First Thanksgiving

Before (notice the football in the background)

During (that's what happens when she gets up at 4:30 AM!!)
After. Much better now (until Mommy put the bad lotion on me!)

See what I mean about the hair? It just grew in all of a sudden. YAY!

This is new

Yesterday my mom and I were sitting at a coffeeshop which will remain nameless. A woman came in to get her coffee just as I was pulling of Madeleine's hat.

"Wow, she has way more hair that my daughter."

Nope, we have never once heard that comment before. She has gotten quite a big more hair it seems just in the last few weeks.

The day we've been waiting for - finally, my kid has some hair!!!
Now, what to do with it for her Christmas pictures tomorrow.....???

New Sweater

I finally finished it and it fits perfectly!

She keeps doing that with her tongue. Maybe she's finally getting some teeth?

We stayed here

Good to know.

The Three Old Priests

My Aunt Lisa is a home healthcare worker. She goes to people's homes who need help with all kinds of different things and helps them and gives their families a break. As much as I'm not a fan of Matthew Kelly, he says that "finding your genius" should be a goal in life. My Aunt has definitely done this. All the people she helps absolutely love her, and she is amazing at what she does. Not many people could do what she does - I know I couldn't. Anyway, she takes care of three old priests at the monastery where we stayed and my mom, Aunt Pat, and Madeleine and I got to meet them. One was Father Tom. He just turned 100 years old and he's been at St. Bernard's since he was 15. He was a monk first and then a priest. He takes care of all the archives and he knows everything about that place. He's known all but one of the Abbots, and he knew Father Joseph, the priest who built the Ave Maria grotto. He was really happy to meet us, and gave us all a blessing in Latin. Then we went to meet Father Ignatius. He couldn't see, and Madeleine was so quiet that he didn't know she was there. I asked him to pray for her and he touched her leg and gave her a blessing. He said he would pray for me too! The third priest promised to pray for her too. Now she has three holy priests praying for her.

When we left, Lisa promised to bring them all a slice of pumpkin pie in the morning, and that made their day. We got to walk around part of the monastery, including the library. We saw a really old music book that was made of sheepskin and was hand written by the monks about 100 years ago, as well as a beautiful, hand embroidered vestment.

I loved visiting the priests and seeing the monastery. I hope that Madeleine grows up with a love of priests and sisters, and of course our faith as well!

We're Back!

And we had a great time.

Madeleine is quite the little traveller - I'm not exaggerating when I say that she did not cry ONE TIME on either the trip there or back. And it was a good 9 hours of travel time each way. I could not believe it. She was perfect. We left early, she slept, we stopped for breakfast, she played and took her morning nap, we stopped for lunch, she played and took her afternoon nap and then we were there.

We had a great time seeing all of our relatives. Mom is the oldest of 8 and all but one of them were there. We missed you Uncle Ray and Aunt Cindy! We stayed at a monastery, which was really nice after Mom traded rooms with us. She got the suite with two rooms, a refrigerator and a sink, and a TV. At first we got the room with a small bed, no TV, no chairs, and no space in the bathroom. After we spent a little time at Aunt Christy's house on Wednesday, we decided to make a few trips over to St. Bernard's to bring the food to the dining room. After the first trip, I decided to stay while they made their second trip, since Madeleine had been in the car so much already. They said they were just going to get a load and come right back. They were gone for FOUR HOURS!!! They left me there to fend for myself, no food, no drink, and NO TV. Madeleine and I walked around the hall and dining room for about two hours, I fed her dinner, and then we decided to "break into" Aunt Pat's room to watch TV and sit on some comfortable furniture. Madeleine immediately fell asleep and I held her for about another two hours while I waited for Mom to come back and bring me some food. Then Mom graciously traded rooms with us so that I wouldn't have to go to bed at 7:30 when Madeleine went to bed. (We did bring a monitor, but the dining room was too far away for it to work, so we stayed in our room after she went to bed.)

The next day, Madeleine decided to celebrate Thanksgiving by waking up for the day at 4:30AM! So even though she took two naps (I did too!) she was just exhausted by dinnertime. She would not eat her sweet potatoes, her puffs, or her peas. She did enjoy the "cookie" -really a teething biscuit. She enjoyed it so much that we had to stick her in the sink afterwards. Our computer is still down at home so I'll get some pictures up soon. She did pretty well with the family - but she didn't really go to anyone except my Uncle Bobby. He is my favorite Uncle too :) My Uncle Leo took Bobby on a golf trip with some of his policeman friends and one of them said that Bobby is one of the ten nicest guys he's ever met in his life. It's true.

Of course, the Colts were playing on Thursday night. Ken made me call down there last week to inquire if they had the NFL network. They did not. So some of my uncles and cousins decided to take it upon themselves to set up a satellite dish so they could get all the football games on the big screen in the dining room. They worked on it all morning. I don't know how they did it and I'm not sure I want to know. My cousin Jennifer was in the room across from mine and she very nicely stayed in her room with her kids and the monitor so I could watch the game. We won, too! Two of my cousins left around 9pm to go sit outside Best Buy to get some of the Black Friday deals. All night long. In the freezing cold. They are crazy. But not as crazy as some people who got there at 1pm. They were 75th in line.

I enjoyed eating the turkey, ham, bread and cranberry sauce. That's it. I couldn't have the mashed potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the corn pudding, the green bean casserole, the cheesecake or the pumpkin pie because they all had dairy in them. And in another quest for the Mother of the Year award, after her bath I put some lotion on her that had buttermilk in it. On Friday she had the worst rash I have ever seen. It looked like she'd been burned all over. Surprisingly, it did not seem to bother her one bit. I will be more careful next time.

On Friday, we got to go to Our Lady of the Angels. I've been before but I just love it. Their shrine is just incredible. We got to go downstairs to see the little chapel where some of the sisters are buried, including Mother Angelica's mother, Sister David, and her best friend, Sister Raphael. I just finished her biography by Raymond Arroyo not too long ago. We got to go see the Christmas room, which is a creche built into a cave. Madeleine loved looking at the manger scene, the stained glass windows, and the candles. Unfortunately the gift shop was closed! We'll just have to go back soon.

Then we went to a few little shops in downtown Cullman - mostly baby stores because those are the most fun! Madeleine got some new shoes which look adorable on her. She has quite a bit of growing room too. She has recently outgrown all her shoes. Plus they were 30% off. The rest of the stores were way too pricey for me, but I got lots of good ideas of things that I could make. We also found a coffee shop so I got my iced soy chai fix.

We drove home Saturday, then spent Sunday doing laundry, grocery shopping, and getting our newly painted room ready for our Christmas decorations. If you've made it this far, I'm impressed! I hope you all had a great holiday too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I will probably not have access to a computer after today, so I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

Last year around this time, I thought of several things I was thankful for. I looked over the list and it's all the same, except now I'm even more grateful for my beautiful, healthy baby, and my wonderful husband and family. And also my great job, which allows me to bring her with me. We are truly blessed.

And this year I'll be enjoying a 5 day weekend!

Have a great week everyone, we'll be back next week with pictures and lots of stories from the Alabama side of the family - they always supply plenty of those :)

Weekend update

I can't wait until we get our computer set back up so I can show some pictures of our newly painted room! It looks SO much better now that the paneling is painted. Much less 70's and so much brighter in there.

Good things that happened this weekend:

-The Colts won!

-I finished a new sweater for Madeleine. It fits her perfectly and looks really cute. Again, I need the computer back up so I can post pictures.

-We got our usual Barnes and Nobles and Borders dates on Saturday and Sunday morning, and M. took good naps so we could read.

-We made it to 8am mass on Saturday AND Sunday. Madeleine has decided that she likes to chatter during mass. On Sunday we sat in front of the Nuns. She kept chattering and making her raspberry sounds and looking at them. They kept giggling the whole time - it was hilarious. At the sign of peace they said, "Well, she's a little charismatic, isn't she?" We also got to go to Confession on Saturday and did not even have to wait in line very long.

-The 3 kids in front of us could not keep from staring at Madeleine the whole time. They kept pointing her out to their mom and saying how cute she was. Of course she was smiling and laughing at them. After mass, the little girl came over and gave her a big hug. It was so cute - it was like she just couldn't help but give her a hug. Then I took her in the bathroom to change her. When we got in, there was a mom waiting by the sinks for her little girl. She came out and saw Madeleine on the changing table. She went over to wash her hands and whispered very loudly, "Mom! That's the cutest baby girl I ever saw!"

-We must have worn the poor kid out yesterday because last night she slept from 6:30pm to 4:30pm - the longest stretch ever. Then she ate and went back to sleep until 6:45 or so.



We're getting ready for our drive down to Alabama on Wednesday. Mom, Madeleine and I are going down on Wednesday, and Ken, my dad, my brother and my sister in law are coming on Thursday b/c they have to work on Wednesday. We're thinking of leaving around 4:30 am. Madeleine usually wakes up around 4 to nurse, so I figured I'd get up and take a shower and get the car packed, then nurse her, change her diaper and put her in the car. Maybe she'll sleep til her usual time of 6:30 or 7:00 that way. What do you think, is that a good idea? Or should we leave when she wakes up around 6:30 or 7:00?

I'm thinking I won't have internet access down there, since we're staying at a monastery. But it should be beautiful - it's supposed to be 70 and sunny the whole time. Here on Thanksgiving it's supposed to be a high of 37 and snowy.

Anyway, you'd think we were going to be gone for a month with all the stuff we're taking. We need a pack and play, a stroller, a booster seat, and we're going to try to fit an exersaucer in too. Plus Mom is bringing all the paper cups, plates, bowls, napkins and silverware. For every meal. Have I mentioned is the oldest of 8 kids, and they all have LOTS of kids. I think almost everyone is coming, too. Should be a great time. Then of course, all of our suitcases, all her baby food, diapers, etc. (I'm not attempting cloth diapers on this trip - who knows if we'll have access to a washing machine.) We're taking the back row of seats out of the van, that's for sure.

I really hope she does ok on this long drive. The longest we've attempted before this was about 5 hours. She did fine, although she was a little fussy on the way home. We came back the next day though so that was a lot of car time in two days. This time it's about an 8 hour trip and we're staying till Saturday. I expect it will take a lot longer than 8 hours this time though.

Any tips for all this would be greatly appreciated! Also, Madeleine is kind of scared around big crowds, especially if "strangers" try to hold her. I hope she does ok! Plus, her two bottom teeth look like they're going to pop through any second.

I think the plan on Friday is to go visit Our Lady Of The Angels. And also maybe do some Christmas shopping.... although isn't that the worst day ever to go shopping? I think so.

Adventures in high fructose corn syrup

So, I've been really careful about not feeding the kid anything unhealthy. We make most of her food ourselves, we steam it and puree it. She only gets water to drink (well, and Mama's milk.) Apparently, she knows this and decided she wanted to try something new. I walked into the pantry at work holding her, to get Ava an afternoon snack. "I've been waiting for this," she thought. Madeleine sees the Lite Aunt Jemima Syrup - you know, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweetners and maple "flavoring." Now this kid who has never had a bottle and can hardly drink out of a sippy cup grabs the bottle, puts it in her mouth, and starts guzzling the stuff like she's a college freshman downing a cold one. I took it away from her and I can't be sure, but I swore I saw a little smirk. God help us.

Hand me downs

I was thinking more about this after the fridge post. I was making a list in my head of all our hand me downs in the house. There are a LOT of them! Here's a list, incomplete I'm sure.

2 high chairs
3 exersaucers
1 booster seat
3 strollers (one with a carseat, a double stroller, and a lightweight stroller)
2 cribs (we use one for Ava)
almost ALL of Madeleine's clothes and toys
1 recliner
A couch and a loveseat
Our kitchen table and chairs
baby swing
bouncy seat
a pack and play that she sleeps in here at work
Ken's desk upstairs
Our bedroom set
our new dishwasher that is not installed yet
Daybed that used to be my bed in the guest room
Piano

Do we have the best friends or what?? The rest of the stuff in our house that we actually bought mostly came from garage sales. I am especially fond of our Anakin Skywalker couches (we bought it from the kid who played him - well his mom actually.)

We did buy these things new:

Washer and dryer
TV and shelf
Mattress and baby mattress
Madeleine's dresser/changing table

We are very blessed! Now if I ever hear any of our kids complaining about hand me downs.... they're in trouble :)

Tagged by Heather - 8 random things about me

1. My ultimate dream in life is to be a stay at home mom. A really good one.

2. I really like that my birthday falls right around Christmas. My mom always went out of her way to make it special, and I just love the whole month of December. And, since it's so close to Christmas, I hardly ever have had to work on my birthday. Of course, for the past several years, I've spent the day cooking and cleaning. But I don't mind. See number 1.

3. I'd rather go on a mission trip to Tijuana than go on a relaxing vacation.

4. I really miss dairy products. When I can have them again, I'm going to have Ritters Frozen Custard, a toasted bagel with cream cheese, Mom's creamy potato soup, and an iced chai from Starbucks. Not to mention parmesean cheese on my pasta.... ooh I better stop thinking about these things!

5. I'd like to adopt several children.

6. When I was little, I really enjoyed playing outside with my friends. We'd go build forts in the woods, play kickball, basketball, baseball, tag, etc with all the neighborhood kids. I really hope Madeleine likes to do that stuff too.

7. I really like cloth diapering and making baby food. I know, I'm weird.

8. I think my baby is the most beautiful, sweetest, most adorable baby that ever lived :) But you knew that.

I tag Heather back for 8 more random things! :)

And anyone else who wants to play.

We have great friends

Last week, the vegetable drawer in the bottom of our refridgerator decided to break in such a way to invoke major frustration and a few obscenities every time someone tried to open it. (We eat a LOT of veggies in our house!) We really wanted to get a new fridge, but that is pretty much on the bottom of our priority list*. And we think our fridge was the original one with the house - built in 1968.

*On a side note, the TOP of our priority list is a new stove, and that is what Ken and I are getting each other for Christmas. I'm sure the stove is the original one. One of the burners blew up, it runs really hot so everything gets burned, and the outside handle gets REALLY hot. I don't want Madeleine burning herself on that.

Anyway, so on Friday, Ava's mom called and said that her parents were getting a new fridge and wanted to GIVE. US. THEIR. OLD. ONE!

So we got it! It's SO nice - much bigger, side by side, filtered water and ice through the door, and a ton more room. It even has a little door that opens so we can get our soy milk, etc out without opening the fridge. It really is the nicest thing we have in our house. Ken and I were so excited. We are very blessed!

AND, we're getting some more home improvement as we speak. We have a room in our house that is really supposed to be a living room. It has a fireplace that doesn't work, it's really long and narrow, and we just have our computer, a couch, and the baby changing station in it. The walls are 60s wood paneling. We have someone who said they will prime and paint it for $50!! So it's getting primed today. She's going to come back and paint in a few weeks so we'll have to choose the color. It's going to brighten that room up so much. I can't wait. We're going to use a much smaller computer desk, so we'll be able to fit a couch and loveseat in there and use that room a lot more than we do right now. I also think that room will be really easy to babyproof, so we can put some toys and make it kind of a play room. It's right off the kitchen so maybe when Madeleine can play, I can get some stuff done. Right?

I was going to post pictures but we had to unplug our computer at home, and I'm at work. I'll get on that later (although I forgot to take a "before" picture of the paneling room). We kind of want to forget what that looked like anyway :)

Happy Birthday Ava!

Yesterday was Ava's 2nd birthday. I started working for her family when she was 7 weeks old, and ever since I have spent 9 hours a day with her! She is one of the funniest kids I've ever met. She definitely has her moods but most of the time she is really happy. She LOVES Madeleine and my mom, who she calls Grandma. I don't think I am as uptight about certain things as a lot of first time parents because I just went through everything with her - she really broke me in!
Celebrating at Don Pablos (Grace had a half day of school.) Mom and I got her that Elmo CD in front of her - Elmo sings her name about 100 times in that CD! She Loved it - when we got in the car for the second time that day she said "Ava ABC!" Which of course meant, Ava CD. :)
Someone partied a little TOO hard!

Happy Birthday, Little Stinker! We love you!

Daylight Savings Time

Is killing me.

Someone around here thinks it's perfectly fine to fall asleep at 6:30pm and wake up at 5:45AM!!! (And in case you're wondering, no, she did not sleep straight through all that time. She was up at 11:30 and 3:30.)

In other news, Greg Ballard won the election for the Mayor of Indianapolis! Yeah, go Republicans!

Mom, Ava, Madeleine and I went to Costco and the mall this morning. Costco has some good stuff. I'm going to have to do some of my Christmas shopping there. I got Madeleine two fall/winter outfits from Von Maur. They have really cute clothes and the sales racks are awesome. (Also, the bathroom or "Women's Lounge" is the best in the mall. They have couches, padded changing tables with wipes, toys for the kids, etc.) And don't worry Ken, I didn't spend too much and I got her an outfit you will LOVE.

10,000 visitors

Welcome to my blog everyone! I did not know my life was that interesting :)

8 months old!

Madeleine got really "grabby" this month! She grabs everything - my food, drinks, cell phone, books, pretty much anything I'm holding or within arms reach. And everything goes straight into her mouth. She doesn't have any teeth yet! Just a few days ago she started to get up on her hands and knees and "rock." We better get out the baby proofing supplies!

This month she is going to have her first Thanksgiving in Alabama. Mom's mom and several brothers and sisters live there, and everyone who doesn't live there is coming. She's been to Alabama once before. We're driving this time though. We're staying at a beautiful monastery. But I'll tell you more about that after it happens :)

I can't believe she's 8 months old already! She gets more beautiful and more fun every day.

DARN!

I guess I'm out 10 bucks.

Good day

Ken's at a wedding, Madeleine is down for her afternoon nap, and I just got this book and an iced soy chai.

I'm going to go read a little and clean a little. Then we're going to Mom's for the Colts game and beef stew!

Ken and I have a little bet on the game, just to make it interesting. I can't believe it, but he's betting AGAINST his beloved Colts. So, if the Patriots win, I am buying him a $10 gift card. If the Colts win, he's buying me a $10 gift card. And we have to use our own allowance. Go Colts!!!

Litany of the Saints

Pray for us!