Life When Your 4

Everyone should have one of these.  

A lively four year old to keep your day moving and fun. 

Even on the cloudy days. . . to a four year old. . .

Life is always good! 

Playing along with: Live and Love out loud, Black and White Wednesday,

Extravagant Love

Is there such a thing as Extravagant Love? 

A love that you spend everything you have on.  A love that takes a life time to build.  A love that you give over the top for. 

I believe LOVE can be Extravagant and Extraordinary and Beautiful all at the same time. 

I cannot let this day go by with out telling you: Today, April 18th,  would have been our parents 58th wedding anniversary.  I can also tell you,  our father would have celebrated this day with his wife extravagantly. Not because he was a show off. No, he was never a show off. He knew he could never buy her love. He wanted to show just how VERY much he loved. 


He would have celebrated this day extraordinarily and freely by giving the love he had for her extravagantly. . . like, only he could. He would have lavished our mother with great gifts, fine dinning and only the best he could offer. He would do this because of the love my parents shared, and, I believe, still share for each other was IS a GREAT love. 

An Extravagant, Extraordinary Love

Wind

I know! Two posts in one day. . .Well, I have been up since 4 a.m.. With that said,  I've had a little time on my hands. I saw I Heart Faces is hosting another photo challenge.  This one is called WIND

I love this photo of Matthew, Stephen and Kathryn. To me, this is the perfect photo for such a post.  With the sun shining so bright on these young lives, the wind blowing through their hair, rippling through the water, the thoughtful looks on their faces makes me think:

 ~ They are the future defenders of the world and everything is going to be okay. ~  

Shine! & Easter Eggs

My friend Ellie and her daughter Tia came over Friday. The girls colored Easter eggs and played through the morning. 

You may know Ellie from her blog Shine!. It's a beautiful photography blog about her family.  The love Ellie has for her family "Shine!"s through her photography.  

I wanted a little project for the girls to do while Tia and Ellie where here because my little friend. . .Mary Elizabeth. . . is a little reluctant when meeting up with new friends. She doesn't really like change very much. She is happy with her day to day home school life.  Tia is the type of girl who never meets a stranger. Everyone is her friend. They just don't know it yet. 

As the girls colored their eggs, Ellie and I talked about everything under the sun, including the lighting in my kitchen window.  I learned it was perfect for Easter egg coloring shots. I always learn so much about photography when Ellie is around. 

Ellie is the type of friend that just makes you feel good. She is the type of friend you can have over when things are NOT going just right. Things like: when the vacuum cleaner belt breaks an hour before she comes and you don't have another to finish the job. OR  When you ask your sons to mow the grass the day before because, "We are having company tomorrow."  You tell them, "This lady has never been here before. I would at least like the house to  look like we try." and then your sons  come in the house and say "Mom, the law mower is broken. I don't know what is wrong with it." 


She is the type of friend you could have over when you run out of milk and the laundry is pilling high in the hall. You know she is not judging you and thinking, WOW! What a loser! She can't even keep milk in the house.  

You know the type. 

Lizzy and I need more friends like Ellie and Tia. They are simply easy 

 and fun to have around.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mother Teresa said it best: "Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier." Man! Mother Teresa was a smart woman! 

He's @ IT again

Remember THIS?

Remember, I told you my Stevie Wonder was making THIS for me. . . It was a Christmas present.               Well. . . we are at IT again. 

By saying we. . . I totally mean HIM.

He told me he "hit a snag".  He said, he had to think about how to get everything to fit together just right and it may just take him awhile. 

So, he thought about it 

and figured it all out by himself.  Now he is on a roll. 

I think I just might have my bench before Mother's Day or sometime close to Mother's Day.                  Well, maybe for my birthday. 

Civic Duty, Confirmation & a Few Confessions

Last night, Kathryn received the Sacrament of Confirmation.  The ceremony was beautiful. 

As we waited for Mass to begin I tried to adjust the settings on my camera.

And I tried. 

And I tried. 

Not getting the lighting thing down, I thought: "Oh, Well.  I'll just put all my photos in black and white and post Wednesday on Lisa's Long Road to China and Back; Black and White Wednesday.

Then I  realized, the red in Bishop Gulielmone's vestments were too brilliant to put in black and white.  

But, what a minute! There is another problem! Stephen has his eyes closed. Drats! Stupid Stephen!         I had one shot at this last night and we blew it. 

Because these photographs are so important to me,  I did what any good mother would do.

 I cropped Stephen and Liz out of the picture, put a cool frame around it and hope no one will notice Liz's arm sticking out on the right side of this photo.  

Whatever you do, just don't look there.  Okay???

I took what I thought was a decent photo of my mom, Mark and the kids. But, there is Stephen again with "the"eyes.   

       

Then of course, I took this one of Deacon Matt slugging my son in the face.  AND I thought. . .Can I use any of these photos for a post about the wonderful thing that happened last night? 

When I learned from Communal Global Photo Bucket is holding our pictures hostage, I felt is was a civic duty to post and link up to them. 

So here I am:  helping out my fellow blogging Sistas at Communal Global, confessing all my photograph sorrows,  and posting about the wonders of the evening.

Shadows & Everyone's Sunshine

This week the I Heart Faces Photo challenge is Shadows.

I have NO idea of what I am doing, BUT! somehow by George, I think I got it. 

~ ~ ~

This is a photo of my everyone's sunshine showing me how big she is because, she can kick a football really far.

Happy 13th Birthday BUT!

Last weekend was Bailey's 13th birthday. 

A Great Big Party was thrown.

                                                    

13! 

Now, everyone knows behind every great party there is a great Nana who will throw that party.

And It was so. . . there were presents,  

games, 

a zip lines, 

and new friends to be made.

But,

There was just one thing. . . There is a slight. . . well I think it's a huge mystery when it come to the cake.  Okay, I said it ~ It's a huge mystery when it comes to the cake! 

Now again, everyone knows the cake is the most important thing when it comes to the success of that party. 

RIGHT???

Of course! 

You see, my mother makes a killer cake. As Auntie says, we may not know good fruit BUT we know a good chocolate cake when we smell one.  

Monday my mother told me she was making a cake for this party. I know my mother. She doesn't mess around when it comes to chocolate cake. She makes this out of the world chocolate cake. It melts in your mouth. 

Melts! In your Mouth!

I mean it's so good you will plan ahead and think to your self. . .SELF. . .we have the cake tomorrow. Do you really want to eat that today and worry about big numbers on the scale after we have had the cake?  

NO! 

You starve and wait for the cake. Because it has frosting made from heaven! 

HEAVEN! 

See, you can see it here. . .This was a cake my mother made for Kathryn's birthday week. Can you see how wonderful it looks?

Her cakes are always home made. The frosting is about a half-inch thick of . . . F-U-D-G-E . . . This is a Fudge frosting that melts in your mouth. Fudge like only your Great Aunt Betsy makes and my mom has the recipe!  

It's Drop dead delicious Fudge Frosting that will send you to your knees. Fudge that you will run that extra 6 miles for! and say THANK YOU JESUS!!! THANK YOU for making fudge and putting it on cake. 

Now, here's the thing:

I don't want to accuse anyone of anything. That's just not the kind of  blog I'm running here...but you know...I'm kind of upset...because there was canned frosting on this cake. 

NO! FUDGE! 

CANNED!  Betty Crocker. . .

I'll say it again. I know your shocked! CANNED! BETTY CROCKER! NO! FUDGE! 

NO! FUDGE! 

You can only imagine my disappointed. . .I skipped meals for this cake. . . I ran a few extra miles in the morning to have this cake.  

 My mother "says" she put the fudge frosting on the cake and sent it out to have it decorated.  I'm not going to tell you who decorated this cake at all because, like i said before. . .that's just not the kind of blog I'm running here. 

BUT! 

If you guys figure out it was her mother ~ I can't help it that you'r smart. 

YOUR JUST SMART! 

The cake looked really nice! It was decorated into a paint ball target thing or whatever.  Our girl is very talented!

 VERY TALENTED! 

But, can she be trusted??? Did my mother even put the fudge frosting on this cake??? Can my mother be trusted?

I just don't know where to turn.

I heard something said about the cake being easier to decorate with a different frosting on it.  I just have one thing to say. . .

WHAT???

I just want to know one thing?

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE FUDGE FROSTING???

What happened!?

Did I tell you I was really looking forward to the cake. . .Did I mention that at all???  HELLO???