Familia Hinckley

So cute Chistmas video!

2011-12-15T21:15:00.001-06:00

A few "recent" happenings

2011-12-12T15:17:00.006-06:00

My parents both completed their 60th year in 2011, therefore we celebrated!

Daniel completed 33 years at the end of November.
Our friends had a little "Preparing for Christmas" party to watch "A Christmas Carol" and visit.
After the movie, which was the Muppets' version, the kids dressed up. This is Solanus!

On the 6th of December, the feast of St. Nicholas, we joined some of our friends for a visit from the good saint. He asked the kids questions and they were rewarded for correct answers.

Yesterday, after Mass, there was a parish pot luck to celebrate St. Francis Xavier (the parish's patron), Guadete Sunday, and Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was complete with a pony to pet and a pinata! In the background, Father really enjoying the festivities.

A happy, tired Joseph on the ride home.

All Saints 2011

2011-12-10T21:36:00.012-06:00

Our little group of Catholic Homeschoolers organized an All Saints' party for the parish again this year. We had lots of games and candy and horseback riding and caramel apples and rosary making and plenty of food for the feast.
Juan Pablo wanted to go as St. Francis and Emmanuel wanted to go as St. Maximilian Koble (he loves to listen to his Holy Heroes story), so I figured I'd make a little band of Franciscans. Solanus went as St. Anthony (who also has a great Holy Heroes story) and Joseph as any one of those nameless Franciscan saints.

My good friend from Arkansas sent her daughter's costume from last year which she made. So Maria Victoria went as Mother Teresa. Unfortunately I didn't do a great job of figuring out beforehand how the sari should go so it kept falling down and eventually MV decided she'd had enough.

What blessed fun!

The Angelus

2011-11-15T12:10:00.002-06:00

I'm not a big fan of using youtube videos of prayer to do my daily prayers, but since I do not know all the prayers of the Angelus in latin, this video is perfect and beautiful to help me learn them. And I can imagine I'm in a convent for a few minutes of my day. :)

Not so classical Classical music!

2011-10-04T16:11:00.001-06:00

Goings-on

2011-10-01T22:00:00.005-06:00

These photos are not in any particular order, but they all went on within a month of each other...that month being September. I need to improve on capturing the various happenings around here (both by taking more photos and taking better photos), but here is what I did photograph...

We celebrated Our Lady's birthday on the 8th with friends. A last minute little get-together that turned out so lovely. We had this beautiful, delicious cake (made by my friend and her daughter) with which to honor Mary. We prayed a decade of the Rosary and sang "Happy Birthday!"

We had a pot-luck with most of the Catholic Homeschoolers in the area. Father came and led the Rosary and gave us all a blessing for our new school year. We made cross cookies with real whipped cream for the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross on the 14th.
Juan Pablo and Emmanuel started soccer. I had to take JP's photo because we were gone the week of photos for his team. Emmanuel had his taken by the official photographer. I'll have to get some of them together. They are doing great and we love that soccer is fun, not expensive, only a 2 month season, and we all get out there and kick the ball around in the evenings, at practice times and even between games. And we were extra blessed this year that both teams chose the same time and day for their practices.
We missed the second game, which was also pictures for Juan Pablo's team, because we were in Baton Rouge, LA. Daniel and I became the godparents of the little guy in the next two photos. John Paul was only 2 weeks old when he was baptized. We had a fun weekend hanging out with him, his big brother, and his parents. Emmanuel really loved taking care of him. I think he was a little fascinated by the way the baby would quiet when he stuck the pacifier in his mouth. We've never used one, so it was a new thing for Emmanuel to see. :)
We walked through the construction of the new parish hall. This picture is taken with the crosses that will go on top. We are excited about the progress and looking forward to using the new hall for celebrations, catechesis, Bible studies, etc.
And if I'm ever wondering why Solanus is so quiet while we're schooling, or why my camera lens is smudged, or why it doesn't work so well anymore, all I need to do is check out the pictures and videos I download on to my computer....

Almost 7 months photos

2011-08-29T13:14:00.003-06:00

Here's Baby Joey at 6 months. He amazes us all with his cuteness. He has just started to crawl and has already gotten into 2 trash cans today!

Here he is "eating" a banana.

Here he is "eating" his fingers...yes, he has teeth! Here Daniel is making him look silly.

Children are a Gift from God

2011-08-29T12:58:00.003-06:00

The County Fair and Parade were this weekend. We put together a Pro-life float again this year. I just realized that I never posted about our award-winning one last year, but I did post here about our first one in 2009.
Though done fairly last minute, I think it still turned out cute. The day was incredibly hot...like the last 9o days here in Texas. And I'm glad it is over, but I'm also glad we did it since it is a great way to evangelize.

Maria Victoria is 4.

2011-08-10T15:29:00.003-06:00

Our little lady turned 4 on Monday. We had a "ladies only" party to celebrate that morning. Seven friends ages 2-6 came... we also had three other mommies, 2 baby girls, and baby Joseph.
We prayed a decade of the rosary using the Holy Heroes CD which I highly recommend (we have all the Mysteries and the kids love them...basically a Scriptural Rosary prayed by kids). We prayed the 2nd Joyful Mystery, the Visitation, trying to help the girls think of the role model they have in Mary, the Blessed Mother, as she cared for her cousin, Elizabeth. Then we read about St. Therese of the Child Jesus from the Catholic Treasure Box Series, another recommended resource. She was given "sacrifice beads" by her older sister to make presents for Jesus. Every time she made a sacrifice, she pulled a bead. So the girls each made a string of sacrifice beads with a Miraculous Medal on one end. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of that since it took lots of helping hands to string the beads the right way.
Next Maria Victoria and I gave the girls a gift...an apron of their very own. I had made them all on Saturday. It was fun to get to use some of my fabrics and scraps.
Decked out in their aprons, they decorated and ate cupcakes while sipping pink lemonade from pretty teacups. I had a lot of fun making things pretty and it turned out a simple, lovely party.

Joseph (6mos) and Lucy (9mos)Birthday girl got to blow out candle again that evening when Daddy came home. Laus Deo.

Not our normal Colorado vaction...

2011-07-11T13:06:00.005-06:00

We just got back from a week in Colorado. We arrived at our cabin a week ago Saturday after the long drive. Sunday morning we headed to town for Mass and to check out the 4th of July weekend festivities. Later that evening as the women prepared dinner, the men worked on the work project for the year...installing two 250 gallon water tanks in the the new shed we had built last year. One was filled making it weigh over 2000 lbs. It was on my uncle's truck and my uncle, brother, and dad were trying to get it so that it could be emptied via a hose into the empty tank in the shed. At one point it started to slide off the truck and my dad instinctively reached for it. Somehow it fractured his forearm and put a long cut in his forehead. With a rush of adrenalin, my brother pulled the heavy tank off of my dad and rushed into the cabin to get help. My sister, mom, and aunt rushed him down to the main road where the ambulance picked him up and he (with my mom) were rushed to the hospital an hour+ away. There they determined he should be air-flighted to a hospital in Denver. After x-rays and a full scan of his body and a middle-of-the-night surgery, he was stabilized. The wound on his head had not done any damage to his skull or brain and his arm was cleaned of much rock, dirt, and grass, then the many pieces of bone were held together by "soft plates." After making sure the wound did not have any infection, they did major surgery on Wednesday which put two steel plates and 17 screws in his arm.
Back at the cabin, Daniel and I and the kids and who ever was not at the hospital, continued our vacation with Mass on July 4th morning followed by the local Independence parade. Then we spent the evening at the cabin. Tuesday, we headed to the mountains for a day hike that included fishing.
Daniel and I stopped at the meadow with the three little ones while Fr. Brian, Kevin and Melanie took Juan Pablo and Emmanuel on up to the lakes for fishing... I haven't got those pictures from my sister yet. Their hike was a total of 10 miles! Wednesday we packed up and cleaned up the cabin and headed to Denver to check on the patient.
We got there late that evening after he had been out of surgery for a while and was in good spirits.
He had another surgery scheduled for the next day to fix up his head. All went well and he had great care. We did some sight-seeing on Thursday: the Cathedral and the Denver Natural Science Museum. Both were great!

This side door to the Cathedral is in memory of Pope John Paul II's visit to Denver for World Youth Day in 1993. My brothers and I attended it...it's hard to believe that was 18 years ago.On Friday we packed up at the apartment we were able to use (friends of my cousin's who were out of town and had kids which meant my kids were in heaven playing with someone else's toys) and then headed to the hospital for one last visit and Mass (it was a Catholic hospital with a beautiful chapel). My dad was released just after we left, less than a week after the accident. Praise God. We arrived home Saturday afternoon and my parents arrived home Sunday afternoon at which time we had Mass filled with much prayers of thanksgiving for God's goodness and mercy and for the many prayers and love which were showered upon my dad and family at this time.
The readings were quite fitting as my brother pointed out in his homily. The first reading talked about how in God's kingdom all with be provided for in abundance using the illustration of bountiful rains and harvests. Right now when much of our land is in severe drought, we are longing for those rains and rich harvest. This should remind us how we need to be always longing for God's kingdom and life ever-lasting with Him. May our longing be lived out in our daily lives.
The second reading from St. Paul to the Romans talked about how our present suffering is nothing compared to the glory of God. So our sufferings resulting from drought, accidents, death of a loved one...the list goes on...we are groaning as we wait for redemption, for the glory God will reveal to us. "We have a hope in Jesus that all things will be well in the Lord." (song by Kelly Johnston)
And the Gospel parable of the Sower and the seed reminds us to prepare our soil so that it may be rich and produce a bountiful harvest...don't wait until tomorrow. We never know when we will breath our last...or what may happen to us today, as an accident like my dad's reminds us.

Recent outings

2011-06-14T14:18:00.003-06:00

Memorial Day weekend found me and little Joseph driving to Arlington for a Catholic homeschool conference for Friday and Saturday. The trip went great and the conference was wonderful. Great speakers and many venders to browse and buy books and other resources for this coming school year.
Meanwhile the rest of my family was camping out at Enchanted Rock and playing in "the crik."

This is Ezra, Juan Pablo, Emmanuel, Zachary, Grace, Maria Victoria, Caleb, and Solanus.At that time there was still some flowing water...not sure what it looks like now...still praying for rain.

Joseph: 3+ months

2011-05-21T13:43:00.003-06:00

Here's the big guy. :)

Bee-keeping

2011-05-21T13:15:00.003-06:00

As of April 30, Daniel officially became a bee-keeper. He has one hive and here are photos from this past Tuesday, May 17th, when he had to fill their feeder with sugar water. He'll do that until they are stable enough to get all their own food. The bee box is kept in our chicken pen. The hens and the bees seem to get along well enough. Bees are so fascinating and Daniel enjoys learning about them and passing his knowledge on to the kids and me...and whoever else is interested. I noticed our friends in Houston have started on the same adventure about the same time we did; they have some great videos here.

Here's the box. I'm not sure why there's a can up there and Daniel is not around to ask...I think it was the feeder can that was in the box they arrived in. He had to put little plastic containers of water on the bottoms of the legs up to the feeder since the ants also like sugar water.
Daniel is taking out a frame to show us the bees at work.He has gotten to where he only wears his mask...not the suit or gloves. He hasn't gotten stung, but doesn't want to take the chance of a bee sting on the nose.
He's pointing to the queen bee which he found by "wiping" the bees away...pretty brave...I guess he knows what he's doing. He does "smoke" them, which makes them think their hive is in danger of burning so that they run to the honey and drink to have energy to go find a new home.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T13:52:00.002-06:00

...from our family to yours.
(No that is not our house in the background...we took this in my brothers' front yard with his neighbor's house in the background.)

The Zoo

2011-03-25T22:04:00.006-06:00

Since our year pass for the Zoo will run out on the 31st and we had only used it one time, Daniel took off work on Tuesday and the 7 of us headed to San Antonio. I think we did pretty good: I nursed Joseph while at the hippos and other than that he slept the rest of the time in the stroller. Everyone was tired and hungry by the time we left to have our picnic lunch, but we saw most of the exhibits and hung out a bit with my sister-in-law and her 3 little ones (who live in SA and go to the zoo fairly often). Here's the few pictures we were able to take while constantly counting to five in order to make sure all our brood were in site. Oh, and just so you can think a little better of humanity...our camera was not stolen as we had thought. My aunt found it on the ground out at her place where we had a Christmas party, so we must of dropped it while getting out of the car.

Joint Birthday Party

2011-03-25T21:25:00.004-06:00

Juan Pablo turned 7 on March 12 and, as posted earlier, Solanus' birthday is on the 9th, and our friend Daniel S. has his birthday on March 13! So that means a joint party! It's great for us moms...share the work and the cost and enjoy an afternoon of fun together with all our mutual friends.
We had it out at the park, grilled up some hot dogs with all the fixings and sides, had a Scripture Scavenger Hunt, and another home-made pinata.

Here's the batting line-up:

Daniel stands proudly with his beautiful creation...well, he made the frame and the kids and I put the colored paper on it, so it was a lovely joint effort started at about 10am the morning of. We like to work under pressure.

Solanus gets ready to take the first swing.

We had some hard swingers among the little gals.
Little Daniel takes a running hit.Juan Pablo got a bit frustrated with the man behind the rope (aka "Dad") when the butterfly came flying at him and down on his head a few times. I had to give Daniel the "Come on. Do you have to beat your kid up with the pinata and make him cry on his birthday?" look.
The birthday boys before the cake.

THE CAKE!!!!

The Cake Artist!
I just baked it; Daniel decorated it.
And kudos to my sister who gave us this awesome cupcake mold in bug shapes! love ya, Aunt Melanie.

Mardi Gras Party Fun

2011-03-11T08:42:00.002-06:00

We are blessed with a great group of friends who got together to have a little feast before Lent. For my boys, being around these families allows them to have some great "BOY" time shown in the following photos:

Ash Wednesday Birthday

2011-03-11T08:31:00.002-06:00

Solanus turned 2 on Ash Wednesday. It's sort of a difficult day to really celebrate a birthday, but we did it! We sang "Happy Birthday" to him throughout the day. At noon we went to Mass. He received an ash cross on his forehead which he immediately smear and got all over his face, especially in his eyes. So I had to get out a baby wipe and try to clean him up. In the photos you can still see a bit of the black smudge on his forehead. For dinner we had cheese pizza and I turned some Mardi Gras leftover fruity, creamy jello dessert into his cake. And Viola!, we had a two year old birthday celebration. :)
Solanus doesn't say much yet, but we figured he's got the minimal vocabulary for a 2 year old: "No!" and "Mine." Both of which he says with the cutest smile on his face.

Fishing with Uncle Johnny

2011-02-28T09:47:00.006-06:00

We had a great afternoon yesterday fishing with my Uncle Johnny at his pond that he has stocked with catfish. My brother gave me the idea since he had done it last weekend with his 3yo son. The boys loved squishing around the pond calf-deep in mud.

Waiting...and trying to be quiet...and not throw rocks in and scare the fish away.
The first one we caught was on Daniel's pole, was reeled in bit by bit by: Daniel, Emmanuel, Maria Victoria, and Johnny. Daniel was the one who finally scooped it up in the net.

Daddy and Joseph.

Blacky, the dog joined us. Emmanuel says he wants a dog...I said we don't need a dog. We have chickens.

The kids were so dirty and fell asleep on the way home so we made the sleep on a pallet on the floor. They had a long bath this morning. :)

Joseph's Baptism

2011-02-20T21:08:00.003-06:00

Joseph Benedict was baptized by my brother, Fr. Brian, on Saturday. We had a little brunch afterward in the church hall. It was a beautiful day!

St. Valentine's Feast Day Party

2011-02-16T21:00:00.006-06:00

Our little homeschool group got together for a good ol' St. Valentine's party with an exchange of love notes, decorating heart-shaped sugar cookies, making Valentines for Jesus, and reading about St. Valentine. The kids all went home on sugar highs and smiles on their faces.Solanus decorated that cookie with a mountain of red hots. Mmmm.

Smiles
Tea and cookie party
Mrs. Coale got to hold sleeping Baby Joseph throughout the party.
Valentine baggiesPreparing Valentines the weekend before

Love

2011-02-16T20:50:00.005-06:00

I love these photos Daniel took the other day. He was using the sunlight streaming in our schoolroom window and had a lovely photo shoot with Joseph and Maria Victoria.

Growing

2011-02-12T09:25:00.002-06:00

Brothers - one week and almost 2 years

Sweet little one!

Joseph Benedict Hinckley

2011-02-08T21:40:00.006-06:00

Born at home on Friday, February 4, 2011 at 11:37am
10 lbs.
a good bit of brown hair
quite healthy
loves nursing, sleeping, and being held

On Friday I woke at about 4:40am because Daniel was going to cover my Eucharistic Adoration hour for me from 5-6am so I noticed him getting ready. But I also noticed what I thought could be contractions, real contractions! I laid there for a while trying to figure out if they really were and then trying to see if Daniel had left yet. I thought he had, but then I heard him come back in. I got up to go tell him that labor had started. He was back outside trying to remove the ice and snow from his windshield. I told him not to go since it was going to be a lot of trouble and since I was in labor. (Which was a good thing since we found out later that they had canceled Adoration due to the really frigid weather.)
So Daniel had his quiet time on the couch and I just walked around thinking about the contractions, what to do next, when I should call the midwife, when I should call my parents to see if they could watch the kids, and tidying up and thanking God that the day had finally come! :)
At 6:30am I called the midwife who lives in Dripping Springs to let her know I was having pretty regular contractions. She said she would leave in about 10 minutes. I thought that was fine since the weather could make her journey take a bit longer and I'd rather have her here even if it meant early in labor while I'm just walking about waiting for labor to progress. As it ended up, she had car trouble and trouble on the road and got to our house at 9am. She checked me right away and I was 7cm dilated. So she got her stuff set up and I just kept walking and changing positions since that seemed to help the contractions get stronger. If I sat down or laid down, the contractions would stop. Daniel helped by rubbing my lower back through contractions and just being a quiet, encouraging presence.
I'm not sure of the timing of the rest of it, but eventually I was ready to push. With the help of the midwife to get the baby in the right position by rocking my pelvis a bit, baby was pushed out with a few strong contractions and pushes. I remember that all I could say was "praise God" over and over because it was such a relief that it was over, that he was finally here in my arms, and everything went safely. Daniel and I got to just sit there in the quiet and rest and hold him for a long while while the midwife left us to do paperwork and such. It was really peaceful...
which was good since later that day the other 4 of our children came to see the baby. :) That was not so quiet, but I suppose peaceful in a different way. We were almost sure that baby Joseph's hearing mightn't have been working since he was able to sleep through their noisy exclamations, not to mention their climbing all over and rubbing his head and hands with their cold fingers, and being passed about to be held.
Thankfully the older kiddos had a sleepover at Oma and Opa's with their cousins and Daniel and I and Joseph had a restful night after a celebratory dinner and partial game of Scrabble (I just couldn't finish it since my brain seemed a bit foggy and not many words were coming to mind...).
We are adjusting well and have enjoyed having Daniel home. We are thankful to friends and family for prayers, support, meals, offers for grocery runs and play-dates for the other kids. Deo gratias.

No camera, no baby

2011-02-01T21:54:00.002-06:00

But both should come soon. I bought a new camera online (since our old one never showed up and we're pretty sure it was stolen out of our car the day after Christmas) and it should arrive this week.
Baby should be here in the next week or two and that's soon, right? Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and calls and such. We'll let you know when he arrives.

Holy Land

2011-01-17T13:59:00.002-06:00

For those interested, here's the link to my brother's blogspot from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land:
http://holylandpilgrimage2011.blogspot.com/
He went with a group from Central Texas which included my parents and my aunt and uncle.

Photo-less

2011-01-14T09:28:00.002-06:00

I realized that I rarely blog without photos anymore. Well, unfortunately we lost our camera around Christmas so we have no photos of Christmas or anything since then. Now with Baby #5 coming soon, I'm not panicking too much since Daniel does have a nifty iphone that takes fairly good photos, I believe. We've got a shout out to St. Anthony, Patron of Lost Things, to help us find it, but we also think it possibly was stolen from our car while parked at my brother's house in San Antonio the day after Christmas.
Alas, I felt I should give a hello those who stop in to see whether Baby Quinto (5th in Spanish) is born yet. Though I can hope that he comes sooner, my due date is January 29th, still 2 weeks away. I've been feeling well, though quite large and uncomfortable in general. I've been offering up as much as possible for other pregnant mothers and mothers all over and women suffering with infertility.
So please pray for my patience...and that maybe Baby will surprise us with an early arrival. :)

Merry Christmas from "our girls!"

2010-12-27T12:32:00.003-06:00

Maria Victoria was sent these 2 precious dresses by my sister's mother-in-law. When I had her try them on one night, Solanus did not want to miss out on the action.
So here they are all dressed up, "our girls." I love how the other boys laughed and then said, "Take it off! Take it off him!"

Emmanuel is 5!

2010-12-27T09:42:00.008-06:00

Emmanuel turned the big 5 last Monday. We had a fun day at the house with Daniel's mom, Mita, who visited for most of the day. Later my mom and dad and grandmother came over for dinner. When I asked Emmanuel what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he said "a gingerbread house." So I did my best to make from scratch a gingerbread house. It tasted great, but the roof was too thick and therefore too heavy for the walls. One wall broke and the roof had to be removed. But it got decorated anyway. We decided it was gingerbread castle ruins.

There was a whole lotta sugar consumed at my house that afternoon.

This photo taken some time before his haircut shows Emmanuel dressed up as some sort of Crusdader, Rambo guy. He loves to dress up.

Kiddo Pictures

2010-12-09T15:57:00.002-06:00

Prayers for friends

2010-12-07T16:35:00.005-06:00

Late Sunday night we found out that a friend of ours from college passed away. He and his wife were both friends of ours and even gave up getting their Aggie rings (which is a really big deal to us Aggies) and sent us a donation for our missionary life in Honduras for the exact amount of those 2 rings. But there is lot more to their story which I will let you read in this article they wrote for the USCCB's For Your Marriage program:

"In Sickness and In Health

By Matt and Lucy Coles

We had been engaged for 13 months, with 22 days until the big day, when Matt, at age 23, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. We could never have predicted this, with no history in the family and no smoking, but it wasn’t necessary. God was in control, our souls were flooded with peace, and the last 10 months have been nothing less than miraculous.

Matt had major surgery before we headed home from D.C. to Texas for our wedding, and four days after the wedding he had a second operation. Matt came home with some pretty awesome scars and a definitive diagnosis of terminal lung cancer. In the midst of the challenge, the Body of Christ overwhelmed us with love, support and an overabundant dose of prayers.

Along with the diagnosis of lung cancer came questions of chemotherapy and babies. We wanted lots of children, as many as God would bless us with. Our doctors advised us differently. We were asked multiple times if we would like to put sperm in a sperm bank in case the chemotherapy made Matt infertile. Most people on chemotherapy become infertile, and when the therapy is finished there is a 50% chance that it will be permanent. With no discussion needed, we told the doctor this was not an option. One of my greatest longings has been to be a mother, and as it is presented so wonderfully in Psalm 21, “You have granted him his heart’s desire; you did not refuse the prayer of his lips.” On February 16th we found out that we were pregnant. Matt is still going through treatment, and the Lord is abundantly good.

We write this as an encouragement to those who face adversity in their marriage. We can’t express enough the graces that are reaped through the Sacrament. The Lord has granted us many spiritual friends who, though we have never met them, pray for us daily. Through the sacrament and these loving prayers we are able to take our lives one day at a time, not worrying about the things that are to come, but focusing on loving: today, right now, every minute.

When we took our vows on June 24, 2006 we meant every word we said: “I, Matthew, take you, Lucy, to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.” And in turn: “I, Lucy, take you, Matthew, to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”"

Matt and Lucy have shared their life, marriage, family, and struggle with cancer through email updates which we received. And though we've had little contact with them over the years since our graduation from Texas A&M and wedding in June 2003, it is through those updates that we have been privileged to witness such faith, humility, patience, and love from their growing family in the midst of suffering. Daniel and I were (and still are, especially as I read back over their letters filled with comments like the following: "We also found out that as we had expected there are more tumors in Matt's brain. We were able to meet with the doctors here at MD Anderson, one of whom we saw 3 years ago during the initial diagnosis. I know it is hard to imagine, but the appointments were so joyful and each time we came out laughing at how amazing the Lord is! He allows these situations for our joy and not our demise! " ) continually inspired by their life and faith and joy.

The last time we saw them was in August of 2006 when we traveled from Honduras to New York City for a visit to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal. We met up with at a friary for Mass and then went out for pizza only a few months after their wedding and the initial cancer tests and treatments. They were a joyful, cute newlywed couple of whom you would have been completely surprised to find out Matt had cancer.

Their third son was born this past Thanksgiving Day...Matt was able to spend a little over a week with his little baby before departing from this world. He's one of those people you want to canonized right away because you know he spent much of the last 4 and a half years being purified and purged here on earth. You see someone who has lived the daily joys and struggles of married and family life under the burden of a huge cross on his back, yet carried it without complaining and instead with the attitude of St. Paul: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church." Colossians 1:24

Matt was one of those people you wished you knew better because in just being around him you feel that his faith would rub off on you, inspire you to get on in living the life of Christ like you only have a year to live, to quit dragging your feet as you go about the daily life of parent and spouse.

Matt and Lucy really lived the unity of the spouses as the Sacrament of Marriage gives the grace to do. They were tested from the beginning to live it by being faithful "in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health." Thankfully, the Mystical Body of Christ will allow them the unity still.

Please pray for Matt's soul and for Lucy and their boys John-Matthew, Pio, and Andrew.

I finish off this little tribute to Matt (and Lucy...for they are always in my mind one) with a prayer that he wrote and Lucy sent out for those unable to attend the funeral.

To live your life, oh Christ - here, now, and with my whole being.
To give every one of my days to You, and with each of my actions to live in Your presence.
To put others before myself - and to give myself for them.
To focus on taking care of myself only insofar as it is an act of love towards you, Lord and towards others - especially Lucy and our family.
To love without measure and without fear.
To be misunderstood by this world, and to love you all the more!

The obituary can be found here: http://www.crowderfuneralhome.com/obituaries.htm

Pro-life Float 2010

2010-11-15T13:55:00.005-06:00

This is from a while back, but I finally got around to getting the photos from a friend and posting them. This was our second year to put together a pro-life float for our County Fair Parade in August. The theme we used this year was "Every Child Deserves a BIRTHday." We had great fun putting it together and being in the parade. We even got 2nd place in the category we were in: "community organizations." Last year I had to make up a name for our group, so we have the Gillespie County Pro-Life Group. Our only activity is the float and we don't have a membership of any sort, but maybe we'll have to work on doing more with it....especially making an effort to go to the Texas Walk for Life in January....though that is the ninth month of my pregnancy. :)

We started out with a round bale of hay for our "cake."

Trying to get the candle just right.

The day of the parade: our cute birthday party attendees.
More beautiful faces.

With our red ribbon.

As seen from a distance.

Group shot.

Did I ever tell you we have chickens?

2010-11-01T22:28:00.005-06:00

Well, we do. Eight of them in our backyard. Four Rhode Island Reds, two Amerucanas, one Silver Wyandotte, and one Black Australorp. In a pen and coop Daniel fashioned for them. They just started laying eggs last week. We're up to about 3 eggs a day, but they are still small. We put some plastic Easter eggs in their boxes just to let them know we were expecting them to lay some eggs soon and that those three nesting boxes were the perfects places. The blue one is a real egg from one of our Amerucanas.
They are all hiding in this tree in their pen. We had to reinforce their pen and clip their wings in order to get them to stop getting out since I had a visit from one of our civil officers letting me know of neighbors complaining that our chickens were out and about in their yards and they didn't like it. Now they stay in most of the time...this morning when Emmanuel was checking for eggs, one the gals hop out the little door and had a glorious time running around the lawn eating grass seeds. They have pecked the lovely grass in their pen down to dust. Emmanuel told us that he told her to get down, but she just didn't do what he asked.

All Hallow's Eve Party

2010-11-01T21:34:00.007-06:00

At the small parish in a rural town where we often attend Mass, a group of families decided to get together an All Saint's Party for October 31. Though we let the whole parish know they were invited, it ended up being just our little homeschool group of families and some grandparents attending. Nonetheless, we had a great time and really enjoyed the fruits of our preparatory efforts, which helped the children focus on the Saints and the Holy Souls more than a normal night of trick-r-treating would have done.
So here are the pictures of the evening which included St. Cecilia's Musical Chairs, St. Peter's Fishing Pond, Our Lady Queen of All Saints Ring Toss, Saints Bingo, Saintly Virtue Race, decorating goody bags and glass candle jars, enjoying lots of homemade treats and snacks, and ending the night with the singing of the Litany of the Saints.
Oh, I almost forgot the surprise of the night was the horseback rides provided by one of the parishioners. The kids loved it.

The two St. Kateri's: Maria Victoria and Suzanne. My mom altered and decorated a t-shirt for Maria's costume. I made her headband and even got her to let me braid her hair which stayed in all night. Suzanne is holding Solanus who is dressed as an Holy Innocent. I know, that was definitely a no-effort costume. :)
Daniel impressed everyone with his St. Juan Diego costume. He drew Our Lady of Guadalupe with some of his oil pastels. It turned out really well and he figures he has his costume for the next ten years of All Saint's Day.
The little Lily of the Mohawks.
If you click to enlarge this picture you can see it better though it is a bit dark. It is one of the few photos I have of Juan Pablo in his entire St. Edward the Confessor costume that we made out of a men's turtleneck and some scraps of material from the thrift store. The crown is poster board spray-painted gold with hot-glued jewels and ribbon. I might have him dress up in it again to get a good picture.
Some of the adults dressed up, too: left to right we have St. Hubert, St. Gianna Molla, St. Damien of Molokai (on his day off), and St. Juan Diego.
Here's most of the kiddos.
Here's the musical chairs.
The Saintly Virtue Race turned out to be a great "Big Kid" game. Behind you can see St. Peter's Fishing Pond.
Emmanuel is "clothing the naked like St. Martin of Tours" in the Saintly Virtue Race.
The jar-decorating table. I found the idea on another blog and prepared the tissue strips in the week before by painting them. That night we just modge-podged them on. We lit the tea lights in them for the Litany of Saints and it looked quite nice.
The Litany of the Saints.

Faces

2010-11-01T21:25:00.002-06:00

Mustache Saturday

2010-10-22T21:15:00.004-06:00

This is our latest family photo. We all got dressed up especially for it. Aunt Melanie helped add some character with her purchase of "Self-Adhesive Stylish Mustaches." We're thinking about using these for our Christmas family photo, too. What do you think?

Solanus find his upper lip a bit sticky afterwards.

Family Retreat with Community of St. John

2010-10-13T18:59:00.005-06:00

Last weekend, we went on a camping family retreat at a ranch in Buda. This is the second year we've been and this year the weather cooperated much more to our liking. The Brothers and Sisters of St. John from Laredo come up to put on the retreat while the facilities and food are provided by a very generous family who converted part of their land into this simple, beautiful retreat area.
Though Juan Pablo had to miss both his soccer practice and game for the week, he got to play a good amount of soccer at the retreat.
Daniel and I agree that this isn't really a retreat for us in the way of refreshing and relaxing aside from the part where we don't have to cook any meals or wash any dishes. We sleep somewhat uncomfortably in a tent, trek up the hill continuously to take kiddos to the restroom, and don't follow our normal family schedule...so in that sense the weekend is actually more work. But we had a beautiful Mass each day of the weekend, the opportunity for Confession many times throughout the weekend, many opportunities to visit with other parents and with the brothers and sisters of St. John, as well as two spiritual talks, Stations of the Cross, and a Eucharist-led Rosary Procession.
So that's the retreaty-ness of the it. :)

Putting up the tent on Friday afternoon.The opening Mass at sunset on Friday.Tent village.Rosary/Eucharistic Procession

Closing Mass

Faith & Family Live! : Stimulate with Literature

2010-09-25T15:05:00.000-06:00

Faith & Family Live! : Stimulate with Literature

Faith & Family Live! : Life Without Television

2010-09-25T15:02:00.000-06:00

Faith & Family Live! : Life Without Television

You know you're homeschooling when. . .

2010-09-03T11:56:00.002-06:00

"Math class lasts four hours.
Recess lasts five hours.
The "cafeteria cook" is a 2nd grader.
You can bring your dog to class.
Your teacher and the principal hold hands. . ."

That's from Theresa Johnson at Catholic Heritage Curricula. Now we'll have to come up with our own.

Of late...

2010-08-19T15:33:00.005-06:00

Maria Victoria turned 3 on August 8th!

Solanus fell asleep in his chair, but he does not have chicken pox...those are just a bajillion mosquito bites from Honduras. Just try not to chuckle. My kids were laughing for several minutes straight after seeing this pic. Can we say "Son of Daniel"?

Ella Causes Abortion

2010-08-19T15:14:00.001-06:00

Go here for info and to sign a petition.

Faith & Family Live! : Wild Innocent Joy

2010-08-05T09:33:00.000-06:00

Faith & Family Live! : Wild Innocent Joy

Honduras 2010

2010-08-05T09:27:00.016-06:00

On Saturday, July 24, 2010, we headed back to our old stomping ground, namely Comayagua, Honduras. We had a long day of traveling, but it was made better and easier by the company of my parents and our friends from Louisiana, the G family. Our first place to visit once we drove into town in our 11 passenger van was Convento San Seraphin where the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal live. It hadn't changed much which was good because a lot of the town had. The turtles were still there in the Atrium. The chapel had only changed in that the altar was set up for the priest to celebrate Mass facing the altar. "Hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves, so that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally!" ~St. Francis of Assisi

We stayed in a hotel the first night because a large retreat was being held in Casa Guadalupe, the building we were in Honduras to help build.
On Sunday we had a late Mass and brunch at the Friary before moving into Casa Guadalupe. We also went to the birthday party of some dear friends of ours who were in town for a visit with family and the same wedding we were in town for. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this fiesta, because Marcela's mom went all out: marimba players, a popcorn machine, a cotton candy machine, hand-made Dora and Diego back-packs with goodies for all the kiddos, and dinner of Arroz con Pollo...yum!
The weekdays were filled with gatherings, visits to friends, pila baths for the kids, and the normal things you have to do with kids like naps and snacks and reading books (the same 5 books we brought down over and over again).
On Friday we visited Siguatepeque, the birth town of Juan Pablo. We even went to the doctor I had for all the children since we are expecting #5. Dr. confirmed with his ultrasound that we are having another boy due sometime in February. We also visited the large garden/plant nursery where we would buy plants and pottery. On Saturday morning, one of the kids favorite events of the trip happened: food packing. The friars give out bags of food to 120 families once a month. A few families come on the Saturday before the Monday hand-out to bag up rice and beans. 50 pound sacks are poured into large tubs from which the beans or rice are scooped into about 3 pound bags. The kids loved sinking their hands into the rice, letting it fall through their fingers, and even throwing it at each other. After all the smaller beans and rice bags were made, heavy duty grocery sacks were filled with 2 bags of beans, one bag of rice, a small bag of sugar, some salt, vegetable oil, powdered milk, and laundry soap. After taking his first bag around to all the stations to fill it with each item, Emmanuel came to me and said, "Momma, that was so much fun. I want to do it again!"
The wedding was a beautiful Catholic Mass with 3 priests, a seminarian, beautiful music in a lovely chapel. It was somewhat bilingual since the groom is from Michigan and his family doesn't speak much Spanish. It was also almost 2 hours long.

Emmanuel took a nap during the wedding, while Juan Pablo fell asleep soon after he'd finished his meal at the reception which was very nice but very late.

Though it was late, these two let the loud music keep them going and happy.
On Sunday morning we went to Mass at the parish which is right next to the friary and Casa Guadalupe. Afterwards we headed up the mountain a bit to the friars' hermitage with Fr. Francis Mary for a picnic outing.
We played the game "Telephone" where you have to listen to what someone whispers in your ear and then whisper what you hear into the next persons ear. This is quite fun when you have our mix of young children and a few adults. Father was obviously enjoying whatever Emmanuel was whispering.

Daniel also made time during the week to help with some design plans for the lay group of Missioners of Christ who he had done work for when we lived here before. They are adding on some extra rooms on the other side of their chapel.

Monday morning after going to Mass, packing up, saying good-byes, and visiting the Poor Clares, we headed north to the beach where we stayed until Wednesday morning when we headed to the airport. Though overcast, the beach was great. It is so relaxing listening to the waves as you fall asleep at night.

Solanus after he rolled up on the beach.
This little cutie had his serious face on for this photo. He is G family baby and we think we toughened him up as Solanus was constantly sitting on him or trying to hug (bang heads with) him. Driving to the airport with our friend Brittany who was able to join us for our beach excursion. She and the kids loved telling stories and playing games which made the car trips a bit more bearable.
We made it back to Texas and to our home safely. We are glad to be back, though we enjoyed our visit. We probably won't be able to afford to travel like that ever again, so we are grateful for the experience and pray for all those we left, especially the poor and suffering. Jesus loved them especially and we have to learn from that.

Colorado 2010

2010-07-11T15:08:00.018-06:00

We spent the last week of June at our cabin in Colorado. It was beautiful and a lovely time with family. Here are pictures:

Daniel's Etch-a-Sketch masterpiece.
The whole gang.Opa showing off his toy. We rented a backhoe for a little excavating.
Mule deer crossing.
Smore time!
Dirt Cousins: Maria Victoria and Ezra had great fun rolling in the dirt.
Cousin cuties. Solanus and Emersyn watch the rest of the cousins play a Sunday afternoon soccer game.
Lower Sand Creek Lake where Daniel, Juan Pablo, Emmanuel, Aunt Melanie, Uncles Kevin, Brent, and Brian all camped and fished.
Emmanuel is all smiles and excitement at the bottom of the trail.

Yummy fish.
Rock climbing.
Emmanuel's catch.
Dinner. These are some hungry boys. Hurry Uncle Brent!
Scenery on the way up.
Most of the family hiked to this point. Then the campers went on up and the rest headed back down.
Where we all had lunch before splitting up.
Miss Maria at one point on the hike.Daniel and the boys as they are coming down the next day...all tired and dirty. A sunset from our cabin.Juan Pablo's Etch-A-Sketch masterpiece.
Story time with Oma.

The tree swing the uncles put up.

Trouble

2010-05-30T12:17:00.003-06:00

Baby Solanus, at 14 months, learned how to climb and it seems like he is now always on top of the table, usually reaching for something dangerous or messy to spill. (He knows how to pull chairs out and climb them to get up higher.) He also is finding his way into lots of other fun places:

Lawnmower

Washing Machine

Latex Paint

Hailstorm 2010

2010-05-15T20:07:00.006-06:00

It started to thunder this afternoon as we were playing outside. A loud rolling thunder that sent Maria Victoria running to find me on the front steps where I was reading the Catholic novel Fatherless. Then came the lightening...and a few large rain drops. By this time we were all standing in or near the garage with its door open. When it started to hail, I sent the neighbor boy home and Daniel pulled the van into the garage. The hail stopped and the rain let up a bit after about 2 minutes and we considered pulling the van back out so that the rain might wash off some of the dust...Good thing we didn't!!! Two more minutes later, the sky broke open. We ran from back porch to front porch watching the ground come alive with little white balls hopping as they hit. At times the wind flung the hail at us as we huddled in the doorway of the porch. The largest stone I saw was the size of a large grape, though Daniel thought some were the size of golf balls.

We went to look up "hail" in some of our books.
We called to my parents (five miles west of town) to see if they had any hail; they didn't.
We called to my aunt and uncle (20 miles east of town) to see if they (with their large orchard full of ripe and soon-to-be-ripe peaches) had any hail; they didn't and we said more prayers that the storm would stay far, far away from them.
We lamented the fact that our garden which was looking sooo good with soon-to-be-ready squash, hundreds of tomatoes flowers on the 11 tomato bushes, which we had just been proudly showing off to extended family only 4 hours prior...we lamented that it would be ruined.
We watched the hail mound up around the houses, cover the roofs, streets, and lawns.
We thought it was lessening only to see it pounding harder moments later.
We prayed for it to stop.
We prayed for the farmers' crops to be spared.
We took lots and lots of pictures and videos.

Then finally it stopped. And out we went to check the damage, to explore the neighborhood, to see the beautiful sky and the eerie steam, to chat with other curious neighbors, to wade through the icy cold streams in the streets and the pond in the back of our yard, and to take more pictures of the aftermath of the worst hailstorm I personally have ever seen. It rained at least 3 inches in about an hour, plus all the hail that doesn't register in the rain gauge.

The first 3 pictures are of our front walk and lawn as the hail piles up...especially in my pot of pansies.

The next 3 are of our garden: corn, tomatoes, and squash. I wish I had "before" photos.
We read that hail is formed in layers as it falls, gets rain on it, is flung back up by the wind and freezes that covering of rain, falls again, is covered with rain, flung up....and finally is heavy enough to fall to the ground. So this picture shows the layers of the hail, especially if you click on it to enlarge it.
The combination of the roof's slant and metal made these neighbors' collect quite a pile of hail!

The clouds that brought us the hail.

Ice Cream Truck...

2010-05-10T22:47:00.005-06:00

We just couldn't resist that happy little tune moving down the street toward our house. Well, it was actually me who heard it, dropped the dish towel and ran out of the kitchen and through the front door to see the Ice Cream Truck. I'd never heard it before in our neighborhood...or actually seen it at all since we moved back...so this was exciting. Ice cream trucks and carts are a big part of our past from Honduras' central square where there are several men with little carts with jingling bells to remind you that their ice cream is only steps away just in case you didn't see them...to New York City's ice cream truck that ran frequently up and down, back and forth in front of our windows...or so it seemed with its syrupy little jingle that made you want ear plugs more than ice cream...and back to Nicaragua with those same little ice cream men and carts in front of the Cathedral before and after every Mass.
It's sort of funny that we actually bought ice cream from this peddler, since we never did from those above. But I guess I got so excited when I heard that tune and figured out what it meant that I didn't think that it might be awkward if when I ran outside and the truck then stopped right in front of our house, if I just stood there smiling and staring in a dreamy, reminiscing sort of way. So once I realized they were waiting for me and probably looking around for children, I started yelling for the kids who came running when I said "ice cream." And the photos tell the rest of the story.

You can just barely see the ice cream truck on the left side of the photo.

Bear Hunt

2010-05-10T22:38:00.002-06:00

Go to my sister-in-law's blog post to see some pictures and stories from our May 1st weekend.
We had a great time, but I really am going to start looking out for a good deal on some better bedding than we have...which is really nothing but two old sleeping bags I snagged from my parents' and an old comforter from the same place.
Then again, sleeping like that one night made me remember to appreciate the bed I do have the next night.

Living History Farm

2010-04-30T09:54:00.009-06:00

I've been wanting to take the kids to the nearby living history farm for a while. A few weeks ago when a friend called me up in the afternoon to tell me about an opportunity to go the next morning at 8, I thought, "That's a bit early, but we can do it." We would be doing someone a favor, meeting up with friends, and doing what I've been wanting to do. The favor part was being available for a photo shoot that was happening at the farm. So we got to bed a bit earlier that night and everybody was up, dressed and fed by 7:30. Now that's a feat!
It was a great day and here it is in photos:

This is homemade lard soap scented with lavender.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

2010-04-04T21:44:00.008-06:00

As I was brushing my teeth tonight, I realized to my great horror that I had forgotten to have my children brush their teeth. Now on most any other day, I would have just rolled my eyes, sighed, and maybe said a short prayer for mercy. But, today of all days, they needed to brush those little teeth. Because today they gobbled more sugary treats than all other days of the year. And rightly so. I don't regret letting them eat the candy, fudge, cake, jello eggs, brownies, and more candy on this holy celebration of our Lord's Resurrection from the dead... but their teeth did need a good brushing. Oh, well, it would take a good loud bullhorn to wake them up now as they were all bushed after an early rising to eat "Ressurection Rolls" before 9am Mass. Mass was followed by a fun delicious brunch and egg hunt with several families from Church. Eventually after much visiting and playing...and eating treats, we headed home to get dinner ready for Daniel's parents. We had another egg hunt with them, plus a walk and games of tag and "capture the flag" and "Simon says." No one napped except Solanus. They did eventually crash...before I remembered to hand them their toothbrushes. Please, God, don't let their teeth rot while they sleep.

Below are photos of Solanus from Saturday night. He was still up when I was putting out Easter things including a bowl full of chocolate. While I went into the laundry room, he did this:
I must remember that he can reach items on the table. :)
May you and your family have a grace-filled Octave of Easter!

Busy Zoo Day

2010-03-21T14:30:00.002-06:00

On Thursday my mom and I and the kids met up with my sister-in-law and her two kids at the Zoo. It turned out to be a crowded one, but the weather was nice and we didn't lose anyone. We look forward to going again soon...after the Spring Break season!

I love zoos because they are one of those nice places where you'll see lots of children, where children are welcome, and where children's natural curiosity is stirred and can be easily directed towards awe in God as Creator.

Juan Pablo is 6!

2010-03-19T11:10:00.005-06:00

He turned six last Friday and so we spent the day with Daniel's parents. The day included making a pinata for his party the next day, playing outside most of the day in the beautiful weather, and eating fish sticks and homemade macaroni and cheese and Blueberry Jello Yum.Nice fish...or is it a bird...I can't decide even though I made it.

On Saturday we had a party with friends and cousins out at the park. It was another beautiful day, but not quite windy enough for really good kite flying, though we did try and had three kites up for a bit. This picture is definitely not that great but it's all I snapped.On Sunday we had a campfire in our backyard to burn our Christmas tree and roast marshmallows. And tonight we are going camping. Its a week for being adventurous, I suppose.

Happy Birthday, S-man! We love you, Solanus.

2010-03-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

My baby completes his first year of life. God is so good. May He be give all praise and thanksgiving for all that He does for us. I can't help but sing God's praises when I look at these pictures of Solanus Antonio Hinckley's first year of life. Solanus is such a wonderful babe. Here's a look at his first year in photos:

one month

two monthsthree monthsfour months
five monthssix monthsseven monthseight monthsnine monthsten monthseleven monthstwelve monthsWhat precious gifts God gives us in each of our children, in all children! Who are we to say that one or the other should not exist? May all our words and actions witness to the truth that all human life has dignity, that marriage is for family, that children are the fruits of marriage, not the burdens or baggage to be shoved into the "later, not yet, when we're ready" category.

Columbian Aborrajados for Brother Juan Pablo

2010-03-07T23:03:00.005-06:00

Our "adopted" son Juan Pablo Rodriguez, now a brother and seminarian with the Missionary of Charity Fathers in Rome, sent me this recipe in a letter he wrote last October. He is from Columbia, but we met him in Honduras when he came down to serve as a Missioner of Christ. This past Friday, I finally got around to trying it out.

First you take plantains that are really ripe.Cut them into one inch long pieces, fry them, and smash them.Put cheese and some sort of fruit jam in between two pieces. The recipe called for guava paste, but we used apricot jelly since that's what we had.Dip the sandwiches in a simple flour, milk, sugar, egg batter and fry. I should have added more flour to the batter as they are supposed to be like fritters. We all tried them right out of the pan, so the faces I got of the kids were of "oh, that's caliente!"They were great, Br. Juan Pablo! :) Muchas gracias, hijo mio.

If you want to try them, go here for a recipe.

Go here to sign a Petition for the Reform of Catholic Campaign for Human Development

2010-03-06T10:29:00.002-06:00

Obama's budget cuts in 50 seconds...

2010-03-05T10:34:00.001-06:00

Check it out here:
http://www.wimp.com/budgetcuts

In the last few weeks...

2010-02-21T19:50:00.005-06:00

...we celebrated St. Valentine's day by making and decorating yummy cookies....we celebrated Mardi Gras by making green, purple, and yellow pancakes for breakfast.

...we took a family photo at my Grandmother's 85th birthday party since we were all dressed up.

...we went to the San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio to meet some friends for Mass and lunch and walking around the Riverwalk. Daniel and I decided we really like the plaza there because it reminds us of the central plazas in Comayagua and Matagalpa....and, yes, Solanus started walking.

Homeschoolin'

2010-02-08T20:21:00.002-06:00

Here are some photos from last week's homeschooling group (alternate Wed. mornings at our house, for now), with the edible candle crafts and teaching about blessed candles and St. Blaise. We also have a little spanish lesson every time.
Fun!

Daniel's Trip for Dedication of Convento San Antonio

2010-02-05T09:53:00.011-06:00

Last week Daniel flew down to Matagalpa for the inaguaration of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal Friary called Convento San Antonio. This is the friary Daniel help design and get started building while we lived in Honduras and Nicaragua from October to the end of December of 2008. He also went down again in January of '09 for three weeks. But since then he had not seen it except for photos now and then. So this was a real treat to be able to go and see the fruit of his labor. He also enjoyed hanging out with the friars, participating is beautiful, reverent Masses and Holy Hours, and getting a little time away from his normal work.
This is his week in photos:

The courtyard and front of the chapel.

What else you see when you enter the courtyard: doors to bodega (storage), porter's office, public restroom.

The "Jesus" rosette stone and bell.

Saturday was the dedication. This is in the courtyard before the Mass.

Mass with the Bishop. There is a special rite for blessing of the altar and church.

Bishop anoints with chrism oil the walls of the chapel in 4 places. A wooden cross was was then put over the places by Fr. Bernard.

Some of the Missioners of Christ came for the dedication. Here Carol Restaine receives the Body of Christ from the Bishop.

The friars from both the friaries in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, and Comayagua, Honduras and Fr. Bernard from New York.

View of the chapel from just inside the door showing the arches separating the narthex from the chapel. It also shows the beautiful wood ceilings and the stone floors.

Chapel.

Chapel.

Corridor.

Statue in corridor.

Daniel and Fr. Bernard.

Recent Pictures

2010-01-29T23:19:00.003-06:00

I took these on Tuesday to have them printed out for Daniel to take on his trip to Nicaragua for the dedication of the friary he helped design, Convento San Antonio. He left on Thursday and will return Tuesday. I was pregnant while we were in Nicaragua, so now those we knew can see little Solanus (11months) as well as the growth of Juan Pablo (5.5), Emmanuel (4), and Maria Victoria (2.5).

Two Beautiful Videos

2010-01-21T09:38:00.002-06:00

One of the gift of one particular life and vocation to the priesthood:

One of the gift and dignity of all hunan life:

From the house blessing ...

2010-01-07T16:07:00.007-06:00

Our house is far from set up like we want it, but it is home. Here are a few photos taken after/during the house blessing. The boys' /toy room.

Daniel sprinkling the house with holy water. Normally the priest would do it, but since my brother Fr. Brian is hobbling around after surgery for a torn Achilles' tendon, he told Daniel to do it.

The school room is the only room that we've painted. It now has a school table in it, too. :)

Fr. Brian before Mass in the living room.

Our front door.

Home

2009-12-31T21:32:00.002-06:00

Okay, so you thought I was going to post pictures of our new home, but I'm not...at least not yet.
This is a beautiful video that I wanted to share.

We are having Mass and a house blessing tomorrow, Feast of Mary Mother of God. So I'll try to take some photos and post them later. Happy 7th day of Christmas and last day of 2009.

Awaiting Jesus' Birthday

2009-12-21T10:10:00.003-06:00

The children set up the manger scene with various toys the other day. In Honduras, families would do this in their homes. Many times they would clear out a part of their front room or an area near their front door to set up a manger scene for people to come by to see. In visiting people's homes during the Christmas season or Posadas, you might find Mickey Mouse among the town's people or Winnie the Pooh out in the field.

Snow in Texas!

2009-12-21T09:48:00.003-06:00

This was a while back, but these are photos from the hour or two of snow we were blessed with. The children loved it. We all did! Snow is "magical," most especially in Texas! :)

"Teacher, Teacher, what do you see?"

2009-12-21T09:13:00.002-06:00

"I see children looking at me."

Quote from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

Since we have a new house with a large living room, we decided to open up a day care.
Just kidding. :)
This is really just a picture of all the children at Emmanuel's 4th birthday party yesterday. Here's the birthday boy!
I love you lots, Emmanuel.

Bring Me into Your Home: Mary's Song

2009-12-16T14:56:00.002-06:00

Just wanted to share this beautiful song written and performed by a dear friend.

Bah Humbug Fundraiser

2009-12-16T13:35:00.002-06:00

This sounds like a fun way to support Life for those of you in the San Antonio area!

"Each year we have been pleased to help bring to you the talents of Damian Gillen and his one man show "Bah Humbug". This family friendly, hilariously funny, show has become a great annual Christmas event for those of us at the SACFL and once again we want to offer it to you!

This play is a kid friendly event that brings to you the wonderful messages of A Christmas Carol as told by one man- all in costumes no less! So bring the kids, laugh during the show and enjoy yummy cookies and hot chocolate during intermission!

Mark your calendar: Tuesday, December 22nd from 7pm-8:30pm. The show will be hosted by Atonement Academy located at 15415 Red Robin Rd, San Antonio 78255. We will be in the St. Anthony Hall.

You can buy tickets by going to Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/93184 . Pre-ordered tickets are just $20 and tickets are available at the door for $30. All the proceeds for this event will go directly to supporting the work and efforts of the San Antonio Coalition for Life. We are a 501c3 tax deductible organization.

As many of you know, we have paid our rent in full for the year at our new office/crisis pregnancy center, just a mere 300 yards down the sidewalk form the Planned Parenthood on Babcock Rd. This fundraiser will be a great help in replenishing our bank account as we enter the new year.

So bring the family and join us for a fun and entertaining night- great for all ages- with cookies and hot chocolate to boot! See you there! "

Hearts

2009-12-10T14:07:00.001-06:00

See Blair's post on the "Open Wide Our Hearts to Christ!" Campaign. It's her post from Tuesday, December 8, 2009.

New Popple CD.

2009-11-30T23:27:00.005-06:00

I just listened to samples on their site: www.popple.us
Sounds great.

Also, L'Angelus has a new cd of Sacred Hymns which I bought Daniel for his b-day. It is heavenly.

And for you Sound of Music lovers, I found that four of Maria Von Trapp's great-grandchildren perform now. I really want their a cappella cd. You can listen and buy cds on their site: http://www.vontrappchildren.com/

A Home

2009-11-30T22:17:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow we get the keys to our new home. A little over 11 months ago we moved back to Texas from Nicaragua. We said good-bye to "our" beloved friars and the few Nicaraguans we had gotten to know in the 3 months we lived there, including the bishop, who is a dear and holy man. We also said good-bye to life as a missionary family. At the time it was such a relief to know that that was the last time we'd have to pick up our growing family and move to another country. We knew we'd miss the friars and various other things about missionary life, but the struggle in raising a family of young children (at the time I was expecting our fourth) was very real and difficult.
As I look back now, I know that it was a good thing for us to do. I am tempted to ask myself whether we could have done it, whether we could have gone back after the baby was born and still be living there, but I really don't know. It's never easy to figure out what might have been, nor is it really necessary in this case.
So here we are now after living almost a year with my parents and looking and looking and looking for a house or land to build a house...just anything that we could afford, here we are, the owners of a home. It took longer than I thought...ha! I remember thinking that we'd move back to Texas and be in a home before the baby came. Boy, was I naive. Daniel didn't even start his job until the week after the baby was born.
I got the paper every week and torn through the real estate ads just hoping I'd find something we could afford, something with an acre or two, something that wouldn't make Daniel's commute too far, something liveable, but simple. And when I say liveable, we weren't asking much. Our previous home had been infested with rats (including some living in the dining table's hollow legs), had holes in the ceiling where bats from the attic could come in the bedroom, had a clogged and dripping sink in the bathroom, had mud lines on the walls about 5 feet up from the previous year's flood, and had the usual pilas outside for washing clothes, though I had the luxury of a washing machine next to them.
So, no, we weren't asking for much, but the market in our particular town was not the same as the rest of the country and prices just stayed up there. Finally in October, we found a place. We just had to wait to close for several reasons.
God has His plans and He truly amazed me with the way it has all worked out. If we had found a place sooner, I probably would not have spent as much time with my grandmother who unexpectedly passed away in September. Several things like this have shown me just how worthwhile our patience has been. God is so good.
Our Advent will have the added dimension of preparing our home for Christmas. My prayer is that we will not get so busy in this that we fail to prepare our hearts.

Words from the Wise Old Birthday Boy

2009-11-30T21:08:00.004-06:00

I made Buttermilk Pound Cake because it is a recipe from Fr. John Anthony, CFR, who shares a birthday with my husband. It is also the Feast of All Franciscan Saints. And this year it was the First Sunday of Advent!

I'm also posting a photo of our Game Day attire. On Thanksgiving Day, the Aggies played the Longhorn and we showed our Aggie Spirit. This was the second Thanksgiving since we've been married that we've been with my family and have watched "the game" with them...most are Aggies and all are sports fans...so they don't miss "the game." It was fun to watch it with them despite the Aggies' loss.

Here's Solanus being cute.

They vote tomorrow! Let us pray.

2009-11-06T09:36:00.000-06:00

Conversion

2009-11-04T09:28:00.001-06:00

Praise God for this conversion. Let's continue to pray for more.

Happy All Saints! Feliz Solemnidad de Todos Los Santos!

2009-11-01T11:20:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, on the Vigil of the Solemnity of All Saints, good ol' Hallows Eve, we went to Mass and then had a little fiesta in the parish hall with a few other families. It was a smaller gathering than we'd hoped but complete with face-painting, icon-making, and apple-bobbing. I don't have any photos of it except the one of Saint Francis and Blessed Pier Giorgio.
These are from this morning. Happy Feast day from Saints Michael the Archangel, George, and Helen! (The warriors are looking down upon the devil whom they have just squashed.)

Las Lenguas

2009-10-28T22:26:00.002-06:00

Why not to give to "UNICEF Trick or Treaters"

2009-10-28T22:13:00.002-06:00

Thursday, March 13, 2008

UNICEF and Save the Children anti life

Briefing: Catholics cannot support UNICEF (the Vatican has refused to fund it through its UN dues) or Save the Children.

From CFNews: 'For years UNICEF spokesmen denied promoting contraception or abortion,' wrote Winifride Prestwich in UNICEF: Guilty As Charged. She said records prove that 'step by step over a 30-year period UNICEF has tied itself to the population controllers and to the anti-life, anti-family attitudes of such organizations as the International Planned Parenthood Federation.'

A study released by the International Organizations Research Group (IORG) documented UNICEF's ties to abortion and radical feminism. UNICEF: Women or Children First? showed that UNICEF has helped write many documents that call for increased access to abortion and the legalization of the deadly act worldwide.

IORG discovered that UNICEF has funded a program run by the militantly pro-abortion Population Council, which holds the U.S. patent for the abortion pill, RU-486. UNICEF has also supported a South African group that targets adolescents with a pro-abortion message.

It is now official UNICEF policy to 'Promote and expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, including access to condoms,' the IORG report stated. A high-ranking UNICEF official even called for his group to 'make condoms available and accessible for everybody, everywhere and at all times. Abstinence is simply not a realistic option for most young people in the world today.'

The evidence that UNICEF has actively promoted the Culture of Death is overwhelming and indisputable:

* In 1987, UNICEF officially endorsed 'good quality abortion services' at the International Conference on Better Health for Women and Children in Nairobi, Kenya.

* In 1993, UNICEF raised its contribution to the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) open support for Communist China's 'one-child family' policy from $2 million to $5 million.

* In 1997, the Vatican cut funding to UNICEF after the group co-sponsored a manual that endorsed emergency birth control. (Emergency birth control can cause an early abortion.) UNICEF also refused to provide a detailed accounting of its population control and pro-abortion programs.

* On October 26, 2002, the Calgary Herald reported that UNICEF has been straying from its mission for many years. The article, titled 'UNICEF's Other Agendas,' included an interview with Mary Kassian, author of The Feminist Gospel. 'Hundreds of thousands of children are still dying of TB or malaria, or because they don't have clean water. And the UN is giving them IUDs...I chose long ago not to support UNICEF and to support those good causes through other agencies that aren't tainted.'

Save the Children has a working relationship with what it calls 'prominent international organizations.' Several of these groups are actively pro-abortion, including Better World Fund, Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Population Action International, and the U.S. Committee for UNICEF.

In 2001, Save the Children worked with Planned Parenthood, the Population Action Council, and the pro-abortion Audubon Society on its five-year 'Planet Campaign.' Funded by the rabidly pro-abortion/population control David and Lucile Packard and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations, the purpose of the campaign was to 'raise awareness of the connections between international family planning and the health of children, women and the environment.' The Planet Campaign used television and print advertising, community outreach, special events, and other activities to spread its message. Save the Children said the campaign's website provided 'an international forum for discussion of, and action on, women's reproductive health - including family planning - in various countries and diverse cultures around the world.'

Save the Children has stated that 'family planning' has been a 'critical component' of its work for nearly 20 years. The group quoted a UNICEF document which stated that 'family planning could bring more benefits to more people at less cost than any other single technology now available to the human race.' Save the Children noted that the report identified 'access to family planning' as a 'key factor contributing to maternal and child survival and well-being.'

'It is laudable that the people involved with 'American Idol' want to help the poor,' said LDI President Douglas R. Scott, Jr. 'But it is tragic that they would choose to do so through groups like UNICEF and Save the Children. These groups have far too much deadly baggage.' Of course, what many people do not know, because 'American Idol' has not chosen to mention it, is that Simon Cowell is the chief executive officer of International Save the Children. This is surely why Save the Children was selected as a recipient charity.

''American Idol' should stop using the contestants to raise money for groups when they are keeping the activities of these charities a secret,' Scott said. ''American Idol' should practice full disclosure and give those contestants who may wish to decline participation in 'Idol Gives Back' the opportunity to do so without repercussions.'

'If you believe the plight of preborn children is as important as the plight of the poor, do not participate in 'Idol Gives Back'' Scott urged. 'We are caring people who want to do our part to help those less fortunate, but we will do so through organizations that do not view the killing of human beings as a 'solution' to poverty and other adult-created problems.'

Pink and the Pill

2009-10-28T13:48:00.000-06:00

Read here.

2 Petions to sign/2 peticiones para firmar

2009-10-28T13:31:00.002-06:00

One opposing abortion in the health care reform: sign here.

The second: UN Petition for the Unborn Child and the Family.
El segundo: Peticion a la Organización de las Naciones Unidas por el Nino NoNacido y la Familia.

This Government is CRAZY!!

2009-10-19T15:53:00.001-06:00

It just keeps getting worse. See here.

Sunsets, fish, and cousins

2009-10-05T22:45:00.005-06:00

These are all photos from our weekend at the end of September. We drove over to Lake Livingston in east Texas for some family fun with all my siblings at my sister's in-law's home on the lake.

Half the fun for the kids is getting to play with their cousins for a whole weekend...the other half of the fun is playing with new (to them) toys the whole weekend.Reckless go-cart drivers.

very short video of: Reckless go-cart drivers who could actually drive.

Smiling faces on the boat ride.

One shot of the beautiful sunsets...the sky just kept changing and each moment a wonderful feast for the eyes. Thank you, Creator God!

Juan Pablo's catfish he brought in all by himself by driving the paddle boat out to the float line and bringing it back to the dock. He was quite excited and proud.The fish cleaning process begins.

How do you get a good shot of these squirmie wormies?

2009-10-05T22:26:00.004-06:00

Not much better with all of us. :)

These were taken at my sister's parents-in-law's lakehouse where we spent the weekend a few weeks ago. We had fun fishing and just good ol' family bonding.

Yet another healthcare video...this one sarcastic funny

2009-10-05T21:41:00.006-06:00

Click here to see.

My baby

2009-10-05T21:41:00.005-06:00

At almost seven months, he's crawling and pulling up on things. Nothing is safe! :)

That's a chocolate chip cookie he devoured.

Article on "Family Size, Social Development, Selfishness and Love "

2009-10-05T21:29:00.002-06:00

Go here for a good read.

It has a great explanation of "responsible parenthood."

Another Informative Video...humorous, too

2009-10-05T21:19:00.001-06:00

Priesthood

2009-09-28T08:20:00.002-06:00

I've found these two inspiring websites for young men thinking about the priesthood.

http://www.catholicpriest.me.uk/

http://www.nypriest.com/

Let us continue to pray for and encourage young men to consider the priesthood. And during this Year of the Priesthood, we especially ask the intercession of St. John Vianney for all priests.

Passing

2009-09-20T16:12:00.003-06:00

My paternal grandmother passed away on Tuesday, Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the morning at her house. She was born almost 94 years earlier on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. My brother celebrated the Mass for her locally as well as the Funeral Mass in Halletsville, TX. Both were beautiful, a reflection of God's gift of her life. The day before she had spent an hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament and called some of her children and others who were on her prayer list to ask them to pray for someone who was ill with a brain tumor. She was called away quietly around 6:45 the next morning. What a beautiful way to leave this earth. With great hope we pray for her quick entry to the Presence of God and know she is able to pray for us from a better place.These two pictures of my grandmother are from 1984 at the wedding anniversary reception of her sister. They were the only ones I could find online (posted by my dad's cousin who does a lot of genealogy work), but I also like them because they show her joy, humor, and feisty personality. Even to her last days she was laughing, smiling, and getting on someone or other about something they did or didn't do. :)

My Grandmother was a great cook and loved to bake. She baked her last batch of cookies in the week before she died. She also made some yummy poppy seed kolaches. The following is her recipe. I'm especially posting it here for all her grandchildren who wanted it.

Grandma's Poppy Seed Kolaches

In a large bowl combine 4 cups room temperature to warm flour, 3 rounded teaspoons instant yeast, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 cup melted butter, and 2 cups warm milk. Spread a thin layer of flour onto tabletop and pour dough onto table. Dough will be sticky. Knead dough and form into a large ball. Cover loosely and let rise for 10-15 minutes.
Put 1 cup warm water in blender and while on "mix" slowly add 1 cup poppy seeds. Mix in blender until smooth and thick (about 5 minutes). Pour poppy seed mixture into saucepan and simmer on medium heat. While simmering, add 3 tablespoons sugar and 1/2 cup milk. Simmer until thick (about 5-10 minutes). Pour mixture into bowl and cool in freezer for 5-10 minutes.
Roll out dough to about 1/3 inch thickness and cut into circles or squares about 4 inches across. Put 1 rounded tablespoon of poppy seed mixture in the center of each piece of dough. Fold and pinch edges shut. Place on greased baking sheets 1 inch apart. Butter lightly. Back at 300 for 10-15 minutes. Makes 12-15 kolaches.

Efforts to make sure all human life is protected in the reform

2009-09-20T14:23:00.003-06:00

Watch and share this video.

Prayer for our Nation’s Health Care Reform

Lord Jesus, you are the Divine Physician,
And the source of all life and health.

Guide our nation at this critical moment,
As our government seeks health care reforms.

Give our elected officials the humility to know
That they are servants, not masters.
Give them the wisdom to realize
That every life has equal value.
Give them the strength to resist the idea
That some lives can be sacrificed to save others
Or that killing the unborn is a part of health care.

Give your people the courage to speak up
And to hold public officials accountable for their actions.

Save us, Lord Jesus, from a culture of death,
And let every reform in our public policy
Be based on the reform of our hearts and minds
In the light of your Gospel,
For you are Lord forever and ever. Amen.

Morality in Media

2009-09-11T07:13:00.002-06:00

I just found this great article about speaking out when you find something offensive in media. The article is written by the president of Morality in Media (MIM) and gives you resourses the help you make complaints. He also talks about how community standards are depicted in the complaints of its citizens. So if we find something morally objectionable in our community, our media, let's take a little time to complain.
A month ago, I wrote an email to the local theater company to let them know I was dissappointed with one of their recent shows, "Love, Sex, and the IRS." One of their upcoming shows is "Nunsense II," and I am trying to write a good complaint for it. Unfortunately they did "Nunsense I" in a previous season and invited the priest and supposedly the he and much of the Catholic community enjoyed it. Though I haven't seen any of the Nunsense shows, I read a bit about them and they don't put religious life in a good light. They basically make fun of it, which makes fun of the Church, which makes fun a Christ himself. The director of the theater company doesn't see it as harmful. He wrote to me,

""Nunsense 2" is coming up in October. It is strictly for laughs, too - no big themes or meaningful content. However, some find anything that has a little fun with people's religious beliefs to be off limits for humor. While I'm devoted to my faith as a Christian, I do not share that view.
As I said, I'm a religious person, and I've found serious conflict with other Christians about where the line is you shouldn't cross. Some are in my view much too restrictive to the point of being unreasonable. On the other hand, I am not one that pushes the envelope just to do so or to make people uncomfortable. What I put on stage has to have a point! It's my hope to agree most often with the standards of most of the people we try to serve in this community."

Sounds like a politician, right? Well, he's our mayor. Oh, and note that "Nunsense II" replaced "The Last of the Red Hot Lovers," about a married man who wants to have an affair. Someone else complained.
He did ask me if I had any suggestions for shows and I've tried to find one that shows the beauty of the Catholic faith/religious life. Any suggestions?
Shows that are just good family values that I thought of are "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "Cheaper by the Dozen."
Off I go to think about my complaint some more.

Yay for Babies and Beignets (ben-yays)! Happy Birthday to Mary, too!

2009-09-08T10:12:00.012-06:00

Our Labor Day weekend turned out to be more exciting than I thought it would be when Daniel asked me on Friday morning if I was going to call up our friends in Baton Rouge, LA, to see if we could come visit them. Now he had been mentioning this off and on over the last week or so, but I never thought he was really serious since Baton Rouge IS a 8 to 9 hour drive. But he decided he really was serious that morning before he left for work. So I called up our Cajun friends to see if they had any plans for the weekend. They didn't and we were welcomed to come.
I packed us up on Friday. Daniel came home; we ate, loaded up ourselves and the 4 kiddos, and were off. Thankfully, my sister and brother-in-law live right off of I-10 in Houston and we spent the night there.
After a good night's sleep and a complimentary breakfast of Texas-shaped waffles and juice provided by Mel and Kev, we were on the road again.
Our time with Jesse and Alyson and in-womb Baby G was filled with fun walks, playing in the rain, apple pancakes, and conversations about home improvements, house-buying, motherhood, married life, faith, and the good ol' days of life in the missions (we know them from our time in Honduras).
I think we were able to make them truly grateful that they were only having one little babe at a time, not acquiring 4 crazy kids all at once! :) (In other words, we wore them out.)
The following pictures are from our breakfast at Coffee Call for yummy beignets and cafe au lait:

Finger lickin' good!

At the park, while the men worked on plumbing back at the house:

We arrived home at midnight last night, so today I don't have much energy to do all the special activities I had planned for the kids for Our Lady's birthday. I should be taking a nap now with the two little ones... But I offer this day for Daniel's cousin Sara who's welcoming her first child into the world today and for all the pregnant mommas out there.

LIFE at the Fair

2009-08-24T20:22:00.013-06:00

Last week was County Fair Week. Daniel and his brother Philip built a small house leaving it a bit unfinished on purpose. Daniel's mom and I with some help from the kiddos painted 4 banners from old white sheets. Two said "Build a Culture of Life" and two said "Sow seeds of Life." I also made some posters on poster board. All this was for the Pro-Life float we made for the County Fair Parade. We got it together with the help of 4 other families. It was lots of fun and really not that much work.

The actual day was a long one since we had to be in town in place at 8:30am, wait for the parade to start at 10am, wait for our float to hit main street at about 11am, and end about 15 minutes later. After taking it apart and heading home to lunch and a nap, we then geared up to go to the actual fair where we had entered some things in the exhibition hall contests.(He has his little brother in the kid's seat on the back of which is this sign. Sweet.)

Juan Pablo entered an Easter egg he made from salt dough and then painted as well as a picture he colored and one he made with watercolor. Emmanuel entered a little man cut from salt dough, a colored picture, and a wooden butterfly he painted. Earlier in the summer, we had a craft day with two other mommies and their kids during which we made the salt dough crafts. But I let the kids paint them last week in the garage. I gave them a little too much freedom...partially because I knew that if I stood their watching them I'd try to paint it for them. Well, you can see below what my lack of supervision got me.
Daniel and I both entered photographs we had taken and I entered some chocolate chip cookie bars I made for snacks when setting up the float on Thursday and parade day on Friday. To enter you just need to put 6 of them on a paper plate and stick them in a ziplock bag. I also entered my mom's fuzzy jude plant because I think it looks really neat and she has it growing in an old tea kettle.
Besides the exhibition hall with all the county's crafts, veggies, hay, plants, art, canned and baked goods, there's the queen's contest, the livestock showbarn, ferris wheel and other rides, and food booths of cotton candy and funnel cakes.

While in Nicaragua last fall we saw a man selling cotton candy and I had told the kids that they can have cotton candy one time a year and that is at the county fair. So these kiddos were most excited about that. Once we saw what ribbons we won for our entries, we went over to the queen's contest to eat our spun sugar and listen to the somewhat interesting part when all of the contestants have to answer a question. (I went out for fair queen when I was a junior in high school but didn't make the court...no big disappointment.)(This is my pro-breast feeding pic :) )

Later in the evening we checked out the animal show barn to see the chickens, rabbits, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows. Very exciting as usual...though the boys especially loved watching the process of the pigs being weighed.
Last of all we let the boys choose a ride. That took way too long. I'll attribute it to the fact that they chose one that was an obstacle course of sorts with a long slide at the end, but which required closed toed shoes (not really sure if we have closed-toed shoes that fit all the kids right now. I mean, it's summer, right?). It did look pretty fun, so I was disappointed for them...and for me because it would have been over then and we could have gone home. But instead we went in search of another ride. The one they chose was a merry-go-round of boats on real water with little bells that you could ding. It also just happened to have the slowest and most meticulous guy running it. He waited until he could get all the seats filled in each little boat and walked around to check everyone...for what I'm not sure since they didn't have to wear seatbelts. Finally they went around in circles dinging their bells and waving and smiling. And soon we were heading home. It was a long, but fun day.
And above all, we pray that we might have been a heart-changing witness to the sacredness of LIFE.

PS. Our posters on the float included:
"Babies are blessings. Choose Life."
"Worth waiting for. Abstinence until marriage."
"Modest is Hottest."
"Abortion is not healthcare. Call congress."
"Abortion stops a beating heart. Adoption saves a beating heart"
"Pregnant? Need Help? Call 1-877-WECARE2 Project Gabriel"
"Alpha Omega Life Center #xxx-xxx-xxxx" (This is the crisis pregnancy center in the next town over.)
"Smile, your mom chose life."
"I've noticed that all people for abortion have already been born."

Maria Victoria tiene dos...

2009-08-09T21:55:00.005-06:00

...two years, that is. Mi hija is growing tan rapido. And because of this I choose to spend less tiempo en la computadora. But I will make this cortita post to compartir un chiquita parte of our life. I encourage you all to spend more time in front of people than you do in frente de computer and TV screens. So take a look at this sweet two year old, say a prayer for her, and then go hug someone...a real live hug...not one of those virtual ones.

Round-up!

2009-07-14T13:26:00.004-06:00

On Saturday we headed north to watch the parade and enjoy the other festivities of Daniel's hometown Round-up weekend. They picked up enough candy to fill a pinata...hmmm...if I can hide it well enough, we might just have a pinata for Maria Victoria's 2nd birthday in August.

Parade-watchers.
Jumping on the bouncy castle.
This shot was taken while relaxing at Daniel's parent's house later on: Solanus at 4 months.

Photos from Colorado

2009-07-14T11:51:00.008-06:00

Maria Victoria watches Uncle Kevin get the floor ready for laminate flooring.
Sunset seen from our cabin.
Family photo from the day hike we took.
The boys and their "beaver dam."

Barefoot hikers.

Sleeping on the trail... Opa carries tired Maria Victoria.
Solanus snoozes in his carrier
Our week-long stay at our cabin in Colorado was quite wonderful. The weather was cool; it rained often; and we had lots of time with family. While there we put down laminate flooring, which greatly improved the cabin!!! Prior to that it had always had just the sub-flooring particle board. The little guys didn't like crawling on that. Daniel took Juan Pablo along with Bradley, Zachary, Fr. Brian, Melanie and Kevin up the mountain where they had to hike 3 miles to a camp site which was surrounded by ice mounds. They stayed overnight and caught lots of trout. Juan Pablo and Zachary did great for being only 5 and 6 years old.
We are very grateful for this get-away place and only wish it weren't so, so, soooo far away. :)

No training wheels!

2009-06-25T17:35:00.002-06:00

We finally convinced Juan Pablo to try out the bigger bike with no training wheels. Well, he did and he loves it. But it is a teensy bit tall for him, so we took on the training wheels of his old bike and he rides and rides and rides. The picture is of him on the big bike.

Colorado!

2009-06-25T17:31:00.000-06:00

Here we come. Tomorrow we leave for Colorado. We'll be there for a week with all my family minus 2...my sister-in-law and her 1.5 month old will stay home. We are looking forward to cooler weather, the beautiful sites of the Sange de Cristo mountains, and fun times in our rustic, no running water, no electricity aspen log cabin.

Bats, bats, bats!

2009-06-25T17:02:00.002-06:00

Last Saturday we went with Daniel's mom to the Eckert James River Bat Cave. What a site! 4 million momma bats flying out to get their dinner. Once one bat has her pup, all the rest will have their pups within 2 weeks. We might go back in a few weeks to see that craziness of 8 million bats leaving for their evening meal.

The "Bat woman" showing the kiddos a bat she caught and then released.

"The Tank" Hinckley

2009-06-25T16:58:00.001-06:00