Happy 2nd Birthday Luke

My dearest Luke,

I cannot believe how fast these two years have flown by with you.  You started this year off as a sweet gentle little baby still and are ending this year as a fun loving, energetic little boy!  There has been so many changes, hardships and learning experiences for our family in the past two years but you continue to be an amazing source of joy throughout it all.

Last year we celebrated your first birthday as we also celebrated Pentecost.  It was so much fun to celebrate your big day along side of the birthday of our Church!  We enjoyed our last few weeks living in Minnesota and then packed up to move back to our hometown in Nebraska.  With all of our car trips back and forth from Minnesota to Nebraska during your first year of life, you got to be such a good little rider in the car.  You had such a fun summer last year trying so many new things and keeping up with your brothers.  You love to be in the water and play with anything outside in the sunshine. 

 

Mid-summer you started taking your first steps and by August you were a pro at walking.  At two you are a very active and very busy boy!  You started talking early as well and never stopped.  You listen to everything your brothers say and try to repeat it all.  At two years old you now are saying 4-6 word sentences and talk about EVERYTHING!

We started homeschooling this past fall and you love that we are all together all day and to join in with our learning fun!  You have learned so much so fast this past year.  You can count to 5, sing your ABC's, know most of your colors, a few shapes and pretty much all of your body parts!  You love "doing" school with us or playing in the playroom and listening to it all. We always find you around the house looking at your books.  You are such a good little learner.

 

 

You had so much fun with fall activities of going to the pumpkin patch, picking apples and celebrating Halloween.  You take it all in with such curiosity and excitement!

You have jumped right in with your big brother with your love of sports.  You scream "Win, win, win, WIN", as you throw your arms up in excitement!  You loved to go to the Hockey games this winter and especially loved baseball games this spring (although maybe it was because of the yummy peanuts that your Daddy introduced you to!).

 

You absolutely adored celebrating Advent and Christmas this past year.  We would find you sitting by the Christmas tree or the Advent wreath just looking at the lights.  You love baby Jesus so much and would sing "Happy Birthday" to baby Jesus and walk around with the baby Jesus' from our manger scenes.

 

We didn't have a lot of snow this winter, but what we did have you loved.  We spent a lot of time cuddling and just soaking your little personality up as you continued to grow into your own little self. 

 

You loved breastfeeding and your special time with Mommy.  We decided to start weaning when you were about 20 months old and you did great with the adjustment.  We always make sure to have special time together the two of us no matter what we are doing!

 

 

 

Your big brothers cherish you and you have developed such special relationships with both of them.  You learn so much from them (the good and the bad) and love playing with them all of the time.  The first thing that you want in the morning is to know where your brothers are and the last thing you want at night is hugs and kisses from them! 

 

You love learning about Jesus, Mary and the Saints.  You fold your hands together in prayer, have learned the sign of the cross and always say "Amen" at the end of prayers!  You are still sometimes a challenge at Mass and have Mommy and Daddy praying for special graces, but you are also working on getting better and better each week.  You always know what is coming next during church; bringing money to the priest at the offering, giving the sign of peace or going up for communion. 

 

  

You loved learning more about Jesus during Lent and Easter and had so much fun learning that you have a new brother or sister on the way this next fall.  This is the first time in our family that we have had someone make it to their 2nd birthday without another baby in the house and I think for now you are loving being the baby for now!  You are equally excited though for the new little baby to come along and always kiss Mommy's tummy and say "Hi, baby!"  You will be a fantastic big brother!

 

This spring we continue to have fun outside and you have been loving riding your trike and now your new balance bike and watching your brothers play sports.  You also love to play and cuddle with your puppies.  After seeing your brother potty train you decided that you should join in as well.  You are not fully potty trained but are doing a great job!  You are getting so big, so fast! 

 

 

 

 

You are such a joy and blessing to our family and I cannot wait to continue having the honor to watch you grow and learn.  Happy 2nd birthday to our sweet little Luke.

I love you so much!

Love,

Mommy

 

 

June: The Month Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

I love the month of June and finding ways to make Ordinary Time special after all of the celebration of Easter!  In June the month is dedicated to The Sacred Heart of Jesus and we also have three really special feast days that we celebrate within the Church!  First, we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi on the Thursday following Trinity Sunday (the feast day is typically transferred to the Sunday following), followed by the Sacred Heart of Jesus 19 days after Pentecost, followed by the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary!  It is such a wonderful time to focus on God's love for each of us, especially through the gift of the Blessed Sacrament.  As the month begins it is important to look for fun activities and ideas to help draw each of us closer to Jesus, and also to teach our children about these important feast days!

The Feast of Corpus Christi honors Jesus's institution of the Holy Eucharist.  With this feast day the tradition of a Corpus Christi Procession began back in the 14th century.  My hometown has a beautiful Corpus Christi Procession which you can learn about HERE with a great video and it explains it as "Processing through the community with the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ is a venerable Church tradition. The procession is an outward demonstration of Catholic faith and belief in the real presence of the risen Christ, under the appearance of the Consecrated Host."  Make sure to take the time to see if your town has a Corpus Christi Procession  that you could attend and if not try to find some extra time in Adoration to appreciate the gift that Jesus gave to us in the Holy Eucharist.

As the month of June continues we are able to celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary!  The Catholic Company explains that "In 1672, Christ appeared to a French Visitation nun, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Over a series of visits, Our Lord revealed to St. Margaret Mary the importance of devotion to His Sacred Heart. He asked that His heart, wounded on the cross and continually wounded by ingratitude of men for his sacrifice for them, be venerated and adored as an embodiment of His Divine mercy and love."  We can help show our love and dedication to Jesus by frequently receiving the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confession. 

To help celebrate these feast days Catholic Icing has a lot of great ideas for crafts and other activities. In our home we will talk about the Sacred Heart of Jesus, do a fun craft and make a yummy dessert from the ideas over at Family at the Foot Of the Cross as well!

Sacred Heart Cake

Strawberry Sacred Heart Cake

If you are looking for something personally to help draw yourself closer to Jesus and enhance your prayer life, June is the perfect time to start the Do-It-Yourself retreat of Consoling the Heart of Jesus.  This beautiful retreat is very inspiring and is filled with fantastic insights and great resources.

"In the Sacred Heart, every treasure of wisdom and knowledge is hidden.  In that Divine heart beats God's infinite love for everyone.  For each one of us individually."
~Bl. John Paul II~

Lessons of Motherhood

 

I am always trying to find creative things to do with our children when my husband is working night shifts at the hospital and is then sleeping the next day.  Today after mass we went to the park for a fun little photo shoot to try to stay out of the house and let him sleep.  As I was glancing through some of the pictures I took I was reflecting on the beautiful book Rosaries Aren't "Just" For Teething that I have been reading the past few weeks.  It is good for the soul.  A full review will come soon, but some of my favorite quotes and reflections are scattered below!

 

 

"What we do is no small task.  We may not be raising the Son of God, but we are bringing up the next generation of saints.  And in turn, I believe they are making us saints as well" (Mary Helen Wofford)

 

 

"Mary and Jesus, from the beginning, show us that we needn't be afraid of that suffering.  We don't need to shy away from the less-than-ideal reality of motherhood in our world.  Our motherhood, when accepted as a gift from God, has eternal meaning.  Mary gives us hope, so much hope, that motherhood is about more than this world tells us.  It is about love, true love.  And true love may lead to pain, but it also is a cause of joy. " (Michele E. Chronister)

 

"Being a mom isn't just about the moments of grace we experience because of our children.  It's mostly about, and lived through, the daily grind of parenthood.  It's "all that other stuff" we say and do as parents that doesn't necessarily pop out as anything special or extraordinary, especially when compared to the grace filled moments" (Katie Busch)

Joy in the Simple Moments - 7 Quick Takes

 

Seven Quick Takes is such a fun and great way to wrap up what has been going on when life just keeps flying by!  We do not even have that much going on in life right now, but the weather has been so nice and we are in such a fun routine right now that it seems like I look at the clock and another day has simply passed by!  Here are a few things we have been up to the past week enjoying all of those simple moments.

--- 1 ---

Nature Park Fun

 

Our boys simply adore being outside so they were thrilled when we found a new place to explore!  This nature center is just minutes away from our house and has amazing walking paths, a lake to fish in and fun parks including this nature park.  It is filled with different objects that you would find in nature all specifically arranged for creative play!  It was a blast and we cannot wait to go back and play some more.

 

--- 2 ---

Springtime School Outside

 

We cannot get enough of doing school outside during these mild weather spring days.  Our middle son has been adjusting his nap schedule a bit this past week (by not taking a nap at all!), so he has been awake during school time.  He has been having so much fun helping and learning right along side of his big brother.  Also this week we found a bunch of caterpillars on our sidewalk.  Thankfully we had just purchased the Live Butterfly Garden which includes this awesome net so we have had a lot of fun watching our caterpillars and learning all about them!

 

 

--- 3 ---

Exploring Time

 

We took a morning this week to go explore at Fontenelle Forest which is an amazing forest about 20 minutes from our home with great things to learn about!  They have a great boardwalk to walk along, but this particular day there were a lot of school field trips, being the last week of school for most schools, so it was busy!  We decided to go out on some different back trails that we had never tried before and had quite the adventure!  We found lots of butterflies, deer, squirrels, rabbits and lots of birds!  We also found a place to build a dam in the water and also simply enjoy the beautiful morning.

 

 

 

--- 4 ---

Bath Diving Fun

 

We have been having a fair share of nice weather, but also a decent amount of rain.  One particularly rainy afternoon we decided to pull out our new water goggles that the boys got for their swimming lessons that start next week and dive in the bathtub.  It occupied hours of their time and although they were little prunes by the time they got out they all had a lot of fun!

 

 

--- 5 ---

Cuddling Trio

 

My in-laws sent the boys these adorable sleeping bags from Pottery Barn Kids for the boys.  They have been bringing them out onto the deck to have "camp outs", using them to build forts in the living room and cuddling up with them to watch a movie or read stories!  They are so much fun and the boys simply adore them!  Thanks Grandpa and Grama!

 

--- 6 ---

Baseball, Baseball and MORE Baseball

We have a few different baseball fields near our house and our boys would go play every day if they could!  We had gotten a batting helmet earlier this spring and last week the boys found a catchers helmet at a garage sale (which makes playing baseball so much cooler).  I love how well they play together and how our oldest son lets his little brothers try to pitch the ball (yes that is our almost 2 year old throwing the ball) and also knows to throw them grounders back!  We are so excited for T-Ball to start next week.

--- 7 ---

Our Puppies

 

We have two adorable dogs who bring so much joy and fun to our family.  They have been loving the warmer weather and we have been loving the time to cuddle with them and love them. Our middle son especially adores his puppies and even picked out a brand new "super cool" collar for our miniature dachshund this week!

 

Well, that's all for us for this week!  For more Quick Takes, visit This Ain't The Lyceum!

Honoring Memorial Day

Today we honor Memorial Day.  We are forever thankful for the wonderful men and women who have served our country and given their lives for our freedom.  What an important lesson Memorial Day is to teach our children about our country.  It is so important to teach them that our freedom has been earned, to teach them about the amazing privileges we have in the United States and how to be so thankful for the men and women who have gone before us.

We made some yummy breakfast and our oldest son helped to make some American flag toast with strawberry jam and blueberries.  He also drew an American flag to display in our home today and wrote USA on it.

 

We then went to the cemetery to pray for all of the men and women who have died serving our country and also stopped by our Samuel's gravesite and the kids left some American flags there.  Their dad was working at the hospital today so there are no BBQ's or anything at our home today, but I am ok with that.  We learned about and focused on the real meaning of Memorial Day in remembering those that our country has lost.