Happy Feast Day Thomas

Today is the Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas.



And my babies Feast Day......

St. Thomas Aquinas is his patron!

House Party Adrianne's Artisan Ovens™ Flatbread Inspiration House Party™

House Party Party Adrianne's Artisan Ovens™ Flatbread Inspiration House Party™

I am so excited that I was choosen to have a House Party!! And Artisan Ovens sounds so yummy!!! All are invited so I hope you can come an join us!!!

Extra Special Gift - Renewed Energy for the Rosary

Michael's Birthday Party was very special and all the people who joined us helped to make it even more special.

It is hard to say that there is a favorite gift and usually unlike a child we would say their is no gift any better than another! But how can anyone say that a beautiful rosary blessed by the pope is not extra special. Daddy and Mama both received a rosary blessed by the pope from our surprise guest Christoff, Vice Commander of the Swiss Guard! Thanks you Christoph for the rosaries and Andreas for bringing Christoph!

Above: Amazing gorgeous image of Our Lady!
Below: See Papal insignia.

This was also the perfect gift to turn our family back toward the daily rosary!!

The After, After Party

After everyone other than the Niall and Murphy family were gone the fun really began!!!

Adriana was sound asleep on the couch as Mama was helping to clean up meanwhile James wide awake was stacking cans with Martha and the boys:

How can stacking cans be so entertaining to the adults!! I don't know but everyone hung around watching Martha and James for at least 30 minutes. James is just having to much fun and really being cute. I guess he is why we sat around watching.

Surprise!!!

It was a great success. We did it, he truly was surprised!!!

For at least the past month we (Adriana and Mama) have been planning a surprise birthday party of Michael. How did we pull it off? It is easy when Daddy has to much on his mind to think farther ahead of the day he is in!



This is how we got him there. One of Michael's Twelve days of Christmas presents was a date night to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and a movie. The party was at our very good family friends', the Murphy family, house. It just so happens that the Murphy's are not only a good family friends but also James' god family and one of the children's babysitters.

We had to drop the children off at the Murphy's house. So without all the boring details we simply told Michael we were going out for a date and we had to bring the children to the Murphy's house. Here was a small glimpse into his reaction.

Mama was slowing coming into the house so she really didn't see the surprise in action. She didn't want to give the surprise away because we were just dropping off the children so Mama was supposed to just be in the car. She walked in as they were singing "Happy Birthday" to Michael. He truly was surprised!! Thanks you to all who came and helped us celebrate!!

Daddy was overwhelmed at all the people who came to wish him a happy birthday. Mama had taken care to invite people from all parts of daddy's life so he would know without a doubt it was his party!!

Old friends, new friends, and family came to join the party, check out the pictures below taken by Anne Dooley!

As always Uncle P.J. entertains and wrestles with the children!!!!

Michael enjoys the children!

More Friends

Family!

Really good friends!

Two amazing unphoto documented events were the spud gun and a surprise guest. Tom Dillon brought the spud (potato) gun to initiation Michael in the 40's club! Michael had a blast thanks for bringing the spud gun Tom.

A good friend of ours was a Swiss Guard at the Vatican and brought the Vice commander of the Swiss guard to Michael's party. What an awesome gift but even more amazing Christoph gave Daddy and Mama rosary's blessed by Pope Benedict. What a special gift!!

Mama's party hero was Maggie. She was a great help with the food naturally bringing food in and out of the kitchen. She helped cut and serve the cake. Just took Thomas out of my arms to change Thomas' diaper. WOW!!!

And the inviting her friend Joe over to play the piano as she sang, another great gift Michael received tonight. The are both very talented!! Thanks Maggie!

The after party stayed to listen to Joe and Maggie's talent.



This video is cute because James and Greta are dancing to Maggie and Joe's music!

I took a ton of Maggie and Joe video's but here are the last 3 I will post.

This one is my favorite and clearest video I took, Maybe this Time:

This is a fun Mother daughter son, The Three Bears:

This one is a special guest song, Louis Armstrong aka Michael Hughes:

This party was tons of fun for our family and we would like to thank all of our family and friends again for making it a special night for Michael!

Happy 40th Birthday

Happy 40th Birthday Daddy!!!

We love you
Mama, Adriana, James and Thomas

Happy Three Kings Day (Epiphany)

The three kings have made it to Bethlehem....


...and our Christmas ends!! Let's go out with a bang!!!

Listen to this beautifully orchestrated version of the song "We Three Kings!"



Enjoy the last day of Christmas!!!!!

St. Benedict Abbey at Christmas

The Navitity at Saint Benedict Abbey.....

....isn't it beautiful!

Mrs. Hannon, Adriana's Autrim teacher, took her up to adore the navity!

It is also fun to see the siblings of the monks at the Abbey during the Christmas season.

Fr. Marc's sister Cara holding Thomas for the first time!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

We took a family trip to Edaville Rail Road!!!

It was a great trip and as always it is fun to spend time together as a family!! Really the 8th day of Christmas gift was spending time together as a family.

Mama loved looking at the all the lights. It really was beautiful, especially as it got darker! Indoor the decorations were just as beautiful! It is obvious they spend days preparing for Christmas. On that note we love that they are still celebrating Christmas and not just a holiday!

There are no pictures outside the train ride but we can will tell you it really was a beautiful ride seeing all the fun decorations even a mini village and covered bridge (mama's favorite!)

We went on some rides while at Edaville. Mama, Adriana, and James went on the Ferris Wheel, James held onto Mama for dear life and then wanted to go on again! At one point it started to rain so we were glad to have the option to go in and get out of that weather!

We went on the train twice and Daddy will tell you his favorite part of the trip was the second train ride in the warm cabin, party pooper! But like we said it is the family time that is important.

We all went on the Merry-Go-Round and raced like in Mary Popins. It was Thomas' first Merry-Go-Round ride!

Mama was also happy they had a nursing area!! It is not necessary to use it but it is awesome that children's places are getting more nurse friendly!! Mama does beleive you can nurse anywhere but it is easier to be modest and not worry about it when there is a nursing area!

Finally, the one thing that was disappointing happened when we got home. It didn't happen as soon as we got home it came at around 2am in the form of vomit. We highly recommend keeping all children out of the ball pit, especially in that winter!!! We learned our lesson!

Mary Mother of God

Happy Feast Day!!!