--1--

 

I found you Valentine card ideas for this year.  You're welcome.

 

via facebook - no idea who the original source is...

--2--

 

 

These babies need very little help falling asleep, which is pretty awesome!

 

--3--

 

 

I saw this on Pinterest - put the white ends of your green onions in water and regrow the greens - no need to buy a new bunch every time you need them!  I'm excited about this, since I love them in eggs and as garnish on soups, but it seems silly to buy a bunch every time I need them since I never use them all.  The kids are really excited about our "experiment" too.

 

--4--

 

I'm trying to finish this while pumping before work...  Let's see if I can!  The first week back has been good, I didn't think about my students a lot while I was gone but being back in the classroom has been AWESOME.  And the kids are SO excited when I get home, plus the twins just nurse straight down for naps the moment they see me, so that's been nice timing-wise because it gives me a chance to prep for dinner.

 

Edit:  John Paul just came downstairs after I finished pumping and saw the empty box of pumping bags.  I asked him to recycle it and he said, "OH!  I want to read the instructions?"

 

Fine.  Nothing like hearing your 3-year-old reading, "BWEASTmilk bags!"

 

--5--

 

John Paul had the biggest screaming fit EVER last night.  Our townhouse neighbors must think we beat our children or something, it was absolutely RIDICULOUS.  Seriously, what do we do?  Wait it out?  He's gotta stop by the time he's in college, right?

 

--6--

 

The babies slept through the night almost every night this week!  Just waiting for the 4-month sleep regression, but hopefully this lasts for a little while. Of course, now that I shared it, the good sleeping will end.

 

--7--

 

Sounds like the big kids are awake.  I can hear John Paul and Andrew naming Peter Pan characters in very excited voices, for some reason.  And you know what?  I'm just going to be done here.  I'm not very interesting this week!

 

Now check out the other (more interesting) Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!



Birthday party!

 

Per Cecilia's request, I made a pink cake.  And added purple, because all-pink was too boring to me.  Do you see my fancy Ziploc bag piping skills?  Have I ever told you I'm not a perfectionist?  Because, as you can see, I'm not :P

 

John Paul was REALLY excited because he knew that Cecilia was going to let him play with her presents.

 

Cecilia was very pleased with her ballerina dress, her first present.

 

Michael, Andrew, and Mary Claire were not impressed.

 

Cecilia opening one of her most exciting presents... 

And Elizabeth nursing in the background...

 

A doll stroller!  And a Minnie Mouse doll!  She has slept with that doll every nap and night since her party on Sunday.

 

Blowing the candles out (with John Paul's help).

 

Yet another low-key family birthday celebration.  I think we might try to go big for John Paul's birthday, since we'll have a big old backyard for festivities.  But it's nice having most of the family members around and not having to worry about any activities beyond watching kids open presents!

On Blogging

Once upon a time I started this blog because I realized that:

a. I was posting things about the kids on facebook multiple times a day
b. Whenever I felt like I had already posted too much, I'd email my mom and sister about all the crazy things the kids had done
c. My mom STILL wanted more!

I considered installing a webcam so that we could stream our days to my mom.  Then I realized that would be creepy.  And expensive.

So I started a blog for her, and also so I could document our lives and not feel quite so bad about completely neglecting the baby books I had for the big kids (I didn't even get any for the twins, I knew I wouldn't use them...).  She was ECSTATIC!

Now here's the thing about my mom:  She has a lot of internet friends.  And my sister and I have always made fun of her for that, because she talks about them like their her *real* friends.  But then around Christmas I discovered (via my sister's suggestions) the world of Catholic mom blogging.  Holy cow, there are a LOT of Catholic mom blogs out there! 

Because like, 3 years ago when I started adding blogs to my Google reader, I searched for "Catholic moms" and like, one blog came up.  So I thought that was pretty much all that was out there...

But then I discovered a lot of awesome blogs from Catholic moms who have kids the same age as mine and are super-funny, like Jamie and Ana and Brooke and even though they all live far away (although Jamie's close enough that one day we will totally have a playdate and maybe John Paul and Ava will fall in love, just saying...) we are totally becoming internet friends.  So I'm turning into my mom.  I have internet friends.  But it's awesome, because after having twins I'm almost completely homebound and can't visit a lot with my real-life friends but I can visit a trillion mom blogs and somehow that fulfills some of my social needs!

Because I see that someone else's kids narrate their bowel movements like Cecilia, or can't get through the day without tv, just like John Paul.  Or their kids make me laugh out loud with their creepy doll antics (seriously this one is SO funny). 

And so many of these moms are NFP-practicing, homeschooling, *actually* Catholic moms raising Catholic kids and I love it!  Who knew the blogging world was so diverse & homogeneous (did you know this is NOT the same as homogenous?  Because I didn't) at the same time?

So now I'm prepared if I need to read a story about Superman costumes at Mass (scroll down a bit) or a miracle baby (seriously AMAZING) or life with 3-under-3 (EVERYTHING she writes is pretty hilarious).  And when Andrew and I contemplate selling everything and moving to the country and starting a farm?  We're reminded that it's not all sunshine and rainbows!

Anyway, ALL these blogs were nominated for Catholic Blogger awards, which means you should go read them.  And check out a bunch of other Catholic blogs here.  And you can vote for all the "Sheenazing" nominees (like MY SISTER!!!  Because not only is she super-cool, she's also super-inspirational and basically catechized me...  Vote for Pierced Hands!) over at Bonnie's blog until Thursday at 6 pm central. 

(PS I was also nominated, but I don't expect to win anything with my grand total of 9 followers :P  Just vote for my sister!)

Cecilia is 2!

Can you believe she's 2 already?

The little girl who made us a family of four...

And couldn't help but look adorable whether awake...

Or asleep...

The toothless grin...

The loving sister...

The nose scruncher...

And baby model...

The gleeful one-year-old...

And protesting daughter...

Sometimes happy to be accessorized...

And sometimes scowling...

Still with chubby cheeks...

And now as a big sister...

Is TWO today!

It's hard not to compare Cecilia to John Paul at 2, but kind of fun to look back at how different they are.  Cecilia is nowhere near where John Paul was academically (he was almost reading at this point) but she talks SO much more and so much better.  I always laugh at those "your baby" updates I get in my email - apparently she should be saying 2-4 word sentences by now.  We get sentences like, "When you gwow up you will wide a pink bicycle!" or "I'm widing a horsey horse to wide to my nap!" or "I heared a helicopter when I'm in John Paul's bed!"  Yeah, the grammar isn't there, but it's pretty remarkable to us!

She is relishing her new role as big sister, and spends long periods of time singing "Immaculate Mary" to a sleeping baby in her somewhat-tuneful voice, or jumping up and down saying, "She wike dat!  She wuvs you and wuvs you!"

We're transitioning to a big girl bed (mattress on the floor) and putting the high chair away for a few months once we move.  She's SO excited about her booster seat, and seems to be ridiculously excited about what a "big dirl" she's becoming.

We had her birthday party with family yesterday, so today we'll celebrate with sausage for dinner (her request for a "special birthday dinner") and leftover pink cake for dessert.

Happy birthday to my beautiful girl!

What We Wore Sunday, vol. 2

 

Here we go again, linking up with Fine Linen & Purple to check out what everyone else wore to Mass today!

We started this Sunday off with several tantrums before we even got to Mass! 

1.  Cecilia wanted her bears that were upstairs
2.  Cecilia wanted to sit in a booster chair instead of a big chair
3.  Cecilia couldn't find her bellybutton (try to find yours when you're wearing a onesie and too-big tights!)
4.  John Paul didn't want to wear socks
5.  Cecilia couldn't find the raisins in her bagel
6.  John Paul wasn't allowed to bring a Tin Tin book to Mass

But their Mass behavior wasn't appallingly bad - neither of the big kids had to leave the pew during Mass at all!  My favorite quotes:

Cecilia, in the first few minutes, "Mary is the QUEEN!!!"

Cecilia, whacking Elizabeth in the butt, "You TWIT!  You TWIT!"

Cecilia, hugging and kissing Elizabeth's head, "Hi sweetie pie!!!"

And of course, John Paul very loudly intoned the cantor's part of the psalm.


Here you see 2/3 of the family:

Andrew's clothes come from somewhere, I don't know where...

Elizabeth:
Onesie - Baby Gap via consignment store
Jumper - Gymboree via consignment store

John Paul:
Polo - Old Navy or Children's Place
Sweater - Gap Kids (super clearance!)
Pants - Gymboree via consignment store

Cecilia:
Turtleneck (which you can't see, I just realized) - Carter's
Sweater (because she refused to wear a coat in 25-degree weather and it has a heart on the zipper) - Children's place via consignment store
Jumper - Target via consignment store
Tights - Costco
Pink boots - consignment store

Mary Claire (who slept 8 hours straight without nursing last night, so obviously she was EXHAUSTED by 8:30 AM!):
Onesie - Carter's via consignment store
Jumper - Old Navy via consignment store (can you see that I believe in spending a LOT of money on children's clothes? :P)

Me (don't ask me why there are no shoes and 6 feet above my head...):
Nursing tank - Target
Wrap dress - Banana Republic outlet a million years ago
Boots - same as last week
Scarf - Forever 21 (yes, I'm 26 years old and I still shop there...  But only online, the actual store makes me claustrophobic)

 

And of course, a little bit of acrobatics before Mass.  Also, the zipper broke off her jumper when I was zipping it up.  Like, not just the sticky-outy pull-uppy part, almost the entire pull-uppy part.  I might have to cut her out of this thing tonight...

 

And now, off to make pink buttercream for a pink & purple cake.  Well, kind of pink & purple...  Remind me to get white cake mix instead of yellow cake mix next time she requests a pink cake for her birthday!