Valentine's Day

One day while grocery shopping, the kids saw a HUGE bag of peanuts on sale and asked if we could get it.  We did, and while eating them for snack later that day, they began planning how they could make peanut butter with it.  I was working on a project and the next thing I knew, they had shelled half the bag and were asking if they could use the food processor.  They spent the rest of the afternoon creating their own little batches of peanut butter -- including a special chocolate - honey batch just for the Mr.  They decided to wrap it and give it to him for Valentine's day.

 I also had to take a picture of this because I'm getting so sentimental.  Our neighbors, Cliff and Nancy Hatch, are honestly the best neighbors we could ever imagine.  They keep an  eye on things, help us with snow removal/mowing/etc whenever we need it, are always there for us, and even bring us a little plate of goodies for every holiday.  We honestly could not have imagined better neighbors than them!!

Mommy's Birthday

I want to remember this birthday forever because of the precious gifts the kids gave to me!  As budgets have been tight and space has been sparse, I have been encouraging home made gifts for awhile - but to me, even more than saving our budget is how thoughtful homemade gifts can be.  It was SO special to see my children come up with their own ideas for a thoughtful, 'homemade' gift they thought I would enjoy.  That was the best gift in itself!

Angel, completely on her own, decided to create and perform a puppet show.  She created the theater and even came up with the spoon puppets all on her own!  I had no idea what she was doing....she kept asking me for supplies like my hot glue gun, yarn, etc, but I had no idea what she was up to and was surprised with the incredibly creative finished product!  The puppet with the hat is me; the other is her.

Grins' gift actually brought tears to my eyes!!!  In home school, we are working on learning sign language.  My girls are really into it, but Grins does not enjoy it at all.  He usually puts up a fight

and it generally takes a LOT of persuasion to get him to participate.  So when he told me he had learned - and was going to perform (another thing he doesn't enjoy) a song in sign language - I recognized what a sacrifice he had made for me.  I think it was the most thoughtful gift I have ever received!!

The clip is SUPER short because he didn't want to be filmed, so I only got a split second, but it's something. :)
Wiggles made a little scarf for me since I am always cold. :) What a sweetie!  I was sure I had taken a picture but can't find it now. :(  But it was very sweet as well.  I am such a wonderfully blessed woman to have such precious children!!

Angel's 9th Birthday

Angel is SO into legos these days, she decided to have a Lego themed birthday party!!

Grins made the sign for the front door (with his very own legos, I might add!)!

 We turned our 'gratitude' tree into a "Heartlake City" tree (the Lego friends city)... Notice the snow outside....Angel has the special tradition of having a LOT of snow on her birthday, every single year since we moved to Maine.  The past three years the snow has been severe enough to have school cancelled.  This year, her birthday party fell on Saturday, so there was no school to cancel, but it was still a pretty good sized snowstorm!  We were surprised so many people ventured out to come to the party!

We typically limit parties to 8 friends (actually, the number of years old that the person is; they get 3 friends when they turn 3 and so on, up to 8; the max.)  But Angel has SO many friends, and we couldn't decide whom to 'leave out' so we invited them all - and they all came!  There were 18 kiddos at the party! Phew!

With a lot of allergies in the group, we decided to do a rice krispy treat "cake" (no eggs, dairy or gluten).  Not glamorous, but they enjoyed it! :)

We painted nails, made friendship bracelets and played LOTS of fun games (human knot, Apples to Apples, pin the dot on the lego, etc) but I was so busy running around I didn't take pics of any of those....)

All in all, though, it was a fun time!  A few days later, on her ACTUAL birthday, she played the role of "Queen for the day" in style:

 Getting serenaded by distant loved ones on the phone...

 ...and via skype.

And of course, lots of love from her brother and sister made it a pretty special day indeed!  We are so very blessed to have this sweet girl in our family!  Love her to BITS!

New Years Eve with the Portland Pirates

New Year's Eve, the Mr. was working at a Portland Pirates Hockey Game, so we decided to join him, so we could ring in the new year as a family! :)

Here's the pirate himself!

The girls brought their cozy, snuggly blankets and kangaroo friends.

The game was not nearly as exciting as the other activities that went on in the stands.  They passed around gigantic beach balls, and threw party toys out into the stands.  

 The girls enjoyed their party blowers and Grins scored a noisemaker!

The the most exciting part of the evening was indoor fireworks they did after the game~ Incredible!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Saying Goodbye to Pal

Our friend Sarah Rowell has a sweet, very old dog named Pal.  Since Sarah is like family to us, her dog has become like a family member to us too!  Sadly, Pal became more and more ill and in pain, and Sarah decided it was time to put him out of his misery.  We went with them to the veterinarian to say goodbye, and to support Sarah.

  

One final picture with Pal.

Angel and Grins each wrote Pal a beautiful good bye card. (they left them there with him).  Angel's said the following: 

"Dear Pal, I will miss you!  You have been such a good dog!  Even though I know you'll be happy in Heaven, it's hard to see you go!  I will miss you!  I love you!  Love, (Angel)"  

They read their notes to Pal as he was falling asleep.  Angel had SUCH a hard time saying goodbye - she cried and cried.  But we were grateful to be there with him, loving him and gently stroking him as he slipped out of this old body and into the next life.  We'll see him again someday! :)

Sewing fun

While I was busy sewing Christmas gifts, Grins occupied himself with my pins....

My crazy boy!  He is such a silly character! :)

Christmas Continued

Our Christmas day consisted of lots of eating, lounging around, playing with (and putting together) new toys, and just enjoying one another.  It is so rare for our entire family to be together, it made it that much more special!

We have so many beautiful cathedrals near our home and had wanted to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, but were just too tired!  So we decided to attend Christmas Mass.  We didn't realize it, but we ended up attending an African service, so we didn't understand much of what was said, but it was a beautiful, touching service and we enjoyed it!

For Christmas Dinner, we had invited several of our new friends who are refugees from Africa, but they ended up not being able to make it.  So, we enjoyed a nice, quiet dinner with our little family and our special friend Sarah Rowell, who is practically part of our family. :)  That was probably just as well, since apparently Grins forgot his manners....

Here's Wiggles (note: she's wearing her brand new necklace from Oma)

After dinner, we sat around and snuggled beneath our incredibly soft, comfortable blankets (Christmas gifts from the wonderful Biesingers) and sang along with our new karaoke machine.  It was SO much fun!!

 Wiggles was obviously captivated LOL!

All in all, it was a very fun evening!!