Maeve and I started lessons on the letter B today-and she really surprised me about how much she already knew! We worked on number order 1-20, no problem, alphabet upper case/lower case identification, no problem, letter tracing, no problem, sounding out words, no problem and coloring, HUGE problem. Maeve is the worst color-er ever. Ha. 

I feel like she could have some small motor-issues that hopefully we can work through in the time she has before kindergarten. She is a VERY willing and excited student and it was a ton of fun to work with her. 

A few pictures of our morning--

letter tracing

Maeve's favorite activity--number clothespin matching

Ezra is a bit letter obsessed and worked on his favorite puzzle.

Cheese! =) Love it--even though it's blurry! =)

We are working on this cute B is for Ballerina pack. 

After a few hours of work she didn't want to stop! Luckily we were invited to spend time with our friends and that distracted her from wanting more projects. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and after school we walked to the park and played for a bit. 
This is the best January ever!!!
Not much else is new-just looking forward to next week and much more time with my husband!! =)

It always seems a whirlwind when my husband is away working a lot and I am home with my precious ones. They are always good and a lot of fun but it wears. me. out. to be the one that is *on* all day. They really do keep me laughing though--so thankful for my children!

Anyways--a few tidbits from today--

*I read this article and it was the singly most convicting, discouraging, encouraging thing I've ever read. Oh, and for an example of column A, I just need to look in the mirror, To a T. I'm such a works-based-perfectionist it makes me sick. I need to make more room for grace and MUCH less room for pride in my heart. 

* I've decided to structure our days a little more...again...I decide this frequently and fall off the wagon. Let's see if it sticks this time--Maeve and I are going to work though this easy-peasey-fun curriculum . I think Ezra will enjoy many of these activities too--it will be fun and different. Maybe I'll take pictures. =)

* Downton Abbey last night?! Can't even talk about it. The show is beautiful--if you aren't watching you should--so much emotion--so little said--seriously---LOVE. Watch it here. 

*My husband has just gotten home and helped me tuck the wee ones in bed so I'm going to hop off. Phew, just a few more days of madness till he's back home again at night!!!

We are still chugging along here--more long nights with no Daddy--luckily the kiddos have been precious. =)

I spent the afternoon catching up on my Beth Moore Study (the last week of When Godly People Do Ungodly Things). The reading this week is geared towards people who have made mistakes/fallen into sinful patterns and encourages us to embrace the freedom of forgiveness.

My favorite portion today, 

"A guilty conscience that precedes sincere repentance is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. A guilty conscience following sincere repentance is condemnation and that is not coming from God."

It's so easy to fall back into bad patterns of behavior because we (I) feel defeated. But in forgiveness we have victory because HIS forgiveness is Complete. We can't earn our way into God's good graces--His grace is enough. 

More than enough.

John 8:36

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

It was a timely message for me today--so thankful for the Word. 

*****

In other news, it's still unseasonably warm here and I was able to enjoy a run today (YAY!) and we had some outdoor playtime as well. Ezra was a little sad and quiet (he misses Daddy =( ) but we still had fun.

Some pictures of my favorites:

Life lately has been equal parts 

lovely

and

lonely

and

exhausting.

My husband is extremely busy and I've been a bit overwhelmed as the amount of time I'm on my own far outweighs togetherness-time. 

*frowny face*

We have spent some lovely mornings with friends and that has been a great encouragement--and today--it was bright and warm out and so I took the littles on a very long walk and felt much better for all the fresh air and sunshine.

And now, it's quiet. 

The kiddos all fell instantly asleep.

And so, I think I'll treat myself to a new book (kindle = love) and a cozy night on the couch.

It's lovely--even though it's a bit lonely.

Window(s) Shopping: The Children's Place

I <3 spring dresses!

This Week...

Our backyard was invaded by hundreds of scary screeching black birds:

I found a recipe for homemade Thin Mints (baking now--woot!)

Worked furiously to catch up on our Bible study--

Decided I'm going to save up my Christmas gift cards (even though they are burning a hole in my pocket!!!) and combine it with my birthday coming up in a few weeks to get one of these:

 We've also had playdates that I forgot to take pictures of....=)

And celebrated Maeve's last day of preschool for the semester--and especially celebrated not having to drag Ezra up and down 10 flights up steps kicking and screaming twice a week to get her there. 

Woot. =)

Happy Thursday!

My husband has been extremely (x 1,000,000) busy lately and so I've been a terrible blogger. He was out a few nights last week and THE ENTIRE LONG WEEKEND. 

It was stupid. 

I love him so much and am so thankful that he is such a hard worker AND that he has lots of extra work but it was killing me that we couldn't enjoy the long weekend together! 

Thankfully, the kids were extremely well behaved. 

I was not. =) 

I'm so whiny. 

I'll have a chance to practice my not-whining this week when he's out working late again. 

Bah. Humbug! =)

In other news, I took the littles to Fridays yesterday because I NEEDED TO GET OUT. My long-suffering friend and her boy joined us and the kiddos surprised me by being perfect. It was a much needed time out and made the rest of the extremely longggggg day easier. We also went to Target on a gift-card-shopping spree. The kids made out better than me because the toys were 70% off. I got a pair of socks. 

It seemed exciting at the time. =)

So....life will be crazy the next few weeks with my husband's new show coming up and I will try my best to stay level-headed and happy and thankful.

Things are finally getting back to normal-ish around here! Ezra is off the steroids and acting MUCH more normal and happy. I forgot how much I liked him because the meds sure did make him CRAZY!! =) Poor guy! I'm thrilled he's feeling better! We even got out for a playdate with friends yesterday and I went to exercise class at night! It felt great to be getting back into the swing of things!

In other news, a series I LOVE on PBS just started back up on Sunday--Downton Abbey.

The cast = amazing

The story = engrossing

The costumes = fabulous

The acting = phenomenal

It is an absolutely stellar series and worth checking out! You can even stream episodes from PBS.org! Witty, clever, beautiful--everything a show should be. Hands down the most wonderful series on tv!

Anyways, =) Maeve is back to preschool today and I have yet to figure out how I'm going to entertain Ezra.

My girls' favorite game of the moment?

Jumping Off The Couch!

Angsty

My poor Ezra boy, although he's been feeling better, has not been himself. He's on steroids to improve his breathing/decrease asthma symptoms and he has been 

off. the. wall. 

5 days of INSANITY! =) 

The first day was the worst--he just kept running around screaming/crying/hanging on me--it was sooo sad! 

He was CRAZY! He progressively got better each day but is still VERY emotional--like a little baby manic-depressive. I'm so happy today is his last day of steroids! Hopefully he'll be more himself once they wear off. Poor guy! The other day he was playing with his blocks and everything was so tragic--I had to take pictures. 

To sum it up:

SnowyDay

Yesterday we woke up to our first snow! It's all fun and magical...for about 5 minutes...and then your gloves get wet and you. are. done. Well, at least that's *my* opinion of snow. Other than that snow is acceptable at the following times:

1. Christmas/Christmas Eve

2. When it produces a snow day

3. See 1 or 2

Otherwise I'm not a huge fan--although, any reason to stay home and hibernate does make me happy! =) Also, the snow was gone by lunch which was awesome. Here are the kiddos outside in it:

Window(s) Shopping: Valentine's Day

Playing Catch Up

On Christmas the kids caught another cold and so we were down and out most of last week and this week. And of course, because they are so thoughtful, they shared it with me! =) I ended up with just a mild case of the sniffles and a raging ear infection. Woot. I'm all medicated and feeling better now but Ezra's cold was just not letting go so he had to go in to the Doctors yesterday. He ended up with ear infection/sinus infection, and wheezy little asthma lungs. So he's on antibiotics and TWO kinds of steroids. Wow. Can you say *BABY 'Roid Rage?!* =) Oh well, so glad he's in good spirits though! In order to get Ezra to stay still for his inhaled breathing treatments (which can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes) we've been finding fun You Tube videos for him to watch. We started out with Old School Sesame Street but have progressed to some new kooky ones. The kids love dancing along to them (Maeve doing her blind girl dancing =)!

And for your listening pleasure--our favorite--the Letter Z Song:

I have a few more posts I'm working on--I still haven't even LOOKED at Christmas pictures no less edited them! AHHHH And we had our first snow today so the kiddos went out and played! AND we painted the toy room again (third time is a charm?!)....I'm so behind on blogging! =)

Le Sigh 2012! Le. Sigh.

2011 went so quickly

(except for November and the 7weeksickness which shall forevermore be blotted from my mind Amen)

my baby finished Kindergarten and started 1st grade

my middle baby started preschool

my little baby started talking in sentences and became obsessed with all letters and numbers

my husband had many extra hours of piano lessons and extra opera-gigs in Philly

and i spent a lot of time maintaining the aforementioned people and their home =)

years never went so quickly before i had children

(yet, days never felt so long either =)

i am thankful for another year here

with them

supporting them on their adventures

and wondering when i might have one of my own. =)

Happy Birthday Amelie Rose!

My sweet big girl is *7* today! I can't believe it! She's starting to get old enough that it feels less like we're counting up and more like we're counting down to her growing into an adult! She has changed so much over the year and has become so confident! She is a vastly proficient reader, loves math so much she does problems in her head when she is bored (must get that from her father!!=), is taking piano lessons, is the best big sister/helper ever and is super funny and fun. I love her and watching her grow up is like a present for me everyday! It's kind of amazing how awesome she is. =)

She had a big week this week--with Christmas, and on Monday a trip to see The Nutcracker in Philly with Granny and Pop (so special, so amazing! too bad she was coming down with a cold =( . On Wednesday she had a fun birthday party at Bounce U with her little friends! And tonight our family came over for some birthday celebrating! When it was all over she said, "Now there is nothing fun leftover and life is going to be plain." =) I think the trick to growing up is learning to appreciate all of the plain times, but that's a lesson that can be learned another day. I'm still failing at taking lots of pictures lately--but here's a couple I got today =)

Happy Happy Birthday Darling Girl!!

Merrrrrryyyy Christmas!

From our family to yours, God bless you on Christmas and everyday in the year to come!

Today was our last full day before Christmas break! YAY!!!! Can't wait to have Amelie and my husband home for the next week! They just have a half day tomorrow! Maevey had a little friend over today and we had a very fun morning.We played play doh:

Had a tea party (note Ezra's bad manners!)

Ate a snack:

Made and Frosted Christmas Cookies:

And played toys:

It was a lot of fun! 

Other than that, we had a peaceful afternoon and now my husband is up in the toy room with the kiddos and I am downstairs where it is quiet. =)

A Very Wonderful Christmas

On Sunday (after the girls' super cute Christmas Program--Ezra refused to stand on stage and missed his moment of shining glory =) we had our Weber Family Christmas Gathering! We always look forward to spending time with our NJ family!! There was tons of food, tons of kids and presents from Santa! I didn't get pictures of everyone since it's always a little crazy keeping track of everyone! =) Here's a few that I did get--Santa-Pop!

Misc. children looking at presents. And my husband. =)

The cutest 10-pack of cousins ever!

The four brothers that strated it all--and yes, this is the *best* picture I could get of them! And yes, this photo says a lot about their personalities and yes-my husband is very well behaved. =)

Cousin-Recovery-Time watching Wonder Pets In Granny and Pop's bed. =)

Yay for family time!