September

We are almost ready for Henry's first birthday.  :) Love these kiddos.

Pictures of the Papandria Kids

Vivian waiting at the door for her friend Stella and her daddy to come pick her up. 

This is Stella Grubbs.  She is 4 years old and lives just down the street with her mommy and daddy, and baby brother, Ian!  We have hung out with them quite a bit and have a really good time together. The girls are 'best friends.'  Stella picked Viv up in her caddy.  :)  They giggled the whole way down the street.

Vivian was teaching Henry about the race car.  "It goes FAST!"

Sleepy eyes at Emily's graduation party.

Playing with play-doh.  She smashed all the colors together.

This kid loves to giggle. He has a lot of chompers!!

Wearing Daddy's hat-- what a big boy!

Hanky-Panky

Little Hankster in the bath...

Henry is now 9 MONTHS OLD!  Really can't believe he will be a year in September.  For such a sweetie, he has a wild side (as you can see from his hair-do).  Nick and I decided that if we had Henry first, we would not have had any more children.  He has been quite a challenge... and still is at times!  But he is our little guy and we wouldn't trade him for the world.

"I just ate a whole jar of pureed lasagna... lookout, Huggies!"

Please keep our friends Blake and Amy Everhart in your prayers.  Blake is the son of our daycare provider, Shelly Moistner in Hartford City.  Amy and her 3-week-old daughter, Addison, were attacked on Friday in Muncie in their own home, just down the road from us.  Some woman was trying to abduct their new baby.  From what we understand, the woman was there doing a routine inspection for a pest company, and attacked Amy from behind, trying to choke her.  Amy was holding 3-week-old Addison at the time, but was able to put the baby down and fight off her attacker.  (I like to think that they were protected by God, however, there is nothing more powerful than a Mama Grizzly.)

It is a crazy, horrific story, but all true.  From the police report, they found that this woman had been planning on abducting Addison since she found out Blake and Amy were expecting and their last routine pest inspection.  The woman had been wearing a fake baby bump and telling her friends and family that she was expecting, too.  INSANE!  

Shelly called to let us know what was going on, and I'm making some sweet potato casserole and mac and cheese to take over to the family here later today.  They live right down the road.  Blake is a teacher at Yorktown High School.  Anyway, Shelly has been in contact saying everyone is very shook up, but relieved that they are all okay.  Please remember them today in your thoughts and prayers for comfort. 

Did anyone else see the AWESOME skywalker event last night on Discovery Channel?  Nick wanted to watch it, and had turned it on to watch the pre-show set-up.  Vivian and I were reading a book before her bedtime, and we were so nervous when Nik Wallenda began walking the tightrope, we asked him to change the channel!  However, once Wallenda got going, Nick turned it back, and we were amazed at his awesome prayers during his walk.  Publicity stunt or not, we thought it was AWESOME to hear him PRAISE JESUS with every step.  Vivian was watching and said, "He's talking to God!" :)  What a cool and unexpected display of faith on television.  Our beautiful Savior found his way into many homes last night, without any warning.  Billions of people heard the glorification of his name... AWESOME!

Our God is an AWESOME God!!!

SUMMERTIME!

Summertime, and the living is easy...

We are back!  Can't wait to start posting stuff again with my babies.  :)  We are on summer vacation. Sooo happy.

Keep posted!

Oh Happy Day!

Lovely, BEAUTIFUL day today.  It was 61 degrees on my temp reader in my car.  Crazy-nice outside.

My kids sleep so well after they have been outside playing. :)

School is in its final countdown- we have 29 school days left.  AAAHHH!!!   I'm trying to decide if I will teach summer school this year or not.  It is great money, but I miss my kiddos.

Hankerdoodle has been enjoying swinging outside and watching the kids play.  Vivian is loving being outside on the slide and her swingset.  Meanwhile, I had 3 kids serving detentions in my classroom after school.  BAH!

Please be in prayer for our situation at my school.  Everything is precarious right now, and I am unsure of what to do as far as staying in my current position.  Pray for wisdom and clear opportunities.

Took some pics of Vivian and Henry today. I printed them at Meijer and they came out pretty nice.

Nick has been busy fixing up the cars- washing, cleaning out the insides, changing oil. Mine gets new brake pads next weekend, too.  I've been going through closets and clothes for us and the kids... we will be having a mondo garage sale this summer.  (Or, I'll just post it all on Craigslist.)

Henry said 'Da Da' on Thursday evening, and hasn't let up since.  Nick said he felt bad I spent all that time with our children as infants and now, but both of their first words were DaDa. Oh well. ;)

On the way home from the grocery store today, Vivian told me to "Roll the windows up, Mommy! I smell Bunny Poop!"  Not quite sure what bunny poop smells like, but I guess she knows all about it and was sounding the alarm. haha.

Here are some of the cutie pics of my babies:

Almost Birthday time for Vivvers!



Happy Easter!



Since we were all sick over Easter Weekend, we didn't get much accomplished. However, before the sickness struck, we managed to prop the kids up and take a few pictures of them in their Easter outfits. Vivian looked pretty like a princess in pink and white, and Henry had a handsome blue and white set.  (I'm sure he knew just how adorable he was.)

Yeah, last Saturday was no good.  Nick and I each woke up with food poisoning.  We managed to get through the day, and John and Kaitlynn came to take care of the kids for a little while that evening. They also delivered goodies like gatorade and other juice. THANK YOU!!!  :)

Spring has so far been cold. All of my students are itching for warm weather, and the teachers are ready for them to get outside and burn off some energy. Looks like it will be warmer this weekend.

Henry and Vivian are both doing well. Vivian learned the letter 'q' this week at preschool, and we also read a new story called "The Three Swans," about a sister who saves her brothers from being turned into swans. She liked that the sister was the hero.

Last week was Spring Break week for my school, and Nick took the week off from work.  We got quite a bit accomplished around the house. We painted several rooms. Here is Vivian's:

Oh, it is SO HER!

Joe was worried we didn't have enough PINK in the room. Maybe not... you can never have too much. :)  Henry's room is blue with yellow and green stuff.  Very manly.

Vivian learned about Jesus on the cross again this year, and we really think she is understanding it this time around. However, when she was sick with a tummy ache, she said, "That's ok. Jesus is in my tummy, making it all better." I told her Jesus is in her heart, and she said, "No. He' s in my tummy."

Welllll... ok.  :)

Here's another pic of Viv that I played with in photoshop.  My beautiful girl is almost 4!  ARRGH!!

Sweet Dolly-Girl, Vivian Jane.

And Henry... the little butterball with two teeth is working on several more. His favorite 'eats' are squash and bananas mixed with blueberries. Oh, I love that boy!


Handsome, Happy, DROOLY Henry.



Marchin' Toward Spring...

First of all, I'm very sorry it has taken this long for a new post.

Everyone is doing great.  Henry is 6 MONTHS OLD today!!  Can't believe it.  But he is super-cute and very fun right now.  (The fact that he is sleeping pretty good at night really ups his charm factor.)

School is swinging, and I have had only one major run-in so far this semester... more on that at a later date.

Vivian is having fun at preschool/daycare.  She and her best friend, Gracie, play 'hairshop' every day.  I think Grandma Beth will like that.  I have been fixing her hair in pigtails or braids, but by the time I pick her up each afternoon, her hair is completely different because she and Gracie 'fixed it more better.'

Henry is massive.  He has almost grown out of his 9 month size clothes.  We ordered him some new items in the 12 month category the other day.  He has a 12 month outfit that I think Grandma Beth got for him when he was born that he will most likely be wearing at Easter.  He very much enjoys his baby food.  His favorites are squash and bananas, and he has also taken a liking to ground chicken and veggies.  He is our little butterball. :D

Nicky is working hard at FedEx, but we did have a little fun this last weekend.  On Saturday, we took Vivian to an Indiana Ice game, where we met our friends Pat and Barbara, and their two boys, Zachary and Tyler.  We had a good time.  (I especially liked the Edy's Ice Cream bar at Conseco fieldhouse.)

Uncle David babysat for little Henry when we took Viv to Indy.  The two of them had a pretty good time. I think it was great birth control for Uncle David. Haha.

Enjoy our pics!  Hope everyone is doing well.

Henry likes squash, but he still sometimes spits up.  Look at those Baby Blues!

Uncle David wonders, "Do I really want to babysit this kid?"

Little Vivian (or 'Peggy') is in one of her 'get-ups.' She selected this outfit of her striped bicycle shorts, a  church sweater, and Cinderella clicky shoes. Too cute.

Here we are at Conseco- Nick and I had a good time, and Vivian had cotton candy and  got  a kidsize hockey stick.

BEST. DAY. EVER.  :D

We're Back!

From Christmas at Joe and Michele's.

Sorry we have not posted in so long!  Here's an update...

Nick has survived another peak at FedEx. We are so thankful when Christmas season is over. We are always pooped afterward, and this year was no exception. I miss my husband the most at Christmas when he is out delivering everyone's crap.

Nick's birthday is this Thursday (Valentine's Day) and he is sooooo looking forward to it because he gets to deliver everyone's Valentine stuff. :)

I am back at school with all of my lovely schoolkids. Today I kicked 6 kids out of my class.... I'll save that for another post. School has been going just fine however. I really do have some pretty good kids, and I'm enjoying teaching world history. We just finished a unit over the European Middle Ages, and now we are starting a new unit over early MesoAmerican cultures. I'm looking forward to it.

Vivian and Henry are having fun at their daycare. Henry has flourished with all the other little kids around. It is fun to pick them up each afternoon and they are having so much fun they don't want to leave. Henry loves to watch all the kids running around and playing.

Speaking of Hank, he is 5 months old tomorrow! Wowie! He has been eating baby food for the last 3 weeks, and rice cereal for the last month. Tonight he had a bowl of rice cereal, a whole container of squash and a half of peas. He is quite the little piggy. He weighed in at 17.8 at his last check up when he got his 4 month shots. My little butterball. :)

Vivian is growing as always and is beautiful as ever. She has been wanting to have 'princess braids,' so I've been braiding her hair in two braids on each side of her head. She likes to wear her Cinderella dress-up gown and parade around in that and her purple boots. Yesterday she had on that outfit, plus her bath towel with the hood on it. (She said she needed a cape.) HA! I enjoy her outfits.

I will try to keep pictures up here, even if I can't write a post. Hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Viv and Henry playing after dinner. Vivian had to take her shirt off since she had so much spaghetti sauce on it.

My adorable little man.

Back to School

January 2nd marked my first day back to school. I just have to tell everyone about it!

In their infinite wisdom, our administrators decided that on the first day of a new semester, instead of starting with new classes, we would revert to the schedule of first semester. According to them, some students were unable to turn in their textbooks on the last day of school prior to Christmas Break, and so we needed to have a day of the old schedule so they could do this.

Somehow, all of my students were able to turn in their books the last day. My excellent maternity leave sub was able to do this.

Also, how much time does it take for someone to turn in a book? I'd say about 5 minutes, tops, for the entire class.

But we ran a full day on last semester's schedule on the first day of the new semester... so yeah. It was a waste of a day. I had several kids call their parents to come get them, or to get permission to go home, since we did absolutely nothing. ARGH. 


January 3 we actually had new classes and were able to begin our fresh semester. I have some great kids and it feels like we are going to have a great semester. I'm excited to do some fun activities with them.

But really, all we do in this school system is waste time. On our first day back, we had a "Collaborative Time Meeting" for an hour before school began (Collaborative time is a major buzzword in education this year) where we did absolutely nothing. Wait, I take that back. We sat in a room and were told to look through our schoolwide Improvement Plan (already submitted to the state) for errors or items that needed to be changed. My table was assigned the segment titled "Parent Involvement and Communication." This chunk of the plan included communication avenues the school uses to let parents and community know what's going on.

It was great because there was a paragraph about how the students produce a monthly newspaper and yearbook for communication purposes. I brought that up in front of the whole group and asked how that was going. My principal's face turned red and she changed the subject. From what I understand, the pub class has put out 1 paper all year. Sad.  But I digress.

But enough about me... Vivian and Henry have had a great transition back to Shelly's house. Vivian was so happy to see her best friends Gracie and Raegan, and Henry has been fitting in just fine. He loves to watch the other kids, and they all love to 'check' on him and make sure he's ok.

Vivian and the other 'big' kids get started back with preschool activities on Monday. She is looking forward to that, because they will do circle time (stories) and crafts. She loves to do that stuff.

Henry slept through the night two nights this week. SO AWESOME!  :)  Keep on praying that he does well and keeps it up!

Nick is about to jump out of his skin because of the upcoming BCS championship game. All the sportscasters and forecasters are predicting a major loss for Notre Dame. We are so excited to watch them prove everyone wrong. (Please pray this happens, because otherwise, I will have a depressed and dejected husband for a good 6 months.

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the first week of January!!!  :)