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!!