Quote of the Day:

At the grocery store today when certain children were misbehaving:

Monkey1 [11yo] said: "Mommy's getting ready to stamp some of y'all 'Return To Sender'."

Monkey3 [7yo] asked "What's that mean?"

Monkey1 said: "You know how God sends babies? Well, mom's about to send you back to God."

LOL!

Quote of the Day:

My 3yo walked up to me and asked "Mommy, why do we live in a house that has cockroaches?".

I fumbled around trying to figure out how to answer [how do I condense that down into a 3yo sized explanation?].

My 11yo pipes up: "Because the cockroaches couldn't afford a better place to live either!"

ROFL!

[Just for the record - the cockroaches are much better these days, after all that quality time my exterminator puts in]

Small Sacrifices

It was something like 98 degrees today with humidity through the roof.

My ancient van is having AC issues - one vent in the back [with the kids] is only working sometimes. So, today, we only had one AC vent in the back. It was probably 110 degrees inside the van when we first got started.

My 7 year old was sitting back there with her 5 year old sister and I hear them having a conversation.

The vent by the 5yo was not working and the 5yo was crying because she was hot and had no AC.

So my sweet, precious 7yo says "That's OK. Look, I'll turn my vent so it hits you."

And that's exactly what she did. She sweltered so her little sister could be cool.

That seems like a silly thing for me to proud of I guess, but man - THAT is love.

And THAT is exactly why I do what I do. If I can raise children that love others more than they love themselves - I've accomplished exactly what I wanted and nothing else matters. [Well, other than that they love God too of course!]

Kids like that can change the world.

My kids ROCK! ;)

Quote of the Day:

Gabriel, 8yo son, says to me:

"Mom, note to self: boys at Football Camp really like to burp." [Yeah... and I paid money for this! LOL!]

Gabriel's First Holy Communion

My son [Monkey2] had his First Holy Communion this week. We did it at a daily Mass on Wed June 9, 2010. Gabriel missed the FHC for the whole church [we were sick and I'd just had surgery], so Father made an exception and let him receive it at daily Mass.

It was a wonderful event! Gabriel was so excited - he had spent weeks preparing [well, years actually!] and was able to answer all of his Catechism questions.

Gabriel's God Father took him on a retreat the day before and they visited 5 different Churches and prayed and said the Rosary. Gabriel was required to answer "100 questions" about the Faith, which he managed to do. It was really meaningful.

Wed night we got to Church at 5pm and Father did Gabriel's First Confession. It went very well. When Gabriel got out he said he felt "so clean" and he was really excited.

Here is a pic of Gabe saying his first Penance:


Then Gabriel changed into his Tux for Mass. He looked awesome!


Here is Gabriel with Father:


Here are some of my girls with some of Cyndi and Bob's girls before Mass:


Here is Gabriel with his God Father Bob:


Here is Gabriel with his "God Brothers". They went with him on his retreat - it was so awesome!


Gabe and I:


Here are all of my kids before Mass except for Monkey3 - who got chicken pox and had to spend the night with her grandparents! She was really upset to miss his First Holy Communion, but she got to go fishing with Uncle Chuck, so it turned out to be a great night for her too. :)


After Mass, Gabriel's God Father hosted a party at his house for Gabe. This was Gabriel with his cake:



Here is Gabe with some of his friends at his party:

Here is Gabe playing Chess with his God Brother:


God Bless Gabriel! I am so proud of him!!!!