When you are at Mass in the morning and feel so full of gratitude that you tell Jesus that you will offer him every act of love throughout the day to show how much you love Him, be very careful.  In fact, it’s probably best not to pray that prayer.  Because, amazingly, it ends up being one of the hardest days as a new mother with so many opportunities to love, and you realize that your love is measly and piddly and have to spend the entire day choosing to love because you told Jesus you would.  And, when your husband gets home from his first day back at work after paternity leave, you cry and tell him that this is way too hard.  And, then he has a chance to love you and show what an amazing man he is.

All because you were feeling grateful after Communion.  Watch out.

One more photo from New Mexico with Uncles Ben and Manny (and Grandma on the left side):

Our smiling family.  How blessed we are.

Our garlic has sprouted!  We have 30 plants thus far and are hoping that all 50 raise their heads, which should give us a year’s supply of cooking goodness.  It appears that our valiant little cilantro is still growing, as well as our little dill; despite last week’s temperatures in the 30s, they press on.

As Devin remarked this morning, we have the perfect hobbies.  Chickens fed and watered? Check.  Bees hibernating?  Check.  Garden quietly growing?  Check.  With so much activity inside our house these days, the backyard is happily caring for itself.  Bless the Lord.

My dear romantic husband surprised me with the perfect Christmas gift.  No vacuum cleaners or mixers or Stairmasters for me.  Rather, I get to wear pearls and feel like Jackie O.  He has such good taste–check it out.

Special thanks to Mrs. Betty Beguiles, who showcased this clothing line on her blog.

Yesterday in New Mexico at our hotel the boys decided to wake up at 4 am and didn’t go back to sleep, and by that I mean loud baby-yelling if we left their side for even a moment, sooo we all woke up, packed up our belongings, got the boys ready, went to 7 am Mass (which was awesome with a great homily about family, sexual morality, marriage, that made Katie and I feel wonderful in our vocations as husband and wife and parents), then visited Katie’s extended family to say good-bye one day earlier than expected.  How dare the feast of the Holy Family supersede the feast of the Holy Innocents?  Well, we celebrated them both at Mass and it was wonderful. 

So from Albuquerque to Austin we went yesterday, leaving at 10 am and arriving at 11 pm.  The boys behaved great overall but also of course had several meltdowns as they must have been so bored and frustrated and tired sitting in their car seats for so long.  The last stop was at the Burger King in Snyder, Texas, before making the last 300 miles trek down 183 in the dark.  I prayed we wouldn’t hit any deer, and thanks be to God we didn’t: I saw two right next to the road by our car.

Our family held the boys, loved on them, played with them, and were just so welcoming and kind toward them that it touched me and Katie.  The boys also were a hit at Mass with several old ladies, at the Subway restaurant at Cline’s Corners, New Mexico, and at several other places they made an appearance.  Cute babies cannot be resisted!

Merry Christmas to y’all!

Aunt Kelly (posing) and Aunt Bethany:

Two of our nieces:

We had a big family photo taken with everyone today that went well, especially with 6 babies/children.

The Gospel!  There is hope for all in Christ; He is for every man and woman.  Selflessness and solidarity over selfishness is needed by our world.

Katie and I are visiting her family in New Mexico–it was a long drive with a good bit of baby crying, but we made it safe and sound and had a blessed Christmas yesterday.

Their parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, has some blessed, holy priests, and the homily was superb: insightful, faithful, and good for once-a-year Mass goers and daily communicants alike.

I hope your Christmas has been wonderful–enjoy the Christmas season! (Though you must now rely on your Christmas CDs rather than the radio since they stop playing Christmas music already–old story, I know).

a son of friends of ours (and many of you).

I remember seeing his picture on the Austin vocation poster for years, and now he has been ordained.  Congratulations to him and his family.