How Good It Is…

Jack made his First Reconciliation on Saturday.  He was so adorably handsome in his suit and so nervous yet proud.  We were very proud of how seriously he took the learning and reflecting all last week.  We really feel this sacrament is pretty private, so we didn’t take any pictures during the ceremony.  However, we HAD to take some in his suit :)!

The reading was on creation, and the children all responded, “How good it is,” which was so neat.  Then Father Pat read the gospel and began his homily carrying on the theme.  He started with, “Seven or so years ago, your mom found out she was having a baby.  She thought to herself, ‘How good it is’” and so on.  As I was sitting there thinking Father was trying to make sure all the moms were crying, Jack leaned over to me matter-of-factly and said, “And you liked having us so much, you just kept having us!”  Oh my goodness!  True, and then I couldn’t stop laughing.  That’s my Jack!  How blessed we are!

Mary Walking (test video upload)

Some of Mary's First Steps - Yes her pants are a bit big and thus her footsie looks a bit funny.

When each of our children begins walking it simply amazes me.  As I enter this most stressful of weeks with different opportunities to the left and right of me it is important to remain focused.

I am posting under Amy’s login to test the set-up of the new video uploading process. 

Have a great Sunday!

ENJOY and Cherish each and every day!

Just feel like rambling…

It has been a beautiful few days here.  Yesterday, we went outside without coats even!  In February!  Mary had a blast walking – up and down the block twice!  That’s a long way for little legs!  Days like that that I like Indiana weather :).  Actually, the unpredictability keeps me on my toes and keeps things interesting.  We’ll probably have 6+ inches of snow by Monday or something, and that will be ok too.  We’ll have had a little break from the winter stir-crazies and be ready to hunker-down again.  The kids say the groundhog saw his shadow, and we all know what that means.

How is this winter going?  It has been a fun winter with more than average sickies thrown in for good measure.  Mary started walking a couple days before Christmas but didn’t really “take off” until mid-January.  Now there is no stopping her! 

Jack earned his Light of Christ medal with Cub Scouts.  It was a beautiful mass where all the Cub Scouts did readings and helped with the mass.  Jack said a prayer for parents, which was really nice.  He is a wonderful speaker (gets that from his daddy :))!.  He has his first guitar recital on Sunday, including a song he wrote!  He takes after his aunt Sara with that.  Bryan and Jack have been working hard on this year’s Pinewood Derby car too.  That’s coming up on March 1st.  Jack will be making his first reconciliation in on the 21st of February.  He is so excited.  Me, I’m a little sad my “little” boy is growing up so fast.

Grace is looking forward to a scarf-making party on Friday.  School’s out – why not make scarves?  We have lots of fleece and are going to have cookies too.  Yum!  And I think we’ll probably try to donate them to St. Jude’s House because I have a feeling each child can make more than one, and that would be a nice way to celebrate Valentine’s Day.  She is also going to a nursing home with Girl Scouts Friday to pass out Valentine’s that her troop made.  So it should be a nice day.  Friday night, she has a Daddy-Daughter dance.  I still remember my daddy-daughter dance!  How exciting!

Katie is going to be 4 next month!  Already!!  She has been talking about going to dance class since the beginning of the year, so she is way excited.  (We told her she could take class when she turns 4)  She has decided that she wants a dancing princess party at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  At Grandma and Grandpa’s because their family room is cooler than ours (her words!).  They do have a nice, “new” family room, and less work for me ;)!  Mom is excited and Melanie is coming home (it’s her birthday weekend too), so it is really cool!

Bryan and I made it to the wine-tasting/silent auction at school last weekend.  Way fun!  We even get to go out again this weekend – hopefully we aren’t banking ahead for the year :) – date nights are nice.

Now I am procrastinating.  We have bible study right now, and I should get to church.  God bless!

When the stomach flu hits, no one is left standing...

And all that's left to do is laugh (once everyone is feeling better).

So we all went to bed Thursday feeling fine. Thursday was a busy day. I went to both of the nursery school classes to talk about pharmacy for career day. After school Jack had guitar and then I went to work. Fun and hectic.... Anyway, I digress.

Friday I woke up around 4AM and felt fine. Woke up at 5 feeling horrible. By 6 when Jack came to get me, I couldn't imagine moving. Because I was POSITIVE I couldn't possibly be sick AGAIN, I thought I must have eaten something that didn't agree with me. Jack made breakfast (Bryan needed to be at work early AGAIN). I called my mom (my WONDERFUL mom) and asked her to come and watch Mary and Katie because I just couldn't imagine moving any more than absolutely necessary. I took the kids to school and then rested with Mary and Katie for an hour or so until Mom got to our house. I was resting and trying to find out about Bryan's suits when school called. Jack had gotten sick. Uh-oh. Mom went to pick him up and eventually brought him home. She went back to cleaning, now pretty certain this was a stomach bug. Jack and I were resting on the couch, and Mom was going to take Katie and Mary to pick up Bryan's suits and meet him. As she backed out of the driveway, the phone rang again. Grace was sick and needed to be picked up. Seriously?!? I called Mom, and she changed direction, picked up Grace and brought her home. Grace, Jack and I were all resting on the "sick couch" and luckily, took a nap. Eventually, Mom, Katie and Mary came home and went back to cleaning and making mashed potatoes. Bryan came home after 5 and tried to have Katie come upstairs with him, but she decided she wanted to help Grandma clean too. She went upstairs and got sick too. At this point, it was almost comical. I haven't ever seen anyone get sick so quickly as we all did. Well, almost never...
Friday was a rough night, but we were all feeling a little better Saturday morning. Bryan was teasing about not getting it - that is, until about 11AM. That's when it started for him. Just like that. The nurse said kids are dropping like flies. Evidently, so are parents...

We are feeling MUCH better. We did make it to the "important" stuff this weekend. Jack and I went to the Scout mass on Saturday, and he got his Light of Christ medal. Bryan and I went to Noah's baptism and pledged to help him grow as his godparents (we didn't touch or breathe around him!). Jack and Grace are home from school today to try to make sure they don't relapse. We are going to slowly reintroduce food today and pray that it goes ok. This has been a SICK winter, it seems...