lent to easter recap

this really spoke to me this year.

 i always give up sweets, biting my nails, beer and add things like: slow to anger, donate... yada yada yada.

i'm not sure why, but i started off lent this year not feeling very motivated.

i did give up beer and biting my nails and did do 40 bags in 40 days,

but i found myself eating lots of sweets and drinking lots of margaritas.

not quite what i was going for.

so i kicked it up a notch.

no sugar, breads, alcohol (well maybe a little wine, but no more margaritas)

i felt better.

more of a struggle.

i think it's good to strive to be better and it should be hard.

the kids did really well on their lenten promises as well.

R gave up burping and little S gave up brussels sprouts. hmmm....

big S gave up sweets and L gave up instagram.

D gave up biting her nails and something else i can't remember.

Paul's motto was slow to anger.

which R gave us daily reminders.

we really enjoyed Mass holy thursday.

we attended a stations of the cross for kids friday morning on good friday.

i somehow thought P had the day off and i had planned to get out of dodge for the day

(paully wally had been out of town all week)

but that was not the case. he did have to work and i mentally checked out.

i was about to loose my marbles. but my lovely womens' group, through texting, inspired me

to turn myself and negative thinking around.

i pulled myself together and put together some craft stations for the kids.

we were gonna have a prayerful time if they liked it or not.

they actually loved it.

we prayed the sorrowful mysteries from this book.

it's a local artist from our parish and the paintings are so beautiful.

then we had 4 crafting stations.

1. the coloring and collage station

2. the embossing a metal cross station 

(found on pinterest)

3. a religious book reading station

4. we also had a letter writing station. 

each person in our family had an envelope and each person was to write one letter for each envelope.

we read the messages aloud on easter.

the kids loved doing this.

they loved reading the letters they received and even more so enjoyed hearing the letters they had written.

5. even the baby had a station.

(stickers and crayons)

R got a little carried away with the crown of thorns snack.

baby was not supposed to have one of these.

we hung our finished art on the wall.

the kids seemed calmed.

as soon as Paul got home my mama came and picked me up.

then i was calm.

and we finally made it to EASTER!!!

my mom came over early in the morning for a quick brunch

(mimosa)

and we headed to church.

3 of the girls sang in the children's choir and sounded beautiful.

the traditional after church easter pictures.

 my kids with their noni.

baby J would only participate if he could stand where he wanted. little stinker.

the whole family.

after church we headed over to brunch with my dad and step mom and sister.

it was delicious.

after brunch we headed back to our house for easter dinner and family egg hunt.

L and i had done a ton of food prepping saturday.

i made my grandma's homemade macaroni and cheese.

L made the traditional bunny cake and she also made an oreo icebox cake.

i made two batches of this chocolate sauce and it really is easy and amazing.

it's from lilluna.com

i love everything on that site.

a friend snapped these pics of my kids at the neighborhood egg hunt.

it's so fun seeing someone else's view.

anticipation from the egg toss...

sb 15

not sure how we already passed spring break and are already almost to summer...

but alas it's true.

time truly flies by.

we decided to explore some local activities this spring break.

i packed the kids and a cousin into the old burb

and drove down to the biosphere II

biosphere I is the earth... in case you didn't know that.

i did. 

jk, i had no idea and felt a little embarrassed after i asked.

anywho, it was pretty cool. the kids all enjoyed it.

and the drive there was pretty too.

not much along the way though... postponing lunch until we got closer wasn't the best idea i've ever had.

we cleaned that car of every last chip, bar & nut we could find.

our next adventure was tonto natural bridge near pine, az

it was the perfect length of hike for the family.

and so so beautiful.

we even found a little waterfall... not the kind of thing one usually stumbles upon in arizona.

i highly recommend this trip for families with all ages.

next up was pi day.

3.14.15

i took a couple girls and a cousin to a show at the herberger theater.

a friend was in a contest. they had singing, dancing and acting portions of the contest. our friend was a singer.

it was very exciting.

and of course we had to find a cute little pie place afterwards.

they had a special.

all slices of pie were 

$3.14

we ordered one of each.

our fav was the blueberry crumble.

they had a mounted police training unit graduation in our neighborhood.

i cried a little when the horses processed out with the flag to the national anthem and

my cute boy had his little hand over his heart.

it was so sweet.

here they got to participate as an unruly crowd. they demonstrated how they would control and back up the crowds.

this little hot tamale is the owner of the gym where my mom and i sweat our booties off.

well that's the goal anyway.

usually we just die laughing.

anywho... she participated in a 

BODY BUILDING CONTEST!

it was amazing. we witnessed her transformation and saw the determination and commitment it took.

we were so proud.

i cried a little when she came out in her little bikini.

amazing.

not to mention she is a mother of 

FIVE!!!!!

and nursing a baby.

my baby bro had a promotion ceremony.

i cried.

we had vehicle day at preschool.

i didn't cry that day.

the boys love it so much.

we visited the science museum... R's favorite part was sliding through the digestive tract. complete with surround sound gurgling and fart noises.

he was in heaven.

he came barrelling through in hysterics every time.

i tried to sleep in a few times.

but that didn't happen.

another spring break crossed off the calendar. it was nice to stay close to home and have a week of cleared schedules. we also loved having picnics at the parks with friends. and also one of my FAVORITE parts was seeing cinderella in the theaters with the family. it was SUCH a good movie. i am so happy with the way the movie was portrayed. it was beautiful and good. i can't wait to see it again!

now to plan out that summer....

D turns 10!?!?!?!

back up a little... to the beginning of March...

and this beautiful child turned

10!

 her birthday is 1 day after my mom & bro's bday.

so we had a family party sunday night.

cute cake made by auntie sarah.

then monday was her actual bday so we had to have a cake that night as well.

however, she had her big school play scheduled on her birthday so we couldn't celebrate with friends until friday of that week. it was truly a week of celebrations. i guess we should have had 10.

she invited 3 of her besties out for dinner and a play. we ate at humble pie and saw beauty and the beast at a local theater.

it was a round theater so there wasn't a bad seat in the house. we all really enjoyed it.

happy birthday D!!!!

happenins

it's been a busy fix-it kinda month.

other than the washing machine breaking for a week (oh boy does the laundry get backed up fast around here), oh to record the faces of the big girls when they realized they had to do laundry in the bathtub, the garbage disposal breaking  & currently has a disgusting smell protruding form under the cabinets, deciding to put myself together a little bit before facing the public which means putting earrings on to go with my workout outfit for the day... but at the end of the day realizing i had only put one on. and to take that further, i had bumped into a friend while sitting in the car, so we were talking rather closely through the car window and when we hugged my earring fell off and into her hand. i put it back in and she must have wondered where the other earring was. let's see what else... paully wally out of town for a few days which is always chaos... teen phones taken away a few times, finally getting the septic tank drained and the thrill of finding it after having no idea where it was, and almost getting pushed over the edge finding a chopstick sticking out of the wall when on a pick-up tirade.....

this happened.

the door to the refrigerator fell off.

i couldn't believe it. luckily it fell on me and not one of the kids. it could have seriously injured (or worse) the kids. it was so heavy, i was able to jump out of the way but it ripped a few holes in our floor. thank you to our guardian angels for working overtime that day!!

viking acted right away and shipped and installed a brand new fridge within a few days. and they are fixing the floor.

oh and our stovetop and dishwasher were broken as well and our home warranty replaced them! i can't believe it, but we have all new appliances in our kitchen!

now on to new "challenges" and to tend to that smell coming from the cabinets...