Happy Thanksgiving!

Today as we were driving home from church, I had this overwhelming surge of JOY. I just was smiling thinking about how much I LOVE life... I love my life... I love my husband and my children... and just life in general. The opportunity to know the truth and to wake up each day and share the joy of God with others. IT IS SUCH A GIFT... life is such a gift!! We forget this sometimes... in the day-to-day activities, in the hussle and bussle of the holidays, we forget what it's all about. And all the blessings we have. It's just so easy to get tied up and busy and dismiss all we have to be thankful for. And let me tell you... little children will keep it all in perspective and will remind you when you forget! I love these babies so much- and WE WANT A BUNCH! (Yup, everyone out there, just expect it and don't be surprised each time we announce a new one is on the way) In the wonderful words of Mother Teresa (which were shared with me by my wonderful sister in law...) "Saying there are too many children is like saying there are too many flowers."

This year we are so thankful for so many things... our life, our love, our children, and godchildren. Our newest and biggest gifts from God this year that we are thankful for of course are- Michael's new job, our new house, and little Lydia. There are so many things we are thankful for... if I listed them all here, you'd be reading all day. But, those are just to name a few.

Mostly we are thankful for God's love... for his Son Jesus, for all He gives us and for his guidance. We pray that you and your families will feel and truly know God's love this Thanksgiving and Christmas season, and will share it with everyone.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING
from our family to yours!

WHAT FUN!

Josiah and his adorable cousins (Alison, JB, and Jackie) sliding into the leaves at Grandma's house! How cute are these kids!? hahaha. And what a GREAT picture (Go Grandma!) I love it!

Josiah and Lydia- November 2008

Josiah wanted to hold his baby sister today, and they smiled and giggled at eachother for awhile... then I turned her around I got some cute pictures of them together!! Enjoy!


This is the first one I took...but then Lydia got into it and started smiling! ...

BOTH SMILING!!!!

So cute! I know... she's getting big, isn't she!?

The First Snow of the Season!

Even though it wasn't much snow... Josiah and I were excited to see the snow flurries outside our deck door this morning! When Lydia went down for a morning nap, we bundled up and went outside to play a little in the snow. Even just a little snow is great for what he wanted... driving trucks through it! Here's some pictures of our fun.

Mommy and Josiah

Looking up and sticking out his tongue to catch snow flakes! :)

Driving his trucks in the snow

CHICAGO!

Michael and I had a great- but brief!- trip to Chicago this past week, Wednesday to Thursday. We discovered that they certainly call it the "Windy City" for a reason! We are bummed that we were only there a day because it is beautiful- and now we know we'll have to go back and visit again sometime, and stay longer! Michael was there for ScIP- (Society for Computers in Psychology) and he gave a presentation on a web-based research program that he designed himself and implemented this past year at Univ. of Baltimore. He did a GREAT job on his presentation and everyone seemed impressed. Not to mention he had his beautiful wife and gorgeous daughter as his cheering section... ;o) haha. Lydia was a doll and I bounced her to sleep in the sling in the back of the conference room while Daddy presented. He was wonderful (and by far the most handsome man at the conference!) although as we constantly joked during the trip... "Geez, look at all these geeks here to talk about computers and psychology... who does that??" hahahahaha. It was a very small conference, but actually quite amazing to see so many people from different walks of life. We began the day with coffee and treats after registration and we met a man named "Edgar" who was a professor from GERMANY and then after Michael we saw a presentation by a man from ENGLAND and then there was another man there with such a thick Chinese accent I could hardly understand him! It was amazing! After the first part of the presentations for the day Michael and I skipped out and took the bus to Navy Pier, which was amazing. The pier jets out into Lake Michigan and we could see the whole city sky-line from the tip of the pier and they had many incredible shops as well as an entire Museum of Stained Glass. It was beautiful! (I took SO many pictures of that!) I'll post a few...

Anyway... Michael was great and we had fun. Lydia was a little tricky on the plane, but was still really good overall. I just had to nurse her constantly, which got exhausting. She was the little princess of Chicago for the day, and it was too cute to see her tiny baby self snoozing on her own BIG DOUBLE BED in the historic Hilton Chicago! Check her out!

(Josiah stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa... and from what I hear, the brief day and a half that we were away he just about replaced the room in his heart for Mommy and Daddy with Grandma and Grandpa... I don't blame him- they are so cool! Grandpa took him to the nature center AND the library... who can compete with that!? I think he'd be happy if we left for a few months on a trip, haha!) Too bad we'd miss him too much. :)

Enjoy the pics from the VERY windy city!


Here's Michael giving his presentation...

Here's a picture of the giant staircases which came up both the left and right sides of the main lobby opening to a Grand Ballroom and something else... should give you at least a taste of the grandeur of the Hilton Chicago. I felt rich and famous or something- (for a limited time!) haha

(Sorry I didn't get better pictures of the hotel... just look at their website it's amazing!)

Princess Lydia snoozing on her Hilton bed...

Princess Lydia still snoozing... ahhh the life.

The hotel had it's own Irish Pub with live music each night. We didn't actually go in because it was really loud and we had limited time... but I couldn't resist a picture with the IRISH COW! This one's for you Dad! :)

This is where the bus dropped us off at Navy Pier. You can see the Pier jets out and is REALLY long and full of fun! There is even a small amusement park with a ferris wheel and other rides.

when you get to the end of the pier you see this... and then when you keep walking all the way to the end you see...

This lighthouse out there! It was beautiful. And the waters of Lake Michigan, although hard to tell from this picture, were SO choppy it was unbelievable- but gorgeous.

Then when you turn around and look back down the Pier you see this...

And better yet... walk to the edge of the Pier and see this...



CHICAGO SKYLINE... so beautiful!

Daddy keeping Lydia happy while roaming around the museum of stained glass...

Holy Family (hang in there Mom... this one's for you!)

Sacred Heart of Jesus

this was SO beautiful and one of a kind...it was my favorite :)

Sweet Soul

I think if I had to choose 1 thing I love most about my sweet little boy, it'd be his soul. I have known since shortly after he was born that he was destined for great work for the Kingdom of Christ. I know that all kids are special and God has plans for them... but there's just something... I really can't explain it, (and maybe every Christian Mommy feels it, I don't know) but there's something different about Josiah that God put into him for a very special reason. His soul is marked for Christ. I'm excited to see what God has in store for him as he grows.

I love and admire his innocence and spirit and sometimes I remind myself of the gospel where Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matthew 19:14) If Josiah, and all these little children, have the keys to the Kingdom of heaven... than I better pay close attention and see what I can learn, right? All we can do is "let the children come" to Him. And each Sunday we bring our children to Jesus at mass.

Today in church Josiah discovered the crucifix. Although we've talked about "Jesus on the cross" for a long time now... he realized something today. As he sat looking at it he said to Michael, "Daddy? What are those black things?" Michael explained that those are nails, and Josiah got very sad. He almost cried saying, "That makes me sad. I don't want nails in Jesus' feet!" It was so precious and, well, sad. It was beautiful, but... I didn't even know what to say. I told him it makes me sad too. Then I continued taking care of Lydia but Michael lifted him up and was whispering in his ear explaining more to calm him down. I think he told him that Jesus "boo-boo's are all gone now" ... how do you explain the crucifixion to a two year old? However you do it... I think we get credit just for trying. He is already such a great little disciple and has touched the hearts of many. I just hope he gets to keep spreading Christ's love for many years to come.
I'm so very proud already. I love these precious little Saints we have, and I'm honored to be given the opportunity to care for them every day.

God Bless You!

Fall Fun

Here's some photos I took yesterday and today of Josiah playing in the leaves... how cute is he!? We had fun, and he was very patient with my constant picture taking. Today our neighbor "Mr.Joe" raked us a nice pile almost as big as Josiah so he was loving that! We are really enjoying the fall. God Bless!

Mommy and Josiah playing in the leaves!

Josiah getting ready to jump in the pile...

Josiah laughing and sitting in the pile of leaves

Ready for take-off!! Here he is JUST before he jumped!

Here he is attempting to ride his bike through the leaves... these were from yesterday.

Here's the ones from today ...

Sitting in the pile from Mr.Joe with just his head sticking out....

Plopped down in the pile...

...and I saved the BEST for last- He was throwing the leaves up and laughing as they fell all over... look closely at the big smile on his face!

Pure J O Y

Brother-Sister Bonding Time

Here's a video of Josiah and Lydia that I took a couple days ago... (Josiah wanted to see the ladybug mobile too, so we had some fun with it.) They are so cute!

Update on our Lyddie-Bug

Well, little Lydia is growing up quick- her 2 month check up was this morning. She is doing great!! She weighs 12 lbs 13 oz (WOW!) and is growing like a weed... (a really cute weed with a flower on top!) She's 24 inches, which is the 96th percentile for height for her age group- uh oh... here comes another tall one. Josiah and Lydia are going to be taller than both their parents by the time they are 14 I think... we'll see. The doctor said with the way she's growing she may be getting 6,8, or 10 oz sometimes! That was amazing to me. I'm glad she's doing so well nursing though, it's her favorite place to be that's for sure. She gave a big smile to our pediatrician and he said that she's beautiful and absolutely perfect. (I totally agree...) He also said more than once that I am a great Mom and am doing a great job with them both... which is really nice to hear. (Most days I don't doubt that- but sometimes I do, and I think it's no small task to raise disciples for Christ in this day and age!) I'm used to him saying that, but still, I think there's a reason I love going to see that doctor and it's not just because he's so great with the kids, it's because he's so caring with the parents as well. After examining Josiah/Lydia he always says, "And how are YOU doing? Are you doing okay managing the two now?" I told him it's hectic but fun!
His veggietales ties are also pretty great :)

The only TERRIBLE part of our appointment was her shots. UGH! She had to get THREE shots, 2 in one leg, one in the other, and then had to take an oral immunization as well! It was so hard and sad to see her get those shots. Josiah used to cry for literally a second and then not care at all- Lydia just SCREAMED the WORST most terrifying "I-can't-believe you-did-that-to-me-OUCH-that-really-hurts-how-could-you-mom!?" kind of scream I've EVER heard. It was so awful that I cried. Seriously, I'm not kidding, I cried. You should've seen her poor little face! She was beyond terrified. It was so sad. Luckily... I have magic milk that cures all ills.... so the horror that felt like an hour didn't last but a few minutes in reality.

On the upside, Lydia is growing up so fast that she's taking longer breaks in between needing to nurse and will play happily when she's awake, so I have more time with Josiah and to get things done around the house. (Josiah's not quite as whiny and fussy when I can be sure to make some one-on-one play time with him...) but he's pretty whiny these days. It's taking all my prayer life to manage the patience I need on a day-to-day basis! He's a wonderful boy, I just have to remind myself to be very patient and try to talk things out with him. After all, he's a good talker. The nurse at the doctor's office said, "Mrs. Walk, I just want to take him home, he's so sweet!" haha.

Lydia is smiling more (every day and all the time she's awake she smiles at me now!) and she giggles a little, but mostly for Daddy! (I don't blame her, he's pretty funny when he makes baby noises at her!)

She's sleeping great at night, and most nights gives us a good 5 hour (or so) stretch which is such a blessing. I think God knows I need my sleep in order to handle them both all day :)

Well, I'll keep you posted on how she continues to grow. Our baby girl has already changed our hearts forever and brightened our lives to a whole other level, I didn't know you could love this much. It makes sense to me why anyone would have 10 kids, when I think about how much I LOVE our two!

Lydia's First Swim

A few weeks ago "Granny" (my grandmother) asked us if we'd like to come visit Fairhaven and swim in their (heated) indoor pool! Since my neices and nephews were in town too, Alison, JB, and Jackie, we decided it'd be lots of fun to bring Josiah and Lydia too. So Lydia had her first swim! She wore a onsie because we don't have a baby girl bathing suit... nor do we usually need one at this time of year. Next June she'll be 9 months old- so I'll have fun shopping for a girly bathing suit then. :)

As is the way of it when along comes your second child... you don't tote the camera around nearly as much as you used to! But, to my defense, I did have the camera- I just left it in the car!! haha. So, I had to improvise and use my cell phone to get a couple shots of her "first swim". They aren't all that great but at least it's documented. :)

Hope you are all doing well!

Halloween 2008

So at the last minute this year, (very last minute, we're talking, 3 in the afternoon!) we decided it'd be fun to take Josiah to a few houses to trick-or-treat. WELL... to do that requires a costume, now doesn't it? SO Josiah and I rushed up the street to KMart and bought a blue dinosaur costume (I picked up the green... he said, "No! I want the blue one!" haha) and I must say, the benefit to waiting that long and not taking it too seriously is that everything is 50% off on Halloween day! haha. He also needed something to hold all his loot, so I was showing him the orange pumpkins and green buckets when he said, "I want the purple one!" haha. So, this explains why you see his purple pumpkin bucket(although it looks blue) in the pictures....

Daddy was taking him around to a few houses so he decided he needed a costume as well... he found his old graduation attire in his closet, so he thought it'd be funny to go as something he's NOT... a bachelor's student. Ha.... Ha... Ha. (Yeah, he's too funny, that one,.. reaaaaallly funny). :o) He was cute though! It made me proud of him all over again.

Lydia and I stayed home to hand out candy to the kids coming to our house. She was dressed in a jackolantern onsie, (...sorry, I didn't get a picture of that!) I'll take one another day I put it on her. But possibly the cutest moment of the evening was when I saw a group of kids running across our front lawn towards the front door, so I stood up (and of course was holding Lydia in one arm) and held the door open with the other arm to greet them, and a little boy shouted, "Look Mom! They're giving out babies!" hahahaha! Nice try kiddo... but she's a treat we're keeping!

Josiah eating a strawberry rice krispie treat from his candy bucket!