BamBam grows up ...

... and makes his First Holy Communion today!

Today is the anniversary of John Paul the Great's death and so we thought it appropriate for our BamBam to make his FHC on the date when his patron was sent home to the Father.  As an added bonus, it was First Saturday, so we had Morning Prayer, Rosary, Confession AND Mass.  

LegoManiac was able to serve and String Bean was happy to have a chance to dress up and look lovely in pink!

Congrats, BamBam ... we are very proud of you and love you very much!

Family: please pray for BamBam this week ...

... as he'll make his First Holy Communion on Saturday, April 2nd at 9:00 a.m.

April 2nd is the anniversary of Venerable John Paul the Great's death ... and since we named the little guy for him, it's a very auspicious day for him!

Here is an excerpt from what Pope JohnPaul II wrote in 1994 in a letter to children, during the Year of the Family:


Dear friends, There is no doubt that an unforgettable meeting with Jesus is First Holy Communion, a day to be remembered as one of life's most beautiful.  


The Eucharist, instituted by Christ at the Last Supper on the night before His passion, is a sacrament of the New Covenant -- the greatest of the sacraments. In this sacrament, the Lord becomes food for the soul under the appearances of bread and wine.  Children receive this sacrament solemnly a first time -- in First Holy Communion -- and are encouraged to receive it afterward as often as possible in order to remain in close friendship with Jesus.
...
This event is usually commemorated in a family photo, so that it will not be forgotten. Photos like these generally remain with a person all through his or her life. As time goes by, people take out these pictures and experience once more the emotions of those moments; they return to the purity and joy experienced in that meeting with Jesus, the one who out of love became the Redeemer of Man.


For how many children in the history of the Church has the Eucharist been a source of spiritual strength, sometimes even heroic strength! How can we fail to be reminded, for example, of holy boys and girls who lived in the first centuries and are still known and venerated throughout the Church? Saint Agnes, who lived in Rome; Saint Agatha, who was martyred in Sicily; Saint Tarcisius, a boy who is rightly called the "martyr of the Eucharist" because he preferred to die rather than give up Jesus, whom he was carrying under the appearance of bread.

---

For Catholics, FHC is a big deal and a wondrous gift, a major milestone along the child's path to Heaven!

He is very excited ... and a bit nervous ... so if you could please keep him in your prayers.  Please pray for our BamBam, especially to his patron, Venerable John Paul the Great (soon to be beatified in Rome).

THANKS!
 

What happens when you have a sister home for Christmas break ...

after her first semester of culinary arts study?

Chef Boy-ar-dee, of course!

Birthdays: Happy 8th to the caboose!

Today is BamBam's 8th birthday ...   he was born while we were in Austria.

  ... in our family spanning many years, all remember the Sunday we brought BamBam into the world:  we delivered the tyke in the Scheibbs County hospital ... on the Feast of Christ the King, 2002! 

He was baptized on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the ancient church attached to the school dh attended ...

He has been a gift to us ever since!  Full of love and fun and football ... he is all boy and all-loving!

God bless you, BamBam on your 8th birthday ... and may we share many, many more!

Month of Thanks Day 12: this is a VERY secular one!

Tonight, I am extremely thankful for Amazon.com.  I know that sounds frivolous and silly, but I have to tell you that knowing that I can order something online without the kids knowing ... receiving a box from Amazon with "school stuff" in it ... and not having to drive all 'round ....REALLY, REALLY makes my day!

Especially since my youngest's birthday is coming soon -- Nov 24th -- and he'll be 8 and he's WAY too aware of what's going on and secrets and just knowing everything ... it really is nice to be able to order:

• How to Train Your Dragon (dvd) -- this one is the double-DVD so he gets a bit of "gaming" and fun without the cost of the wii game ....
• How to Train Your Dragon jigsaw puzzle -- he is my jigsaw-puzzle solving whiz-kid ... I guess he takes after his Godfather, my brother Joe, who is an amazing puzzle guy!
• How to Train Your Dragon ... the book -- I am trying to push him to read to his potential ... I think this one may just get him staying up till 11 (like his brother Lego Maniac) to finish a book so he can whine until I order/buy the next one in the series!

Now see, this way, I've got it set up so he'll ask for the wii game for Christmas .... gotta love Amazon.com!

We love our UPS man ...

... and today was a real haul ...

• a gift for the birthday man ... not sure what that is ...
• BamBam, after much scouring of Amazon to find just the right use of money from N&P, finally decided on Wed that what he absolutely must have was Mr. Potato Head's Silly Suitcase.  He got up at 6:00 a.m. to do this:
So he could do this as soon as Mr. UPS arrived ...
• and I finally ordered the book that I got for my birthday (thanks to N&P and Kotch! as well as some well-earned Amazon credits):  The Worldwide History of Dress ... a mammoth 600+ pages, packed with ethnic costumes from all over the world!  These are the kind of garments I like to replicate with my knitting ... so this book is VERY VALUABLE to me and mine.

 

Don't you just love the UPS man?

"BamBam" really needs to be changed to "Joe Cool"

My youngest, otherwise known on this blog as BamBam (and with very good reason!), is taking dh's family heritage to heart.  You see, dh's family really dislikes letting go of their baby teeth.  At the same time, dh's family is progressive:  their permanent teeth come into position, whether or not the baby teeth are out of the way.  Cousins on dh's side (and others in dh's family) have had teeth pulled.  In fact, String Bean had a similar problem 3-1/2 years ago.

In the picture above, BamBam is getting ready for his two front lower teeth ("O" and "P" to be exact) to be extracted.  The novacaine (the swabs sticking out of his mouth) and "Hot Wheels" on the tube kept him so out of it that he didn't know the dentist stuck one of those HUGE, pain-killing laden shots into his gum ... and didn't even feel the teeth being extracted!  It took less than a half-hour of dental time (much, much longer on the mommy-clock) which would have been shorter, but BamBam wanted to watch the end of "Hot Wheels"!

Now that the novacaine is wearing off, he's not quite so calm and comfortable ... so off to do some nursing!  Thanks to all those who prayed for us all.

... ready or not, here those teeth come!

Are ya ready for some football?

Bam-bam is ....

hmmm, wonder who he'll be rooting for????

 

BEST NCAA Football Coach ...

... at least around here would have to be Mr. Les Miles from LSU! 

BamBam and he have struck up a snail-mail friendship and BamBam is over the top now:

The dear man sent BamBam an autographed picture for his bday in November!  How cool is that?  You ROCK, Les Miles and we'll be rooting for you and your Tigers all season (as usual!)

GEAUX TIGERS!

 

Feast Day: St. Ignatius of Loyola

Today is the feast of the founder of the Society of Jesus (aka, The Jesuits).  St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556)

We like this guy ...  alot.  What's not to like?  He was a soldier ... a hard-talking and tough spiritual leader for the first Jesuits and he's Bam-Bam's patron saint this year.  Oh, and to top it off, he's from the Basque region of Spain (and altho we're French-Basque, we'll just go right ahead and claim him, ok?)

In my family, we have a long history with the Jesuits -- Dad went to a Jesuit college, my brothers (well, 4 out of 5) went to a Jesuit high school, and 2 brothers and I went to a Jesuit university.  We've seen the good Jesuits and the bad Jesuits (and the bad Jebs don't take a thing away from their founder).  St. Ignatius attacked heresy and lack of faith with military precision and tactics and was quite successful.  He mentored future saint and fellow Basque, Francis Xavier and many saints have come from the Jesuit ranks:  St. Robert Bellarmine, St. Edmund Campion, St. Isaac Jogues and St. Stanislaus Kostka ... to name just a few.

My favorite prayer (and one my father particularly liked) attributed to St. Ignatius is:

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve you as you deserve;

to give and not to count the cost,

to fight and not to heed the wounds,

to toil and not to seek for rest,

to labor and not to ask for reward,

save that of knowing that I do your will.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!

SAA Plans for 2010-11: Sacrament Prep for BamBam

I am so excited! I love this time of year when I search and search and plan and plan and search some more for the right blend of resources for loving, living and learning in the heart of our home!

Next year, I'll be preparing BamBam for his First Reconciliation/First Holy Communion!  I've got some plans all set (since I did this with String Bean and LegoManiac a few years ago -- and actually remembered to save everything!) but was trying to find a new, active, visual way of helping him understand -- without having to do a BUNCH of re-creating the wheel, as it were.

Well, some sweet fellow homeschooler mentioned Lapbooking with a Catholic Twist and the Faith Folders that she creates.  They are all wonderful, but the ones I'll be using for Sac Prep next year include:

• The Holy Mass Double Faith Folder
• The Sacrament of Holy Eucharist Faith Folder
• The Sacrament of Confession Faith Folder

I'd buy all of 'em, but we'll stick to those for now ....

Go check out the cool lapbooking ideas she's got ... btw, she is donating 50% of the profits from sales of the  Year for Priests Faith Folder  in Ryan Barrett's name to Autism Speaks and Friar Suppliers.  Cool huh?

 

Snow: January ends with a bang!

Never getting over 19 degrees (!) today, we woke to snow and it's still snowing ... not hard, but enough to keep most of us indoors, cozy, and knitting up a storm (getting LOTS done)!   Thank goodness for the Wii that kept the kids busy (and relatively active all morning long).

The only ones brave enough (or maybe, just crazy enough) to go out were dh to start shoveling .... and BamBam:

Ninja boy or Brave Snow Fort Builder?

Snow Fort Builder!

Hope you and yours are cozy and warm and enjoying the final days of January 2010! 

God bless you all ...

Family: Happy Birthday to my youngest!

It's very hard for me to believe that the little guy, born during our sojourn in Austria is now SEVEN YEARS OLD!

Happy 7th Birthday to our own BamBam ... we daily thank God for the gift of you!