Happy birthday, Mom!

 To celebrate my mama's 70th birthday, we had a girls' weekend in Omaha!  It was so fun to be with her, my sisters, & a couple of my nieces.  We started off the weekend on Friday night with Stations of the Cross at this gorgeous St. Peter's Church.  It was incredible!

 Uncle Fr. Jon generously drove Sarah & I to Omaha, so he was able to join us for the evening.  My Dad also brought Mom to town so he hung out on Friday night as well.  We were sorry to be missing Doug!

 We had a delicious dinner at Upstream Brewery.

 These little ladies did amazingly well, considering how much high chair, stroller, & carseat time they had to endure.  They were hilarious together & a constant source of snuggly entertainment.  We stayed at the Magnolia hotel which was beautiful.  Spent a good deal of time relaxing in this loft room... a little too much when we probably should have been in bed!

 My mom is a tea aficionado, so after a leisurely breakfast & some Old Market shopping we had proper tea on Saturday afternoon at the beautiful Crook Manor.  It was General Crook's 1860s home at Fort Omaha full of antiques & stories.  I think that Dad would have loved it, too!  I giggle now every time that I use a tea bag thinking how much it would disgust our Tea Guide Mona.  Goodness she knew a lot about tea.  She was a riot!

 Sarah enjoyed some of the egg salad sandwiches & sugar cookies.

 Lily was just too busy to sit down & enjoy her tea.  Lots to do, lots to do!

 We went back to relax at the hotel prior to Saturday evening Mass at St. Peter's.  Afterwards we had a delectable dinner at Vivace & way too late of a night laughing in the loft.  Chris brought a personality assessment that was a little too easy to predict in our group... found out I'm gold & blue.  No surprises there!

I didn't take any more photos (waiting on some goodies from my lovely sisters) but they wouldn't do the time justice anyway.  It was wonderful.  It was much needed.  It was such a gift to be together without a million monkeys running around like usual.  So thankful! 

Happy birthday, Mom!  Hope we can do it again next year!

Movin' on up

 Sarah's bottom two teeth have officially popped through!  Ever since, she has her tongue sticking out like this more often than not.  Hilarious!  She's pulling up to EVERYTHING, emptying cupboards with flair, chatterboxing, & crawling on her knees about 50% of the time.  She's movin' on up!

Sarah & Red Grandma

She said it!

Sarah has moved on from saying, "Bubba" to an approximation of "Andrew"!  She says one or the other most times that she sees him.  He's thrilled.

Top o' the mornin'

 Happy St. Patrick's Day!

A little rainbow water to complement our corned beef & cabbage.  

I love my sissy

 I find them so often like this... Teresa loves to lay on her back & pull Sarah up on her belly.  She laughs & then Sarah starts laughing.  Sarah pulls her nose & Teresa tickles her ear.  Over & over & over.  They never get tired of it!  I hope they grow up to be best of buds.  :)

An inside look

 Our Little Flowers took a field trip out to visit some of my favorite sisters!  They gave us an inside look at life at their convent.  First, they practiced waking up with a smile...

 & a prayer.

 Then we did our daily duties with joy!  (I don't think they actually have dust mop races on a regular basis, but maybe they should!  It sure was fun.)

 We learned about how their seal explains important priorities in their life.

 Then we split into two groups.  The big girls went to make a snack for us all in the kitchen,

 while the little girls cleaned the chapel & the entryway.  Sister told them to dust anything that was wood.  They even dusted the bark on the plants!

 

 We took a break & enjoyed the yummy snack.

 We wrapped up the morning with sung midday prayer in the Chapel.  Beautiful!

Thank you, Sisters, for a marvelous time!

Big stuff

Andrew had a very big weekend.  The Cub Scouts & their dads (or moms) camped out in the rainforest at the big zoo!  They actually pitched tents on the raised walkways & slept amid the animals.  They had a night hike & morning hike through the zoo with their own personal tour guides, which sounds like their favorite part.  It really is different when you aren't swarmed with people!  So glad they were able to go.

Then on Sunday (very tired) we made our way to Cathedral for him to receive his Parvuli Dei award from the Bishop.  Congratulations, Andrew, on another Cub Scout religious award!

Love

And so it begins

Let the cupboard emptying commence!

8 months

My sweet baby Sarah is 8.5 months already!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  She's been a little behind Teresa's learning curve... thank goodness... but is picking up quickly.  She army crawls all over the house, has learned to open cupboard doors, pulls herself up to kneeling, & goes through fits of babbling.  Most recently, she's lost interest in pureed baby foods.  She still doesn't have any teeth, but those gums are seriously impressive at mashing!  I've been introducing a lot of new foods.  Here she was enjoying her first avocados & she devoured them!  The next meal she wouldn't even touch them.  Silly baby.  We will try again!  She is also a little Houdini at escaping from her high chair, belt & all.  Though she hasn't done it yet, I fear she will hit the floor head first one of these days.  Not a lot of fear in this one!  Maybe that's because she has SO MANY attentive eyes?  You think that would be a bonus!

Page One

 Andrew has been reading up a storm, even more than usual, because of an awesome program called Page One at our school!  He's read all but 1 already on a list of 85 books.  So proud of him!  This weekend they had a Fun Day full of book-related games with some of the other surrounding schools. They will compete in sort of a quiz bowl against those other schools to answer questions about all 85 of those books in just a month.  I only have pictures from the set-up, but he had a fabulous time.  Such clever & devoted parents make this whole program come together.  Feeling blest!

3 wishes

"Do you know what I wish, Mom?  To be a Sister...

to be a mom... & to be a... zookeeper!"

On the move

 At 8.5 months Sarah is on the move & learning new tricks like crazy!

 She found one of the few drawers that isn't locked & can slide easily... "Did you need something, Mom?"

 When she stops army crawling for a second, she'll hang out on her belly like this.  If she gets excited, especially if Daddy walks in the room, she'll swim & grin & swim & grin until he picks her up.

 She's found her knees but doesn't know exactly what to do with them.

 She's our first baby with a whopper of a birthmark. 

 She sits like a pro!

 She's fascinated by the phone, especially when it lights up.

 Love you, Tuti Fruiti!