More Max!

Say Cheezzzz Max!!!!

Since I've lived in North Carolina Max and I have grown very close! I get to see him all day on sunday and sometimes I drive up and take him out to dinner on the weekdays. His favorite thing to do is go to the park and play on the play ground! He loves the slide the most! We go up and down and back down every slide in park for about 3 hours... After that he usually passes out from playground exhaustion! You can ask all his uncles how Max just takes off like a cheetah as soon as he sees a playground!!

Max's serious face.....

Max and I at Barnes and Nobles reading about his favorite train, Thomas. His favorite toy is thomas the train in every different size and shape. One of our sunday funday activities is to hit the local barnes and noble where they have a built in starbucks (caffeine to keep up the little guy) and all the trains in the world! Its so crazy how he knows 10 different train's name! he can name them all and hes always right!

Chick fil la

Max and I are regulars at the Chick fil la down the street from "Mommy's house" as max would say.

Mary's Address and Phone #

Mary's Birthday is coming up on Thursday and if you want you can send her a little birthday love! We LOVE getting snail mail, and I'm sure the sisters love it even MORE because of their limited contact with their family.

Anyways, if you would like to write or call her on her birthday here is the info:

Hermana Mary Rose Gallaher
Bario San Julian 30
39479 Zurita De Pielagos
Cantabria (Espana)

We are allowed to call her on her birthday and that number is:

(+34) 942-571-536

The postage for a first class international stamp is 94 cents so we just put three stamps on ours. She may not be able to write us all back - but at least we can let her know we love her and she is in our prayers!

St. Rose of Lime, Pray for Us!

If you can't send a letter make sure say a short prayer to her patron saint instead! I just read a little bit about St. Rose of Lima's life. Incredible!

Here are some of her words. They are encouraging for me because life hasn't been the easiest lately!



"Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven”.

Bobby's 1st day of school and 5th birthday

1st Day of Kindergarten!

Bobby's 5th birthday breakfast.  He is Mr Birthday.  Whenever we go to other parties he acts as the MC.  Rounding up kids for cake and presents.  He helps open the presents and 'oh' and 'ahs' over the gifts. Robert had to work on his actually birthday so we will be having a get together at the park on Saturday.

Birthday brownies!  Love this picture of William.  Bobby carries him around like that.  William loves to be in the middle of everything.

Can't believe our little baby is 5.  He such a huge help to both of us. He is always happy and trying to make everyone around him happy.  He is the kid that brings the crying kid on the playground to his mom, genuinely concerned for his well-being.  He is always kissing booboos.

He is so creative.  He makes everything into fishing poles. Usually by pulling string out of  a woven blanket an tying it to some toy.  He loves to play cards and make up games as he goes.  We were so worried at one time that he would not be able to speak, well he sure proved us wrong. He follows me around chattering at me about his plans "maybe we can go outside and fly a kite and then it will land on the roof and you can lift me high to get on the roof and we will see the top of the tree........"  I love is imagination and kindness.  He is going to make an amazing priest :-)

'Ok everyone cheeeese'

CHEEEESE

Butchering Roosters and Ballet!

Boy, has this blog been QUIET around here. .. . and so LONELY!

Today I write to you about butchering roosters and dancing ballet. WE were not butchering roosters, (but hopefully someday!)  . . . you will find them in Virginia doing just that:

Gross eh? They are scrawny looking too! These are the roosters of the bunch. They started to get older and were picking fights so off went their heads! Im sure the boys loved it . . . it definitely reminds me when we butchered our roosters. It was fun!

Now for some sweeter pictures. There is a big homeschool co-op organized at our Church. It's wonderful - and Gianna got to join ballet class this year! She LOVES it, and I probably love it even more! Now I am starting to see why parents sign their kids up for everything, it's even more fun for us to watch them! (It was a proud momma moment for sure)

If I let her, that's all this little girl will wear. We wake up in the morning to find her putting on her slippers that she had to get on TOP of the dresser.

I really wanted to take a video but I was enjoying watching her SO much that I completely forgot. Maybe next time. :)

 She's my little independent child. She did not want me anywhere near her when they started - in fact she told me to sit against the wall to watch. Ok! She's definitely not shy and thrives with things like this. :)

We would love a picture update from everyone - it doesn't have to be big - just something!

I know Nana and Grandpa check this often hoping to see more pictures!

God bless your day!