2017 Family Picture Update #1

It has been a while since I've done a family picture update!   Here is the beginning of 2017 in pictures:   

We have really been enjoying the mild beautiful winter.  I don't think it's been below zero at all this winter, most days are warm enough to go out and enjoy the snow that has been falling pretty regularly.  The woods are beautiful to hike in!

 For Christmas Thomas got a Mickey Mouse Teepee and he and John got matching Mickey Mouse pajamas.  We had a lot of fun celebrating the 12 days of Christmas as a family with special activities each day.

The kids love all of the great STEM activities we take advantage of at our local library.  

One of our 12 days of Christmas activities was to watch the Star Wars Movie in the Theater as a family.  I got to watch about 30 minutes of it before John was ready for a new activity so we went shopping at the outlet malls nearby.

The kids are old enough for family games and we're really enjoyed having family game nights together.  

 Fr. Harlow came over for an afternoon tea and the kids loved that he got down on the ground and played with them.  We are so blessed in the many beautiful priests we know!

One day we went to New York so the kids could play at a water park.  It was a lot of fun.  

 The Library had a stuffed animal sleep-over where the kids dropped off their stuffed animals in the evening and then came back for breakfast and a slide show of their fun night in the library.

One day we went for a walk on Lake Champlain.  

There was a brief January thaw and John took his van for a spin.  

The kids' favorite evening activity is playing "Tornado" with Dad

Thomas poses mid-hop.  He had to have a tooth pulled because it was infected.  He was a trooper about it though and we love our dentist - he even played "light sabers" with Thomas to help him feel "at ease."   

It's a bird, it's a plane....no it's super Thomas, here to protect football watchers from the fuzzy blue Monster attack. 

The kids are enjoying a new to us teeter-totter.  

Thomas working on his 100 days of school activity.  The year is flying by!

Light saber fun.  Thomas told me he changed his name to Thomas Skywalker.

John's favorite reading corner at the Library with the giant Teddy Bear. 

Every night Luke's been requesting a chapter of Life of Fred and we're up to "Goldfish."  He's doing some pretty challenging Math for a six year-old and loving it.  

John's new skill is scooting around on his little trike.  He insists I take him outside every day.  His favorite sign is for "jacket" so he can go out.  His San Diego born Mom is ready for Spring to come with its warmer weather!  At least it's a bit warmer here than it was in Wisconsin.

 The kids participated in a "Squishy Circuits" workshop at the library.  Who knew that play dough can either conduct electricity or act as an insulator depending on the ingredients.  The kids had fun and were inspired to pull out their "snap circuits" today to have some more fun with electricity.

Today was World Marriage Day and we went to Mass at St. Joseph's Cathedral since Phil was part of organizing this beautiful celebration of the "significant anniversaries" for married couples in Vermont.  There was even a couple there who was celebrating 70 years of marriage and all the couples present represented more than 1800 years of faithfully lived marriage.  What a beautiful witness!  

Doesn't John look handsome with his fresh haircut. His speech is really taking off and it's fun to hear John express his thoughts - most often in the form of commands right now but he will add a please when prompted.  

Praise the Lord for His many blessings!  We rejoice in His goodness and merciful love as we near the day of Phil's ordination to the permanent diaconate.  We rely on your prayers!  You are each in ours as well.  

Weeks 31 & 32 In Review

July 25th to August 8th in Pictures:

One of the things we enjoy most about summer is time at the park!

While William finished up his second week of woodworking we spent a few mornings at the park in Essex Junction.  The kids had fun trying out the skate park on their scooters.

On  July 25th 2004, Phil asked me to marry him and in honor of the 12 anniversary of that special day he gave me a dozen roses. :-)

Our family pictures are hung!

 Our Library had a mini, kid-friendly Renaissance fair.  The kids loved it!

 The children were able to practice jousting and sword fighting.

 We said good bye to our Chinese exchange students.  We miss them already!

 The library had its grand finale for the summer reading program with a musical puppet show, raffle drawing and cake.

 Thomas won a Curious George book and stuffed animal.

William won a brand new bike - the grand prize!

Luke won a free ice cream cone.  It was a fun day!

 Miriam was able to participate in a young producers workshop where she got to participate in the making of a game show.  

Each of the children had a turn as game participant, show host and camera person as well.

 Luke and Thomas enjoyed a game of chess while we waited for Miriam.

John loves the kids area at the library especially the lady bug pillow and puppet theater.

The sandbox is worth it's weight in gold to me for the many happy hours our children have spent digging happily.

Luke using our new peg doll Mass kit - we participated in a swap on-line to get all the pieces.  He loves it!

The kids did the "Fairfax Egg Run"

Phil is working on our family shrine for the Holy Family - this time we are building it using stones from the area.

I just finished another group of saints - they are going to the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in time for the Assumption Day Mass and Procession.

Father Harlow came over for dinner on Sunday - one reason this post is a day late. 

Family News: 

The past two weeks have flown by in a whirlwind.  We had a wonderful time with our Chinese exchange students and were sad to say goodbye - yet they are in our family's prayers!

Phil is getting ready to do a number of presentations all throughout the diocese beginning tomorrow on "Starting the conversation on the New Evangelization."  He's also been working hard on our family shrine - it takes a lot of rocks to build a shrine & some are quite heavy!  

We have 12 meat chickens which are growing quite well.    

The garden is doing well - my kitchen is being taken over by zucchini...now I just need some more time to shred it and freeze the amazing broccoli crop we have as well.  

Luke is our first child to learn to ride a two-wheeler in 1 day.  Phil took him to practice on Saturday and he was off and riding after 1 short lesson.  Thomas is our first 3 year-old to be able to pedal on a large two-wheeler with training wheels so we are now enjoying some family bike rides.

William began soccer tonight, Miriam begins next Tuesday and Luke the following Saturday. We will then have one child at practicing every night of the week until mid-October with games on Saturdays. This is a first for us and it's a little intimidating.  We'll see how it goes.  

We have really enjoyed the benefits of our local public libraries this summer.  While each small town has their own independent Library and programs, 26 of them have joined together to allow people on a "home card" system to check out books from any of these libraries.  Every library has it's own set of passes to Vermont museums, and state Parks that you can check out for the day and so get in for free. They have some really neat summer programs including chess club, Lego club, a gymnastics workshop, a young producer's workshop, archaeology, a summer kid-friendly Mini-Renaissance Faire and other really fun summer science workshops.  The summer reading program was great as well and every child got a t-shirt for reading 10 books as well as other small prizes and 3 of our 5 children won grand prizes including a really great bike for William.  We are so grateful for this great community resource!

William finished his final "Stern Center" tutoring session and is doing well.  We will be continuing his instruction at home with the Barton program, using the Stern Center as a resource as necessary. 

On the school front, the lesson plans are almost ready, our classroom is almost ready and we are slated for a start date of August 22nd.  We are looking forward to the next school year!

The tickets to San Diego are purchased.  Now we just need to work out all of the details.  :-)

John Paul has an almost complete set of toddler teeth as he has his molars and is finishing up with his canines.  We'll be grateful when the teeth are fully in and he an sleep a bit better at night. Between the teeth and an ear infection sleep hasn't been as plentiful as we'd like it to be. 

Praise the Lord for His many blessings!  The days are full with joy and the challenges inherent in raising five little people with their own ideas and personalities.  We are so grateful for this time even as we pray for wisdom and strength and maybe a bit more sleep.  Our prayers are with you - may God bless you and your families abundantly as we seek to grow ever closer to Our Lord.  Please keep us in your prayers!