Modesty spoken from a 7 year old

"Mom?  Next year, for my bathing suit, I want to have a swim dress.  Short sleeves and it goes down like this, all the way to right below my knees.  Ok?"

What could I say?  How could I deny this?  What a beautiful thing.

God bless your day!
C'mon cheer it with me:  TGIF!!! TGIF!!!! TGIF!!!!

God bless,
Mary@ Cheerios

Sign of Spring* and pics

*First tick of the season was just found on my 11 yr old boy's shoulder.
Oh wonderful, here we go!

On a lighter note...here are some super cute pics I snapped up last week. 

Here is my duo---my 'double trouble' boys--don't they look so cute?  Of course they do! :)  This is how they entertain themselves while Momma is teaching the bigger kidos at the dinning room table right next to this deck.  They got themselves all 'decked' out (ha ha) as firemen ready to fight the blaze of the play house.

And here is my 6 yr old sweetie girl doing what sweet girls do...dolls and doll houses are the best! 

So, do you notice how high up these doll houses are, up on top of our train table?  Haa!  Our Lil' Lady is getting into everything! And of this writing, since this pic was taken last week, we have moved that table downstairs b/c our Lil' Lady has showed us how much of a climbing monkey she is!

Amazing that within a week, she can go from cute and slow crawling baby INTO a cute and fast running baby and wants to do everything her big siblings are doing!!!

Gotta go!
God bless,
Mary

"CHARGE!!!"

There is something quite comical about little girls dressed in girly pink and purple, wearing skirts and being lined up for teams to be chosen.  Then to hear those sweet innocent high pitched, squealey girly voices yell out "CHARGE! AHH!!! ARRRR!!!"

With brothers, all things are possible.

Haaaa haaaaa

God bless,
Mary

Joys of Motherhood

Last night, as I was tucking my girls into bed, one of them declared that they wanted to be a 'Mommy'. 

"How sweet!",  I thought.

She proceeded on to tell me that she wanted to be one "at this very moment!"

...so that she could have a big bowl of ice cream!  And my other daughter said "Yeah! and a smoothie anytime I want one!"

HA!! HA!!!
The joys of motherhood!!! :)

God bless,
Mary

Happy 6th Birthday to my Sunshine-kid #5!

I failed to mention that my sweet sunshine girl turned a big 6 years old about a week a half ago!!! :)

All she wanted for her birthday were twin tiny little baby dolls and a baby highchair. How Cute!  That request I could manage!

Off I went to the store to buy her the twin dollies.  But the ones I saw, I just knew, were not going to be to her liking.  Until I found these tiny little dolls-they were only $1~ and I was not at a tag sale!!! They really were that cheap~ and I could not resist so I bought her sextuplets-there were 6 different kinds so I picked one out of each.  She was so excited~the joy was priceless.  Her face lit up as she laid out her 6 teeny tiny babies on the table. 

She quickly began to name these babies:  Avila, Hannah, Johanna, Rose, Felicity and Theresa.  

Then her big brother wrote their names on their tags.  It became quite the family event!  In fact, by the end of her bday-day, she generously gave the pink teeny tiny baby to her big sister so she could 'keep her forever'.  This sunshine birthday girl has such a gentle, loving and kind spirit, unlike anyone I have ever met for her age.  She is only 6 and yet she is teaching us all how to live unselfishly.  She did not let those teeny tiny baby dollies out of her sight for the many days following.  She motherly wrapped them each in a little blanket, swaddled them, cuddled them, fed them and carried them everywhere.  I also came across a 'look-alike' Vera bag and so I picked it up b/c they could fit the dollies in each of its' 6 compartments inside the bag.

Sweetness is seeing my sunshine, with her easy going phlegmatic spirit, so content and full of joy on her birthday.  She did not need or want much and yet so content.  How we can all learn from her! :)

She did request a "My little Pony" birthday cake.  We had such fun with decorating it.  I can't seem to upload pics right now but I will try sometime over this weekend again. 

God bless,
Mary

Totally lovin' this moment

My 4 yr old little man ran to my oldest daughter and said, very giggly:

"I thought I married Momma, but I didn't!  (insert heee heee giggle giggle)  I just married 'little lady'!"

You see, just moments before I was nursing little lady and 4 yr old little man came over...

"Oh, Momma, I just have to give her a kiss." 

(Btw, this is nothing new...4 yr old little man adores and I mean, ADORES, his baby sister and is so sweet w/her.)

So I propped her up and just then she turned her head to see him and BOOM-he smooched her right on her lips! :)  The giggles and smirks arose from within him!  Oh if you could have seen his face! 

Now, according to my kids, if a man and woman kiss on the lips, that equals marriage. 

(Not a bad indicator, wouldn't you say???)

He tells me that he just married little lady and I have tried to convince him that he did not.  How do I explain that one to a 4 yr old?  Who knows...but  right now, it is awfully cute!!! :)

4 yr old kids ROCK!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE this age!!!
Thank you God for this moment...

God bless,
M

150 visitors to my blog!!!

I just noticed that I not getting many visitors to my blog-no a big deal. 

To me, this blog is a way for me to let go of some of my thoughts, give others some insight into my big family, allow others to learn from my mistakes, and meet some other super great blog-moms too :)  I find some great support here in the blogosphere that is missing in the real world, unfortunatly.  Life is constantly changing and I am trying to adapt to all this technical computer stuff.  Not my favorite thing to use my time on, but a momma's gotta do what  a momma's gotta do.

...BUT get this... I did notice that waaaaaaaay back on January 13, 2009 I got 150 visitors on THAT DAY ALONE! 

What is up with that????

I guess tons of people are interested in sweet innocent 2 yr old little boys possibly dressing in little pink tutu's  b/c they have big sisters or something...haaa haaa!!!

Or, it could be that THIS post was also on that day...but,  I doubt it....must be the tutu thing. lol

And isn't God soooooo awesome?  Little did we know that we'd have a sweet little lady that they get to dress up FOR REAL now!!!! God did indeed give my girls their ultimate wish of a baby sister!!!  Thanks God!!! :)  You are so awesome!  We are all so very much in love with little lady.  She is the delight of all.

I wonder if I'll ever get that many visitors again in one day?!?!?!  woweee!!!

God bless,
Mary

Fire Recap

This week flew by for me, big time. 

Monday we were sadly saying our goodbyes to my wonderful-awesome-totally crazy- energy filled b/c they actually sleep-fun and loud -sisters who came for the weekend. (hee hee) 

How cool is that?  They ditched their own husbands to join my hubby, me and our brood.  Very cool, I must say. 

So, did you notice my blog post about a, uhm...fire?  (if not, click HERE. I'll wait...)

Well, those sisters of mine were here and thanks be to God that they were!!!  We believe that WAS the reason they were to come up to visit us on this specific day and night and weekend.  What a crazy and terrible thing we had to have happen.  Let me explain...

Saturday night, all kids were sleeping, hubby was sleeping and even baby was asleep in her bassinet (which she does not do too often...she likes her Momma a whole lot).  So, that leaves 3 sisters up talking, of course, with wine, of course and that 7 dip thingy except it was not 7 but more like 5 dip thingy.  Anyway, it was super yummy (Thanks D!) and we were goofing off, chatting it up till late. 

11:30pm to be exact.

Then sweet baby started crying and b/c the considerate (ha!) wife that I am, I did not want my hubby to wake up so up I ran to gather my little sweetie and soothe her back to sleep.  As I am sitting in bed, I hear my sisters run, and I mean RUN up the stairs, knock quickly and abruptly at our bedroom door and say

"There is a fire...in your backyard!!!"

No time for me to think to look outside, I wholeheartedly believed what my sister was saying.  Who wouldn't, right?

At that moment, our thoughts were totally focused on getting our 7 children out of our house, far away from our house and as I did that, I glanced back to see an orange/yellow glow behind our house and our neighbors house with very high flames (looked about 10-12 feet probably).  I scurried them all into our van and awaited my hubby as he ran back inside to get a few things.  I knew we were still too close to our house so I drove the van up the street a little bit.  I was petrified, totally!  I was shaking as I heard and saw my sisters screaming "FIRE!!!" to all our neighbors as well as banging on their doors to alert them.  All of my kids were freaking out.  One had her head hid between her knees with her ears covered, another one was shaking so badly it looked as if he was having a seizure, another one stared blankly straight ahead as if he was blind.  The baby was still on my lap, ASLEEP THROUGH ALL THIS!!! Thank God she was sleeping!  I don't know what I would have done if she was up crying and screaming.  I started to bang on my horn and yelling "FIRE!" as well.  I keep on honking my horn for, what felt like 5-10 mins.  It was so scary.  Then the fire trucks came, 5-6 fire trucks and about 30 or more fire fighters.  It was quite the scene.  It took them 2+ hours to calm the fire, put it out, and drench our whole backyard wooded area. 

This is what it looked like once we got the "OK" to get back into our house and the firemen were putting away all their equipment and hoses.  It was around 1:30am, I think.

I am so thankful the kids all were OK (except one who slept on our bedroom floor-I don't blame her!  I am surprised they all were not in our bed!!!  I was freaking out!) with going back to their own beds and went back to sleep. 

I am thankful for those hardworking firemen who protected us and put out that nasty fire.

I am thankful for a sisters weekend and up late laughing and talking, for if we were not, there is NOWAY we would have known about this fire!

I am thankful for a very kind neighbor who called us and ended up leaving a message wondering if we were OK and if we needed to come to her home.  She called at midnight and of course, we were not here to answer her call.  Thank you God for good neighbors.

I am thankful that our other neighbors (well, at least some of them!) actually heard us beeping and yelling and banging on their doors.  Some were not concerned in the slightest -why, I have no idea! Weird... 

And I am thankful that we are all safe.  Thank you God.

God bless,
M

Smile! CLICK~!

Yesterday, I was all set on taking pics of our kidos for our annual Christmas photo card.  There was no way of changing my mind.  I knew that this weather would be perfect timing-so nice and only slightly chilly out - not even enough to wear jackets, if you would ask my kids.  It had to be done-that day.  With being further away from our loved ones, this is one of the Christmas cards, I am sure, they are waiting for. 

And anyway, I love to take pics of my kids-esp. all of them together.  It is a real treat for me.  It brings my view into focus-on what really matters.  When I see those pics, no matter what they may bring-silliness, craziness, madness or dullness...it does not matter.  B/c these are our blessings.  Our little treasures. 

Each of our children has their own personality and it truly shines through when I take a bunch of the same pictures one click after another!  I love love LOVE it!!! :)

I *tried* to train them to smile those nice smiles where you can see their teeth and they actually smile :)   Not those 'smiles' where you can see teeth but they look like they are sporting some new evil teeth look at you! haaa  :)  I also *tried* to make sure that they knew when it was time to smile to do just that and then hold that smile so I could take click after click of pictures.  I still wondered, though, how this would pan out. 

I really enjoy reviewing the pics and laugh at each one as they are so different and so unique in each of their own special way!

I set the kidos all up, with the help of my adoring husband-he insisted oldest to youngest :).  And I told them to smile as my hubby acted goofey behind me.  The other people at the lake/park were looking at us and I am sure either laughing at us or reminisicing of their younger days doing just the same thing.  It was quite the sight, let me tell you! :)

And off I went with the camera. 

CLICK
CLICK
CLICK
CLICK

...And then it happened.

My batteried DIED! and I had NO extra batteries on me!!!
I guess there will only be a few to choose from this year and I hope at least one is halfway decent!!!

Here are some pics of where we were and some diff. shots before my camera died....

MY 4 WILD BOYS:

MY 2 SWEET GIRLS:

 And the sight they loved...

God bless,
M

Mother of Sorrows craft activity

Fun for boys b/c of the swords and fun for girls b/c of Mary!
I thought they came out grrrrrrrrreat!  Here they are:

And b/c my boys always want me to take pics of their lego creations, here is what they worked on yesterday:

I must have tons and tons of pics of legos!  Maybe one of these days I'll actually get to a post all about them.   Who knows....

God bless,
Mary

Girls just wanna have fun

Do you want to see 2 little girls in such delight with great big smiles and happy demeanor?

Go ahead and tell them that they can organize Momma's old jewelry box and put all the jewelry into the new one (I got at a tag sale for FREE, uh huh). Go ahead, I dare you!

Now I'm off to take delight in them taking delight!
Gotta love these girlie girls!
God bless,
Mary

Happy Feast of St. Maria Goretti

My girls LOVE this Saint-esp. my oldest. She is a true role model for girls (and women too!). Do you know about this saint?

October 16, 1890Maria Goretti was born in Corinaldo, Italy to Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini.

Then on July 5, 1902, Maria was mortally wounded by her neighbor, Alessandro Serenelli, who attacked her with intent to do something very bad to her (if you get my drift....uhm...). He was 20 years old. In her struggle, she told him of the truth that what he was to do was a terrible sin, and that hell would be where he would end up. She did not hesitate to tell the TRUTH, costing her her life.

Then on July 6, 1902 Maria died at the age of 11 years, 9 months and 21 days, after forgiving this man, Alessandro. Did you get that? SHE FORGAVE HIM! What a saint!

She was a martyr before her 12th birthday-wow!

The really cool thing is that one night he had a dream or vision of Maria and she was gathering flowers and offering them to him. With that dream, his life changed. When he was released after 27 years (he was sentenced to 30 yrs), his first act was to go to beg the forgiveness of Maria’s mother.

Oh, St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!

On June 24, 1950 Maria Goretti is declared Saint!

She was so very chaste and pure and beautiful too, such a role model for us girls and women today.

May we imitate her love for God and for neighbors.

St. Maria Goretti, pray for us!

God bless, Mary

Kool-Aid Kool-Idea

Check this idea that I found:
Make some tasty lip gloss for little girls playing dress-up. Let the girls pick their favorite presweetened Kool-Aid flavor. Blend a package of the drink mix with 3 tablespoons vegetable shortening, then microwave for one minute. Transfer to a 35mm film canister and refrigerate overnight. Doesn't this sound like fun?! I might try it this week! The only glitch is I bet the yummy sweet taste of this lip gloss might entice them to have an empty 35 mm canister by the end of the day!
God bless,
Mary