Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!!!

I hope you all do something you love & enjoy.

That's How We Roll...

It's been one of those days. A million things to do and NO time for anything but holding babies. Can't really complain though -- who doesn't want to spend a day holding a baby? Lots of new stuff going on around here lately. Ella is starting to outgrow her infant car seat so she graduated to a big girl one... I recovered an old one because Ella has pretty much gotten all of Kate's hand-me-downs so I thought something all her own would be fun. She wasn't too thrilled with me putting her into a car seat cause she wanted to be held but once she realized it was a different car seat she was all smiles again.

 

Kate, she found a new love for cooking. She's wanted to help me prepare dinner all week. So, when Ella was napping today, Kate and I crafted her a new little apron so she wouldn't dirty her clothes. Personally, I was more worried about her dirtying her cute little apron than her shirt. She loved the pink frill around the edges. When I say she loves to cook, I mean she likes to try to cut things and eat most of it before I can use it in the recipe...see?

We later made cupcakes because I promised if they were good at church with their daddy, they would get strawberry cupcakes.

Kate cooks in her Hello Kitty underwear cause that's how we roll here at the Gosselin residence ;o).

Charlie is going through a crying phase right now. EVERYTHING sets him off. He is so hypersensitive. I really wonder where he gets it from! Ha ha... I know the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. He is doing well in school and was SO proud that he got first place in a little Olympic race they had in his class... GO CHARLIE! He is also flourishing at his tball skills. He asked his coach the other day, "I'm really good at this, huh, Coach?" to which the coach promptly agreed, "Yes, Charlie. You have a good arm."

I was one proud mama.

Anyway, we are all doing well and getting by. We're looking forward to spring and Charlie is REALLY looking forward to his 5th birthday...

Hands-On Fun...

This week’s photo challenge theme is: “Hands-On Fun”... this is what first came to mind.

This is of my daughter, Kate.

It's always a hit or miss on whether she wants to grace you with her beautiful face on camera. This time, not so much, but it does make a cute photo for the "Hands on Fun" challenge on
iheartfaces.blogspot.com weekly photo contest.

An Olivia Valentine

For Valentine's Day this year, J wanted to do something special for the girls. It just so happens that Katelyn REALLY loves Olivia the Pig. Olivia's favorite color is red so J took that and ran with it. She hosted an Olivia Valentine's Party for Kate and her little cousins and some 2 & 3 year old friends. Here are a few pictures of the little guests. They aren't the best photos because we were experiencing some technical difficulties with our camera but you get the idea...

Thanks J for doing this for the girls. They LOVE LOVE LOVED it and thanks to Steph too, for disabling your hands cutting out all of the paper crafts and everything else you did. Also, a shout out to Mr. Erl, our resident party Chef. I am glad you are always there to help me out, little brother. I love you all!

These are only the people shots because Jaclyne did such a wonderful job of blogging the detail part.

Heavenly Blooms Olivia Party Blog

Jaclyne puts so much time, energy and love into these parties that it's so rewarding to see her work be praised in this way. I recognize that not every little girl gets to have a party like this and certainly not every big girl gets to have an amazing best friend like this either.

Featured here: The TomKat Studio

He's in Little League!

I can hardly believe it. My baby boy is old enough (finally!) to be on a T-ball team. I tried last year but he was too young. He started practices and he loves them. I used to have to wrestle him to leave school when it was over but now he runs to me and asks if he has little league practice. He's one of the shortest little guys on the team but he's good and I think he will hold his own against these tall (when I say tall I mean normal-sized) kids. He's on the Orioles but he thinks it's the Oreos. He loves oreos so that works for him!

They practice with these mitts to catch.

Opening day and his first game is March 6th!

Gosselin Family Rules

I'm a true lover of blogs. I follow at least 100 of 'em. I love reading them, finding new ones, relating to others through them, living vicariously through them... but most of all I love learning from them. Finding things in them that I want to incorporate in my own life.
A new favorite I found recently gave me an idea that I want to use in my own home...'cause I think kids really do love structure and boundaries.

Mazzola Family Rules

She has a great list so I used a few of her rules in mine because really, they should be rules everywhere.

Our Family Rules are as follows:

Be loving.

Always be kind to each other.

Never give up.

No hitting or shouting.

Learn to share.

Pick up your toys after you play with them.

No eating on the carpet.

Put your laundry in the hamper.

Take your shoes off when you come in from outside.

We eat dinner together as a family. No phones or TV.

You can always talk about what is bothering you. Always.

Say your prayers every night followed by lots of kisses & hugs.

Say "I love you" as often as you can...

 

As of right now, these have been printed, framed and hung in our kitchen. I'm excited to tell Charlie about them tomorrow. Kate too, but she's still a little too young to fully understand. She will someday and that's what this is all about.

my favorite of all the rules...the last one.

Valentine's Day ~ 2010

This is gonna be a long post ... as I have lots to share. We had a great Valentine's Day. It wasn't anything extravagant but it was nice, sweet ... easy. I was supposed to go to church this morning but once again, I woke up too late (-- one day, I'll get my life together, I swear!) Anyway, I woke up to 4 bouquets of flowers! Eric got me a beautiful, lush white arrangement of roses, hydrangea and orchids.

Absolutely gorgeous. (thanks, Jaclyne)

;o)

 

The other 3 were just so sweet! One for each of the kids! If anyone really knows Kate, you know that she has a thing for flowers. She loves to walk around with them, not fun for me as she spills water from the vases everywhere. She rubs them on her face and smells them. She saw these and she was in love. If she already wasn't in love with her daddy, she was even more so now. The little nosegays even had a butterfly in them!

We cooked the kids a heart-themed breakfast and Kate & I set out on our valentine delivery excursion. She dressed in a tutu and heart leggings - her choice. The rest of the day was just dinner with some good friends and a relaxing night of board games and Olympics.

I have to add here, something that my husband may kill me for but it's just entirely too sweet and cute not to share and document here for posterity. Eric is SO not crafty but he took the time this morning to sit down and fashion a valentine card for me out of paper, tape, ribbon and glue. (Charlie was impressed that his daddy did this all by himself and he was especially impressed that Eric could write "I love you" all by himself. Oh, to be a 4 year old. So easily impressed.) In his own scribbly little writing, Eric wrote me these simple words that melted my heart. I really am a lucky woman -- most of the time, anyway, ;o) I really do love him.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day filled with hearts, smiles and people you love.

How could I not end a sweet valentine's day post without a picture of our littlest one sleeping oh so soundly in her heart covered pj...?

Our Yearly Valentine Cards

Every year since Kate was born I've been making valentines that include a photo of her. Charlie decided last year that he didn't want to be included in it as he's a boy and hearts are for girls. So, it's become a girl thing. I was so excited this year to be able to add a new little girl to the mix.

Here they are...my 2010 valentine cards:

and just because I love to see how much she changes from year to year, here are the 3 pics from Kate's valentines shoots to date:

 V Day photoshoots

And here are a few from various other shoots during this time period...

And even though he thinks it's girly, I love to photograph this beautiful little face...