Catching Up and Pi Day

Well my friends, in the midst of me blogging so much about my husband's impending graduation, I have neglected many of the other things going on around here.  

First of all, my second born son turned six.  This kid has really come into his own over the last year.  It's like he flipped a switch and has become a real, expressive, and pleasant little boy.  He was always wonderful before but he has really grown this past year.  He's a different kid.  Steve and I marvel over him every single day.  He's still a bit quirky (just like his Dad-ha!) but to us, he's perfect.  

Here are the highlights from his birthday.  He wanted to have a knight party because he loves a certain game that involves a knight.  His birthday is always difficult to pull of because it's in the middle of winter, short days and  unpredictable weather.  So we have to opt for something chaotic yet homegrown.  This year was no exception.

We decided to have everyone bring their knight costumes and princess dresses, as well as their swords to be ready to fight the dragons they might face in the wilderness of the backyard.  

Once the kids had their fill of pizza, they got their costumes on, donned their swords and listened to the knight tale which detailed how the scary monster/dragon (i.e. Daddy) had stolen the princess (Elliana).  

Don't ask me why he decided to dress-up as a cowboy when it came down to it.  But it was his party, so he could do whatever he wanted.  But his sister's purple hat?  Come on buddy!!  Ha ha!

The knights rallied and the other reigning princesses of the land went out to beat up the dragon.

And beat him up they did.  

After that, it was cake time.  He really wanted a knight cake but I quickly put the kabosh on that!  I am not a professional people.  I repeat, I am not a professional.  And I have five kids, one who is an infant, and a husband who is MIA most of the time right now.  I am not insane.  So I opted to do a shield cake.  

Thankfully I did most of the work the night before because I happened to find out very last minute that Isaac had baseball practice the whole morning on the day of the party and Steve had to study!  Near disaster.  

The Grandpas with the babies.  This picture just makes me so happy.  Love these men!!  They've worked hard and have been faithful to their families!!

I was pretty happy with how it turned out.  One of my buddies gave me the idea to put the Dauphin Crest on it so I was able to do that by piping melted chocolate onto wax paper that overlaid the print out.  It was pretty fun.

So that was the six-year-old's birthday party.

This was first thing in the morning...don't kill me Steph.  Love you!  For the little sleep both of us got, we look darn good.  Ha ha!

What else?  Hmmm.....We had some fun visitors.  Both of my best friends from Cal Poly came to visit me within 48 hours of each other (however not at the same time).  I live for these visits.  

So many miles walked with this girl-literally.  Love you girl!

These are women that know my heart.  They know my soul.  And no matter how far apart we are, they are so dear to me.  I love them so much.  So to spend time with them and their precious kids revives me.

We found out last week that Steve had been invited to join a prestigious Honor Society called Phi Kappa Phi for his academic record during his graduate work at Texas A & M.  We were so blessed by this news.  He has worked so hard.  He has worked full-time, carried our family on his shoulders, and still done excellently in school.  God has been faithful to him and has carried him.  It's been wonderful to see the fruit of his labor over the last three years.  To God be the glory!!

Elliana's new favorite past time is "doing my hair."  She loves to brush it and put clips in it.  Is it silly of me to say that I absolutely love it.  The look on her face when she is deciding where to put all of the clips is just so precious I cannot handle it.  So much fun!

This little cutie has been hamming it up as much as he can.  He is the bright spot in my day.  He doesn't ever talk back.  He doesn't get in trouble or need correction.  He just loves me and smiles at me all day long.  And at times, he falls asleep in my arms.  I am in love people.  So in love.  We finally started a bit of oatmeal (at 7 months) because I couldn't put it off any longer.  He's not really sure what he thinks of it.  I'm sure he'll get it in time.

Isaac has been doing little league and loving it.  It's really interesting to have him on a team with a bunch of little boys that we don't know.  It's been good.  There are lots of opportunities to learn about life, other people and how to sift through the gray areas in life.  This has probably been one of his first opportunities with this sort of thing because we are in a pretty tight community most of the time.  It's good for all of us and has sparked good conversations.  He's getting so big.  And every day I'm thankful for him.  

Joshua playing hard with his next-door buddy Beniam every day.  I don't have any current pics of them but they are born a day apart and despite their brother-like fighting at times, they are hilarious and inseparable.  I feel like Joshua is starting to turn a bit of a corner and is beginning to understand a little more about self-control.  He's also been mastering some new puzzles and the magnet game we have.  I feel like he's right on the cusp of a learning burst where all sorts of things are going to start making a lot of sense to him.  He's right there.  I'm excited to see him blossom and come into his own more of the next year.

And of course, we're a math family.  So we must celebrate Pi Day in some way (March 14...3.14).  So tonight we had Spaghetti Pie (inspired by my much missed next-door neighbor and dear friend) and individual chocolate pies (pots de creme-so easy by the way).  Unfortunately for Daddy though, he missed the celebration because dinner was late.  He had to take his dinner with him to Starbucks.  I simply made up my spaghetti pie recipe and so as a result, it took longer than expected.  But anyhoo, it was pretty darn yummy, filling and very good for you!  I'll have to post it once I've tweaked it a bit more.

That's about it.  A huge summary of the events of the last month.  We're nearly three weeks from thesis defense.  Then we have another three weeks or so until the end of the semester.

It hardly seems possible.  

God has been so faithful to us.  We are so thankful.  So thankful!

Until next time my friends.  Much love!