Easter Morning - Alleluia!

Piles and Smiles:

  

A quick breakfast before Mass: 

My new Easter Basket Purse:

My chickadees:

 We were able to take a family photo after a beautiful Mass filled with Alleluias and the handsomest altar servers in all the land!  And, as an Easter miracle, Alexander was so good and nobody had to make a trip to the time-out cry room!

Laura and I posed for What We Wore on Easter:

My dress: Old Navy (30% off with code THANKYOU)

Cardigan: Old Navy

Shoes: Kohl's 

Linking up with our Easter outfits with Grace and Fine Linen and Purple.

A coworker gave me these pretty earrings for Easter:

And here's what my kids wore - all the boys shirts and Maggie's dress and sweater are all Chaps via Kohl's.

 Happy Easter everybody!  He is Risen!

An End to Lent and an Easter Beginning

When do you start celebrating Easter? 

We start on Saturday night and after a Lent of no sweets (except for Sundays and Holy Days - I didn't want you to think we were saintly - ha!) for everyone in the Martin Family, sugar never tasted so good!

Phil made this beautiful cake ~ America's Test Kitchen's Yellow Layer Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

Baking your wife a yellow cake with vanilla frosting even though you prefer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting?
Now that's love.

Then we gave the kids an Easter gift:

 It was The Hobbit, and while the boys were thrilled somebody was definitely not...

"But that's a BOY movie!"

"That's not cool at all!"

"Yessssss!"

"Woo-hoo!"

Maybe she's just upset about her liturgically inappropriate pajamas?


We can all act like ungrateful children though, can't we?  God pours His blessings onto us, and we wish we had something else instead, something we think is better.  I have learned this Lent that God always provides the strength we need to handle life's events and we can lean on Him without fail.

I missed you all during my self-imposed Holy Week fast!  I'm not sure I'm cut out for this whole fasting business because I think the point is to help end attachment to whatever it is we've given up, but I seem to only desire it more.  Or perhaps that's what makes it a sacrifice?  And some of you made big announcements, how dare you? ;)

This was the best Good Friday (sacrilicious?) I can remember.  I felt so loved by Christ as I really was able to focus during the service at our church.  Alexander was the most well-behaved he's ever been, and we were even able to go to Confession after and remembered to start the Divine Mercy Novena that night.  Talk about God's grace!

At one point during the service, I leaned over to a fidgety child who was complaining he was tired and I said "Just know that Jesus died on the cross because He loves you so much.  Even if you were the only person in the world, He still would have died for you".  I completely convicted myself with the words that spilled out of my mouth.

Tonight, as I fill the baskets and eggs with little presents for those I love, I will remember how much God loves each and everyone of us, and be thankful for all the gifts He has given me.  A joyful Easter indeed!

Holy Cow it's Holy Week

Time flies when you're not having a very hard Lent.  

just kidding.

My food sacrifices this year were WAY easier than anticipated.  In fact, I thought giving up sugar in my coffee would never be possible, but turns out I actually like it that way now.  

If only I could get rid of the cream...

And I eat enough sweet treats on Sundays and Holy Days to carry me over all the rest of Lent.  

My Lenten reading and prayer time obligations were definitely not met each day and that's why I need to take Holy Week seriously.  It's never too late to give it all to God, right?  

I mean, even the thief on the cross with Jesus changed his life at the last hour and went to Paradise.  

Sooooo, I need to turn off this blog until Easter and focus on Holy Week liturgies and Lenten sacrifices.  Martin Family Moments will be buried with the Alleluias.  See you on the flip side!

WIWS and My First Cara Box

We went to Palm Sunday Mass on Saturday evening.  My boys served and Andrew even got to hold the holy water and walk around the church with Monsignor as he blessed our palms.  Andrew was very excited about this.  Unfortunately, I missed it because I was in the bathroom changing a certain someone's poopy diaper.  

Phil snapped about 15 pictures of me in about 1.2 minutes before we ran out the door to Mass.  13 of them were completely awkward poses (who am I kidding, this whole thing is so awkward, especially with a hubby who yells "Work it!  Work it!")

Oh....so I should just grab my jacket and cross my legs?

Can't have a WIWS without HOTH (Hands On The Hips)

Let's start from the bottom up:

Shoes: 

KMart

Pants: 

St. John's Bay via JC Penney (back when JC Penney sold St. John's Bay for women)

Tank Tops: 

I don't know, but the blousy one was definitely bought with months 2-4 of pregnancy and the indefinite postpartum period in mind.  I'm still stuck there and my youngest is 20 months old.

But the new item and one of my favorite finds because I had been searching for one for SOOOOO long....my jean jacket!  From Kohl's (on sale and with coupon, it was less than $25!)

Bargain, Baby!

I can't wait to wear this jacket with some cute spring dresses once it actually FEELS LIKE SPRING!  Sorry, but I had to yell loud enough for Mother Nature to hear.

Lenten funny...Xander loves to point out all the Jesus' he can find and blow Him kisses.  Normally church is his Jesus playhouse.  But they were all covered with purple clothes for Holy Week, and poor Xander was so upset trying to uncover the crucifix ("Jesus?  Where Jesus go?") on the cry room wall.

After Mass we had my parents over for dinner, which consisted of my favorite comfort food: pot roast and mashed potatoes and gravy.  I roasted some cauliflower and asparagus too, but those aren't on my comfort food list.  No veggies make the cut!

Then we ate the most wonderful French Silk Chocolate Pie:

It looked prettier before I dug in.

 I got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen via this site, and even though it's time consuming, it was so so so good!  Add it to your Easter brunches and your family will thank you.

The birthday girl was pleased.  Her main squeeze is happy too, he just doesn't know it :)

Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

 Also (gosh this turned into a long post) I got my Cara Box from Corie!  

Thank you Corie, you are so sweet and my kids were even more excited than I was!!
This month's theme was to send things with the first letter of your recipient's name.  So I got my some awesome "C" things: 

Cadbury Creme Eggs are my absolute favorite Easter candy!!!!

If you want to participate in next month's Cara Box, head to Kaitlyn's blog and sign up.  

Before you go to see the better dressed (and probably less wordy) women at Fine Linen and Purple, please follow me here, if you don't mind:

Thank you!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1)

Wow this week flew by!  Today I am spending the day at home with my five bambinos because they have no school.  Yay for long weekends and more family time :)

2)

Every Tuesday night for the past couple of months, this is what I look at for half an hour while Eamon gets his speech therapy.  The speech therapist has three littles herself, and plays games with him the whole time.  She says he is really improving, but I don't hear much difference.  He still has a lisssshhhp, but he loves staying up late one night a week and having alone time with me.  What a cutie.

3)

Last weekend, Phil and I got to go on a date while our awesome babysitter was home on Spring Break from Franciscan   We went to a restaurant where they serve amazing seafood, and met up with some friends like real adults.

You know how everyone loves to give advice to married couples that they need to schedule and prioritize dates?  Do you all do that?  I do so love our date nights, and all we usually do is go grab a bite to eat and come home 2 or 3 hours later.  Does anyone really go out every single week?  Or do you just have in house dates like us?

4)

On the menu for lunch today.

I love tuna so much that Fridays during Lent aren't a real sacrifice for me at all.  I could eat seafood 5 nights a week if only anybody else in my house would eat it too.

5)

The weather outside is frightful.  Not springy at all, and I just bought polo shirts for my boys and a sleeveless dress for Maggie (all color coordinated, of course!) for Easter.  

6)

I found these pictures of when Marijanna and family came to visit.  I think we all want a baby girl in the Martin house, so she should just leave Clara with us :)

Xander and Ava stole smooches whenever possible:

Good kitty:

7)
After all the buzz, Phil and I are going to watch Argo this weekend.  Hopefully it'll be good, sometimes me and the award shows don't see eye-to-eye.

Have another snowy weekend (if you live near me anyway)!!  
Spring where art thou?

(Go see Jen and friends for more)