I've Always Loved You Best

My dear WWD, I've always loved you best because you were our first miracle. Everything you ever did was--and still is--marvelous, extraordinary, prodigious, amazing. You are such a sweet, precious soul, and so patient and persistent with your parents' absurdly high expectations for you!
And thanks for getting us up that parenting learning curve. What a rookie mommy I was when you arrived! I was just sure they were making a mistake letting me take you home from the hospital. But you survived--including your first bath, which we completed while reading the "What to Expect The First Year" chapter on how to give a bath, and also coming home to a house full of boxes and very little furniture because we'd just moved in three weeks before your birth, and then spending a week on Hank's fold-out couch because I'd flipped the whole-house electrical circuit while your dad was out of town, then thought our power was out all that time. I read every parenting book I could find while nursing you, until I finally realized that they contradicted each other and I had to rely on--yikes--my own common sense!
You are my twin soul in so many ways, W. We think alike, share our goofy sense of humor, and both love history, literature, and religion in school. It definitely appears that you're blessed/cursed/stuck with the Anderson body shape, also!
WWD, I am so, so proud of you. You are growing--much too quickly, of course--into such an amazing person, and I am so thankful that God has trusted me to be along for the ride!


My sweet, amazing MRD, I've always loved you best because you are--unbelievably--a girl! From the very first minute, you were pinked-out from head to toe. Also from the very first minute, you were proficient at defending yourself from your devoted big brother.
M, you have always startled me with your amazing wonderfulness. You have always been wise far beyond your years. You have inherited your father's penchant for organization, your mother's color-coordination and party-planning skills, :) and we haven't figured out where you got your big blue eyes!
You are such a brave, sweet little social butterfly. I remember when you were about three, you would go up to other little girls at the playground and introduce yourself "Hi, my name is M. R. D. What's yours?" I hope you will always have such wonderful self-confidence!
Thank you for being such a sweet mini-mommy for your little brothers. You are my co-pilot, so many days! I am so proud of your plans to have a big family and take such good care of them. I hope I'll be right next door to help with those precious grandbabies!! But in the meantime, sweet M, don't grow up too fast! I love you so!


Oh my precious KLD, I have always loved you best because your arrival was so very special. What a sunny summer morning that was, and what a quick, easy labor! And there you were--my tiny precious little Texas girl, with brown hair and brown eyes of all things! You were born on the day of my dear Grandmother's funeral, as if you were keeping her spirit alive. So much drama was going on for us the year you arrived, sweetie, and you kept me focused throughout that crazy year.
Speaking of drama, K., you certainly seem to have absorbed a lot of that tendency! You keep things lively around here, that's for sure. You are so full of energy, fire, and spirit--and so smart, we have to work hard to keep you from getting bored!
You got the middle-child spot, sweet K, and I hope that can be a good thing for you! So far it seems that you get to be a big kid when it suits you (staying up for late movie nights), and a little kid when it's convenient (chore assignments!). W and M, at least, think that's a pretty good deal! You love nothing better than staying connected to your mommy--especially at night, when you still sleep best with an "arm"!! Your fierce independent streak--can't imagine who you got that from--keeps you from getting lost in the crowd around here.
What a privilege it is to be your mom, sweetie. You are my precious "Tootch"!! I can't wait to see you grow up into the special woman that God has planned for you to be.


J-man, I have always loved you best because you always keep us smiling! You've had your wacky sense of humor forever, my precious boy, along with your adorable curls and huge brown eyes. You are irresistible, and so much fun to hang out with.
My precious boy, you just have so much energy and enthusiasm for life! You always take things at full tilt--luckily for us all, you do seem to be outgrowing your unfortunate tendency to break everything you touch! It is so much fun to discover the world through your curious eyes. From space, to knights and castles, to archery, to monster trucks, to soccer and chess, you are full, full, full of life and joy.
J, I don't know if I can give you up to school for kindergarten next year. I will miss you too much! But so far in 4K, you love school so very much, I'm betting you'll take to kindergarten like a duck in water. Just don't change, sweetie guy--you are so precious and special and such a sweet, wonderful YOU!


Sweet MPD, I have always loved you best because you are our baby. How much joy and love you have brought to us all! You are our precious little blessing--our own little "fiat" who helps us all stay focused on what's important in life.
Not that anyone's calling you a baby, at least not if you have anything to say about it. You are Right In There with the rest of the gang, especially imitating JPD in all things (oh no!). Fiesty and opinionated, getting ready to be a Terrific Two with all your might, you are our sweetie boy who loves to give kisses and hugs. You love your bath, your Nummy Bear, riding in your stroller, your Grandma, and eating upside down pizza. You let your sisters take good care of you--sometimes, and you good-naturedly ride around to everybody's sports and activities with patience and--mostly--good cheer. We are having so much fun watching you learn to talk, and deciphering your sweet little one-year-old pronunciations.
MPD, even someday when you are six feet tall, you will always be my baby, and I love you so very much!

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HAPPY 2010 TO MY SWEETIES!!
I can't wait to see what adventures God sends to us in this new decade!!

New Year's Resolutions

One of my college friend's Facebook status posting from today:

"Remember when we were 'gonna party like it's 1999' and 1999 seemed SO far away? Hard to believe it's going to be 2010."

This is so, so true! I am still just trying to figure out where the 1990's went, and now a whole 'nother decade has flown by as well. The sands of time sure are slipping through that hourglass faster and faster, it seems. Wasn't it just yesterday that WWD was the age of MPD (and MRD was already six months old--yikes!), and I was a new stay-at-home mom in the Chicago suburbs? Funny how these kids keep growing up so fast--Bill and I never seem to age a bit!! :)

But seriously. I must say that I don't favor New Year's Resolutions. After all, I'm already perfect and stuff. (Or at least, so deeply in denial of my numerous faults that I don't even want to think about them!) But this year, I want to put two of them out there--here in public, where you can call me on it next year. Actually I think these are my same two main resolutions from every other year--same as everyone else's, too, more or less--but I must try. No pain, no gain, right?

So without further ado, here they are:

1) Take better care of myself (i.e., at least start going for walks and drop 10 lbs.).

2) Force myself to take better care of our finances. You really would not believe how much room for improvement we have in this area--we look like responsible adults, and Bill, at least, actually is one, but our checkbook does not show much evidence of adulthood, let me tell you. I really need to work on this, so that I get to the point where I at least open our mail more frequently than once a month, for pete's sake. Really. And sort of file stuff. Know what I mean?

One of the problems I have with resolutions is that they just seem so stupid, when there are actually important things going on in the world. Like Katherine's cancer. Like my almost-98-year-old Grandmother. Like having my mom in Wisconsin. Like the real, real miracle of Christmas: that God came to earth as a newborn baby, and comes again to us in the holy mystery of the Mass, every day. Given stuff like that, who cares about the annual January diet?

I guess each little effort all adds up to make the world a better place, right? All we can do is our own little part, and give it our best. So I'm off to get in shape and organize our family finances, and here's hoping that next year I have different resolutions because these are all done!!

Christmas Blessings

Joy to the World!

"For all of human history people have been searching for God. The search has expressed itself in the worship of imaginary gods who jealously grasped at power; it has expressed itself in the philosophical idea of an impersonal god who is remote and distant; it has expressed itself in the human attempt at power and self-glorification. And what do we find today? We find that God does not grasp for power, but empties himself of it in order to express his true authority, which springs from love. We find that God does not want to watch us from a distance, but instead has become flesh, i.e., a member of our family...

Blessed are we who celebrate this day as the greatest discovery of all time--the discovery that God, for whom we groped in the darkness, has pierced the darkness with his humanity and has found us. May all who have walked in darkness today welcome the light: Jesus Christ, Emmanuel."

~ Fr. Richard Veras

Merry Christmas!!

"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child." ~ Erma Bombeck

Santa is on his way to make a big stop at our house this year! :)

Merry Christmas to all!! Glory to God in the Highest!!

Retro Thursday

Our 2005 Christmas Card picture (remember this one?). They are growing so much, so fast!

And I can't believe how much KLD and MPD (who is, of course, not born yet in this picture) look alike! They could be twins (6 years apart, of course...)!

Oh Come Let Us Adore Him!

The kids had their school Christmas Pageant Tuesday night. I wish you could have seen it; it was absolutely beautiful and far, far exceeded my expectations! My favorite part was their amazing, gorgeous singing of so many wonderful Christmas carols.
Worth the whole year's tuition, I'd say! :)







In case you're wondering, JPD's a sheep, of course!

Seven (Very) Quick Takes Friday

~ 1 ~
Recently heard at our place: "Some people think their parents are really Santa Claus. But Mom and Dad would NEVER buy all that stuff!"

~ 2 ~
This week our Little Flowers Girls' Club meeting was on Tuesday, the Feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception. I opened our meeting with the Hail Mary prayer, and then asked the girls (who had all been to a special Mass that morning for the feast day) if they could guess why I'd chosen that prayer. KLD's hand shot up. "The feast of the Immaculate Heart!" She proudly answered. What a cutie! (Everyone agreed it had something to do with Mary. Well, they got that part right, anyway!)

~ 3 ~
I am so proud of my sweeties and their Christmas preparations! They are all very busy getting ready, and SO concerned with what they're getting/making for each other--far more than what they're asking Santa for. So sweet--just warms their mom's heart to see their sweet generosity! Really creative ideas too, like a spaceship for JPD out of packing boxes. (Sssshh!)

~ 4 ~
We are pretty excited around here about the Longhorns in the National Championship game. I'm just saying.

~ 5 ~
Speaking of sports, we are in a FRENZY of basketball tournaments for WWD. Our weekends are totally booked. Last Friday night, I took all the kids down to W's tournament; Bill was driving in from a meeting in Chicago and meeting us there. I wish you could have seen how excited MPD was to see his BIG brother on the court with all those other HUGE 5th grade players!! It was floor seats at the NBA to him! He was so proud of WWD; it was just precious. I often think about my uncle's description of my dad, who was his 9-year-older brother--same age gap as WWD and MPD--as "larger than life." It is such an amazing blessing to see how sweet these two almost-ten-years-apart brothers are together! As soon as the first game was over, MPD couldn't wait to climb into W's lap, to show that he was HIS brother:


~ 6 ~
After the snow, came the cold. We're now having single digit high temperatures and wind-chill temps in the sub-zero teens. That 17+ inches of snow is now frozen into a hard pack, everywhere. The garage door did not want to open yesterday morning, and my van doors were frozen shut. I love #7 of Jen's Quick Takes this week--it totally sums up the difference between daily winter life as a Texas Mom vs. a Wisconsin Mom. Sandals, shorts, and t-shirts 9 months of the year!! We are buried in winter gear, and I am so thankful for our new, bigger laundry room which is full of 10 winter boots (as well as regular shoes), 5 pairs of snow pants, more than 20 mittens (each child has at least two pair for when they get wet), random coats and hats and neck gaiters and headbands and...well, you get the picture. And they can't wait to get outside!!

By the way, my big-family frugal mommy wisdom on this issue is that I get black Target snow bibs in all their sizes, so each year they just move up to the next size, all unisex. If they bust the knees, which happens rarely, I just buy more because they're pretty cheap. I also like to buy their coats red or cobalt blue so that they can be unisex and more share-able; this is getting harder to do because Lands' End and other favorite coat suppliers are making things more and more gender-specific! The kids can "express themselves" (whatever) with their hats, gloves, and scarves, which are whatever flavor (Dora, Disney Princesses, Superheroes, Longhorns, Packers, personalized)they're into. So far, this has worked great (this week they were actually laughing about someone at school having pink snow pants--how crazy! ha ha), and keeps our off-season storage of all this gear more manageable too.

~ 7 ~
This morning on Catholic radio I heard the most beautiful description of the story of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, whose feast days are yesterday and Sunday. Two things are especially striking me about this story this year: It's amazing that this powerful apparition happened at such a critical period of history--the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs--and also, as with so many saints, that God always best uses the most humble souls for His greatest work.

The Blessed Mother's loving words to St. Juan Diego about his uncle's illness are especially precious and so comforting and applicable to all of us:

“Hear me and understand well, my son the least, that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything."

~~~~~
Lots more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary, as always!

Happy St. Nick's and Christmas Party-ing

Lots of fun stuff last weekend--St. Nick brought five shoe-fulls of candy, we went to a St. Nick's Day party, and party with Grandma at her place. The Christmas season is just getting started around here!

White Christmas, Coming Up!

What a snow day we are having! The TV says we got 17 inches overnight, and my midwestern husband says it is the biggest snowfall he's seen...ever. After spending the morning outside--helping shovel the walks and driveway, then crying about that, then playing--the kids are now curled up having a Christmas movie film festival. I don't think it gets much better than this--oh wait, except I'm about to make them some hot chocolate.

Moving Day: Hello New House!

We've been in the new house almost 3 weeks...still unpacking!! :) These pics are from moving day. It's a bit more orderly now, but still a long way to go...