Gladdest Hours

Baby Gallus #6

When is she due? 

We'll be having a little Christmas bundle this year!  And, no, we don't KNOW it's a girl...it's way too early for that.  But, REALLY, we DO KNOW, don't we?  LOL!   

I am 11 weeks along right now, and we go in for the first midwife appointment next week. The girls are following along in our favorite baby-development book:  A Child Is Born.   And, they are, of course, extremely excited~

  

 

For a good laugh, here is the post of those same jumping-girls, minus one,  when we told them I was pregnant with Jacqueline. 

We are in survival-mode around here.  Bare essentials.  One doesn't do much that isn't essential when you are constantly feeling a strong-calling to get horizontal and feeling nauseous.  I also have Ptyalism during the first 3-5 months of pregnancy.  

What is Ptyalism, you ask?  Increased saliva.  And, lots of it. I never go anywhere without my spit-cup and my glass of ice water, to stay hydrated.  Which makes it hard to do lots of things.  And, I'm very careful where I go in public and to whom I speak.  I cannot talk without having to rid myself of the excess saliva every 15 seconds.   I think most people just think I am drinking from my little spit-cup.   Pete and the girls are not so convinced.  LOL! 

So, here's to the little-baby-on-the-way, those crazy sisters, a wonderful daddy, and an end to the first trimester!

A Wonderful End to the Choir Year at St. James Cathedral

 

This year, the three older girls were in the St. James Cathedral Youth Music Choir Program.  It was an amazing experience and all three girls loved it and received wonderful beginning choral and music training.  All my expectations were exceeded, and I'm so glad we decided to commit to this for the year.  (Thank you, LeeAnn!)  It was a lot of effort.....schlepping five kids downtown Seattle once a week.....3-4 hours door-door, sometimes longer depending on traffic.  But, I wasn't pregnant and I didn't have a newborn, so I figured it was a good time to spread-our-wings a bit.

Many of my logistical concerns worked out, and we soon found ourselves at the Cathedral where I used to attend Mass with my girlfriends before I got married.  Now, I was here with five offspring in tow!  

Believe it or not, there were always large enough spaces for our mammoth van, thanks to the reserved Cathedral spots at O'Dea High School!  Otherwise????  Forget it!  That would've been IT for us!  LOL! 

The choir program made an extra room available for those of us with small children....a contained area with a TV when we got desperate :-)   And, I couldn't think of two more wonderful ladies to spend 90 minutes with than LeeAnn and Lauris!

The music selection for these young children is superb and lovely!  They are exposed to and learning the music of our beautiful Catholic Faith!  I have been brought to tears by much of the music that they sang during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

There are three youth choirs that practiced on Thursday afternoons:

• St. Gregory Choir, 6-7 year olds.   4:30-6:00 pm.  Erika & Dorothy Jo were in this choir.
• St. Cecilia Choir, 8-9 year olds.  Mrs. Newhall was the director this year, and she was greatly loved by Madeleine.  4:30-6:00 pm.
• Schola Cantorum, 10-13 year olds.  Practiced weekly from 4:30-6:30. Ms. Sunde-director.  Madeleine has dreams of singing with this choir and can't WAIT to be 10!

These three choirs sang once a month at the First Sunday Youth Mass as well as at the Vigil Mass at Christmas, the Epiphany of the Lord, the Palm Sunday Procession,and the truly beautiful Great Music for Great Cathedrals. 

Today was the amazing Corpus Christi Procession to finish off the year! 

Here are our little choristers in their robes for the last time~

The girls met lots of new friends....one in particular :-)   Hello, Helena!  And, Caroline and Jacqueline talk about their new friend, Ewen, constantly!

We are so blessed to have participated in this program this year, and I'm very grateful to all the directors, organizers and parents who made it happen. 

Erika's First Holy Communion

Erika made her First Holy Communion on May 2 of this year! It was a beautiful Mass!

 

Recessing out after the children received their scapulars (Erika is in front of Father):

 

Group Photo:

 

Godparents, Mr. and Mrs. Volpone:

 

The cake, beautifully decorated by her friend, Gemma:

"My favorite part was going up to Communion. When Father Harris put Jesus on my tongue, I was so happy. I smiled. I have now received the Eucharist about five times."

Jesus, we trust in Your mercy and love.  Keep Erika's hope strong always.  We thank You very much for coming into her soul through this glorious Sacrament.  May she love You always!

Jacqueline turns TWO!

Catching up, finally!  We celebrated Jacqueline's birthday the end of April.  Here is the crazy, little bug at the glorious age of two!

For the first time, we had a PINATA for a birthday celebration.  Here is Jacqueline tap-tap-tapping away on the frog-pinata:

 

The mad scramble for the goodies----