7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 35

A (mostly) twins Quick Takes:

~1~

The boys have improved by leaps and bounds with the rice cereal!  They now regularly eat the whole bowl.  Currently we're doing two tablespoons of the cereal mixed with two to three tablespoons of their formula.  They only get it once a day right now.  It seemed to take us so long to get to this point that I haven't really pushed anything more.  But ... I did buy some green beans for them the other day.  I think we'll take the next step this weekend!

~2~

Food is kind of a boring topic.  Well, I find it exciting, but you may not.  That's okay.  What is more exciting is how much they are moving!!  Peter can drag himself forward, spin himself around on his tummy, and he occasionally manages to get on his knees and rock a little bit.  He's not real stable on his knees though, so it doesn't last long.  But with the scooting, I've been surprised a few times at how far across the room he can go.

Ethan just recently started moving a bit more.  He can go backwards, but not forwards, which results in him sometimes getting stuck under things.  He has been working hard on pushing himself up on his toes.  He ends up holding himself up on just his hands and toes with his butt up in the air ... and he can stay there for more than a few seconds.

I really need to get some pictures of Ethan on his toes.  It's too cute!

~3~

Peter is a rolly-polly.  Even changing his diaper is a challenge.  He wants to always be on his tummy.  I admit that life must be more interesting from that perspective, but I didn't expect such acrobatics during diaper changes.  Oh my!  I'm getting better at getting him dressed that way, but I don't think I'll ever be able to put a diaper on him while he's on his tummy.  And now he's starting to try and turn himself around on the changing table.  A challenging child for sure!

~4~

I've started the big daycare search again.  I have a couple appointments next week with places that both have waiting lists.  Glad I'm starting six months early.

~5~

I bought a big storage container last weekend to pack up all the boys' newborn, 0-3 month, and 3 month clothes.  In the process I found a small stack of preemie diapers that they grew out of before we could use them.  Wow were they small!!  What a reminder of how much they have grown!!  Speaking of which, we have moved into the 6-9 and 9 month size clothes.  Some fit nice, some are really, really big; pants especially are big.  It's nice to know that they have room to grow in this size.

~6~

The boys are not yet sitting up independently.  I don't know when this is supposed to happen but I think if you go by their adjusted age they should be close to that.  They aren't though.  But that's okay, they'll do it when they are ready.  Obviously they are doing plenty of other things!!

I will say, though, that I may need to unsubscribe to the emails I get about "what your baby is doing at x weeks/months."  Those emails are already talking about lowering the crib mattress and baby crawling and pulling themselves up to a standing position.  Um, yeah, not my kids.  Those emails always seem to be MORE than a month ahead of where my boys actually are.  I'm still waiting for them to hold their own bottle.

~7~

Not related to the boys, but I had to share: Things are moving with our house.  I can't divulge details yet, need to wait until a few more things are finalized, but it might be very soon!  We have started the serious search for a new house!!

For more Quick Takes visit Conversion Diary.

Religious Freedom Being Threatened

The Obama administration recently announced that all employers must pay into insurance policies that cover abortion, contraception, and sterilization procedures.  This includes all Catholic employers.  There is an extremely narrow exception, so narrow that the vast majority of Catholic employers are not exempt.

This smacks in the face of our religious liberties and freedoms.  As Catholics we morally object to contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion.  It entirely goes against our beliefs to support any of these things.  Under this new HHS policy Catholic Churches, Catholic hospitals, Catholic charitable organizations, and other Catholic organizations will be required to pay for these procedures and treatments despite the fact that the Church morally objects to them.

All people of faith should be disturbed by this ruling, Catholic or not.  Even if this particular ruling does not affect you in particular, it is only the beginning.  It only takes one step to get the ball rolling.

So I urge you to sign the petition found on this St. Michael's Society website: Support Cardinal-designate Dolan Sign the Religious Freedom Petition.  After you sign it, share it with your family and friends.

This administration has been working hard to chip away at religious liberty and freedom in our society.  This needs to stop.  The government should not be forcing religious groups into morally objectionable policies.

March for Life

Today is the National March for Life in Washington, DC.  Hundreds of thousands of people will be there to march to the Capital steps to protest the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made abortion legal in this country throughout all nine months of pregnancy.  May God bless all those who are marching today.  May their witness bring about change in the hearts of politicians and advocates of abortion.

cartoon from Umbert the Unborn 

Wordless Wednesday

Peter (on left) and Ethan
Jan. 15, 2012

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Zachary!

Can't believe it's been 3 years!  We miss you every day.  Sweet, little Zachary, pray for us!

Wordless Wednesday



Ethan finished the WHOLE bowl!!  1/9/2012



I don't need no stinkin' blanket.
Peter, 1/9/2012

Look at me, I'm so cute.
Ethan, 1/9/2012

My Saint for 2012

I went over to the Saint's Name Generator this weekend, said a prayer for the saint who would choose me this year, clicked the button, and out came:

St. Anthony of Padua

An interesting choice!  He's a popular saint and yet I realized I didn't know him all that well.  Of course, I knew him as the saint for "lost things," but otherwise I was surprised at the things listed under his patronage:

Patronage: Against Infertility; American Indians; Amputees; Animals; Elderly People; Faith in the Blessed Sacrament; Lost Articles; Mariners; Oppressed People; Pregnant Women; Travellers.

I did a Cursillo retreat in 2009 and my table was the Sts. Anthony and Jude table (we were lost and hopeless souls!).  I've been interested in St. Jude since, but didn't think much about St. Anthony.  I guess it is time I did!

So I will be spending 2012 praying with St. Anthony, getting to know him better, and asking for his intercession when I have prayer intentions.

Want a saint for the year?  Check out the Saint's Name Generator.  Also on that page are links to why Catholics pray "to" saints, how the Church chooses saints, and what a patron saint is.

7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 34

~1~

Week one of sabbatical project has started.  I hope it will go well.  By day two I was starting to wonder if I was crazy to try working at home with two 7 month old babies and no day care.  Still too early to tell.  If anyone local wants to come visit during the day you're welcome to come during non-nap times.  The boys would love it!

~2~

I started a new blog just for my sabbatical project.  If you're curious about what it is or how it's going, I'll be journaling my way through the sabbatical over there.  You can go to Music Recitals Project to see more.  It's not a very creative name, so if you have suggestions, I'm all ears.  I'm not attached to the current name at all.  Seriously: not. at. all.

~3~

Also this week, I'm back on the wagon.  That is, the weight-loss wagon.  I've fired up the old Lose it! app on the iPod, weighed myself on Sunday, and started counting calories.  Man, I'm hungry!!  I also have a support group on Facebook that a group of friends started, so I'll have some accountability this time.  And motivation!

~4~

The boys and I went for a walk on Wednesday morning.  It's a little too cold for walking the neighborhood, so we went to the mall to walk before the stores opened.  I barely made it.  We had a pooping episode in the morning that required a change in clothes and an unexpected load of laundry and then when I got to the mall I had to remember how to unfold the very big and very heavy double stroller.  It took me a while to remember how the wheels fanned out, but I finally got it.  I was determined to get my walk in and not be foiled by a stroller!  I do love the stroller, though!  It is great: turns easily, is very smooth, looks comfortable for the boys.  But man is that thing heavy!

~5~

I got a Kindle for Christmas!!  It was totally unexpected.  I had been looking at them, but couldn't decide which I wanted.  Did I want the basic, original Kindle or the Fire?  Did I want 3G capabilities?  Did I want to wait a year and see if they released a Fire with 3G?  Maybe I should look at the Nook?  But all my questions got answered for me: Hubby got me the Kindle Fire.  So far I'm loving it!!  I downloaded a whole bunch of free Kindle books and am currently reading The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus (I also got free e-books by Aquinas, Belloc, Ignatius of Loyola, John Henry Newman, and a few others).  Hubby downloaded Angry Birds and started playing Words with Friends.  Currently he may use it more than I do.

I also like that I can get Facebook and my email on it, plus I'm enjoying the Pulse app that comes automatically with it.  Pulse is a little like an RSS feed, but mostly just for newspapers and magazines (current events), though you can also set up part of it to show you the links your friends post on Facebook.

I realized the other day that one of the best features of this is that when I travel I only have to bring the Kindle with me and not my whole laptop.  Bonus!!

~6~

Speaking of Christmas, we had a great Christmas visiting my family in Atlanta.  Everyone was there for Christmas day: my parents, all four of us kids along with two spouses, a fiance, and a girlfriend, four grand-kids, and my aunt who just recently moved (back) to the Atlanta area.  Opening gifts was overwhelming, probably because my two children aren't old enough to do anything and have no idea what is going on, so I felt as if I was constantly being brought gifts from my niece (6) and nephew (3).  Boy were those two excited!!  It was a fun day and very relaxing.  My family is always laid back during holidays, just hanging out, catching up, playing with the little ones, watching football, and enjoying a nice meal together.  And it was wonderful to have everyone there!

How was your Christmas?  Did you travel or stay home?  See extended family or celebrate with your immediate family?  Any special traditions?

~7~

My husband has already accomplished one big goal this year: re-organize the garage so the van will fit in it.  Success!!  The garage was already pretty well organized and neat (for a garage) but there was really only space for the two cars.  Now that we sold one of the cars and Hubby re-organized things, the van fits!!  That is quite an accomplishment if you know the neighborhood and kinds of houses in this area.  Garages are small!  The van barely fits, but it's in there.  Now that the weather is turning colder, this will be a good thing.  I don't want to deal with doors frozen shut early in the morning when we have to go somewhere (no repeats of what we had on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception trying to get to an 8am Mass ... no surprise, we were late).  And it was snowing all day while Hubby was working in the garage, thankfully mostly flurries or heavy flurries with the occasional moments of accumulating snow.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary.

Our 2011 Family Letter with Additions

Dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas!!  We hope everyone has had a good year and has much to celebrate this Christmas season.  We certainly have much to be thankful for in our family.

At the end of 2010 we announced that we were expecting identical twins.  On May 30 we welcomed our two little boys, Peter Xavier and Ethan Alexander, into our family.  We feel incredibly blessed to have them in our lives.  Their arrival came after several interesting months that included two hospital stays (thankfully short ones), approximately four months of bed rest (made better by many incredible friends who helped Kerri out), and eventually a c-section delivery (which went very smoothly).  The boys have been growing well, learning to roll over, smiling nice and big, talking up a storm, and completely changing our lives!

The birth of our twin boys is definitely the biggest news of 2011 for us, yet the year was filled with many other events as well.

In early February we had the privilege of going down to Atlanta to surprise Kerri’s mother on her fifth anniversary of being cancer free.  We were so happy to be able to be there for such a joyful occasion.

In the spring Kerri learned that she had received her promotion to Librarian I, the highest rank for librarians at the university.  This was a great accomplishment!

In July we celebrated Peter and Ethan’s Baptisms surrounded by family and friends.  We were so happy to be able to welcome our two boys into the Catholic Church surrounded by so many loved ones.

In October we grieved the death of Chris’ paternal grandmother.  All four of us attended her funeral in Remington, IN.   She lived a long life and will be missed by many.

This fall Kerri and several friends began a new blog called Catholic Sistas (www.catholicsistas.com).  Although a relatively new blog, it has already been getting a lot of traffic and select articles have been linked to from some well-known Catholic sites, including New Advent and the National Catholic Register.

Also this fall, we put our house on the market.  We hope the New Year will bring an offer so we can begin the search for a new home for our family.

As we look forward to the New Year, we feel lucky that Kerri will have the opportunity to work from home the first six months of 2012.  She will be on sabbatical and the boys will be able to be home during that time period.  Hopefully, Kerri will find a way to get some work done while surrounded by such cuteness!! 

Addendum:

As we begin 2012 we have a lot to look forward to.  We'll have a new niece arriving sometime in February and another new niece or nephew arriving in June.  Wedding plans will also be underway as Kerri's sister gets ready to wed in 2013.  Also we'll have the opportunity to once again travel to Hilton Head  in the early fall for a week with Kerri's family.  At about 15 months old, the boys will have such a fun time seeing the beach and the ocean for the first time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!  Much love from our family to yours,

Chris, Kerri, Peter, and Ethan

The Boys' First Christmas
Chris with Ethan and Kerri with Peter