Here and there (and some knitting inbetween)

Our last few weeks in photos.

Belated birthday bouncy house fun for the boys

Ash Wednesday (I missed getting a photo of K. She was already in her co-op class)

The sun is coming back!

L was here

A new favorite park

I took my girls to their first concert. What an incredible experience it was! My first concert was New Kids On The Block - I am so glad their first concert was with a band that uplifts and feeds the soul.


Lastly, The gifts I knit for L for his 8th birthday. I don't think I shared them here.
A rhino at his request (rav notes here) and a megalodon shark tooth fairy pillow (rav notes here).


I hope to be back in this space this or next week with a spring book list.

Here and there (and some knitting inbetween)

beautiFULL

These days have been beautifully full. We took our dying dog Paw Paw to the yearly blessing of the animals on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi. The children all brought a chicken as well and Baby F, who is not old enough to be responsible for a pet at the blessing, brought his favorite stuffed animal fox. I am sad I didn't get any photos of the actual blessing but if you just look at the face on my baby boy in the 2nd photo from the bottom, you might understand why. 😉😇

Kevin and I took the boys to a local harvest festival while the girls were having some special Grandma time. Baby F really enjoyed the folk band that was playing. I love to see him get into music like that. The festival couldn't hold a candle to our beloved Portland Waldorf School Harvest Festivals but we still had a good time. I think the boys were just happy to see firetrucks and pumpkins. They are easy to please.

Kevin had the chance to help out our landlord in the fields last week. Of course this made him a rock star to his boys. They watched in awe as he drove by. Our landlord is teaching him everything he knows about the tractors and farm life. Kevin told him just how much our boys love watching him when he is in the fields working so he brought them a John Deere book to look at and a toy catalog. I thought that was such a kind thing to do. It was a big deal to both my boys, especially L. I am afraid to say because well, Murphy's Law, but we really, really like our landlord. He is such a kind, caring person. We feel so fortunate to be renting from him and just to know him.

This move has been a blessing to us on so many levels.

beautiFULL

Baptism and First Holy Communion

Just to forewarn you - this post is very picture heavy.




This may seem a bit ridiculous but almost exactly a year later I am finally sharing a very special day - C's First Holy Communion and Baby F's Baptism. We were so very fortunate to have them both happen on the same day. With Kevin's retirement from the Air Force and our big move, our priest wanted to make sure that we were able to do both before we left. I am so very glad he did that - our Idaho Parish was like home for us so it was nice to be surrounded by family on such a day. I wasn't able to post about our day in a timely manner due to the aforementioned big life changes. I am hoping my little ones will understand when they see this one day.

I wasn't raised Catholic (I joined the church in 2013), my family is not Catholic, however my grandfather was and don't have a whole lot of close Catholic friends, so finding a Godparent is really rather hard for me. That is why Baby F wasn't Baptized until he was over a year old. I did a lot of praying that year and one very dear soul (who actually played an important part in my conversion) kept coming to mind. I asked her if she would be Baby F's Godmother and she said yes! Unfortunately she lives all the way on the other side of the country but my friend Aimee stood in for her.

I had hired a photographer to document such an important day in our lives but she was sick and had to cancel at the last minute (like as we were getting ready to head to the church). I admit I was pretty crushed. I have never hired anyone before but I really wanted beautiful photos of this. Thankfully Aimee's husband volunteered to take some photos so while they may not be professional, the moment is captured to remember!

Baby F slept through his entire Baptism up until the very end when everyone applauded. Then he woke with a start and as you can see by the photos wasn't too happy at first. A little love from all the children there quickly cheered him back up though. I am sure the sweets at the party afterwards helped a bit, too. 😆

C was nervous and excited about her First Holy Communion but handled it all very well. She must have been so proud of herself, I know I was so very proud of her. The church was too dark to really get any photos but I think you can see just how happy she was in the photos taken afterwards. She is my sweet girly-girl who loves to get dressed up so as you can imagine, she was in her glory in her Communion dress.

It seems rather poetic in a way that my two children that look the most like me and each other (as well as act very similarly - but C's calmness is the yang to F's craziness) shared such a beautiful day. I hope they treasure it as much as I do. It was truly one of the most favorite days of my life.

Baptism and First Holy Communion