Saturday, October 24, 2009

Eight Candles

Happy 4th Birthday to Luke and Patrick! They were super excited to celebrate with the family on their birthday night, then to have another celebration in a few days with Scott's parents

Batman was the name of the game this birthday! They loved their new "Batman House" and have been fighting over it ever since.

Someday, they may get their own cakes, but for now, no one seems to mind. As long as it has chocolate icing and it's preceded by some (soy cream cheese) pizza, Patrick and Luke are happy campers.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cousins


Here's a shot for you... all of the cousins on Scott's side. Left to right: Andrew, Luke, Colin, Joseph, Patrick and Olivia. Precious!
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I stuck in a few more pictures in Scott's birthday post and the post about my grandmother dying. Scroll down to see.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Luke's Feast Day

Happy Feast Day to our little Luke. We celebrated with bagels after church and a family trip to roam around Holy Hill.

The boys loved crunching around in the woods. Joe even found a fuzzy white caterpillar.

Inside the church, Patrick very reverently said a prayer for our most recent special intention, a little boy named Joseph, about 6, that usually sat in front of us at church. He has cancer and is in the middle of his long chemo treatments. The boys always chime in, "and for the Joseph that is sick" after our mealtime and bedtime prayers.

Joe made the moment only slightly less holy...

At Holy Hill, I noticed a mosaic of St. Andrew right away. Luke kept asking me, "Where's St. Me?" Even in the gift shop, he wanted to find the "St. Me holy cards"

We found an old scenic road that lead to some hiking and horse trails, too. We hiked for approximately four minutes before the boys were whining that they needed to go potty or wanted to go back. So much for outdoor adventure.

Then, of course, dinner at McDonald's at Luke's request. Here's a silly shot of him and Joe on Ronny McDonny. Honestly, I think he enjoyed getting to pick everything today the most - which toys he wanted to play with first, which computer games he could play without his brothers pestering him, you know, the little things.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Great Grandma Lois

My grandmother died Sunday, October 4. Here's a four generation picture we took when Joe was just a baby. It was the last trip I made to Texas to see her before she died.
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Baby Joseph with Mamaw. Note the red streaks on his cheek... someone was giving him some love!

We are finally back home after all of the funerals. We heard the news of my grandmother's death when we were in the middle of Iowa, on the way back from Scott's grandpa's funeral. We decided that it would be best to just have me and Andrew fly down to Texas. As it turned out, Shannon, her kids, and Janelle couldn't make it because of a horrible bout of stomach flu. I know they felt terrible for my mom, but she took it all in stride.

Andrew was a little cherub the whole trip. No kidding, he only cried three or four times the whole time we were down there. I guess you can be a super happy baby when you are getting all of the attention. It was really nice to have him along, even though we had some odd moments (like when he filled his diaper in the middle of the funeral and when we had to put him down for a nap in a little room at the funeral home - if that one wasn't available, he was going to nap in the casket room!) It's really hard to sink into too much sadness and grief when you have a giggling toddler to run after. I hope he was a little comfort to my mom.

I did have one little story from Grandpa Norbert's wake. Patrick and Luke wanted to see his body and Luke asked to touch him. Scott said okay and when he put his hand on Grandpa's cheek, Patrick sweetly warned him, "Don't wake him up!" Luke, in his best practical tone of voice informed him, "Patrick, he's not waking up." The differences in their little personalities were so obvious in that exchange!

Still, at every meal and prayer time, we ask them who they want to pray for. "Granddad's Daddy and Grandma's Mommy" It's awfully sweet. Imagine... these kids had five living great grandparents just two months ago. That's really amazing.