A Surprise to be Thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving to all!  This year, we had a lot to be thankful for.  My sister Jess and her family took a road trip from their home in Kentucky and drove all the way out here to spend Thanksgiving with us.  Little did everyone know, my sister Angela and her husband were planning a trip of their own to surprise everyone on Thanksgiving!  Zenith and I were the only ones in on it since we picked them up at the airport on Wednesday night.  They stayed at our house and then we all headed over to my parents house where the all of my sisters and their families would be.

We pulled off the surprise by switching William and Emma's carseats, and Zenith and I went into the house first with Emma in William's carseat while Angie and Thomas waited outside the door with William.  I didn't want to be obvious holding my camera and recording, so all you see is the wall at first, but you can hear Mom's reaction when she looks into the carseat and notices it's not William.

Another interesting part of our Thanksgiving was that we had a pretty good size snow storm the night before which caused the power to go out.  Mom and Dad have a generator which runs some lights and a few outlets, but we couldn't hook up the stove or oven.  Their next door neighbor graciously offered to cook the turkey at their place since they have a double oven, and we pooled together our crockpots and were able to keep dishes warm that we had prepared the previous day.

We had a couple outlets upstairs to plug in what we needed

We ran an extension cord to the living room so we could have some light there

Priority of course went to the coffee machine ;)

Kaite and Dan brought their camping stove so we could cook the potatoes

And in the basement we had our crockpots plugged in to keep what was already cooked warm

But despite the power outage, everyone did a wonderful job of pulling together a wonderful Thanksgiving.

My sister Jess and her youngest, Thomas

He couldn't decide which beer he wanted, so he drank both...at once ;)

All the Patterson girls together!

Dad and all his sons-in-law

Dinner by candlelight since there weren't many lights

All the guys smoking the pipes Dad made for them while enjoying Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey

Sherlock and Watson :P

Mom and Dad with 12 out of 13 grandchildren (Tommy was already in bed)

Our entire family minus little T

Jess and Chris are off to spend some time with his family and Angie and Thomas will be around until Wednesday.  It's been so great spending time with my sisters again and seeing their beautiful families as they expand every year.

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  We have a such wonderful family, here and overseas, along with many good friends.  We have a zealous priest who has done so many great things in our parish and helping all of us grow spiritually.  I have a strong, loving husband who takes excellent care of us, and an adorable son who brightens my life every day.  We've had many crosses this year, but found strength in them through the grace of God for which I am very thankful.

As we approach the First Sunday of Advent, may we focus our gaze on that little manger, now empty but soon to be the bed of Our Divine Savior, Our Infant King.  Let us prepare for the coming of Christ, emptying ourselves of all worldly things so that when He arrives, He may find that we have prepared a place in our hearts for Him.  What a shame it would be for Him to arrive and find there is no room for Him, as there was no room in the inn at Bethlehem for a tiny Baby.  

Stay warm and Happy Saturday! (Happy Sunday to our Aussie friends and family) :)

~Lindsay

"'Twas the day before Thanksgiving..."

....and all through this place, 

the baby is crying, and a mess I must face.

I had planned a nice day to prepare and to bake,

Until I realized how much time those desserts took to make.

With me in my apron and armed with a spoon,

I had pies I must make and must finish them soon.

They came out of the oven looking nice I must say,

But now I must clean, I can't wait or delay.

So I bid you good day and will update again,

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and goodbye until then!

P.S. Thought you might also like to see some pictures of the lovely weather we're having.

My vacuum and I have a date so I must be off!

~Lindsay

The latest happenings

Oddly enough, I find myself baby-free right now so I thought I'd take advantage of the free time to curl up on the couch on this rainy, cold day with a blanket and cuppa to do some blogging.  William has decided lately to boycott the time change and get up at 6am every morning which has been difficult since it makes us both crabby.  He's tired but just won't sleep in, and I'm exhausted because I'm still dealing with restless legs at night and not sleeping very well.  Needless to say, it's been a rough past week or so, but I must say, I think I'm finally being introduced to the realities of motherhood.  I've been lucky up to this point to have a good-natured baby who sleeps very well.

However, I find myself baby-free at the moment because although Mr. William work up at 5am crying (he couldn't find his blankie which he loves to sleep with), he went right back to sleep after I tucked him back in with the treasured blankie and slept until 8:30.  After feeding him, he fell back asleep and at 10:30am, is still asleep.  

Sundays are tough because he usually misses a nap due to Mass, therefore Mondays tend to be rather rough, suffering from the effects of not enough sleep the day before.  Thus the reason I am letting him sleep as long as he wants.  Combination of Mondayitis (yes, it's a real thing.) and maybe a growth spurt?  His appetite has increased lately and he seems to be growing out of all his clothes again.  Funny how that happens so suddenly...one day certain clothes fit, and then the next day they don't.

Ok, so William updates.  The kiddo has 6 teeth now with still more on their way.  He is moving into eating more solid foods, rather than pureed.  Yesterday he enjoyed picking up the pieces of pancake I put on the tray of his high chair and attempting to get them in his mouth.  Most of it ended up on the floor, but some of it did manage to find its way to his mouth.  He likes rice cereal in which I like to sneak pureed veggies and coconut oil.  He's also been eating more of just what we have for dinner, all blended into a lovely mush. ;)

He gets into everything now by scooting and rolling so I can't leave him on the floor alone for too long.  When I leave the room, I usually come back to find him across the room from where I left him, happily chewing on furniture, or whatever else he's managed to get a hold of that he shouldn't have.  

This kid is so ready to crawl.  He wants to be put down, but get frustrated after awhile of being on the floor...rolling only gets you so far, you know.  I just don't know if I'm ready for him to crawl yet. ;)

A few weeks ago we had a nice visit with Aunt Pam and Uncle Fred, who were up here from Florida to finalize the sale of their house on the Cape.  It was great to see them since they're now in Florida permanently and we don't get to see them as often as we'd all like.  The day was filled with lots of fun, as always when you get Fred around us girls. ;)  

Willie was happy to hang out with his new cousin Nicholas (my oldest sister Chrissy's youngest).

"No fair...Nicholas has more hair than me"

I can't believe William was once even smaller than this little guy!

Having "guy time"

Not much else going on around here.  Had a lovely time last weekend going out with another young couple from church who have a little girl.  We walked around Cambridge/Boston, finishing off the day in a little tavern/pub in a nice cozy booth by the fire with good food, great company and good beers.

Saturday Zenith and I decided to go out and run errands which turned out to be a really nice family outing.  The three of us went shopping to pick up a few things, visited Bob's grave, had lunch at Panera and then went home for dinner and a movie.  Any time spent with Zenith is something I cherish, especially with him in school now so even just running errands was quality time, catching up and taking it easy without rushing around and stressing out about getting home (which I tend to do).  I'm trying to remember to enjoy the little moments as they happen because life goes by so fast.  Stressing over the small things is not only unnecessary but leaves you unhappy and discontent.  

Reminds me of something Father said yesterday in his sermon; we should think thoughts of peace rather than affliction.  Why focus on our ailments, or our troubles, or on things that stress us out in general?  Allowing our afflictions to disturb our peace of soul is only going to make us unhappy and discontent with our lives.  Focusing instead on the joy in suffering and the peace of soul that can be achieved when not wrapped up in the things we can't change or don't really matter in the light of eternity is much more rewarding.  Just something I thought I'd share. :)

Anyway, I've gone on long enough.  Here are some videos I took over the past few weeks.

Just chillin'

Daddy being a goofball

Watching Daddy eat

Don't let the dreary weather get you down.  Friday will be here before we know it and then next week is a short week for Thanksgiving!  

Happy Monday everyone!  

~Lindsay

In memory of our little Gabriel

Over the past couple of months, we've had such loving support from family and friends over the loss of our little Gabriel.  The Mass cards, prayers, emotional support, and little mementos of our baby we have received have meant so much to us.  God has really pulled us through this and though my body is still physically trying to get back to normal, I think both of us are pretty much out of the woods at this point and doing well.  We did discover some thyroid abnormalities, which my midwife has looked into, but as of now we're kind of at a "watch and see" phase.

Dad just finished making a marker for little Gabriel's grave, which meant a lot to us since it was handmade by him.  It's nice to have something marking the spot now.

Thank you Dad!

So thank you all for your prayers and loving support.  It would have been a much harder journey without you.  God bless you all!

~Lindsay

The many faces of William

William has so much personality.  Even as a newborn, he always had a look on his face as if he was following along with what you were saying.  He has so many adorable facial expressions and I know I'm bias, but he's just too darn cute not to share!  So here are some pictures I took during lunch one day.

This is the face he kept making while eating :P

William is now signing "more" and "all done" in addition to "milk."  He babbles a lot and will sometimes try mimic us when we say "Dada" or "Mama" but I don't think he knows what they mean.  He said his first word/phrase last week which was "all done" and says it when he's finished eating, although it comes out more like "Ah Da!" :)  I'll try to get it on video and post it here.

Saturday being the Feast of All Saints, we went to Mass in the morning.  Our chapel is doing a great job putting together a choir and schola to sing High Masses, so we were able to have a sung High Mass for it.  Tess, Zenith, William and I had a nice breakfast afterwards with Mom and Dad and then the four of us went out shopping for winter clothes for Zenith.  We're still trying to build up his "winter wardrobe" since this is only his 3rd winter living somewhere it gets cold enough to snow.  I think he's been in denial that it's actually cold enough to wear lots of sweaters and jackets and has been trying to make do with what he has. ;)  Now the Aussie is all ready for winter, though I can't say he's particularly looking forward to the shoveling, driving in the snow, and cold temperatures that come with it.

When the shopping was complete, we were ready to go home and relax.  Being a rainy cold day, we picked up spiced pumpkin lattes for a pick-me-up, then stopped to get a movie and a bottle of red wine to complete the relaxation.  William went right to bed and then after throwing together some Cheesy Chicken Tater Tot Casserole, we all settled down with our wine glasses and comfort food and enjoyed the rest of the evening together.  

Sunday after Mass, we went back to the apartment to have breakfast and let William take a nap before heading off to Mom and Dad's for dinner with them and Kaite and Dan.  Mom and Dad bought the Traditional Catholic Trivia game that Angelus Press just started selling so we all played that for a bit.  It's a fun way to refresh or even learn Catechism, Bible history, Church history, etc. so I highly recommend it.  

That's about all the news from around here.  Happy Tuesday!

~Lindsay