An Alphabet of Saints :: B is for Blocks
 |
| Snuggles’ Alphabet of Saints Blocks |
 |
| Cupcake’s Alphabet of Saints Blocks |
Originally I had hoped to make eight sets in various colors/designs to give as Christmas gifts, but ended up with just three, Snuggles’ set plus sets for two of our dear godchildren, since my “extra” time was so limited in November and December. I do still have a fourth set in progress for Rose since she loved these blocks so much! In fact, one day she snuck into my bedroom, snatched a few blocks while I was on the phone and then hid under Captain’s desk with them until I found her… Yes, I’m hoping that she will find her very own set (made with rosy pink-uh paper of course!) inside her Easter Basket this year.
Supplies:
- 1 1/2-inch square wood blocks (I used 13-16 blocks for each set)
- Sandpaper
- Scissors
- Acrylic paint
- Mod Podge
- Paintbrush
- Decorative paper
- Alphabet Letters
- Sponge
Directions:
1. Sand the wooden block with sandpaper to prepare them for painting.
2. Paint the blocks with the color(s) you’ve selected. Allow to dry.
 |
| Snuggles’ and Cupcake’s sets were painted white |
 |
| Bear’s set was painted in multiple colors |
3. Cut the Alphabet Letters and Decorative Paper to squares measuring just under 1 1/2″ each.
4. Glue the paper to each side of the block using all-purpose Mod Podge. Allow the glue to dry.
Note: Using 13 blocks I started with letters A-M on the fronts and then continued with letters N-Z on the backs (in order with N on the back of M and Z on the back of A). Since I had room for three extra blocks in the box for Cupcake’s set I added a few extra vowels and consonants for her to use in creating her names.
5. Very carefully, to prevent the printed alphabet paper from smearing, paint another coat of Mod Podge all over the block to seal. Allow to dry.
 |
| This is what my husband patiently put up with on our bedroom dresser most of Advent! |
{pretty, happy, funny, real}
Somebody was mad, and refused to look at his daddy, when we picked him up at the airport…
However, it didn’t take Bud long at all to forgive him for being gone for three weeks!
Well, Hello There!
How’s your week going? Better than mine, I hope!
Only 43 more hours, until my husband is home again… Not that I’m counting or anything! 😉
I had such great plans for this week, to celebrate the feast of St. Agnes, have a Tea for Our Lady of Altagracia, finally move on to D week, catch up the laundry, organize the school room and do a little planning for the second half of our school year which begins next week, and finish up some blog post drafts, but that was not to be…
It has been a rough week around here!
Monday I had an appointment with the allergist to try and figure out what it was that made my throat swell right before Christmas (I’ve had other facial swelling before, but never my throat) and then again shortly after. I opened the paperwork just before leaving and realized that the appointment could last from 1-3 hours depending on the testing and results. They weren’t kidding and I was very thankful I took Twinkle Toes along to help with Bud.
I had suspected an allergy to our outdoor cat, who loves to sneak in the house to scare me warm up, so I was tested for that along with a whole panel of other things and everything came back negative. So I no longer have a good excuse to get rid of the cat we get to keep the cat! (Twinkle Toes was thrilled! And, I admit, was somewhat relieved too, just because our kiddos love Ferdinand so much…) The diagnosis ended up being the same one I was given years ago: idiopathic neurotic angioedema. The two most common triggers of this happen to be stress and infection. I had a sinus infection at the time my throat swelled, though I didn’t know it at the time, so it all makes a little more sense now. It was just very scary! The good news is that angioedema is very controllable with Zyrtec and I just need to recommit to carrying it with me all the time. (I’ve gotten bad about that over the years.) This type of condition rarely requires the need of an EpiPen, though I do have a prescription for something a little stronger, should I ever have a more serious episode. Thankfully the sinus infection is gone, and as for the stress, I don’t have much of that in my life, right? lol
After the doctors appointment we went to get something to eat and to run a few errands. I somehow managed to bend a prong on my wedding ring so I dropped that off at the jewelers to be repaired, spent my Gymbucks at Gymboree, and picked up some groceries at Trader Joes. We then headed to Costco to stock up on more groceries since it had been weeks since a trip to town. What a job, but the kids were thrilled to finally have some more food in the house.
I was hoping that Tuesday would be a calm day, but no such luck. We woke up to trash all over the yard (thank you raccoons) and no water (thank you freezing cold weather). Of course the first priority was to make some coffee so I headed out to the well house to see if I could thaw the pipes with my hair dryer. Hours later I gave up and melted some ice from the freezer. Anything for a cup of coffee!
In the meantime, as we continued to try and troubleshoot the lack of water, despite it warming up outside, my Dad (an electrician) walked me through taking apart the control box so I could text him a picture.
He wasn’t happy with the results – I guess those copper heads shouldn’t have been touching and something had tripped the breaker – so he headed up and brought along some water with him! Yay!
After reseting the breaker and testing the electrical wires the pumps still wouldn’t run and we also found out the holding tank was empty – which means the pump was most likely not working for quite some time, especially considering I hadn’t been using much water on Sunday or Monday. It was then time to call the pump guys!
Around 3:30 they arrived, along with my sister to take the girls to their Irish Dance Class, since I needed to stay home. They finally discovered that the pipes coming up from the deep well were the ones that had frozen, and once they got the ice thawed and opened up the restrictor we finally had water running back into the holding tank. It also ended up being a very good thing that the breaker had tripped, preventing the deep well pump from burning out. That would have ended up being much more expensive… Anyways, by 5:30 we finally had running water in the house! Hooray!!
Today wasn’t as challenging and I finally have had some time to start cleaning house from the past couple days, get ready for the tutor tomorrow, and clean out the detached garage in the rain. Yep… the garage was definitely not on the list for today!
Of course, after weeks of cold but dry weather, it finally started to rain this afternoon right when I had the glass company scheduled to replace the cracked windshield on Sean’s car. Thankfully, with the boys help, we made enough room to fit most of the car inside and the windshield is fixed!
Sigh... I think I need a nap. And a Zyrtec! 😉
{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: 35th Birthday Edition
 |
| Instagram Photo taken by my sister Julianna |
 |
| Me and My Seven Sweeties |
 |
| David, My Dad, My Niece, and My Kiddos |
 |
| Way too many candles… |
 |
| So tired, but very happy and very blessed! |
My sister, sister-in-law, and Twinkle Toes took more pictures, but the rest just make me want to go climb back on the treadmill! Yikes! Instead I am going to show you a picture from my 1st birthday. (You can see more childhood birthday memories here.)
I showed this picture to the kids the other night and they all thought that Bud looks just like me as a baby, if you ignore the dress and the bow! What do you think?
Announcing the Winner…
Since Rascal volunteered to help me fold all the entries I asked him if he would like to choose the winner. After reading so many of your comments and realizing that the 2013 Saints Calendar & Daily Planner is out of stock everywhere I was really wishing I had more than one to give away… Next fall I will try and remember to post a reminder when the new 2014 Saints Calendar comes out in September, and maybe even host another giveaway.
Made with Love :: A Birthday Cake for Mom!
Last night my girls had so much fun shopping for a few supplies to decorate a cake for me this year, after I wasn’t able to find a cake pan I was looking for at three different local stores… (More on that later!) This morning the big boys borrowed my camera and the girls kicked me out of the kitchen! Everyone helped while Bud napped and I had some quiet computer time with my cup of coffee. I just had to hop back online to share a few of the pictures I found on my camera, along with the completed cake and a picture of seven of my greatest blessings!
 |
| I’m very curious to find out what is inside the gift Sean left with the boys… They are making me wait until I have blown out my candles to open it! |
 |
| Pink Roses from Chiquita |
A beautiful bouquet of flowers just arrived from Sean (I miss him so much!), we are headed to town for a few treats, and my Aunt Bridget is coming over in a couple hours to make dinner for us all! I’ve closed the comments on the giveaway and will draw a name tonight or tomorrow morning, after I have had a chance to finish printing and cutting all the entries! 🙂
A Few Changes and A Saints Calendar Giveaway!
Christmas Day in the Morning
I am so thankful for my husband! I always realize just how much during times like right now, when he is gone for weeks and I have to try and keep up manage without him. He really helps so much around our home. I was so exhausted, and not feeling very well, following Midnight Mass on Christmas that he told me to just rest while he took care of filling all the stockings, setting up the rest of the nativities, laying baby Jesus in the manger, and placing the children’s gifts under the tree. We hadn’t gotten home until around 2am and he didn’t get to bed until nearly 5am, which was when I woke back up nurse the baby and then snap a few pictures.
 |
| Holy Family Stockings for the Boys and Angels for the Girls |
I’m still working on a system for storing the boy’s legos, and am hoping to hang a few more wall shelves in their bedroom soon. Usually the top of their dresser is covered with their creations and others are displayed on their bookcase. The rest are in boxes in the closet. I love Charlotte’s Lego Trays, but my boys have under bed drawers, otherwise I would have made some by now!
 |
| Bud enjoying the gifts from his godparents! |
 |
| Opening gifts from Grandpa and Grandma |
After the children had opened their gifts I put my camera down and didn’t pick it up again all day. We enjoyed the day together as a family and, after dinner, we drove out to my parents to deliver gifts and see more of my visiting siblings. It was such a beautiful blessed day, and just the beginning of our celebrations for the Twelve Days of Christmas and the whole Christmas season!
Our Christmas Day Christkindl Family Gift Exchange
We loved incorporating the Christkindl tradition into our own family traditions this year! On the first Sunday of Advent we all drew names, and though out Advent we prayed and did special favors for that particular person. We did our best to keep who had who a secret and we actually did really well!
We wanted to end with a Christkindl gift exchange, so that was a little challenging, since some of the children needed my help to get the gifts for their Christkindl. We gave them each an allowance to do so, but my hope is, as they get older, they will make gifts for each other… it just wasn’t practical this year, especially with our Advent birthdays.
I already knew that the Snuggles and Rose had each other, and had been helping them throughout Advent, and then I helped Rascal, Twinkle Toes and Chiquita with their gifts as well, but not until a couple days before Christmas. However, I still didn’t know who had me, that narrowed it down to Sean and Captain, and I really thought it was Sean! (Though he did have me confused since I noticed him doing things for others throughout Advent too – Feeding the Cat for Rascal some mornings before work, beating me to putting the dishes away in the middle of the night so that Captain would find an empty dishwasher in the morning, bringing me home a coffee… I really wasn’t sure who he had, though I did know it wasn’t Captain!) It was a nice surprise to find out that Captain and I had each other!!
Anyways, Chiquita started our gift exchange, carrying her gift (a box she choose to fill with little packages of lego mini-figures) over to Rascal. Rascal then gave his gift (a set of Rebecca books) to Twinkle Toes.
Twinkle Toes had her Daddy! She was so cute and reminded him of a few nights before Christmas when we were praying the rosary… Sean sometimes asks the kids if they have a specific intention they would like to pray for. That particular night he asked Twinkle Toes and she responded, “My Christkindl!” Sean went on to expand on that intention, praying specifically for certain things for that person (grow in virtues, etc) and he had no idea he was asking for those things for himself! Very sweet!! And he loved the Latin Mass Missal Cover I helped her order for him, along with a Hershey’s candy bar.
Sean went on to give Chiquita her gift (a set of Kaya books). (There was the surprise! I really did think he had me, ever since that hug!) At that point we just had Snuggles, Rose, Captain and I! I gave Captain Big Ben to build and he surprised me with a gift card to my favorite coffee shop and a hand-drawn picture to line the gift box! Snuggles and Rose exchanged gifts next… then it was time for more coffee breakfast, before the kids began opening the rest of their Christmas gifts. Gift opening aways takes quite awhile in our home! 🙂
Christmas Eve in Pictures
0 Comments