CCD

Today was the first day of CCD religious ed classes at Church this school year. It's also James' first time going to school. James has never gone to any preschool, daycare or taken any sports lessons where he's had to listen to a teacher or coach. I was a little worried how he would do, I even had a bad dream last night that he got put into the wrong class and that he was scared. Can't help it, he's my baby and I worry. He even had a few tears in the parking lot before we went into class because he was worried about me not being in class with him. But he did GREAT! He enjoyed the class and likes his teacher. Phew!

We feel really blessed and fortunate to belong to an awesome parish that has a wonderful private Catholic school as well as a great CCD Religious Ed program. It's so important our children learn and understand our Faith. Excited to see them go through their spiritual journey.

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Madeline started CCD at the age of 4 (3 months before her 5th birthday) and James started today at the age of 4 (2 weeks before his 5th birthday). Gosh the kids are growing so fast! And they really do look like siblings. 

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This is Madeline's 4th year of CCD. And this year she will be receiving her Sacraments of Reconciliation and First Holy Communion. And I am her class Catechist/Teacher! I am super excited to be teaching her and the other students about these Sacraments. I have 4 boys and 8 girls in my class and they all seem like great kids so far! It's going to be an exciting year!

Grandparents Day Lunch at School

It's days like this that make it a downer we don't live near extended family. Last Sunday on September 11th it was National Grandparents Day so Madeline's school hosted a Grandparents Day lunch this past Friday. All the students were to invite their grandparents. Madeline emailed Oma (my mom) to see if they could fly out for it (they have free flight benefits). My mom planned on coming out. But as the date got closer all the flights started getting overbooked, there was no way she would make it on stand-by. We figured out why the flights were so full...Austin City Limits Music Festival was starting. Bummer. Madeline understood but she was still super sad. Her teacher said parents are welcome to come for the special lunch. So Stephen filled in for Oma & Opa and Nana & Poppi.

Instead of the chicken and baked potato the school was specially serving, Madeline and Stephen opted for pizza, carrots, apple and chocolate milk.

Madeline was very happy to have her daddy there. They just chit chat the whole lunch.

Stephen said one of Madeline's classmates had a conversation with him, went like this:

"Hi Madeline's Dad"

"Hi Madeline's classmate"

"You know I play football for the Invaders"

"Oh really, let me guess...quarterback?" (the kid looked like a linebacker)

"(Chuckling) No, offensive line."

"Ah yes, I should've known."

"Bye Madeline's Dad."

"Bye Madeline's classmate."

7 Quick Takes Friday (volume 9)

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Easy to make shower party favors. Prayer candles so the guests can prayer for the guest of honor. In this case it was for our neighbor and friend who is due mid October. I bought these cute little white favor boxes from the Dollar Tree. Printed the little labels myself. Stuck in a simple candle. And tied it with some ribbon.

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Working Your Way to Heaven

Came across this well explained blog post this week over at Aggie Catholics blog.

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I was so excited when Kristin posted this on her blog this week. I'm going to print it out for my kids to play on our roadtrip to California next week.

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Speaking of California...we're going out there next week. Stephen's cousin is getting married and we'll also be celebrating my father, my husband and my son's birthdays. Can't wait!

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Some favorite pins from this week...

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Madeline is making all A's on her latest progress report. :)

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I love my son. He is ALL boy. :)

King's Hawaiian Rewards

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Why Blog?

The company I work for, New Era Portfolio (also known as Gallery Direct) is really focusing on social networking to increase sales and make them the most positively talked about art companies on and off line. Our company has a blog and hopes it will help show we are experts in all things art, give a personality of our company, gain loyal readers and help deliver traffic to our sites. They have chosen people from our staff to be on the blogging team, and I am one of them! :) We are encouraged to write about our passion for our work, host contests and giveaways, interview someone, make a video or screencast, give lists of trends, and the latest news in the art industry. And for fun and encouragement we've also been given a point system for the social activity we contribute and can redeem points for rewards and incentives.

So it would REALLY mean A LOT to me if you spread the word about my posts on the Gallery Direct blog, visit the post and leave a comment (because I earn points for all of that too). Also feel free to share this with your family and friends, the more that stop by and read my post, the better. 

My very first blog post is up!

New Era Artist Feature: Volume 1

(click on blog post title for link)

Weekend Baby Shower

Our neighbor friend, Kate, has been such a blessing to our family. She's watched James many days this year when Stephen needed to work an earlier shift and I was still at work in the morning. Kate and her husband are expecting their 4th child this mid October so I wanted to do something special for her and throw her a baby shower.

My friend Kelly posted about attending a baby shower and getting these candle party favors to light when the mom-to-be goes in labor, to think good thoughts and prayers. I loved the idea. So I bought some small candles and put them in these little white bags. I thought they turned out cute.

I was going to slave in the kitchen and make some cake ball pops but then I thought it would be easier to just get some cupcakes from Sam's Club.

Here is Kate opening her gifts.

Her baby shower theme was Diaper Bonanza and Pampering Mom. I got her some diapers and wipes but also sewed her some burp cloths.

I tried a whole bunch of new recipes for the shower and I think they all tasted pretty yummy. I made these chocolate pretzels, cucumber cream cheese sandwiches, artichoke stuffed mushrooms, strawberry spinach salad, and a yummy punch - click on each of them to get the recipes.

Oh and after the shower Stephen came home from work (working a 12 hour shift, 4:30am -4:30pm) and brought home this Italian Fiat so I could test drive it. I'm always telling him I want to test drive a mini Cooper or a Honda Fit, something small and compact. It was fun and sporty looking inside.

I heart this girl

Rolling in the Deep - Adele Acoustic Cover (Jorge and Alexa Narvaez)


Love, love her passion when she sings.

joy and peace in believing

The Catholicism Project

I am so excited about this TV series that will be coming out this Fall. Like Father Barron says in this trailer clip, "We need to tell our own story"...I feel like I am apart of this Catholicism Project as I volunteer as a Catechist this new school year for our Religious Education CCD once again. The thing in my life that brings me most joy and peace is my God of hope (Romans 15:13). I want everyone to have that joy and peace, especially my family. We can all know this God of hope by learning from His teachings.

Evelyn's childhood bracelet from when she received her First Holy Communion. Madeline will wear it this year at her First Holy Communion.

Joyfully, I will be a Catechist this year for Madeline's 2nd grade First Holy Communion class. I am so incredibly excited Madeline will be receiving this Sacrament of Grace this year. I can't wait to help teach these children about God's divinity and how He is so giving towards us. Also excited James will start his first year of Religious Education CCD this year. Bless his little heart, with all the big, complex topics he's talked about of late including God, I know he is ready and eager to learn and understand more about God.

Remember Caboodles!?

I was in an organizing sort of mood this afternoon. And tired of having all my nail stuff and Madeline's hair stuff in sporadic places in our house: side table next to our family room chair, the kids bathroom drawers, my master bathroom drawers, among some other odd places. Then I remembered that my dusty 25+/- year old Caboodles was sitting under my bathroom sink. I got it in the mid 1980's and loved it! It held all my nail polishes and I would give myself manicures all the time. When I finished college, got married and moved away - it remained in the cabinet of my childhood bathroom until my parents finally gave me the remainder of my stuff. I'm glad I still have it, cause now I can pass it onto my daughter to use.  

I remember buying this pink Caboodles-like case for Madeline a few Christmas' ago to store all her hair stuff. It needed to be reorganized so I made a hair accessories Caboodles and a nail accessories Caboodles for Madeline.

It feels so good to have everything organized again.

Everything in it's place.

Madeline very happy about her new Caboodles.

James didn't know what all the fuss was about, he just knew he wanted his picture taken next to the Caboodles too. :)

And she's off.... painted her nails tonight alternating between 3 colors creating a pattern. Oh and she already dropped one Q-tip in the nail polish remover bottle. :)

Six Flags

Madeline's best friend from school, Ashleigh, and her family invited her to go to Six Flags with them this weekend. It was Madeline's first time - and she had a BLAST. They went from opening to closing. And Ashleigh's family treated her to a really good time.

Visits, Swimming, Tubing

We love when family comes to visit. Jordan (Stephen's cousin) & Michaela's family came and stayed with us for 3 nights. It was our first time meeting Michaela and their adorable kids. They are all so sweet! They arrived on their son, Calin's 2nd birthday. We had pizza and a yummy ice cream cake to celebrate.

Their daughter, Capri, is almost 2 months. She is so beautiful. I loved getting to snuggle with a little baby, miss those days with my kids.

Did you hear central Texas broke the record from the 1930's for the hottest summer, 70+ consecutive days of 100+ degree temps? Ugh, I can't wait for Fall weather. But the kids are still enjoying the pool.

Can't you tell. :)

Stephen and I had a date day today. Madeline went to Six Flags with her friend Ashleigh's family. So we asked our friends across the street if they could watch James so we could use our FB groupons for the Tube Haus at Canyon Lake on the Guadalupe river.

Surprisingly this river was ice cold! 

Our butts and hands got numb it was that cold.

It was a pretty river. 

Lots of beautiful river side estate homes lined both sides.

We saw quite a few ducks and geese on the river, made us think of the kids and how they would like to see them.

I loved all the beautiful trees there.

And this large rock/cliff was pretty cool.

The river was super low and slow due to the drought this summer. So we had to get up and walk in a few spots, but overall we had fun. 

It was a nice little getaway together.

When we got back from tubing, we took James out to lunch at Waterloo's Ice House. We had a discount card buy 1 burger entree get 1 free. All James wanted was to go some where they had french fries and a menu he could color (he's really into coloring now). It was a plus they gave out balloons! The host gave James Texas Orange - go Longhorns!

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!