Thankful Thursday

Today, I want to take a moment to ponder some of the many things I'm thankful for.

I am thankful for an extra car at our house... so that when one of my tires go flat, and I'm late for work, I have a back up to take.

I am thankful for my seniors, to whom I had to say goodbye to today. They have taught me so much this year, and I will truly miss each one of them.

I am thankful for coming home today to a brand new bed, headboard and nightstands! I might actually get a decent night's sleep tonight!

I'm thankful for a little 19 month old girl, who is so interested in potty training, she might beat her 3 year old sister to it! ;)

And finally... I'm so very grateful for my family and this beautiful place where we live.

Life is good.

Gravel=FUN!

Spring of course brings lots of projects at our house and because we have had such good weather, we have gotten several of our big projects done already! YAY!

Today, a load of gravel was delivered. Which meant that the girls got to play in it all day.

Who knew that the following equation would work so well?

My children + a load of gravel = Hours of FUN

The girls were shoveling, climbing, sledding, and simply playing the gravel pile for most of the day. I'm sure they will sleep well tonight!

The reason for the gravel was that we needed a filler behind our new wall.

(too bad that ugly electrical box is there...) Rock is in place and grass soon to be planted.

In the driveway

Behind the house, and in front of our garage, edgers and rock have been placed.

(Hopefully by the end of summer, grass, shrubs & perennial flowers will be planted!)

Behind House

In front of the garage

The yard is tilled and ready for grass to be planted.

It's really starting to look nice around here, which makes me so excited!

Our plans for the rest of the summer?

1. Plant grass.

2. Pour a concrete patio on our walkout basement.

3. Pour a concrete sidewalk.

4. RELAX and enjoy the summer!

My Baby

Emma. My baby. Isn't such a baby anymore. :(

She woke up from her nap the other day...and I thought, "When did you get so big?"

She chases Maria everywhere she goes.

And wants to do everything her big sister does.

She builds towers with her blocks.

She puts together puzzles all by herself.

She crawls on everything.  

She loves playing in the sand and dirt.

She loves swinging!

Her vocabulary is improving daily.

She sleeps with her little behind straight up in the air. :)

She giggles like nothing I've heard.

She has a silly smile that I will never forget.

Three months until my baby turns 2! Where did the time go?

Easter Memories

Has it already been a month since Easter? My goodness... time flies. I'd better tell you about our Easter before I forget. It sure was a wonderful weekend.

It started with an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning. Here are the hunters. Maria was too anxious to get hunting, and didn't want to waste her time taking pictures. However, we managed to get her in one of the group shots!

Once the egg hunt officially started, we were in much better spirits!

We were even getting along enough to help a sister out! {Precious}

That evening we had a nice supper with lots of family before evening mass. Even though mass was two hours, both girls were troopers! Emma especially liked the candles we all had. (ok, she actually liked blowing them out and relighting them:)

Easter morning was the most exciting of the weekend, at least for Maria. She was so excited to find Easter eggs and her basket hiding from the Easter bunny, she could hardly stand it. “Look at this mommy! Look at this!!” was a phrase we heard over and over again. It was so cute.

The weekend concluded with a delicious ham and chicken lunch at my parent’s house. Overall, it was a wonderful weekend full of family and fun. We wouldn't trade it for anything. We were so glad to finally get a family picture too.

Too bad it looks like we were pulling the girls teeth out or something! :)

Hope YOU are enjoying this wonderful season of Spring!

My Pinterest Obsession

Here are a few of my projects, that I have taken on during the girls' nap time. They are mostly inspired by Pinterest. What did we do before Pinterest? :) .

Project #1: Scrapbook Letters

Materials: Wooden letters from JoAnn's, Paint, Foam Brush, Scrapbook paper, & Mod Podge.

 First I painted the sides of the letters that were going to show with three coats of paint.

 Then I traced the letters on the the scrapbook paper and cut them out, trimming as necessary. I applied a thin coat of Mod Podge to hold them in place. When they were dry, I added another layer on the top and let dry.

 Here's how they turned out! Maria loved waking up and seeing her name on display for her birthday!

Project #2: Menu Board

Materials: Frame, Scrapbook Paper, Clothes Pins, Stickers, Ribbon, Tape, & Laminated Cards of all your Meals (I made mine on a Word Doc, cut them, and had Office Max laminate them)

I can thank this blog for the great idea and wonderful directions!

Project #3: Magnetic ABC Board

Materials: Oil Drip Pan (Walmart $8), Rubber Cement, ABC Flashcards & Letter Magnets

 I glued on the flashcards, leaving some space for all of the extra magnets. I'm going to attach it to the wall using 3M picture hanging strips. Both of the girls already love putting magnets on the board and it's not even hung yet! I can thank this blog post for the idea!

Now, to decide what project to tackle next! :)

3... Hard to Believe

This past Thursday, we celebrated a very special girl's 3rd birthday! She, of course, got to choose her theme: PINKALICIOUS, one of her favorite books. If you aren't familiar with it, it's about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink! To go with the theme, we had a big pink cupcake, pink decor, and all the guests had to wear pink!

Here's Emma trying out Maria's new sunglasses. We can't wait for summer!

And above is one of Maria's presents that I made. A big magnet board to practice her alphabet. More to come about all my projects thanks to Pinterest :)

We have had a busy couple of months leading up to Maria's Birthday. Here's what we've been up to: going to the zoo, a waterpark, a baptism, a 1st birthday party, lots of play time, snowmobiling out west for Joe, working on the house, and my craft projects!

Hope you are all enjoying winter too!

A Wonderful Winter Wedding

My sister-in-law tied the knot this weeked! We were so lucky to be a part of the big day.

Maria got to get her hair done & dress up! In her words..."like a princess!"

At practice, she wouldn't go down the aisle because she was "relaxing."

She walked down the aisle when it mattered though.... and looked darn cute!

We danced all night long and enjoyed every minute of it!

Maria was still on the dance floor at almost 11pm. She was still smiling at the end of the night!

It was a beautiful, perfect day for a wedding.

CONGRATS HANNAH & MATT!

A Glimse of Our Christmas

Christmas Cookie Baking

Annual Christmas Eve Hockey Game

and OPENING PRESENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We enjoyed every minute of it! It was a wonderful weekend, even though we didn't have a white Christmas. The girls were thrilled with all the fun and food and of course the presents. (too many presents to make room for in our house... good thing our basement isn't finished yet or the toys wouldn't all fit!)

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas weekend,

and best wishes in the NEW YEAR!

Tis the season...

for Christmas tree shopping,

decorating the house,

staying warm on the cold days,

and being very thankful for all that we have.

Dear God, Thank you for grandma and grandpa,

cartoons, the holidays,

Dora, and my toys. AMEN!

-Maria's bedtime prayer earlier this week

Merry Christmas everyone!

Almost Walking!

A few days ago, Emma turned 15 months. She finally decided she could try walking without holding on to anything. Here is a short clip of her longest trip so far!

Pumpkins

What goes with Halloween better than pumpkins?

Picking pumpkins:

Carving pumpkins:

Eating pumpkin pancakes:

Dressing like pumpkins:

Happy Halloween!!