Welcome Borden Anthony!

While we were on vacation, we were very happy to receive the call that our newest nephew had arrived! Isn't he beautiful? Anthony is the 22nd Nelli grandchild. I know he will bring us many many blessings. Congratulations to Steven and Stacey!

Borden Anthony
Monday, May 9, 2011
Born at 8:16am

6 lbs 14.8 oz

Proud, proud Papa!

...And the first family picture. Take notice of the Chuck Taylor, Converse All-Stars. Anthony's Daddy wore them on his wedding day too!

Edited to add - Also take notice of the NC State Wolfpack colors! The brainwashing starts early in this family. :-) I can't wait to hold sweet baby Anthony in a few weeks!

Welcome Lane Alexander!

My cousin Stephanie and her husband Paul were very proud to welcome their son, Lane Alexander into the world on Wednesday, May 4. Born at 7:48 am
6 lbs 15 oz
19 inches long

First family portrait.

Mom, Dad, Kate and Lane

And this one just melts my heart.

Easter Vigil - Las Cruces

I was honored to travel to Las Cruces for Easter this year to see my sister-in-law enter the Catholic Church. It is not often that I get to take a trip alone... so I really enjoyed this time to spend with Stacey and Steven. Also in this picture is Stacey's dear friend Cindy can Godchild, Charlotte. What a wonderful weekend!

Stacey and Steven will have their first child any day now! We are looking forward to welcoming Nonna and Pop Pop's 22nd grandchild, Anthony Borden Nelli.

Welcome, welcome! What a blessed day.

And meanwhile, at the homefront... Daddy and the kiddos indulged in some mighty large ice cream cones. Must be nice to get rid of Mommy every now and then. I always make them get the kiddie cones! :-) And true to her personality, Emily has her nose in a book. I hope she didn't get chocolate ice cream on the pages.

Later, I heard about the trips to Double Dave's for pizza and Shipley's donuts on Easter Sunday!

Divine Mercy Sunday

The Sunday after Easter is known as Divine Mercy Sunday and this Image of Jesus is displayed in Catholic Churches around the world. I was on the ball this year. We watched the My Catholic Family video about St. Faustina and the Image of the Divine Mercy on Friday. We knew we would be going to church with David's Godparents and spending the afternoon with them.... so I found an easy craft for us to do with their kids from one of my favorite blogs, Catholic Icing.
I thought the girls looked pretty for church so I took their picture outside. Lia informed me she wants to grow her bangs out so her hair looks like Emily's. How sweet is that. So while it grows out... we will be wearing a lot of clips and bows.

And yes, this dress is great for spinning!

After lunch, the kids made a chair and blanket fort.

And we did our Divine Mercy Image of Jesus craft.

The two rays of red and blue symbolize blood and water. The blood is like the sacrament of the Eucharist or the blood Christ shed for us. The water is like the sacrament of baptism where our sins are forgiven and how Christ always forgives us when we are truly sorry. Lia wanted to do hers her own way... with rainbow and green glitter. Well... someone has always gotta be different.

I thought they came out great. They even say, Jesus I Trust in You.

David's Wansky Go-Go Pictures

David has been doing a lot of drawing lately. "Wansky Go-Go" was this wierd word that David made up a long time ago. He liked to say it. He liked the way it rolled off his tounge. And then during Advent, David decided to draw the "Wansky Go-Go" creature he had obviously thought quite a bit about. So here you see David's Wansky Go-Go. He has probably drawn this creature 50 times. The colors change but the general snail shape stays the same. He told me that all Wansky Go-Gos are boys. The boy Wansky Go-Gos have the babies and all Wansky Go-Go babies are boys. The small creatures at the bottom of the page... those are the babies.