Christmas Lessons Learned

We made two parent mistakes this Christmas season but now we know....

1. We arrived for the family Christmas Eve Mass 35 minutes early and barely squeezed into the overflow Mass held in the school gym. Baby Jesus shoots, He scores!!!

2. We waited until 7:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve to put together a plastic kitchen with a thousand pieces. Two hours and two glasses of wine later, it was assembled. Whew!

We are so blessed and grateful for the birth of our Savior!

McNulty, Vegas and Homeschool

I've been lacking on new posts for a few different reasons.

1. After hearing a lot of positive reviews, Steve and I started watching "The Wire" on DVD's from the library. It is really intense and having the whole season at once we often find ourselves watching back to back episodes. It is cool because it has lead us to some interesting social justice discussions. There are five seasons and we are halfway through season 3.

2. A while ago I happened upon a blog written about a Mom in Las Vegas with triplets and a singleton. She has written a post everyday since 2006 about her family. She is so funny and real and she is a super internet researcher which I can relate. I just recently started reading her archives and was riveted about her son being diagnosed with a brain tumor two years ago. Steve is sick of me starting a conversation this way, "Well the lady in Vegas with triplets says....."

3. I'm also researching some preschool homeschool programs. As of now, I think we still try and start Eden in a preschool program next fall but there is no reason to start a little program now. Some of the curriculum I've read have a 2-3 hour per day activity.  First, what would I do with Anna during that time especially since she is only napping for 45 minutes (that is another post to come) and I can't imagine Eden focusing on something for that long of a time.

So in our few hours kid free, this is how I spend my time lately.....

Fun with Santa?

The girls got a picture with Santa at Tiny Tots. Eden was not too happy to sit in Santa's lap but at least we didn't have any tears.....

I'll have to try to take another picture of them in their dresses because you can't really see how cute they are in the Santa pictures.

Only Children

Last night, we went to our parish for the Immaculate Conception Mass. The girls were the ONLY kids there. I felt like I missed out on the memo that kids were supposed to go to a different Mass or something. And of course with a quarter full church, ONE 2 1/2 year old makes a lot of noise!!! Especially when it is past bedtime. Oh well, we were able to celebrate a wonderful Mass with my favorite Lady.

Which one.....

Who is who? Both are three-month old Denver Bronco fans......

 

Getting ready for Thanksgiving

We had a great time at my Aunt Eileen's house on Thanksgiving day. Yummy turkey! We were in charge of desserts. Steve made a homemade pumpkin pie and I made cookies. Here are some pictures:

 

The 4th Trimester

In "The Happiest Baby on the Block", the author proposes that a baby would rather stay in the womb an extra three months but a human mother can not deliver a twelve month baby. But luckily (and I think most pregnant would agree) human mothers deliver their babies around nine or ten months gestation. So, the doctor proposes making those first three months of the babies life as womb like as possible.
Anna's "fourth trimester" is ending this week.
Here are some of her recent photos:

 

 

Daddy's Girl

Steve used to lament when Eden was a newborn that I was the only one who could calm her down and the only one she wanted to be with. I told him one day that would change and it has. Even when he is not around, she shouts "Daddy look at me" "Daddy, Daddy!!" She loves to be with him all the time and cries sometimes when he leaves.

Some park time

Steve and I are feeling a little under the weather but we wanted Eden to get outside some. Here are a few pics from our hour at the park today.

 

Better blogging

I thought staying at home with the girls the last two months would make me a better blogger but I don't update as much as I would like. I used to be a writer in the not so distant past and now that I have something really great to write about (a beautiful family!) I'm kind of slacking off.
Oprah interviewed Stephanie Meyer and I never knew she was a SAHM that had never written anything before and she has a dream about vampires, writes it down and then boom, her books are making millions.
So, I am going to take each day and write a game story about it, maybe with some opinions thrown in there too.

Low Key Halloween

 

On my own.....

Steve has been working a four day job in the city, so I was on my own with the girls a lot this weekend. It was quite a challenge taking them both to Mass yesterday, even though we were in the cry room!! The almost eighty degree weather here didn't make it easier. But it helped me realize a few things. First, I'm so glad I married an awesome Catholic guy. I know there are people that make mixed marriages work but I don't think I am one of them. Sharing Mass with my whole family is so special. Second, major props to Moms with several kids. I'm remembering a Mom in Jacksonville that would take all eight of her kids to daily Mass. Even then I didn't know how she did it and now with just two kids, I still don't know how she did it.

Eden is still a budding American Idol. Her two favorite things right now are a Kelly Clarkson karaoke app on my phone. During the instrumental part of "My Life Would Suck Without You" I told her to head bop, so she always says head bop and bops her head, too cute. She is also loving the Susan Boyle video. She hums along with the song and mimics her mannerisms. She still loves Julie Andrews and Do Re Mi of course.

Peaceful Morning

Anna fell asleep on her own in the swing and Eden is drawing and watching Sid the Science Kid.
I took the time to catch up on some blogs and then got sucked in to this site. Sure, maybe a waste of time but it was a good laugh.
I'm also trying to read like five books. Am I crazy? I'm loving The Help by Kathryn Stockett but I only get to read a few pages at a time. I'm hoping I can finish it and The Lovely Bones before they are due back at the library

More sisters

Proof that Steve is a much better photographer than me...

Sisters

This is their first picture in matching outfits. Eden wasn't too happy about taking pictures during her Elmo time.

Alive Again

A new Matt Maher album is released today. It rocks!
There is also a new David Crowder Band album that sounds pretty good too but you should definitely download Matt's album first.

Eden's Do Re Mi with hopping

I recorded a few versions of Eden watching the Sound of Music and this was the best even though she is jumping up and down A LOT! Once Steve is done editing March of Dimes, he will edit together a good version of her favorite performance.

Do Re Mi

Grandma taught Eden to sing "Do Re Mi" awhile ago and it is one of her favorite songs to sing. Tonight she watched it on Sound of Music for the first time and she loved it!! She is still singing it....

A Family of Four

Yay! Our first Mass together as a family was so special. The girls were great and we feel so blessed.

Scams and Ripoffs

I'm very close to posting my version of Anna's birth story with pictures so stay tuned....
Meanwhile, I wanted to rant about a couple of things.

One, apparently my Mom hasn't heard about the Craigslist housing scams. She is all excited about a rental house in Cupertino for us and she shows me the e-mail and it is one of those African scams but she still didn't even see that. A lot of people haven't heard about these apparently.

Second, so our car broke down in Aptos last weekend. We tow it to a local Toyota dealer in Capitola and they call us Sunday with the repair estimate. Needless to say, it was an OUTRAGEOUS amount!! It completely ruined our whole day and who wants a ruined Sunday? We are trying to arrange our whole financial future and just get more and more depressed about it. We tell my Dad about it and he suggests to tow it back to his mechanic in Campbell. The guy did the same repair for $3000 less!! $3000, are you kidding me? How do these people sleep at night?

Birth Story - A Husband's Perspective

Steve wrote this earlier today.
I'll post my story with some pictures later on this week.

My wife and I watched the Giants vs. Rockies game last night which ended in a walk off grand slam by Ryan Spillborgs after the Giants scored 3 in the top of the 14th breaking a 1 to 1 tie. This may seem irrelevant, but I suspect that it's no coincidence that my wife woke me 4 hours later to say she was in labor. My bleary eyed reaction? "Great, why don't you lie down and try to get some rest, you'll probably need it."
"I'm gonna have some chocolate milk," was her reply.
After laying there for a minute or two I realized that if I wasn't yet, I would soon be in the running for the creep of the year award if I didn't get up right away. For the next hour she would have contractions and we would track them using the Contraction Tracker ap on her iPhone (little shout out there). About an hour later her parents arrived to watch Eden and Emily said she wanted to head to the hospital. I felt like it was a little early, but wisely held my tongue and began slowly preparing to get us out the door. The next contraction seemed pretty severe, which quickened my pace a little. She had a contraction in the breezeway outside of our apartment, two in the car on the way to the hospital and 3 or 4 between the ER and Labor & Deliver and by that time they were quite strong.
By the time the LD nurse did the pelvic exam, Emily was 8 cm dilated and just about to go into transition. We essentially got there just in time. Less than an hour later we were holding our newborn baby.
I won't go into the gory details save to say, there are mysteries of the woman's body that, in hindsight, I might prefer to have remained a mystery. Truth be told, I was there to see my first come into this world and now my second and wouldn't miss either for the world, the moon and all the stars in heaven.
As for Emily? Make no mistake about which sex is the strongest. I'm clear that it isn't the one to which I belong. She was amazing, brave, determined, focused , undaunted (okay, maybe a little daunted, but took the coaching from the midwife brilliantly). Four hours after her first contractions started we were holding an 8 pound, 5 oz, 21 inch baby with a 5 minute APGAR of 9. Anyone familiar with the birth of our first child knows what a victory this was. All this without a single medical intervention. No epidural, no pitocin, no cervadyl.
So here's the advice I have for any expecting parents out there. First, don't bother having a first baby, skip right to the second, it goes a lot faster. Second, if at all possible, go natural, and if you do this make sure your ob is fully on board with your plan. We recommend a midwife, doula or both. Ours was totally awesome!

Wishful thinking.......

Okay, so the last post was wishful thinking on my part. We did go to another Sunday Mass as a three person family and will probably have a second one tomorrow. My babies just like to stay inside as long as possible, their early start to driving Mom and Dad crazy!!
We tried a bunch of different natural labor induction techniques this past week with no success. It started to drive me a little crazy so we are just trying to relax now.
We tried to tempt Murphy's Law this afternoon when our trip to the beach had some complications. Our car broke down and we had to wait a couple of hours for the tow truck and my parents to come pick us up. No labor still...
Eden didn't care. She LOVES the beach!!! No pictures from our adventure because we left the camera battery at home. But we're glad to know that now so we didn't take a battery-less camera to the hospital.

St. Gerard, patron saint of expectant mothers, pray for us!

Our Final Week???

We were able to visit St. Lawrence the Martyr church last night and it was so good to see Fr. Thuc again. He made a special point to invite Eden up to the altar for the Our Father and she gave him two high fives, so cute!
Entering Mass, I couldn't help but think this might be the last time we go as a family of three. I'm starting to get sad for Eden as her days of an only child are coming to an end. It's been so nice to have a lot of special time with her these last couple of weeks. Her (our) world is about to change a lot!!
Please keep us in your prayers. I'm still hoping for a birth on the Feast of the Assumption (August 15) but I'm completely open to God's will for our baby August....

Fame - The Trailer

I can view better video on my new computer and since I'm just waiting and waiting for Baby August to come, YouTube has become my new entertainment.
Here is another upcoming movie to check out:

The Blind Side

They made a movie of the story of Michael Oher, Ole Miss Football player. Sandra Bullock is the star.
Check out the trailer:


The book was really good, but I am a huge Michael Lewis and Ole Miss fan of course.

Birth Stories

Ever since Eden was born, I've been obsessed about reading birth stories. I'm sure I heard plenty before Eden was born but I just didn't pay attention. It's one of those things you have to experience before you can understand I suppose. I probably told people that didn't really care too much about Eden's birth story but I try to be mindful.
A well-known blogger has started to describe the birth of her second child and it is good reading for any other mama's out there like me that like to read stuff like this. Go back through her archives to read part one.
www.dooce.com

20 Things

Remember when all the rage on Facebook was to write 25 things about yourself and tag other people so they would do the same thing. At the time, I only came up with 20 so I never posted it on Facebook. I just ran across the file again so I decided to post them here:

1. Two words that I use to describe myself are: Jesus and baseball. I love Jesus with all my heart and soul and am truly amazed at the mercy and grace He always gives to me. I have loved baseball in a different sense for as long as I can remember. It gives me a lot of joy.
2. The two decisions I have been the most sure about were: to attend Ole Miss and to marry my husband Steve.
3. I have a beautiful and amazing daughter, Eden. But childbirth is still an enigma to me. Even though I have experienced it and it was the most empowering event of my life, I still don’t quite understand how it all happens.
4. My first job besides babysitting was a Santa’s Helper at Westgate Mall, taking pictures of freaked out kids with Santa.
5. I loved going away for college and I recommend it to all teenagers. It really made me grow up and become more independent.
6. I’m learning a lot about investments from the best teacher and I want to help as many people I can invest for their futures.
7. I love doing internet research. I hardly ever take one person’s opinion on something so it is useful for me to look things up to make sure all the facts are straight.
8. I met my husband on the infamous #17 Green at TPC Sawgrass at a Superbowl media party. It was magical….
9. I saw the final scene of “Rock and Roll (when Riff and The Ramones blow up the school) when we first moved to our new house in 1980 and got that crazy new cable TV invention. It has been my favorite movie ever since.
10. I remember everything. My brain is so clogged with useless information but I’ve found a super strong memory has many advantages.
11. My lifelong dream is to be on a game show. I’ve had several auditions but have yet to make it to the big game. If only I could make some money with that above mentioned useless, trivial information. Did anybody watch the World Series of Pop Culture on VH1 a couple of years ago? I would kill that game….
12. I was never that little girl that dreamed of the perfect wedding. I pulled mine together in about three months and I couldn’t think of anything more perfect than having all the family and friends there to support us.
13. Surprisingly, one of my favorite memories as a sports writer was covering the State wrestling finals in Lakeland, Florida for three years. The athleticism and emotion displayed at these events is really amazing.
14. While it sounds cool to say the Speaker of the House is a Catholic woman from California, she is against everything I stand for and I wish she would go away.
15.My favorite place to visit is the Bronx, NY. I was blessed for three years to visit there each Labor Day and to see my friends the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Renewal. It is such an amazing spiritual experience to be around them.
16. I’ve met a lot of athletes but my favorite was dancing with Rich Aurilia at a nightclub in Atlanta.
17. Wait, scratch that. The best was talking to David Dellucci in the visitor's locker room at Minute Maid Park in Houston
18. I watch an insane amount of TV but it relaxes me.
19. I like to sing and I think I can sing but I know Simon Cowell would probably say nasty things to me.
20. I loved visiting Italy in the Jubilee Year 2000 with awesome friends.The best part besides seeing JPII three times, was gelato in Assisi.

Canning Time

The apricots and peaches in my Dad's yard were picked from the tree this weekend and Steve lovingly canned them into 11 quart jars and six jars of apricot jam. He did this last year too and the fruit lasted us for such a long time. Thanks for the work!

The garden at Calvary is growing some. The tomatoes and beans have sprouted well and the basil plant is doing great. We enjoyed a yummy caprese last week with the fresh basil.

Just about a month to go till Baby August arrives. I'm getting more tired but I still am able to make it to my Yoga classes at least once a week which has been very helpful.

Toddlers and Mass

I'd say from about 18 months on, Eden has been a real handful at Mass. We've been able to deal with her most times but sometimes gave up and retreated to the cry room. That wasn't much better because I would get so frustrated with the socializing parents more than Eden in a pew. The last few weeks had been especially bad with several dirty looks and comments from fellow parishioners. I knew God really wanted us to be there but the whole experience was leaving me so stressed out (and I rarely experience stress!)
So when yesterday morning came and as much as I love going to Mass (and the requirement) I told Steve we shouldn't go. But we couldn't really justify missing so we went to the later service.
I was AMAZED! Eden was really good. We let her eat Cheddar Bunnies which may have helped in her distraction but at this point I didn't care. During the Our Father, she was standing on my left and I reached out to hold her hand. The older lady next to us reached out her hand to Eden and she looked at it warily but joined hands with this stranger. It was beyond sweet!
Our friend, the recently ordained Fr. Ernesto Orci, presided over the Mass and I told him we are coming to all of his Masses since Eden was so good. Fr. Ernesto was able to join us for lunch and he told us all about his ordination. He is joining the priest that married us, Fr. Thuc, at St. Lawrence in Santa Clara.
I just have to keep reminding myself that this is a short phase in Eden's life and I'm sure once it does pass, we will start all over with baby sister.
As for Baby August, she moves around a lot, especially when Mommy is trying to sleep and the midwife said she is growing perfectly. We are excitedly awaiting her arrival but still haven't decided on her name although we are receiving many great suggestions.

Father's Day

We ate a yummy steak dinner at the beach for Father's Day with my parents. It is the usual beach we go to in Aptos and it was fun to be there at sunset.
Thanks to my Dad and Steve for being great dads!

Weekend in Review

Steve worked on Saturday but we had a really fun Sunday.
God continued to amaze me in His gift of the Eucharist at the 9 a.m. Mass at St. Mary's.
Steve purchased a plot in a community garden at a nearby church. Eden and I helped some, mainly just watered while he dug. We didn't take any pictures but here is a link:
http://www.calvarylosgatos.org/connect/community.html

We'll post pictures when everything starts to grow................

Lay it Down

I started to sing this song to Eden when she is on the changing table because most times, especially first thing in the morning she doesn't really want to lay down for a new diaper. Now she sings along with me, it is so cute. It has really turned into a prayer for me now. Everyday to take everything that I am and everything I want to be and to surrender it all to Jesus.
Thanks Matt Maher for the reminder but mostly thank you Jesus for forming me (and Eden) in Your will.
http://www.spiritandsong.com/musicondemand/songs/79826

Golden Gate Park

We visited Golden Gate Park last weekend for a wonderful, sunny afternoon. After a yummy picnic, Eden played at a great playground and took her first carousel ride. Fun, fun!

Eden's Second Birthday

We had a pretty low-key celebration for Eden's entry into the terrific two!
She couldn't wait to eat her cake as you can see in the picture:

What a lovely name

I found a cool baby name site from another blog:
www.whatalovelyname.com

It gives a lot of great suggestions which is helpful because we haven't figured out our Baby August's name yet. So far she is just Baby August.

You can make a cool logo with the names too. This is the one I made for Eden:

Return to the blog world

I tried blogging a while back but kind of forgot about it. I've become such a voyeur into other random blog lives, I decided it is about time to start posting about our own lives. Although it may not be that interesting, I'll give it a try.
Here is our latest family photo taken over Memorial Day weekend with Grandma Lillie. She is 95 years young!! We love her!