I couldn’t help smiling…
…and then running for my camera Friday afternoon when I walked into my bedroom and saw this precious scene.I walked in and saw Captain READING to Peanut!!!
Captain was a late talker. Even a couple years ago, at age 5, it was still difficult for others to understand him. He was very physical though, and walked at 9 months! Being our oldest, I didn’t think much of it till our doctor was concerned. I figured that all kids develop differently and in different areas first, plus Captain is very shy. However, after our doctor was concerned, I looked into everything that I could do to help. A dear friend of ours, who has been teaching swimming for over 50 years, suggested we put him in a private swimming lesson. This session of swimming lessons completely changed him. Within a month he was speaking clearly and was not nearly as shy as he had previously been. It seemed to really boost his confidence in himself.
And so… Walking into my bedroom and seeing him READ to Peanut, from a book he had not read before, almost made me start crying! And Peanut was LOVING it!Our Favorite Advent Calendar
Since some of my thoughts this week have been geared towards Advent preparations, I thought I would do a quick post on Advent Calendars…
Over the years I have tried to have an Advent Calendar for each child. However, as the years go on, and more children arrive, this is getting harder and harder to keep up with. 🙂
I purchased ours from Catholic Child. It is also currently available at Amazon: Kurt Adler Wooden Nativity Advent Calendar with 24 Magnetic Figures
The only thing I don’t like about it, and this goes for any pre-made Advent Calendar, is that it is not an accurate countdown of Advent. Advent Calendars should begin on the first Sunday of Advent and end on Christmas Eve. Every year this date changes and can be as early as November 27 or as late as December 3. I really wish that they would make this Advent Calendar with extra cubicles to be modified as needed each year, instead of pre-numbered slots. Wouldn’t that be perfect?
Darling Dresses
This past summer we were able to go to a family reunion on my moms side. My mom is one of 13 children, and it had been some time since we had all gotten together… Years and years in fact. Peanut was only a month old and my DH was on a fire assignment at the time, but I didn’t want to miss it. So, I made the 12 hour road trip with my 5 little ones. It was a ton of work, but it was so worth it. Almost all of my moms family was there, along with my grandparents, and my grandfathers sister and some of her family. All but 2 of my siblings (there are 12 of us) were there as well. It was so nice to see my Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and Siblings. Most I hadn’t seen in some time, if ever… It was so fun to show off introduce my own children to everyone. 🙂
My girls FELL IN LOVE with one of my sweet little cousins, Juliana. Anyways, today they received a special surprise from her. She sent them the most DARLING Christmas dresses ever! They are so cute I just had to post about it…
They LOVE “Twirling” in their new dresses!
Left: Close up of “Twinkle Toes”
Right: Both girls signing “Thank you!”
(I told them to say Thank you, but they signed it instead!)
Thank you “Auntie” Juliana! We love you!
A bit of fun…
| You Are an Ice Cream Cake |
 Surprising, unique, and high maintenance. You’re one of a kind, and you don’t want anyone to forget it. You’re fun in small doses, but it’s easy for people to overdose on you! |
Now isn’t that nice… I was SO excited to see that I was “Ice Cream Cake” (my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!) until I read the description… Hum… Surprising, that’s ok-nothing wrong with that… Unique, well I guess so… HIGH MAINTENANCE, Yikes! That’s not good, I’m not sure about that one. BUT THEN IT GOES ON: I’m ONLY fun in “SMALL DOSES”!! What is up with that? To all my friends out there reading this, is that true? Or maybe you just better not answer that one… Let’s move on to the next one:
| You Are Vanilla Ice Cream |
 Your personality is anything but “vanilla” You’re a risk taker, who’s up for anything new. You go well with anyone and fit into any situation. You are most compatible with rocky road ice cream. |
|
Let’s see here… That sounds fairly accurate… and I do just LOVE rocky road. Yum!
And one last one: FRENCH!!! I would have NEVER guessed French! Irish, Also, it is nice to know that I only *think* that |
| Your Inner European is French! |
 Smart and sophisticated. You have the best of everything – at least, *you* think so. |
That was fun! I’m off to finish up dinner.
H/T: Amy
More on the Jesse Tree
My dear friend Trina just wrote a beautiful post about the Jesse Tree. She has organized a “Jesse Tree Ornament Swap” at her parish! Isn’t that such a wonderful idea? It sounds like such fun!
Go check out her post to find out more.
OH, and check out Amy’s post for some Jesse Tree Ornaments and reflections!
The Jesse Tree
Advent, along with the beginning of the New Liturgical Year, is getting close! This year, the first Sunday of Advent is December 2nd. I have started working on my plans for Advent & Christmas. I look forward to starting new traditions this year, including the use of Christmas Mosaic, along with continuing our old favorites. I thought I would take a minute and share one of our old favorites… The Jesse Tree.
About four or five years ago, I bought a from the series Celebrating the Faith in the Home titled Advent and Christmas for the Christian Family. This is a wonderful book of ideas that I have only seen sold through Emmanuel Books. It was through this book that I was first introduced to the Jesse Tree.
At first I planned to purchase this kit from Leaflet, but due to our tight budget, I decided to make our own instead. I modeled it after the Leaflet tree and then used the patterns from my book to make the ornaments.
I made mine out of felt since it doesn’t fray. If you are able to sew, unfortunately I am not, you could take the necessary measures to prevent fraying and make your tree this way. Or, you could also make a wooden tree. Another friend of mine just put a branch in a pot, and placed it on her table, and used this to hang the ornaments from.
Every day we read a page from one of our Children’s Bibles, starting with Creation and ending on Dec 24th with the Birth of Christ. Depending on how many days are in Advent, we sometimes have days where we read 2 stories and hang 2 ornaments, in order to finish in time. (We have 30 ornaments, since sometimes Advent starts in November, plus 7 more for the “O Antiphons” used the week prior to Christmas.) It looks like I am missing a few of our ornaments. Guess I will add making those to my “to do” list 🙂
After we read the story we hang the ornament on the tree. Then I try to have a corresponding coloring page for them to color. ALL of my children, as well as myself, profit immensely from this activity. As the author says in my book:
It provides a meaningful way for us to count down the days until Christmas. Moreover, it increases our understanding of this portion of salvation history and is an effective way to prepare spiritually for Christmas.
I always love how even my littlest children’s ears perk up during the readings and gospel at Mass when they realize “We just read about that at home!” I am really looking forward to Advent this year! Aren’t you?
This picture was taken 2 years ago, on Christmas morning…You can see our Jesse Tree in the background.
“We” did it!
After some encouraging words from Regina last Wednesday, I finally decided to just go for it and potty train Chiquita. I took her out of her diaper and put her in panties which she was VERY excited about, but in no time I was cleaning up accidents all over the house! She seemed to be waiting for the one moment I was tied up with something else. What had I gotten myself into?!?
Thursday was a bit better, she only had two accidents in the morning. (This was after she woke up in a drenched bed and my DH was saying that those pull-ups don’t work. And then realizing that she had a swim diaper on. Ooops!)
After that, she was so cute, when I would ask her, “Do you have to go potty?” She would answer, with the sweetest look,” Um… Maybe!” On Friday, she had an accident, but it was really my own fault. It was the first time she had been out of the house and I forgot to put a pull-up on her. I did take along the potty chair (there is no bathroom at the church) and she did fine during Mass. But then I forgot to ask her if she needed to go, while we were at the coffee shop, till it was too late and she had had an accident, the poor girl.
Since then, however, she hasn’t had any more accidents, including being out and about on Sunday once again with no pull-up! PLUS, she now goes all by herself, with no prompting or reminding from me. Sooooo, I think it is safe to say, Chiquita is now potty trained! It is so nice to have **only one** in diapers! (Much better than 3 kids in diapers, like we had when Chiquita was born! That was so expensive!)
Thank you Regina!
**Each sticker represents a success this past week… It’s time to retire the Potty Chart, and hopefully we won’t need one of these!**
IT’S HERE!!!!
My CHRISTMAS MOSAIC has ARRIVED…
The library is open again…
(it had closed due to lack of funds)
Life is Good!
IN ADDITION, the wonderful people over at Hillside Education sent a free gift along with Christmas Mosaic! Wasn’t that sweet!?! It is actually one of the books used in the program: Night Tree by Eve Hunting, it looks great! The kids are going to LOVE IT! There is still time to order a copy of Christmas Mosaic, An Illustrated Book Study for Advent and Christmas
Oh! Here is what was inside my other packages, in case you are wondering:
The first contained St. Jerome and the Lion by Margaret Hodges. This book is out of print and so I have been looking for an inexpensive used copy, in good or better condition FOREVER! I was finally able to find one for less than $10! (It is usually listed around $30+) It’s in excellent condition too! Yea!
Then there was Through the Eyes of John which I also got at a steal of a deal (only $.36 after a $10 GC) 🙂 This is another book included on the Catholic Mosaic book list. Since it is about St. John, I think I will save it and give it to the kids on the feast of St. John, right after Christmas.
The last package had a Christmas gift in it… and so, to protect the surprise, it’s a secret!
I’m off to get a cup of coffee and peek through my new books! Have a great afternoon!
It feels like Christmas!
Do you ever have one of those days when you just want to HUG the mailman? Today is definitely one of those days! Just look at all those wonderful packages!!! I can’t wait to open them!
“A Day With My Family”
One of the girls “Little Saints” Pre-School crafts this past week included coloring and cutting out figures for each person in the family. Twinkle Toes, really enjoyed this craft, and did a very nice job coloring and cutting. I’m not quite sure what Chiquita was trying to accomplish with her choice of colors. Their daddy said it looks like we are in the purifying fire of Purgatory!
0 Comments