Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

    I love having traditions for the kiddos to get excited about!!!  And to tell you the truth...I get excited for them too!! St. Patrick's Day has been a special holiday for me.  One of the reasons is because every year it reminds me that Spring is right around the corner and it always makes me excited!!! 

The main reason, however, is because there is a huge Irish heritage in my family.  My grandma's maiden name is Horrigan! I grew up singing Irish songs (among others as well) with my mom's family while my grandma played her accordion. This is a special memory for me!! All my extended family on my mom's side even participated in the Utah Irish parade one year. We sat on bales of hay on a trailer pulled by a truck with a huge Horrigan family sign on it. We all wore green and sang our Irish songs to the tune of my grandma's accordion like we had done so many times before :)  I loved it at the time...but I understand now why my older brothers were too embarrassed to participate- hehe!

We have begun our own little St. Patty's Day traditions.  The kids always get excited to decorate their leprechaun traps and try to catch a sneaky Leprechaun!!

 Here are the beautiful finished products!!! They were pretty spectacular.  We were certain we would catch a Leprechaun this year :)

 With high hopes the kids set up their traps outside their rooms and went right to sleep.

 But, alas, those super sneaky and mischievous Leprechauns alluded us again.  However, they left a special prize in their traps and we could tell that those funny Leprechauns had a blast around our house while we slept :) Apparently even Leprechauns have to use the restroom- hehe!!

 And they sure made a mess of the kids' rooms, playing with all their toys...

 And the family room!!!

 The kid's loved seeing all the mischief around the house that the Leprechauns had made!! Here are the ginormous cookies the Leprechaun left for the kids. Yum!!

 Every year on St. Patty's day we have the traditional Irish dish, Corned beef and cabbage stew for dinner!!  I love this stuff, it is seriously yummy!!! The kids loved it, too!!

What a fun day it turned out to be!!  I love holidays :) Now, we are anxiously waiting for Spring to FINALLY make it to Dover, Delaware!! 

Back to Normal and Jane's Big Win!!

 Well, after two oh so LONG months, Ryan is finally home!!  Ryan was supposed to be home this past Saturday afternoon but he really gave me a big surprise and got home a bit earlier!!

Ryan had set off from Alabama at 10 am. So, when 10pm rolled around I felt I should call Ryan and check his progress.  He was still driving!!  I told him he should pull over and get a hotel room and get some rest.  He said he would  and even sent me a text telling me he was in his room... So, you can imagine how surprised I was to get a phone call from him at 2 in the morning asking me to open the door for him!!  He had driven all night long and his earlier text was a sham!!!  I was so happy to see him and even happier that I wasn't aware he had actually decided to drive all the way home without resting!!!

Here was the kids' and my welcome home sign!!!

 What Ryan brought me was ever better!!!  Oh how I have missed my Cocoa Bean cupcakes from Utah!!  These were just as delicious!!

 The kids came into our room the next morning raving about how daddy was going to be home that afternoon!!! They were so happy and surprised to see him already home!!! As you can see, they didn't really leave him alone all day :)

 They loved the trunk load of goodies daddy brought home from a Mardi Gras family parade he went to with his flight in Mobile, Alabama!!

 This prego lady couldn't  be happier to have her hubby home!!!

Jane has been working for over a month on her Literacy Fair project!!  She picked a book and hand wrote a plot summary, conflict, setting, author's purpose, conflict resolution, characters and tone all by herself!!  She brainstormed with me on how we should lay out her poster and we worked together on putting it together!!  Jane worked so hard nearly every night.  So, she was simply elated when her project won GRAND PRIZE at the literacy fair for her grade!!! I was a proud mama!!

 She got to go up on stage and everything!!!

 Here is just a cute picture of Jane dressed as "100 year old lady" for the 100th day of school!!! 

So things are back to normal and moving right along!!!  Baby girl is coming in April and our big move is happening in May!!!  Life is going to get busy very soon but we are super excited for the many wonderful changes coming our way!!