leopards

Joseph's pre-school had a costume day, so he wore his leopard outfit.

Leo wanted to be part of the fun too, so he decided to lap his water from a bowl!

justification

After being discovered with a contraband lollipop in his mouth before dinner, Leo excused himself saying, "I prayed for it!"

best dressed

Our Trivia Night table, including Ian's stand-in Ralph, with our piratey wares, gold foiled chocolate, veggie swords, gold fish crackers, rum and coke, Smirnoff Ice Mango, pineapple and more! Arrgh!

holy family, part II

Tonight Leo's litany included "St. Joseph, St. Leo and St. Dad," perhaps trying to garner some sympathy points from Jude.

holy family

We include a litany of family saints in our night prayers, starting with the holy family.  Tonight, Leo decided his patron deserved a promotion and said "Jesus, Mary and Leo...pray for us!"  When he was corrected, he repeated his version, followed by the assertion, "That makes sense!"

when the weather outside is frightful

...inside it is delightful, to farm the poinsettia's soil!

amnesia

-What's the little one's name again?
-You mean your brother?

more delicacies

Joseph's newest creation, "Meatloaf Surprise," which includes no meat whatsoever, is a concoction of pickles, bananas and peanut butter!  Since we have been having issues with negative commentary about my dinner selections Jude thought this would be a good teaching moment, so we each took a "No thank you bite" (my cousin Jen's genius solution to require sampling all foods offered).  I anticipated a fairly strong reaction (seriously: banana, pickles and peanut butter) so I grabbed the camera!

Ever the gentleman, Jude went first.

And sucked it up with a smile :)  I had more trepidation.

And disgust-YUCK!

odd request

Mom, do you think you could carve a dog bone out of a mini-wheat?

hard at work

for sale

What would you like to buy?

Some hangers?

We take credit cards!

cathedral basilica

of the Immaculate Conception, as seen from the dome of the Capitol.

The stained glass windows are beautiful, especially this one of depicting the formal proclamation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception by Pius IX in 1854. The lower portion depicts eight Church fathers who wrote and preached about Mary Immaculate.

A statue of Venerable John Paul II, who celebrated Mass at the Cathedral as part of Denver's World Youth Day (which Jude attended!) in 1993.

The current Pope just announced that the miracle advancing his cause for canonization has been officially recognized and JPII will be beatified May 1st.

state capitol

We visited the Colorado State Capitol building, including the Rotunda,

Senate and House of Representatives.

Mr. Brown's Attic is a fairly new exhibit space chronicling both the history of Colorado from its time as a territory and the architecture of the building.

Finally, we found the Mile High Marker, the survey plug, not the step, is 5,280 feet high.

weekend away

I was glad to be able to join Jude for a long weekend in Denver, coinciding with the FOCUS regional conference. Thanks to my parents for watching the boys!  Here is the view from our hotel, the downtown Sheraton, overlooking the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall:

We visited the Denver Art Museum.

The extensive collection is mostly arranged thematically, giving an interesting look at the evolution of art and style within various genres.

My still grieving heart found comfort in this painting of Our Lady of Sorrow:

Thanks to Restaurant.com we found and enjoyed dinner at Le Château/La Fondue at a great price!

more snow

gingerbread train

existential crisis

"Twinkle, twinkle little star, how you wonder what you are."-Leo's version

sledding

Piggy-back sleds!

nicholas andrew

My Lord, the baby is dead!

Why, my Lord—dare I ask why? It will not hear the whisper of the wind or see the beauty of its parents’ face—it will not see the beauty of Your creation or the flame of a sunrise. Why, my Lord?

“Why, My child—do you ask ‘why’? Well, I will tell you why. You see, the child lives. Instead of the wind he hears the sound of angels singing before My throne. Instead of the beauty that passes he sees everlasting Beauty—he sees My face. He was created and lived a short time so the image of his parents imprinted on his face may stand before Me as their personal intercessor. He knows secrets of heaven unknown to men on earth. He laughs with a special joy that only the innocent possess. My ways are not the ways of man. I create for My Kingdom and each creature fills a place in that Kingdom that could not be filled by another. He was created for My joy and his parents’ merits. He has never seen pain or sin. He has never felt hunger or pain. I breathed a soul into a seed, made it grow and called it forth.”

I am humbled before you, my Lord, for questioning Your wisdom, goodness, and love. I speak as a fool—forgive me. I acknowledge Your sovereign rights over life and death. I thank You for the life that began for so short a time to enjoy so long an Eternity. -- Mother M. Angelica  via EWTN

We had a wonderful Christmas after seeing our baby's heartbeat 98/bpm on December 23, slow but beating!  My doctor increased my progesterone, but it wasn't enough.  On Monday the hCG levels dropped, indicating a miscarriage was imminent.  We went ahead and had a confirmation ultrasound and a long chat with the maternal/fetal specialist on Tuesday.  He indicated that while the loss is difficult, he would remain optimistic because there are no obvious physical issues, we might just be a couple that miscarries a lot, but the heartache is worth it for the joy of another child-so true, even if we must await that joy in Heaven!  We waited throughout the week and went in on Friday for Misoprostol and by that evening we had delivered Nicholas Andrew.  We had learned of the pregnancy on St. Nicholas day and been praying the St. Andrew novena for the baby.  We had Mass on Saturday at the Newman Center with On This Day, O Beautiful Mother and O God Beyond All Praising as the hymns.  Fr. Matya gave a beautiful homily about Divine Providence and suffering.

My dad and the boys buried him in a temporary garden plot since the farm ground is frozen.

We sang Happy Birthday to our baby born into Mary's arms.  One of my friend's had just sent us this beautiful print for Christmas, Song of the Angels by Adolphe-William Bouguereau, which helped her through the loss of their son.  She found comfort, as do I, in the image of the sleeping Jesus/dead baby held by His mother Mary.

Joseph has been asking a lot of good questions, including if the baby died because of something I ate or if he got hit.  When we asked how he was doing he said "Good, the baby is in Heaven!"  On another occasion he asked why I was crying and I explained that I was sad about the babies because I missed them, he consoled me saying, "But Heaven and Earth are connected Mom!"  So they are-that is why I cry during the Sanctus at Mass, the song of Heaven!  May our family be united there for all eternity!

wise men

We celebrated Epiphany with gifts of books, to make us wise, and our annual ornament wrapped in gold!

Joseph with his dinosaur ornament, Leo's was Herbie Husker.