You are our little "cute-ness"!! (nicknamed that by big brother, Fone!)
What a happy, adorable, fun, sweet girl you are! Always a JOY to be around!!
To celebrate your birthday, we wanted to have a look back at all the fun we have had you this past year...
Sweet Rose and our new kitty, Elsa, that we got this summer.
We were blessed to have a traveling Mary statue stay with us this summer. Rose loved Mary. She would smooch her and talk to her and hug her.
++Holy Mary, pray for us!++
Rose and Yoda
So very beautiful
Rose loves to play with all her peg dolls. Here she is with Our Lady of Snows (one of her favorites)
Rose, Melody, and myself at the Lighted Parade for the Fourth of July
a mini Snow White and the real Snow White
Big sissy, Melody, reading to Yoda and Rose
Silly Mario and Rose
3 silly sisters
Yes, she is!!!!
Rose meeting Mickey for the first time!!!
Rose and her biggest brother, Fone
Rose and Daddy
How can you not smile when you look at this girl? She is such a JOY!!!
Love her to pieces!!!!!!!!!! :)
++Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for "Rose", who celebrates her birthday today. 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. ++
(This year was my first time and my kid's first time not being able to trick-or-treat to a great-grandparent. My last living grandparent passed away this summer. So a visit out to the cemetery was a must! And, a cemetery visit would not be complete without visiting my brothers - Tony and Matthew. Monday is the day we celebrate All Souls, so we made our trip out the cemetery a little early.)
Carving and Painting Pumpkins
Was totally NOT expecting the bruised and sore arm the next day!! But I guess all the scraping with the six pumpkins that we carved was a little too much stress on my forearm. Youch! Has anyone else had this happen before??
Trick-or-Treating
Didn't take a picture of it, but we ended our evening eating the traditional Goblin Stew that I grew up eating as a kid every Halloween. I made up two big pans and we took them out to my parents to eat and celebrate together. So glad I went back to Grandma many times to ask her about and to perfect her recipe, when Neil and I were first married. It had to be "just so" or it doesn't taste right. She put up with all my questions and helped pass on her special recipe to me, and I am so grateful for that. Hopefully, this yummy dish will be a tradition that I can continue every Halloween!! Love and miss her SO much!!
People will sometimes fail you. They can hurt you. Forget about you. Mistreat you.
Kids will sometimes be sassy. Misbehave. Lie. Get into trouble.
Babies will sometimes be fussy. Wake you at night. Barf all over you.
What are we to do? Be mad? Pout? Cry? Well sometimes, yes, that's what we do. But we gotta snap out of it. And give Him these crosses. He has overcome all the messes of this life. All the yuck. All the hurt. All that divides us.
Kids can be sweet. They can help each other. Help you. Without being asked. Their smiles and love can take your breath away.
Babies are adorable. And full of life. And love. And such adorable squishiness.
We have to turn our frowns upside down. Make some lemonade out of the lemons of life. Find the joy amongst the mess and hurt. His grace and presence is there if we but open our eyes and look.
What can you do when you are feeling down? Stepped on? Crushed? Here are some things that I do that really help. I hope and pray one or more of these ideas can help you on your down days.
#1 - PRAY! and pray again. "Lord, I need You" is what first comes to my thoughts and lips. "I need you to fill me, lift me, love me"
"Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" ~James 4:8
#2- ask for prayers. Call on those patron saints. Your guardian angel. Your closest friends. The more prayers the better!
#3 - vent - but not the nasty gossipy type. I text/call my husband. He loves me. Even though I may grump and share what's bothering. He listens and tried to understand me. He may correct me and even set me straight. But most of all, he cares for me and wants to help carry the cross of whatever is weighing me down.
#4 - click here. Turn up your speakers. And just listen and close your eyes. If you have time, stay awhile and read. You will walk away feeling refreshed.
#5 - Turn on some fun music. We are big Ralph's World fans. Raffi is a classic. And goofey and fun too. Although the bigger kids now roll their eyes because they are "too cool" for him now. But there was a day when they would dance and sing to those silly songs. Just the other day when I was working with Mario on his math lesson, one of the story problems had "The Corner Grocery Store" in it. Do you know what we had to go listen to? (see the video below) And you can bet that after we watched this video, I got a the teeniest hint of a smile, even though he was trying to hide it!
#6 - Laugh! What makes YOU laugh? Jim Gaffigan is great. Watching old videos of the kids are the sweetest. They definitely get me giggling. But I better watch it because there are certain videos found here, that if the rest of the young crew hears me playing them, they'll be right behind me watching and cackling soon enough.
#7 - Chocolate!! Or- pour a cup of coffee or tea for yourself. For me it's "blonde coffee". Yes, I'm that sort of coffee drinker. Doing something little like this for yourself can help you take a step back and just breathe. Self care is so important.
Satan wants us to be discouraged and bring us down, but we can't let him win. We know Who wins. Who is on our side. And loved us til the end. Have hope! He has overcome!! :)
"In thee oh Lord, have I put my hope. Let me never be confounded."
~St. Francis Xavier
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Click on over and join the rest of the 7 Quick Takes crew....
Right now my husband and I are in the trenches of raising a young family. We have all the busyness that goes along with that. Some of the kids are of school age. Some of the kids are too young for school. Some kids do soccer. Some do baseball. Some do swim lessons. Some dance. You get the idea.....we are a busy family. Running here, running there, trying to have suppers together as a family, trying to keep our Domestic Church thriving.
So, I'm writing a note to YOU, my dearest future self. I'm helping you from here, the distant past, to help yourself. How thoughtful of me, huh?!
Remember when you were raising a young family? When life didn't revolve around just moving YOURSELF around. Remember when you had to buckle many precious lives into the car BESIDES yourself?
So please hear this advice just for you my dear grandparent self .....
1. Come over. It's harder to move a large family of many members compared to moving 1 person. AND don't always wait for that formal invitation. It may not come. You have to just ask, hey, can I come over?
2. Kind of like number 1. Come over and pick a child up and spend some time with them. It's tough to get everyone in the car to drop a child off at your house. Moving you, 1 person, is easy peasy. Just come over and pick up a kid. Spend time with them. This time doesn't have to be extravagant. Just be! Create memories! How else are you going to get to know these wonderful grandkids of yours if you aren't willing to spend time with them!
3. A trusted babysitter is priceless. Offer to babysit for date nights and even for vacations. Remember how much it costs to pay a babysitter to watch many many children? AND grab a movie AND dinner? Yeah, date night doesn't happen very often for us when my husband and I desperately need a night away.
4. When a new baby is born and you want to cuddle that new precious soul, ALWAYS come bearing food and gifts. You may not always be welcome.....BUT when offering gifts of food or toys, it's hard to turn you away.
5.Oh, this also goes along with number 4. Call or text before you come over. It's just a small common courtesy. It's nice to be presentable and have my teeth brushed. It's not hard. It just says, I respect your time too.
6.Remember when all the kids were home and you tried to do your best and be fair? You didn't take one child that you favored to Disney world while you left the rest home. Right? So, this goes along with grandkids too. BE FAIR! What you do for one, make sure you do for another. You may have favorites. But soon enough THEY will know and sense that. These grandkids of yours are smart. If you take one shopping, by golly, make sure you take another shopping (or hiking, or swimming, or out for ice cream) the next time.
7.And last but not least my dear future grandparent self.....ASK how you could be better. Ask these precious children of yours, who are now parents, what YOU can do to be a better grandparent. What do THEY want you to do? They and their children and their children's children will be the ones visiting you in the nursing home.....or not.
It's up to you.....
You came a little early. Unexpected by all. But a blessing to all.
Our 8th young'un born on the 8th!!! (you know your momma loves math and patterns!!)
You have the 9 of us all googly over you. Smooches left and right. Singing cute silly songs to you. Still fighting over who gets to snuggle you.
What a 1-derful little guy you are, buddy!!!
To celebrate your 1-derful birthday, we couldn't just share ONE thing we love about you, so we came up with a ONE list of the many things we love about you.....
**your kisses
**your smiles
**your cuddles
**your babbling
**you are SO happy
**you are my "cuddle-kins"
**you are our little "cuteness"
**how teeny tiny and petite you are
**how you are a momma's little boy
**you are adorable and my baby brother
**how you do wrist curls when you eat in your high chair
**you became Rose's little alligator when you started crawling
++Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for "Yoda", who celebrates his birthday today. Bless him with your love and friendship that he may grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. May he love his family always and be faithful to his friends. Amen. ++
