"Catch up"

I almost feel like a stranger on my own blog... I think this has been the longest I've gone not saying anything, not even a picture! AND the crazy thing is so VERY much has changed since I lasted posted! Emma turned the big 6 years old and she had a wonderful birthday party, her dance recital was just incredible, and we have been super busy working on home improvements around the house. Garage is cleaned, basement is looking more like a room in our house rather than a dungeon. But the most shocking new detail in my life that has changed since I last posted is that we found out my dad has Leukemia. He had been tired to the point of passing out a few times but we NEVER imagined in our worst nightmare that this would be the diagnosis. I know that God is ultimately in control so I have been praying for wisdom, strength, and courage for my dad. I know he is scared but seems to be surrounded by friends that love him. We are planning a trip back home soon to OKC to comfort him and spend some time with him. But with this change it has motivated me to take a closer look at my life as a mother, wife, daughter, etc. I have been grumpy with myself, family and friends. I have finally today put things into better perspective thanks to the grace of God. Today I am focusing on the emotions that I am feeling with the diagnosis of my dad. Many conversations I have had with him have ended with me crying to Mario whom I am forever thankful to God for. So today I'm focusing on what is happening now and praying God will help me understand the events that happen in the future.

Emma did a ballet called The Waltzing Cat at her recital and it was beautiful! Her party was great and according to Emma "being 6 is the best!" I can't wait to visit with family and friends in OKC in July!:) Here is the "readers digest" version of the last month in pictures!

Elise eating cereal...

Elise seems to be one of those babies that thinks eating is hilarious! She LOVES to eat, but is still having problems with the swallowing part.:) She has her bottom 2 teeth in now. Her favorite part of eating is spitting it back out, all over her hands and down her neck! I usually make about a 1/4 cup of cereal and she might if I'm lucky actually eat half of that! I guess she'll get it down eventually. For now I'm so glad she finds eating so entertaining!:)

Family Fun!

Well we had no power for around 3 hours last night which gave us a small taste of how our family and friends must have felt in Oklahoma since they went almost 3 days without electricity after a few dozen tornado's hit in the last couple days. We luckily just had very strong winds. So we lit some candles, put our pj's on, and played the game Sorry in the dark. My uncle sent it to Ethan for his birthday and the kids love it! Last night we ate snacks and had great family time with no TV, computer, or video games! I think I might just flip our breakers off every few weeks for a few hours in our home so everyone has to get creative for something fun to do, it was so relaxing... I took this picture of the kids with my flash, you can't even tell it was dark! But I have to admit when the power game back on we were very thankful!!!

Mother's Day...

Mother's Day is one of my favorite holidays. Since I'm a stay-at-home Mommy it is, as my friend put it so well, like our "evaluation time." Or so it seems. It is this time that I always take a look at the past year and remember all the good memories I have made with my kids. Yesterday I got the opportunity to visit with an old friend that I haven't seen since Ethan was a baby. She was in town on business but came for dinner last night. I hadn't thought about my own mom in a while and this friend went through the most difficult time in my life with me when my mom passed away. So when she asked me, "So how are you since your mom died?" I froze for a second. I took a deep breath and I noticed my voice was a little shaky and I couldn't seem to control it and answered very generic, "real good." But she must have noticed and went on, "how long has it been?" It was at this very point that I had all these emotions come out like she found a door in my heart that I usually keep locked up. As anyone who has lost their mother your heart will never fully heal. But being married to my best friend and being blessed with three beautiful children I feel like my mom would be very happy for me. Now I do miss my mom like crazy since she never got the opportunity to hold any of my children but I somehow feel like she knows them. Now God has also blessed me with an incredible friend and we talk every morning if just for a minute while I load the dishwasher, etc. And today for the first time EVER I cried to her like a child that I missed her and wanted her to come visit me. We live 12 hours away. After I got off the phone I realized the last time I cried on the phone like that was with my mom a few weeks before she died. But I still have great memories of her that make me laugh that comfort me. This Mother's Day I am feeling so thankful that I am a stay-at-home Mommy to three wonderful children, for Mario, and for my special friend that God has blessed me with in my life. And I am looking forward to this Mother’s Day to enjoy with my family!:)

Elise at 6 months...

Our sweet baby girl is a growing like a weed!:) We went to her 6 month checkup and she is weighing in at 18 lbs 6 oz so she is at 90% on her weight. And she is 27 inches long so she is at 97% on height. So she is just a solid healthy girl!:) She has been sitting up now and she likes to try to crawl and will get up in position but she just can't get her body going! It's so cute! We have officially tried some veggies and she liked them. Her fav right now is sweet potatoes. We have only tried one fruit, pears which spit out every time! Maybe she will love her veggies, that would be a first in our house!:)

Ethan's 7th Birthday with our family...

It was a great day! We took the kids to eat at Chuck E Cheese. We had never been before so it was exciting for them. I was glad I had a coupon because we got to play 40 games and eat pizza for around 20 dollars. Can't beat that deal! We opened presents and had cupcakes. We had his party with his friends today which was a lot of fun! Ethan is so blessed to have so many special friends! I have some really good pics, I'll try to post soon!:)

Our basement windows; Before and After...

We have been working on our old 1937 house since the day we bought it going on 4 years ago and have never looked back. We had the old original basement windows still in tack, well sort of. Over the winter the glass finally cracked we had cardboard up until it warmed up so we could take the window out and repair it.

First Mario had to rub the rusted out metal frame of a window with a wire brush, then knock out the original glass and glaze(which holds the glass in old windows), then paint with Rust-Oleum paint, and finally replace glass. The whole project cost around 20 dollars. It was mostly just time consuming getting all the rust off of it. We thought about just replacing the windows but after hitting every home improvement store we soon realized that the standard basement window was too big that was in stock at the stores. And we would have to have a professional window installer do it which was way out of our budget. So Mario with a lot of work and a little money managed to bring our old basement windows back and I think it is very neat to say we have the orignal windows to the house! They even open to let fresh air in our basement!!! I snapped this picture of our house to show we don't live in a creepy house we just "USED TO" have creepy basement windows! But now they look much better! We are working on making a small retaining wall with the bricks around each window but that is for another weekend! :)

Easter

I took these pictures in our house and in our front yard. We had a good one except that our water heater/heating unit had to have 4 parts replaced on it and was not fixed until Monday. So we had no hot water or heat. It's been pretty warm but at night it gets down to the upper 30's. But we made the best of it! I am planning Ethan's 7th birthday for next weekend! He is having a Super Mario Bros. game theme party. I had to order the plates, balloons, etc on line yesterday because we couldn't find any Mario themed party stuff. He is so excited. I've been busy planning it, I hope all his friends will have a good time. It's funny because I was thinking about my own 7th birthday. I still remember exactly what I got. Barbie's of course, but it made me realize that from here on Ethan is making childhood memories that he will take with him into adulthood. The days are moving fast and I am seeing Ethan grow up right before my eyes. The good news is he still will let me hold him, on my lap of course. He's been too big to pick up for many years!!! And he still lets me kiss him! He tells me he'll always be my baby boy. :)

Elise Fun, at 5 months...

Elise has 2 favorite toys, these baby keys(which were Ethan's) and this jumper we bought for her. It is a Baby Einstein and she loves it! She has figured out that she can jump like crazy in it! The girl has a lot of energy! She is sitting up pretty good now and when we put her on her tummy she moves her legs and arms but she just can't seem to get her bottom going! I can't believe she is 5 months now! She now cries if someone holds her that she doesn't know. She knows her name because she'll smile if we say Elise, it's so cute.

Very nice!

This is a great video...~Mario