Markie (3 1/2 yrs)

Ahh, Markie... where to begin?  ...Your grin! It is huge and devilish and handsome with irresistible dimples.  That describes your personality, too: huge, somewhat devilish yet irresistible.  You are quite dramatic: from the "tough look" you give from under your eyebrows; to the mournful: "It's all my fault. I'm soo sorry.";  to your "That's SO cool!" we are never at a loss as to what you are thinking.  Your mop of curls has always fit you.  Daddy liked it a lot when your hair was long because you reminded him of strong Samson from the Old Testament-  That strength of spirit has to come from somewhere!

You have big appetites for food and everything life has to offer.  Speaking of food, you are (surprisingly, from one so ornery) a healthy eater- lots of fruits and veggies and yogurt, like John Paul.  You are very smart, too smart, easily bored, seemingly immune to the expectations of adults but still adept at playing very well when you want to with all the "neighborhood" big boys.  You would much rather stir things up to keep them interesting and get in trouble, than allow things to be quiet and well, in your opinion, boring.  You have no interest in potty-training despite that you are totally. capable. and have already earned several short and long term rewards in the process, only to go back to pull-ups as soon as the reward is won.  So, now we're just patiently waiting for you to decide you are ready.  Waiting...and waiting...and... 

What follows are some classic Markie stories I don't want to forget:

• Recently we had one of our parish priests over for dinner.  In the middle of eating Mark disappeared, only to come back to the table with the bowl from his little potty full of pee-pee and without his pants on, proudly displaying his work (that he never wants to do any other time)!  Luckily this priest is from a larger family himself wand was quite comfortable surrounded by our children.  At the end of that visit, Fr. was blessing a space in our home (where we've enthroned an image of the Saced Heart).  Fr. splashed the holy water in Mark's direction only to hear Mark start throwning a mini-fit:  "I don't like the water! Oh, NO, not on my PACK-PACK !"  Then, he dramatically rescued and clutched his backpack. 
• Mark has Christmas and Easter confused.  Every night last Advent, instead of singing "O Come Emmanuel" with us over the lit Advent wreath he sang, "God is not dead. He is alive, He is alive...".  I have no idea where that song came from.  He still sings it whenever we pray a prayer or sing a song he does not know.  (Which is really not all that often, despite that all these stories are Catholic or church-related.  I guess I just remember these more than some of the day-to-day ones.) 
• We try to get to daily Mass once a week with Jesse at the tiny Eucharistic chapel on base, it is a pretty little chapel and always special b/c the kids get to be so close to the altar, basically right next to it.  This means we can see everything but everyone else can also hear us...  One time the priest was distributing communion, Body and Blood, by coming around to us b/c that is simpler in such a small space. After being passed over twice, Mark looked up at me full of self-pity: "I got nothing!"
• Finally, I've always sang a little song to the kids when they are litttle and need extra cuddling.  It goes to the tune of "Frere jacques" (Yes, I had to look that french spelling up!  Did the internet get it right?) and I list all the people in their life who love them.  Only Mark has ever added an extra verse..."And Markie loves himself!"

These are photos of Mark's most recent birthday, his 3rd birthday, which he calls his "Blue Birthday," b/c he wanted everything to be blue : blue cupcakes (Don't laugh at my homemade icing-it was runny!), blue juiceboxes, blue plates & napkins, and bikes & trikes painted blue as his gift, Thomas blue to be exact, by Daddy.

 At home.

At our chuurch's pre-school.

And, last but certainly not least- This has been your favorite costume for a long time now: Super Mark.  A picture is worth a thousand words.

(We cut your hair shortly after your 3rd b-day but you can't tell in the most recent photos we have b/c your hood was always up.) 

Holidays 2011 & Our 10th Anniversary!

*Just found this in my draft posts list.  Update on my back pain: It is finally feeling significantly better b/c I am going to PT weekly.  I have a bulging disc.  Still lots of progress to be made b/f I will be back to normal...Since spring is almost officially here & this is becoming the only family album/journal that I am keeping up w/, I am putting these memories here...Our Holidays 2011.

We had Thanksgiving at our house. My grandparents even came, which is a special treat b/c they do not travel nearly as much as they used to and I teasure the time we get with them. My mom, our "Mimi" was here, too, which is always so fun and then good friends joined us for dessert. We're hoping to host again in future years, maybe trading out w/ my mom when some of the Ft. Worth family has other plans and the remainder wants a (semi-) "country" Thanksgiving.

Mary's beautiful dress from CM in San Antonio.  Pic doesn't do the beautiful fabric justice.

Table still in progress.



Archery lessons w/ Big D.



Mary w/ the first Mary Constance in the family.

Let's see...Advent was a good one but I think I wrote about that in my last Daybook.  A couple of weeks before Christmas, we finally got our first chickens from our neighbor who was thinning out her flock. We each named one, except for Mary. Five hens so far: Christmas Tree (Mark's), Frosty (John Paul's), Nutmeg (Jude), Josephine (mine), and Chick-ON! (Jesse's).  We got the idea to celebrate "Christmas for the Animals" from Small Things last year and the kids and Jesse, actually, love it so we did it again.  I bought small cans of food for the cats which is a treat from their normal dry food, the dog got a meat bone, the wild birds got their first seed suet of the winter, and the chickens got the finishing touches put on their coop- bedding, etc.

Then, Christmas.  It was frought with injuries and sickness this year so we ended up not traveling to Lubbock the day after Christmas as we had planned.  Jaul Paul fell out of a tree in our yard about two weeks before Christmas and broke both bones in his right arm.  We did not take him to the ER until the next day b/c although he was in pain, he could move the arm and the pain diminished.  But the next morning at Sunday Mass, it started swelling and giving him a lot of pain so Jesse took him in .  Splint on that day.  Casted about a week later.  ER visit #1 for Jesse.  The week or so before Christmas, I started having lower back pain and especially on the right side.  I ran and worked out at some point thinking I was just getting out of shape and needed to strengthen my core, which probably made it worse.  Over the course of five days it continued getting worse, so painful in the mornings I could barely move.  Jesse would half carry me to the shower where the heat would help me be able to move.  The morning I was scheduled to get into the dr., it was excruciatingly painful- worse than childbirth.  Jesse carried me to the shower and helped me in, went to start our coffee, and a few minutes later I blacked out from the pain.  He came back to me still on the floor of the shower, helped me up, and we decided I needed to go to the ER to get the pain under control.  His immediate commander, who is a very kind and gentle man, offered to come to the house to help get me to the car.  It was all I could to move enough to get some clothes on before he got there!  ER visit #2 for Jesse.  Still don't know what has caused the pain, which is lingering but is under control with a lot of medicine at the ER and the week thereafter.  Needless to say, Jesse took off work a couple days early and held down the fort while I was mostly off my feet and I never finished getting ready for Christmas- did not finish our decorations outside or do any baking.  And Jesse eventually finished our shopping for extended family.  I had two follow-up dr appointments and still have two more left.  The back pain is under control w/ daily medicine.  Mary got a bad ear infection after Christmas which really knocked her out for a week and was another dr appointment.  John Paul got his cast off the Fri before Epiphany.  Can we be done with dr appointments for a while?  But thank you, Lord, for modern medicine.

So, our Christmas Day was quiet but nice.  We had gone to the Christmas Eve Children's Mass at our parish, which was actually especially nice b/c so many friends' families were involved in the Mass and not the crazy scene I remember from the big parishes we attended in San Antonio.  I did manage to make a simple dinner for everyone which was the most I had done in days.  It was a quiet day with the kids playing happily together with their new toys, Jesse reading a new book, and me working in the kitchen alone (or w/ Mary happily watching and playing at cooking in her highchair) to try to give him the gift of a break form that since he had been doing so much of it.

We went to Ft. Worth for New Year's Eve Day to finally see my mom and sister's family and celebrate Christmas and the New Year with them.  My brother lives and works in Thailand this year.  It was a great day of fun and good food, including my Mom's famous crab cakes and lots of sweet breads.

We had a brother-in-law and his wife here on New Year's Day for the night with their sweet son as they made their way home from holiday travels.   It is always fun to see them and we opened gifts and just relaxed at our house together.

The highlight of this year was our 10th Anniversary on December 29, 2011!  It was a Thursday and Jesse was still off work.  I mentioned some of this on Facebook but not all the details.  We started the day off with our coffee and wedding album, which was actually Jesse's idea and he brought it back to me with my coffee while I was still in bed.  (I probably wouldn't have thought of this as I had looked at the album recently when he was deployed.)  It was so special to remember the day together, our excitement and joy, and all the special friends and family who were a part of it.  They are why I have finally made some time or maybe I should say treated myself to the time to get on Facebook this holiday season.  I am not great at keeping in touch and some of my closest friends from high school and college are on regularly, as well as some other special friends I want to reconnect with.  It has been fun to take the time to virtual-visit them via it.  Anyway, back to our Anniversary...we went to noon Mass and renewed our vows there.  We had just asked for a blessing but instead got to renew our vows in front of everyone so that was very special.  And they had been prepared by our Pastor who was sick and unable to be there but was present in those vows he had prepared.  The priest who blessed us was our new associate pastor, whom we got to know that day.  We talked to him after Mass about enthroning the Sacred Heart and consecrating our family to the Sacred Heart and, instead of doing it on our own as we had planned, we ended up inviting him to dinner later that day so he could help us "do it right."  After Mass, we went on a lunch date to our favorite restaurant here (the only really nice one in town) and then went home to have dessert with the kids and include them.  We made a simple but nice dinner for our new priest-friend/guest later that day and had a beautiful little enthroning ceremony.  The big boys did so well!  They read & basically did the whole thing b/c Jesse & I were very busy with the little ones the whole time, both of whom injured themselves by falling or getting burned by the candles we were holding!  All in all, it was a beautiful day in a simple way.  Other friends have taken big trips for their 10th and my sister had told me I should have asked for a diamond anniversary band but we were just happy to be together for a simple day.  We had already gone away twice this last year with just the baby and without the boys before his deployment (to a fancy, artsy hotel in Dallas) and after he got back (to a precious, ranch cottage) so we really weren't needing or wanting to do that again.  Not that I won't push for that at another anniversary soon!:)  But I don't plan to ask for any more diamonds after seeing Blood Diamond and I'm more of a Geek Mom anyway who woudl prefer another iProduct to jewels, if I had my choice... which I don't!  :)