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Hello!

Just a quick warning: I think I've got some pretty cute pictures this week!

To start, here is David. Approximately 30 seconds prior to this, mom left the bathroom area. David and Therese were very happily brushing their teeth with the required small stream of water coming out of the faucet. Mom returns to find:

Well, I guess it was a good thing he was wearing his rain boots!

I'm sure Therese had many "firsts" this week, but there was only one that I documented on the camera. She wrote out her entire name without any help from mom (with the writing, that is... I told her which letters came next)!

During our weekly Wal-Mart run, we took a moment and stopped by the crafts section to look at possible flower girl dress patterns. I actually haven't looked at any actual dresses in stores yet... but I'm assuming this will be a more economical way to go about it. And they are pretty cute!

Therese wakes up from every bedtime and nap asking to do something "special that I haven't done before". As you can imagine, a mom has a hard time thinking of something such as this twice a day without repeats! But, I hit a home-run yesterday with the little munchkin! We spent well over an hour matching up pictures with the letters that they start with. And David could even participate, because we have numerous sets of the same cards. He found matching pairs of monkeys, and foxes, and cars along side Therese.

One of the things that the kids get excited about every day is checking the mail. They check it a couple times every day before it even arrives. Here is Therese on her "perch" peeking in to see if anything has arrived.

Nope... nothing yet!

And here are my attempts at getting a pictures of David's Ash Wednesday dirty mug... he got quite a dose of ashes, which quickly spread all the way down his face!

Most of Therese's was caught in her bangs, so what she had didn't last very long.

And quickly, here are a couple shots of our newly Lentenized abode:

Here is our stripped prayer nook. 

A single black candle, the ashes from last year's palms, and 14 candles for doing the Stations of the Cross with the munchkins.

After Mass today, Therese started asking me what toys they "weren't going to be able to play with for Lent". I think she got this idea when I was taking down our holy pictures from the walls. She thought that everyone must have something that they couldn't keep for Lent. I was having a hard time trying to think of how to get the kids to participate in the Lenten observances, and this seemed to be God opening a door. We talked for a moment about all that Jesus gave up for them due to His love for them. Then I asked them if they had anything that they would be willing to give to Jesus for Lent because they love Him. Here is what they chose:

I don't know if David grasped much of it completely, but Therese did. I think the baby dolls are there to stay, but the cars and cows may quickly creep back to the play room. Time will tell.

And lastly, a friend of mine told me about this really cool Lenten idea with kids. We made a "crown of thorns" from which the kids can take out a thorn whenever they do a special sacrifice for Christ during Lent. Therese is really anxious to take out her first thorn! Well, she told me that as well as not playing with her baby dolls, she was also going to try to stop throwing tantrums when mom and dad ask her to do something she doesn't want to do. She will definitely have plenty of opportunities to follow through on that... let's empty that crown of thorns, Therese!

Well, that is it for now.

Love, Us.