Guess What, Kiddo?

You still need a nap! I have proof:

So you can stop giving me such a hard time about it now.

(sigh) :)

Appyhay Irthdaybay Effjay

Happy 30th Birthday to a great Daddy and fabulous husband. Last year for his birthday I listed 29 things we love about him, so I am adding a thirtieth reason this year:

30. Your wisdom. (Hey, it comes with age, right?)

To celebrate this year here is "Happy Birthday" in thirty different languages:

Happy Birthday!
Fortuna dies natalis! (Latin)
Buon Compleanno! (Italian)
Feliz Cumpleanos! (Spanish)
Wszystkiego Najlepszego! (Polish)
Otanjou-bi Omedetou Gozaimasu! (Japanese)
Mnohiya lita! (Ukrainian)
Joyeux Anniversaire! (French)
Sun Yat Fair Lok! (Chinese)
Ne gelukkege verjoardach! (Dutch)
Grattis pŒ fšdelsedagen! (Swedish)
L‡ breithe mhaith agat! (Gaelic)
Eytyxismena Genethlia! or Chronia Pola! (Greek)
Hau`oli la hanau! (Hawaiian)
Yom Huledet Same'ach! (Hebrew)
Janam Din ki shubkamnaayein! (Hindi)
Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! (German)
S dniom razhdjenia! (Russian)
Hongera! (Swahili)
Dogum gunun kutlu olsun! (Turkish)
A Freilekhn Gebortstog! (Yiddish)
Gratulerer med dagen! (Norwegian)
Parabens pelo seu aniversario! (Portuguese)
La Multi Ani! (Romanian)
Suba Upan dinayak vewa! (Sri Lanken)
Maligayang Bati Sa Iyong Kaarawan! (Tagalog)
Tavalodet Mobarak! (Farsi)
Hyvaa syntymapaivaa! (Finnish)
Gilotcav dabadebis dges! (Georgian)
Til hamingju med afmaelisdaginn! (Icelandic)

OK now I'm off to do some cooking, baking, and decorating with the kids!

SQPN: Catholic Podcasts

I recently found a really exciting website. If you have an Ipod or even if you don't, check out www.sqpn.com. Here's the description of what the site is all about:

SQPN, or the Star Quest Production Network, consists of a group of young people from all over the world, producing great catholic programs – audio and video – for people like you!
These audio and video productions are made in different languages and are aimed at an international audience. They focus on building bridges between the dominant popular culture of the Western world and the religious culture and tradition of the Catholic Church in order to reach an audience that has little or no relationship with that Church.
All our programs are distributed as ‘podcasts’: small audio and videofiles that are made available on the internet.

You don’t need a television, a radio or an iPod to get access to our shows: you can listen, view or download them all for free on your computer!

Click here to find out how to subscribe to SQPN and have new podcasts automatically delivered to you when they become available.

I've listened to a couple of shows and they are so good. They vary in length, but I can almost always fit at least one in while the kids nap. You can choose from different categories according to what interests you. My favorites so far are "Among Women", "Healthy Catholic", "In Between Sundays", and "SaintCast", and I haven't listened to them all yet!

A Mostly Handmade Christmas

This Christmas I am tackling something kind of big. I'm trying to mostly make by hand all the gifts for family and friends on our list. This is very daunting! I've been dabbling a little in some handmade projects over the last year or so, and I thought I'd share links and photos of those projects in case anyone else is looking for some handmade gift ideas this Christmas. My big goal is to have everything complete before Advent, so I can really focus on doing activities with our family in preparation for Our Lord's birth. But we shall see!

For Mary's first birthday favors Jeff and I made crayon rollups and printed off coloring pages from crayola.com. Here are the pictures of the ones I made:



And here are the two tutorials online that I drew from:

http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2008/04/crayon-roll-tutorial.html

http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/

Last Christmas for Jeff's brother's children we bought a doorway puppet theater and made hand puppets using felt:


I couldn't find a good tutorial or pattern online so I made my own pattern and based them off of the Land of Nod puppets found here: http://www.landofnod.com/family.aspx?c=3148&f=4031

For Mary's first birthday invitation I wanted to take a picture of her in a tutu. Tutus sell on Etsy for $30 to $40 and I wanted to try to make one myself. When I stopped into Joann Fabric I realized they literally cost about $4-$8 for the materials! Here's the tutorial I followed: http://because-estee-says-so.blogspot.com/2008/10/directions-for-handmade-tutu.html

I'd love to share the ideas I'm working on right now but I don't want to give it away to anyone receiving the gifts! If you can't find me this month try looking under the piles of sewing or scrapping supplies!

Halloween Sugar High

Here are pics of the kids trick or treating last night for the very first time. All the York cousins went together and the kids had tons of fun! Nathaniel quickly caught on to the concept and right after receiving candy at one house, he would say "Let's go to the next house, Mama!"


We discovered last night what Mary is like on a sugar rush. She giggles A LOT.

Cousin Thomas with Aunt Brittany Banana and Uncle Dennis Banana.

The older boys peering into the house of a trick-or-treat offender. The home owners had left their porch light on and were sitting in the living room but never came to answer the door!


All the cousins! From left to right: Super Jacob, Leah the Chicken, Thomas the Monkey, Mary the Strawberry, Peter the Pirate, and Nathaniel the Triceratops.