My Favorite Time of Day

It's funny how God works.  A few years ago if you had asked me what my favorite time of day was, I would most definitely would NOT have said "oh, right after dinner when I am cleaning the kitchen."  Tonight, however, I found myself at the kitchen sink, elbow deep in warm, sudsy water.  I finished up the dishes, and had just moved on to wiping down the table, counters, and stove top when I stopped and looked around at my family.  And then it hit me...this is my favorite time of the day!  As much as I grumble and complain about all the dirty dishes, when I looked around tonight, I felt nothing but gratitude for my life.  And while I've yet to figure out why, God is SO generous to me.  I sat there and looked at my family....Rachel was sitting quietly by the fridge, playing with her alphabet magnets; Andrew was building some kind of creation on the couch out of Tupperware; Natalie was sweetly helping her Daddy put together some new swivel chairs for the island in the kitchen; and Luke was peacefully sleeping in his baby chair.  I really wish I had pictures to post for all these lovely memories, but right about the time my sentiments welled up so much that I was starting to tear up, and I decided to run and get my camera, Rachel started pelting the alphabet magnets across the kitchen; Andrew saw me break out the camera and started jumping in circles around me asking "can I see?  can I see?  can I see?...."; Phil started fussing at Natalie for getting in the way; and then all three of the older kids started fighting over who got to sit in the bar stool.  Ah, well, back to life!  At least little Luke was still sleeping, and I found time to get this blog post in ;)  I did, however, manage to get this one picture of our evening:

Rach in our new bar stools =)

New Year, New Life, and New Experiences!

Well, we are barely one week into the new year, and our family has already has so many new memories to share!  First off, we kicked off New Year's with a bang by doing a few sparklers, watching a movie, and going to bed at 10:26 p.m.  That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we know how to party over here!  No, seriously, it was a really nice Christmas and New Year's holiday this year.  Besides having a new baby, we were able to just stay home and enjoy our family without the stress of traveling.  Usually we go back and forth between our house, my Mom's house, and my in-law's house.  Which I really enjoy, because I love being with my family for Christmas, but it gets hectic now that we have so many children, and it gets difficult to keep perspective about what the season is really about in the first place.  So, Philip's family came to visit the weekend before Christmas to celebrate the birth of Luke, Baby Jesus, and one of his brother's graduation from college.  Then, my family came up this past weekend to celebrate Christmas and Luke's Baptism.  Call me selfish, but it was SO NICE to have everyone come to us instead of us going to them (I should say that we don't live in the same town as our families...we are 2 1/2 hours away from each, so it gets to be a lot of driving when we go see both families in just a couple of days).  So, we had a beautiful Christmas at home.  We went to the Christmas Vigil, then just enjoyed the day with good food, a few gifts, and my Mom.  She stayed with us for a little over two weeks after the baby was born to help me out...which was extremely nice!  

2010 Family Christmas Picture

 Ok...so, I didn't actually take this until a few days ago, but it still counts!  It was taken before Epiphany (you know, the January 6th one), so still in the Christmas season ;)  

Also, this year, our little Rachel turned 2 years old!  I can't believe she is growing up so fast...they all are, really.  She is just such a sweet little girl.

Rachel's Second Birthday

   She is quiet and cautious, which is so unlike my Natalie.  They are both beautiful girls with kind hearts, but their personalities are SO different.  While Natalie is bubbly and outgoing, always on the go and looking for something to do, Rachel is more reserved, and content to stay at home and just be with those people she loves the most.  It's interesting to watch how different they are.  

Rachel's First Birthday

She is content to just quietly play at my feet, or follow me around all day long, trying to help out with whatever I am doing at the time.  She loves to read books!  I think that may very well be her favorite past time...well, that and holding her new baby brother!

 

  She absolutely ADORES him!  It is so cute.  As long as he isn't crying, she will sit and hold him forever...once he starts crying, she call me:  "Mom!  Luke's crying...I'm done!"  =)  She loves to put her finger in his hand and let him hold it.  

When we brought Rachel home from the hospital 2 years ago =)

And, of course, this year has also brought with it so many new experiences with our new family member!  It's funny, because now that I have four children, everyone just assumes I'm this 'experienced' mother now.  Like I'm a pro or something O_o.  All the nurses at the hospital, my pediatrician, my OB, the lactation consultant...they pretty much all said the same thing...."oh, this is your 4th baby; you know what you're doing, just call me if there's a problem."  Thanks for the vote of confidence!  On the one hand, it's kind of nice, because I get a lot less unsolicited advice that people feel like they are required to give to new Moms...and, I'm guilty of it, too!  I love dishing out my mothering secrets to women who are inducted into motherhood for the first time!  But, at the same time, I don't feel experienced at all!  I mean, sure, the nursing thing I have down pat...co-sleeping - not a problem!...and diapering, well, I'm sure I could hold my own if there were a contest to see who could change a baby the fastest using only one hand (which is a common activity when there are 4 to deal with!).  But, this is still new territory for me!  Having four children is a totally different ball game!  WOW!  I thought three was a lot of work...sheesh.  So, yes, I do have a small amount of 'experience', as people like to say, but in reality, I'm just learning as I go through this whole process.  Which keeps things fun, for sure =)    

And, finally, we had Luke Baptized this year!  So, we have a brand new member of the Catholic Church as of January 8th!  The Baptism was absolutely gorgeous!  While I've been to many Baptisms in my life, this one was completely new for us.  We had the privilege of having Luke Baptized in the Traditional Latin Rite.  It was awesome!  Kind of stressful, since I had no idea what to expect, and I'm even WAY less experienced in Latin than I am in mothering.  So, I had a little trouble trying to follow along in the booklet, hold Luke, and make sure Father could reach the baby's head, chest, and such for the different blessings...all while wearing heels! But, the ceremony was just beautiful.  Our Priest did a fantastic job of administering the Sacrament (complete with the blessed salt and the knocking on the Church door to enter!), and he explained each part of the ceremony very nicely, since the majority of those present had never attended a Latin Baptism before.  My niece, who is pretty talented at photography (No!  Of course I'm not biased!) got some really nice pictures for us.

My Mother-in-Law makes one of these for each of my babies on their Baptism Day =)

this was actually taken the day before the Baptism, but it was just so sweet!

This was part of the Exorcism rite, and Luke was smiling at me =)

Father and the Godparents just after Luke was Baptized

Luke's God-Parents, Parents, and our Priest

Ok, Phil's going to love me for this next one, but there is a story behind this Baptismal gown.  It was hand-made by my a friend of my Grandmother's.  She made it for my brother, who was Baptized over 40 years ago!  Everyone in my family wore it, except for one of my nieces and my only nephew.  For each of my boys, I made sure Phil was ok with them wearing the 'dress'...and, he has said yes both times, but then when we get to the Church, and start dressing the baby, he gets this look on his face and shakes his head.  I think it's funny, but I always make sure to put something very manly underneath the Baptismal gown for his sake =).  For me, it's a beautiful family tradition, and I love that gown!

Luke in his Baptismal gown

The God-Parents =)

I hope everyone had a Blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year's!!  Welcome to 2011!!

 

Why I just LOVE St. Anthony

I remember the first time I asked St. Anthony for intercession.  I was around 5 or 6 years old.  I can't remember what I lost, but I remember EXACTLY where I found it in my backyard.  He has been faithful to my desperate please ever since that moment, including the 3 times I've lost my engagement ring (sorry, Phil!).  But, this story really exceeds them all!  About 2 weeks ago, the kids and I went to the library for story time.  (I should give a disclaimer here...if you're not into details, this story will probably bore you to tears, but it's one I want to remember, so it's going on the blog =).  I unloaded the van of children, library books, and DVD rentals.  I put my keys in their proper side pouch of the diaper bag, and we headed inside.  About halfway through story time, Rachel takes my keys out of the bag and starts eating them, so I take them away from her, and put them in the larger, zippered portion of the bag, where most things get lost in the abyss.  At the end of our visit, we go up to the counter to wait in line to check out our books.  I placed my books on the counter, with my keys right next to them (I have one of of those little rectangular library cards that go on your key chain, which is why I took my keys out in the first place).  Now, this is a small town library, and I knew everyone in the library, so I wasn't paying that close attention at this point...Natalie had to go to the bathroom, Rachel kept trying to climb out my arms so she could un-shelve each and every book in the library, and Andrew was trying to scale the counter so he could stamp our books with the due date (sometimes the librarians let the kids do this when no one else is there...one of the very nice things about small town libraries =).  So, needless to say, I was starting to sweat, and I'm sure my hair looked pretty disheveled at this point.  By the time my turn was over (I was third in line), and the librarian had checked out and packed all my books in a bag for us, my keys had disappeared.  They were NO WHERE.  We looked everywhere.  I emptied my diaper bags no less than 10 times, and we checked every nook and cranny of the desk area.  The librarians even called the two people who were in line in front to me to see if they had accidentally picked up my keys (again, I can't say enough about small town libraries!).  At this point, I'm pretty sure they thought I was crazy, and that I had locked my keys in my van, but I was 100% positive that I had brought them in the library...Rachel tried to eat them earlier, remember?!  I immediately sent up a quick prayer to St. Anthony, and continued to do so throughout the rest of this saga.  So, anyway, at this point, it's almost lunch time, our blood sugar is starting to drop dangerously low (like 'yelling at the kids for every little thing' low), and I'm close to tears.  I call Phil, and he lets me know that he has no idea where my keys are, either...thanks, a lot!  So, I call my neighbor and have her pillage my home in search of our spare key...naturally, it is no where in my house.  Now, I'm really close to breaking down.  She asks me when the last time I had the spare was...I tell her that the last time I had the key, I had loaned it to our cousin (whose shall remain nameless for charity's sake) who had ran out of gas a mile from our house.  I was "positive" he gave me the key back when he was done borrowing our van to go get gas for his car.  So, I'm stuck at the library, with no keys, no spare keys, three starving children, and no car seats...excellent.  I ended up just having my neighbor come pick us up, and prayed the whole way home that we would not get pulled over or in an accident with all three kids not in their car seats.  After I turned the house upside down for the spare key, and didn't find it, I finally swallowed my pride and called my cousin:  "Hey, you remember that time you ran out of gas, and I loaned you the van with the spare key?"  Cousin:  "Oh yeah, the spare is sitting right here in my console...been meaning to get that back to you."  Me:  "....fantastic..."  Long story short, he brings me the spare, gives me a ride to the library to get the van while the neighbor babysits, and we've managed to eat something and calm down a bit, so things are starting to get better.  Ok...fast forward a week and a half.  We go back to the library, and the librarians ask if I've found my keys...no, I have not....they still haven't found them either.  We conclude that the keys are probably in the same place that missing socks are.  So, after we are done reading books and building puzzles, we go checkout our stuff...low and behold, there is a note on my account:  "patron has keys being held for her at another branch that is about an hour away from branch that we are currently at".  WHAT?!?!  Turns out, my keys managed to end up in the parking lot of ANOTHER branch of the parish library...about an hour away from our local branch (oh, and for you non-Louisiana people, a parish is pretty much the same thing as a county...whatever that is).  I have NO IDEA how they ended up in that parking lot, but that is why I just LOVE St. Anthony!  Never underestimate the power of intercessory prayer!

Sancte Antoni, Ora Pro Nobis!!!

Seven Years and Still Going Strong!

Today is my husband and my's seventh wedding anniversary =)  In so many ways, it feels like we've known each other forever, but then in others, it feels like we just got married yesterday.  Being married has been better than anything I could have ever expected, and it has truly been the best years of my life.  We've had our share of annoyances and arguments, as any couple does, but for the most part, it has been wonderful!  So, I just wanted to put up a little photo montage of our life as husband and wife.  I've We've been pretty good about keeping up with a photo of the two of us each year on or around our anniversary, and hopefully we can keep up the tradition as the years pass and life gets busier and busier with each added member of our growing family.  

The Blessing of our Marriage:

Dedicating our Marriage to Our Lady:

After the ceremony:

Our first dance as Husband & Wife:

Cutting the cake =)  (sorry it's so light...I had to scan the wedding pics)  Oh, and for the record, the wedding cake was Angel Food-cake (strawberry shortcake)...It's my favorite!:

Our 1st Anniversary (our gift to each other was a new digital camera =)  I was pregnant for our first baby, Natalie:

Our 2nd Anniversary:

Our 3rd Anniversary.  I was pregnant for our second baby, Andrew:

Our 4th Anniversary:

Our 5th Anniversary (outside St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans...we spent our anniversary weekend there)  I was pregnant for our third baby, Rachel:

This last one is actually from Mother's Day, which was 3 months before our 6th anniversary...I'm sure we took one, but it is stuck on our desktop computer which is under the weather with a virus right now...this will have to suffice:

We haven't taken our picture for this year's anniversary...I plan on doing that this weekend when we go out to dinner to celebrate.  In that one, I'll be pregnant for baby number 4, yet to be named =).

Thanks, Phil, for being such an amazing husband and father!  I love you!! 

Just so I don't forget this story years down the road...

We are a cloth diapering family.  Well, I am into cloth diapering...my husband has already told me that if I die, he's throwing them away.  Not that he doesn't appreciate the money it saves us, and he doesn't mind me using them, but I am pretty sure he has no interest whatsoever in cleaning the things.  I mean, let's face it, it's not exactly roses and lovely fragrances we're dealing with here.  I can't really blame him, but for some reason, I actually really enjoy using them, and, for the most part, I don't mind the maintenance.  And, all those different colored FuzziBunz on a baby are just so darn cute!  Anyway, I use one of those plastic garbage cans with the step on it that opens the lid as a diaper pail.  So, last night I put all the diapers and the diaper pail liner to wash, and I just left the diaper pail in the pantry, instead of putting it outside to rinse and air out (it's not exactly the best smelling item when you empty it).  Well, Andrew was playing with a bouncy ball, and naturally it landed *in* the empty diaper pail.  (I'm sure you can see where this is going now...).  I didn't realize what happened, until I walked to the laundry room to get something, and I see Andrew....he is headfirst inside the diaper pail!  I said "Andrew!  what are you doing?!"  Actually, first I said "Phil, will you look at your son?"  Andrew said, "just getting my bouncy ball", as he climbed out, wiped himself off, and ran off to play with his ball...he had just had a bath, too.  Little boys are so gross!  I hope we have a bunch more of them ;)

New Baby

Well, we finally got to see the new baby!  My husband met me at the doctor's office yesterday morning, and we all got to see little Baby #4 kicking around on the ultrasound machine.  Technology can be scary at times, but so amazing nonetheless.  Anyway, everything checked out great, and Natalie was beyond giddy with excitement.  I'm not sure if Andrew really gets what is going on, but I think he'll catch on when we come home with another sibling for him to play pirates with =)  After we left the ultrasound room he said "Mom, what do you have in your tummy?"  I told him a baby and then he asked if he could see it O_o  Rachel was not keen on the ultrasound at all...she was not happy about the nurse messing with me, or with the fact that she had to stay with Dad instead of Mom.  She'll be in for a rude awakening when the new baby takes its place as youngest of the family!  On the plus side, she is finally starting to make progress with the walking!!  The girl is a few weeks shy of 18 months old...it's time!  Anyway, here are a few pics of the new baby and my pregnant self; I am trying to keep up a pregnancy photo journal (we'll see if it lasts), and my goal is to take a picture every time I have a doctor's appointment....I've actually not done this for any previous pregnancies, but seeing as I am the youngest of 4 kids, and I completely got the shaft when it came to photo albums, I refuse to do that to kids that show up later in our family.  My oldest brother and my two older sisters all have these big, thick photo albums bursting to the seams with pictures...mine is easily a quarter of the size of theirs, and it is only half full.  Feel the love!  Anyway...not the point of this post...

this was on the day of my first doctor's appointment, about a week ago:

this is the afternoon of my ultrasound, yesterday (a week after the first visit)

(and, I'm going to have to make sure I stand the same direction for future pictures!  I have this weird symmetry thing...it bothers me that I'm not facing the same direction in both pictures!!!....):

The Baby!!

This one is just for good measure...I take the kids to weekly story time at our small town library.  If you've never been to a small town library, go now!  They are the best!  The librarians are the sweetest ladies you'll ever meet, and they are always taking pictures of my kids, and then printing them out for me...how sweet is that?!  The sad part is that it is a library rule that they can't accept gifts from library patrons...what is that about???  How am I suppose to show my gratitude.  Anyway, they gave me this one a few days ago, and I just LOVE it...I sent it with Phil to work, so I had to get a copy of it before I parted with it.  Unfortunately my scanner is not working (because my color ink cartridge is out...did I ask the thing to print?!  no, I don't think so!), so I just took a picture of it with my camera =) 

And, finally, here is a video of little Miss Rachel learning to walk!  She's only been doing this for the last couple of days (note:  I don't have videos of the other kids walking...see??  no shafting the younger kids on memories like my family did to me - no bitterness, though ;):

Oh, and please excuse all the tangents...you can blame it on the pregnancy brain =)