Francisco Family Blog

Snow Day

christina — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:26:53 +0000

We got a great snow storm this weekend! Snow = happy babies!

happy dogs, too!

classic Clara face, haha

snow sledding! not very fast, but so much fun!

it is truly amazing how much snow one child can consume!

sister smother hugs <3

Clara’s besties

christina — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:50:54 +0000

Clara is quite obsessed with all things from the 100 Acre Wood. I don’t quite know how it happened, but it’s adorable. (Well, adorable until she carries around unused diapers like blankets because they have Winnie the Pooh and Tigger on them. ha!) It makes me quite happy that we prophetically had a Winnie the Pooh 1st birthday party for her at Disney World last summer. I say prophetically because as you can see, she wasn’t quite in love with them 5 months ago:

I'm turning one!

This Tigger was the best character we met at DW. He even wore a party hat with us!

Poor Pooh, He even tried staying behind her so as not to scare her, but alas.

<3 Piglet! <3

Clara wasn't so scared of Eeyore. This made me exceedingly happy!

one of my absolute favorite pictures from the trip

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY, CLARA!

But now at 17 months Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, and Tigger are Clara’s constant companions and favorite game she begs you to play every day. If she wants to play “bounce,” she’ll bring you Tigger and another stuffed animal and bounce Tigger up and down vigorously until you and your animal join in. If she wants to want you to sing either Pooh or Tigger’s theme song, she’ll bring you that animal and then dance her elbows up and down singing “lalalala” until you oblige and sing and dance with her.

Don’t be misled though, Clara has another best bud in the house….

…and I pray they are best friends for their whole lives!

Valentine Cards

christina — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:05:28 +0000

Don’t throw away that bottom part of your celery – Save it and make these adorable cards!

Cut off bottom of your celery stalks, pat dry with paper towel, dip in paint

and stamp on a card to make a beautiful flower!

Take off one of the larger stalks from cluster and cut a clean edge, dip in green paint and stamp twice to make the leaves.

You could use these cards for any occasion, but to make them valentines we added hearts – take an empty toilet paper roll, shape into heart shape, dip into paint and stamp away!

CUTE, right? Happy Valentine’s Day!

purple sisters

christina — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 04:16:50 +0000

- Geneva insisted they matched outfits today. My sweet girls! They are such completely unique and different personalities, but both of them prove daily how much they genuinely love each other. blessed. -

Auntie Love

christina — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 03:12:55 +0000

We were able to go down to New Mexico this spring for Michael’s youngest sister’s graduation celebration from high school. It was such a rare treat for the entire Francisco family to be together, and one that won’t soon be forgotten. We only had a few hours of time together, so any driving time was precious bonding time that we took full advantage of! Our time with Auntie Debs, Michael’s middle sister and the girls’ aunt who lives in New York, was especially colorful as Geneva entertained her with stories for far too long and we very randomly made a stop for pictures at the “famous” NM landmark Camel Rock. haha. We grew up next to this thing but have we ever taken pictures next to it?? um, no. But I am so, SO thankful we did. I just adore these pictures of Geneva and her Aunt Deborah.

(Clara was sleeping for all the bonding time in the car, but I promise she got some lovin’ too!)

We love you Auntie Debs!

overheard

christina — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:09:06 +0000

We hear, and overhear, all day. At home especially, living together. Especially the little ones, we don’t call them “little sponges” for nothing.

Sometimes the mini-me moments we hear are so demoralizing. Oh no, they are picking up THAT? Oh no, I sound like that?! But then, sometimes, there are other moments that send your heart so high that it reaches heaven itself. not kidding. Heaven itself. it has to.

I found Geneva in the corner the other day reading to her doll, telling her about Jesus, about “the Lord,” and singing “lead me on and I will run after You, lead me on and will run after You.”

Most of you probably know that chorus well – it’s from this song from Passion-

Give me one pure and holy passion.
Give me one magnificent obsession.
Jesus, give me one glorious ambition for my life:
To know and follow hard after You.
To know and follow hard after You,
To grow as Your disciple in the Truth,
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing You my Lord.
Lead me on, and I will run after You.

The fact that she was singing this song hit me hard that day. You just don’t realize what they are picking up, you know? This is one of the most significant worship songs to me as it embodies Ps. 63:8: “my soul followeth hard after Thee.” I’ve considered this to be my “name verse” – meaning the verse associated most closely with the meaning of my name “follower of Christ.” To me that means to have a determined, purposed abandon to follow my God – fully consecrated to Him, fully trusting in Him, fully dependent on His word, to the end. I want nothing more for my children; I tell Geneva that often.

Then you hear these things and others, like when she says she is “part of Jesus’ kingdom!” and you can only fall on your face and thank God. That He is intervening on behalf of your childrens’ hearts. That He is hearing your prayers. That He is at work. That He is having mercy on them, on us, on me.

For there is no amount of force that can make her little heart love Jesus. I do pray that she pants for the infectious love that I have for my Savior when she sees it, but I know that ultimately I will be a road sign pointing her the right way.

I’m so amazed and thankful I get to share in her journey, though. And that I get to spend my days overhearing little faith grow, like prayers that say “Heavenly Father, I thank You for You.”

what?

christina — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 02:00:28 +0000

just because I don’t put anything up here in months you think I left you? silly, silly.

paper dolls

christina — Sat, 14 May 2011 04:26:54 +0000

I had to take a quick break from my long blogging absence to share the amazing opportunity for acquiring such darling FREE paper dolls. I just loved playing with paper dolls as a girl and you could often find me pouring over some Dover book of Victorian or literary figures. There was something charming about those two dimensional little figures, and something so wonderful and tactile about cutting the clothes out yourself as if you were the actual tailor, or pretending you lived in a time where those fashions were in style. Anyway, I came across this link of printable Betsy McCall Paper Dolls and clothes spanning from 1951 to 1961 and I think you’ll find them delightful. There are instructions at the link on how to properly print them. I hope you and yours are charmed!

like daddy, like daughter

christina — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:36:05 +0000

see? she didn’t get ALL her expressiveness from me. okay, maybe she did, and maybe we’re rubbing off on Michael together.

hahaha

love these two

christina — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 22:29:14 +0000

hope

christina — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:05:48 +0000

Geneva asked me today “Mom, will you still have headaches when you go to Heaven?”I told her “No! I won’t!” She responded with a positive “oh!”
Since then she’s been randomly looking at me, smiling, and saying encouragingly “Mom, you won’t have any more headaches in Heaven!”

Lord, thank You for truth that comes out of the mouths of babes, and for my precious encourager.

we like to talk to tomatoes

christina — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 19:53:32 +0000

some Saturday fun.

I asked Geneva to show me her excited face:

She was very excited to see Bob and Larry, but did not understand why they had arms. haha.

I told her they had arms so they could give her a hug! But she only had hugs for Bob.

I joked with her that Larry was probably sad that he didn’t get any hugs, and that I’d never seen a cucumber cry before. This evidently made an impression on Geneva, who promptly asked Michael to stand in line all over again with her so that she could give Larry a hug.

Hot Pink Princess

christina — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:29:16 +0000

at least, that’s what she calls herself.

when you dine with the queen….

christina — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:36:51 +0000

…you better know how to set a proper table!

Growing up I heard “when you dine with the queen…..” from my mother innumerable times when teaching table manners and etiquette. I admit, I use it on my daughters as well for fun, although Geneva will be dining with “real” Princesses come summer!

I have recently been trying to teach Geneva how to set the table. It’s quite a lot of memorizing for a 4 year old, so I was giddy excited when I stumbled upon these at Anthropologie over the weekend – disposable paper color-on placemats with the proper table settings drawn right on them! Hopefully this will making setting the table fun and not just an every day chore.

Happy table-setting!

Geneva and the Technicolor Bird Feeders

michael — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 05:10:14 +0000

Our Sunday project (as Mom was away) was to make a bird feeder, and birdhouse. This turned into a bird feeder, bird house, and hummingbird feeder. We also found an old bird feeder which lacked a roof, so we came up with our own. Mostly I was just trying to find more things to feed Geneva to paint.

Getting to the end result took lots of concentration.

Now we have a lot more color in front of our house. (The excess birdseed on the porch was a gift from Geneva. She was throwing seed around and told me that it was to make sure the bird’s came to our house.)