Celebrating David's 14th birthday

Lunch with the BFF

Science Fair

Third place in her first ever Science Project!

This is 14!

Happy 14th birthday Baby Girl! You are beyond amazing in every way and we love you to the moon and back.

Stone and Knox Christmas Show

We so miss the many Christmas shows and special things we do this time of year. Grateful our oldest daughter, who has been homeschooling our grands, put together a little holiday show in her backyard for family. Loved it! My pictures were not great but a great memory to add. 

The Berry Farm Field Trip

Perfect breezy day for a last minute field trip to the Berry Farm in Homestead. 

Complete with strawberry picking, hay ride, trampoline, and lunch before heading back to class. 

Trees!

Family Room tree and living room tree are done.  Leah is still working on her tree. We hope to be done by Wednesday.  Too much homework and studying for a test to finish her tree today. 

This Girl.....

.....loves her nephews! And they simply adore her!

Boys Only!

We finally made the boys their own room. Sleeping over and Grandma and Grandpa's ( aka Yeye and Nino) just got easier. This was Leah's old room that turned into Leah's playroom for a while so the closet is still filled floor to ceiling board games. Might need to get my organizer back in here to help me figure out their closet space

Best Helper Ever!

Meet Buffy

This sweet soul was a stray. She showed up at my school. We brought her home to figure out what to do with her and here we are 5 years later and she is still here! We love this sweet girl. She is loving a snuggler. (Unless you are an opossum that enters our yard, you will not survive)

Thanksgiving 2020

This is definitely a strange year! Proof is that I am blogging! This means I am actually sitting down somewhere for a minute. It feels great! 

We had a small and wonderful but not so quiet Thanksgiving with 2 toddlers and two teens! Due to Covid,  we kept it small. Just the closest family that we interact with regularly and none of us really go anywhere and are very careful when we do. 

A Boy and his cars

Easter Sunday and Mass at Disney's Contemporary Resort.

Update.......Sort of.....

As I set aside some time for reading this morning, I notice so many posts that did not "post". I will publish them as I review them, but in the meantime, I need to start writing again. This blog was intended for Leah to have a record of her life so I will make the time to update it.

Sooooo.........

We have had so much going on since I was last active on this blog.

Leah did her First Communion
Our son moved to Texas
Leah was diagnosed with Epilepsy
Our daughter Michelle got married
I started teaching again
We remodeled our kitchen
We became grandparents and Leah an aunt!
We started to home-school Leah
We expanded our child care center
We are back to regular dance
Leah started training for competitive swimming

Bloggy, I've Missed You!

Needless to say I have been a bad, bad blogger. Honestly, life has been a little complicated and sitting in front of a computer with an actual brain that functions enough to form complete sentences seemed impossible. I think so many things changed for me when my mom passed. It looks like my last post was asking for prayers for my mom. Sadly, after that post she passed away.  It sort of came out of no where. Mom had been "sickly" since I was a teen. She had a heart attack when she was 36. We ultimately discovered that her heart had been damaged, or bruised, when she was hit by a car when I was little. They didn't discover that until she had her third heart attack, still in her 30's. Once this was discovered, she had to make some life changes but lived with a bad heart for as long as I could remember. She, however, was so very strong. My mom was a warrior. There was nothing she couldn't do. Superhuman almost. Despite her illnesses. We were not particularly close in the end as we had experienced some differences of opinion and I don't think either one of us felt comfortable discussing things like we once could. I used to speak to her every single day up until the last 2 years of her life. Somehow, my conscience is at peace. I have received many signs that she wants me to be at peace and I believe we understand each other now.  Is it too late? I don't think so. She made me who I am and I inherited that warrior spirit from her.

Life was hard for Mom. She raised 4 children on her own. Fortunately she had the invaluable help of our aunts, but she was Mom and it all fell on her. She left me a very valuable gift. From her example  I learned "You do what you gotta do" and  "There are no obstacles you can't conquer". She was always there for all of us, whether we wanted her help or not!

Somehow, this post has become about Mom. That was not my intention, but I guess I needed to say these things.

My Mom Needs Prayers

My prayer warriors,  I need your help. My mom is going into emergency surgery for a perforated colon. She is critical because of her heart, lung and kidney issues and now this threw is for a loop. Please pray that her fragile body can handle the surgery.

Youth Fair

Easter 2015

Gingerbread House Decorative Class

Today we had a wonderful time with friends decorating (and a little eating) gingerbread houses.