids have *friends* right from birth. Cecilia is no exception. She and Peter are about 3 1/2 weeks apart in age (Peter was born August 1). They are just now starting to notice eachother. Soon they will be "sharing" toys and then not sharing them, LOL. Leigh Anne was good enough to bring lunch for me and my kids today in celebration of my birthday (which is tomorrow). We had a wonderful afternoon hanging out and the kids played really well.

Just wanted to share the photos. God bless your day!

Cecilia is Five Months Old!

Can you believe it? I cannot! Five months old today! She's bursting out of her cozy cacoons now and oh so anxious to get down and run around with the kids. She is an absolutely delightful baby girl! She brightens our day everyday and we are so happy to have her :D

Meanwhile I've been busy buying and wrapping Christmas gifts and preparing for the many advent activities we have going on in December. It's a busy time, that's for sure!

Don't forget that Monday is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. A Holy Day for all of my Catholic friends ;)

God bless your day!