Some Pictures for Today: Dancing with Godfather

Well, we just had a wonderful week of rest with a great friend. Father Mathias joined us for the week, and it was such a blessing! The kids, as I mentioned previously, were attached to him at every possible moment (note David's position in these pictures), and it was so great to catch up over good food, fun games, and times of prayer.

And, if you are a faithful reader of this blog, you are aware that any size of gathering at the Librandi house would not be complete without a few dance breaks! For today, some pictures from one such occasion with Godfather Mathias.

Love, Us.

A Video for Today: Patrick's Speedy Moves

Prepare yourself for some mind-blowing sit-dance moves! And yes - he gets them from me, of course.

Have fun trying to find a radio station without Christmas music today! 

FYI - Come Sunday, check out Matt Maher's "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". It's good.

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are having a joyous day! We are enjoying our time with Father Mathias to the full! David tried to capture the moment with markers…

A more accurate account would have included him and Thérèse climbing all over Father. Sometimes I think that the kids have a magnetic attraction to him. I'm sure there will be many tears shed when we have to say goodbye to him tomorrow. It has been wonderful!

And yes - we are currently stuffed (and our fridge is stuffed with left-overs). Naps are calling!

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: "Snow" in El Paso

Yup! You read it right - we got snow! Now, you wouldn't even call it a dusting up north, but we marked it down in the record books! And, it stayed for a full 24 hours! Now THAT is snow… no question!

Love, Us.

A Video for Today: T Reciting "Over in the Meadow"

For T's most recent poem, I decided to just stick with the first take. It was far from perfect, but very cute. Enjoy!

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: Goofing with Daddy

For today I have two silly pictures I took on our way out of Carlsbad Caverns. Thérèse LOVES piggy-back rides and shoulder rides right now, so when dad thought that it was time to end her shoulder ride, she decided to try and make it last a bit longer. That, plus the fact that dad has been teaching her the strongest ways to grip something with her hands, ended up causing a quite comedic moment. Oh, and FYI, even though it may look like Joe was slamming T's head into the cement, he was actually being very cautious while letting her have some fun.

Love, Us.

Some Pictures for This Weekend: Our Current Chores Plan

So, I've mentioned before that I LOVE to organize. However, cleaning is NOT my forte. I've tried innumerable different cleaning plans over the years, and every single one has failed. And, let's be honest, I don't have great hopes of this one lasting more than a season, but so far it has been great! Joe has noticed that things are normally (and regularly!) much more sanitary, and I'm actually having the kids help out with chores in a successful manner! So, here is our plan:

Our home school runs on a five-day schedule. For example: Day1-Art, Day2-Science, Day3-Sewing, etc. Now, we've added a chore list to the five-day schedule. Chores are done after breakfast with mom, everyone has their assigned portion of the chore, and if chores are not done by outside play time, play time is forfeited until chores are done. So far… it works!

Day 1 is Dusting.

Day 2 is Floors and Windows.

Day 3 is Kitchen.

 Day 4 is Outside.

And Day 5 is Bathrooms. 

So, that is how we clean around here! It gets the job done. And that brings my husband a LOT of sanity!

Love, Us.

A Video for Today: Thérèse, the Baby Whisperer

So, Patrick is a really happy kid, but he has a screeching problem. The problem consists of him screeching at an ear-deafening pitch for, basically, every emotion that he has. He usually doesn't screech for long, but he does screech often. Well, the other day was a different story. He woke up very early from nap time with a screech that wouldn't end. It wasn't an "I'm in pain" screech. It was just an angry screech… and it wouldn't end - I'm talking 20 minutes plus. Well, I had given up the comforting solution… it wasn't the solution. So, at the time that Thérèse woke up he was writhing on the ground just screeching. I'm pretty sure he would have stopped eventually without hurting himself, but T couldn't stand by and just watch a baby screech (she is much softer-hearted than her mean, old mom). So, she first tried a teether - fail. Then she tried carrying and lullabying and toys - fails. Then she did something that I was so confident would fail I told her not to do it. She insisted, though, and by this time the screeching was to such a horrifying point that I gave in and let her try. She turned on the "music box" in the piano and sat Patrick on the bench…

...it was a miracle!

I will never again question her methods.

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: James' Birthday Party

It was our dear little friend James' birthday over the weekend, so we had a blast at his party that was held at a big park, complete with a BOUNCY HOUSE! James turned three, and David LOVES him. It is really cute, because David is stuck to James wherever he goes, while James is still at the age where he doesn't REALLY notice the people he is playing with. David doesn't seem to notice or mind, though. He just loves having someone near his size and equal in energy to run around with!

And guess who has a little baby sister. Yup… James! So, as you can see… T also had a great time!

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: T's Key to Success

So, some days having a little brother across from you in the school room can be a bit of a distraction. This, coupled with Thérèse not being near the fastest person to start with, brought me to a creative idea a few school days ago. We were on a race with the clock to finish school in time for a doctor's appointment, and with David's singing and Thérèse's desire to talk instead of do math, the prospects looked dismal. So… I broke out Joe's shooting ear muffs!

They worked like a charm!

Love, Us.

A Video for Today: Sickos and MP Combatives

First, before the movie, I have some "good" news: Thérèse is sick now, too! Yay! Only Joe and I to go and then the sickness will have run it's course before our visitors arrive! And I'm really trying to get sick. I'm hugging and kissing those kids as much as possible! And I tell you… it is TOUGH being sick around here! Just look at what Thérèse has to endure this morning!

OK, on to today's main feature. This is a video that was taken during Joe's PT (physical training) last week. Ever since he received his Level II training in Combatives, everyone wants to fight him. So, this was part of the result. They basically split the Company in two and let them at each other. Joe's team was dominating, and then they switched his biggest man to the opposing team. Enjoy!

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: "Poor" Little David

Well, last Thursday night I was up all night with a sick Patrick, and, after three flu-free days, I was hopeful that he hadn't passed it on to anyone else. It seems as though I was wrong, unfortunately. David was having an even more terrible time than usual finishing his cereal this morning, and eventually got sick. So, he now gets to do all of his favorite things all day, poor guy! He has already had an hour-long reading session on the couch, colored some pictures, got to carry around his water bottle, and is now snuggled up in front of a superhero cartoon. Life is tough when you are sick! Now we are just praying that either all the rest of us get sick ASAP or not at all so that we don't pass anything on to our guests next week!

Love, Us.

A Video for Today: The Kids' Varied Reaction to Our MN Trip

So, Uncle John had a great idea the other day. He called me to share his excitement that we will be coming to MN for a just-before-Christmas trip (yay!) and he suggested that I film the kids' reaction to the news. I thought it was a brilliant idea, so I did! Well, you'll see in a second, but it wasn't exactly the response I was hoping for. Granted, there was much excitement initially, but it got clouded over by concern for the wait - and then by the spotting of ants on the ground - Patrick had walked around with a sweet potato fry the night prior, and obviously had left some of it to share with the ants! Nevertheless, it is a classic video - because kids are ridiculous. Enjoy!

Love, Us.

Some Pictures for Today: Carlsbad Caverns

As I mentioned, we made a day trip to Carlsbad Caverns over the long Veteran's Day weekend. To tell you the truth, I didn't do very much research on what this National Park consisted of. I just knew that my sister, Nancy, said it was amazing. So, we went! To start, our Guardian Angels were watching out for us. They softened the hearts of the park rangers to let us in two minutes after they were supposed to. We didn't really understand why no one could enter after 2pm when the park closed at 5pm, because we didn't realize the extent of this place - and that it is all a very LONG, winding, one-way path! God is good, though, so we just happened to be unknowingly prepared. We both brought good walking shoes, Joe happened to throw Patrick in the carrier, and we had a big strong friend along to carry David for over half of the way! Thérèse had to put up with my shoulders for a bit, but she also survived. It was VERY cool! But, my camera isn't really made for taking pictures underground, so bear with the poor-quality pictures.

For those of you who have commented about our current family picture lacking a child, this is to prove Patrick's presence at the Caverns.

Don't call the park rangers. Joe isn't actually touching any of the walls (#1 rule at the Caverns). He is just being a goof at the very end of the path (the first space wider than four feet that we had to goof around in after hours of walking).

Our two little Cavern rangers!

Love, Us.

Some Pictures for Today - Found: Our 2nd-Favorite Park

We Librandis had a pretty busy weekend, considering that we aren't usually ones to get out much. We not only spent a day at our favorite place - Las Cruces. We also took a day trip to go see the Carlsbad Caverns. On this trip we were joined by four of Joe's compatriots from the Battalion. And, since leaving at the crack of dawn wasn't exactly their idea of a possibility, we had some time to spend in the city of Carlsbad before heading to the Caverns and meeting them. We checked out their Park and Recreation site online and found what looked a lot like the awesome wooden park in Las Cruces. So, we checked in out!

It didn't quite meet the standard of our favorite wooden park, but we still had a blast!

Patrick also checked out the flavor of it's dirt - very acceptable, I'm guessing, since he went back for seconds and thirds!

One really cool thing they had that wasn't at the other park was a cool, long bridge over the river right next to the park (oh, and green living things - that too!). 

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: Our Really Tardy Pumpkin Carving

So, due to work schedules, we were not able to "carve" out any time to get our pumpkins done before Halloween. They were still sitting on the kitchen counter staring at us daily, so we used a bit of time in our four-day weekend to give our big pumpkin some Librandi flair. We had about thirty minutes to get it done, and many ideas being yelled out by the kids, so we decided to make it a REAL family pumpkin and just have fun! Our pumpkin would NEVER win ANY awards, but it gave us a morning of fun (and some very tasty pumpkin seeds as well!). 

Dad was our expert carver! I think he beat a couple world records in this particular carve!

We decided to forego the cutting out of the top - we just went right in the sides!

We ended up with a "triptych" of sorts. First, the face...

then the princess castle - T's request...

and the Batman bat - David's desire.

Love, Us.

A Picture for Today: T Starting the 3-R's of 1st Grade!

Our Thérèse sure loves school, and her personal favorite parts of it are the 3-R's - Reading, (hand)wRiting, and aRithmetic. In fact, she has successfully completed her kindergarten workbooks in all of those subjects and was chomping at the bit to get her next ones. So, we purchased next year's early, and she has dove in to them already! Good job, T! You sure make my job easy!

Love, Us.

Some Pictures for Today: Our All-Time Favorite Park

So, as I mentioned yesterday, there is a park in Las Cruces which is definitely in the running (along with a used book store, which means it must be an AMAZING park!) for our favorite thing to do in Las Cruces. For today, some pictures from our visit there a few days ago. We enjoyed it even more this time, because the sun wasn't frying us alive!

And this time Patrick was able to actively enjoy it as well! And, he was the only one that stayed around long enough for me to get many shots - so he is the main focus today.

David was just a blur running here and there...

And Thérèse poked her head out to check out Patrick's current adventure every now and then, but pretty much was constantly on the run as well.

Can you find David?

We LOVE this park!

Love, Us.