Reason 342 and 343...

of why we love Moxie...
Because she thinks a birthday card featuring a puppy somehow constitutes a threat...

and...
THIS.
Our dog sleeps like this ALL THE TIME.

And every stinkin' time I see her like this I laugh. You would think it would get old. I am here to tell you...it does not! :)

The boy likes his baseball.

Evan has been practicing baseball with his dad!  He's been working on his batting and catching skills a few nights a week, and we are really noticing some improvement.  And best of all, he really likes it!

Look at the concentration on our young son's face...

And with each hit, his smile kept getting bigger...

and bigger!

Here he is in action! He really has a good swing, and actually connects with the ball fairly often!

This clip is kind of funny, but as his mom, I feel bad for saying that!

And...one more. Here he is showcasing his catching skills!

Can't wait to see you in your first game, Evan!
P.S. I'm working on Caroline's First Communion post, so hopefully you'll be able to see it soon!

After bath hair fun!

Daddy styles it...

and Evan works it!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming...

of "All Moxie, All the Time"
to bring you this special announcement...
The torch has been passed from father to son.  Henry has taken over the job of mowing the lawn from his dad.  He is doing a fine job.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Just kidding! I know my blog has had its fair share of Moxie content lately, so going forward, I'll try to mix it up a little more. :)

Happy birthday, Moxie!

Our puppy is two! Judging by all of the celebrating we did, I think its safe to say we love her a little bit.

Just look at how Caroline decorated the living room for her in the following clips.


This card from Great Grandma arrived in the mail yesterday.  She always send a card to each of the kids for their birthday and every holiday.  She even sent a card for Moxie!

I love, love, LOVE the way she cuts words and pictures out of magazines to add to her cards!  She found the word "Moxie" and a picture of a dog that looks just like Moxie.  Great Grandma even added her own picture right next to Moxie's!

Yesterday afternoon, Evan's buddy, Connor came by with this great card for Moxie!

Connor's mom and I laughed that Connor added a portal to Moxie's card. How did he know that Moxie loves portals? ;)

Moxie's big sister made a card for her too!

After dinner it was time to open presents.

She got a pink squid tug of war toy,

some treats,

rawhide shaped and decorated to look like cupcakes,

and a HUGE bone!

Then it was time to sing happy birthday, so the kids wanted to have Moxie sit in the birthday chair. It gave me the perfect opportunity to snap a picture of all of them. It is no easy task to get a good picture of all of the kids and the dog. This one turned out pretty well.

On first glance, this one looked to be even better. However, if you take a closer look...

you see THIS. Nice, Evan. ;)

Happy birthday, Moxie!

I need my space!!

I was cleaning upstairs when Evan asked me if he could play with my IPhone.  I gave it to him, and when I finished I went to check on him.

This is where I found Evan...playing the IPhone in Moxie's cage.  Because, you know, it's so comfortable in there.

Moxie wanted to take a rest in there too, so Evan very generously scooted over for her.  I don't know why she changed her mind and left almost right away.  I am sure there was plenty of room!

Don't worry.  I kicked Evan out of her cage shortly after I took this picture.  This poor dog needs her quiet "alone time" occasionally.  I know it surprises you to read that.  ;)

Moxie and her BFF

Charlie, a sweet yellow lab, lives in the house next door to us.

Moxie thinks the world revolves around him. 

I think that sometimes Charlie tires of Moxie's antics...

but truly, these two are BFFs, and have so much fun playing together most of the time!

Sweet puppies!

I get a big kick out of watching Moxie and Charlie playing together, but I get an even bigger kick out of watching the kids watch Moxie and Charlie. So of course, I had to record it!  Here's a clip... Poor Dave.  He wanted someone to watch his mad basketball skills, but he had such insurmountable competition!

Cousin Fun

We've had a couple of playdates lately with our favorite 4 year old cousin, Robbie.  These kiddos have a lot of fun together!

Yup. She went to school this way.

With 8 braids, a sparkly hat, inside out and backwards t-shirt, an unmatched skirt, Halloween socks and crazy shoes.  Her ensemble was perfect for her "Crazy Clothes Day" her class had as a result of their good behavior.

I'm not sure if she wore the crazy expression on her face too, but it's a pretty good one!

Caroline's First Reconciliation

Caroline is one step closer to receiving her First Holy Communion!  Tonight Caroline had her first reconciliation.  She was so brave when she went to confess her sins to the priest, and when she came back to the pew, she gave me a big hug.  I asked her, "What was that for?"  Smiling, she said, "It was my penance because I told the priest I had disobeyed you."  It was so sweet!  I asked her if she had been scared, and she said that she wasn't because the priest was really nice.  On the way home, I asked Caroline to put her jacket on.  She started to say no, but quickly changed her mind.  After she said "Yes, Ma'am," she told me that she wanted to obey because she wanted to keep her soul "clean". :)

Only one more week until this little girl's big day!

Fire station Field trip

Evan and I went on a field trip with his class to our local fire station. It is close enough to his preschool that we were able to walk there.  When we got there, some firemen took us on a tour of where they sleep, eat and hang out when they are on duty. 

After the tour of the firemen's living space, one of the firemen dressed up in his protective gear for the kids.  I like that they do this because it teaches the kids that if they were ever in a fire to not be afraid of the people that are trying to help them

Next came the REALLY exciting part!  The kids got to sit in the driver's seat of the big fire engine!  What a thrill!

Then they got to sit in and learn about a real ambulance.  That was Evan's favorite part!

We walked back to school just in time to have a little snack

and take a group picture of the kids in the fireman hats!  Evan's in the middle of the back row.

What a day!

Special meals with friends

Last Wednesday, Henry's CCD class got all dressed up to attend their Seder supper.  Don't Henry and his friend, Dylan, look soooo handsome?  (And can't you just hear Henry saying, "Mo--ommmmm!!!")  They had a delicious meal and learned a lot!

The other kids?  Poor them!  They only got to smell the food on their way to class.  On the upside, they did get to wear sweatshirts and jeans.  Seth and his friend, Will, did have a special meal that day though.  They got to eat their lunch in the classroom with their teacher, so it's all good!

What have we been up to?

During my little blog hiatus, Dave and I were pretty busy.  We painted our office!  It was a really big moment when it was all done because EVERY SINGLE ROOM IN OUR HOUSE IS NOW PAINTED!  Woot woot!  Yes, it has taken us nearly 6 years, but that's ok.  It's done!  We chose Putnam Ivory for the color, and it turned out pretty well.  It's kind of a neutral gold.

We worked outside a lot too.  We did the spring clean-up, and weeded like crazy.  The early warm up has been wonderful, but WOW there were a lot of weeds growing!  We got all of that under control and then had 6 yards of mulch delivered to our driveway.  We spread all of that in the garden beds, around the trees and by the swing set, and we pretty much did that all in one day.  I can't even begin to express how sore I was the next few days.

Then Dave replaced the wood slats in our garden bench because a few of them were broken.  It looks like new!  Great job, Dave!

Finally, Dave said I could order a wrought iron set for our front porch as a Mother's Day gift. It took me a while to find a set that cost what we were willing to spend, but I found it, Dave put it together, and we like it!

We have a few rust spots on the front porch that we will need to clean, but in the mean time, my mom lent us this really cool outdoor rug that was made from recycled garbage bags!  I'm looking forward to sitting on our front porch this spring and summer with friends and family.

Now, if I can get the spring cleaning done inside the house, I will be a happy girl!

Redbuddy

The kids were off of school today, so I took them to a local nursery to pick up some pansies to plant in our front and back flower pots.  Unfortunately we didn't find the kind of pansies that we wanted, but we did find chickens!  The kids had a ball feeding them.  :)

After that we wandered around the nursery looking at all of the plants and trees.  We found some Eastern Redbuds, that beautiful spring flowering tree that has those bright purple flowers.  Unfortunately, they were a little out of our price range, so I just thought, "Oh well...someday."

Then we stopped at Aldi on the way home, and what do you know but we found some Eastern Redbud saplings on sale!!  Considering the price of $15, they were definitely within our price range!  So the kids helped me pick one out, we took it home, and Henry and Caroline helped me plant it.  The four of them decided to name it "Redbuddy".  Hopefully it will thrive, but even if it doesn't, we're only out $15!