Walk for Life 2011
Life truly is beautiful. We were glad to be a part of the Walk for Life again this year to show our love for life at all stages. Every few years we are blest to not have blizzard conditions for the Walk... this was one! The weather was lovely & turnout was great.
It was especially fun to have both grandpas along with us & to meet up with more family afterwards. Glad you all could make it!
Teresa stayed in her stroller willingly as long as I kept the snacks coming her way. ;)
Green Grandpa even hitched a ride with us. Special treat!
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My favorite pro-life prayer is actually a song that Ellen wrote. The kids sing it at Mass every 1st Friday. I get teary every time hearing their sweet little voices.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we love you very much.
We beg you to spare our babies for us,
Because we prayed so much.
Dear mother Mary, watch over their hearts.
O blessed Joseph protect them from harm.
Sweet Savior Jesus, you know this child's full life.
Save all babies from abortion, and raise them to new life.
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I recently started volunteering each week at Birthright. Have you heard of it?
"Birthright provides caring, non-judgmental support to girls and women who are distressed by an unplanned pregnancy. Using its own resources and those of the community, Birthright offers positive and loving alternatives. Birthright presents many services and refers for many more. We provide friendship and emotional support, free pregnancy testing, and maternity and baby clothes. We also give information and referrals to help clients meet legal, medical, financial, and housing needs. Birthright treats each woman as an individual who deserves kindness and respect, as well as personal attention to her unique situation. All Birthright services are free, absolutely confidential, and available to any woman regardless of age, race, creed, economic or marital status."
- Quoted from http://www.birthright.org/
I have never known how much of a difference one person can make in the pro-life movement before I started volunteering at Birthright. I see it. I experience it. It is showing genuine care & love for every woman who walks in the door. It is listening, crying, directing, helping, & never judging. It's beautiful. If you are looking for somewhere to have an incredible impact in the life of another & be changed in the process (outside of your own home), this is the place to be. Please, pray that the Holy Spirit to guide us & that God will find us much needed office volunteers. Thank you!
It has been such a blessing this year to be a room parent for Andrew's class. I was able to help out with the Halloween skating party, Christmas party, & now the St. Valentine's Day party. I'm especially grateful to our friend Nikki for letting Teresa play at their house so I can focus on helping & enjoying instead of rescuing her from tabletops & windowsills. ;)
After decorating the cute LOVE plate hangers you can see on the table, they played a rousing game of Candy Bingo using conversation hearts as markers. 
Rebecca & Andrew were in best friend mode the entire time. So fun to see! Maybe one of these times it will stick & we'll see it at home. ;)
Afterwards it was on to relay races. They had to suck up the hearts with a straw & move it to the cup. I thought it was pretty hard! I was impressed how they did.
Not all quite got the inward not outward airflow idea, though. ;) Needless to say, we threw away those ones when we were done before anyone could eat them!
Tasty cookies, heavy on the good stuff rounded off the party.
Thank you to all of the parents who helped organize such a fun afternoon! Thank you Mrs. G for caring for our children!
When the bitter cold keeps us snuggled up in our warm house, the creations around here grow exponentially. Andrew especially has been in project mode. Here's one of them. I love his mix of sight words, names, & things he just tries to spell phonetically. This is a computer. What kind? "Pules"...yes, a "POLICE" computer.
Notice how he highlighted all of the keyboard letters that are part of his name. ;) The day before when Rebecca hurt herself, he wanted to make her feel better. So he drew her this: 
"We Love Snow me to sed Sam" 
Darren sat down to do some Snap Circuits with him. Andrew picked what looked like the biggest one in the whole book & they did it together. He was so excited. But he was blown away when Darren turned it on... they made a radio! He had NO idea that was the project he picked. He just liked it because it looked like it used all the pieces!
Probably the closest we'll ever get to the old-time photos of the kids huddled around the radio. They did that for a good 10 minutes at a time. Too bad it was only AM talk radio most of the time! Andrew was pretty thrilled one morning to turn it on at 6:30 & hear Aretha Franklin. :)
We went with a hunting/trapshooting theme to liven up our table. My favorite highlights were the bright orange clay target coasters. Despite the fact that we even borrowed some of Fr. Jon's (a judge) hunting gear, another table of friends who dressed up like pirates won the best dressed award. Notice a couple of the "Cunning Hams" in the background? 
We weren't exactly "Right On Target", but we were pretty close. Well, at least closer than we've been in years past. I'm pretty convinced that it's due to the addition of this clever couple... 
Then he started talking about Heaven. He likes to remark how when so-and-so gets to Heaven, there will be two St. ___s. Since he knows about St. Andrew the Apostle plus the family Andrews he was named after, he thought,
