This girl has brought such JOY to our house. She's beautifuland silly and so much fun to be around!!
Here is a look at this past year with her...
Walking for the first time (for a babysitter, no doubt, while Neil and I were out on a date!)
She LOVES to sing!
Meeting Yoda for the first time
Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for "Rose", who just celebrated her birthday. Bless her with your love and friendship that she may grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. May she love her family always and be faithful to her friends. Amen.
Our newest young one turned one month old today! He is such a doll and we are all "head over heels" for him. All the big kids beg to hold him still throughout the day - baby hot potato is the favorite game to play around here. He's gained over 2 pounds this past month, and although he is teeny and petite, he is getting so chubby and squishy! We love squishy babies at our house!
He hasn't had a blog name until now, but one of the names that was suggested and being bounced around was confirmed tonight.... so on Raising Young Ones, we will call him "Yoda".
Happy one month birthday, Yoda!
We love you and thank God for the gift you are to our family!!
Last Thursday, all ten of us left the house and headed on over to the nursing home for Fulton's first grandma visit ever and trick-or-treating up and down the halls to the residents. This was the highlight of our Halloween this year - no carving pumpkins, no baking pumpkin seeds, no All Saints day party or costumes or liturgical meal/tea. We have a sweet baby boy who is keeping us busy with his feedings and anything else we can work in is an extra blessing! Thankfully, the kids have been so sweet and understanding and see the value of welcoming a beautiful blessing from God instead of carrying out all our other regular traditions this time of year. So, on the top of our list was going to see grandma - my only living grandparent right now and it makes her night (or week!) when she gets visitors. Not to mention the joy we are filled with visiting her and seeing that beautiful smile on her face. And, how blessed she was to have 5 granddaughters and 16 great-grandchildren there that night!!
With two girls ages 8 and 10, it is clearly no doubt that we are Frozen fans! And, you may even remember, Ariel had a Frozen themed birthday party for her birthday this past year. The girls really wanted to be Anna and Elsa for Halloween, but with our special delivery, the momma hasn't been thinking too much about Halloween costumes and preparing to celebrate that holiday. It's been all about baby instead and all the local stores are sold out of Anna and Elsa costumes as well as Etsy. I had shared our favorite versions of "What does the fox say" a while back and have been meaning to share our favorite versions of "Let It Go" and I am finally getting around to it. Enjoy!!
The original "Let It Go" with scenes from the movie...
Can you say TALENT?? This man and all the character voices he can make are just amazing!! My boys, especially love this version and sing the song with many of these voices regularly!!
This was one of the first "Let It Go" video's we watched and the kids all still talk about the sweet little girls and how they mixed up many of the words. Sometimes, I even catch them singing their silly mess ups, just to be funny.
This guy also had a "What does the fox say" parody. So funny!!
I really should memorize some of these lines and use them regularly with the kids. "I said no, I said no, ....", "I said share your best toys when you play", "That pout never bothered me anyway", "will you slow down before you end up in a cast?".
Now I can bet what song you'll be singing the rest of the day!! ;)
Our sweet little guy, our no-named-baby-on-the-blog, turned 2 weeks old today!! Neil and I are dragging with very little sleep feeding a preemie every 3 hours, but this lack of sleep is such a blessing to be given the opportunity to hold and snuggle and love a baby again! How blessed we are to have another little young one to raise!! So, if it seems we are out of it, and especially with my hubby returning to work, just give a good pinch or shake to wake us up again. ;) The transition and babymoon have been going marvelously well, and we are so thankful for the outpouring of love and support with "meals of love" from family and friends. With Neil taking care of baby and I and the rest of the crew, he hasn't had to prepare one meal since baby was born because of the generosity of others feeding our bellies. It has given us more time with each other and most especially, more time snuggling and bonding with baby!!
Not only was today our little guy's two week birthday, but it was also the first feast day of a new saint - Pope Saint John Paul II!! Kiddos colored pages of him today, watched a show "John Paul II: Be Not Afraid" on EWTN, watched two cool videos on YouTube....
...and we celebrated by eating Polish Sausage for dinner. How cool for Neil and I to grow up with him as Pope and then also be around for him to be named a saint and celebrate his first feast day!! What an amazing man he was!! My favorite quote of his means so much every time we have a new baby, so how fitting it is that we are celebrating his first feast day with a newborn brought into our lives and family and home just two weeks ago today...
