Happy Sunday! We celebrated Cecilia's birthday yesterday and I seriously can't believe she's 6. 6 just seems so OLD! And since I started this blog when she was a baby (almost 6 years ago, since she was maybe 5 months old?), I suppose it makes this blog seem old, too!

These two went to Mass with my mom and apparently behaved impeccably! 

Cecilia, Age 6

Happy 6th birthday to our sweet Cecilia!

3/52: Dimples & Baby Smiles

My Sunday Best, Volume 38: My Car is Enormous

Happy Sunday! 

These pictures make me realize just how ridiculously large this van is. I look like a child next to it.

Week by Week, 2/52: Frozen Pond

We had quite the cold snap last week - cold enough that I broke out the little woolen undershirts and adorable booties sent by a friend (I need to learn how to knit, solely so I can knit teeny tiny adorable baby booties). And when it warmed up, I decided to implement mandatory outdoor time for the kids during Peter's nap, because it is getting crazy up in here and I need some quiet.

My Sunday Best, Vol. 37: Pattern Mixing and a Game Day Recipe

This post is sponsored by Lindsay Olives, my absolute favorite olive brand! All opinions are my own :)

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday! 

I hear there's a big game coming up in the next few weeks, but I couldn't tell you who's playing... I've fallen off the wagon when it comes to following any professional sports. I *do* notice that Sunday Mass tends to be a little less crowded when that biggest of big games rolls around. In that vein of things, I thought I'd share one of our favorite recipes, in the hopes that it inspires you for a tasty game day menu!

But first, here's what we wore...

Pattern mixing win? Fail? What do you think?

Also Mary Claire with the embroidery hoop hat/halo is obviously super-styling! She had already been to Mass earlier with my mom...

Baby's First Ponytail, Narwhals, Famous Ediths, and Chickens {7 Quick Takes}

--1--

I couldn't help it.

I noticed that Edith's hair has been growing and I just *had* to try to put it in a little bitty fountain!

Week by Week: 1/52 {Epiphany, Edith's Baptism, Christmastide}

In resolving to continue my weekly photography project this year, I also decided to look back on what made it difficult last year and change things up a bit. Often I managed to get portraits of the older kids during nap time, but then never got a good picture of Peter until the week had already passed. Or I'd get the girls but not John Paul. Or Edith would always be sleeping... So this year I think I'll just take what photos I can, but focus more on life in general around here, rather than trying to get an individual picture of each child. We'll see if I stick with it!

My Sunday Best, Vol. 36: IT IS SO COLD!

Happy Epiphany (sort of?)! We actually celebrated on Friday and went to an EF Mass so we got the Epiphany readings on actual Epiphany, so we kind of get double Epiphany? 

Edith's Birth Story

We begin this story on Saturday morning, November 26. I had been pregnant for approximately a million years and was 4 days past my due date. Now, this wouldn't seem so bad considering the latest I'd ever gone before was 5 days late. 

BUT.

When we found out about Edith's lung issues, the MFM specialist said we'd probably induce around 39 weeks. So I was planning on no longer being pregnant by mid-November. Which makes that extra almost-two-weeks unbearably long.

Anyway. Saturday. I started losing my mucus plug and was convinced labor was imminent, despite not being entirely sure how that all had played out with previous children... I WAS SO PREGNANT. CLEARLY I MUST BE DONE!

So I told Andrew that we'd probably be having the baby that day, holed up in the dark bedroom with the labor ball and my kindle, and waited for things to start. Andrew even sent the kids to my mom's house (in our back yard, so not exactly a huge hardship) for a while so that he could be there helping but...

Nothing.

However, Andrew *did* head to 7-11 to procure a giant bag of ice and the biggest cup ever (seriously, it held maybe a gallon of liquid?), which was an immense help when labor actually did begin.

So pizza was ordered for dinner, much grumbling was done by me (it hurt so badly to walk! The baby was looooow and I was soooo uncomfortable!), and we went to bed hoping that things would start up overnight.

Nope.

52/52: New Year's Toast

We made it! A full year of week-by-week photo documentation (mostly - some ended up not exactly aligning with the week when I posted them). The plan was to make photo books of all of these posts as Christmas presents but I haven't figured out how to make that work without a whoooole lot of effort on my part yet. It *has* been a good way to make sure I keep track of time passing, and a fun way to document things so that we can all look back on them. 

Blogging-wise, these have generally been my least popular posts. If my reason for blogging were to be popular, I'm sure I'd be disheartened and reconsider this series. But that's not the point, so I think I'll do it again this year, and maybe this year's series will make it into book form! If not, it'll at least be our "online baby book" because I'm a complete failure at doing hard copy baby books.

My Sunday Best, Vol. 35: Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!!! We celebrated by eating a whole bunch of frozen appetizers and dips and crudites and drinking sparkling apple cider - it's a fun excuse to grab whatever we've been eyeing in the Costco freezer section!