Lovely delight

I interrupt the grief of the day to introduce a little joy.  Okay, a lot of joy.  Joy in the every day, the beauty, and truth of our beautiful world.  

All sweet 7 of them

Okay, not my kid, but a "kid".  This little friend prevented us from eating our lunch at an outdoor animal "park" one day. Seriously climbed up onto our table and helped himself to our picnic.  We went away amused, but hungry.

16 years and that guy still makes my heart leap! 

A HandFULL

As in..she's FIVE!!!

Oh, how we love spoiling this girl!  I love days when the "yeses" are continuous and I (almost) never have to tell the girl "no".  

This past year has been her best yet.  Another year of zero hospital visits (how I long for when that's not even something we count anymore), another year of growing, a year where her biggest joy was getting to be a big sister again.  

A tradition that I started years ago was hanging what we call "picture posters" all over the house for the birthday kid.  With Felicity this is especially important for me to do because although I do hang a couple of "NICU-baby" pictures I mainly try to find "normal-baby" pictures to hang up.  It's important for her to see, but it's equally, if not more, important for me to see those pictures.  So much of her life has been centered around what's "wrong" and trying to help her that seeing "normal" is so good for my mommy heart.  Maybe this summer when we head back to SD to visit the grandparents, when we pull into their downtown parking garage she won't say, "Oh, why are we at the hospital!". Maybe, just maybe. 

And Then There were 9

Isabella Magdalene Anne was born on Dec.1, 2015 at 4:04pm.  She weighed a whoppin' 8.5lbs and was 21.5" long...our largest by far.  I'll try to write down her birth story for those of you who are interested in that type of thing.

My pregnancy, her birth, and recovery was all a little more difficult.  Was it because I'm older, she's #7, or just because? Who knows.  I am happy to report that she's 6 weeks old and I'm finally feeling mostly back to normal.

Bella was baptized on New Year's Eve and we were so excited that her godparents were able to come all the way from Kansas City to attend!  We had a blast with them and really hardly noticed that there were 17 kids and 4 adults in the house for the whole weekend.  Tons of fun, I tell ya!  Tons of fun!!!!!

We hit the books again at the beginning of the week and I'm mostly pleased with how it's going.  I really just want to snuggle my sweet babe and let the kids run wild, but that's never good for any one. So, I snuggle the sweet babe and try to keep the others on track.  I think we were all ready to get back to work.

I'm not sure how often I'll get to this blog, but when I do, be warned that there will be plenty of baby pictures!

Warning! I'm baaaaack!

Hello there, remember me?  I have a blog.  This is it.  I sometimes forget to write anything on it.  Forgive me?  Thanks!  

I'm sure I have a lot to say since it's been a very long time since I've said anything in this space.  But, I'll wait.  I'll let you feast your eyes on pictures of my kids.  That's more fun anyway.  

Pretty soon this blog will be full of pictures of our new little bundle, who has not arrived just yet, but promises to make her entrance soon.  Promises I tell you! 

Wait, did I even announce on here that we did indeed find out what we're having and she's a she?!?!?!   Aidan has maintained his status as favorite brother to all these girls!  

Picture Post

Sooo...yeah.....um, hello!?  Remember me?  My name's Meghan and I used to blog here.  Not sure what happened to the past several months, but I guess that's what happens, right?  Living life, not blogging it.  But I wanted to be blogging it, I just wasn't. So, here are some pictures (okay, a lot of pictures....of the toddler, mainly) to get this blog back up and running.

Milestones, Memories, and aMazing

She's 4!

My sweet miracle is 4 years old.  She is healthier than she has ever been, sleeping more than she ever has (thank you!) and is in general growing and thriving.  I can't even explain how happy that makes me.

I am so very thankful for this little girl.   

This look!  She was delighted all day long that it was her birthday!

Having this sweetie in our lives has not always been easy.  There have been sleepless nights, hospital stays, therapy sessions, and that stinkin' reflux that seems like will never resolve.  But, oh my!  The joy!  The fun!  The love!  Everything else.

I don't ever want to forget what a gift we have been given!

Bonus visit from our friend, Fr.Patrick!  

We opted not to visit the NICU this year.  We haven't done it every year, and I'm always torn on what to do.  We are so very, very grateful to the doctors and nurses who cared for Felicity.  But, I once was the mom sitting by my daughter's bedside not knowing if I was every going to get to take her home.  I remember NICU "graduates" coming in to say "hello" and I remember not loving it.  So we minimize our visits.

This year we started off the day by some bonus time with our friend, Fr. Patrick, who kinda, sorta got locked out of where he was planning on staying so got to stay with us (yay us!!!!).  That was followed by Mass (time change...ugh), the zoo, and some great family time at home!  Felicity had a great day and it was super, duper fun having a day reserved just for her!

Happy 4th Birthday Felicity Perpetua!!!!

The Story of the German Chocolate Cake

Alternately entitled:  Why I don't make my cakes from scratch!

About 10 years ago (which makes for a good start to a story, and at the same time makes me feel incredibly old) it was my husband's birthday.  We lived in south-central Texas, just outside of a sweet town with our two sweet kids.  He was, and still is, a musician, and a teacher.  A music teacher.  I've learned that means that while school is in session there is simply no "down time" to be had and we rarely get to see the guy.

Where was I?  Oh, yes.  His birthday.  That particular year was a very busy one.  For some reason "we" decided we weren't going to really do much for his birthday.  Then, on his way out the door to work he says:

Him: Are we going to have a cake or anything?

Me:  Ummmmm.....sure.  What kind of cake do you want?

Him:  My grandma always made me a German chocolate cake.

That was all I needed to know.  There *would* be a German Chocolate Cake on the table when that man walked in from work that night.  Enter Betty Crocker.

I quickly jotted down the list of the essentials that I didn't already have, loaded up my sweet children, and off to the store we went.

When we returned I fed the kids a snack and I got to work.  Now, keep in mind that I was still growing into my role as domestic genius (hmmm...actually it appears that I still am) so Betty Crocker and I were a little bit at odds.

Mix this and this.  Set aside.  Blend this.  Boil this.  Let sit.  Sift, flour, etc....

About an hour into the process my cherubs were not longer playing nicely and I was nowhere near finished with my masterpiece.  What's a mom to do?  Well, I'll tell you what I did!

I dumped about 6 cups of flour on the table, got out the hot wheels, and told the kids to go to town.  They contently played "cars" in the flour for the rest of the cake-baking-episode.

Finally!  The cake is done, the frosting is done, the kids are bathed, the kitchen cleaned.  The man arrives home.

The cake is not beautiful, but I present it to him with a smile.  Not saying a word about the fact that the stinkin' thing literally took me all...day....long.

Finally it comes up, and I tell him a little bit about the process, apologize for it's appearance, but am hopeful that it will taste like he remembers it.

Me:  Well, I just wanted to make it special for you, since your grandma used to make your cake.

Him:  Yeah, that's sweet.  My grandma just made it from a box.  She never made anything from scratch!

*************

Thus concludes my tale of why I will never again make a cake from scratch!