Leah Marie 6

"Daughters will melt your heart whenever they want to."

This week we celebrate the birth of our 5th child, Leah Marie.

She is the one my blog was named after. She is our blondie who loves to gather everything that she likes or loves.

Leah is going to be a little superstar someday. She is only 6, but she has a lot of self confidence. She loves to sing and act. I have a feeling we will see her on stage someday.

We did get to see our son Ethan on stage last week.

He was in his middle school's musical performance of Guys and Dolls.

He did great. I love that he has it in him to be on stage in front of an audience. I went to all 3 of the "public" performances. The students did a wonderful job!

While we were at the high school seeing the play, (That's where it was performed - bigger stage there.) we were able to see our oldest son's art work he did last year. It is a still-life drawing. They have it framed and hanging up. Brandon has such a talent for art. His drawings amaze me.

Tomorrow we are having a party for Leah. It is going to be a costume party. Tom has his yummy chili already cooking. I can't wait to eat it!

We will start the day with church. Ethan and Rachel will be singing in the choir. This will be our daughter Rachel's first time singing in choir during mass. She is very excited! And she loves that she is with Ethan.

Cameron is now rolling over back to tummy. Big boy!

And this will be his first Halloween.

It's cute when you ask Jacob what Cameron is going to be for Halloween. He says, "A woo woo."

Which is Jakey's way of saying "Dog."

Cameron is going to be dressed as a puppy, Jake is going to be a bat, our girls will be fairies, and our older boys are going to be Reapers. (I guess that would be the best way to describe their outfits. Just wearing all black.)

I have a fairy costume to match my girls.

Tom - I'm not sure. We'll do something with him. We try to do "matchy" outfits. We were thinking of some sort of "fairy catcher." Kind of like Gargomel (sp?) is to the Smurfs. I'm sure our girls would get a kick out of that.

I am just looking forward to spending a day with family and friends, celebrating one of our beautiful children.

Lights in the Dark

"Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?"

Today.

Today we took Noah to his annual appointment with his Neurologist. It went ok.

Noah opened up to us about the words he feels the need to say - not good words. He could hardly tell us through his tears. He felt so bad. But we explained to him that it's not his fault and we will do everything we can to get him through this. His physical tics have continued as well.

Noah has now been diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome.

Tonight.

Tonight our family went to our church.

Tom and I went to our Couple's Bible Study while our children went to the childcare rooms.

Cameron was with me and Tom. Cam started crying, so I left the room to walk around with him. I was singing to Cam, trying to calm him down. I sat down on a pew in the Narthex. I was thinking about how overwhelming things feel sometimes. I was looking through the windows into the church, staring at the altar. It was dark.

I was nursing Cam when I thought - it would be amazing if all of a sudden a light shined inside the church. Then I thought - it would be amazing, but also a little "scary." Would I be able to handle a sign like that?

After a very short moment, our priest (Monsignor) walked in the front door and walked by me in the Narthex. He was talking on his cell phone, but stopped for a second and said "Hi Chris." Then he opened the glass door and turned on the lights in the church.

I just sat there with Cam.

I stared at all the lights suddenly on in the church through the windows.

I whispered - "Whoa."

T is for Tooth

"What we remember from childhood, we remember forever."

Our daughter Leah is 5 and she is in Kindergarten.

This week she lost her first tooth!

She was a little scared last week when she realized her tooth was loose.

It was her bottom left tooth and eating was getting a little more difficult the other night. She kept crying that it hurt to eat with her loose tooth.

Then she went upstairs to brush her teeth. While brushing, she kept whining that her tooth hurt. Her whine suddenly turned to crying and a slight scream.

I ran upstairs to find Leah in the bathroom with Tom and a couple of siblings looking at Leah's tooth on the bathroom counter and a sink with a little bit of blood in it. Leah looked shocked and she was scared because of the blood. We told her it was fine and then we got a big smile from her as we reminded her that the Tooth Fairy would be visiting her for the first time!

The Tooth Fairy did come that night and left Leah some money and glitter for her tooth.

Which leads me to a little bit of "funny" from Leah...

Leah enjoys going to school.

Right now she is learning to read and is very excited about it.

The other day we were playing a game as part of her homework.

It was a board game. I showed her different letters and she had to find the object on the board that started with that letter.

I held up a "T" and asked Leah what the letter was.

She looked at it and knew it was a "T" but wasn't sure which picture on the board started with that letter.

The picture on the board for the letter "T" was a "Tooth."

I gave Leah a hint.

I said, "Leah. What did you just lose?"

Leah paused for just a quick moment then replied, "My mind?"

Ha! Ha! I got a huge kick out of that answer!

I don't know why she would even think of that as an answer :o) Hmmm.....

Respect Life Sunday

"The years teach much which the days never knew."

We went to mass yesterday at noon.

As we were leaving, I walked over to the Respect Life table.

My older boys were with me.

The lady who does the Youth Ministries stopped me to see if any members of my family would like to go paint pumpkins at the Nursing Home.

I said "Sure!" And asked Brandon and Ethan.

They were a little hesitant, but agreed to go. Then I was asked about Noah and Rachel. I said that they would probably love to go.

So our oldest 4 went to paint pumpkins.

I was told that Noah was a little gentleman. He sat and chatted with some of the ladies there - treating them like he's known them forever.

I love that about Noah. He is very social in a small setting.

Rachel gave out fashion advice to the ladies. She gave them ideas on their dress and their hairstyles. Rachel does love fashion.

Brandon and Ethan were very helpful and sweet. Ethan told me that every time he asked one of the ladies what she would like on her pumpkin she only replied "I don't know." Brandon said that one gentleman walked in and put his finger in the paint, drew a frown on one of the pumpkins, then walked out of the room. Brandon found this whole experience depressing.

I explained to him that that was why what he and his siblings did was so special. I'm sure many of the people who live there are sad and lonely.

I was very proud of all 4 of them for going. What a wonderful gift they were that day. Children are such a gift from God.

And what a great way to spend Respect Life Sunday.

Young and Old - all life is precious.

We are looking forward to going back in December to sing carols.