Happy Birthday Steven Joseph and NeNe

(on the 20th!)

Steven Joseph turned 7 a few days before Christmas, the same day as my mom's birthday. Steven took SJ and a few buddies to Incredible Pizza a few days prior, since the friends were all leaving town on his birthday. On their actual birthday, we went to TopGolf with my parents and then came home for a little cake. December (and early January) birthdays are hard, but we're glad we found some time to celebrate Steven Joseph as well as both my parents who have December birthdays.  Here are some photo memories...

Merry Christmas 2014!

Last Week of Advent!

This month is flying by! I can't believe Christmas is in four days! Our next few days will be filled with lots of fun, including a cousin outing, Christmas gift preparations, a big Christmas Eve Dinner and Mass, and of course the Nativity of The Lord and a day with family. We'll also have some playdates and mom's nights coming up, and I look forward to seeing lots of smiling faces during this joy-filled week:)

We had a few playdates this past week and got a lot of things done. We celebrated SJ's 7th Birthday, and my mom's birthday too, at TopGolf yesterday! We have some small house projects beginning and a new year to look forward to! And hopefully we will be closing on the sale of our old house in just over a week. We are so grateful for all our blessings, big and small.

Here are some iPhone photos of events of the past few weeks...

Top Row: Katie and the Little People, Thomas and his buddy Andrew at the neighborhood Christmas Lighting, the boys on a camel, and all our kids with Santa at the lighting party.

2nd row: Ninja Turtles (Thomas was fascinated with this and Katie could not stop giggling at them!), Tommy loves blowing out the Advent candles, Katie ripping up a page of SJ's school book (just the title page), and our house with lights

3rd row: backyard fun at a friend's, St. Nick goodies, setting up the tree, and T teaching himself to read.

4th row: the girls at Marshalls (they always try on heels), me with Copper day in and day out trying to get him to "go," all SJ wants for Christmas is his two front teeth, and Ellie on her last Latin class for the year.

Top Row: Blue Knights at the park, night walk with Copper (before he was returned to the foster home, so sad), Katie standing, and a friend's baby shower

2nd row: friends ice skating, T and E at the ice rink, T and K with early morning smiles, and kids helping NeNe with decorations

3rd row: SJ found his trains in the garage, K sleeping through a playdate (18 kids!), K trying to get to the tree, and SJ cutting sugar cookies...for breakfast!

4th row: The new furry friend we are pet-sitting, a trumpet player at the dollar store, SJ and my mom on their birthday, and singing to SJ and my mom

So many fun memories to capture...I hope you and yours are having a joy-filled season and capturing many memories in your heart (and maybe by photo too so we can see!).

Two Weeks!

Wow! It's been two weeks since I've blogged. That hardly ever happens, but here are some reasons why...

Copper the Dog

We tried so hard to accommodate that sweet dog and I was spending about half of my day walking him around the backyard, cleaning up his messes, and stressing over getting home from outings in time to care for him. It was an incredible amount of work for all of us. He was a sweet and happy dog, but he just had so many issues we didn't know about.

What we learned were a few things: 1. You can never fully know the background of a rescue dog, and there is a very high likelihood that even with an adult dog you'll have to deal with things like house-training issues, crating issues, chewing, barking, escaping, and in our situation carsickness along with all of those other issues. 2. You need to ask VERY specific questions to the foster family.  You might not be able to count on what they say about his habits in their home, especially because the dog might behave differently with your family. 3. Having a high-maintenance adult dog requiring extensive training from old habits might not be the best idea for a big family with a baby.  4. It might be best to have a trial period before officially adopting a dog. Some of his behaviors surfaced right away (puking in the car) while others didn't surface for a few days (peeing around the house), but we might have saved ourselves such an emotional decision had we waited a few days and realized that he wasn't the right fit for our family.

All that to say, we sadly had to return Copper back to the foster home after two weeks.  It was an agonizing and tear-filled decision.  We are considering some other options now.  We miss his happy presence here though, and I'm sad I didn't have the ability to make it work.

House Sale
Our Corpus Christi home is under contract, and we are hoping and praying that we will close by the end of the month. Inspections went well and now we're just looking forward to the day we can close the door of that phase of our life and move forward with our life here, and maybe begin some renovations on this home in this coming year.

I also spent a night or two putting together a video to apply for some HGTV shows! No response yet, though, and Steven reminded me after it was done that they are mostly looking for outgoing families and I should've focused on our personalities rather than listing the things that need fixing around our home. Oh well, maybe I'll apply again with a lip sync or crazy song!

Christmas Cards
A few nights of possible blogging time were spent creating our Christmas cards and then addressing them.  I love this Christmas tradition, and we look forward to getting the mail every day to see new cards arriving! Now that we have moved three times in the past three years, I know people are having a hard time keeping track of us, but hopefully we will still receive greetings and photos from our friends and family.  We ended up using two photos of the entire family, so here's the one I like of the kids...

Christmas Shopping
What did I do before Amazon? Having Amazon Prime allows me to wait until 10 days before Christmas to order everything and to do it from a quiet chair in my dark home, instead of a bright and crazy store with a fussy baby! Last year we had some shipping issues, but I'm hoping I ordered early enough for all the items to arrive in time. I have ordered almost all the gifts in the last 24 hours, but we still have a few things to buy at a real brick and mortar store. I sure do love the Amazon option though. So very convenient. And now in the middle of typing this post I just spent several hours working on photo gifts online until after 2am. The only quiet time in my house! There's so much to do during this season!

FitBit
I found a used FitBit pair on Craigslist, so Steven and I have been doing daily challenges, and I'm also doing challenges with a group of Facebook friends. It has made me realize just how little walking I do in a day! I was keeping up when we had the dog and I was doing extensive walking, but this week has been hard and I am so exhausted from doing things until 1-2am every night. We will be pet-sitting for a friend over Christmas, so I hope that will keep me up and moving around. Right now I just want to crawl back into my warm bed because the heater won't turn on!  Steven is doing much better than me with all the walking he does at work, including some airport trips this week!

Friends and Family
It has been such a fun season and I'm thrilled that we can share it with our family and old friends here without dealing with the stresses of traveling. We attended Steven's company Christmas party on Friday, the girls and I went to a baby shower on Saturday, and we had a fun day on Sunday at the ice skating rink and dinner on the Waterway for a friend's birthday. We had my parents over and visited at their house this week to help with their Christmas decorations. Today we had a playdate with a few friends (and our 18 kids!), tomorrow Steven will take the boys to have an early celebration for SJ's birthday at a pizza and game place, and this weekend we hope to visit Top Golf again to celebrate my parents' December birthdays along with SJ's. This is a time of so much celebration and activity, but we're still spending most of our weekdays at home. I need a lot of rest after all these activities and late nights! But my heart is so happy to be here celebrating with all those we love.

Katie Grace
Our almost 10-month old has four teeth, is crawling all over, and pulling up on furniture. Our house still isn't really baby-proofed so I don't leave her on the floor all that much unless it's newly vacuumed and the kids have picked up all their little toys. I need to work at getting things more safe for her as she will begin to walk very soon! She's still happy as a lark and enjoys outings and new people (as long as they don't try to hold her, like at Steven's company party!). She loves chicken and mashed potatoes and will tolerate other things. It'll be so fun to share her first Christmas! One of my next big projects for the week will be making her a stocking to match the others.

I keep thinking of more I want to say or photos to share, but I really need to catch up on sleep and have been writing this for a couple days already, so I'll go ahead and end with two tidbits from today that I shared on Facebook:

Conversation with Thomas...
Thomas: Can I have some chips and salsa?
Me: For breakfast?
Thomas: No, mom! To eat while you're making breakfast!

Tonight's late night reflection...
FYI, Light Sabers on Amazon: If they want Luke's blue, that's $45. If they want a saber that changes from Anakin's Blue to Darth Vader's Red, that's $31. But if they're content with just Darth Vader's red saber, that's $21. I think this is some kind of life lesson, right? And I bought the cheapest one. Poor Tommy.

A continued Happy Advent to you all! One week until Christmas!!!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty}

Here's our sweet girl all dressed up for the season!

{happy}

I didn't get photos of our Thanksgiving meal, but here are a few of a walk around the neighborhood with NeNe and PaPa on Thursday afternoon.

lots of card-playing on Thanksgiving!

{funny}

Our kiddos had fun at the annual family flag football game on Saturday before our 2nd Thanksgiving Dinner.  Copper the dog wasn't sure about the whole thing. And he threw up in the car again (the 4th time). He will not be taking car rides for awhile! One day I'll think this adjustment to a new adult dog is funny. Right now it's just very frustrating! He has escaped from the house/backyard about a dozen times and has now peed in the house twice. He's truly living up to his name, David Copperfield!

{real}

Steven Joseph was real happy to be able to celebrate with all the December birthday kids. Cupcakes and annoying screaming B family birthday song. It's a tradition!

Happy Advent, friends!

Introducing our new Thanksgiving Friend!

and sharing some Thanksgiving memories...

We've had a wonderful Thanksgiving week! Steven had an overnight trip back to Corpus Christi to get some important things that were left (my curtains and the Blessed Mother outdoor statue!). We got our first offer on our house, which was unfortunately way too low to even negotiate, but we've had some more showings and had heard that another offer might be in the works.

We hosted our first Thanksgiving meal here with my parents for lunch on Thanksgiving Day. Steven took Ellie and SJ on a duck hunting trip this morning. We visited our new local Costco store last weekend and had a fun outing to IKEA with some friends on Tuesday. We had a family photo shoot with some friends. We've enjoyed lots of family time with cleaning and cooking. The kids helped in the Thanksgiving prep and even put up Christmas lights in the front yard! Tomorrow will be our big Thanksgiving dinner with Steven's family, and we are all looking forward to that and the flag football game at the park beforehand.  We will have lots of fun memories from this week!

But our biggest decision came this week in the form of a new furry family friend!  Here's David Copperfield, aka "Copper!"

As I've shared here, we've been looking for a dog for weeks, and dreaming of a new pet ever since Timber passed away three years ago.  We knew we wanted to adopt an adult dog this time around, so we wouldn't have to deal with chewing and housebreaking. I've been looking at rescue websites, Facebook pages, Craigslist, and I've filled out a handful of very detailed applications for different groups. We found that prices can range from $20-350 or more, which is quite a range! Both of us were nearly at the point of just buying a new puppy because this process has been a bit overwhelming and it seemed the cost would be about the same. 

But I saw this little guy on Craigslist earlier this week, and we met him today at an adoption event at a Petco across town (in "Copperfield").  He was rescued about a month ago from the city shelter we visited last weekend. We went there on Sunday just as it was closing and there were dozens of people in line to adopt on the $20 day. It's nice that there are rescue groups that can be the "middle men" to grab these cuties, give them the care they need, and foster them to prepare them for life in a new home.  Because looking at them in the kennels was quite sad and overwhelming, and I'm not sure how people can go in there and choose a dog when you're faced with so many sad eyes and barking dogs wanting your love!

We were hoping for a mellow lap dog this time around, and well...he's a lap dog! Copper isn't quite the calm and submissive dog we were thinking we'd find this time. But after visiting with a lot of dogs, I realized we needed to have a more engaged and playful pet to handle our rowdy crew. I think our busy bunch would probably scare a timid dog.  Copper will keep our boys (and girls) busy, and will hopefully be a fun addition to our home.  We'll be reading up and watching videos on dog training, and we can already tell that he learns quickly and wants to please. Most of all he just seems like a happy go lucky dog, which we really wanted for our family!

My parents helped with watching different kids today while we went back and forth to the adoption event twice (due to my indecisiveness!), and my mom even helped think up the dog name. We were told by Steven's sister that Copper is also the name of the dog in the movie The Fox and the Hound! The rescue group gave us a harness, leash, food, etc.  My parents gave us their old dog kennel and bowl, so we are just about set!  They think Copper is a 4yr old Schnorkie, Schnauzer/Yorkie mix. His fur was shaved due to matting and fleas, but I can't wait to see his beautiful coat come in. I really hope he's a good fit for our family. He barked for a bit tonight, and had one little run out the front door, but is now sleeping soundly in his crate tonight, and I am looking forward to watching him become more comfortable with our family in the coming days and weeks.

Here are some photo memories from the week so far...

top row: family trip to Costco, clothes for family photos, MC taking Katie pics, Ellie with the desk she loves at IKEA.

2nd row: Tommy with an OJ popsicle from his new IKEA popsicle tray, Katie loves playing on the OUTSIDE of the exersaucer, my first homemade cranberries, and the lights the kids put up

3rd row: Steven did great with the turkey, the little spread, the sleeping daddy and papa after lunch, and the hunting kids this morning

4th row: Katie starting to crawl around at Nene's, empty seat before it was...filled with Copper!, and Daddy walking Copper at my parents'.

Hope the rest of your holiday weekend is just swell :)

We have so much to be thankful for. God is so very good to us and we are grateful to be here back home enjoying the holiday season with our families. I pray that this season we will be mindful of all that we have, content in our blessings, and willing to share ourselves and our resources with those in need. Praying for whoever is reading this that you will be filled with God's grace and Christ's love in the coming Advent and Christmas seasons!

Katie Grace, 9 Months Old!

Katie turned nine months old last week.  We are closing in on a year and it is flying by way too fast!  This little love is such a delight to everyone.  She smiles all day long.  Everyone is just so happy to see her and hug on her when they haven't seen her for a few hours, or even a few minutes.  We just can't get enough of our girl!  Mary Clare and I did a little photo shoot the other day, and here are some of my favorites...

You can see her two little teeth on the photo below!  She now has one top tooth poking through too.  She loves eating big people food and enjoys sitting in her high chair and watching the chaos going on around the house!

It was a little chilly so we added a sweater, and her hair needed a "little" bow! These pink overalls were Mary Clare's, a Gymboree favorite (6-12 month). She can still squeeze into some 3-6 month clothes, but is mostly in the 6-9 month outfits and inching into the 12 month ones soon!

We moved her into the backyard, and the leaves were just so tempting!

The boys had to be a part of the photo shoot too.  They always want their turn to hold her and "watch" her, and they're usually very gentle with their Katie.

She's starting to crawl, but mostly prefers standing up and is starting to cruise a bit around the furniture.  She takes about three naps each day, and puts up with our comings and goings for homeschool outings, ballet class, and church each week.  She's becoming a bit more active and vocal during mass now and has a much harder time napping away from home.  She'll still sleep in the Ergo and stroller/carseat for a short time though. She loves bath time and will tolerate the pack and play for quite awhile in the morning.  She only wants to stand next to the exersaucer though, and doesn't appreciate being trapped in it!  She loves to explore...

She likes putting everything into her mouth! It's going to be a challenging next few months once she becomes mobile and the Legos and crayons and other small toys become quite a hazard and temptation!

Happy 3/4 year, Baby Girl! We can't wait to share the holidays and new year with you. We all love you so very much and are so thankful this Thanksgiving to have another sweet baby to love.  I am in awe every day of how amazing it is that I get to have one more little soul to love and lead.  It's truly humbling. May God help me to be a better Mommy to you and your siblings every single day.