Just Another Reason....

....that I am not interested in having a pet live indoors in addition to children:

Eventually, those will be finished projects that I can share here =)  In the meantime, that little Luke sure does keep us on our toes!  He's quite a change from Rachel, who is the next oldest.  She was always (and still is) so quiet and cautious.  She didn't start walking until 18 months old!  This little guy is 6 1/2 months old, and is cruising everywhere.  And, boy, does he get into stuff (obviously ;)

While he can sit all by himself, he much prefers to crawl....

Yesterday, I caught him doing this (the photo is a bit wobbly, but so was he, so it was either get a decent picture, or get him from falling!):

What you can't see in the picture is that he was cracking up laughing at his big brother =)  Those two are SO cute together!  It's obvious Luke adores Andrew.  But, then he also adores the screensaver on our computer....you know, that thing that bounces around the screen, while changing shapes and colors...

What's even funnier is watching Rachel, the 2 year old, sit and watch this, saying, "circle....square....balloon...star...."  hahahaha.  I love my kids!

Needless to say, we'll take this crawling, drooling, little boy over a dog any day =)

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away.....

Ok, I have a confession to make.  The nerd in me has been looking forward to the Star Wars phase of our kids' lives probably since our first son was born!  Well, at the library last week, Andrew happened to pick up one of those 'easy reader' books, and it was a Star Wars one.  He.was.hooked!  And, I promise, there was no encouragement or prompting from me!  It has a been a week full of Jedi Knights, Jabba the Hut, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and, of course, Light Sabers!  And, oh boy, is it fun!  I used to love, love, love watching the original Star Wars Trilogy as a kid, and it's really a joy to see them enjoy something from my childhood.  Andrew constructed a Light Saber out of a medicine syringe and a plastic straw...I totally slacked on the photo op there =(  And, oh my gosh, have you seen all the really cool Star Wars things you can knit and sew for your boy on the blogs these days?!?!?  I doubt I'll make any of it, but still fun to look at =)  I'm not sure who is enjoying it more, me or them.  Andrew told me the other day, "a Jedi is always on his guard...you have to watch out for Jabba the Hut!"   Then, yesterday, Natalie was hiding in the "jungle" behind the couch, and she was telling Andrew about all the things you could find in there:  "you know, Andrew, raccoons, foxes, snakes, Jabba the Hut...things like that."  Tonight, we get to enjoy the first Star Wars episode for our family movie...can't wait!  I'll leave you with one more quote....

Andrew:  "Hey Mom, how do you spell R2D2?"....love that kid!

 Oh, and may the force be with you!

Another Day in the Life

A continuation of the silly antics that go on in my house hold =)

She's either going to be a very popular trend-setter, or have no friends at all, except for me:

she was cold....the main outfit was really cute, but once she stared adding the warming elements, things started to go downhill, and she turned us into "that weird homeschooling family"!

Rachel was tiptoeing around the house, so I asked her what she was doing, and she said "I'm scared."  Me:  "scared of what?"  Rachel:  "I'm scared!!"  Ok...fine.

Oh, yesterday, Luke ate his first solid food!  Natalie was really excited, because I let her have the honor of administering the first feeding =).  He had sweet potatoes, of the organic variety, and he seemed to like it.  He was definitely interested, so I think we are going to have a good eater on our hands!  I probably took enough pictures of this event that if you printed them, and then flipped through them quickly enough it would be like watching the whole thing on video, but I won't subject you to that...here are just a few ;)

excited to try the first bite!!

hmmm...not so sure about this

and he likes it!

 

Rachel is sitting on a blanket with Luke, playing with some toys.  She put one in front of him, and right when he started to grab for it, she took it away and said "noooooo, you can't hab it"...Then, she did it again, and again...so, I walk up and watch for a second, and when she notices me standing there, she says "Lukey can't hab it....he's too wittle."  Right...as if that justifies her teasing him with a toy!  They learn the art of aggravating younger siblings pretty quickly ;)

I think the dishes and laundry are multiplying when I am not looking....so, I better go wrap up the rest of my chores before the husband gets home and it's time for dinner.  That, and I need to go do something effective to discipline my children.  I *specifically* told them not to play in the garden, to which Natalie replied "I'm not!" (sassy responses are like nails on a chalkboard to me!), but I just went out there to FIND THEM IN THE GARDEN..."digging for buried treasure", according to Andrew.  Good grief!  Do you ever feel like you take one step forward and two steps back when it comes to ensuring your children act decent?!?!  Lately, we are on the backtrack....

Witnessing to the Truth

So, I've been thinking.  I've been thinking about the vocation to family life and Motherhood.  With the March for Life right around the corner, most people in the Catholic world are vamping up their ever-present support for unborn life, so I, too, have been thinking about what kind of witness I am to the sanctity of life...am I a good witness?...do people look at me and think "wow...that mother really loves her children and her family"?....does my example make others want to value their families more, or be more open to life?  As Catholics, we are called to witness to the truth, and the truth is, life is valuable and worth living - no matter how hard it is.  And, the truth is that it is not up to us to decide whether or not a life is brought into the world...it's God's decision.  But, the hard part is making others see the beauty of raising a family - whether you have 1 or 10.  On the surface, motherhood is anything but glamorous...I mean, the baby literally threw up down my shirt the other day.  My two year old ate something off the floor that she thought was chocolate, but it most certainly was NOT chocolate (what was it doing on the floor, you might ask??...doesn't matter...).  My six year old brings frogs into my house.  My 4 year old is on the verge of learning to communicate using only his bodily functions (what is the deal with boys thinking that is so funny, anyway?!).  And, children need to be disciplined, they make messes that they refuse to clean up, leave their dirty clothes on the floor after being repeatedly told to pick it up, and don't get me started on the sink in the kids' bathroom!  It's a never ending cycle of cooking, feeding, cleaning....lather, rinse, repeat.  But as a mothers, I also know that all those mundane details are SO WORTH it!  The love in a child's eye when they look at you, kissing them good night, hearing them read for the first time, those little hands and feet, baby yawns, the joy of holding a new baby for the first time, hearing them say their first words...there is just so much love for these little people, that it can't fit into your heart, and it can't help but spill out into hugs, kisses, and affection for them.  

But, some days, it's really hard to see past all the grit and grime.  Some days, I feel like I'm in the trenches, and I am the worst witness to motherhood ever.  I yell...it's not pretty.  Many times, when I go out in public, and I have small children climbing all over me, people just think I'm crazy for having all these kids.  They love to tell me just how full my hands are...as if I didn't know that!  And, heaven forbid that I ever complain about how hard things are, because then it's "well, then stop having kids"  Well, I don't want to!  I love my children...I want a big family, but that doesn't mean it's easy all the time.  So, how do we get people to see past the surface, and that by sacrificing so much for our children, we actually gain so much more in return.  It has to be one of life's greatest paradoxes.  But, some people just don't want to see the beauty and the value.  All they want to see is the stuff they would have to give up, and the demand on their time that is too great.  I actually heard a woman on the radio once say that she wanted to have a child, but really wanted to have a surrogate carry the baby for her, because she "didn't have time to be pregnant"!!!  I...what...where does that kind of logic come from?!?!  

I can only do so much in my role as mother.  I can't exactly be present at all the pro-life rallies, and the marches, and travel around doing missions.  My place right now is at home with my little ones.  Much of the time, a mother's sacrifice and effort goes completely unnoticed and unappreciated by the world.  So, for me to be a good witness, even when no one can see it, I have to be joyful...firm, but loving.  And not just for the sake of others, but for the sake of my family.  My husband needs to see me happy and glad that I am part of his family (which, of course, I am...even on the hardest of days I love our life).  My kids need to see that I am honored and over-joyed to have them for my children.  I need to keep in mind that my kids will be adults one day, and the way that I treat them will affect whether or not they will be pro-life.  If they see a mom who completely loves her job as a wife and mother, then they will have respect for life, too.  I can't be a good witness and draw people to the Catholic Faith if my life doesn't reflect joy and happiness, even in the midst of suffering.

A Good Ole Fashioned Cochon de Lait!

One of the perks of living out in the country and having lots of land is that you get to share it with family and friends without being crowded.  And, you can get away with doing things like roasting a whole pig in your backyard without your neighbors looking at you like you're weird...especially if you invite them over for dinner =)  So, a couple of weeks ago, we invited over a handful of Philip's cousins and their families, our neighbors, and had a good ole fashioned cochon de lait!

  Just so you know, according to the official Cochon de Lait Festival website (didn't you know there is a festival EVERY weekend some where in the great state of Louisiana?!), a cochon de lait is a  "suckling pig (or sucking pig ) is a young pig that has only fed on its mother's milk. The piglet is killed between the ages of two to six weeks, and traditionally it is roasted. The dish is usually reserved for special occasions."  

 The annual Cochon de Lait Festival is in Mansura, LA, the cochon de lait capital of the world!!  You should come down, chere, and pass a good time!  Everyone brought a dish, and we supplied the pig roasting equipment, an ice chest of beer (and lemonade and tea for the children and pregnant women), and coleslaw.  It was fantastic!  We had homemade macaroni, chips and dip, baked beans, breads, and desserts. 

the roasting apparatus

 Phil's Dad is from a family of twelve, and all of those twelve are married with children, so there are lots of cousins to go around!  It was really cool to see a very small handful of the 3rd generation of the LeBlanc clan playing together.  I'd try and give out numbers of grand-kids and great-grand-kids, but I'm sure I won't get the numbers straight....I do know that one of Phil's brothers is the 44th grand-child, because his Mom just told me yesterday when they came to celebrate an early Christmas, the birth of Luke, and that same brother's graduation from college.  So...that should give you some idea of how many great-grands there are...LOTS, and I'm sure there are many more to come!

gotta have the Cajun injector!  (this makes a pretty fabulous smoked chicken, too =)

getting the pig ready for roasting

around 5 hours later, we had roast pig

the 3 year old crowd =)

the 1 1/2 year old crowd =)

the big kids

oh how I LOVE this picture!

taking it off the fire

all cooked!

movie time!!

....and, done.

Welcome to the World, Luke!

Our new baby has finally arrived!  We had a beautiful, healthy baby boy on Tuesday, December 14, at 9:52 p.m.  We named him Luke Anthony LeBlanc, he was 6 lbs. 14 oz, and 19.5 inches long (**I originally put that he was 16 lbs...SO not correct!  sorry...I just had a baby, please forgive the typo =).  And, he is just perfect!  I think we are all in love =)  The labor and delivery went very well, and VERY quickly!  It's always interesting to me how if you get around a group of mother's, especially if there is a pregnant one, the conversation inevitably turns to birth stories.  Mothers love a good birth story!  And, of course, I have a good one for each of mine.  Luke's went very well, and VERY quickly.  I had a doctor's appointment the morning he was born, and I was at 2 cm.  I left there thinking that I would have a baby by the weekend, but sure that it wouldn't be that night...little did I know!

Our first family photo with the new addition!

  I had a few contractions throughout the day, but nothing consistent and nothing I couldn't walk or talk through.  I spent the day doing what I normally do, and even worked on a few sewing projects.  I fixed dinner, but then told Phil I was boycotting the cleaning part.  I was feeling pretty tired and sore, so I went to lay down.  After that, I had a few contractions in a row, so at 7:51 I started timing them.  By 8:30, they were still there and were between 3-5 minutes apart, lasting between 30 seconds to a minute.  I told Phil it was time to go.  We called the neighbors to come sit with the kids, called my Mom to let her know, and started our 45 minute drive to the hospital at 8:45.  Phil managed to make it to the hospital in about 35 minutes, and I labored pretty well in the van.  Thank you, Lord, for the Rosary!  I don't think I've made it around a Rosary that quickly in a while...I'm sure I got at least 2 or so of them in.  It really helped keep me focused...it was very comforting, too.  I highly recommend the Rosary during childbirth.  Even if you just hold it.  Anyway, once we got to the hospital, my contractions kicked up a notch and all I could manage of the prayers was "Hail Mary"...so, I turned the Rosary over to Phil and just focused on the task at hand.  

just after delivery

 Now, I don't know how your hospital works, but you can do something called 'pre-registering' at ours.  Supposedly it allows for you to go right up to the New Family Center and get in without having to do all kinds of paperwork.  I think I will never waste my time pre-registering again, because we had to fill out information at the Emergency entrance AND at the New Family Center.  This is NOT a fun task when you are about to deliver a baby.  Then, the nurse at the emergency room desk has the nerve to call the delivery ward and tell them "there's a woman here who *thinks* she's in labor"....oh man!

Finally, I just tell her my water broke and we just go up to where we need to be.  The fun really began when we actually got to the lobby of the New Family Center, because my water actually did break...in the lobby...which means I had very little time before the baby was ready to be born.  But, of course, they go through all the requests for information and papers need to be signed by me...I try to tell them to call my doctor and fast, but they didn't listen.  I guess they just had to make sure I really was in labor before they called him.  In the end, the nurse and I did a good bit of yelling at each other...we each had our own idea of how things should proceed.  You know that saying about how "a drunk man's words are a sober man's thought"?  Well, I firmly believe that the same principle strongly applies to a woman in labor.  While I normally try to avoid confrontation as much as possible (almost to a fault), the same is not true when I am in labor.  I make my wants and needs known and no one is going to tell me otherwise.  And, what I wanted and needed was not in accordance with hospital protocol, so the nurse was not very cooperative with me.  By the end, she was literally yelling at me...who does that?!  Aren't we paying them for their services?!?  Sorry..it's one of my soap boxes.  Luckily I had Phil on my side...he just kept holding my hand, and telling me what a great job I was doing, which makes him the perfect husband/labor coach ever in my book =).

  I should note here that if you are having a baby without any medical intervention, you pretty much have to do what your body is telling you to do, and most of these nurses are used to having ladies who are under an epidural, which means they don't have to follow their body's cues quite as immediately.  

They wanted me to wait for my doctor to catch the baby, but I was having none of that.  Needless to say, my doctor was about 10 minutes too late, and from the time I started timing contractions to delivering Luke, it was exactly 2 hours and one minute. 

Luke and his Daddy =)

 So, despite the stress of dealing with hospital protocol and a nurse who was inconsiderate of my wishes, everything worked out in the end.  The baby and I did just great, and within 48 hours we were home and adjusting to life with 4 children =)  The kids are doing really well with him.  

she LOVES him!

 Natalie wants to hold him ALL.THE.TIME.!  Luckily, I'm the only one who can feed him; otherwise, I'd never get to hold my little guy!  But, I think Natalie will come in very handy for when I need to get a shower in ;).  Rachel was a bit skeptical at first, but after I finally got her to hold him for the first time, she didn't want to put him down either.  There is now a battle in the house among the females over who gets to hold the baby.

this was about as close as she would get at first

then she warmed up to him and realized how much fun it is to hold a new born =)

 Andrew really likes him, too, but it's obvious he doesn't have that same built in desire to hold him like the girls do.  It's interesting how that works, isn't it?  He looked over Luke for about 10 minutes, max, and then had better things to do...like play punching bag with the gift balloons we got from Phil's office...

Granny helping them check out Luke

checking out the fingers and toes

moving on to better things =)

Well, I think there is a baby that needs to be fed somewhere around here.  Life with four is definitely more interesting and hectic than life with three, but I wouldn't change anything for the world!

the note Natalie wrote for us while we were in the hospital =)

Insomnia Combined with Access to Babysitters

Last week, I spent 4 days in my home town at my Mom's house, who lives 2 1/2 hours away.  My two sisters, one brother, their spouses, and children all live in my home town, as well.  It was really nice to get to see everyone.  I am actually the youngest of the four kids, and I have 9 nieces and nephews, ranging in age from 21 all the way down to 18 months.  So, with all that access to babysitting, my current lack of ability to sleep at normal hours, and peer-pressure from one of my sisters, I spent a good portion of that time doing some sewing for my girls!  And, man it was fun!  I left the kids with my Mom one afternoon (O.K., it was 2 afternoons!), and spent some time alone just browsing at the local JoAnn's Fabric Store.  Did I mention I was alone??  As in, without small children around me??  Like, pure bliss for a whole 2 hours!?!?!? (1 hour for each afternoon...don't start thinking I'm greedy, now).  It was SO NICE!  I managed to find a nice little selection of some very cute fabric on sale, and my sister and I both made a couple of pillowcase dresses for our little girls (who are both around 18 months old...they are about a month and a half apart), and a twirly skirt for our older girls (they are both 5 1/2...my Natalie is 7 months ahead of my niece).  

My sister already had some fabric at her house, so I went over there with mine, and we let the older girls decide who got which print.  They decided that they wanted to have their skirts match with each of their little sister's dress, instead of matching with each other (which is what my sister and I would have chosen....man, it's a hard thing when your kids don't want to follow your dreams for them! ;)  Anyway, here are the creations we made while I was in town:

Rachel's Pillowcase dress.  I kind of combined a bunch of different tutorials around the web, so I don't have just one link to post for the pattern.  But, just do a Google search, and you'll be able to find something if you are interested.  

This picture would have been so precious if it hadn't been so humid outside!  It fogged up the lens on my camera =(  Oh well...it's still a nice shot:

Natalie's Twirly Skirt.  I used this tutorial from The House on Hill Road Blog.  However, I must insert a caveat here...If I ever make this skirt again (which, I most likely will), I would do it a little differently than she did, because the waistband was kind of awkward the way she has you do it.  If there is enough interest in what I did differently, I'll post about it, but I won't get into details right now...

Another view of the skirt to show the fullness:

I never did get a nice picture of Natalie wearing this skirt, but that's ok...she wears it all the time, so I'll get one soon enough =)

The dress my sister made was in a cute pale yellow fabric, with butter flies and daisies, and it had a brown with white polka dot trim.  See how cute!:

  I wish I had gotten a picture of her finished stuff, but she didn't get a chance to finish her dress and skirt until after I left.  We bought 2 yards of the main print, and 1/2 yards of the trim, and there was enough material to make 3 items!  My sister and I decided to trade material, so now I need want to make either one more dress, or one more skirt....I can't decide....oh, the choices!

Aside from all the sewing, we did some other fun things as well.  Like, going to the park to feed the ducks:

They were everywhere!  And, VERY friendly:

Andrew hanging out with the ducks:

I wanted to take this guy home to our farm, but he wasn't having it...

Natalie and Andrew:

Little Rach, enjoying the ride:

Andrew kept pointing and yelling at the Muscovy ducks:  "Hey Mom, look at those roosters!"

What you might see at a park down in Acadiana...lots of cypress trees growing in the water:

You also might see a nutria...

or two:

And, my Mom also took the whole family out to eat at this really great restaurant called Hub City Diner.  If you ever go there, do yourself a favor, and have the fried green tomato salad, with grilled shrimp and roumalade dressing...oh, and a cup of their chicken and sausage gumbo!  Talk about good!  We made sure to go on Kids' Night, so they ate free, and the Balloon Man was there!  He was not only a great entertainer, but he had the best Cajun accent you've ever heard!  It was awesome =)

Needless to say, we all had a really fun visit at Granny's!  And, a long over due one at that!  It had been about 3 months since we've seen them.