The very beginning of March, Chris was still in Germany. While there for business, he was able to get away to France (about 2 hours away) for a weekend to visit some French relatives. His second cousin Erik was able to be translator as he spoke some English and many of the French relatives spoke none at all!
Upon his arrival back in the U.S., we were showered with gifts of different sorts, a few of which are shown here.
The kids enjoyed the Kinder surprise eggs immensely.
These pictures are a little out of order as this evening of random pictures (mostly taken by Elise and Sophie) occurred during Daddy's trip to Germany.
Sweet snuggles with my boy
Some Ring Around the Rosy
Ballet poses
Random pictures with fairy books (the fairies had either the same or similar names to their own which was highly fascinating and very thrilling for them.)
Except Esme. I think Kayla must just like ice cream. She must be related to me.
snuggle fun in bed one morning with these two.
Lent began near the beginning of March and I was blessed to be able to get the Blessed is She journal which was lovely. Our moms group from church met weekly to discuss the book and our experiences and take-aways. Such a blessing.
More snuggles with the little man.
This little boy loves to snuggle with Mommy and he loves to sing. He knows so many songs from K-Love radio. He knows so many songs from my Matt Maher Pandora station (some overlap from K-love). He just loves music and singing and it's the cutest when he snuggles and sings. These moments I just want to hold onto and never forget as they grow older.
Aha! Here is the first picture I took after Chris arrived home from Germany when he and Sophie were building a tall tower with Magna-tiles.
Shortly after Chris arrived home, two of his younger brothers came to visit for a weekend from Ohio. They mostly hung out with Chris' brother, Nick, and went hiking, but we hosted them for brunch after Mass on Sunday morning. It was so nice to see them.
Spring comes as it does in Colorado. The sun comes out and things warm up. The flowers begin to bloom and them it snows. It warms up a day or two later and the flowers poke up (or new ones burst up) again and then it snows again. It generally does this up and down and all around thing in April and often well into May as well before it finally decides to just settle on true and total spring weather. But the flowers are lovely when the sun is shining and it's not snowing on them, which is still a good number of our spring days, so YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Making brownies for our cold weather day "tea party" with neighbors. It was actually a HOT CHOCOLATE party and the kids loved it.
Brownies with a little frosting and marshmallows on top with mugs of hot cocoa.
The girls decorated the place with paper snow flakes everywhere and it was tons of fun.
I painted the trees on the blue papers before our guests arrived. When they came we used white paint and our fingers to add snow to the winter trees.
This year, Kayla asked for one of the Lent devotionals too and we did it 'together'. Basically we did it on our own and had periodic discussions about our thoughts and some of the questions in the devotional throughout Lent. It was such a special gift to share with my daughter.
After Kayla and I took our pictures with the devotionals, Ava wanted in on the picture fun so she brought me that bag and told me to wear it. I did.
A sweet scene I beheld one day when the girls and Kolbe were all drawing together (and in a neat little row). Heart melt.
The kids and I began a little quiet evening routine. They would get out coloring books and while they colored we'd pray a Rosary together for our family and friends and then afterwards we'd read aloud (we've mostly been reading Farmer Boy).
Kolbe discovered this Richard Scary card game that Grammy got us several years ago and the girls got into a crazy 'playing' it together. It was their own version since Kolbe and Sophie are both a bit young for the actual game play.
This year for St. Joseph's feast day I baked bread so we could make a little St. Joseph altar which is a big tradition in Italy. It's hard to tell, but I tried to make various things that are symbols of St. Joseph.
The lilies turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
My little helpers made some of their own bread creations as well.
The kids all colored Chris pictures to celebrate St. Joseph, the patron of Fathers. In other countries, his feast day is when Father's Day is celebrated.
There's our three tier (to give honor to the Trinity) altar to honor the foster-father of Jesus
The first half of March was filled to the brim with fun.
Dear Jesus, thank you for your mercies and your love that you pour out on us everyday.
