Monday, May 26, 2008

We had a WONDERFUL weekend!

School was over for Aidan on Friday, so our summer is beginning!

The Rey family came for a visit Friday evening and left Monday morning. We were thrilled to show off our new little addition, and we had a fun and eventful visit with our family.

Meeting Lillian

On Saturday, we all went to the Natural History Museum here in town. It is really quite fascinating and one of our favorite places to go.

They have a very large prehistoric exhibit with dinosaur skeletons of all eras and sizes.

Here is Aidan being squished by a Mammoth foot...he came up with this pose all on his own!

After wandering around the museum for a couple of hours, we took a picnic lunch to OU, let the kids run around on the lawns, and showed Michael and Julie where Neal works.


Picnicking kids
On Sunday morning, we all headed off to church to celebrate Lillian's baptism!

Isn't she beautiful...
And now it is time for an announcement...for those of you who may not know yet, we have found a church home! We are very excited and thrilled that God has brought us to this church. Two Saturdays ago, at the Vigil of Pentecost, we joined the congregation of St. Thomas More Catholic Church...yes, I wrote CATHOLIC! For a couple of years, Neal has been struggling with some theological issues. After much, much prayer and study, he has found the answers in the Catholic Church. He broached the subject with me about 6 months ago and although I was COMPLETELY shocked, I heard him out, listened to his arguments and did a lot of study on my own. ( I trust my husband as the head of our home in EVERY WAY and I know that he would not lead us into apostasy.) Together we have gone through a transformation that can only come from God. We have learned a lot about the Catholic Church and have learned that we had many misconceptions concerning it. Neal has set up a blog to explain our journey. In his words, "for those who'd like to know why, [his] blog is dedicated to explaining, bit by bit, how a couple of card-carrying Calvinists who at least looked as though they had their wits more or less about them managed to migrate their way across the long and arduous path from Geneva to Rome." I have added the link to the blog role on this site. I am going to keep this blog as an update on our family doings, so if anyone wants to discuss our conversion then please, call, e-mail, or comment on Neal's blog. We will be more than happy to talk to everyone about this change in our lives!


So, to continue on with our weekend...Lillian was baptized by our priest Father Ray...


...and Julie and Michael are her proud Godparents!

After the baptism, we went out to lunch at BJ's, a nice pizza joint, then back to our house to relax. We all had a wonderful time catching up and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins Turner and Lucia.

After they left Monday morning, we had a family day together relaxing and grilling burgers.

Hope you all had a great long weekend too!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Aren't Babies Wonderful?

This morning while folding laundry, Lillian was happy in her cradle. She started fussing, so I looked over to see mustard-poop oozing out of her gown. I take her to her changing station and begin the tedious process of removing the gown without getting any more poop smeared on the baby. (I have found that rolling the garment to trap in the poop works best.) Once the garment is off, I begin wiping her down and she decides it is a good time to spit-up the rest of what was left in her tummy. I take a break from wiping down one end to wipe down the other - so she doesn't get puke in her nose. Once that is cleaned up, I finish wiping up the yellow stuff. As I am reaching for a new diaper, a large grin appears on her face as she pees all over her legs and changing pad. Needless to say, the laundry is in the machine now and the baby has had a nice morning bath...Good times!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Happy Birthday Neal!


Eleven years ago today, Neal asked me to marry him. I had planned a fun birthday date for him and he ruined it all by proposing to me! How could I top that!? I guess my saying "yes" was a good enough present...
Neal is an amazing husband. He has loved me through all things, at my worst and at my best - which still isn't all that great. He is also a wonderful daddy. His kids adore him!
We are so blessed by this man!
Happy Birthday my love!

Saturday, May 3, 2008

At Home with Lillian

Our first 2 weeks with Lillian have been great. The kids just adore her and the only arguments around here have been "who gets to hold her next". Lillian continues to be a sweet baby - she is content most of the time, nursing has been going very well, her sleep pattern has been quite newborn-ish, some nights have been great, some not so great, but that is OK.

Last week I started back on my daily routines, trying to get things back to normal around here and fitting Lillian into our daily lives. I also started school with Madeline again and we are wrapping up the school year.

Here are some more pictures of Lillian and her adoring fans.

All four kids









Bath time pictures...

...everyone wants to help!