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Table For 6: Family Dinner with Our Little Valentines

February 15, 2010 By Laura 10 Comments

Just sharing a peek into our Valentine’s Day Family Dinner, with our little valentines!

valentines-day

In getting ready for our special dinner together, one of the kids wrote this on my little chalk board that I use for schooling the kids sometimes. First, it made me smile.  Then, I found out who wrote it, so we could have a little discussion about how they determined where they should put that apostrophe.  It turns out, they were under the impression, that St. Valentine’s name, was  St. Valentines.  Therefore, because his name ended in s, it would be acceptable to just put an apostrophe after the s in his name, to show possession of his day.   So, if she was right, she would have been right!  But she was wrong, so she was wrong. Know what I mean? lol.  In the end, she learned something new on Valentine’s Day:  That the saints name, was indeed St. Valentine.  Not St. Valentines.  No S.  Just like our LAST name. ; )

See?  Schooling 24/7.

I resisted the urge to fix it. Just because I felt like I needed to SO badly, and knew there might be an issue there with myself, that I needed to work on. So I just left it.  Not feeling free yet though.

valentine-family-dinner-table-setting  Our afternoon dinner table, all set.  We actually eat dinner together as a family every single night. But the kids get excited for dinner like these, because we go above and beyond the normal, to make it special. Special pretty table setting, candles, surprises, and more. It’s just fun to do with the kids, and see their excitement over the occasion.
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valentine-heart-tree

We’ve still got this little tree going. To decorate it for Valentine’s Day, the kids made cut out hearts, and wrote something on them that we can do to ‘show our love’ to someone.  One of my favorites is:  “Give a foot rub?“.  Yes, with a question mark. lol. That was {A}’s, who possibly gives the world’s best foot rubs, and I possibly may want one more frequently than she wants to give one.
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valentine-dinner-table-setting

Back in the summer time, our local CVS (pharmacy) moved from it’s location, to a bigger and newer construction, further up the street.  Aside from my grumbling that CVS would now be further  up the street, I wasn’t sure how I felt about a ‘Dollar Tree’ moving into the old CVS, either.  Not having much experience with that store, and therefore really questioning the quality of product we’d find in there, I was leaning towards disappointment.

But as it turns out, I’ve found the store rather useful.  There really are some darn good finds there sometimes, and the pricing certainly fits our budget!

So I checked out the Dollar Tree, to see what helpful items I could find for our dinner.  Looking at the photo above, I got the plastic champagne flutes (which the kids got such a kick out of), the gift bags, their cards (2 for $1! )the napkins, and the candles and glass candlesticks!  Not bad, for a fancy-ish dinner setting!

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The kids loved their surprises.

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shrimp-and-pasta-diablo

For the dinner’s main course, I made Shrimp and Pasta Diablo!  Thankfully, the sky is the limit when planning a menu, even for a meal with our kids. They’ll eat just about anything under the sun, and they sure loved this dish, too.  They really love shrimp and pasta anyway. {O} did leave just a few tomato pieces on her plate.  There was definitely some ‘heat’ to those tomatoes, so I was surprised they all ate as many as much as they did. 2 out of 4 of the kids, had seconds! As did Michael of course.  But I can never eat that much of anything. It was delicious though.

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salad-and-bread

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molten-lava-cupcakes

A couple days prior, a good friend of ours, who LOVES to cook and bake, and does a whole lot of BOTH, so thoughtfully delivered to us some banana cake he made, as well as 6 molten lava cupcakes! We decided to save the cupcakes for our special Valentine’s dinner, so dessert would be covered.  It seemed like the perfect dessert to top off our family dinner.  And boy was it ever!
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We really felt the love.  With every-single-bite! I would have taken a photo of the inside, but that would have required me to put down my fork, and pick up my camera, at a very excitable time.  Goodness!  We’ve been invited to have dinner with him and his wife at their home this week.  I’m tempted to bring my camera, and photograph it all, but I don’t want to freak them out! lol.  I know he is going to have a reallly goood menu plan, just for us.  He’s brought us other food and treats before.  But also because Michael said that he said, in inviting us, “I plan on doing some cooking this week!”  See….when someone says something like that, in that way, you know they are serious about their cooking!  We really look forward to spending a few hours with he and his wife. They are just good peeps.   With our without the good food.  But they want to feed us too?  Well….alllriiiiiight.  If they insist.

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kidsonvalentinesday2010 It was nice that St. Valentine’s Day landed on a Sunday this year, wasn’t it?  We opted to go to 4:00 Mass on Saturday, to leave Sunday wide open to get ready for our afternoon date with each other.  We rarely do that, (go to Saturday Mass) because the Saturday Mass is just not the same for us, at all.  And it wasn’t again.  But as always, the homily was good!

So how was YOUR Valentine’s Day?  Did you do anything special? Celebrate in some small way?  Go all out?  Skip it all together?

We’d love to know.

Oh, and also, we recommend you be on the lookout for a Give-Away!  That’s all we’re sayin’.

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Filed Under: Celebrations, Faith/ Catholic, Holidays, The Big Picture Tagged With: molten-lava-cupcakes, shrimp-and-pasta-daiblo, Valentine-tree-decor, Valentines-day-family-celebrations, Valentines-day-family-dinner, Valentines-day-ideas, Valetine-table-setting

Superbowl Menu

February 8, 2010 By Laura 2 Comments

We had a nice little Superbowl Sunday.  We kept it pretty low-key, for a couple of reasons:

1) Our own New England Patriot’s weren’t playing.

2) It was a school night.

Every year, I get all excited about Superbowl Sunday, no matter who is playing. And then I realize how late the game is starting!  And then I remember, that I forget that that is the case, almost every year!

Still, we can’t let the opportunity for a little private family party, pass us by.  But considering the circumstances this year, we kept the menu simple-simple.

pastrami-sandwiches Pastrami Sandwiches – we love them. We just put a pound 1/2 of pastrami in our steamer for 10-15 minutes, rearranging in the steamer basket about 1/2 way through for even heating of the meat, and then we pile it on a toasted wheat roll.  The kids prefer no mustard, but Michael and I like a little French’s.

jalapeno-poppers

Here’s an item we were downright excited to try:  Jalapeno Poppers!

Participating Ingredients:

  • 18 fresh jalapeno peppers
  • 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
  • 3/4 shredded or grated cheddar cheese
  • 1 green onion chopped
  • package of bacon, cut in half to shorten (18 slices, 36 halved)
  • brown-sugar BBQ sauce
  • toothpicks
  • RUBBER GLOVES!

(You will only chop jalapeno peppers without gloves once, but never again.  I did, once, and my fingers spent the entire night in HELL.  Literally, I’m quite sure.  The throbbing pain of burn, was nearly unbearable.  I was near tears.  Just take my word for it, and use gloves when chopping these babies, and don’t touch any part of yourself after having touched the peppers!  Especially your eyes!)

1) SO….once dressed in your gloves, slice the peppers in half, lengthwise. We keep the stems on, and try to cut those in half too. It gives you a little handle later, and keeps them cute! Clean out the inside of the peppers completely – free of seeds and white membrane.  However, the real heat is in the seeds and the white membranes – so if you like more kick, leave a little.  We left just a little seed in ONE pepper, and I got the Lucky Popper. ; )

2) In a bowl, combine softened cream cheese, chopped green onion, and cheddar cheese. Mix well.

3) Being sure your gloves are on again, or still, using a little old-style butter knife, or a cheese spreader, fill all of the peppers halves with the cheese filling. We filled it well, as a little heap.

4) Pre-heat the oven to 275 degrees.  (I realize most cooks/bakers do this first, but I’m too slow to prep the food, so the oven is on for too long, for no reason.  Plus, I feel pressure because the oven is waiting and ready, but I’m not done! lol)

5) Next, wrap each cheese-filled pepper, with a 1/2 piece of bacon.  Do not pull it tight, as the bacon shrinks when it cooks. Secure each one with a toothpick through the side of the pepper as you go, and place on a cookie sheet.  (We cover the cookie sheets with tin foil for stuff like this, to avoid having to wash the pan after. ; )  Call us lazy.

6) Generously brush each bacon-wrapped-cheese-filled-pepper, with brown sugar BBQ sauce.

7) Put in oven for about an hour, or until the bacon is crisp and sizzling.

*You can serve immediately, at the risk of burning mouths.  But we found anyway, that letting them set & cool some for 10-15 minutes, really makes them all the better!  They firm up a bit, and you can really enjoy the different elements of the Jalapeno Popper in your mouth, instead of it all being very soft and mushy in your mouth.

A friend asked us, “Will the kids eat those?”, and the answer was YES!  Our little ones, especially, like hot stuff.  {A} just thought they “were just o.k.”.   But it’s not the recipe, it’s her.    ; )

We’ll be adding these to our appetizer hit-list for future occasions.  We put 1/2 f this batch, already cooked, in ziplock bag and into the freezer, to be able to just heat some up sometime soon. And trust me, soon it will be!

BTW – My friend Mary Beth, from Nothin’ But Country, made up a batch of the Bacon-Wrapped Pineapple Bites for her Superbowl party, and came by the blog here to leave a fantastic review of the recipe!  Check it out! If her review doesn’t convince you to try them, nothing will!  And check out her blog too! She and her husband LOVE to cook, and all kinds of great recipes.

chips-and-salsa We also snacked on tortilla chips and salsa through the game, in between hoots & hollers at the tv.   As you can see, we already had been at them before I remembered to take a photo. lol.

jsfootball Our ever-creative boy, {JM}, made a football for our party, as some festive decor.  He made it out of gold and white tissue paper, and a little gold mylar.  That boy is ALWAYS ‘making something’, and he never ceases to surprise us with his great ideas either.   Get this……..

jslitfootball  …..the football lights up!!  In the dark, it really puts off quite a glow!

Since our New England Patriot’s weren’t playing in the Superbowl this year <boo-hiss!!>, we decided to cheer on the Saints!  Why?  No real significant reason, except maybe because their names is the Saints, and we like their logo the best. : )  We are really happy for New Orleans.

Did YOU watch the Superbowl?  Which team did you cheer on?
And more importantly, what was on your Superbowl Menu, if you had one?  Do share!

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Filed Under: Appetizers, Crafts & Creations, Kids Arts and Crafts, Life In General, Recipes, Sandwiches, Snacks Tagged With: appetizers, jalapeno-poppers-recipe, party food, pastrami-sandwiches, superbowl-menu-ideas

{Kreature-Triple-Feature}: A Mixed Post

February 3, 2010 By Laura 10 Comments

We’ve got a few brief things to share today, and we hope for your comments & thoughts on any or all of it!

First up, is an amusing little story:

You know the stories you’ve heard, of instances when a baby has been left on someone’s home doorstep, or at a hospital?  Especially since the ‘Safe Haven Law’ went into effect, there have been numerous stories of such cases in the news.  But most of us have heard similar stories, going way back before the law was enacted. (Starting with Moses in the basket, floating along the river, in hopes someone would find him, and keep him safe and loved.)

Well, something QUITE similar happened, not at our home, ….. but our church!

And it wasn’t a baby that was left…. but a lop-eared bunny!

lop-eared-bunny HE (it’s been guessed) was found inside our empty church on Saturday, by one of the Knights of Columbus!  He was left there, in her big, clean cage, supplied with fresh food, fresh hay and full bottle of water.
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lop-eared-bunny-1 There was a note, that simply stated that he was not being taken cared for well enough anymore, and that was it!
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lop-eared-bunny-4
He’s just beautiful.  BIG, SO SOFT, such a gorgeous gray coat, and very handler friendly.

And get this…..

HE’S POTTY TRAINED!

We had heard the story after Mass on Sunday, and went right over to the parish center to see him.

Yesterday, we just had to go back, so I could get some photos of him.  I was right on time, because a parishioner was there and had him out of him cage, trimming the his nails.  This guy is really good with animals, and seemed to know a few things about rabbits.

lop-eared-bunny-5
Look at him,  checking out his reflection in the window.
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And there is nothing cuter, than watching him wash his face, with his paws.  We just about melted.
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 Surprisingly, our pastor fell quite smitten with the bunny, and decided that if no one claims him as a joke or something, the church is keeping him!!  He already named him, ‘Kreature’.  (Borrowed from the story of ‘Kreature’ from Harry Potter, I guess…which we’re not familiar with.)

He’ll be living at the parish center, where he will get PLENTY of LOVE and ATTENTION, from our huge parish family.


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candlemas
I considered several different activities, in the couple of days prior,  to do in light of Candlemas. (Light…lol…no pun intended. ; )  But, nothing was really appealing to me enough.  In the end, we just decided to have a ‘circle breakfast’, representing the solar system and light, and talk about again, all of the meaningful events, that are tied into Candlemas.

candlemas-breakfast
For those of you who have never heard of Candlemas, I would be happy to link you to information, but would never be able to CHOOSE exactly what to link you too.  It’s a complex day, honoring several events, that interestingly, can be said to be all tied to one another in some way.  So, may I be so nervy as to suggest you just Google ‘Candlemas’ yourself, see the abundance of links, and click on one or 3, that draw your attention.

It’s all worthy of a little celebration.  But knowing the days will grow longer and longer with daylight, certainly makes us happy.



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In our day to day life, I think any one who really knows us, will tell you that I am one of THE most protective mothers out there.  Some say, ‘over-protective’, even – which sits quite fine with me.

As parents, most all of us go to certain extents also, when using the web, to protect our children.

As a professional child-photographer, I do all I possibly can do, to protect the identity of my subjects.  While I use their photos online, on marketing material, and in displays, all with legally-signed permission from the parents, I never ever use the children’s names, or give out any other information relevant to their location or safety.  I am actually more of an advocate about that, than most of my parents even seem to care about.  After all, what harm can come of anyone seeing a photo of a child online, and knowing their first name?

Which brings me to the point of this post, in relation to OUR life, specifically.  Like so many parents do with their own blogs, etc., I have used a substitute of sorts, for our own children’s names.  Some parents come up with fun nick-names, etc., that represent their children.  Everyone has different circumstances, and there is also a wide variation of feelings and comfort levels on the matter.  Which I respect 100%.

So this post is in no way an argument about the relevance or importance of doing so for any family in part, or as a whole, but more directly about US, in particular.

From the beginning, we have opted to use our children’s initials, inside of brackets.  When we started this blog, I didn’t have very strong feelings on making an effort to protect our children’s online identity, per sey.  Naturally, as a child-photographer, I’m all about photographing children. And as a mother who is in love with her children, and of which this blog revolves around, I definitely was going to be posting TONS of photos of our own children.   (Their Dad is quite fine with it as well, by the way.)  But in using their names, I was sort of ….undecided.  I couldn’t really think of a single reason, in OUR life circumstances, how using their names would jeopardize their safety, on any given day.  But just in case I thought of something later, I embarked on this blogging journey, using the bracketed initials.

But lately, I have been asking myself WHY we do that, and what harm could possibly come of using their names?

I’m just starting to feel a little…..silly, I suppose, using their bracketed initials.  Silly, when I consider the following facts:

  • In home schooling our children, they are pretty much under our wing at all times.  They don’t take a bus, walk to or from anywhere on their own, nor are they ever really anywhere without us.  They know full well, anyway, that just because someone knows their name, does not mean that they KNOW them, nor should they trust them.  We have a safety plan in place & in practice for everything.  Even just playing in the yard.  These are things that we talk about frequently, and they are tested on them as well.
  • Our whole family was on national television, for goodness sake, and their faces and names were used. That show has aired a gazillion times, and probably will continue to for some time.
  • Between our 2 home-based businesses and 2 sets of growing clientel, in and around the surroundings areas, many people know us because of our lines of work.
  • Then of course there is also the blog here, which is gaining a growing audience all of the time.  For those local to us, they know our names anyway!  For those who aren’t local, what harm could they be when they are not even in close proximity to us?
  • We end up communicating with many visitors of this blog.  We really enjoy communicating and networking with so many of you.  I am willing to bet that many of you, reading this right now, KNOW what our children’s names are anyway.  Do YOU?
  • The kids are also involved in activities or programs here and there, and we are also out about the world a lot. We don’t live in a bubble, and our crew seems to attract attention every where we go.  In part because 1/2 of our family is seemingly the exact same size.
  • In our REAL LIFE, people see their face, and learn their names, whether on a personal or casual basis.  So what is the difference?

So, I guess I’m just thinking out loud, in a way, and asking you to share your thoughts on this matter for US.  In our particular situation.  Not a general opinion on the matter, because again, I feel everyone’s situation is different, and it IS up to the respected discretion of each and every parent/family.  But maybe point out something we haven’t thought of, or share the notion that you really see no risk in it either.  Generally speaking, I am thinking more of the now 7 year olds.  Our oldest is more independent and grown up enough to keep herself safe.  She has a different set of safety rules.  I think I stopped worrying about her physical safety as much, right around the time I realized she is WAY bigger than I am! Still,…..I will always be protective of my children, and instruct them on safety.

Somehow, I thought this was going to be a brief question for you.  But I guess a little background might be helpful, for you to offer your thoughts, if you will, on the use of our children’s names on this blog.  I don’t know what our final decision would be, but I would love YOUR food for thought, and consideration.  To help us ‘think outside the box’ on this one.

We value your comments (on anything), as well as your respectful opinion!

UPDATE-2016:  I continued refer to the kids using their initials in brackets for years.  Just because I started out doing so, even though I wasn’t all that uncomfortable with their first names being out there, with their photos on the blog. As they got older and continues blogging, in time, I just using their names, and do so today when blogging.  So in full disclosure for this very old post now, here are their names:

{A} – Alexis….more formally know as Alexis Grace – the oldest girl
And the triplets:
{J} – JackMichael
{O} – Olivia (Faith)
{S} – Shane (Jacob)

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Filed Under: Celebrations, Faith/ Catholic, Life In General, The Big Picture Tagged With: Candlemas, lop-eared-bunny

Thoughts on LIFE.

January 26, 2010 By Laura 9 Comments

Life
We’ve got a pretty great pastor at our parish.  He has lots of admirable qualities as a person, and a pastor of our parish. But if there is one thing that really hits me about this man, time and time again, it’s his gift in giving great homilies.   Every homily I have ever heard him give, has been beyond impressive to me.   For every time that I have ‘come to’, sitting their in our usual church pew, from the place that I had been while listening to his homily, I find myself wishing that I could have recorded that for our blog.  His homilies paint vivid pictures. They are well thought out.  Stumble-free. Notes-free. Full of expression. Fact filled.  They come full circle, without ever knowing of the constant curve you were taking, and pack a punch in the end.  Every one just leaves me longing for a good chunk of time, to ‘just sit there with that’, and ponder it longer.

So with such effective presentation, I hesitate to even attempt to restate it.  I will definitely fail in repeating it, in the amazing manner he did.  But I do want to share with you the gist of it.

In part, the object of his homily, was to give us a better grasp, on the large numbers, in terms of death tolls that come of tragedies we are all too familiar with.  He spoke of 9/11 in 2001, and how in the end, the finale death toll totaled in excess of  3,000 lives lost in that terrorist attack on our country.  He spoke of the tsunami in Indonesia in 2004, when it was estimated to be around 250,000 people who had lost their lives. And most recently on everyone’s minds, the earthquake in Haiti, where at that time on Sunday, it was last reported that 120,000 lives were ended.

To think of exactly how many lives that is, is difficult, at best.  Each and every life, is of great value!  They are human beings, who were loved by somebody, if not many.  They were each created, one by one, by the hand of God.  Each unique and specially designed….like no other. So to really fully comprehend lives lost, in the numbers of thousands, is near impossible. The media focuses as best they can, on the individual life stories of people, families, heart-ache, grief, and the rescues that bring that little bit of hope back to all of us. And to those still looking for their loved ones.  So that we GET IT. But to imagine the magnitude of tragic deaths, with such high tolls, is so great, we just can’t adequately wrap our brains around it.

To look at the combined lives lost in these 3 tragic events, is in excess of 370,000 lives.  LIVES.  PEOPLE.  Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, friends, daughters, sons.  Children.  Babies, who had their whole lives ahead of them.

So imagine this.

Since Roe vs. Wade was put into effect 37 years ago (as of this year of 2010), over 500,000,000 lives, have been ended.  500 MILLION!  That  is over 36 Million PER YEAR!!  Wrap your brain around THAT.  The senselessness of each and every one, brings me to my knees.  While again, EVERY SINGLE LIFE is INVALUABLE, that number of abortions performed far, far exceeds even the total of the combined tragic events discussed here.

Fr. Ken then shared a story, from his early years of priesthood, and his assignment in working with Project Rachel.  For those of you who do not know, Project Rachel is an outreach program for those suffering the usually inevitable grief and guilt associated with the previous act, or ‘choice’ of abortions.  He said 1=one woman’s story struck him so profoundly, he never forgot it:

It was the story of a woman, who was in her college years, and found herself pregnant.  She was pressured, by everyone around her, that this baby would ruin her life.  That her dreams would be destroyed, and impossible to accomplish, with a child.  She said that although she knew in the back of her mind it was wrong, she was scared, and had the abortion.

The years that followed were filled with days that haunted her. She wondered what her child would have been like.  Was it a girl or a boy?  What would he or she have looked like?  She would notice children everywhere, that were about the age her child would have been.  She would see and hear children running, laughing, playing on a playground, and feel such pain and grief in her heart.

She eventually married, and had a family.  But there was a hole inside her that she could not fill, no matter how hard she tried.  She wanted to forget.  To at least let go of the weight of guilt and loss she felt.  But there it was, every morning when she opened her eyes. She hadn’t even been able to bring herself to tell her husband of the burden she carried.   She feared he would leave her.  After all, who could love someone, who would kill their own child?  She couldn’t even forgive or love herself, for what she had done.

She carried that secret around, alone, for 15 years.  Until one day, she was reading a fictional book.  A made up story, that happened to have a character, who went to Confession, to seek forgiveness.  And she knew in that moment, what she needed. What she wanted, more than anything.  Forgiveness from God.  She knew that was was exactly all she needed. So that she could forgive herself, and finally find peace, and be free.

There was one small problem.  She wasn’t even Catholic. But that was not enough to stop her from what her heart so desperately needed.  So took the steps she needed, went through the entire months long process, got all of the instruction, and did indeed become a Catholic, all so that she could receive the Sacrament of Penance.  And she did, the very moment that she could.  It was all the healing her heart needed.  She knew God had forgiven her.  She knew that her child, too, had forgiven her. And so, despite her sadness over the choice that she made, she was able to forgive herself, and find that peace for her heart she had wanted and needed for so many years.

Fr. Ken circled us back to the tragedies that have taken so many lives, and changed forever, the lives of so many others.  He spoke of how beautiful it is, that when things of such devastating nature occur, people come together.  People generally come together in forces, to make a difference.  To relieve the suffering, give to the needy, and work together to get the jobs done. People volunteer. People donate.  Celebrities of all kinds use their faces for good, working themselves to make a difference, and encouraging others to do the same.  People pray. People go. People give. People sacrifice. People offer any useful tools of use they may have, to make a difference in any way they can.  It is indeed, a beautiful, amazing, and powerful force, when people’s compassion rises above all else, and comes together. As miracles come to light, faith, bit by bit, is restored.  As is LOVE, for all people.  Each and every single rescue gives us reason to celebrate LIFE. And thank God for it.

As Fr. Ken ended his homily, on a note of such hope, I thought about those numbers.  I thought about all of the people that HAVE come together in the wake of such tragedies.  Our armed forces. The Red Cross. Emergency personnel. Celebrities.  Missionary workers.  Ordinary people, like you and me.  All of those people, that together by the thousands,  do anything they can, to SAVE people, to RESCUE even as much as ONE LIFE.  Because every life is invaluable.  One life, IS worth saving.  It’s the truth.  Many of us thank God, that so many come forth to help, for the sake of lives on the line.

And I wondered:  Out of all of these millions of people who have given anything and everything they can, in a great effort to rescue others in these heart-breaking and horrific disasters, and give them back the opportunity to live their life…..How many are pro-choice?

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Filed Under: Faith, Faith/ Catholic, Into the Light; The Series, Life In General, The Big Picture Tagged With: a-great-Catholic-homily, basic-human-rights, Catholic, Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, help-for-women-grieving-regretting-abortion, life, one-woman's-abortion-story, pro-life, Project-Rachel

PaRtY aNiMaLs!!! | Our Family’s New Year’s Eve Celebration 2010

January 3, 2010 By Laura 10 Comments

New Year’s Eve was a GOOD TIME at our house!!

We were ready to rock in 2010!!

We went to 4:00 Mass to start, because the next day was a Holy Day of Obligation for us.  It was a really great Mass, with a great homily, so that was a great start to our whole night.

When we got home, we started cooking and prepping our party food for the night!

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The menu included buffalo chicken, pineapple wrapped in bacon, stuffed mushrooms, and simple deviled eggs, to start.

bacon-wrapped-pineapple Bacon Wrapped Pineapple Bites – recipe HERE

deviled-eggs

stuffed-mushrooms Later on we had more snack kind of stuff, and some party punch with sherbet ice cream in it.

The kids were very excited, because we told {J, O &S} they could stay up until midnight, if they could make it!

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g  {JM} was the first to start getting crazy!   No surprise there!

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And it doesn’t take much, to get Daddy going!!

We had the TV on of course, and were thrilled that Daughtry played a set in Time Square!!  I love them.

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k

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While they got bored of watching the people in the streets of Time Square , and were waiting for the ball to drop, {JOS} found a new use for their party hats, and the battle was on!!….

7-year-old-triplets-new-years-eve This is about as wild as I’ve ever let them get in the house! lol

7-year-old-triplets-new-years-eve-1 It really was hilarious to watch them!!  We were all hysterical!

7-year-old-triplets-new-years-eve-2

7-year-old-triplets-new-years-eve-3

m {S} was the first one, really fighting the sleepies.  We noticed him suddenly sitting there quietly, and his big sister asked, “What’s a matter {S}?  Are you tired??”  And he quietly  said “Yes.”  What a strange sight, for all of us.  This boy wakes UP the ‘party animal’, every day!  But…..it was LATE by now.

And soon enough…..the ball was dropping…..the countdown began….and then…..MIDNIGHT!!

7-year-old-triplets-new-years-eve-4 And a LOT of NOISE!!!  JOYFUL NOISE!!!  (of course).

7-year-old-triplets-new-years-eve-5 {A} was saying how hard the horns were to blow.

I knew she wasn’t kidding when I saw how her photo turned out!

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v LOL!!!  GOOD GOLLY!!

Just kidding.  I played with that one a little bit!

This is the real photo…..

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Then it was time for Happy New Year Kisses!! w This is {J, O & S}’s ‘triplet kiss’ they have done since they were very little!  {O} puts her finger to her lips, as central point, and all 3 of them kiss it. I always loved that. <sniff>

x  Then there was kisses for big sister!!

Michael and I are off to the side there.  Sorry….that one’s private. ; )

Hope you all had a great New Year’s Eve!!

WHAT DID YOU ALL DO ON NEW YEAR’S EVE?

WE’D LOVE FOR YOU TO TELL US ABOUT IT!

Did you have a quiet one?  Go out and party?  Stay in and order Chinese Food?  Crash at 10:00??

HaPpY NeW YeAr EvErYoNe!!!

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Filed Under: Celebrations, Faith/ Catholic, Holidays, The Big Picture Tagged With: Catholic-blogs, Catholic-families, family-home-New-Year's-Eve-celebrations-with-young-kids, family-New-Year's-Eve-celebrations, triplets

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