Playing Hooky

We've had a long week of sickness, with no end in sight. On Monday, Luke stayed home from work with a cold. Tuesday, I came home early from work with the flu and mastitis. Wednesday, Luke stayed home with me to watch the littles while I recovered. Today, as I was on my way out the door, Jackson threw up all over me. Not sure if it was a fluke, or real sickness, I went ahead and left for work. Not an hour later, I recieved a call from our sitter, Jackson had a fever of 102.8! I came home as soon as I was able. We snuggled for most of the morning, but by the afternoon, he was feeling much better...

Here's hoping and praying Dominic and Patrick can dodge the bullet...

Fr. Dominic?

Most mornings we do the "Where is ____?" litany. It goes something like this:

Me "Where's Daddy?"

Dominic: "At Work."

"Where's Grandma and Grandpa?"

"At Work."

"Where's Dominic?"

"I right here."

"Where's Aunt Lizzy?"

"At School"

"Where's Uncle Lucas?"

"At School."

"Where's Uncle Jake?"

"At the sem-er-my" (seminary)

This particular day, Dominic decided that he was going to the sem-er-my, too. He donned his "purse" and glasses, grabbed his set of keys (the twins'), gave me a kiss, said "Love you, I going to the sem-er-my" and walked out the front door. We've been praying for God to bless our family with a vocation to the priesthood...maybe this is a little foreshadowing. :)

We've also been working on our prayers. Dominic is very good at the sign of the cross and the "Pray for us" after asking for the intercession of his patron, St. Dominic Savio. Tonight, I made him dinner, placed it in front of him and went back to unloading the dishwasher. After a moment, I realized he was saying the sign of the cross. By the time I turned around to look at him, he had his head bowed, as if praying, remining me that we had forgotten to pray for our meal. Out of the mouths of babes....

Dominic VanGogh

I was looking for something fun for us to do last week and remembered that our babysitter Linda's birthday present needed to be wrapped. Realizing I was out of wrapping paper, we made our own little gift package.

I made a star and heart stamp with a potato (two shapes Dominic knows), put D in one of my old T-shirts and let him go at it. I was sure he'd lose interest quickly, but he painted for about a half hour.

His new smile for the camera is always with his eyes closed...

And here is his final project. It was pretty fun and we were able to just use everything we had on hand.

Twin happenings

The babies have been pretty busy. A few weeks ago, Patrick began moving up to all fours. He has been rocking back and forth and can crawl a bit before collapsing back to the floor. Jackson is a very proficient little scooter. He can pretty much get anywhere. He often finds a ball to push and then chases it all around the first floor. He also likes to sit in his walker and follow big brother Dominic around. Both boys are eating lots of solids-bananas, carrots, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, nectaries, peaches, apples, potatoes and macaroni and cheese. This week, we moved both of them into their own room and their own cribs (they had been sleeping in the pac 'n' plays). Dominic is sleeping in a big boy bed (the bottom bunk) in the other room. We've just been enjoying the twins more and more every day! Double blessing!

Friends and Family

Dominic loves playing hide and seek. Usually, that entails him counting and looking for Luke or me and then hiding in that exact same spot when it is his turn to hide. He recently found this new hiding spot, though...

If only I could teach him to take the clothes out and fold them, too :)

We took the Guenther's with us to the lake a few weeks ago. Grady enjoyed the last bits of summer outside.

And Luke played with the boys a bit.

Jessica and Dominic are beginning to play together a bit. It will be a madhouse at the lake in a year!

Jessica sporting the binky.

The Guenthers went to the Jelly Belly factory in San Francisco a few months ago and brought back these super sweet souveniers.

Dominic started doing this move and we decided that he was showing off his yoga. Now he walks around the house and volunteers his "go-ga" positions for us.

The Downward Dog.

Healthcare Rally

Luke and I and the kids exercised our democratic rights by going to a Healthcare rally at the park. We took Lizzy, Lucas and Megan, too--a good learning experience for them :)

About 200 people showed up. There was free food and frisbees, too, so everyone was pretty happy.

Summer Visitors

Right before school started, the entire Mach clan took turns coming to visit. We had a super great time and all of them were a really great help with our slew of kids!

Aunt Lizzy got Dominic pretty happy in the water. He'd spent most of the summer scared on the side of the pool ("I scared, mama, I scared"), but was jumping into Lizzy's arms by the end of her visit.

The same day, some of our other friends were at the pool. This is Callie holding Patrick. Callie is in 6th grade a LOVES the babies.

Melissa helped me with School House Rock and Callie was one of the cast members. We've been lucky to get to know some great families through the production.

Uncle Lucas stayed for a whole week. He was great at helping me keep Dominic and the twins occupied during the day. One day we went to Cody Park--a North Platte favorite and fed the ducks and geese and deer.

Lucas feeding Dasher....or maybe this was Dancer.

Jake came and stayed a week later for about 3 days. This is him making me feel like I'm not the short one in the family. Thanks, Jake.

And this is the truth.

Patrick and Daddy playing at the park.

We also took Jake to the Cody Park and rode the rides. It rained while we were there. Dominic and Uncle Jake did some puddle jumping.

We loved having the visitors. Thanks everyone for coming!