Levin Augustine Shingledecker

Born on August 19th, 2008 at 4:23 am, weighing 7 lbs 3 oz., and 20" long.

Here we are with the birthday cake! John made a vanilla & chocolate marble cake with vanilla buttercream frosting, decorated with blue icing, mini chocolate chips, & 5 candles (one for each of our children). Although I had time to make the cake during my labor with Levin, I wasn't as ambitious as I was when I made the cake at 11 pm while in labor with Vianne who was born a few hours later at 3:57 am. John & the kids had fun making and decorating it together! He went all out and made a delicious tiered wonder! Mama & the 5 little Shingledeckers. Pure Joy.

It's our Anniversary!

August 16th, 2002 my dear husband & I got married in the beautiful Upper Peninsula Michigan at our University Parish, St. Albert the Great, in Houghton (pronounced "Ho-tun" - think: Upper (Yooper) Accent = thick Canadian/Finnish/Northern accent) where we met.

We had a nice day with our little family. We have been taking the kids to the local YMCA park a few times in the past couple weeks so that John can give them a tennis lesson! They had their 3rd lesson this morning. I'm so happy that John can share his great gift & talent of playing tennis with our children.

Here are a few pics:

Two days ago when we announced it's going to be our wedding anniversary the kids asked if they could make us gifts. I said 'sure! but you know.....you children are the biggest gift of our marriage'. God certainly has blessed us with a fruitful marriage (; The kids gave us their gifts of drawings tonight & they were so happy & proud to share them! Vianne was especially happy to have drawn her mama, papa, & herself....which is only about the 3rd time she has drawn 'people'.

I'll sign off with this quote:

"Mankind's future rests in, and depends upon, the family more than any other society, institution, or environment. " Pope John Paul II

+JMJ+ pray for us

Who is Amy Butler!?

I realized today that I failed to mention who Amy Butler is in my last post. Since I used her name in the title I should have mentioned who she is! She is a fabric & sewing pattern designer who's pattern I used to make the girls' handbags. The pattern is the Frenchy Bag, and she has 2 sizes. The larger bag & the smaller handbag. The bag was a little more difficult than I thought. I'm not sure if i'm up to making another one for a while even though I feel I 'owe' one to Gabrielle! ciao for now, jennifer j. s.

Amy Butler - Handbags & other stuff

Last week I finished 2 purses, one for Olivia, and one for Vianne. (Gabi's purse will be on it's way....I'm currently working on a fall jumper-outfit for her).

I used some "Japanese Import" fabric that I purchased from superbuzzy & etsy. Japanese Imports are absolutely ADORABLE. I wish some U.S. companies & manufacturers would pick up on how great these fabrics are & start selling them too.

I also finished a clothespin apron for myself. Some of you know how much I LOVE to hang laundry on the line.....It's the one chore I could do every day...it makes me happy (:

It looks really funny on my big pregnant belly.....but it still works great!

I'll have to look back & count how many sewing projects I've done this pregnancy. I usually can get a lot of fun crafty stuff done because I love to find the time to do them.....however, whenever I'm pregant I find that my creativity is very driven & I can accomplish so many projects when I have a little babe in the oven!

p.s. I am NOT a writer, & do NOT claim to be one.....I know that my writing skills are NOT very good, so expect lots of mistakes with my English! - i just like to blame it on the fact that I've studied so many different langagues (; -

lots of love, jennifer j. s.

"Give me the faith of Peter!"

My husband said Oscar must have been listening really well to the readings at mass on Sunday. This morning during breakfast, in order to stop the petty arguing & squealing between the kids (isn't it easy to get irritated when your days start like this?!), I broke out in song while making pancakes. I started singing a song from a wonderful CD of Catholic children's songs that we received last January from Seton Home Study for Olivia's first grade curriculum. The CD is filled with awesome tunes & lyrics teaching about the Catholic faith! Personally I LOVE it, and the kids do too. It sounds to me like they copied this cd from an old record. I just love the 'vintage' sounding voices. Songs are always such a great way to memorize just about anything!

I started singing the first song on the CD......"A very good man named Daniel, told a very bad king one day....." as soon as I started singing the kids chimed in too! think: diversion.....

I continued, "I never will serve your idol, a false god made of clay. There's only one God I'll worship, the living God on high......Lord, give me the faith of Daniel, until the day I die!"....then suddenly,

I was interrupted......

Oscar said "I want the faith of Peter!".....I said "Oh! that's wonderful Oscar"....he said "Yeah, 'cause I want to walk on water!"

Here's a pic of my little aspiring "Peter" so diligently doing his school work today:

praying for child-like faith......

jennifer j. s.

The best outside toy EVER!

About a 2 years ago I was with my children visiting a friend & her children & I noticed a toy they had in their garage. I asked what is that!? That is SO COOL! She told me her husband found it somewhere years ago......thus began my search for one just like it, expecting not to find one since it had been years since her husband purchased theirs. But to my amazement & DELIGHT, (thanks to all those crazy companies that send you millions of toy catalogs right around Christmas time) I found it last winter & bought it as a Christmas gift! So you're wondering WHAT IS IT!? It's a Whirly Wheel that I purchased from "Back to Basics Toys". I highly, highly recommend you get one if you have kids! (And secretly, I wish they made one for adults - I would LOVE to whirl around on one of those) It's superb for coordination & arm strength....the kids can turn in all sorts of directions. Olivia's challenge to herself was to whirl all the way up our sloped driveway in it.....what an accomplishment when she did acheive her goal!

Well, last week, Grandma & Grandpa Shingledecker visited us to help us out while John was on business travel. Little Gabrielle wanted to try the whirly wheel out again as she had many many times before....but this time with help from Grandma she got it going! Way to go G! I was SO impressed! That little girl has so much determination.....what a wonderful personality attribute. Your Mama is so proud (; Thanks Grandma for the help! I don't think I could have bent down that much, exerting that much energy with my big belly to help her.....

I can't wait to purchase the larger size one someday as Olivia is getting too large for the small one........ and I can only dream that it could bear my weight......

Ciao for now, jennifer j. s.

In Nesting Mode

In an attempt to get my life in order these last few weeks/days of my pregnancy, I thought I'd post a little something short & sweet. ......I really would like to get more into this blog thing.

My mom send a package for Oscar's 5th birthday that arrived last week with gifts for everyone. She found these sweet summer dresses for a steal at a local "Big Stuff Mart" & they all fit the girls perfectly! Oscar has been non-stop wearing all his spider-man gear (shirt, undies, pjs.....) he loves them. Thanks Mom & Dad!

For all you friends & family whom we don't live near, here is a pic of my enormous belly.

I definitely got the waddle thing down....especially when I have to use the bathroom, which is quite frequent these days.....you know.....like when your baby decides to brush their little hand or nose against your bladder.....yikes!

I'm in full blast nesting mode. My form of 'nesting' is not necessarily cleaning, but organizing, which I'm borderline obsessive about anyway, but it's full blast when pregnant.

I'll sign off with that for now...I've got to keep on top of getting those birth announcements ready!

p.s. does anyone know how to get nice even spaces between paragraphs on this blog thing?? I got it to work in the upper part of this post, but not in the end......I can't figure out why!?! Please help!