House for Sale!

Well, it's official.  Our home sweet home will be on the market tomorrow.  My heart is a mixed bag of emotions:  eager for the adventure, scared out of my wits, and bittersweet at the thought of selling this home filled with many memories and abundant graces.  We hope the potential buyers of our house will feel the love, faith, and joy that was shared within these walls.  We pray that it sells in God's perfect timing to the right family, and that we find a new home soon to begin building new memories in.  We are extra blessed to have a faith-filled friend as a realtor who understands our need of finding a larger house with a bigger yard because he has 5 boys just like us!  And for those of you who have never been a guest in our happy home, here's a quick tour:

I fell in love with this home at first sight 7 years ago...

It was fun buying a Spring wreath and welcome sign to make our entrance more inviting...

Here's the view upon entering the front door...

Our cozy living room where we listen to boys playing piano during the day

and where we gather for our family prayers at night...

I love the way we recently moved our piano to this side of the room instead of having it block the windows;

now we have more sunshine filling the room...

I also love this new ficus tree that I bought to brighten the room,

and, of course, it consoles me to know that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is with our family on this adventure...

Oh, the conversations (and spilled milk) we've shared around this table...

And here's our bright kitchen where I spend much of my time...

I will miss this view from my kitchen window watching our boys play in the backyard. 

This "String of Pearls" plant reminds me of rosary beads

 and all the graces Our Lady has given our family in this home...

Here's a view of the balcony where 3 of our bedrooms are...

I love this little ledge heading upstairs that holds a basket filled with the roses from our wedding;

they are still just as beautiful 14 years past that sacred day...

I have always loved climbing these stairs and being reminded how much Jesus loves the little children,

and how much He loves even me...

Paul made this log bed as a wedding gift to me, 

and my mother made this log cabin quilt to cover it perfectly;

what a blessing to be covered by her quilt and her prayers all these years...

We've always believed in having a crucifix in our bedroom as a reminder to keep our eyes fixed on Christ...

Our master bathroom...

I have loved tucking our boys in bed and listening to them talk and giggle (sometimes for hours) 

before falling asleep...

The boys' bathroom, complete with new linoleum...

The nursery where our three youngest  have been read to and rocked for countless hours...

The family room in the basement that has witnessed numerous floor hockey games

 and hours of Lego building and playing board games...

The spare bedroom in the basement which used to be our homeschooling room,

and now is used for grandparents and guests when they visit...

The quaint spare bathroom...

We have complete faith and trust that God will help us sell our home and find a new one

as we ask for the intercession of St. Joseph.  If God entrusted St. Joseph to take care of the Holy Family,

then I believe we can trust him too.

ST. JOSEPH, PRAY FOR US!!!

Spring Break in the Clouds

For Spring Break this year we decided to visit a new ski hill.  We chose the beautiful Whitefish Ski Resort in Whitefish, MT.  Whitefish is nestled up to Glacier National Park, so the landscape is truly breathtaking... especially when the sky is clear and sunny.  However, we learned that this particular ski hill is often (some say more than 50% of the time) covered in a thick layer of clouds, which is kind of a bummer when you're trying to ski.    Yet, even with the poor visibility, we managed to have fun on the slopes.  The boys claimed that it's simply more adventurous to ski double black diamonds with only 10 yards of visibility.  I found it to be a little more than disconcerting when I was sitting in the chair lift going up the mountain, and by the time I reached the top I could only see one chair in front of me and a white-out on both sides of me.  But I survived, and just to show the boys how brave and cool their mommy can be, I skied one black diamond (and nearly wet my pants...but heck, they are waterproof, so no one could tell) :)  

Here's some photos of the highlights:

Gorgeous view of the Whitefish/Kalispell valley.  Few clouds down below...

Lots of clouds the higher you go.  Pretty and frightening all at the same time.

Here's our boys standing in front of our awesome condo:  The Edelweiss.  

The name of our condo kept making me want to break into song like Fraulein Maria in the Sound of Music :)

  

The condo was a ski-in ski-out condo which was pretty sweet.

We were actually in the closest condo to the chair lifts!

Here's me with my brave ski bums.  Holy cow, Joseph is almost as tall as me!

He's also wearing the same size ski boots as his mother.  Crazy!

Here's Paul and the boys ready to tear up the slopes!

We found Jesus on the ski hill!  Boy, He truly is everywhere at all times!

This statue was my favorite part of the ski hill.  It was put there by the Knights of Columbus after WWII.

Apparently, some anti-religious group is trying to get Him removed from the hill, but so far they have been unsuccessful.  I found great comfort being reminded that Jesus was watching over us as we skied.

I'm a bit concerned about our 3 oldest boys truly becoming full-time ski bums when they get older.

They are passionate about skiing and crazy-good at it.

When I asked them what they thought about Whitefish, their word for it was

EPIC!!!

While Dominic and I waited for Joseph and Michael to meet us at Chair Lift #3,

we decided to make some snowballs and..

our very own snowman, complete with ski poles :)

After a day of skiing, we enjoyed soaking our sore muscles in the hot tub

When we weren't on the slopes, we had a blast in our condo playing games

Nathanael is turning into quite the card-shark! :)

Isaiah just loved exploring a new place and chewing on new things :)

And of course, the amazing food at the resort restaurants was one of the biggest highlights!  

YUM!!!  :)

I wonder where we will go next year for Spring Break?  My guess is that it will be another ski hill.  I hope all of you have a wonderful Spring Break wherever you go!