Remembering Michael

Well, today was Michael's due date. I can't even type it without crying. I know had things been different he would probably have been born last week (as all the others came a week early). I would have spent the month of June being swollen, exhausted and complaining of not getting good sleep. :)  We'd have an extra bedroom built upstairs and I may have even put the kids in school. I would have had the little bassinet set up at the end of our bed with all clean linens. I would have been overwhelmed, but I would have been SO EXCITED as well. I LOVE a new baby in the house. I love that sweet peach fuzz head on my shoulder with the little baby breaths in my ear. I love the tiny diapers, the swaddling blankets, the soft baby skin. I love that newborns let you hold them for hours- and I always do. I would have felt so blessed for God to know better than I that we needed that precious boy. I would have explained to you that Charlie was so independent because God knew Michael was coming and wanted my lap empty for the next baby. I would be so excited to raise Michael and Charlie together as buddies with little Tuck Tuck leading the way. What a fun, rowdy, happy house we'd have had.

But God had a different plan. God  breathed life into Michael's soul only to call it forth to Glory. I was to learn about trusting Him with all I have- even my precious child's life (and then just months later with my nephew's life). God wanted me to be able to go to Noah's service. He wanted me to have some suffering to offer up for others. He wanted to show me that my broken heart can heal in His hands. He loves me and His plan is perfect. I love Michael so much. My heart aches for him, but I know God loves him more and I trust in His mercy and goodness.

He gives, He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Surviving the heat...

It's 103 degrees outside!  What in the world.  We have been going going all week trying to think of fun- INDOOR- things to do to beat this heat!  The big kids are going to VBS again so the mornings are them doing that and me spending time with my two little punkins.  Baby punkin takes a morning nap and curly-locked punkin does his reading lesson, watches a Thomas the Tank Engine and gets lot of extra attention from his adoring mommy.  Monday afternoon we had Little Flowers.  Tuesday afternoon I got a sitter for the little boys and took the big kids out to lunch and to the library for a concert by Eric Litwin, the author of the Pete the Cat series.  He was hysterical- I think the adults got his humor more than the kids (although the kids had a blast).  At one point he said, "put your hands up and we are going to channel Paula Abdul" and as we all had our hands up he said to two ladies, "Excuse me Ladies- I see you are debating whether 80s Paula or 90s Paula is who we should channel and can I just say for right now- please just drop it."  :)

Wednesday while the big kids were in VBS I took the little boys to the revamped art museum kiddie area- it is AWESOME- clean, contained, interesting- it's perfect. :)

Coloring on a smart board-



Painting- "this is me happy, this is me sad"-



Being precious on the chalkboard table-



Why do all his smiley pictures end up blurry? It's just too much cuteness for the camera to handle I guess-

Thursday after VBS we headed to the McWane Center for air conditioned fun.  Driving an airplane-  :)

Marky and his friends LOVE these big huge blocks- they built the whole time-



Julia found an animal rescue place where she could vaccinate animals (it was a Dora and Diego thing)- how perfect for our little critter-lovin baby girl-



Charlie loves to slide-



And how big is he- he can stand for a long time now- Marky has counted almost 2 minutes of Charlie standing up-



Then today we had the VBS finale. The theme was the joyful mysteries of the rosary (over the next three years we will cover all the mysteries)-



Creative cupcakes-



Your turn will come, Charliebear-



Week one of extreme heat- veni, vidi, vici!

Little Flowers, etc.

Monday we had our final Little Flowers for the school year. We studied the life of St. Bridget of Sweden, the virtue of truthfulness and the flower was the Narcissus. We began by learning about St. Bridget and how she loved Jesus so much that anytime she reflected on His Passion she was brought to tears.



Then we talked about lying and how sin entered the world through a lie and how we want to follow the God of Truth not the father of lies. When we speak truth we look more and more like God. We talked about how exaggerating and gossiping are harmful and break the 8th Commandment about not bearing false witness.

Then I told a story about a little girl who told a lie about seashells and thought she'd covered her lie (the green crayon)-



But God can see right through your lies and knows the truth-



Then we worked on our truthfulness album pages and practiced our memory verse song-



Then it was snack time with sugar flower cookies and juice-



Still reading about St. Bridget-



A wonderful afternoon. The big kids are in VBS again this week- at a different church in a totally different program. I LOVE this program and they are having a great time. Marky got off his crutches on Monday morning- he can now walk, ride a bike and swim. He still can't run or jump, but we are so happy he's walking!!! He helped me bring the groceries in today- cleaned his room easily- took the trash down- my helper is back! :)



In other news to remember- BB and Poppy kept Charlie and Tucker while we went to Noah's life celebration last weekend. We drove down Friday and got there Friday night- did the service Saturday- and drove home Sunday. On Sunday we just got in the car and figured we'd find a mass somewhere on the road. God was good and we pulled into St. Columba in Dothan at 5:00 on-the-dot! We didn't have to wait or be late- it was perfect timing. We went to mass and afterwards decided we should go out to eat since we didn't have the little ones with us. I said, "where can we go that we can't take babies?" and we all figured out that a Japaneses steakhouse would be the ticket. So the kids had a blast watching the chef do all his tricks. Meanwhile, BB was sending me hilarious updates of the kiddos who were quite...um....indulged...shall we say, while Mommy and Daddy were gone.   It's the right of grandparents to loosen the rules- and Tucker knows how to play them like a fiddle.  When they told him it was time to come home he said, "no, I don't think so" and when they pulled in the driveway he said, "I do not need to be here."  Momma's back- party's over!  Sorry Tuck Tuck!  I love you too much too let you run wild!  :)

From BB while we were gone-

Tucker is having a swell time. He has made up a new game....watching the clock. He sits on the kitchen counter and announces the time, "It's 10:18, 'bout to be 10:19" ....



He covers his eyes and holds his breath. Waiting, waiting....



Then he squeals, "It's 10:19!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!! It's 10:19. I held my breath and closed my eyes and it's 10:19!!!!



He has been doing this since it was 10:12, and I just heard him squeal with Poppy, "It's 10:24!!!!! I held my breath and closed my eyes and it's 10:24!!!!"

This is good stuff. Have no idea why we made a play room. A clock is all he needed.

They also took the boys to McDonalds to play on the playground- they are brave!Thank you BB and Poppy. It was a huge help to us!



Sweetest, "giantist" baby (who is eating us out of house and home by the way- he can eat a whole bowl of macaroni and cheese-  tonight he ate a whole banana and looked at me like 'thanks for the appetizer- now let's quit playing games and have supper.")- :)  I think his first sentence will be "Where's the beef?"

Remembering our Jedi

Well this weekend we were able to celebrate the life of our very own Jedi- Noah Larkin. I just can't put into words how beautiful and touching the ceremony was. It really was a celebration of his life and we rejoiced that Noah accomplished in 8 years his mission on earth and was able to join the heavenly host praising God for eternity.



There was an orchestra (Noah LOVED classical music- especially John Williams)- a beautiful, loud choir- Landin sang the "Our Father" as a solo- and the Bishop had the children come sit on the steps in front of the altar to talk to them about being a "real" Jedi in the service of God. We sang Holy, Holy, Holy, A Mighty Fortress is our God, Joyful Joyful we Adore Thee, How Great Thou Art, Ave Maria and Noah's favorite song- Silent Night. It ended with us singing How Great is Our God.

Afterwards we all went to a reception hall and celebrated Noah's precious life. Sadly, we forgot our camera in the rush of packing and had to use Marc's blackberry- thus the lackluster photos.



Greeting us at the reception hall were all the Star Wars characters- we all wore green- Noah's favorite color-



This is my beautiful, faith-filled sister-in-law who is teaching me how to glorify God in all things- She brought the characters for all the children from his school and church that came- she didn't want them to be scared or sad. 





Marc and his parents-



Zaza and her sister, Aunt Susan-

We love you Noah and will always love you.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.
  2 Corinthians 5:4-9