Daddy and James

James and Daddy totally cuddling.

One Heartbeat At A Time

This is a great song from Steven Curtis Chapman. I tribute to mothers everywhere.

Enjoy.

Thanks Emma for sending me this song.

Adriana nurses her Baby

I walked into the living room to find Adriana on the couch as serious as ever nursing her baby Boppy and all. She is such a little women. She does such a good job you can't even see the baby, very modest.

After caughting her I made her laugh and show me the baby.

Adriana's First Tea Party

Helping Clean

PAdriana wanted to help with the cleaning before the tea party. She really wanted to clean the floor. She asked to help all morning until we were finally ready to do it. We truly had fun cleaning the floor. Having fun while you clean doesn't happen very often -except when you have children around to make it fun!!

Can you see all the watery soap she put on the floor. You can tell by the dirt how badly the floors need to be cleaned. Maybe we will do it more often now.

Thanks for helping mama, Adriana.

Coggshall Park

We went on a hike with our friend Rebecca. We'll add the details later.

Sometimes he Laughes

Here are a 2 fun video's of James.

This one I'm trying to get him to laugh. He just does not want to but doesn't just look so cute.

Here is James cooperating. Laghes, smiles, grins then starting to fuss. He was tired of entertaining mama!!

Filled Weekend

This weekend was filled with lots of activity.

Friday

As usual James and I started our day off late. Then I realized I forgot his 3 week pictures at home. I had to turn around to pick them up. On the second begining James was very fusy. He is such a good baby and this hardly every happens, although he is not big on car trips. He was crying so much that I hardly left Clinton when I stopped at Bolton Roadhouse (this is where we get our pizza every Friday night) to calm him down. Once we were able to get on the road we went to visit with G-Nana.

G-Nana was really excited to see James once again. She was also dissappointed that Adriana wasn't able to make the visit. Boy it was a quite visit without her. G-Nana and Auntie Denise where the only family member awake and home. We all enjoyed our short visit. I wanted to stay longer because Lourdes (my aunt) was making Eggrolls. She is from the Phillipines and she make great eggrolls, but she and my uncle were still sleeping when I left. She was making the eggrolls espeially for my visit. Everyone else got to enjoy them. :( Well there is always next time.

When I left G-Nana's house I ewent to meet Heather for lunch at

I order a clam plate (must have clams on Friday). Well any fish but at Kelly's Roast Beef I had to have the full belly clams. Heather ordered a Jr. Roast Beef with sauce and mayo, that is what I would have order if it wasn't Friday. Yummy!!!!

Heather's son Evan is 10 months now. It is hard to believe. They grow so fast. He was really testing her that day. It actually started the night before when he didn't want to sleep and only finally fell asleep in the swing. Boy don't all of us mothers know and dislike this phases. Then at the restaurant he didn't want to eat his lunch. It turned out he didn't like the new Earth's Best summer veggies she was trying to feed him. He ate the yogurt and snack food just fine. I'm still on easy street with James, he just slept through lunch.

Once we leaft Kelly's Roast Beef we meet at (Babies R' Us) in Peabody for a nursing session. I got there before Heather and started nursing James with no problem. Once Heather got there she tried to nurse Even. Again, the 10 month old curious child came out. He wouldn't nurse because he wanted to see everything else going on. Heather gave up quickly and figured she could get in some shopping and try again later. I shopped for just a few minutes before it was time to be off to my next stop, the Dooley's.

Heather and Evan in the nursing room. Doesn' Evan look so innocent.

I went to pick up the Anne Dooley and her mother, Sue, to head into Boston for the . I wanted to see Kimberely Hahn, . Unfortunetly we got stuck in traffic and a little lost. The ride in should have taken us 30 minues possibly and hour with traffic. It took us 2.5 hours to get the the college. Better late than never. By the time we got to Boston College (BC) we had missed the first speaker of the night, luckily it wasn't Kimberely. James got fusy in the car thank goodness Anne was driving so I was able to comfort him.

Kimberely's talk was great. It was on being humble. I really needed to hear alot of what she said. I also had a great confession. The priest also said what I needed to hear, thanks Fr. Michael. The drive home was much less dramatic it took us the usually 30 minute drive. Once the Dooley/Rzasa Family was dropped I drove home to Clinton. Finally the long funfilled day was over.

Saturday

This day wa not as fun fullied at Friday because James and Mama really need to recover. We stayed in most of the day and cleaned around the house. We have moved Adriana's room into where the office used to be and made her old room into the office/playroom. We were trying to staighten it out a little. Daddy ofcourse needed to go do a little car work. He took Adriana and let mama purge Adriana's closet. This was a big job. We decided to consign some clothes because Adriana has way too many plus we only have a little apartment so we are getting ride of some of the clothes we had saved for her. Mama went through some of those clothes too. I'm at the 18 - 24 month clothes. That is my next project. James was really good for me. He allowed me to get a lot of work done. He loves to just to hang out sometimes.

Sunday

We went to our usually Mass at the Abbey. I stayed for a short visit after mass then James and I went to my friend Lindsey's Blessing Way. What is a Blessing way you ask? A Blessing Way is a celebration of motherhood and new life. Celebrating motherhood instead of the traditional baby shower. We decorated a birthing t-shirt, brought beads to make a birthing necklace, and made a positive birth eperience collage with pictures from our births. She also requested images of the Madonna and Child, St. Anne (patroness of pregnant and nursing mothers) or St. Monica (patroness of mothers) to be added to her college.

After the Blessing Way I rushed home to finish the dinner I had put in the croco pot for our friends the Dooley's. I got home to daddy and Adriana in bed because they forgot the Dooley's were coming. No big deal they got up and about thirty or so minutes later the Dooley's were here. We had a great visit. Green chilli and turkey soup for dinner. For deesert Mr. Niall made chocolate cookies and we had ice cream sandwhiches, yummy!! The children played outside while we cleaned up and enjoyed each other's company.

Eion was so cute, he wanted to hold James really badly. He did a great job. I'm sure he can't wait for his new little brother.

Daddy decided to give James a ride on his shoulders.

Joseph is enjoying his dessert. You can see the cookie on his face.

Joseh also really wanted to hold James, but he really didn't know what to do with a screaming baby. I guess he is learning what it will be like with a real baby in the house.

Motor Scooter

I figured out a way to update the video of Adriana and Joe on the motor scooter at Easter. It was so funny. I downloaded it onto Youtube and uploaded it here. Joe even say ouch at some point and Adriana just keeps laughing. Enjoy!!! Adriana calls him Joe Murphy-Niall, ha ha!

Ergo

I bought an Ergo a few weeks ago but I don't like the infant insert so I decided to just use the Moby Wrap for now. Yesterday Adriana woke up cranky form her nap. The exciting part was daddy was home helping around the house. Adriana just wanted to be held so I asked her if she wanted Daddy to carrier her inthe Ergo. Either one of them though she would fit but she did. That is exciting to think about for our hikes this summer. I think we may need to get another.

As you can see Adriana likes to be held by Daddy anytime Daddy is holding James.

Grotto walk from Abbey

Yesterday was another beautiful day. My friend Rebecca called to see if we wanted to go for a walk at the Abbey. What a great way to get out. I probably would have stayed in all day otherwise. The walk got a little muddy but it was worth it becuase the Grotto is gorgeous.

As we started our walk we looked out at how far we had to walk to get to the Grotto. The little house you see in the picture it the Grotto. It looks really far.

Isn't the scene picturesque?

We decided we had to get a picture of Rebecca, Leo, and Adriana

A close-up of the grotto and some of the statues. We sat around resting up there for about 10 minutes before we headed back.

Is that how far we went? You can see the Abbey in to the right of the trees.

The walk made Adriana extremely tired. She fell asleep on the way home.

The first flower

We saw our first flower of the season yesterday. The best part is that it was right in front of our house.

The Faithful Departed

A father,Phil Lawler, in our community wrote the book "The Faithful Departed." I didn't even know he wrote books and until yesterday, I also didn't realize this book was so popular. It is a big deal being from the Boston area and especially with the Papal visit to the U.S. The book talks about the sexual abuse scandal and why Boston is so important. I haven't read the book but I am totally going to read the book. Check out the Lawler's blog and view interview he had yesterday.

http://thefaithfuldepartedbook.blogspot.com/

Pope Benedict at the White House

Here is the pope's message from the white house in case you missed it.

I'm excited to follow him this next week.

He hopes the his visit will renew and hope for the church in the United State.

Renewal and hope for the Church in the US is my prayer for the day. GOD BLESS

Happy Birthday

Happy 81st Birthday Holy Father!!!!

Today is Pope Benedict's Birhtday let's say an extra prayer for him as he meets with President Bush.

Baking COOKIES

In our house mama cookies about 85 - 90 % of the dinners. I dare say she is a good cook. While mama cooks she does not bake unless it comes out of a box. Daddy is the baker especially if he wants chocolate chip cookies. In the past few months Daddy has been baking cookies at least once a week. He was become quite good at baking cookies. He will have to teach his daughter. She helped daddy bake with her new baking kit Auntie Jacci, Uncle P.J., Brendan, and Averi gave her for Easter. She totally enjoyed helping daddy, licking the mixer, and of course eating a cookie.

Baking set from the Bell Family



Mixing

Licking

Finished product in mini-baking pan.

Enjoying my COOKIE!!!!

P.S. Daddy is not only a good baker but he is also a good cook.