I'm in Love

Could he be any cuter?? Seriously, if I weren't Catholic, I'd convert just to be affiliated with Pope Benedict.

And he sends text messages!!

Faith and Family

I have been subscribing to Faith and Family magizine for years now and LOOOVE it. I was SUPER excited last week when I got an email inviting me to a sneak preview of their new and improved website Faith and Family Live. It is totally fantastic.

In your excitement and enjoyment try not to forget about your children. And your hubby might need dinner . . . or clothes for work tomorrow . . .

Quote of the Day

Grace: Mommy!! You're making my pants laugh!!

Truth Be Told

I think we are having a little trouble with telling the truth around here. Grace, frustrated with her brothers sleeping in, appraoched me this morning:

Sometimes, to wake up Christopher, Daddy dumps water on his head . . . so can I do that??

Daddy has never been known to do that. I just said no.

Growing too fast

Bell-ee is three months old today! I can't believe how big she is getting -- rolling over, smiling, babbling, and laughing! We have been so excited to have our newest little monkey. It is amazing how you are in awe of everything they are and do, even though you have had other children. It's so fun!

And lest you think she is all photogenic giggles and smiles, let it be known that it took me 29 shots to get this smiley one. Usually, she looks like a (cute!) goober.

Cannibalistic 2 year old.

PeterXavier said his first sentence today:

"Watch out, I'll eat you!"

Fossils. Apparently, their mom is one.

I can hear my kids playing out in the sandbox. The game involves excavating items from a time long ago. I keep hearing them exclaim:

"This is from the 1980's!!"

A taste of the hippie life

We spent the majority of the weekend pretending we were hippies at the Fiddler's Gathering. We listened to fantastic old time music and Andrew learned a bit at the fiddling workshop. We ate too much greasy food, took naps in the grass and saw an old friend propose on stage!!! It was a great, relaxing yet exhausting weekend. The weather was a little schizophrenic, bouncing from torrential downpours to hot sunny skies, but it was worth getting soaked and scorched!

There were four in the bed and the little one said

ROLL OVER.


My sweet little 2 1/2 month old baby is rolling over!! I thought they were supposed to stay snuggly and immoble for at least three good months. I feel jipped!


In other big news, Christopher learned to ride his bike with out training wheels the other night. He is extremely excited about it. We had an impromptu picinic at Prophetstown and decided to crown the night by the removal of training wheels.



Grace sweetly insisted that she too be the center of attention.












And just a little bit of crazy to brighten your day!

Motherly Music

"I finally had to face the facts in a dressing room at TJMaxx . . . "

Am I the last mother on earth to find out about Marie Bellet?? She's awesome! Check out this music video.

Picture Perfect

Here are a few more pictures from Isabella's baptism and the party afterwards.
















My sister Annie and her hubby Martin are Bella's Godparents. I'm not sure why Andrew looks so goofy in this picture, but everyone else looks cute!





Christopher with his crazy gang of boys.



















Pretty girl, loving all the attention!
















I love the way Christopher looks in this picture. He kind of reminds me of my Uncle Johnny. That's a root beer, by the way.










And here is PX trying to make up for the fact that he just bopped his pal Toby.

"Here! Share my Cake, Boby!"

The Newest Little Catholic

Here's our sweet little saint!

I think Bella may have had the best baptism of the children yet! Grace's was certainly entertaining (when is Fr. Vath not entertaining??), but Isabella's was beautiful. We invited the children's friends -- three families, but a total of thirteen children. They all gathered around the Holy Water font and watched intently while Fr. Alex baptized little Bella. It was really sweet to see all of the little children excited to see what was happening.

Then we celebrated with a rousing Catholic cookout -- plenty of beer, wine, and wild children! I love being Catholic, and I am sure Bella does too!

*Hopefully I will have more pictures soon -- my dad and Margaret took more than I did!

A Late Happy Birthday

I had planned on making a slideshow of pictures to post for PeterXavier's second birthday, but I can't figure out how. So here are a few pictures to at least highlight how much he has changed in his two little years! Some things have stayed thw same though -- he is still a sweet fat little guy who can light up a room with his smile!

This picture was taken at his first birthday celebration.

Of course, the most thrilling part of the day for the birthday boy was the cake. When asked "how old are you??", he proudly announced "cake!!" And he thoroughly enjoyed eating it straight from the tray.

What a little man!

Monster Under the Bed

This morning at about 4:30, Christopher came into the room looking for Andrew, claiming: "The blanket under the bed is breathing! Or maybe Slow* came alive?? Daddy!! Come help me figure it out!"

So Daddy dragged himself out of bed to investigate the resident monster.

As it turned out, PeterXavier had fallen out of bed, blanket and all, continued to slumber peacefully on the floor.

*"Slow" is the gigantic-humongous-ridiculously-large-get-it-out-of-my-house bear who lives on PeterXavier's little bed.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day from your children!

Thank you for being our mother! Here are some of our favorite mommy things: made to order breakfast in the morning, helping you put away the laundry, when you take us to play at our friend's house, we love the field trips with our friends, when you drive us to Daddy's work to have lunch together, TaeKwonDo Lessons, Ballet Lessons, being silly, when we are grumpy and you cheer us up with chocolate(oh wait...it might be Daddy that does that, although you have left half eaten candy bars in the butter-door of the fridge for us to finish), going on walks with you and Daddy, when we ask for Hot Chocolate and you let us make it ourselves, playing games together (mancalla, go fish, banana slap), and we especially like it when we are playing outside and you surprise us with a awesome snack!

We love you Mamma!

Field Trip!!

I always swore that I would never homeschool. And on most days, I still wonder when it was exactly that I completely lost my mind. Then there are the days that we get together with our friends to have a picnic, play some games, and learn even more than was intended. The other day we took a field trip to Prophetstown, where the kids learned all about the Indians who first inhabited this area, life in a 1920's farmhouse, and that when you raise your hand, you need to have something to say! All of the kids had a chance to milk "Pebbles", the worlds most patient cow.

Here we are in the Indian meeting house. Notice the randomly raised hands??

And here's the crew with our fantastic tour guide!

Buccaneer Bay

Last weekend, we took a little trip to Buccaneer Bay, where the kids had a fantastic time splashing around, watching cable (big treat!!), and chillin' in the hot tub (oh, wait, that was me). Here are some highlights.

Sorry about the neck cramp you'll get from looking at these. Here are my pirates, ready to set sail for adventure.

Christopher loved the water slides!

This is my fifth child. It is quite possible that he had more fun than the kids.

Real Motherhood

involves eating the "turkey-cheese- and double-stuffed oreo-on-crackers" sandwich with a smile. And no gaging.

Last night we went out to "return a movie" (aka drvie the kids to sleep) and as we were pulling out of Blockbuster and preparing to turn onto 52, we saw a helicopter landing in the visinity of the hospital. Since the bigger kids were still awake, we decided to find out where it had landed. We drove round and round in search of it, when I had a flashback to childhood and remembered seeing those orange ball thingys that they put on electrical wires so that airplanes can see them. I remember asking my dad about it and thinking it was pretty weird. (to a child they look like dodge balls suspended on a wire). Anyway, I told Andrew this and directed him over to where I remembered these things being. Sure enough, there was a helicopter landing pad, complete with helicopter and pilots! So we stopped and the kids got to look all in and around the helicopter and talk to the pilots. It was a pretty neat experience -- except that it was sad because they were only there to pick up a patient and take him to Indy. I love random adventures!

Overheard at Breakfast

Grace: Hey Christopher!

Christopher: Christopher's not home right now. Please leave a message.

A Blustery Day

This past windy Saturday, Andrew took the kids kite flying. I sat in the car with Isabella and watched. Five minutes into the adventure Grace charged back to the car and declared it to cold and windy, announcing: "My face is as red as a blueberry!!"

Happy Birthday St. Isabel!

Today is the birthday of St. Isabel(la) of Spain. AND today is the our Isabella's "two week" birthday! I had no idea she was born so close to the birthday of her parton saint (thanks for the tip, daddy!).




As you can see, we are having no "adjustment issues" with our previous baby and his loss of a throne. Sometimes I fear he loves his little sister a bit too much!


Three of the four just hanging out. All of the kids love to hold their baby sister. And she's generally pretty happy to let them hold her. Such a patient little girl.

A little bit of vanity, a little bit of crazy

We took our first outing as a family of six yesterday. We went to the mall in Indy where I indulged my vanity and bought a few cutie new clothes. I am on a quest not to become that mom with so many kids she can't even put a decent outfit together. We confirmed yesterday what we had assumed -- we have crossed the line into crazy big family (even though I don't feel like a big family) and everyone looks and comments. Part of it was because Bella is so tiny, and people always want to see tiny babies, but it was also a bit because we had four kids with us. Maybe it is vain, but if everyone is going to notice us when we go out, I am at least not going to confirm their assumption that a"big" family equals dirty kids and a frumpy mom!

Unfortunately, we didn't succeed in proving that many kids doesn't mean unruly kids. Ours were pretty crazy. Andrew and I fail miserably in the parenting department because we tend to laugh at our kids misbehaviour. But seriously, it's funny when Christopher leaps into a window display and pretends to be a mannequin!

Beautiful Bella!

Her Daddy declared her beautiful and decided that only the name Bella would suit her! So here she is -- Isabella Concetta Antonio


I've always kind of been jealous of those women who had pictures of the new baby surrounded by happy siblings. Now I have my own!


Big Brother is pretty pleased with his new little sister. I don't know what's wrong with her hat. Her head isn't that pointy!
Hooray for sisters! These two have a lifetime of fun ahead. Bella is challenging Grace in the hair department. She'll be wearing ribbons soon.

Little Baby Girl

Our beautiful baby girl is finally here! She came quickly last night at 9:28, after our arrival at 9:00! She is a petite little gal, weighing just shy of seven pounds.

I had a doula with me and this is something I can not recommend enough! She was fantastic and made the delivery experience so much nicer. I delivered her in the squatting position, which was great for me, but the doc wasn't to happy about it. And our poor little girl literally fell out onto the bed. Luckily she was fine and it didn't seem to phase her in the least.

Her brothers and sister are glad she is here, but still not quite sure what to make of her. I think the hospital experience really throws them off. One more reason to homebirth!

I will let you know when she has a name. We're debating still!

God might be laughing . . .

but I'm not.

Labor seems to have started. Conveniently after five o'clock. And Dr. Genaris is on call.

Innocent Voices

In amazement that the baby eats -- and supposedly likes -- everything that I eat, my daughter declared:

I can't believe that baby likes the Body of Christ!

John Paul the Second

I was hoping for an April Fool's Baby, but no such luck.

I took the kids to a little "Farm Day" at the PU Research Farm. Being the city kids that they are, they had a great time seeing all of the animals -- especially the piglets. Maybe because we are reading "Charlotte's Web" right now, I don't know. But they were really enamorred with the pigs. There were ten piglets in the litter. It made me glad that people don't have litters! After the farm, we went to a friends for lunch and the kids just played all afternoon. It is great to get out of the house and let the kids just run around with other children for the afternoon!

Happy Birthday to Zita! She is three today and off on another grand adventure to Gravagna. Don't you think little cousins should share a birthday? I think so. But I am not sure my baby does.

Tonight all three kids are spening the night at my mom and dad's. PeterXavier has never spent the night away, so this is our "dry run" for when the baby comes -- in case it comes in the night. Hopefully little PX will survive the night!

The fabulous "St Cecilia Circle" threw a shower on Sunday for all of the expectant Mama's in our group. It was great fun -- especially the foot massage! My crazy sister returned a c-section pillow to me, with modification. "C-C" is now sporting her name, in green embroidery thread. Now that the pillow has a name, my kids think it is a new toy. They spent yesterday chasing eachother and the pillow around the house yelling "C-C! C-Ceeeee!!" It was quite entertaining!

Check out the Easter Hope Challenge, put on by Jessica at Shower of Roses. If nothing else, read the story and pray for this family!

(By the way, many of you may know Jessica or her siblings from Christendom!)

Random thoughts to catch up

Boy, I am getting to be a real slacker with this whole blog thing. But I have a feeling that if I posted to often, it would just be a running stream of whining. The kids are sick, again. Christopher went to the doctor today and is on medicine and doing much better. The weird part about this all is that we seem to keep getting the same two things over and over again. We're either vomiting or we can't breath. Lovely.

And I have hit that "incredibly tired, I feel like a whale" stage of preganacy. When does nesting kick in? I am still waiting. eagerly.

Ever since PeterXavier weaned, he has become a really rotten napper. The upside to that is that he goes to bed nice and early. This evening, at 6:30, Andrew was changing him and getting him ready for bed and the poor child fell sound asleep.

On Tuesday, we braved the blizzard to celebrate my mom's birthday out at Historic Prophetstown.

Seven Grandkids . . .

And counting!

Deceptive Baby ticker

If you're watching the baby ticker on the side bar, you'll notice that it's gone back in time. The doctor moved my due date way back when I had my ultrasound, but I have been in denial. Now I figure it's better to set my sites on six weeks, than be disappointed when my original date comes and goes without a baby.

I met with my new doctor yesterday. That's right, I switched doc's in the final stretch of pregnancy. I think the worst thing is to go into the delivery room with a doctor you don't like, so I switched. I think (fingers crossed) that she will be much better than the last guy. At my second to last appointment with him, he looked at my chart and said "So, have we scheduled a date for that c-section yet?" AHH!! That is the last thing a VBAC patient wants to hear!! I think that was the last nail in his coffin. My new doctor actually told me that the last guy doesn't like VBACs and she has had other patients switch to her from him for that very reason. She was extremely supportive though and repeatedly told me that there is no reason for me to have another section.

Today I have an appointment with a doula, so we'll see how that goes. If I like her, I think I'll go with it, but I am not nearly as concerned as I was before. There was no. way. I was going in with that other guy without a doula!

Hooray!

My computer has returned! After weeks of trying to salvage all of the information on the crashed hard drive, we had to just cut our losses and start from scratch. Hopefully we have learned our lesson on the importance of backing up the computer!

The kids had their little "craft day" yesterday -- talk about feeling inadequate! Stephanie had crafts all ready with peices cut for the kids to make things easier. The "sewed" pockets to hold all of their valentine's and then made a Spiritual Bouquet of tissue paper flowers, each with a prayer intention on the leaf. I am not creative, crafty, or cute, but I love it when other people are so that I can just copy them!

Christopher had is long anticipated "belt test" on Saturday. He was SO excited! He did an excellent job -- he beat the required 75 kicks per minute by doing 93 and he broke his board on the first try. His doting parents were very proud=). If I knew how to upload videos, I would share with you . . . but I am pretty ignorant in that area. I think we will find out tomorrow whether he passed and will be promoted to yellow belt.

Today was the first Rosary Group at Annie's house. What a great way to start lent. I think you get extra grace when you are able to pray the Rosary with so many very energetic children running around. And I am sure they got some grace as well. I hope that everyone continues to come on Monday's because it was a fun group and good for all of us!

The kiddies are makiing Valentine's to give to their friends at their little "Craft Day" tomorrow. So cute! I better go help.

This might be dangerous to say . . . but I think we area all over the viscious diseases that have been attacking our house. Now that the entire family has been taking amoxacillin, I think we might live. And now maybe we can rejoin society. I feel like we have been quarentined in our house for the last two weeks! And without a computer! Ahh! I guess lent started early for me this year.

The kids and I went to the craft store today and got the things we need for our "Lenten Calender". They really enjoyed the little project last year and are excited to do it again this year. And now we are off the Mass. We are still computer-less, so don't hold your breath for a timely update!

Many Apologies

For the serious lack of postage lately. We were down sick for a week, then our hard drive crashed (and has yet to be fixed!), and then we took an impromptu trip to California for Andrew's grandfather's funeral.

The trip was quite an adventure. Due to poor planning, Andrew and I were on different flight. This meant splitting up the kids -- Christopher and Grace with me and PX with Andrew. My flights were fabulous. Andrew's were . . . not. Poor guy. Poor PeterXavier. We spent five event filled days with Andrew's very enormous Filipino family. We ate lots of yummy Filipino food and sang more karaoke that I care to remember. (What is it with Filipinos and Karaoke??) Andrew's dad is the oldest of 10 kids and this was the first time ever that all ten had been together. It was quite a gathering.

But now we are back and hopefully life will return to normal. And hopefully our computer will get fixed soon. If I am absent again, it is due to my lack of technonlogy!

Field Trip

I took my kidders and Angelica, and we met Stacy Martin and her kids here yesterday. It was really really neat. It is the oldest continuesly running glass factory in the world, which gives them the ability to renovate nearly any stained glass window. The kids loved seeing molten glass scooped up and plopped on big conveyer belts. The crabby lady in the gift shop seemed seriously irritated that we showed up with seven kids under the age of five, but they were super well behaved, so I don't know what she is whinning about.
The rest of the day was kind of a bust. The nature center and the art gallery we wanted to see were both closed, so we just took the kids to lunch and headed back to town.
Stacy, in all her insanity, then called us up and invited us over for dinner! I wasn't even planning on feeding anyone, so an invite was greatly apprecated! It turned out that Sean had been sent home from a meeting with all of the leftover food, so there was a ton and no one had to cook anything. Hooray for leftovers.

She's still a baby

And a darn cute one at that. Christopher was wrong. The baby was not all grown up when she arrived yesterday morning. Anna had a beautiful and healthy little girl named Julia Noel. How fun to have three sweet little Hatke girls! (Thanks to Annie's blog for the pic!)

This morning the kids woke up to find that the three wise men had left them beautiful cookies and tickets to the Nutcracker in their stockings. I was a bit concerned that they would get bored with the ballet, but they were completely enthralled! They really loved it and I must say, it was an impressive show.

Quotable

Christopher: "Wow! Aunt Anna's baby is going to be a kid by the time she goes to the hospital! Or at least a toddler."

To hit home his point that all babies must be born in hospitals, this evening at children's adoration when asked why Mary and Joseph were in a stable he announced:

"Because there were no hospitals!"

Some times when I haven't posted in so long I feel like I should recap on everything that has happened. Pictures would be the best means of doing that, but of course my camera isn't working, so I have nothing to show. Maybe sometime I can get over to my parents and hijack some of my dad's pictures.

So I won't bore you, only say that Christmas was wonderful. Midnight Mass was absolutely fabulous -- all you mom's (annie and anne!) who had a hard time or went to Mass on Christmas day -- just go to midnight. It is totally worth it. I think the trick is not letting them sleep before hand so that they crash when they get there.

This is a totally lame post. I have nothing to say, but I feel obligated to write something becasue it has been so long. Maybe PX will do something funny today or SOMEONE might have a baby and then I'll have something interesting to say. Sorry to bore you.

A note from the baby

Does anyone out there know how to remove Sanford Sharpie from the wall? I tried erasing it with my sister's underwear, but it didn't work. I think the picture is pretty, but my mom does not agree. (She has no taste!) Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
PeterXavier

Oh the things I do

Christopher, wrestling a jug of juice as big as he is, asks: "Mama, can you spill a drink for me?"

My son poo-poos GOLD!

Apperantly a little someone forgot to unwrap the chocolate gold coin before he ate it.

Eww...

How gross and weird is this?? Some people will do anything to avoid holding their baby!!

But I think I'll just get one of these. Might as well go whole hog!

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

I love celebrating St. Nicholas Day. The kids woke up to Gold Coin candies in their shoes this morning and we spent the day making a Slavic Sweet Bread and a German Almond Butter cake. Yum! Now we are feasting and trying to keep little ones from hitting the walls to hard as they bounce!

I also made slippers for each of the kids to celebrate the day. I though slippers were fitting for the celebration of the Saint who fills shoes. They are reminicent of my beloved robeez and turned out pretty well. The kids like them anyway!

I love Advent and I am glad it is here, but I am already feeling behind on my Christmas preperations. Isn't that awful?? I had such grand plans of being finished with all of my materialistic aspects of Christmas by the first Sunday of Advent. I failed miserably. I am not even close to being finished!!! Arg!

Fortunetly some "Adventy" things have been happening, so not all is lost. Last night we went to the Advent wreath making at Church. My wreath is pretty ugly, due partly to my lack of craftiness and partly to all my cute little helping hands. But it's not as ugly as the hilarious Baby Jesus that I made this afternoon with Anna. Good thing we can both laugh at ourselves! Again, we had many a helping hand. If I were more humble, I'd post pictures, but I'm not!

The most important thing I learned today is that Colby Stork is as obsessive about Junior Mints when she is prego as I am!! I'm not so weird after all! This was a very important and wonderful discovery.

It's going to be a long day

I'm in for it. PeterXavier just drank half a cup of coffee when I wasn't looking. When I caught him, he just laughed.

Like a maniac.

Fun Filled Weekend

This holiday weekend was busy, to say the least. We ate our way through Thanksgiving at my parent's house. All five very loud little monkeys played the day away while the Mama's knit and the Daddy's slept.

Then on Friday I spent my entire day trying to convince the doctor that I needed an antibiotic. Seriously. I called for the first time at nine AM and didn't get medicine until SEVEN IN THE EVENING. We went up to the river after that.

And we nearly froze to death.

After we got the cottage to a reasonable temperature, we had a lovely day playing games, reading books, and generally doing nothing.

And on Sunday was The Feast of Christ the King!!! My most favorite liturgical event of the year! Wow. It was so wonderful. Seeing all of the little children frolicing around in their fancy clothes is so fun . . . and hilarious! Such a great future ofr our Church . . . especially if we keep up this rate of procreation!!

What posesses a child to flush the toilet and then climb in?

Anja Louise

Here's the newest beauty!! She is such a sweetie. Weighing in at a petite 5 pounds, 13 ounces, she is a healthy little girl. She's every bit a Schap, not resembling the Hatke's at all!

Annie is doing very well. After a long day of induced labor, she had a c-section about about 10:30. She looked great today, even getting up to put on make up! And of course, the new Mama and Daddy are thrilled to pieces with their beautiful little girl.

It's a . . . .

sorry. I can't tell with out parental permission!! Baby Schap was born last night. Both Mama and Baby are doing well. Hopefully I will update with details and pictures later!

Good timing

It sure is a good thing we took that picture!! Enormous Annie is at the hospital waiting for her baby to arrive. I told my kids, which was a mistake. Christopher ran upstairs and came back all ready to go see the baby. I had to explain to him that it takes a long time for babies to get here . . . not to mention the hospital won't let the kids go in to the room anyway. They'll have to wait until baby gets home.

Some Fat, Some Pregnant, Some Just Cute

Why is it that Annie and Anna are cutie pregnant and I'm just fat? (If I'd known it was picture day, I'd have worn something more . . . revealing!)

Notice Annie's super cute new Mama due!

Here we're just laughing . . . we tend to do that.

And just for fun, here's a picture of PeterXavier. He was helping his Daddy make pasta.

Children's Adoration . . .

A view from the pew:

• Fifty little kid bums staring at you as fifty little people bow low before their Lord in the Eucharist.
• Fifty little people follow Father around the Church, completely enthralled by what he has to teach them.
• Fifty little people gather in the gym to eat pizza and sip lemonade . . . from Budweiser cups.
• Ten mothers stand around discussing what it is like to be pregnant . . . again.
• Ten dad's discuss their lack of clean clothing . . . .because their wives are pregnant. Again.

Who wouldn't love to be Catholic?

Birthdays, Farms, and Doctors

Happy Fifth Birthday to Angelica . . . sorry it's late!

Sunday was the annual Fall Farm Party at Uncle Johnny's. The kids had a super fun time roasting "mallows" (as Hope calls them), carving pumpkins, and going on a very crazy hay ride. Christopher and Grace sent the funniest little thank you cards to Uncle Johnny yesterday. Grace's said "That was a bumpy ride!" Of course, I didn't take any pictures. Maybe I'll hijack some from my dad's computer.

I had my first Dr. appointment yesterday -- baby is healthy and right on target for growth. I had to find a new Dr. since mine ditched me, but I think that this one is going to be really good. Any suggestions on a doula? To get or not to get? Worth the bling? We are still in the debating process here. Although the Dr. was totally supportive if we go the route.

It's one of those days . . .

The kind where you toss all three kids in the tub, scoop out the clean baby, get him snuggly dressed and sweet smelling, so that he can climb back into the tub.

And he didn't even have the courtesy to take his clothes off first.

A girly post for Anne

Unfortunately, I am ridiculously cheap, so I only have a crummy nursing cami from Motherhood. And I only have one. Seriously, someone who nurses like I do needs about ten. The best camis are from here. They are a little pricier, but from what I understand, totally worth it. Anna -- chime in here, I know you have at least one.

So there you have it, Anne. In return, you can give Annie the pattern for that totally adorable hat that Charles was wearing at Mass yesterday!! I can't knit, so I'll make Annie do it for me =)

Self Image

What exactly are you supposed to think when you still need the nursing camisole, but it no longer fits over your every enlarging belly?

Baby Salamander

Doesn't the baby in the ticker look like a salamander? I am going to imagine that my baby is WAY cuter than that one. I can't believe I am already over 18 weeks!! Wow, keeping the secret and pretending you're not prego really makes the whole thing go a lot faster. Maybe next time I won't tell people until after I deliver. I wonder how many people would not say anything in fear of accusing me of being fat. Besides my mom, I mean.

Since Annie posted about her little run in with the police, I suppose I better tell about mine. Although mine was a bit more self imposed. But it was an accident. . . I locked PeterXavier in the car. I think one of these days my friends a t CPS are going to come take the kids away! It was one of those time when, just when it's too late, you know exactly what has happened. I heard the electric lock trigger and I knew that both my keys and my son were inside. Luckily, a very nice police officer and an old tow truck man came to the rescue. The nice towing company even unlocks your car for free if there is a child inside! Thankfully PeterXavier is the most laid back child on the planet, so he bounced back from his little adventure in no time.

Fantastic Feasting

This years Feast was one of the best ever. What a great time! We got up early and sped off to the Mass at the fort. Of course, we had to hightail it across the Feast grounds to get there in time and were only a few minutes late. I was so impressed with how well the event is layed out and put on. I truly think it is the most well done festival we have attended.

Gracie making a candle. Both kids got to make candles and paper!

Christopher playing "graces" -- a traditional 18th century children's game.

The Family

Feast!!

I am super excited to be going to the Feast tomorrow. We are starting the day early with the Feast Mass. I was trying to get the kids excited about the Mass and telling them about going to Mass outside and Christopher said "oh! Then Jesus will be able to come down to us much easier!" (refering to the Consecration) I love cute children observations!

My wonderful mother made all of the kids super adorable costumes for the occasions and I found a dress fit for a winabego in the costume box, which should suit me quite well. Annie and I had some good laughs going through the costume box . . . if fact I was afraid she might go into labor at one point.

And Grace wants to name the new baby "Master the Pope". I think it has a nice ring to it . . .

Happy Birthdays!!

Happy FOURTH Birthday to our Gracie Girl!! She had a great day informing people that it was her birthday and she thought she was quite the princess.

"Am I still Beautiful?"
"Oh, yes, you're still Beautiful"
"I will NEVER be ugly!!"

Have we over done the self-esteem thing a little?

And Happy Birthday to Anna, tomorrow!

Sorry for the Delay . . .

First off, the promised update on the Fall Film Series -- it is awesome. Thye best thing to do would be to get a group of friends together and go with the big group.

Ben was here this weekend with his friend Bill. It is always exciting to have him here. The kids love playing with "Uncle Ben!!" But Christopher missed his pal Angelica.

And now the fun part. After weeks of evading my mother, the secret is out (brace yourself for the nasty phone call, Mary!!). No, I have not been drinking to much beer or eating to many chocolates. I have merely joined the ranks of my sisters, jumped on the bandwagon, killed the bunny. However you want to look at it -- I think s/he'll be here in March or April.

Did you see this post on Danielle Bean's site a while back (click the link)? Maybe the three of us can make the news!

Totally Awesome Date Night

In the past few years, the Lafayette Theater downtown has been renovated and used for various cool events -- it is rented for wedding receptions and parties -- but by far the greatest thing they are doing is the new "Fall Film Series". Every Tuesday in the fall, they are showing an old movie coupled with a dinner that matches the theme of the movie. The movies that are lined up are fabulous -- this evening is "The Godfather" with an italian dinner catered by Oliverio's. Later in the season, they are showing such classics as "Gone With the Wind" and "To Kill a Mockingbird". Check out their web site to find out more info www.lafayettetheater.com Oh! And the best part is the price -- $5 for the movie and $7 for dinner!! I'm so excited!! So support downtown and have a totally cool and cheap date night! (And I think I'lll pop over to Kathy's beforehand and smuggle some candy in with me!) We're going to The Godfather tonight -- I'll report back!