"The Vine" by Sister Miriam Pollard, OSCO

Thank you to Phillip and Karen Kempf for sharing this with us in your wedding program. I was dripping with tears when I read this at your nuptial Mass. What a beautiful vocation marriage is.

The grapes over his head grew fragrant in the sun
as God went off to the lake with a stolen rib.
He sculpted it with tender skills..
"Woman," he said, and breathed
an April morning into her,
and snowfall and the scent of cinnamon,
warm winds playing on the edge of dawn
and strong tides of the sea.

Then his urgent fingers drew into her eyes
the violet stars that shimmered deep in his.
"My daughter, you will see where he cannot."

The man stirred, for across his dreams fell the voice of God.
"Wake up, wake. I have brought to you another kind of morning."

"Flesh of my flesh," sang the man. "Bone of my bone.
Companion and wife, mother and friend," said the man.

"God in your eyes," said he.
"God in your eyes," said the woman.

"She will your monring, when the night goes on too long,"
said God.

They walked together then, the three,
past the arbor, past the wheat field,
over a brook that wandered off into a wood.
The hill they climbed was higher than they knew.

Showered with LOVE!

What an incredible stop along the road to Motherhood. Today, Gary and I both, were showered, beyond words...by our family at our baby shower. We drove several hours and upon arrival, we were whisked away to another world. For me it was pink everything, lots of love, comfort and wisdom. For him: lots of fun, great guys, support and of course food! The ladies played games and ate lots of delicious snack and treats before I opened a seemingly endless supply of goodies for this little girl. We are so blessed with all of the love, support and gifts that we have been given. There were many moments I will never forget. Unfortunately, I didn't get very many pictures where I posed with all of these lovely ladies, but I'm hoping they were caught candidly by someone's camera. While we partied all day, the guys went off for a day of bowling and dinner. We eventually all met back up to continue celebrating, laughing and talking. We are very blessed to have so many siblings, cousins and friends to celebrate this wonderful little girl. Gary was able to capture the first few minutes on camera before the guys took off:

This is Kevin and Becky's home (our cousins!)




Greeted with love by the hostesses of this beautiful shower!

Becky:



and Francessca:



and Heather:



and Nicole:



and Lyric's cousinly love...



and more cousins!





We all got pinned...



(and some of us crowned)...



Everything was beautifully done...

Francessca's basket of goodies for me...including a bathing suit, sun glasses, spoons...just all kinds of practical goodies for this baby girl!



The beautiful favors Nicole made...oh and the bouquet of onesies Francessca put together:



Still can't believe we are having a girl!



and sooo many generous gifts...







I LOVE these adorable letters Becky made. They are in the baby's room now.



Francessca has so much talent in the kitchen! She handmade so many little chocolates, cookies, CAKES, and it was all so delicate and adorable. A girl's dream come true!













Heather made so much delicious food too.



From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all who worked so hard to plan this and all who attended. What a special day for us! We love you.

For the first time...

For the first time ever in my professional, adult life...I am not preparing for the first day of school.

I am not nervous about what to wear.

I am not exhausted from setting up a classroom for three weeks.

I am not sore from all the physical demands that the first month of school can bring (much thanks to moving furniture, setting up desks, centers, tying shoes, lifting curriculum, etc. etc.)

I am calm.

I am well-rested.

I am sore, but from a wonderful pregnancy workout!

I am happy.

NOT that I wasn't happy mothering all my little cherubs each year, especially as I taught that ever-so-important first year of school: kindergarten! BUT, this year, for the first time...I am mothering my very own little cherub. She is busy growing and I am busy nourishing her. I am so thankful to God for this vocation of Motherhood!

I have been extremely blessed to stumble upon the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth and, in the process, have learned just how important nutrition is to my unborn child, and to me...to aid in a safe and healthy labor and delivery, and of course to produce the healthiest baby possible.

Making bread, cooking delicious recipes that are natural, real, full of leafy grains, whole grains and protein...it's a full time job! And one that has also led to so many healings for Gary in his own health challenges. More on that later. The fulfillment of knowing my family isn't eating anything hydrogenated, processed, flash frozen, MSG, etc...and that they are encountering nutrients in the way God intended for them to grow and be taken into the body, is truly a vocation. Start here if you too would like to join me on this incredible journey. You won't believe how great you will feel :)

I am destined to be that Proverbs 31 woman. And today, on this first day of school for so many parents, children and teachers...whom I love dearly...I worked hard all day preparing Sausage and Kale Soup, a cold fiesta salad (full of beans, vegetables, homemade dressing and goodness), enjoyed a delicious pumpkin muffin for dessert, and am venturing into an evening of making granola cereal, cheese, soaking my dry beans for the week, and attempting to assemble a magnificent menu for my family: breakfast, lunch and dinner included.

Happy Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary! May we strive to immitate her purity, trust, obedience and openness to God's perfect plan for our lives so that we may receive the grace of a happy death and live forever with Him in Heaven.

Crib

After a long process of waiting and hoping for our crib to become available for pickup, we learned that Babies 'R Us can't sell it to us due to a change in government standards. So that great deal we got for $99.00-NO GO. Oh well. And the matching dresser-well what's the point now?

So....we found something better! And A BIG THANK YOU to Gramma and Grampa Huber for buying us a crib! Your granddaughter loves you and thanks you too!

I will post pictures as soon as it arrives :)

24 weeks

and growing! This is right after Mass on Sunday after a wedding weekend and I'm pooped!



Here is my "Monday Message" for this week-24 weeks! (and might I add-this week she is viable outside the womb now!!!) Each week when I wake up on Mondays, Daddy has written this for me :)



Sorry I had to erase the last line there...baby's name isn't ready to reveal yet :)

Happy Birthday, Mary Bridget

Today, July 23, is the feast of St. Bridget. Today is the day we were expecting our first child to be born. Although we miss her so, we know she is in Heaven with so many others and we delight in knowing she gave her life for her sister, whom I am now carrying!

We will celebrate the wedding of Cassandra and Dustin and pray for the wedding of Hope and Jesse, along with many other friends getting married this summer. We are honored to be able to photograph a wonderfully kind and holy couple to commemorate this very special day.

We invoke our daughter, Mary Bridget, every day and ask for her intercession. She has taught us so much with her short life. She will always be in our hearts.

We love you, darling Mary!
~Mommy and Daddy

Venerable Nennolina, Pray for us!

22 Weeks!

I'm a bit tired, but so excited to be showing. Here's my baby girl at 22 weeks and counting...

Baby Treasures

Our cousin, Mandy (Mom of 4!) was so kind to share bags of baby treasures while we were visiting for the 4th of July. I am so thankful to her for all that she gave us: clothes, blankets, headbands, crib pads, you name it!

Most things are folded and put away. But look at her TWO hanging pieces!(looks kinda silly on adult hangers!) I am pretty sure that little (tiny) blue and white bathing suit used to be Samantha or Emma's! (they are 10 and 6 now and oh so tall!)



And one of the BIG items:



A bassinet! You have no idea how exciting it was to wash all of these cute little ruffles and assemble it with Daddy! It now sits right by my bedside, just waiting for you, Baby Girl!

Thank you Mandy!

Gender Reveal!

Off to the East Coast we went to celebrate the 4th of July with family and friends. Oh...and to share the big news! Upon arrival our cousins greeted us, and my belly for lots of rubs and hugs. Francessca, Becky and Tina were particularly excited for cake once they figured out why we brought a cake to the 4th of July party. Becky even begged, "Come on, please? Cut it now as my birthday gift!" (We were celebrating June and July birthdays...Happy Birthday to Aunt Patty, Becky, Audrey, Gianna and so many other summer birthdays that we will miss! We love you!)

The cake to help reveal our baby's gender...



Gramma K. "cut" the cake for us and shared the good news with everyone.



P I N K !!!! It's a GIRL! GIRL GIRL GIRL GIRL!!!



She was so happy for us! (She's been praying for this blessed event for a long time.)



So many people thought "boy" but we were happy to share, another little girl will be gracing this family. Look at all the girls (poor Vinnie!) We can't wait for the day when our little girl will sit on this couch with all of her cousins. She loves you already Vinnie, Lyric, Tabitha, Audrey, Emma, Samantha, Olivia and Gianna! [and many more not pictured =)]

It's a ....

Today was our 20 week ultrasound.

We learned of many things about our baby's anatomy. Baby is so healthy and has everything growing at just the right pace. The Dr. took so much time to show us things and explain so many details, but of course there was one detail we were anxiously waiting to hear about....girl or boy?????

Once he showed us those three little lines he shared: GIRL!!!!

We cried, we laughed, knowing how happy we would be with either a girl or a boy but having a very special place in our hearts for girls lately (with our beautiful nieces).

We rushed out of the office ready to meet my parents at Panera for the big reveal. We were so excited we forgot to take pictures! But I took some pictures of HOW we revealed. They were so nervous, but very excited.

Here's the bag I made:

(on one side it read:)


and on the other side:


Poor Mom thought "twins" when she saw both sides!

And I bought these long before we found out so that I could wrap the correct one...



And the answer:
the pink one of course!
awwww....

20 WEEKS!

Well we made it!

Today is exactly the halfway point in our pregnancy. I can. NOT. believe. it! On the one hand it seems an eternity that we have waited to get this far, and on the other hand I can't believe how fast this pregnancy is going. I'm sure being cautious has made everything seem a little less real.

We are so thankful to be celebrating yet another week of being this little baby's parents! Each Monday is the start of a new week in my pregnancy and each Monday I have a little message waiting for me on our refrigerator (since Daddy is always up before Mommy these days!) [oh yeah...and each week the baby is compared to some fruit or vegetable in the produce department. This week baby is as long as a banana! This is also the first week the measurement changes from crown to rump to head to feet! Baby is growing!!!]

Here is this week's:



And this week's a big one. On Friday, July 1st, we will have an ultrasound (and I'll be almost 21 weeks!) (It's also the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, so we are hoping to find a precious heart beating healthy and strong). We are also hoping to find out if this baby is a little Gary or a little Christine. Oh my goodness. I promise to post when I know :) And I'm sure I will change the background on this blog from yellow and neutral to pink or blue!!!!

Father's Day

Finally: the day I have been waiting for - to celebrate this wonderful man. I was literally up most of the night so giddy with excitement that I could hardly sleep. Upon Gary waking, I pretended to be sleeping, only to jump out of bed a few minutes later to say, "Happy Father's Day!!!!"

We were going to meet my parents for Mass and then have breakfast here. Later in the day we were hosting a second meal here at our home: BBQ with the Hubers. Even though we had a long day ahead of us full of cooking and entertaining...I wanted to take a little while that morning to celebrate Gary as a Father of course. I couldn't wait to give him this:





And inside: a letter from his child. What an amazing moment it was to hear him read those words.



And I had found some great sales on some of his favorite clothing...just a few new outfits I knew he was going to need once baby comes. Also I found him the perfect, classic Father's Day shirt. It is so wonderful to see him in this role.







Time to get the grill fired up for Gary's famous ribs. What a delicious meal! He even made the BBQ sauce this year. YUM.











It was a really nice day. Lots of yummy food and celebrating with each of our Dads...we couldn't be more blessed! We love you, Dad. Thank you for giving us life and for giving us one another.