Perfect Saturday to end the year

Today we took a trip up to Hanceville to check on little Michael and order a headstone for his grave. It was a wonderful, beautiful day and we just had a blast. And yes, I was able to do this entire day- sitting in a funeral home looking at different granite and marble to use to remember my son- without any tears. God has just given me so much peace and joy. I'm so grateful for His mercy.



And I'm so grateful for these precious children and the joy they bring me.
Mr. Responsible Tenderheart-










Mr. Happy Sunshine-



No, it's NEVER a coincidence when they are dressed similarly- Momma loves it-



I love how they love each other and love sharing a room and laughing together-



My happy little sweety pie who doesn't mind being the "middle" child-



Her sweet smile fills me with joy-



My sugar pie who was asleep during the original photo shoot-



We spent the day at the Shrine- it's like being in another country- it's amazing-





The Holy Family with Simeon and Anna in the temple-



The nuns here are cloistered so they never come out- you visit them through a grill. Here is the door to the enclosure- I thought it was beautiful with the angels guarding the passage-



Tucker and Julia always hold hands- she loves being a big sister-





They have a nativity built into the side of a hill- it's precious-





The castle is their favorite- it's built to look like a 13th century castle. There are knights inside and St. Joan of Arc and St. Michael the Archangel-



After spending time at the Shrine we drove over to Ave Maria Grotto to see the miniatures- it is so cool- this monk spent years making miniature versions of Jerusalem, Rome, and tons of other bascilicas, famous buildings and Bible themes. Here is the Temple in Jerusalem- Marky saw the tower of Antonia next to it and said, "That's where Pontious Pilate was- and there are the Holy Stairs we saw in Rome"-



Marky's favorite was Rome- he recognized so many things including St. Peter's Bascilica and the Colosseum-



And St. Agnes' church built over the catacombs where we went-



A huge grotto-



I found this statue of the Garden of Gesthsemene especially touching-



It was funny- Marky kept explaining to me what I was looking at. On the mountain with the ten commandemnts was an odd staff with a snake and I said, "what is that?" and Marky said, "that's the staff Moses had the people look at to heal them when they were under God's judgment plague." Okay. At Mt. Tabor I said, "what happened here?" He said, "you remember, Jesus was transfigured with Elijah and Moses"...oh, right.

By the way, we even saw my hometown church of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, AL-



After our wonderful day together being outside we went to our friends' house to celebrate the New Year with a steak dinner-





I decided to take a pic of the kids when everything was melting down! :) They had a blast though and we did too. Happy New Year!

Tacky Christmas

So tonight we were invited to a "tacky Christmas" party and had to dress accordingly. Well, we neither one had tacky Christmas clothes (no comments Shana and do NOT bring up my pajama jeans).... anyway, Marc knew right away he was wearing his Declaration of Independence shirt. The sad part was we went to the movies afterwards and didn't change so he worked hard to embarass me by saying things with a THICK Southern accent like "Anyway....what I was sayin' about the Declaration of Independence..." or singing "America- heck Yeah!" Not sayin lovin' America is tacky- it certainly is NOT- but this shirt....judge for yourself-



I wore Marc's Flight of the Concords sweatshirt that was completely unflattering, but nonetheless quite tacky- I had the eye of the tiger-



When we got home, Marky's tinker toy battle had unfortunately escalated (and here at Christmas when we should be peaceful). The knights from upstairs had come down and set up opposition complete with a seige tower (not sure what they are seiging, but there it is).

First Solids...

Well, Charlie turned 5 months and we decided to go ahead and try some solids. The doctor told me to do solids last month, but I've been trying to put it off. Now, he chugs his 8 oz bottles in about 2 seconds and looks at us like "what else you got?"

So...now we have oatmeal. :) He wasn't sure at first...."what was that?"


"What are you doing?!" (startled eyebrows up!)



"Well, it's kind of nummy....I like chewing dis spoon..."



"Hey guys, that was really nice. My tummy quit growling!" :)



And he slept 'til 9 am this morning. We were shocked. A full tummy makes a sleepy baby, I guess. :)

In other news, "Tucker's" tinker toys have gotten a lot of use from the boy too old to use them....



Nevermind that the canons are pink- they are lethal- the boy will tell you all about it.

Cousins Visit

The week before Christmas Aunt Amber, Noah and Landin came to our house and we had a blast. For almost a whole week the kids basically played outside all day every day laughing and jumping on the trampoline. It was so much fun! (We missed you Uncle Dennis!)












We took a trip to the zoo-



And rode the zoo train-









Amber had gotten these precious hat/mitten combos from New York-





Making Star Wars bases with Kapla blocks-



Noah got to go with Marky to his scout meeting and participate in the opening cermony-







He also got to go to Marky's basketball game- just Marc, Noah and Marky- guys time! (And yes Marc is still the youngest and tallest on his team- he's on a 2nd/3rd grade team and he is the youngest 2nd grader)







And Amber made the most amazing star wars snow flakes out of paper- the boys LOVED them!





The boys got to watch Episode II of Star Wars in the guest room (with Grrr and Woof- there are some scary parts)-



Using the force on us-



Meanwhile the girls got to watch Strawberry Shortcake for their movie night-



Hugging goodbye- Marky picked up both Noah and Landin as he hugged them-



A wonderful, wonderful visit! Please pray for Noah- he had a bad MRI in December and a bad spinal tap this week that showed cancer cells in his spinal fluid. That's a first and it's very scary. But wow- how amazing he is doing in spite of it all and what a great visit we had.