The Drew Report

Drew knows the following body parts: ears, tongue, nose, belly button, hands, head, toes, and feet.  He may know more than that, but who knows with this guy.  He can stack blocks though.  My bet is he'll be building towers and hitting home runs before he can form a sentence.

Drew has been a more finicky eater since his big bad infection this summer.  He was on antibiotics for so long that his guts were all messed up and he was living on yogurt, cheese, and bananas for at least a month.  This kind of made him dislike veggies once we could start adding them back into his diet.  He completely spits out peas now no matter what they are hidden inside.  Most things I can sneak in or cover in sauce and he will eat though.

He is signing "light" and "thank you" now, but it took me a while to catch on.  His version of the signs wasn't self explanatory to me, and he is not attempting to say the word at the same time.  I think the reason I caught on so quickly to the other three kids' signs is that the signs were in conjunction with a verbal attempt at the word.  His mouth is always closed and he just makes a grunting sound to get my attention, if that.  Stinker. that I love. so. much!

This was our first successful fire in our fireplace.  Successful meaning Drew wasn't trying to dive into the fire.  He loved it though.  When Brian was blowing the fire and it was flaring up, Drew almost had a conniption.  We wen nuts with squeals and such.  Pretty cute.

Being cute again!

Eating some bacon pieces like a big boy.  Cute expression, right?

Drew loves his biggest sis!

Too Big for Our Britches

We bought a new couch recently when we decided that we were tired of having no where to sit especially when we had people over to watch football.  We also moved our TV onto the wall above the fireplace to make room for more couch.  The couch we had was as old as Hannah and was really cheap as far as couches go.  We decided it was time.  

This is an old picture of the living room from when we first moved in.

In choosing the couch we really had a great time with the whole family sitting on every couch in the entire store.  Everyone had an opinion.  Drew's opinion was, "Keep the stroller moving and the snacks coming and I'll let you guys keep me locked up for this nonsense."  The kids especially liked the couches that had buttons to move the seats, but that's a little too fancy for us.  We wanted a curvy "L" shaped couch to seat a lot of people.  We found more than enough of those.  We found the right one for us, bypassing the 100% real leather one that I really wanted and went for the more practical polyester fake leather.  My mantra to keep my head on straight was, "We have a cat and four kids."  I just kept repeating that to myself and had Brian say it to me more than a couple times.

We had one week to get the living room ready before the delivery.  We used the storm to do just that.  I painted the living room while Brian installed the TV on the wall and rewired and reorganized the electronics.  We put a baby gate up and let the kids run wild most of the week which left quite the mess to clean up multiple times a day so I could retain my sanity.  We finished by Thursday and moved out the entertainment center and the old couch on Friday.  Saturday while I was picking up the kids from German school, I got a call.  The couch had arrived, but it was a little bigger than we thought.  :)  Oh no, we didn't measure.  Don't judge.  Live and learn.

No pictures on the wall yet!  Sad thing is you can't see the wainscoting that I painted white except for on the other side of the room because the couch is too tall.  I guess I should have figured that.

Saturday football!  Superbowl party, here we come!

But we LOVE the couch even though it fills up the whole room.  It is super comfy and our whole family plus some can fit on it.  Much fun has already been had on the couch by the kids although I could live without the playing with the recliners. I joked with Brian that I didn't know why I was so excited about getting the new couch since I would rarely get to sit on.  This is obviously not because there isn't room, but because I just don't get to sit much.  However, I have found a few good excuses to sit on it this week, and they are called reading stories to the boys and doing Isaac's reading lesson on it.  Oh yeah, mommy's going to sit on this couch.

I'll get better pictures up when I can get the pictures on the wall.  I need a couple of frames before I do that so it may be a week or so.

Babies are the cutest!

 I know Drew gets more face time on this blog lately than the other three cuties do, but let's face it babies are the cutest.  This is true for several reasons.  First of all,  everything they do is for the first time in their tiny toddler bodies and is just so cute!  

Look at Drew drink his first smoothie!  

Just watch him put on that hat!  

Oh, he is so cute when he sits on the stool!  

Wow, he is eating his snack just so cute!  

Even the big sisters and brother say these things to me all day long.  It just is so true!  Those big kids have eaten more snacks than I can count and drank enough smoothies for it to be that cute anymore.

Drew loved my weight watchers pumpkin smoothies.  (By the way, I only got a taste of them.  Daddy came home late and was wondering where his went.  The kids really loved them!)

 Plus, they are mostly innocent and, at the very least, ignorant of the trouble they cause.  So unless his life is in imminent danger, it is just cute, cute, cute! 

Speaking of trouble...

 However, those big kids definitely have their moments of cuteness.

Genna is still pretty cute too, despite the lack of tiny features.

Brothers having an afternoon snack together, what could be better?  See Drew eying his brother's snacks?

Drew was trying to borrow Isaac's snacks.

I guess I just have always been a baby person.  That is probably what it boils down to.  But seriously, look at these cheeks!  Reason number three...the cheeks!

I drew and embroidered Horton on this romper.  I had planned to also embroider "Speck," since that is partly where his prenatal nickname originated, but I never got around to it.  If it still fits him next summer, I'll try again.

Sharp Shooter Drew!  This guy can hold his own, let me tell you.  He is ready for some action, so bring it on!  Due to the poor color choice, you can't see this in the photo, but I appliqued an airplane on this romper and embroidered his name too.

He stole his brother's cowboy hat since hats are his new thing.

Future slugger!  I was trying to get him in the car when he saw this bat and had to take a few practice swings.

Did I mention how much Drew loves bats, balls, swords, and the like?

Anything that can cause major destruction is high on this guy's list.  He's so very different from my sensitive soul, Isaac, but they do both love a good sword fight.

Genevieve so loves her baby brother.  She treasures every moment, as do I, when he sit still long enough for her to sneak a hug or kiss or take a picture with him.

This picture is a shout out to our dear friend and faithful blog follower, Jeff, who sent the children these adorable Thomas tables and chairs to color on rainy days.  Drew has enjoyed having something his own size to sit in too.

I'm a winner!

Guess what I won!!!  I actually won the raffle this year at the Carnival for Life for the baby quilt.  And guess what lucky little guy gets a new quilt out of the deal.  I think he likes it!

Best part is the reverse side with the light houses that match Drewy's nursery!

Edible Science

Last week we made a pizza to illustrate the four layers of the earth.  We labelled them with toothpicks and sticky notes.  Then they ate their experiment for lunch.

All My Little Saints

  The kids had two opportunities to wear their saint costumes, once at the parish Carnival for Life and once at our annual homeschool All Saints party.  I have to confess failure of getting good pictures of my sweeties this year because it seems we were always going to be late if I stopped to try to get a picture of them all. Let me introduce my little saints first.

Genevieve was Saint Anne, mother of Mary. 

This is before I made her cape to go with it.

Isaac was Blessed Jose Sanchez.  He chose this because of the Holy Heros Glory Stories we have, but you may know him from the movie For Greater Glory.  He was the young boy who was martyred.

I put the Cristeros' flag on his poncho and hat so people would know he was no ordinary cowboy.

Drewy was St. Juan Diego for one of the festivities, at least.  On the way to the All Saint's party Drew got carsick all over his costume.  I can't tell you how much that hurt since I thought his costume was the coolest.

Hannah, as always, picked an obscure saint.  She was St. Melangell.  She carries a rabbit because in the story Hannah read about her she saves a rabbit from some hunters.  This is somewhat ironic since her brother, Isaac, wants so desperately to be a hunter and fisher.

 I made these costumes mostly from scratch.  St. Anne's costume was made with a simple tunic, a basic cape, and a doll sling that helped to carry her baby, Mary.  She also borrowed a shawl for her head covering from my closet.  Blessed Jose Sanchez's costume was a collared shirt and pants, with a poncho made from one of dad's old shirts, a cowboy hat and stick horse.  I made the flag with felt pieces and printed pictures of Our Lady of Guadalupe and the other part that is normally on the Mexican flag sewed on with plastic over it.  St. Juan Diego's costume was a made by reverse applique of Our Lady of Guadalupe.  To make the applique, I used a transfer pencil to trace the outline of Our Lady of Guadalupe onto white fabric.  Then I used fabric markers to color it in as close to the original as possible.  I added some flowers to the bottom.  For St. Melangell's costume was a simple tunic with a pocket for the rabbit and a short head covering sewn from a piece of white fabric.

Then I had the extreme privilege of making some pieces for costumes for some dear friends of ours.  I made Elizabeth Anne Seton's bonnet and cape from black felt so that it wouldn't flop down too much and to eliminate hemming.  The bonnet was made from a circle of fabric that I cut using a winter hat to gauge the size.  To make the cape meet in the middle I cut it twice as long as Genna's cape and gathered it a ton after sewing a running stitch and pulling it.  Then I made St. Kateri's Indian headband with black braids.  We had the headband from an old Thanksgiving project.  I sewed a piece of felt to make a cap inside of it since this cutie has lost her hair to chemo.  Then the girls helped me cut a ton of yarn to make the braids from.  I sewed them inside the headband.

Genna tried on the costume for me so I could trim it up.

Here's the real Elizabeth Anne Seton with St. Melangell.

I love this picture.  She is a dead ringer for St. Elizabeth Anne Seton, right?

Here's St. Kateri.  I can't tell you how happy it made me to give her braids.  She has blessed do many including our family, and I was happy to return the favor even if just a tiny bit.

I also made the shield accessory for their oldest brother, although it wasn't originally for the Saint costume.  It was part of the boys' birthday gifts.  I made this shield and a Spartan shield.

Funny thing, St. Kateri won one of the costume contests.  The other winners were St. Clare of Assisi and St. Kateri's brother, Blessed Emil Kapaun.

 And now you may see why it took me so long to get this up on the blog.  Lots of pictures and details!

All the saints after Mass and the procession of saints.  Then they were off to eat pizza and gather candy at the saint stations where they learn prayers of the great saints.

Safe and Sound

We survived Super-storm Sandy with only a small leak in the basement and a blanket of pine needles to show for it.  All trees are still standing, with just some small branches down.  We didn't even lose power which is miraculous considering the winds were estimated to be at 75mph around here.  Five of us slept in the basement.  Can you guess who was left up on the main level?  Me, but only because I couldn't sleep down there.  I gave up trying around midnight and left the "comfort" of the twin mattress I was sharing with Brian and slept on the couch on the "safest" side of the house. 

Everything shut down around here for two days, so Brian was home with us cooped up Monday and Tuesday.  Instead of taking these days to relax and slow down a bit, this crazy husband and wife decide, "What a great time to paint the living room!"  I don't know if there is ever a "great" time to paint the living room when you have 4 small children, but I am pretty sure it isn't during a super-storm.  :)  No really it was fine, but we are not yet finished.  My goal is to be finished by Saturday since we are getting our new couch that day.  We are taking it a little easy on the homeschooling front this week and doing more of the independent work part so mom can finish painting and still manage the household.  I have a ton to post right now, but we have an All Saint's party that I need to get ready for, but check back tomorrow to see my four little saints and probably a few more too.

You can't see the patio or the grass at all, and it's not like we just have never raked them up.  This happened in a 24 hour period.

Our hearts and prayers go out to all who were much more severely effected by Sandy.  I thank God even for the sorrows that I do not understand for I know he has a plan for us all.  

"For I know the plans that I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope."

Jeremiah 29:11