Carrie with big sis Emma looking on...
Bath-time!

The eclipse that saved Christopher Columbus and his crew

I must be a total geek because I thought this was a really interesting tidbit. Just when you think you've heard every possible story about Columbus...

Babylove

Now this is what my girl looks like awake. You just can't see how blue her eyes are in this picture. I just bought this swing because my back just isn't what it use to be but she doesn't like it much yet. Now if I can just keep Emma out of it! :-)

Of course, we're kissing and hugging her all the time- it's amazing how much you can love each and every little inch of these precious little babes. She's been cooing and making more noises lately-- and not just from the backside! A smile will cross her face now and then and those just light up the room! 

Baby is really growing!

Mary and Carrie -- 2-headed girl?

Carrie's baptism

I finally got the new camera communicating with the new computer so here are Carrie's baptism photos... at least a sampling of them, I should say.

Family hands

Book Meme

Okay, so I've been tagged by a dear friend of mine for a meme. 

It's a cute one so here goes:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

2. Open the book to page 123.

3. Find the fifth sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag five people.

Next, they took twenty mattresses and placed them on top of the pea. Finally, they put twenty feather beds on top of the mattresses. "This is where you will sleep tonight," the Queen told the Princess.

Okay, so it's a book of fairy tales that landed near me from one of my girls' rooms. Nothing intellectually stimulating unless I churn up some feminist memories to debate the book from Women Studies in college. The book is called "Treasury of Fairy Tales" and was a gift from a friend. Now to figure out who to tag...

How 'bout...

Elizabeth

Ebeth

Julie

Jennifer

and I see the other one already has gotten this meme!  Dawn

A new camera-- new photos!

All the girls after Mass...
Little Carrie

Daddy and Carrie

Carrie's newborn pictures

Here's a link to some better pictures of little Carrie.

Announcing Carrie Noel Parente!

She's here!
Dec. 17th at 10:18 AM.
9 lbs. 4 oz. and 21.5 inches long.

I won't take time to make this fancy... here are some pictures of our newest cutie and her siblings.



Some of the best pictures of her up close are on my cell phone and I'm trying to figure out how to transfer them. (I haven't had time to figure out this new phone yet.) Yes, we've misplaced the regular digital camera. ;-) Hopefully I'll be able to post the good photos of little Carrie tomorrow. And the pictures of Jacob with her, too.

Okay... just to add a few more good pictures of the kids from the past month or two...

Catching up for Oct.

There are lots more pictures of our Oct. adventures but here's just a sampling. That's not Lucas' b-day cake... it was Jacob's. And that's Jacob receiving a ton of merit badges from his dad at our court of honor. Look how tall he is!

Shh-h-h-- after a long day...

Shhh-h-h! She finally fell asleep! :-)

Fall fireplace

Now if it would just get cold enough to use the fireplace...

If you give a mom some money...

she will spend it! Especially if the hometown furniture store is going out of business! Here's my new baby... and I got a desk, too, but I haven't gotten a picture of that yet. I'm too busy trying to load it up. :-)

Why are you so busy?

A friend asked me a couple days ago why I don't blog much. Well, since I'm just eating bons-bons all day, you know, I should have lots of time. ;-P

Well, this school-year has been especially busy now that Jacob has started high school. He's attending St. Thomas More Academy.
It's very rigorous but he's doing well. It's a real sacrifice to get him there and back everyday but we have one other family we're carpooling with so that helps. Several days a week Jacob has soccer practice or games, too. This picture of him on his first day of school was after he had shed the tie... it was in the 90's so he was burning up!

And now the other kids are having to adjust to the new busy-ness, as well. So far, so good. Grace is in the 7th, Mary in the 3rd, Lucas is a k-er and Emma's just a cute toddler roaming around in the background, playing and causing mischief. And of course, they all have their extracurriculars to boot. The new one for this year is that Grace has begun playing the flute in the homeschool band class Jacob was in previously at Neighborhood Academy of Music.


Oh, and I'm looking (and feeling!) like a "weeble-wobble" these days. ;-) Baby girl's doing great... kicking up a storm!

Loveliness of VA vacation- part 1

Where to begin?! We started our 2007 mini-vacation by heading out on Thursday morning to VA. Our plan was to go to Mt. Vernon that day but by the time we got going, we realized that we'd have to switch that to Friday to have enough time there.

So here's some quick pictures of our road-warriors, ready to roll!


Our first sight-seeing stop was Arlington National Cemetery. We knew we wouldn't have time to see it all, but our main objective was to visit my husband's father's grave. He died when dh was only a few months old from cancer so this was a very special visit for us. We tried our best to explain to the kids who this was and that Vince's step-dad was in his life from a very young age so that's why he's "Dad" to dh.

Loveliness of VA vacation- part 2

Friday was the big Mt. Vernon day. However, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention our trip to the hotel in Manassas after Arlington. Let’s just say that we saw a lot of territory in N. Va via back roads. Our handy dandy Rand McNally Road Atlas was surely the star of this vacation. But if I had to move to this area, I’d have a GPS device in a heartbeat or I’d never find my way anywhere! We cut through a road called “Burke Lake Road” that rivaled mountain roads we’d been on before. Beautiful views, too.

Mt. Vernon was just beautiful! I had been once before (long ago) but they had recently completed some new exhibit halls and they were much more interactive for the kids than I had expected. The picture of G.W. taking the oath is a wax figure of him and the other two gentlemen, as well as the one with him on a horse. These figures they had recreated of him at different times of his life were outstanding. You really felt like you'd seen him. They were scientifically done by this long process that is too complicated for me to try to explain but you can find out more about them on the History Channel's website. We could have spent a much longer time at Mt. Vernon but the heat was starting to get to us (me!). Oh yes, we did see George's famous false teeth, too! I'll never forget seeing into the bedroom where President Washington died. You could really *feel* the history in this place. We took pictures where-ever we could, but the inside of Mt. Vernon's main house was off-limits to photography.

Sat. night after my wonderful conference day at the Real Learning Conference, we went by the Manassas Battleground site. I wish the visitor's center hadn't closed before we arrived but we did see some interesting landmarks. Stonewall Jackson's statue was impressive, as were all the cannons . Of course, each child wanted to pose with a cannon.