And now almost a year later....

11 months ago, I sat at my computer and vowed to be a better blogger. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball. As I logged on today to see how long it had actually been since I posted, I was disappointed to see tht my last post was on August 22, 2010!

So much as happened in the past year that I have neglected to record. It would be one thing if I had been keeping records in some other manner ( my scrapbooks or a journal) but that has not been the case. Now don't get me wrong, I have taken 100's, no 1000's of pictures this past year, but most of them have not been printed. In fact, almost all of them are tucked away on my computer waiting to be edited, cataloged and filed away. That task seems so daunting that I have been unable to even begin to tackle it. Maybe when the kids go back to school....

But rather than focus on my past failures, I am just going to say that I am going to try my best, from this day forward, to take a little time to record a bit of our lives.... a bit of the everyday.... some of it might be big.... some small.... but all of it is ours... because I do not want to forget the details, even the small ones.

So, on that note, I will leave you with this picture from our beach day today. Brenna is in Maryland for the week so Todd and I are enjoying lots of "Andrew time". The boys had a great time building sand castles today at the beach!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Rolling Wood Ln,Plymouth,United States

3 months and counting....

Three months.... that is how long I have been absent here. And to be quite honest, I have been far from a diligent blogger since the late Winter/ early Spring. I really do not know what happened to me. Things got busy.... the kids got out of school... Todd moved his office home..... and we have been enjoying our summer vacation with lots of trips to the beach and visits from friends and family. We even managed to squeeze in a great vacation with our extended family. And now it is Aug 22 and we are only a week and a day away from the start of school. I can not believe that our summer is almost gone.

We truly have had a wonderful summer break. I am sad to see the kids go back to school. But perhaps I can use some of my time to get "back in the saddle" and bring this blog back to life. I have so many great memories to share here about the past few months and I really want to do it. After all, that was one of the primary reasons that I started this.... I wanted a place to record what was going on in our lives and to share it with those near and dear to our hearts.

So, with those words in mind, I will focus my attention back here as soon as the kids go back to school. I have 8 more days with them at home and I am going to try and squeeze every last drop out of summer before it is gone!

See you soon!

Brenna's First Holy Communion

Brenna celebrated her First Holy Communion today at St. Peter's Church in Plymouth. It was a beautiful day for such a special occasion. She was very excited and has been waiting patiently for this day. Even though she goes to Catholic School, Brenna still had to take a year of CCD at our local parish in order to receive her First Communion. (Sacred Heart is not a Parish School so the students have to receive their Sacraments at their own Church.)

Fortunately, she was placed in a CCD class with five other kids from Sacred Heart (and one boy who had been in her class in Kindergarten). She truly enjoyed going to CCD every week and was sad when it ended. Each of the CCD classes received their First Communion at an assigned Mass. Brenna received hers today with the 11 other kids in her class at 9:00 AM Mass. She was very happy to lead in the procession with her friend Tyler and to have been chosen to read one of the Petitions as well.

Unfortunately, the Church would not allow us to take pictures during Mass. So, my photographs are limited to some group shots before and after Mass.

Brenna and her friends, Tyler and Jonathan. They have been friends since Kindergarten.

Brenna & Jonathan. They are great friends and we were so happy that they could share this day together.

Brenna and Elizabeth, Jonathan's older Sister and Brenna's former "Reading Buddy" at school. She loaned Brenna her gloves to wear today. And Brenna adores Elizabeth so she was thrilled.

Brenna was in Kindergarten with all of these kids.

Brenna and Jonathan after Mass.

Brenna and Andrew

A dramatic re-enactment of Brenna reading the Petitions.

(I have no idea what Andrew is doing in this picture!)

Brenna, Andrew & Grandad.

Brenna and Father Bob after Mass.

It truly was a wonderful and special day. We are so very proud of Brenna.

Brenna's First Communion Pictures

As I mentioned in my last post, my uber crafty friend Michelle recently took a series of photographs of Brenna for her First Communion. Michelle did such a great job. She took Brenna to a handful of local spots around downtown Plymouth one afternoon for the photo shoot. The pictures are solemn, sweet and fun. She was truly able to capture Brenna's personality. I know that I will treasure these always.

I am having so much trouble deciding which ones to develop. (I am going to probably end up printing them all!) But I could not wait to share them with you. So, I have narrowed it down to my favorite 15 (or so) pictures. (And it was hard to do that!)

I've been neglecting my blog....

I knew that it had been ages since I last posted.... I had every intention of getting back in action.... but I was shocked to see that it has been over 3 months since I last posted. It is not that I have had nothing to write about, quite the contrary. Things have been crazy busy (in a very good way) and the result has been that I have neglected my blog.

Well, school will be out in 3 weeks so I decided that I had better get my act together before then. So, I am going to start updating here this coming week. So much has gone on since my last post... Hockey is over, Soccer and baseball have begun. Andrew turned 6!! (OMG, did I really say "6"?). My Sister announced that she is pregnant and we recently found out that she is having a boy. Easter came and went. Oma and Pop Pop came for a visit and Todd and I snuck out for a few days on our own in Mexico. We spent a few days in NYC with the kids over Easter break. Now we are wrapping up the school year and summer vacation will be here before we know it.... I will post some pics of some of these recent highlights over the next few days.

Tomorrow is a big day for Brenna. She is receiving her First Holy Communion. We are very happy that Grandad was able to join us for this big event. She is very excited about it. A few weeks ago a good friend of mine, Michelle (who incidentally is one of the most artistic people I know) kindly took Brenna's 1st Communion pictures. They came out beautiful. I will post a few soon so you can see for yourself.

Where have we been?

I was disappointed when I pulled up the blog today and saw that I had not posted anything in over a week! I have been a little caught up in my "Picture of the Day" and LOAD (Layout of the Day) challenges and have let the blog slide. So sorry.

Truth is, not much has been going on here. Unlike all of my friends back "home", we have not been stuck under piles of snow. School was actually cancelled yesterday in anticipation of snow, but it ended up just being a rainy/ snowy day. Nothing was sticking to the ground until the early evening so there really was no need to cancel school. We did, however, enjoy the benefit of Todd's early return from New York (due to the weather) and the kids had a nice relaxing day in their PJs. We worked a bit on their Valentine's Day cards and Brenna painted a few pictures.

Sunrise

and Sunset.

It was still snowing when we went to sleep and we woke up early to check out the school delays. In typical Massachusetts form, none of the schools were delayed by us. Unfortunately, Todd had to shovel the drive out so the kids got a little extra sleep and went to school a tad bit late. Brenna was just pleased that she could still go to school on "Crazy Hat Day". The Student Council sponsored this as a fundraiser for the victims in Haiti and she was thrilled to be wearing her "Monster Bride" hat in school all day!

Once the kids were off to school, I was inspired to take a few pictures of our mini-snow storm before it melted. Can you believe that is already melting? As I am sitting here at the computer, I can hear chunks of snow falling off of my roof. So, hopefully, this will not be on the ground too long.

It really is kind of pretty, isn't it?

I promise that it will not be so long before I post again. The kids are on school vacation next week so I am sure we will have lots going on!

Katrina Kenison - The Gift of an Ordinary Day

If you have a moment to yourself, watch this excerpt read by the author of "The Gift of An Ordinary Day". I have had this book on order at the library for ages and I can't wait to get it. It is very thought provoking.

Have a great day! And tell your family that you love them!