He who eat many prunes...

These days there is a lot of singing going on in our house.

Especially while learning to go "ti - ti" 

Sometimes  we will just make up a tune to help lighten up the pressure of it all and then we promise "o-mash"

Which in Maria language means, marshmallows.  :)

 "OO! I feel good,"

Oh, HI! Were you watching me?

Night!

Learning how to be her mother...

I am getting to a new phase of parenthood or Maria's getting into a new phase of childhood.  Either way we are both learning some life lessons about each other.

As Maria rapidly approaches her 18 month marker, she is definitely blossoming into a talking, independent and adoreable child.

Howeva!  along with that ole' man and I are facing new challenges. :)

 for instance:

she loves to tell me no, like all the time!

me: maria, please don't do that.

maria: NO!

me: maria, would you like to play your TOYS?

maria: no-ah!

me: maria, would you like a snack?

maria: NO!

me: maria, would you like a drink?

maria: NO!

me: maria, please don't touch that.  No.. No... NO! UGH!

maria: NO! NO! NO-AAAH!! (smack me here, smack me there)

me: maria, say sorry, don't you love mommy?

maria: NO!

me:    =(  (give a huge sad face)

maria:   =)  (thinks my sad face is hysterical)

me:      =)  (melts my heart into oblivion before i can sit her in the corner)

i am puddy in this child's hands!

somtimes this crazy behavior comes from just not occupying her time.  I have to get more creative on how maria and i spend our alone time together.  she wants to discover the world and i am her way to doing that. Which is a really awesome responsibility.

So far I have learned, that she loves helping me clean.  I can almost clean any room in the house as long as i give her a dust rag or a part of the vacuum and she is right behind me humming along and pretending to "whistle while you work".

I have learned that she will probably make an excellent cook one day.  She loves to be in the kitchen with me baking.  She will pull her stool up right next to me and want to get into the big bowls, spoons and flour.  messy, but who cares, she loves it! (and she cleans, remember!)

I have also learned that along with her love of music, me singing, dancing and playing pretend piano she loves loves loves for me to read to her EVERDAY.  And it is no wonder that she is taking books on her own to read to all her little friends - who are bears.

We have 3 bears that she loves and adores. 2 pink and 1 brown bear.  Any coincidence that the two pink bears remind me of Hope and Grace and the brown bear our son to be?  idk. i am always looking for signs of H & G, so i'm gonna say it's totally providential! :)

So here we are one day, playing around and then settling down for reading time.

 

 PS... MARIA KISSES EVERYTHING. OR as we call it "Besos".  she has no problem smooching everything she loves.

If she loves you, you better pucker up!

where does she get that from? (heehee)

ok kids, this mommy is way super tired.  I hope you liked the post.  baby boy is kicking, maria is sleeping, and the buzzard for my banana bread is buzzing.  So i am off to bed.  zzzzzzz

I leave you with one last pic, out of 9,342,324,34684,234,56,3456,34,5300 that i took.  I mean, one is bound to look decent! eh?...

ok.  peace. God be with all my family and friends that read this thing.  I love you, Good night.

(besos!)

<3 luci

We're having a...

It literally took 598 marshmallows for Maria to somewhat cooperate in delivering this news...

(i know good parenting)

so here it is

...

Woo Hoo!!!  So there you have it, we are having a BOY!  And truly we couldn't be more excited.  He is a very healthy, measuring two days ahead, baby boy. 

It's hard to believe that after 3 girls God is giving us a son!  (gulp) I am elated to have him apart of this family.  Maria is going to have the bestest friend in him.

How did we react:

ME? I cried, permagrinned and stared at ole' man in wonderment of how good God is to us

Maria? She smiled, oo'd and awe'd but excited because we were excited.

Ole Man Klare?  He was so proud.  and I quote him as he stuck out his chest, "you can't say i didn't do my job, the Klare name will live on!"

LOL!  oh my.

So... thanks for the prayers for baby Klare...

I can't wait to hold you, son.

I will blog post his name very soon! :)

God Bless!  <3 luci

So I admit it, I am a total sap....

I was driving to work this morning and stopped at a traffic light listening to music, when this song came on.
below is Vince Gill singing look at us

Of course all I could do was think of my main squeeze and choke up.

You see Ole Man Klare and I have been through a lot as a couple.  In just the time we have been together we have managed to get through what most couples don't ever have to witness with in their young married lives.

What's amazing is if you know us, you will know just how different we really are.  I would love to say that we never argue, I never annoy him, or he never gets under my skin, but the truth is we are human beings and not a romance movie/novel/fairy tale.  this is real love people.:)

But when I think of him, who he is as a father and husband and all he has been as my bestest bud in this whole world, I am weak all over.  And it take but 1 second to tear up, in thanksgiving that he is mine.
uh, huh.  yeah, ALL THIS AT A RED LIGHT - YEAH I AM NUTS. can you say, "hormones"?

Chris Klare, I do love you!  Please don't do anything to T me off to regret posting this!! lol!  just kidding.  No matter how tough things are, I will always melt in your love.

Ps... Remember the first time felt we the girls kick our hands?? April, 2009 at the Grand Ole Opry, Vince Gill was singing that night.

Visiting H & G

It's been 2 & 1/2 years...

All most every Sunday after church Chris, Maria and I visit Hope and Grace at the cemetary.  Typically, when the weather permits we will bring them flowers and say a hello or a little prayer and continue on with our day.

At the beginning when we first started what is now becoming a beautiful weekly tradition,  I felt eager and anxious to get to them.  Like they were waiting for me to pick them up and take them home.  I'd sit by their grave, view the their names side by side and read over and over what reads on their stone "together forever".   And all I felt was pain, sorrow and unrest.   Those first few times, after we visited, I would cry and ache over the fact we had leave them there. I just wanted to hold them.

Fast forward to this past Sunday.  It was a beautiful day.  After church I am always eager to what direction Chris will take out of the parking lot.   And never fail we turn left, down to St. Mary's Cemetary.  I love turning left after mass.  (right turn, means we go home) We picked up some beautiful flowers.  That particular day I chose peach roses, something about them stood out to me.  It was a nice enough day that the whole family got out of the car to visit the girls.  With the cold weather we usually take turns and Maria stays in the car.

Chris always makes their resting place beautiful.  He edges around the stone, where the grass is over grown.  He brings a scrub brush , dawn soap and lots of water to clean the stone of the girls and his grandparents (who the girls are buried with) to make it shine.  He clips the flowers to fit the vase and we stand together.

I am uncertain what Chris thinks when he is there.  He is a very deep human being with feelings of love so unfathomable for his children.  I am sure he does his own sould searching and talking to the girls.

I usually repeat the words, "together forever" to myself over and over.  I think of their bodies that lie beneath the clover that covers the ground and miss them terribly in my arms.  As soon as I begin to feel sorrow, I pray my hail mary's as fast as I can.  I cling to Her.  She calms my mother instinct of wanting to dig threw that clover and dirt and pull them back to my chest where I think that they belong.
I am immediately drawn to imagining them in heaven.  I imagine all those who accompany them and keeping them safe.  I am comforted.  I imagine the love they are pouring on us as they look down at the three / four of us.  I am comforted.  I look at Maria and feel baby klare flutter inside of me and know that without Hope and Grace the path for Maria and the rest of our children would not have been set.  I am comforted.  I remember the truths of my Faith, that this life is but just a fleeting moment in comparrison to my life in eternity, and eternity where I will hold all my children and be in the presence of God for.ev.er!!!  I am comforted.

I am able to leave St. Mary's no longer crying in agony.  It's taken some time, that's for sure.  But the pain I feel is the longing for Heaven.  Time has healed so much.  Maria and Chris have been suchconsolations to my heart, in ways that I am in debt to them FOREVER.

Maria is starting to say "Ope / Hop and Ges /Ace" (hope and grace) , more often now.  It's a new pain that I haven't dealt with... I am still trying to feel out what it is.  But I think it is me hoping that my all of Hope and Grace's little siblings will feel the impressioned that they have left on all of us.  Though they will not meet them in person, I hope they will know the amount of HOPE, GRACE and LOVE God gave to us the day they were born and feel that some way too.

Thanks for reading a deep post.  It's been on my mind since Sunday and I would have exploded or seriously regretted not logging these beautiful feelings I am having.

*** And to add:  To my children, (if they ever read this)
 Remember them and remember us.  Do not forget your place in time and eternity.  Visiting your sisters is so peaceful and mending for your Father and I.  I hope you find it to be also.  ALWAYS, ALWAYS pray for your father and I.  We need it.

all my love.