My Little Ella Bella

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that each addition to our family it going to add a little more chaos to our life.  So when Ella was born, I told myself that I was going to enjoy each and every moment of her babyhood so that I didn't just wake up one day to a one-year old and wonder how she got to be so big.  I am thankful to say that I have soaked up every inch of that baby since July 16th.  Her constant smile, snuggles, and bright blue eyes sure don't make it very hard to do.

Ella has brought so much joy to our lives!  It is amazing to watch such a little body do things on her own.  Paul and I constantly look at each other in disbelief at what this little person can do.  God's design is flawless!  You would think we wouldn't care so much about each stage the fourth time around, but we still get giddy-excited about each milestone...it is like she is our first baby!  

I love her round bald head (she has a little hair now).  I love when she makes spitting noises with her mouth.  I love when she gives us the "are you serious?" look.  I love it when she climbs on her little chair, turns around and smiles at us, as if to say, "look what I did!".  I love when she is sad about something so she lets out a pathetic cry, then puts her head on the floor like an ostrich.  I love when she gives us a cheesy smile with her nose scrunched up showing off her 4 little teeth.  I'm amazed at how much personality can be packed into such a little body!

She is such a good-natured baby and pretty much goes with the flow (the fourth baby kinda has to be like that, right?!).  She is a busy little girl; happily occupying herself by pulling everything out of the kitchen drawers, eating paper or food from the floor, or climbing up the stairs.  Now she is walking although often resorts to crawling because she is faster than lighting on those chubby little legs.  She is becoming a Daddy's girl, as all of ours tend to do at one point or another, and cries when he leaves the room.  It is actually very sweet.

I love to watch her interactions with her big sisters.  She lights up when she sees them and they love to entertain her.  My favorite time of day is when the big girls hear Ella wake up from her nap.  They race upstairs to the side of her bed to see who can get her to smile at them first.  I love that they all beg to sit by her during meals. I love that they want to hold her and that she looks just like a mini-version of each one of them.

She has been given all sorts of nicknames from: Ella Bella, Ella Belle, Boo (Rose calls her that like Aunt Olivia does), Baby Girl, Sweetness...one thing is for sure, she was definitely brought into a family who loves her to pieces!

Hugs!

Taking Control

It is hard as a parent to see your kids in pain and not be able to do anything to help them.  Like when Rose busted her chin and had to get stitches (twice!) or when she has growing pains in the middle of the night...all we can do in try to comfort them and let them know we are there, we know it hurts, and we love them.  I can't even imagine what Our Blessed Mother went through watching her son be ridiculed, beaten and put to death right before her eyes.

Here is us trying to take control: helmet plus chin strap...too much?

It is hard to watch anything but good things happen to our kids.  We want to protect them...to keep them close to our sides so that we have more control over what happens to them.  But as a wise mother recently told me, sometimes we need to let go and let God.  When we try to control everything, we are forgetting that our Heavenly Father is always watching over us and waiting to help us.

Parenting is a big responsibility, so why don't we let God lighten our burden.  Let Him take some of that responsibility.  Do the best we can and offer all we do to God and let Him take care of the rest.  God is a better parent than we will ever be, so I am trying to let Him show me the way.

Hugs!

Real life

I know my blog usually focuses on the fun we have as a family, but what you don't hear about is the reality behind the scenes.  Having 4 kids is kicking my butt!  Before Ella was born, I thought I had my act together and I could handle however many kids were sent our way.  Well, I have to say, I was wrong...I am no perfect mother!  I can just not get it together! We are late to everything, there is always one throwing a fit or misbehaving, the house is a complete disaster 98% of the time, there are loads of laundry that are NOT done...most days, I feel like I am in survival mode.

But today I was reading one of my favorite blogs, mychildiloveyou.blogspot.com, and felt a little better about my disarray at home.  Basically she was saying that God never promised that life was going to be easy.  I am trying to keep four little bodies healthy and away from harm, teach them their manners, give them all the love they deserve...all while trying to get their little souls ready for eternal paradise with their Father in Heaven.  That is a big job, the most important job I will ever have, so it should be hard!

I know this new revelation is not going to make my life a walk in the park, but I think it will help me get through each day knowing that every vocation has its struggles and all I can do is my best each and every day, keeping the end goal in mind.  God knows how much we can handle, right?!

Easter Bliss

Although we were bummed to be away from family for Easter, we did have a nice relaxing weekend here in Louisville.  On Easter morning, the girls woke up bright and early to see what the Easter bunny left them.  Rose thought it was hilarious that the Easter bunny put her basket in the dishwasher.

I think every Christian church across America sings the song 'Jesus Christ is risen today, A....lle...lu....ia!'  on Easter Sunday, but isn't it really the perfect song to sum up the meaning of the day?!  We of course sang this beautiful song at mass on Easter morning at a parish downtown called St. Louis Bertrand.  It has been our Easter tradition ever since we moved to Louisville to go there on Easter Sunday.  It is a beautiful church with wonderful Dominican priests, but is hard with children because there isn't a cry-room and everything echoes!  And mass on Easter morning was one where we definitely could have used a cry room!  Mass seemed more like a wrestling match...4 against 2.  I think they won!

After we got home and got some food in our bellies, we sent the girls on an egg hunt in the front yard.  Instead of adding to their already present sugar high, we filled the eggs with coins...like my grandparents used to do for us when I was a little girl.  They were really lucky if they found a dollar in their egg!

We enjoyed the afternoon in the beautiful sunshine...

...then I brought the girls inside to make Resurrection rolls.  They basically consist of crescent rolls (to represent the cloth they wrapped Jesus' body in), marshmallows (to represent Jesus), butter (to represent the oils of embalming) , and a cinnamon/sugar mixture (to represent the spices used to anoint his body).  After you coat the marshmallow and wrap it in the crescent roll, you bake them and the marshmallow melts, symbolizing the empty tomb after Jesus rose from the dead.  They are super simple, delicious, and help explain the concept of the resurrection.  The girls LOVED them!

We finished the day with a nice family Easter meal of ham, pork tenderloin, cheesy potatoes, green bean casseroles, Resurrection rolls, cantaloupe, golden Easter punch, and peep smores and homemade Reese eggs for dessert!  So much food, but so delicious!

Hope all of you had a blessed Easter!  We miss you all!

Hugs!

Holy Week treats and crafts

Like I said in my last post, this year I found so many good ideas online for Holy Week food and crafts that we had a blast trying new recipes and using food to help explain the meaning of each day.

On Holy Thursday we had a meal similar to what Jesus and his apostles might have had on the night of the Last Supper...ok maybe food that just represented what they had :)  We had meatloaf (to remind us of lamb), bread (to remind us of unleavened bread), spinach salad (to remind us of bitter herbs), applesauce (to remind us of the Charoses, the bricks and mortar the Jews laid in Egypt), red wine & grape juice, and lamb cupcakes (to remind us that Jesus is the Pascal lamb).  You can read more about the explanation of Holy Thursday foods here: http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/holy-thursday-in-home.html.

We also learned that it is an old tradition to make soft pretzels during Lent...so old, that there are records of the Lenten pretzel that date all the way back to a 5th century manuscript in the Vatican library!  Pretzels were traditionally only eaten during lent. Early Christians didn't eat dairy products during lent, so pretzels were made because they consisted of three very simple ingredients: flour, salt, and water.  They are made in the shape of 2 arms crossed in prayer.  Who knew pretzels were such a Christian snack!  You can find the recipe that we used at:  http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2009/04/pretzels.html

So what did we do...we made pretzels!  And I have to say, they were quite delicious!

See Rose's explanation here

In addition to our parish's Holy Week services, I also found a cartoon version of Christ's passion that the girls watched on Good Friday to meditate on the happenings of these important days in our Church history.  Paul and I watched the adult-version (Mel Gibson Passion movie) after the kids went to bed.

On Holy Saturday, our Easter preparations began.  We started off the morning decorating eggs.  We made very girly eggs this year...sorry Paul...but I think they turned out pretty neat.  My favorite were the majestic eggs...they made a beautiful center-piece!

We also made some fun Easter-themed treats such as:

Easter bunny donut pops (idea via Olivia via Pinterest)

Homemade dark chocolate Reese eggs (via Pinterest)

Peep kabobs (idea via Pinterest)

As far as decorations go, the girls did manage to do enough sacrifices during lent to take out all the thorns in our salt-dough crown of thorns, so the night before Easter, I filled each hole with flowers, which made it into a beautiful display for our dining room table.

I also dug up the Alleluia banner that we buried at the beginning of Lent and hung it up that evening so it could be on display for the girls Easter morning.

Lastly, we made our own Paschal candle and had it blessed by our pastor so that we can light it every night between Easter and the Ascension...if we remember to do it!  It was a fun way to explain the meaning of the Church's Easter candle to the girls.

I hope I am not boring you with all our little Easter details.  It helps me to write it all down to remember what we did from year to year.  And then I can show the girls how and when some of our traditions started.

Hugs! 

40 Days for the Lord

Now that Holy Week has arrived, we are finishing up our Lenten sacrifices and preparing for the Church's most important week of the year.

Our Lenten sacrifices this year were composed  of a couple of different things to help the girls understand what it's all about.  Instead of offering up one thing for all of Lent (which is hard for us adults, let alone a 5, 4, and 2 year old!) we made a Lenten calendar with a different sacrifice on it for each day...except special feast days and solemnities.  My favorite one was, only say "yes, mom/dad" (instead of complaining) for the whole day!

We also made a salt-dough crown of thorns like we did last year where the girls take a thorn (toothpick) out each time they do a sacrifice throughout the day to try to lessen Jesus pain.  The goal is to have a 'thornless' crown by Easter so it can be filled with flowers on Easter morning.

Another thing we did this year was 'bury the A-L-L-E-L-U...(not supposed to say the word yet :)'.  I basically printed out the letters to spell the word and then we hid it (or put away) for all of Lent to symbolize Lent as a time of repentance and focusing on the Lord's Passion.  On Easter morning I will get it out and use it as decoration on the mantle.  It was a fun way to teach the girls what the word means and why we aren't rejoicing until Jesus has risen!

You can see the letters peaking out under the paper...not a very clever place, I know.

On Friday nights during Lent we have tried to do the Stations of the Cross as a family.  It is hard to make it to Church on Tuesday nights to do them with our parish, so we made a kid-friendly version to do at home.  I printed off small pictures of each station and put them in their own plastic picture frame.  I also got a small candle to place in front of each picture.  Each time, we start with all the candles lit and after we pray at each station, one of the girls blows the candle out in front of it.  It was a good interactive way to keep the girls' attention and help them to learn something at the same time!

Notice the girls sitting far away from the candles so we didn't have any incidents with the fire :)

I am excited about the next four days (the Easter Triduum) because we have a lot of special foods and activities planned for the girls to help explain the meaning of each day.   I found most of the ideas at catholicicing.com and catholiccuisine.blogspot.com.  They have so many awesome ideas, I wish I could have done everything they suggested, but I had to just pick my favorites so I wasn't in over my head.  I will share how everything went next week.  Until then, enjoy the rest of Holy Week and have a blessed Easter!  Wish we could spend it with all of you!

Hugs!