One two tweee!

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous! The kids and I were able to enjoy being outside without having to be bundled up, or fear being blown away. The kiddos are starting to enjoy their climber a lot more and basically played on it the whole time we were outside.

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At one point we had to do a countdown before each one of them went down the slide, and it is so funny to hear them counting! It sounds something like, oooonnnnneeee, twoooooooooo, tweeeeee! GO! Sometimes they slide a little too fast and hit the ground but they were quick to jump up and say "ta-da!". I'm so glad they are finally enjoying this!

We also broke out the sidewalk chalk today! Jill is a huge coloring fan, Aaron can take it or leave it really. Aaron spent most of the time picking up all the pieces and putting them back in the box (funny he doesn't do that with the 101 piece food set that he dumps out all the time). Jill had a blast coloring on the ground and made quite the masterpiece outside.

I hope the weather stays nice all weekend so we can get out and enjoy it! Oh! I got word about the bake sale from last weekend, we made $455 for the church building fund. How awesome is that?! Hope you're having a great day so far!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope all of you have been having a great Valentine's Day! It truly has been a great one over here!

I spent my morning working the bake sale at church. We had soooooo many baked goods, it was amazing to see! We sold I would say 75% of everything that was brought in (2 banquet tables full). After 9 o'clock mass we had already made $200, so I am excited to see how much we made after 11 o'clock mass.

Before I left for the bake sale the kids gave me Valentine's Day cards, well they gave themselves my Valentine's Day cards and let me look over their shoulders to see what they said. So cute! Scott gave me a beautiful coffee cup that is painted with the tea party scene from Alice in Wonderland and surprised me with gorgeous flowers when I got home from the bake sale. How pretty are these?


Later on in the day my charming daughter decided she would hide inside the easel...yup you read that right....

But she sure looks cute, doesn't she? She got stuck after I took the photo and couldn't figure out how to get out. Hopefully this does not become a regular occurrence.

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day!

Baking for a building weekend 2!

I have been a baking fool today. We have another bake sale this weekend at our church to raise money for the building fund. Last week we raised $279 and didn't even have that much to sell, this week I have a feeling will be totally different! I cannot wait to see how much we raise!

I ended up making some Ghiradelli chocolate-chocolate chip muffins, fudge, fudge with peanut butter chips, two apple pies, a batch of triple chocolate chip cookies, zucchini bread, sugar cookies, chocolate cupcakes with pink icing. I'm debating making a batch of brownies, we shall see.

We also did a special project with the kids today, but I can't show pictures until after all grandparents have their presents. I can't wait for you to see what they did!

In other news, my spot for the Daily Buzz is now on Tuesday at 6:15 am EST. I am so excited to be taking part in this and talking about American Baby's Supermarket Stars! Can we talk about the irony that I'm talking about healthy eating on Fat Tuesday??? I just realized that, too funny! I've gotten to try some new products that I'm going to share on my review blog next week.

I hope all of you are having a great weekend!

We bake to build

The bake sale this morning went really well, minus the fact that it was only 45ish degrees and it was outside. We pretty much sold everything and all of the money went to our Church's building fund. We are in a temporary building and have to raise a ton of money before we can get onto the property that we (well the Archdiocese) own. We're doing another bake sale next weekend and at least now I know what people are looking for(cakes, pies and breads) and that it is important to mark that you bake with Splenda so all the diabetics will buy the treats too. I have no idea how much money we made today at the three masses but I know last night we made at least $150 which is awesome.

Our priest also just returned from Haiti with his mother. For those of you that don't know our priest, Father Jean, is from Haiti and all of his family is still there. His immediate family was not harmed by the earthquake, however his nephew, cousins and some aunts and uncles are either deceased or still among the missing. His mother will be staying in the states for at least 2 months until everything calms down. She was at the masses last night and I was told she was somewhat overwhelmed by everyone, plus she doesn't speak English, so I'm sure that was a bit much too.

I have to share this story with you that he told us today, when Father Jean went to Haiti he spoke with some of the priests from the diocese, well what's left of it, and told us that two seminaries were destroyed with all of the priests and many of their nuns. They have nobody. Father and the other priests that travelled with him brought supplies for the remaining churches and priests. Our church alone raised $13,000 to send with him and the entire Archdiocese of Central Florida raised $3 million. I think that is amazing and extremely generous! So nice to see that caring people are still out there.

That's all from here, sorry for the lack of pictures, the kiddos have colds and the snot is everywhere. I'm going to try their cold air humidifier tonight to see if it will help. I really don't know what else to do at this point, I think they are still to young for a decongestant, right? I'm going to call our doctor in the morning and see if there is anything I can give them. Any tips?

Knights of Columbus 4th Degree Exemplification

Doesn't that photo look like Aaron, minus the 1970's wardrobe and carpet????

Today's post is all about my wonderful husband, Scott. Today is his 33rd birthday, but if you ask him, he's 29.

Yesterday Scott received his 4th degree with the Knights of Columbus. It was an all day, and I mean all day (8am-10pm) event.

Before the men (278 received their 4th degree) went into the room for the ceremony they had a parade so all of us ladies could see them and channel our inner paparazzo.

In addition to all the men receiving the 4th degree, 13 priests and a few deacons also received theirs. Father Jean, our pastor, was one of them.

Scott was towards the end of the group. I'll admit after awhile I was starting to get nervous, I was afraid that I missed him, but then I saw my handsome husband!

He looks great in a tux, huh? After the processional the doors were closed and guards (seriously) were placed at them. While he was in the ceremony the ladies had a luncheon and we raised money for the VA/VS. It was nice to sit and talk with the other wives of the Knights and learn more about the organization.

Here are some photos of the men of St. Faustina's after receiving their 4th degree:

After the luncheon we went to mass and then on to the dinner banquet. I believe there were over 700 people at the banquet which was amazing!

All in all it was a fantastic night and I cannot wait for the next one! I hope all of you had just as fabulous of a weekend!

PS Happy Birthday Scott! Love you so much and am so very proud of you, Sir Knight ;)

Multiples and More Question of the Week and then some!

This week's question is:

What is your favorite back to school memory?

Since my kiddos are still too young for school I'll talk about when I was in school (of course in a few years my children will probably ask if there were dinosaurs...sigh). I have to say my favorite memory was going shoe shopping with my Mom. We always went to the same store, and it was definitely a big deal. I remember exactly how that store looked, and how it smelled to this day. I remember the coolest thing about that place was there were mirrors close to the floor so you could see your shoes and how they looked. One year I got saddle shoes, and I thought I was the coolest kid ever because my Mom used to wear shoes like that when she went to school.

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In other news....

The kiddos are learning more signs. I keep meaning to post this, but somehow always forget. I now have to make myself a list throughout the day so I know what I need to mention, I'm seriously getting old. Anyway, the kiddos now sign "more", which is very exciting! Aaron went up to the gate the other day, signed "more" to have another Nilla wafer and I was just so proud of him I had to give it to him, even though he had just had a few. Well the stinker then drops in on the floor for Morgan! Sneaky kid! Jill has been doing "more" for a while now, but sometimes it's hard to tell if she's doing "more" or "ball" since they are similar. But here are the signs they do now:
Jill: Dog (her favorite), Bear, More, Ball and Cold
Aaron: Dog and More

I'm sure Aaron does more signs, I just haven't picked up on it yet. They are also talking a lot more. Jill can say: Dog, Dadda, Mama, What's that, hi, boom, stomp, and down. Again, I'm totally positive there are more words in there somewhere, I just can't figure out what they are. Aaron can say: Dadda, Mama, and hi. Aaron's a pretty quiet kid, but with Jill for a sister he doesn't really have a choice. We're trying to get him to talk more, well I shouldn't say talk more, say more actual words. He babbles all the time, just not actual words. The doctor didn't seem too concerned at the last appointment, she said boys tend to talk more later on.

Mimi and PawPaw came over last night so Scott and I could go to church. We do get a little flack for not bringing the kids, but I know my kids and I know they will just want to run up and down the aisle and talk the whole time. Until there is a back room where the kids can be, we probably won't be bringing them. Our Pastor is on vacation so we had a visiting priest, who we've had before (the last time I saw him I was super pregnant with the kiddos which he thought was awesome, he even blessed my belly). Father Gil is pretty cool, he has a way of explaining things that just makes sense. At the Easter mass two years ago he taught us that Easter eggs are like the tomb where Jesus was laid to rest and that the bunny is like the Apostle's running to tell everyone that Jesus had risen. Good stuff, huh? Last night he explained the meaning behind some of the prayers we say and it was just nice to hear it explained. The Catholic faith is something I have known my whole life, so I've never questioned why we say or do certain things. It's nice to have it explained again.

The kiddos kept Mimi and PawPaw entertained the whole time we were gone. I usually keep the iPod on during the day and the kids love it! Jill has two favorite songs on there, and they must always be played. The songs are Josh Turner's "Firecracker" and Dave Matthews Band "Why I Am". Jill had Mimi and PawPaw laughing at her super sweet dance moves!

The kiddos are also really into the Fresh Beat Band (or the artists formally known as the Jump Arounds). Whenever they come on Noggin they immediately stop what they are doing and start dancing along with them. Whoever thought that group up is a genius and I salute you.



Well I should probably stop typing, this post is getting pretty long. Here are some pictures of the kiddos from yesterday and today:

Hope you're having a great day!

Happ Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!
Yesterday was a full day for us! We went to T-Rex for lunch with my Dad and it was packed! But we did manage to get there before the bulk of the crowd did, so we lucked out. I also got to finally eat a burger (I gave up beef/red meat for Lent) and honestly.... I could easily go another 40 days without it. Here are some photos and video from the day...

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Last night we went to the Easter Vigil mass because Scott was completing the R.C.I.A process and becoming a full member of the Catholic Church (thank you again Lani for babysitting!). I have never been to the Easter Vigil before, all I knew was that it was a long service. The first portion of it is in the dark and we all hold candles, then the Father Jean baptized 6 candidates and then confirmed and gave Holy Communion to 4 candidates. It was a beautiful service and I am so proud of Scott and could not be happier! I am very glad that he is apart of the same Church as myself and the kids! Here are some photos from the service...

Scott being confirmedScott and my DadMy Dad, Father Jean and Scott

This morning we did Easter baskets with the kids, I wish I had more photos to show you, but apparently my underwear decided to make an appearance in 90% of the photos...yay memories! But here are the G rated photos...

Today I'm making dinner for everyone and we're just going to relax I think. No big plans that I know of! Hope everyone has a very happy and very blessed Easter!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

So this morning started off about as weird as it does any morning when Jill has on her two piece pajamas. Scott and I usually take bets on if the pants are still on, or if she is using them as a blanket. Well, we both lost that bet, Jill's pants were on but her arm was completely out of the sleeve and that part of the shirt was around her neck. So, that's how the day started. Yeah...
We went out to the farmer's market again in Celebration. Scott's parents came with us too and I think they really enjoyed it. We went a lot earlier this time and there was a much better selection. Plus we stopped at the little French bakery next to it, and yummy, had a croque monsieur, oh it was so good!
We also met 0ur new pastor today, Father Jean Desir. I think he was a little overwhelmed with all the people. I have a feeling he might remember us though, Aaron took a giant, and I mean giant, poop right as we got there. Of course I didn't take a diaper bag with me because, why would I need that if we only live right down the road and we just changed him? Silly Mommy! And of course, everyone wanted to chat us up and hold the kids, which is great, just not when I have a super smelly one. But he seems like a super nice priest. He's the total opposite of Father Steve, which isn't a bad thing. It'll be interesting to see how everything pans out.
That's about it over here, hope all is well with you!

Some unfortunate news

Our beloved pastor Father Steve Phillips passed away late last night from a heart attack. I cannot express in words the grief that has come over Scott and I. Father Steve was such an amazing priest, he brought me back into my faith and introduced my husband to the Catholic faith. I just feel honored that he was able to baptize our children and that he could be apart of their lives.

The Christening

The cake from Party Flavors

Aaron being baptized

Jill being baptized

Today was the kids baptism! We had it at St. Faustina's here in Clermont. It was a beautiful ceremony and everything was perfect. We had a reception immediately after at our home which was pretty good. We used Maggiano's as our caterer, and trust me, I have leftovers for the next month at least! We got our cake from Party Flavors and oh my goodness, it was amazing! They replicated both of the christening gowns onto the cake. It was amazing. The gowns were definitely the centerpiece of the day. Aaron wore Scott's gown and Jillian wore the one that everyone in my family has been christened in (it's over 100 years old). I am so glad everything went well and that everything was beautiful.

Sorry it's short, but I have to finish cleaning up! Hope all is well with all of you!