Happy Easter!

Although our house was still sick with fever and colds this Easter weekend, I had the kids dress in their outfits they got for Easter and we took pictures in the front yard.  It rained all night and the backyard was too soggy for sandals so the front yard it was.  I just wish that my number 5 man (hence the name, then there were five) was in the picture.  But he was the one with fever and feeling under-the-weather, so he took a picture of the kids and I.

My angels:

We had a wonderful day, despite the colds.  We made Resurrection cookies last night (I got the recipe here: http://catholicicing.com/how-to-make-easter-story-cookies-with-a-printable-recipe/) and this morning we opened the oven and opened our tomb cookies and they were hollow!  So neat.  I made them with crushed pretzels and Craig and I thought they were yummy but the kids didn't care for them.  But it was fun making them and reading the bible verses leading up to Christ's resurrection.  While they munched on a cookie I whipped up some pancakes and strawberries.  I made some buckwheat pancakes, as my doctor informed me I need to be on a non-GMO, IC, and special microscopic colitis diet (low FODMAP), and I was glad I had bought pre-made pancakes from Aldi.  Let's just say they were some healthy carboard cakes and maple syrup did little to make the taste more palatable.  Oh well.

After breakfast we cleaned up and read our bible about today and then did a Resurrection hunt.  We gave up Easter egg hunts to focus more on Christ.  Just like Christmas, Easter is becoming more and more about candy and Easter bunnies/commercialized, and less and less about Christ.  Anyway, after reading about Christ's death and resurrection I pointed out some things from our reading that were hidden around the house for them to find.  We had perfume, a play donkey, crown of thorns (really just some twine I made into a crown), 3 pennies (representing what Judas paid for Christ to be found- did you know it was only $4.80 in his day? what a friend!), a Hershey kiss (to represent the kiss from Judas), a cross, a nail, and a stone (to represent the stone in front of Jesus' tomb).  We had a good time with that.  Then the kids ate a piece of gum from their baskets and colored with me for a bit while listening to Toby Mac.

Brendan made an awesome egg yesterday and I was going to make them into lunch today.  He was very upset so here are some pictures to remember his special egg that he did not want us eating for lunch.  Although, it was a very good egg sandwich.

These are all his but his the favorite is far right- Jesus has risen

Here is Annaliese with hers:

Daddy was trying to get her smile normally- she is so cute!

 And Trinity didn't want to take a picture with her eggs I guess.  How embarrassing would that be!

So Happy Easter everyone!  Now to see if Mom and I can connect on Skype!  

March 1st

What an exciting day! Brendan and I went in for our regular dental cleaning and Brendan came out with one less tooth!  He had to have an extraction on one of his baby teeth that wasn't coming out!  He was given nitrous oxide and a local and was so sweet and sleepy after the procedure. I was next door getting my teeth cleaned and he recuperated and then he sat with me as they monitored him for blood loss.

Afterwards we planned on going to the mall so Trini could spend some birthday money and Brendan also got a little treat for having his tooth pulled and handling it so well-after all he had no idea that was in store for him.  And Daddy came home later with mac-n-cheese and some ice cream.

Here's Brendan after:

Since Annaliese had to wait for over an hour in the waiting room she got some lipgloss at the Disney store:

She's so cute!  Trinity got a couple of cute Cars t-shirts and then we had to get home because Trinity and I had a Black dress event at church that night to get ready for.  I so missed Mom all week, remembering how she made all my dresses for dances and always made a spalon out of their bathroom for us girls as we got ready.  She would pamper us with mani-pedis and doing our make-up and hair perfectly.  And Dad would always check that we weren't revealing too much skin before we left home.  I didn't realize how much Mom put into making it special until I did Trinity's spalon treatment with the other two kiddos buzzing around.  But she ended up beautiful.  Craig took some pictures but I didn't realize the light was poor and that he didn't take full length pictures to show our dresses so sorry for that!

Now I'm in heels and Trinity has flats on so  you can see how she will be catching up to me very very soon.  Also, she was gorgeous and the light just didn't do her justice.  It was a special evening and we had fun doing silly games and listening to some godly women that were both funny and motivating.  Trinity had to play a horn of Row-Row-Row- Your-Boat  and she was red as a beet!  But she's such a great sport and just full of beauty.

A little favor that was given to each of us had a quote in it that I will post and I thought so true of my beautiful daughters (and my son):

"My daughter has made the darkness in my heart light up brighter than I ever thought possible." 

Georgene Maciolek

Thank you God for blessing me with Trinity, Brendan, and Annaliese and my godly husband, Craig who is my Aaron and Hur, and my Mom and Dad who were my closest friends during these years Trinity is in.  I made through and see the brightness now.  Thank you!

Trinity's 12!

 Trinity was 12 on the 10th!  She was feeling under the weather (thanks to a head cold) but we still managed to get to church and then they came home and watched Cars 2 (her favorite movie) and played some Cars UNO.  She got some gold earrings and some nice body lotion.  Just wish she had felt better.

 Her Cars cake (never mind the messy icing on the side- I should have used tic-tacs as the icing didn't adhere to the coconut)

 Little Annaliese asked all through church, the way home, and through lunch, "When's Trini gonna open her presents????"  She couldn't wait

 Make a wish!

Christmas

Merry Christmas!!  Happy Birthday Jesus!

We had a great day, despite being sick with very bad head colds.  Brendan's fever finally broke around 3am and Trinity was just coughing alot and still pretty stuffy. Annaliese who had caught it first just has a raspy voice and an occasional cough but is the best of the three.  Craig caught the stomach virus I had last week but he still tried his hot sauce collection the kids gave him for Christmas.  He loves his hot sauce!

Here's a few pics (all but Annaliese look tired and rough because they are still sick):

 We were so blessed with presents -God is very good to our children!

 Peaking to see Trinity's stuff

 Trinity looking at her Rod toy- She loves Cars 2 and now wants to be an FBI agent 

 In fact she's up to 60 regular push ups a day!  Unreal!

 I wanted to take a picture of his face with his Spiderman motorcycle

 Ok that's more like it!

 What a sweet baby!

 Happy Anniversary (15 years) and Merry Christmas, honey!

My little Annaliese.  Lately she has cracked me up with telling me, "Brendan talks so much!  I never get to talk about anyting!"  And when dinner comes, "Did you put anything in here that I don't like?" (which is onions, peppers, mushrooms, and canned peas.  And I put mushrooms in the spaghetti bolognese, peppers in my pasta and chicken and on pizza, and onions and garlic in many dishes)  She gets the shivers as she sees them.  It cracks me up- but of course I don't let her in on it.  The rule is one bite is required!

Trinity with Gnocchi-noodle our sweetest cat.  He is such a sweet baby.   Every morning and night we have to give him steroid drops in his eye because he's going blind and it slows down the process a little.  He always gets a little treat for the pain of it.  Last week it was pumpkin!  He loves pumpkin and anything sweet or fishy!

And my big blued eyed future engineer/inventor/architect!  He's such a talker!  Annaliese is right if you get him talking about something he's inventing or thinking about plan to be there awhile!  And don't plan on getting a word in edgewise!  Poor Craig  he really needs a man cave to escape Brendan, Annaliese and I (oh and Gnocci who will drive you crazy with wanting you to pet him).  Trinity is so sweet and quiet she is not the talker-that is unless you get her talking about Cars 2 the movie or anything spy related!
Just two weeks and Brendan is 7!!

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease...Oh My!

Craig is about two weeks into his healing and doing great!  He is still very sore around the sinuses and was really miserable last night after spending a very chilly two hours waiting in line for early voting yesterday outside our public library.  I guess the cold made his wounds irritated!  Poor thing!  But he couldn't believe how many people were out for early voting on a Saturday!  He estimated over 200 people in front of him and it wasn't even 9am yet!

I'll be out on November 6th since the kids are getting over a nasty virus called Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  Brendan got sick first.  We assume he caught it at Sunday school where they had just celebrated with ice cream party for bringing in their homework and their bibles each Sunday.  On Friday last week he called me (ok screamed for me which Praise God he rarely does anymore because it wakes the dead) and when I checked him his cheeks looked really red and I assumed he had a fever.  It was 4am and still groggy I decided to wait a couple hours so that I could check his temperature and give him some motrin.  When I checked it later than morning it was 103.6.  Whoa!  He never ever gets fevers and this really freaks me out!  So started him on motrin and he complained his throat was really hurting so I got out the popsicles.  Praise God we had a ton in the freezer that the kids had gotten tired of over the summer!  Yeah!  We put on the movies and his fever finally went down to 97.5 by Sunday evening.  But Monday morning he screamed for me again and said he was hurting all over his feet.  This was also around 4am so again really groggy from not sleeping (he screams when he's sick at night) I checked his feet and saw they were red but it was difficult to see why so I told him to rest and in a couple hours we would check them in the light.

Around 7am I had inspected his feet and hands and he had blisters all over his toes, hands, and feet.  I checked his mouth and there were some up his nose (huge blisters now I know why he kept saying he was stuffy) and all over the back of his throat and tonsils.  So I call Craig at work and ask him if he has a clue as to what these blisters are from.  He does a quick search for me and finds out Brendan has Hand Foot and Mouth Disease which is really just a very contagious virus that causes painful blisters after high fever all over the mouth, hands and feet (and in the buttocks, groin, nose, etc.)  Poor Brendan kept itching these things and they spread to his face, ears, elbows, and stomach.  Then Tuesday Annaliese was sick with fever and sore throat.  Same deal-high fever and today she has blisters on his fingertips and toes.  Trinity was sick within a few hours of Annaliese and although she has blisters in her throat like the other two, I don't see any as of yet on her hands or feet.  Although they have no fever they are still extremely fatigued and very contagious so no Sunday school this morning.  We will start school again tomorrow morning, God willing, and go back to Sunday school next week.

All I can say is here comes winter!  The joy of holidays and many sick days.   And for anyone who has more than one child is it crazy the amount of time we end of sick as a family as the virus spreads to each person?  Unreal!!

Electro-cautery

Craig did great today!  He had outpatient surgery to electrically cauterize what the surgeon thought was one mass.  When he numbed the nasal passageway he found three masses.  The middle one was back in his sinuses and took a while to cauterize. Craig said he could feel the sparks from the tool hit the back of his throat and smelled the burnt tissue!  Poor Craig!  He came out with a few smudges of blood from the procedure and went back to the office.  He's a strong man and not one to complain.  After going through nosebleeds almost everyday for the past year and a half and the undiagnosed blood disorder making it harder for him to stop the bleeds he s truly an inspiration to me.

The surgeon said that this had been going on way too long and the electro cautery makes it much less likely for these blood vessels to form these masses again, but there is a small chance.  But we have faith in the Lord and are praying they don't for a long time if at all!  I'm just so happy Craig got a second opinion to make sure all was ok-because obviously the other ENT didn't have a clue! Three masses!  Can't believe it!

Alot happening

It's been roughly two months since we began Kindergarten and 6th grade and Preschool for the kiddies.  It has been really amazing how we are getting lessons in and I'm really loving how the little ones getting older is allowing us to do our school with relative peace and not squealing and screeching!  Although every now and then when Brendan is between subjects or mostly finishes his math early (he whizzes through math) he and Annaliese start playing "race cars" with their baby buggy and grocery cart.  It gets pretty loud on the hardwood floors and pretty soon I can't even hear the lesson I'm teaching to Trinity.  But overall I can say this has been the smoothest of all our homeschool years.

On the other hand we've had some health issues that have made it difficult some days to concentrate.  Case in point, Craig has been having increasing nose bleeds (I'm talking bleeding for more than an hour) and we had his nose checked two years ago and the ENT didn't see anything.  He went to the PCP and he referred him to a hematologist.  About a month ago he was diagnosed with Von Wille de brand's disease a blood clotting disorder.  Because of his Italian background he already has Beta Thalassemia minor as well but it doesn't affect him.  The willdebrands affects his clotting and is the reason his nosebleeds last for so long.

After bleeding again this past week even though on a treatment for the blood disorder, he decided to get a second opinion about his nose.  Sure enough he has a cluster of veins (think really bad varicose veins in your sinuses) that are so inflamed that if he breathes in too hard, talks too loud, or really anything he gets a nosebleed.  Usually the surgeon can chemically cauterize the vein but this one was so large and combined with his bleeding disorder the doc wants to an outpatient procedure with electro cautery this Wednesday.  He won't be under general anesthesia just a local and the procedure will be over in 15-20 minutes.  All I can say is Ow!  I'm just very thankful we got to the bottom of all this because he was losing alot of sleep (waking at 2 a.m. and even during work hours with nose bleeds).  I pray it doesn't come back (the surgeon said it can) and that Craig will not be in alot of pain during the procedure or after.

I had surgery in July to repair alot of damage while having my first born Trinity and after an abscess I'm slowly healing although I've been told very sternly by my doctor no jogging, jarring exercises.  I believe my dreams of any marathons or triathlons have been vanquished.  But I'm getting back into yoga and I'm going to stop the pity party thoughts that bounce around in my head.  I will think about what I can do and do them. I will stop comparing myself to everyone else because really it only accomplishes to sink me into further pouting and complaining.  I don't need my kids hearing that and Craig definitely doesn't need to have a whiny wife.  I'm thinking of doing some kind of year of such and such type of living.  I don't know if you've heard of people who will try something new everyday for a year, or eat locally for a year, or write 20 things they are thankful of for a year, or doing something nice for someone every day for a year.  I want to get out of this rut (dare I mention midlife crisis?) and be better than I am.  I know I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me-isn't it about freakin' time I claimed that and acted like it?!  Well I think so.  Stay tuned for what that might be.

Until then I will enjoy the laughter (and sometimes screaming) of my little angels, the adorableness of Annaliese running around with her cherubim bum out, the sweetness of her mimicking everything her brother does and both vying for me attention (I mean who knows how long that will last when I'm the center of their small world), Trinity wanting to please me everyday and giving me sweet hugs just because, seeing her grow into a beautiful sweet young woman and wondering what her future holds, Brendan inventing things from nothing and the resourcefulness that absolutely amazes me and makes me proud, watching Brendan swing a bat or tennis racket like a pro (that boy has some arm) and enjoying every hug, boo-boo kiss (even on the bottoms of dirty feet), and wiping away every tear.  Parenting is THE hardest job I've ever experienced AND the BEST job in the whole world.  Thank you God for the privilege of caring for this gifts.

I'll leave you with some pictures (since that's what you really came for):

Music lesson

 Princess our Pom-still frisky and cute at 15

 Chippy enraptured my snack wielding Annaliese (although I'd like to think it's Trinity's voice)

 Twinkie who loves Trinity and will meow so loud it hurts your ears just so she'll pick him up and love him

 Mama!  Will you stop taking pictures you are totally embarrassing me!

 Finishing breakfast before school starts (what boy do you know chooses to wear an argyle sweater just because?  He's preppy like his Daddy and I love it!)

 Gnocci or Papa Gnokes as we call him.  He keeps everyone in line and is a big sweetie!

 The baby of the bunch doing what he loves best-eating.  He's such a sweetie but not very social until you've truly earned his trust.  He's my fave Batty (Batman).

 Annaliese and Brendan terrorizing their PawPaw (who eats it up)

 PawPaw laughing at Annaliese's Miss Thang face-she got a little embarrassed that I took this picture. 

 Little sweetie-I'm totally in love with this angel and she is all girl!

School Begins

Two weeks ago the kids started school again.  Trinity is in 6th grade (her last year in elementary school) and Brendan the 1st grade.  They have a great new school room and have been enjoying their desks and not fighting with each other over space at the kitchen table.  I love it because I can make meals without moving the entire curriculum or worrying about spilled drinks and food on their school work.

Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday ....and what a great birthday I had.  Craig and the kids made me feel so special.  I'm so blessed to have such a loving family that makes me happy to be alive and living this life!  Thank you for blessing me, Lord, may I be blessing to all I encounter.

 We started the day with blueberry smoothies and muffins.  Then headed for a walk then headed to the pool to cool down.  We then showered and headed to Chik-fil-A for lunch.  Through our library's reading program all kids got free kids nugget meals and I had a free milkshake coupon.  Craig and I had a salad and we shared a strawberry shake.  I guess that negates the healthiness of our salads!  Oh well, it is my birthday!

We then rested for an hour before Craig's family came over for cake and presents and we caught up.  Then Craig got some burgers for us and I don't think I will want to eat for another week...okay we all know that's completely not true!  I'll be eating leftover muffins for breakfast tomorrow before church.  And of course some more of da bombe cake tomorrow night.

 Look at this ice cream bombe Trinity made for me

It has toasted coconut on the outside and layers of french vanilla, chocolate cookies 'n cream, and oreo brownies!  Oh my goodness it was rich, decadent and sooo good!  Thank you Trinity for my cake!!