I'm a JPII Catholic

Around seven years ago as I was discerning my vocation, I felt compelled to take the plunge and sign up on Ave Maria Singles - a Catholic dating site.  God was good to me and only 2 weeks later I met my now husband.  Yet, as I was filling out the many aspects of my profile on the dating site I remember trying to put into words what "type" of Catholic I was.   Conservative, Liberal, Charistmatic, Traditional, Orthodox, Cafeteria, Vatican II, "Christmas and Easter" there are so many labels out there to describe the "types" of Catholics and I didn't feel any of these quite captured the Universality of being Catholic or my experience of the beauty of the Church in its rich and varied manifestations.  I'd been blessed to grow up regularly attending a Tridentine latin Mass, had experienced the beauty and richness of the renewed Liturgy as Vatican II called for the Liturgy to be celebrated while in College, attended the Divine Liturgy of the Byzantine tradition and Marianite Rites, seen the beauty and faith of the vibrant Charismatic community of Christ the King Catholic Church in Ann Arbor, MI and travelled in Europe where I experienced the splendor of the Church and uiversality of the Mass said in any language but especially in Latin.  My experience of the beauties of the Catholic faith was so wide and varied, I could think of only one way to sum it all up - I am a "John Paul II" Catholic.  Praise God for this great saint who gave all for our Church and manifested Christ's love so completely and totally.  What a beautiful day Divine Mercy Sunday will be this year when we can celebrate as a Universal Church Blessed John Paul II soon to be Saint John Paul the Great.

Lunch time at the Lawsons

Luke is the first of my babies to show any interest in baby food. With the other two, I had opened a baby food container around 6 months and neither William nor Miriam had finished the container. I think I may have even tried to make and freeze my own food only to throw it out later. I gave Luke some yogurt since he had to take antibiotics and he enjoyed it so much that we tried carrots. Here he is enjoying the carrots.

On the 12th day of Christmas...

We had a White elephant Epiphany party.  It was so much fun we'll probably make it a yearly event!  In honor of the Epiphany I made "Kings Bread" with three silver rings baked into it.  Whoever found the rings were named kings and had to thing of a gift to bring our Lord. 

We also exchanged "White Elephant gifts" - great gifts exchanged homes though I think there may be a few items that return next year.  I would definately name the big 4 foot shaggy stuffed dog the most authentic white elephant gift, though my favorite addition was a snake that grows to 6 ft long when put in water.  I had my camera out to take pictures but in the fun of the evening I didn't get many pictures so you'll just have to use your imagination. 

Getting ready for Midnight Mass

For Christmas Phil suggested we go to Midnight Mass. My response was "no" at first. Midnight Mass meant taking three little ones age four and under and I kind of wanted them to be awake for Christmas Mass and not grumpy on Christmas Day. Yet Phil had a great desire to go toMidnight Mass and Miriam, even on schedule, was pretty grumpy Christmas Eve so we took a leap and made the trip at midnight with three little ones. To make things easier, we dressed the children in their Church clothes before putting them to bed so here is a video of them on their way to bed.

The Midnight Mass was beautiful and all went quite well - all three of the children slept pretty much through the whole Mass and most of the transitions though we were definately grateful for the extra borrowed laps of "Grandpa" Ray and "Grandma" Cindy as three sleeping children would have been difficult to manage on two laps. What a blessing it was for Mom and Dad to be able to enter into the Christmas mystery more fully!

Thank you Jesus, Mary and Joseph for the beautiful Christmas gift!

A Christmas Visitor

On the fourth day of Christmas William's Godfather came to visit us for the evening. It was a nice treat to have Jeremy Priest here and William and Miriam loved their time with him. He left after the little ones were in bed and when William woke up this morning he asked where his Godfather was. Thanks for the nice visit Jeremy - it's always a treat!



Poor Luke came down with a fever yesterday evening which necessitated another visit to the doctor's office. Poor little guy now has an ear infection! He's such a trooper though and will still crack a smile here and there despite feeling miserable.

Merry Christmas Grandma from Miriam

Merry Christmas Grandparents and Aunt and Uncles!

Here's a Merry Christmas wish from William and Miriam.

Little kitchen helper

I'm excited to have a new video camera as you'll notice from these blog posts. We figured it was time to start recording and sharing our kid's cuteness. So in that spirit here is a video of my little kitchen helper. Enjoy!

Jumping Back in

It's been almost a year! So much has happened during the past year and so many times I would think of a blog entry and get bogged down with the desire to go back and catch up, but tonight I'm just going to start where I am - in the final days of the third week of Advent 2010 - Gaude! Rejoice! and I'll share some Joy. Happy Advent!

Toddler fun

Today we're potty-training - it's a long process but I have found a no-cry solution to encourage my resiliant almost four year-old to at least sit on the potty. Chocolate Advent calendars were on sale for 29 cents and he'll gladly sit on the potty to open one of those little doors. So the first time's a freebie, he sit's on the potty and gets to open a door. After that, well there has to be something in the potty and well we have yet to get that second door open. My almost two year old on the other hand has mastered going in the potty, as long as I remind her to sit on it.

With the development of speech comes good times. William, though a late bloomer in speech mastered commands quickly: "milk." progressed to "You get me milk, Mom" to his latest development "You better get me some milk." Though we require him to change his command to a request: "Mom, could you please get me some milk," he still always begins with that command. He is definately an oldest child - I guess that is what happens when both your parents are oldest children. Miriam, on the other hand, mastered the art of saying please at a very young age. She realised quickly that her"please will open more doors and is a lot more likely to change mom's mind than her second favorite manner of coersion - crying as if her heart was broken.