Happy Baptism Day, David!

You were baptized 3 years ago today! Special thanks to your god mother, Peggy, for making a point to remember your very special day every year. At the conference I attended last month, Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio described baptism (and all the other sacraments) as very special days when God reaches out to embrace you directly. Isn't that beautiful? We look forward to watching you grow in the light of God's love for many years to come!

More pictures from the Valentines Dance...

Kate Fitzgerald was kind enough to take pictures at the Familia Valentine's dance and share them. Here are a couple of our family:

Prayer Notation

I have made it a goal to pray the rosary more often. I was given the opportunity today. At 12:30, Lia and I finished lunch and I put her in her crib. I sat on the floor by her and said the rosary. This generally takes about 20 minutes. She didn't seem tired as she smiled, and flirted by making faces at me for most of my prayer. At the very end, during the Hail Holy Queen she began to cry and fuss. While I said this prayer she finally decided to lay down and I rubbed her back. By the end of the concluding prayer, as if on cue, she closed her eyes and was almost instantly asleep. Really, as soon as she closed her eyes, I saw them roll back in her head! It is interesting the way God works in our lives and what is revealed to us in small glimpses of his love. I am beginning to believe that God never gives us more than we can handle and what he does give us is precisely what we need. Perhaps I needed some free time and Lia needed some sleep! Peace be with you.

Happy 1st Birthday Lia!!!

We brought Lia into the world one year ago. How fast the time has gone by. Here she is in the hospital held by her Grandpa. Lia, at 8.5 pounds was our biggest baby at birth and by far the easiest infant to take care of. She came out of my belly knowing how to nurse and slept through the night from the get go. What a blessing she has been in our lives. We all love her very much!

And here she is on her birthday. She is very happy because she just had a chocolate cupcake!

To celebrate Lia's birthday, we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Creekside Park. It was a little cold and windy when we got there... so we found this little "cozy cave" to have our lunch. Chris did a fine job shopping for and packing our lunch. We had spring rolls and sushi. The kids had sandwiches and blackberries. I think he will be in charge of the special picnics from here on out!

We sang happy birthday and Lia enjoyed her chocolate cupcake... All of our kids have liked chocolate cake! Lia is licking her fingers in this shot.

And here are some pictures from the park:

And one more video of her walking on her birthday. She is improving every day. It is fun to see how proud she is of this new found skill!

Valentine's Family Dance

Our big event for Saturday was the Valentine's Family Dance at church. We went to this family dance last year and I had just had Lia... she was only a few weeks old. Last year, we won the Great Harvest bread basket and got free bread every month for a year. This year, we purchased raffle tickets again... and won the Great Harvest gift again! It was a $70 gift card! I think we are very very lucky!

Emily was all about the dance this year. She ran in as soon as we got there and danced the entire night... well she did take a few breaks to eat cookies and drink lemonade... but she did a lot of dancing! Here are some pictures:

Emily and Emma had the most fun of all! Aren't they cute?

A little, Jump Up and Shout...

And, I took this one all by myself! Can you tell???

And all this fun for $10/family. My kind of entertainment.

Happy 9th Anniversary!

Chris and I celebrated our anniversary, (9 years!) on Friday night. Our friends, Stan and Peg, were gracious enough to watch our kids so we could have a night out. We had a fabulous dinner at Americas.

We have been wanting to try it out since we sampled their ribs at the international festival and we were not dissapointed by the rest of the menu. The food could not have been better - what a treat! We had quail taquitos for our appetizer (sounds odd but YUMMY!), I ordered the RELLENO - roasted pork filet mignon, corn tamalito, grilled shrimp, jumbo lump crab and a mojito (fancy!). Chris got the swordfish and some wine. Since it was our anniversary, we were treated to dessert, bread pudding, and champagne. Very nice, what a treat!

Lia's 1st Baby Steps

I caught Lia taking steps again today. Here is a little video I managed to capture: