Proof of Living

 

Oh, you thought my house was always clean and organized?  Not so.  I do manage to usually clean up the toys, but…not always.  They’ll just be taken out the next day, right?  It’s just proof that we actually live in our house.  All day, every day, for every hour!

A cool raccoon book for Louis from Grandma Green Acres.  He so serious sitting here!  He’s almost never still.

Graham above, working on handwriting…and Zeke below, doing the same thing.  Both absolutely love handwriting (dripping with sarcasm right now).

Grandma & Grandpa Green Acres with all the kids.  They were over for Greg’s birthday yesterday.

March 17-31, 2013

Lent was good.  Even though it didn’t go as I planned, it went as HE planned.  And, His plan is infinitely better than mine. 

In these weeks, Eric and I started teaching NFP again after a 1.5 year hiatus.  Dash competed in the State FFA Crop Judging Contest and received a silver placing.  Our county hosted their annual Family Fun Night.  Lent ended and Holy Week began. 

All the kids, except for Dash and Angelina, took the whole week of school off.  Dash used the week to catch up and Angelina just needed to finish up a couple days in Latin.  I call it our Spring Break; we needed a break!

On Friday and Saturday, we did a bit of baking.  This lamb mold was on sale after Easter last year, and it was fun to use it this year.  It was amazingly easy to bake and decorate.  Just use a large star tip and it’s covered up in no time at all.  I used a black decorating pen for the eyes, nose & mouth.

Angelina and the boys made sugar cookies and frosted them on Saturday.  Each kid had a job – Angelina is very good at organizing who does what!  She sounds like me…I’m not sure that is a good thing sometimes.

And, Marcus is mobile.  He’s not fast, but he uses his hands and his right foot to scoot around and get where he wants.  His left foot and leg are usually up in the air!  It’s too cute.

 

We didn’t dye eggs, we grow them!  The Easter Egger’s lay colorful eggs and then the last two years, I’ve just written on the eggs with food pens.  The kids decorate with stickers…and we’re done!  Colorful, cute and easy.

Angelina had a new dress for Easter; I wish I’d have taken a picture.  I was thankful that I fit into some of my favorite outfits (FINALLY). 

This year, our family attended Holy Thursday Mass, Good Friday services, and the Easter Vigil.  Every. Single. One. Of. Us.  I’m not saying that everyone stayed awake!  This being the third vigil I have attended, I finally felt like the readings made sense or clicked with me.  Probably I wasn’t able to listen the other times I’ve attended…the first I had a busy 1yo (Dash) and last year I was pregnant and kind-of miserable.  This vigil just made an impression on me…makes me want to do it all over again.

Alleluia! 

He is Risen!

Happy Easter!

The kids checked out their Easter baskets on Sunday morning.  The family headed over to Grandma & Grandpa Green Acres’ home for a wonderful dinner followed by a choice of desserts.  The kids played and watched TV while Eric and I enjoyed visiting.

February 1-9, 2013

Ok, so the meal is uncooked in the top photo, but the end result was excellent.  Both these dishes are the result of a Wildtree Freezer Workshop that I took part in via Skype.  The end result was at least 10 freezer meals for everyone.  I ended up with a few more because I doubled some of the recipes.  The top is a Rosemary Herbed Pork Tenderloin Roast and the bottom is a Steak Fajita filler.  With a million and one things on the calendar, I was grateful that my friend allowed me to take part in this way.

And a couple pics of the yard from the early part of February.  Believe it or not, this is the most snow we’d had all winter, and it’s not as much as my family would’ve liked.

Frosted trees are so beautiful.  I really enjoy winter and the beauty of it…even when it’s snowing and blowing.  It doesn’t bother me when I’m at home looking out my kitchen window!

I also want to note that Angelina, Zeke and Dash all competed in 4-H and FFA Crop Judging at Little I in Fargo on the 8th.  They had fun and did well.

My mom came to stay with us on the 3rd.  I had surgery on the 4th, so she came to help with the kids for the week.  I needed to leave Marcus home, so I felt most confident leaving her with him.  I was unable to nurse him for 48 hrs and he refused to take a bottle – no big surprise there.  The other option was a medicine dropper, so that is how he ate.  He doesn’t eat much during the day anyway, so this actually worked out ok.  He still didn’t like it, but at least he was getting something.  The surgery went well.

Miller Ski Trip 2012-13 (#3)

 

Now, my dad has a crazy sense of humor. I may have inherited a bit of it, but I tend toward the sarcastic.  This is totally my dad!  He found these crazy hats at a truck stop and decided that his grandkids would thoroughly enjoy them.  And, they did!!

Our family trip wouldn’t be complete without pictures.  So, first it’s Grandpa & Grandma with all the grandkids.  With this many, it’s hard to get a bad picture …or a good picture depending on how you look at the scenario.

The headbands are a little big for the littlest Golden Acre Grandkids, but they persevered.

 

The Lahlum Family…and another of the headband conquers baby pictures.

 

My parents, to whom we are thankful for giving us life and these wonderful family memories.

 

I didn’t include all my sibling family photos, but I have to include my brother Eric.  He has a great sense of humor, too.  He was replicating the Karate Kid in the above shot.  I have no idea where that came from…

now, this…I take complete creative credit for the idea that began it all.  I made an offhand comment to Anna, my sister-in-law, that, “I think they should make NDSU.”  Said sarcastically, of course!  And, from there we have the following fun…we ladies stood up on the balcony and directed the guys into proper position…and LAUGHED and LAUGHED!

Don’t worry, the guys do get better with practice.  From scrunched up on the carpet…

…to rolling up the carpet and moving some furniture..

…to the best we could do with this many people and this little space.

Then, the guys had to have their own brand of fun!!

Happy New Year!  Go Bison…a few of the group will be headed down to TX at the end of the week for the championship football game.

While the snow cover on the mountain was sufficient, the night we left…on into the morning of our departure…it snowed A LOT.  Wish we could have stayed to ski one more day. 

I should note that I chose not to ski this year.  Getting all the kids to lessons and having a 4 month old baby would have made it challenging.  And, I did want to relax.  In addition, there was ‘baby weight’ and I had no desire to shop for post-pregnancy ski pants!  This was the year to ‘take a break.’  I enjoyed visiting, reading my Kindle, watching the kids in their ski lessons, and playing Scrabble with my brothers (they actually used a timer!!).

This is the view out the balcony door on the morning of our departure.  We left for home on Jan 2.  We drove all the way home.  Thank goodness traveling wasn’t affected by the snowfall.

Overall, another excellent Miller Ski Trip.