Finding faith for our family

Brian and I both went to church when we were younger (he was Lutheran, I was Catholic) but by the time we met each other, neither of us had actually been doing anything as far as religion went for many years, aside from the occasional wedding that included a mass (which totally counts as attending church, by the way) We were married in Heinz Chapel, by a Lutheran pastor and while our ceremony was religious-based, it was not a full mass.

When Jake came along, we agreed that even though neither of us were active in the church at that point, it was important us to have him baptized.  Back to Heinz Chapel we went (with the same pastor who married us!) with our BFF's Melissa and Dennis serving as godparents.  A few years later, there we were again getting Liam baptized, with my brother Nate, and his wife, Katie serving as godparents.

Jake-2008

Liam-2012

During those few years, Jake attended church-based daycares/preschools, so Brian and I were kind of patting ourselves on the back, we were all "Oh yeah....look at us, giving our kids some church based education at an early age!"

That was worked out well until this past year when Jake went off to kindergarten, and for the first time in his little 5 year old life, he was not getting some type of religion-based education on a regular basis.  And even though I had not actually attended church voluntarily in over 15 years and had never been particularly enthusiastic about it even when I was attending, I found myself feeling like we needed to provide that to him.

I had no idea where to start.  While we were both raised in a church, neither of us felt particularly tied to that religion enough to advocate for it, but we agreed that we were open to just about any religion/church if it felt like the right fit.  A search of churches in our area produced a short list of places that we wanted to "taste test", and I became the designated tester.  I took a few Sundays in a row, and attended services by myself.  I wanted to see how the services were, and also what they offered for children.  We were looking for something a bit more contemporary, but not too contemporary. Somewhere that would be able to teach the kids the things we wanted passed along to them, and also had messages of being open minded and respecting others. Somewhere that shared the views and beliefs that Brian and I already had for ourselves. Basically, we wanted to find somewhere that could provide to them a solid foundation of the history of the Bible, some moral lessons, and a message of love. 

After a few weeks, I found one that stood out above all the others...it definitely had the most welcoming vibe, delivered the messages we were looking for, and had a really active children's program.  The kids would be able to go to Sunday school during the services, which was a huge bonus.  We started attending in early February, and we've been really happy there. Maybe this will change later on, but right now the kids are excited about going each week and really seem to enjoy their time in Sunday school.

We were all happy with the decision to go there, and then a funny thing happened; a little unanticipated side-effect of going to church, if you will.

Sundays slowed down.  

They didn't come to a screeching halt because, well, we were still trying to move 4 people out the door and a lot of times we still had things we had to get done in the afternoons.  But the mornings?  The mornings slowed down to a wonderful, leisurely pace. Service didn't start until 9:15am; when you have kids who are typically up by 6:30am at the latest, that's a decent amount of time before you have to start getting everyone ready and walk out the door.

Sunday mornings morphed into what they probably should be. They morphed into time spent lingering over breakfast, rather than rushing through it because I was going to go grocery shopping/Brian was going to mow the lawn/insert any morning chore here.  The mornings morphed into extra play time for the kids, or sometimes even just turning on morning cartoons and relaxing and snuggling while Brian and I (GASP!) read the paper in peace. (ok, full disclosure: he reads the paper, I look through the ads and clip coupons)  It seemed like now that we had a standing commitment in terms of somewhere to be, it also gave us a chance to commit to slowing down and just enjoying the time with each other on those mornings.

Sunday morning relaxation

 We'll see what happens over time; maybe the kids will start resisting going to church (much like I did), maybe they will continue to enjoy it...but either way, I'm grateful that it's something the four of us are committed to doing together right now, and I'm thankful that it has given us the ability to slow down and make the most of our Sunday mornings together. 

Recap of Liam's Birthday Weekend

The past month and a half has been an absolute whirlwind around here! (which explains the neglect of this blog)  Liam's birthday weekend was one of the whirlwind times: I went to DC for a family wedding while Brian went to his hometown for the wedding of two very good friends from his childhood.  We split the weddings, but he took both of the kids with him since Nana and PopPop could babysit during the wedding, so they had a mini celebration out there the morning of his birthday before Brian had to get ready for the wedding.  Liam's request was the park and McDonald's :)  Nana and PopPop got him a new bike for his gift, so they loaded that in the car and headed to the park!

Later that night, when given his choice of any type of birthday meal, Liam chose cheese, pancakes, and dessert.  It's his birthday and he can eat odd combinations of food if he wants to!!

The kids had a great time that weekend, and I was really happy to see them the next day and give Liam his presents from us. 

Jake has recently discovered how to photo bomb.  Good times.

And of course, Liam wanted to head outside to show off his new bike to me:

Overall, I'd say the little one had a pretty good birthday!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Liam Joseph!

Dear Liam,

I looked at your hands last night and thought to myself, "How are these the same little hands that came home from the hospital?"  The little hands that were able to do so little aside from grasp a finger...those same hands now color, throw balls, zipper coats, and hold utensils.  Those same chubby hands grab my face and smoosh it up in preparation to give me a good morning kiss.  Those same hands grip the chain link fence that surrounds the playground at daycare, as you start to jump up and down when I walk toward you.  Those same hands that grip tight around your daddy's neck when he carries you on his shoulders. Those same hands fly up in the air with excitement when we get home and you see your big brother for the first time since that morning.

How are those the same hands that were oh so very tiny just three years ago??

You are now THREE years old, Little!!  It's been a whirlwind of a year for you....changing classrooms at daycare, going to Disney World, learning so much, and growing like crazy.  You are known as one of the cuddliest/most lovey kids at your daycare, constantly passing out hugs and kisses to anyone you encounter.  Your teachers let me in on a little secret, which is that they let you get away with probably more than they should at school because (and I quote) you're "just too much cuteness and charm to handle"  Shhh...don't tell your classmates! ;)

You've learned so much over the past year, and your vocabulary just exploded one day.  They are working with you at school how to properly pronounce "three"; right now, you say "fwee" and truth be told, as much as I know you *should* learn how to say it correctly, I don't want you to do that.  I love the little "Liam-isms".

Your favorite activities include doing anything that Jake is doing, playing outside, building puzzles, coloring, and snuggling.  I keep waiting for your love of snuggling to just go away one day (and when that day comes I will become depressed!) but it is definitely still here.  Even though I have about a thousand things to do every night after you go to bed, I find it so hard to resist your tiny voice saying, "Can you lay with me, mommy?  Please let's snuggle!"  (to make it even better, your l's are usually said as w's or y's, so it's actually more like "yay with me" and "pwease yet's snuggle!")   Oh, and eating!  Of course, the eating.  You still have a very solid appetite :)  We haven't gone for your 3 year check up yet, but when we were at the doctor earlier in the week for an ear infection (boo!) you were about 33 pounds.

You still tend to reject watching TV a lot of times, which I know isn't the worst thing in the world (even though it would sometimes be easier if I could buy myself 30 minutes with a show!); you much prefer to follow your dad and I around the house :)  When you do watch, your favorite shows are Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Octonauts.  You are pretty much obsessed with the Lion King, the Jungle Book, and Frozen as far as movies go.  You love to read books, pretty much any books, though you have this habit of picking one and only wanting to read just that one single book for a full week then changing it up to another one after that.  We always say you go all in for everything in life! 

We are so very proud of you Liam, and we look forward to seeing what the next year holds for you!

2 weeks old

6 months old

1 year old

1.5 years old

2 years old

2.5 years old

3 years old

Easter Weekend 2014

I'm only a month late. 

We are on a holiday rotation schedule where we alternate holidays between our two families (with the exception of Christmas, which I host) and Nana and Poppop were up in the Easter rotation this year!  Easter also happened to coincide nicely with Nana's 60th birthday, so I worked in cahoots with her friend, Joy, to have a little get together to celebrate the night we got there :)

PopPop and his mini me :)

On Saturday, all of the boys headed out to a local playground while Nana and I stayed behind to get stuff ready for Easter dinner (which we were doing that night, since we had to drive back home on Easter) They got in a little baseball practice:

And played on the playground:

After that, it was time to come home and greet the other family that arrived!  And time to practice more baseball, of course.

After a delicious meal, it was time to head to bed so that the giant bunny could come to visit. 

I hope everyone else had a great Easter, too!!

Handmade and heartfelt Mother's Day cards

No captions necessary for these, but they are one of my favorite parts of Mother's Day every year.  When do they stop doing Mother's Day crafts in school??  Please say senior year of high school. 

from Jake, he wrote the words himself this year :)

from Liam

from Liam

Baseball: Opening Day!

We've had lots of rain over the past week, which meant a cancelled practice followed by a cancelled game...but these boys finally got to have their first game last night!  We graduated to "real" baseball instead of the casual league we had been playing in the past 2 years.  Really, the only difference is that there is now a weeknight commitment in addition to a Saturday game or practice, so that's been a challenge to adjust to, but overall, Jake has been handling it well.  Probably better than I have, at least.  I am not even sure what we're eating on those weeknight practices, it's kind of a feeding frenzy of whatever I can scrounge together and throw on the table before we have to walk out the door.

Here's my handsome boy, all ready for the big game!! He felt like he won the lottery, their team is the Pirates :)

Shot of the kids on the bench...Jake is toward the right with the white helmet.  I have no idea what the kid next to him is doing.

And a video of his first hit of the season!!