7QT: Giveaway, Baby, Snow Days and Renos

1)

Don't forget to enter my giveaway from the last post for an Ultimate Easter Basket, featuring ten awesome items!

2)

Baby Martin #7 Update:

Well, we hit 12 weeks this week, with the official due date being changed to August 24, 2016.  I had the NT Scan done, and everything looked perfectly healthy (thank you Jesus!).  The baby is so so so active on the ultrasound. He/she kept bending his/her legs, then jumping up and sliding back down.  It was so cool to watch, even the ultrasound tech couldn't stop laughing.  I had the blood work taken to find out the gender results within a week or so!

3)

Anybody want to guess what it is before we know for sure?  Here's some "symptoms" to keep you informed:

Baby's heart rate was 166.

My face is breaking out in pimples and coldsores.  It's like I'm Colleen Sweeney from 1996.

Dairy makes me super sick.

I've gained 9 pounds in 12 weeks (aye aye aye!).

And, well, that's it really.  I'm nauseous when I don't eat often (hence the weight gain) and I get pretty bad headaches/light-headedness in the evenings.

4)

The kids had Catholic Schools Week last week, it was very fun!  I only took photos of career day and the basketball game of Faculty vs. Kids.  Spoiler alert, the kids won!

Maggie as a baker.  And a mom and soccer player, in case you couldn't tell.

Eamon as a pro football player.  He still wants to be a priest, but we didn't plan ahead too well!

Andrew as yet another football player.  The Manning boys got nothing on us!

Xander as a builder like Grandpa.  But he's also a baker like Maggie.

JP as a CIA agent, when the business man idea didn't pan out because he couldn't find a briefcase.

And since Declan's not old enough to do things like this, here's a video of him trying to count, but with a potty mouth!

Only CYO kids were allowed to play, so only my Andrew could play - he's the cute one in the middle!  Who, me, biased?

Maggie and the girls cheering them on.

JP with his bff.  I guess 7th graders smile with closed lips??

Declan ate M&M's all night!

The amazing faculty and staff that didn't mind looking like fools ;)  That's our pastor on the end right!

Xander's 100th day of preschool.  Those ears kill me.  And the chapped lips below the mouth are totally what I used to get.  My older siblings called them Clown Lips.  We're not so cruel to Xander Blaise :)

5)

Kitchen reno talk...

We went to research and price out replacing out kitchen cabinets, counters, appliances, and adding an island.  Talk about sticker shock!!  We are thinking of keeping our cabinets, because aside from me wanting white cabinets, they are good quality and we can't justify spending thousands of dollars to replace them.  We will replace our ugly light counter tops with dark ones, and add an island with a matching counter top.  We will also replace our dishwasher, oven, and microwave which are all really old and in need of repair soon.  We're going stainless steel with those.  So...the decorating question I have is:

Should I go with a white island in the style I want, or match the island to the brown cabinets we already have?

I've been googling brown cabinets with a white island, and think these look nice.  I just have a fear that doing it in my actual kitchen will look mismatched:

6)

It's been snowing around here!  We got about a foot last Friday and school was cancelled and then another foot on Monday and school was cancelled again!  Yay for 4 day weekends, especially the Monday after the Superbowl :)

And yay for boys who can shovel!

The kids finally got to use their snowball scoopers they got from their Aunt & Uncle at Christmas!  And we colored some water and they prettied things up a bit!

This weekend is supposed to be in the single digits - which makes cuddling to keep warm a necessity and not just a smooth Valentine's Day move.

7)

Lent is off to a great start.  It's always so easy in the beginning, isn't it?  As a family we are giving up sweets at home and eating seafood on Friday dinners.  I'm the only seafood lover in the house, so it's really everybody else's sacrifice :)  We also "cheat" on Sundays (starting with the Saturday night vigil) and birthdays (you can't choose your birthday), and all major saints days.  So, umm, a lot.  As far as individual sacrifices, I told the kids it was between them and God what they wanted to give up or add on to make them a better person at the end of Lent then at the beginning.  It's funny how some of my kids are great at keeping things like that to themselves and others just have.to.tell.me.  I totally get that, as I want to tell Phil every time I practice a virtuous act.  Restraint is hard :)

Have a wonderful Lenten, wintery, romantic Valentiney weekend everybody!

Go see Kelly for more!