Milestones and Catching Up (kind of)

I realized the other day (okay, many other days ago) that I hadn’t properly caught up on some big things that happened the past few (seven+) months and wanted to go back and catch up on a few things. These are all from my real camera, I still need a better system to get stuff from my phone!

Bringing Samuel Home! (04.10.2017)

Gianna is 8! (04.11.2017)

Easter 2017 (04.16.2017)

It’s always a busy, blessed day – so many little ones in our family make it so much fun! (and so loud!)

Gianna’s First Communion (05.06.2017)

We have made a decision to raise our children in the Catholic church and Gianna’s first communion was a beautiful day. She looked beautiful, she took communion with reverance and care, she showed us how much she’s grown through her PSR classes and we are so proud of her!

She had many friends and family celebrate with her as well, which was fantastic!

My children like to be hilarious in pictures!

Dance Recital 2017 (05.13.2017)

The girls danced beauifully this year – they again, continue to grow in their sport and their passion/love for dance grows with them! Their love for taking goofy pictures, well, that might never go away!

Spring Fever!

Here in Ohio we’ve had a pretty mild winter that has most certainly had us forgetting all about snow and looking forward to consistently warmer temperatures.

Which means, of course, that as we approach the start of official spring in 10 days that it is going to be freezing and snowy! There is no question that I live in the wrong area of the country with as much as I (have always) despise winter and being cold.

Regardless, we are STILL looking forward to spring because it is sure to bring a lot of fun for our family! And with the fun, comes a totally crazy schedule. And you know, a new baby!

Gianna and Aleesia (& their cousin Luci) are preparing for their dance recital in May – they have 2 dances each this year and it is sure to be stinking adorable. Aleesia just started a once a week sports class, which she LOVES. Gianna will be starting softball in a couple of weeks, which should be interesting. I hope she enjoys it! On top of the kids stuff, Mike is back to being a head lacrosse coach so we have to take his practice/game schedule into consideration also.

Gianna will be turning 8 in April (which I can’t believe at all) and she is preparing for her First Communion in May as well.  We also have Easter approaching, my niece will turn 1 soon and the girls have spring break and Mike and I will be celebrating our 10 year wedding anniversary (again, kind of unbelievable how fast that went by)!  Our weekends through June are pretty jam-packed with the exception of my recently instituted “no plans Sunday afternoons” so that we can get our house clean, laundry done, projects accomplished and try to fit in some snuggling and quality time before the total chaos of each week begins.

I feel like there are other things happening simultaneously as well, but I think they are mostly school related and some of what’s going on there requires a whole separate post. We wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves if there wasn’t 100 things happening at one time, right?! This new baby will fit right into our routine, at least that’s been one of my prayers lately – for a smooth adaptation and entry into our family.

Some things that have helped me to (attempt) remain calm amidst the chaos are to be diligent with keeping an organized schedule (in 3 different places!), meal planning, preparing all of Gianna’s lunches on Sunday nights so it’s one less thing to do during the week, keeping things picked up before I go to bed (it helps, even when I don’t want to do it) and honestly, giving the 2 older girls some responsibility to manage their own stuff/stay organized. As I tell them on the days when cooperation is lacking – most of what we do every day is FOR THEM, not me so when they don’t help out by listening and being ready when I need them to be, they suffer in the end.

It sometimes feels overwhelming, but then I remember that this is our season of life – the chaos, adventure, etc. won’t be here forever so I try to find the joy in it even when really I just want to pull my hair out and hide under the covers!

Talk to me about your spring – what is going on in your life? What are you looking forward to (or not!)? What helps you to stay organized and maintain a cooperative household?!

squeezing the holidays in

The holidays are nuts, always, right? I know I’m not the only one who thinks that!

We are trying to cram so many things into the short period between Thanksgiving and Christmas that between all of the fun stuff, plus work/school/life/new baby prep I can hardly catch my breath.

So here are, squeezing in as much holiday cheer as we possibly can. So far we have:

celebrated Thanksgiving!

Took a quiet day to clean, decorate, and spend some time in our pjs.

Gianna was in our local “welcome Santa” parade with her dance school – she loved it! And we got into the spirit by visiting the Christmas tree festival put on by our local children’s hospital – it’s one of our favorite things to do!

Gianna and Aleesia’s elf, Krista, brought Gianna tickets to see the Nutcracker. It was a really really great date with my biggest girl who was in awe of the ballerinas and really wants to know how she can be in the Nutcracker some day.

Gianna and Aleesia’s elf is lazy-ish, or forgetful, or something, She brings things to them some days but other days? She snoozes on the job and forgets she’s supposed to move! (they are also allowed to play with her, it helps the whole thing not feel so creepy to me!). BUT! One thing Krista can do is deliver notes to Santa. Gianna wrote a thank you note for the Nutcracker tickets (She said it was the best day ever with her mommy. Her mommy cried.) and hand delivered her very thoughtfully written Christmas list to the big man himself.

I wish Krista could cook dinner or clean the bathroom though, that would rock.

We decorated and did some other random stuff throughout the weekend too – like the girls painted pictures for their sister’s room.

It’s all super fun stuff and those two smiley blue-eyed girls that live here love every minute of it! I feel blessed to be able to make these memories with them, even if I’m extra tired and the bathroom still isn’t as clean as I would like.

This weekend will be more squeezing in of things like: Christmas shopping with the girls for their grandparents/aunts/cousin, taking the girls to a fun Christmas event (Mr. Kringle’s Inventionasium) with our niece, hopefully checking out some Christmas lights, continuing to celebrate Advent, finishing up our Santa shopping, and also having dinner for my mom’s birthday. Followed by a week of continued holiday squeezing in of: Gianna has a Christmas program for school and her class is “going” on the Polar Express (at school, sounds cute!). A Santa breakfast, Christmas party, my mom’s actual birthday and who knows what else awaits us next weekend. And all while we continue to get things ready for baby sister who could decide to arrive at anytime, totally throwing off our holiday squeeze in!