Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween!! Today was a whirlwind, we started by teaching Sunday School, going to mass, grabbing Wendy's drive through, running to a homeschool faculty meeting, going to an All Saints Party (posted below) and then rushing home to carve a pumpkin and then run to our friends' house to trick-or-treat. Whew! It's done. Here is the aforementioned punkin and the happy kiddos that watched Daddy carve it.



And now what we've all been waiting for- costumes 2010! It's Madeline! Julia's favorite character of the moment is Madeline and she was beyond excited to get to wear this outfit. (Thank you ebay). :) Tucker is sporting the teddy bear costume bought in 2005 when his brother wore it before him. And of course, Marky is an FSU football player. Smile everybody....


What are you doing Tucker? Stand up. Wait, don't walk off- what are you doing?

Okay- now we're all looking! Happy Halloween!

P.S. Because we went to trick-or-treat with friends we left a bowl of candy on our front porch- note to all you candy buyers out there- when I come to trick-or-treat I'm wanting to see this. Chocolate, people. Say it with me, "chocolate, chocolate, chocolate." :) Besides chocolate, my favorite part of Halloween- chubby-cheeked babies in squishy costumes....I give you Christopher, Luke and Tuck Tuck respectively.

And now for our third annual Halloween stairs pic- this started with four kids and we keep growing. :) Praise the Lord!

No comment from the peanut gallery on the kids' "candy bags" please. I have no idea where the cute spider/pumpkin basket thingys are. Probably packed in Christmas stuff or something. :)

Precious angel girls- best friends.

Real men haul babies.

Everyone had a ball. Tuck Tuck trick-or-treated with the best of them, but always chose a dum dum sucker even if there was a basket full of kit kats. We will train him better next time. :)

A night of laughter and joy and candy. Hope you had fun with your bambinos as well! Love, Donna

All Saints Party 2010

Today we had our annual homeschool All Saints Party (tomorrow is All Saints feast day). This year Marky went as St. Benedict. He chose him as his saint all by himself. Sadly, little Sissy Joan of Arc could not make the party b/c Mommy made the mistake of saying "If you don't eat your lunch you may not go to the party," and then I was forced to follow through. Next time I will think of a different consequence. :)

Each kid gave clues to their saint, Marky did well- I was surprised he was brave enough to talk. He said, "I was born in 480 in Rome, I am the father of western monasticism, I had a sister named Scholastica, and I have a famous medal." Protestants are saying, "huh, what?", but everyone in the room knew exactly who he was!

Then they played games and did activities for candy.

A fun day and perhaps a glimpse into our future? I do wonder if this little guy will have a religious vocation. God's will be done!
As St. Benedict said, "we must listen and attend with the ear of our hearts."

Dare to do right!

Here's the latest poem Marky is memorizing:

Dare to Do Right

By: George L. Taylor

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!

You have a work that no other can do;

Do it so bravely, so truly, so well

Angels will hasten the story to tell.

Dare to do right! Dare to be true!

Other men's failures can never save you;

Stand by your conscience, your honor, your faith;

Stand like a hero and battle till death.

I love to hear him say this poem, but every time he does I think of this first scene in Knight's Tale when there is silence after the ridiculously dramatic exaltation of "Lord Ulrich" by his herald. I'm the one saying .... "yeeeeeaaaaaaah".

Blow Seminole Wind... :)

Daddy has been out of pocket the past three nights. On Monday night he spoke at a church out of town for a missions conference (topic: Where we got the Bible). Then on Tuesday morning he flew to Tampa for work and then to D.C. that night and due to cancelled flights he didn't get back until this morning (for a quick change and back out the door). But when he walked in, our eldest saw his dream come true- an FSU football helmet just his size! Daddy surprised him by getting him the full get up (just in time for Halloween!) Marky has worn it all day (he tried to wear it to art class, but I had to nix that). Our whole family loves FSU and we have the FSU band CD in our car. It is quite a treat to hear your four-year-old princess riding down the road singing, "We're gonna fight, fight, fight.....for FSU...we're gonna scalp 'em Seminoles....." We had season tickets when we were first married and went all the time, but having babies ended the trips to Tallahassee. We've stayed active in the Seminole Club here and Marc was president for years. We still go on Saturdays to watch the games with the club. Marc came home early enough tonight to have time to play ball with his little buddy. Thank you Daddy for making our boy SO HAPPY!

And tonight when I went to check on the sleeping babies I saw this.....

And in Marky's room.....he'd laid out his uniform just like he lays out his knights' armour when he puts them "to bed" in the castle. Guess he's thinking he can get another day of wear out of it and he'll be ready in case there is a football emergency in the night. :)

Catching Up

Had a busy weekend here at the homefront. I was delighted Wednesday morning to get an e-mail from a high school co-cheerleader/college sorority sister and resident blog fashionista Holly saying that she wanted to come visit Thursday and spend the night! We had the best time! She has three bambinos (boy, girl, boy- just like me!) and they all got along so well. We went out to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner and let the kids play on the playground while we gabbed and then after they were all in bed we stayed up talking till one in the morning! Here are the little ones in the morning- they are only a month apart (even thought Tuck looks like he could eat fashionista baby).

Fashionista boy and Marky got along so well- and slept in the bunk beds- Marky was so excited- "my first sleepover in the new house!" We took them to the McWane Center Friday and they did everything you can do.

Fashionista girl and Juliabug are only 7 months apart in age and had a blast hanging out in Julia's room and sticking together throughout the trip.

Holly it was great to see you! As we've said, it's a shame we weren't closer in college- but here's to rekindling friendships!

Friday night after our fashionable friends left, we had the end-of-the-year upward bound flag football pizza party. Here's Marky and some of the team. Yes, there was a girl on the team. :)

On Saturday they had their last game. I prayed in the car that Marky would get a touchdown and HE DID! His first one of the season during the last game. Marky is very coordinated, but I wouldn't call him a super-athlete. I will say he is extremely coachable. If you correct him, he will be corrected. He's come so far so fast this season. He got both a defense and offense star at the end of the game for doing well- he actually dove to get the flags off some of the guys- I LOVE watching football.

Here they are at the pre-game prayer. Marky is #3 for the Holy Trinity- just kidding- it was totally random. :)

I know you see who the Head Coach is yet again, for the fifth team in a row now- Coach Daddy. He did a great job, but I think we need Daddy on the sidelines with mommy at least one time so mommy can watch the game and not be chasing babies.

I was proud of Marky sitting and watching the team and cheering for them when he wasn't playing.

Good game, good game.....

Doughnuts to celebrate!

Post-game prayer with Coach. And now I have my Saturday mornings back! (The games were at 8 am!)

This was the only game I actually sat and watched this season because I'm always baby wrangling the two little ones on the side. Tucker WILL NOT sit still and it's so exhausting- I even skipped a few games b/c I couldn't muster the strength to fight with him over sitting still. I was determined this last game to sit in a chair and watch so I strapped him in, brought tons of snacks and just kept telling him to chillax. You see he was not pleased. Don't give me the angry eyebrow little man!

Sissy found ways to amuse her lighthearted, happy self.

And now random pics- I bought gluten free yogurt and tried it out on the three kids and left the room- when I came back Tuck Tuck had gotten all three- apparently the big kids were convinced it tasted bad. Not little Tuck- the more the merrier!

Just a pic of an everyday occurrence here, Marky the craft addict making up some craft to do while Julia watches. Yesterday- tiger masks out of paper plates.

"Marky made me this, oh, thank you, thank you Marky!"

And today when I went to wake up the "baby", I thought he looked rather big. Is my baby really filling up the entire crib now? Didn't he just get here?

On Sunday BB and Poppy came to visit and on Monday Memaw and Pawpaw came too! We all went and looked at houses, just casually, in case somebody might want to move closer to us one day. It was great to see them. I'm so happy when I have a house full of family- I LOVE it. Julia loves it b/c she got to sleep in Marky's bunk beds while BB and Poppy got her bed. Marky acts like he doesn't like it, but I saw him write her a thank you note for "staying over and having fun". Whew, that was a long post, but I wanted to get my pics off the camera and into blogland. :)