Bishop Conley

We were so thrilled to be able to represent our parish at Bishop Conley’s installation. It was a beautiful Mass with almost 40 bishops and over 200 priests. The music was wonderful and it was such an honor to be there. We got to talk to Bishop Conley for a few short minutes after the Mass. I even prodded him a little to see if he was interested in coming to Holdrege for our Pub Theology. He gave me an enthusiastic “Yes!” We feel so blessed to have him as our new bishop!

He’s 2!

Oh, Leo. How did you get so, so big? Your vocabulary is getting crazy. You especially love to say “Open this, please,” usually referring to fruit snacks. You also like to say “No say stupid!” which makes all your brothers laugh. You often end words with a “y” like “gross-y” or “it’s dark-y”. Right now you just want to do everything the big kids are doing and your brothers don’t have a lot of patience for that. Don’t worry, just a few months and you’ll be playing all the games they play. You still love to wrestle. When daddy gets home, you’ll beg him, “wrestle, please!” You are super tough, throwing yourself around without any regard to your own body. You LOVE giving tight hugs. Sometimes you’ll just randomly wrap your arms around me and kiss my cheek over and over again. Sometimes you’ll hug me tight and say, “Ohhh…thank you, mommy!” You love when we play stinky feet and you ALWAYS make me smell your feet when I take your shoes off. You have quite a stubborn streak and you and Daddy have had some battles already! The way you close your eyes dramatically when you are mad just makes me and daddy laugh, but we try not to let you see. Sometimes when you get in trouble, you’ll put yourself in timeout! You remind me a lot of Patrick sometimes, the way you can be so dramatic at times and even your facial expressions and mannerisms are a lot like his. Recently, you have become quite a little singer, much to my delight! You can sing ABC’s and Moon, Moon, Moon and sometimes you’ll even sing parts of some Mumford & Sons or Dave Matthews Band songs. We love you so, so much little man!

A preschool field trip

D’s class went on a field trip to the local “Pumpkin Patch” here in town. And by “Pumpkin Patch,” I mean a small grassy lot next to a church filled with pumpkins that are shipping in from New Mexico. We live large here in Holdrege. But the kiddos really did love it. I chaperoned and took the other three littles along.

 

Here’s his class + Leo and Patrick (notice I didn’t get one picture of Jackson—typical Jackson )

Kambryn, Addison, Lily

Dominic, Jace, Aubrey, Grant

Leo, Patrick, Landon, Landon’s sister

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Fest ‘12

We trekked back West for the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Pumpkin Festival. While we lived there, Luke was the chairperson of the event for 4 years. We battled a 100-year Snowstorm one October and every other year it rained some. This year, though, the weather was perfect!

The kiddos were most excited to ride the horses!

There were also train rides, bounce houses, and all kinds of games and food booths.

Dominic vs. Patrick on the blow-up basketball game.

Grandma and Grandpa Deaver joined us for the fun afternoon.

And a hayrack ride.

It was a very fun time, but Luke and I had all we could handle by about 1:00. I must have counted heads a hundred times! It seems that every time I go to chase Leo somewhere, I end up losing another kid or two in the meantime. Luckily, we did end up with four kiddos on the way home. And we really loved catching up with some of our old friends in North Platte!

Innocence of a child

The kiddos are now obsessed with the group Mumford & Sons. When Jake was here a few days ago, he choreographed a few of the songs (yep…you read that right) and the boys have been doing actions that match the words for 3 days straight. Mumford & Sons have some great music with lots of Christian undertones, but one song on this particular CD has some explicit lyrics. Earlier today, I had to run into the living room to quickly change the song before that word got to the little ones’ ears.

Patrick: Mom, why can’t we listen to that?

Me: Well…it has some naughty words on it and we don’t really need to listen to that.

Patrick: Does it say ‘stupid’?

Here’s hoping these kiddos never grow up.

Family pics

I have tons of pictures from the past few weeks to get up here, but I had to post these ones first. I decided to put my good camera to use and take family pictures myself this year. Everyone was more or less good sports and humored mommy and her picture-taking craziness. For that I was very thankful.

I ran to the Pamida and got a crappy tripod, dressed everyone up and we headed to the train station here in town. I only got a few good ones, but that’s all I really wanted. Between the new tripod and McDonalds afterwards (bribery for the kiddos) pictures were about $30. Much cheaper than hiring a professional. I’d call the morning a success!

 

 

 

The best one I got of the little all together.

 

All I wanted was one good family shot—here it is!

Tried to get some of each of the kiddos by themselves. My favorite is the one of Leo.

 

I don’t have a good editing software, so these pics are off to Lizzy for some fixes. Thanks, Liz!