Confirmation sponsor

This year my nephew, Blayne, will go through Confirmation and he has chosen me as his sponsor!  My role is to help guide and teach him the Catholic faith and prepare him for the sacrament.  I feel that my Catholic upbringing would qualify me to help him in his journey but I know I am not a very good teacher of anything.  Tonight he came over to work on his worksheets with me (part of my job).  I tried to explain answers with my life experiances and what my past teachers has taught me.  I just prayed that the spirit allowed me to give answers that he understood and that he develop a sense of what being a Catholic is all about.  He is a smart young man and he gets more of it than it seems.
  This experiance has brought back memories of the people that has shaped and still shaping my faith.  From a priest or two giving me the confidence to read in church, a couple who taught high school religion, a future wife who asked so many question when she converted to the Catholic faith, and a set of parents who taught me practices that I would teach my kids.  Maybe this sponsorship is just another way to shape my faith while I try and shape his.  I know deep down that I won't lead him astray. Thank you, God, for everything you have given me!!!

Tree Down

Yes, the Christmas tree is officially put away along with the ornaments.  We are maybe the last ones to get the tree down.  I hate taking the tree down worse than putting the tree together.  A least there is a sense of accomplishment when you get the tree up and decorated.  There is nothing except an empty room when it is removed.  Also getting the tree into the box it came out of is an impossibility unless you are lucky.  I love Christmas and the time with the family decorating but taking down the tree is the worst!!! Just can't wait for next year!

Goddaughter's Birthday Party

Last night we attended Mallory and her sisters' birthday parties.  Mallory is Brenda and I's godchild and we know she would miss us if we didn't attend!!  After the supper, the girls were allowed to open their gifts and they had plenty of gifts.

                                           Waiting patiently!!
Mallory, being the youngest at 2 years old, started opening gifts first.

                                           So Cute!!!

After all the girl's opened all the gifts, then the cakes were brought out.

                                           Looks like a group of troublemakers.

Backpack, Backpack!!



After all the swapping around of cakes and kids for the pictures and singing happy birthday to each of them; everybody got cake and ice cream to eat.  All three girls were happy with all their gifts and probably ready for the next party!  Happy 2nd birthday Mallory!  Happy 4th birthday, Kylie! Happy 6th birthday, Josie!

On a side note, during cleanup of the party, I guess the birthday girl was still hungry.

Sneaking a piece of cake!

Kids Health Update

   Starting out with Caden, he's been keeping us on our toes.  He is been complaining about his stomach hurting almost everyday but not all day long.  We think it is the Gluten in his body because we have not been really watching that part of the diet.  We have since been detoxing gluten out of his body which means not feeding any gluten to him.  If you don't think it's hard just look up the foods you can't have with that diet.  He has been doing good with it and it seems to have helped.  Hopefully in a month or so we can slowly introduce gluten back into his diet.
   Colin just had tubes put in his ears as I wrote about before.  He seems to have no issues with it so far and his checkup is tomorrow with Dr. Dejti.  Fingers crossed.
   Kendra and Bren went to Evansville to Dr. Kalayla for her asthma checkup.  He said she was doing very well and he wants her to stay that way.  He didn't change much with her meds and would see her again in April.  I think they did a little shopping and ate at the Olive Garden.  The two boys got Angry Birds shirts and the girl got and OmNom doll(Don't feel bad; I don't know what it is either).  Nothing like happy kids!!!

The Mask

Monday night, about 8:30 PM, I am out at mom and dad's place.  We had just finished cutting pork off the bone for the night and I was trying to teach mom how to record DVDs with her recorder. I get a call from Kendra, who I thought should be in bed, she was wanting paint from grandma for a project.  When I get home with the paint I saw she was working on a paper plate.  She said she was painting a mask.

She worked on it till about 9:30 PM that evening (I think it was due the next day)then went to bed.  The next morning Bren took some pictures of her with it because she was not up yet when I left for work.

Later that evening we asked her what the mask was all about and she said it was an African mask for Social Studies.  I just they had masks for plays, parties, and funerals for representing someone.  Sounds kinda cool.  She did a good job on her and she said hers was for a party(Of course).
Good Job, Kendra!

Volleyball!!

This is the time of year for me to start playing volleyball on Sundays.  I would say that volleyball is the sport that I like to play the most.  Today we had two matches and since I haven't played since spraining my ankle last March, I didn't know how it would go.  Well after some good hits and some bad, I am definitely going to be sore but no ankle pain. WOOHOO!!  I am on a pretty good team of 4 gals and 2 guys; and the gals can outshine me any day, so I have to work hard to keep my status.  This group likes to play for fun and that's the group I want to play with.  I am sure I will get to play several weeks of good volleyball, let's just hope the soreness will dwindle down as them weeks pass!

Last night's Movie night

Of course this is my working weekend so I do get to see the children as much as other weekends.  After work went to church then the family went out to eat at the Country Griddle.  We then came home and found a movie on Netflix.  "Mars needs Moms" was the movie we chose to watch.  It was an animated movie about martians taking a boy's mom and his adventure rescuing her.  Very good movie, it kept the kid's attention throughout the movie.  I recommend the movie to anyone.  After that we watched the 4 Dreamworks Christmas specials.(Shrek,etc.) just for Caden. A full days work and a couple of movies can tucker out this old man so I went to bed.