Update from Mary

Thanks sarah for posting, I loved looking at all the photos of the kids!

I have promised a blog for a while so I better post something.

Since I've been back in Jacksonville, its been nothing but busy busy busy, but thats how we like it. The idle soul is the devil's bait.

We had this past Monday off for MLK, so the girls and I decided to go on a day trip to Savannah, Georgia. It is a beautiful southern city. We went to Mass at the beautiful Cathedral, ate lunch at one fo the many parks, walked around the town, read all the historic signs we could find, visited the giant boats and ferries at the docks, met a lot of neat and interesting people(that happens a lot when you  look like we do and walk around together in large groups), visited another old church in town and did prayer, ate out for dinner and went back home very tired. It was a very fun day. I brought my camera but didn't take any photos, sorry.
I will have to write more later.

Here is another video about the Home its a little long, well its actually about the Servant Sisters , sorry it took me so long Clare. Enjoy!

I love you all and I owe some phone calls, so I will talk to you soon!

Dollidays: Christmas!

This post is a little late in coming but I wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy and Holy New Year! Here are some pictures of the wonderful Christmas season.

First, our new stockings! I made them of old wool sweaters I found at thrift stores. I love how they turned out. :)

 Christmas morning tree before Gianna woke up:

 The kids opening presents on Christmas morning. I don't have a nice picture of them in their Christmas outfits, well, because it was bit of a hairy night taking them to midnight mass!

 Peter loves the gift from Nana and Grandpa! Let the imagination go wild with things to create!

 Gianna's big present. I found this little kitchen on craigslist, painted it with homemade chalk paint (per mom's suggestion) and it turned out great! Gianna loves it. The apron was made for her by Aunt Theresa Feller from some fabric that was used to make Grandma Schaper a dress when she was little. SO special! It is a treasured item for sure. :)

 Christmas morning table with the help of Gianna's new kitchen items. We ate the traditional pancakes and strawberries. I will never stray from that. I have the most fond memories of Christmas morning breakfast growing up. I made these pancakes with coconut flour and they turned out great. Cyril still loves his bacon and eggs so I made sure to make that as well. :)

 We spent Christmas dinner with the Cools family (Peter's godparents) and the Hutchins family came over later for cocktails and dessert. It was Daisy's first birthday so we made sure to make her feel special. We had a WONDERFUL time with everyone. I believe it was 2 am before everyone left for the night, what a memorable evening! 

 St. Nicholas brought all the children matching pajamas.They loved it, but I think the adults liked it even more. :)

 From left to right: Daisy, Charlie, Gianna, Peter, Emily, Charlie

Enjoying her new presents.

Some more recent ones of the kids:

 Peter at almost 8 months!

Enjoying some bath time in the sun. We have seen a lot of sun this year!

Happy baby!

And we got some snow!! It will probably be gone by the afternoon but we will enjoy it while we can! We put Peter in Gianna's doll stroller so that he could come out and enjoy it with us.

Happy New Year you to you all!

Mom, here is a video of the missionary work in Ecuador, I thought you would like to see it!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here is the video about the Home that I showed to the some of the family over Christmas break, its not our best one but its something.

I will have to write a longer post later about the happenings here in December.