Happy Birthday to Natey!!!

Nathanael turned SIX on November 10th.  It seems like just yesterday when I was on bed-rest with him in my tummy for three months! :)  I often think that he will have a special love for the Lord because every day when I was on bed-rest, a friend of mine from church would come to give me Holy Communion, which Nathanael shared with me in my womb.  From the very start this little boy brought us joy.  He was probably my easiest labor and delivery, and he was such a sweet, adorable, mellow baby.  He continues to fill our home with joy with his sweet smile, his laughter and his silly antics.  I sure miss him during the day now that he's in Kindergarten, but I'm happy that he loves school so much and has great friends.  For his birthday party, he invited 5 of his best kindergarten pals, along with their entire families over to our house for a BBQ.  The kids had a blast eating and chatting, playing kickball and capture the flag, and just being silly kids.  Here are some of the highlights:

And here's a flashback from the day he was born...

and the day he entered the Church...

It was love at first sight,

and my love just keeps on growing!

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our sweet Nathanael!

May he continue to grow in his love for You

and use his talents to serve You as he grows to be a man!

Grandparents are the Greatest

Last month my parents came for a visit when Paul was away on a work trip.  Of course, I wish my parents simply lived in the same town as us so that we could see them whenever we wanted to, but I am so grateful that they are willing to drive the 12 hour road trip from South Dakota to come to my rescue a few times a year and to spend quality time with their grand-kids.  We spent a wonderful week together, mostly relaxing and playing games, but we got a few projects done too--my mom is the queen of getting things done.  My mom is also the queen of having fun with her grand-kids.  She spent tons of time doing puzzles or baking cookies with little Isaiah while his big brothers were all at school, and then once the older boys got home, she would play cards with them until bedtime (or far past bedtime!).  My dad took the big boys salmon snagging because fishing is his passion, so we now have jars of canned salmon in our pantry--those will come in handy during Lent.  I am so blessed to have such awesome parents, and my kids are blessed to have the greatest grandparents God could have possibly given them!

Paul is always happy when my parents come too, because he knows that I will be happy and well taken care of while he is gone. :)

Annual Family Photos

This year we splurged (although the price was so cheap it didn't even feel like splurging) and hired a professional photographer to take our family pictures.  Eric, the photographer, goes to our church and was recommended to us by a friend.  When my friend showed me how awesome her family photos turned out, how reasonable the price was, and how stress-free the whole process was, I contacted Eric right away.  This was the first time we've hired a photographer.  In years past, I either set up the timer button on my camera to get our annual family photo, or I waited until my parents (or some other unsuspecting visitor) was around to take a picture for us.  But Eric was definitely the way to go.  He was so relaxed, so cheap---and so quick!  It took about 20 minutes from the time he showed up at our house to the time he left.  Sweet.  It will be sweet indeed to look back on these photos years from now to see how our family has changed...

But for now, here we are---our crazy family---filled with boys and blessings beyond belief.

Check out Isaiah saying "PEACE" to your family! :)

The New Messages from Medjugorje

October 25, 2016 Message to Marija

 "Dear children! Today I am calling you: pray for peace. Leave selfishness and live the messages which I am giving you. Without them, you cannot change your life. By living prayer, you will have peace. By living in peace, you will feel the need to witness, because you will discover God whom you now feel to be far away. Therefore, little children, pray, pray, pray and permit God to enter into your hearts. Return to fasting and confession so as to overcome the evil in you and around you. Thank you for having responded to my call."


 November 02, Message to Mirjana

"Dear children, to come to you and to make myself known to you is a great joy for my motherly heart. It is a gift from my Son for you and for others who are coming. As a mother I am calling you: love my Son above everything. In order to love Him with all your heart, you need to come to know Him. You will come to know Him through prayer. Pray with the heart and with your feelings. To pray means to think of His love and sacrifice. To pray means to love, to give, to suffer and to offer. I am calling you, my children, to be apostles of prayer and love. My children, it is a time of vigilance. In this vigil I am calling you to prayer, love and trust. As my Son will be looking in your hearts, my motherly heart desires for Him to see unconditional trust and love in them. The united love of my apostles will live, will conquer and will expose evil. My children, I was a chalice of the God-man; I was God's instrument. That is why I am calling you, my apostles, to be a chalice of the true and pure love of my Son. I am calling you to be an instrument through which all those who have not come to know the love of God—who have never loved—may comprehend, accept and be saved. Thank you, my children." (While Our Lady was leaving, Mirjana saw a chalice.)

St. Gertrude the Great's Prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

The month of November is dedicated to the memory of the Holy Souls, and their feast day is today, (November 2nd.) Tradition holds that St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the prayer below, when piously recited, would release 1,000 souls from purgatory. St. Gertrude the Great was a 13th century German nun, writer, and mystic who was graced with many heavenly visions, and it is recounted that Jesus showed her a vast number of souls entering heaven from purgatory as a result of her faithful recitation of this prayer.

I would like to try to memorize this prayer and include it in my daily prayers during November, but at the very least, I will pray it today and perhaps some of you would like to as well for your departed family members or friends.

 “Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.”

Celebrating All the Saints

Happy Feast of the Eve of the Holy Day, or Happy Halloween!  

We continued our tradition of focusing on the saints rather than the secular by having an All Saints Day party with our saintliest friends :)  Actually, all of us in attendance were big sinners, but thankfully we have a God Who is big on mercy!  And that's what our party is all about...remembering the lives of sinners turned into saints through God's mercy, and praying that we too can follow in their footsteps and join them in heaven someday.  As Pope Francis says,

"To be saints is not a privilege for the few,

but a vocation for everyone." 

Here are the highlights from the party:

St. Michael the Archangel eating roasted pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin seeds roasted with butter, garlic salt, and seasoning salt are one of my favorite traditions of this time of the year...yum.

Our three littlest saints:

Isaiah as St. Michael

Nathanael as St. Padre Pio

Dominic as St. Pope John Paul II

Our saint-o-lanterns...

The big boys didn't dress up this year, but they helped us carve the saint-o-lanterns,

and they also helped with the party games.

My friend Marika made this JPII costume and gave it to us when her son grew out of it.

It's probably the best saint costume we've ever had...

Thank you, Marika!

This shows one of the new saint games we did this year...

I explained to the kids the words of St. Paul in the Bible that to become a saint you have to

run the race and persevere to the end, even when life gets hard.

Then my son Joseph led the kids on a race around our property...

...The kids had to through some rocks...

...and then climb over some logs and to the top of the biggest boulders on our property where they were rewarded with some candy.  I can't wait to see the prize that awaits each of us after we finish our earthly race and reach heaven at last!

We also played some indoor games like "Throw the halo around the saint"...

...and "The St. Therese game" where the kids had to drop roses from heaven (just like St. Therese continues to do) and get them to land in the basket with St. Therese's picture in it.

As always, the grand finale was the pinata.

We start with the littlest saints...

...even the angels like to battle the pinata...

...and the saintly little girls were some of the best sluggers...

...But St. Benedict gets the prize for breaking the pinata open.

There was plenty of candy for all the little saints

so that I don't think any of them will miss trick-or-treating too much.

But, no matter how you celebrate this week,

I pray that you take a moment to remember the holy saints 

who have given us such great examples to follow

and who will intercede for us to help us run the race well!