This looks familiar...

*~Eustace baptism~*

..almost exactly a year earlier, we were about to announce our pregnancy at Frankie's baptism:

see how much younger all the kids look!

 Eustace Perry was baptized yesterday at St Francis of Assisi. It was so nice and I was so happy so much of my family was able to attend. Teresa and Tim are some of the best Godparents, my mom was able to get the day off this time, James and his girlfriend Kim were able to join, Susan bought me, herself, and Olivia pretty pastel dresses, Emily my mother's helper came and played with the kids (and also took this great photo!) and Norman & Emily ("Normily") drove up from Houston for the weekend.

 Emily is a primary therapist at a Drug Rehabilitation center and works very hard so it was good for her to take some time off. Norman is doing very well in his schooling, and is that much closer to getting a degree in process technology. The kids enjoyed having them over and we did too--played our board games a few nights--I missed that! Susan probably missed them most though and she may even move down there with them. Norman is thinking he may get an offshore oil job (after getting his degree) and it would be nice for Susan to be staying with Emily while he is gone.

 They liked their Xmas gifts (I didn't mail them so they had to come out!) of a tee with a kitten riding hot dogs, and a cute pic of them a year ago, holding Frankie at his baptism. Yes it's been a whole year!!

We played a few of our cool strategy board games--it was really fun. Puerto Rico (my favorite) and then I found a huge game store in Plano and bought another good one called Stone Age).

    Here we all are getting ready for the baptism:

Norman & Emily, Frankie/John/Lucas/Olivia/Me/Eustace, Teresa & Tim, Mom, Emily, Kim & James

Norman & Emily, Susan, Frankie/John/Olivia/Lucas/Me/Eustace, Teresa & Tim, Mom, Kim & James

How cute :)

My bros with Frankie

Frankie fell asleep on James and thankfully stayed asleep through the baptism!

I think we need more kids lol

          The wonderful godparents:

I only put this picture in to show off my hair extensions I bought lol. They gave my hair a little highlight but blended in pretty well:

What a cute couple...someday James, I hope to see you have a little boy!

                                                         Love Teresa & Tim so much!

Love my children---especially my biggest little shpadoinkle Susan. :P

Here we are looking for the best backdrop/lighting:

Then Normily suggests in front of the tabernacle--great idea!
And the kids dance to celebrate their littlest bro being welcomed to the Church:

Look at that cute couple:

Time to get into comfortable clothes and pig out! Hutchins BBQ was really good:

Look at miss Olivia waiting for her gluten free plate haha:

Emily B. was putting in hours off the clock!

 It's such a blessing to have a bunch of family and friends over without any drama. Was a great day that I didn't want to end. I am excited for L & O to start preparing for their first confessions/communion!
Mom James and Kim got this pretty personalized snow globe for Eustace--has his name and the date. I love personalized gifts---and it's necessary when you have a bunch of kids and need to remember whose stuff is whose.

 And Tim and Teresa bought this awesome beautiful painting of St. Eustace, who is one of the reasons we chose the name (the other reason is John's Italian gpa's name was Eustachio :). This saint's story is amazing. He was a roman soldier who converted after witnessing a vision of Jesus on the cross in nature. He was eventually burned to death with his wife and children for their Christian faith. Amazing martyrs.

Thank you everyone who attended and for all the prayers and love!

Eustace' Baptism !

More pictures soon--look at our beautiful family :)

Another Soccer Practice

This rain has really screwed up this soccer season. We postponed yet another game last weekend but today we had another practice thankfully. We split the team and had a scrimmage--they did surprisingly very well for their first scrimmage; I am excited for the first game...whenever we get to have it!

  Olivia and London matched today :)

 They practiced dribbling with tennis balls:

Coach Kim filled in for Coach Kevin (he and his family are out of town for Spring Break):

Lucas said he had a great time, even though (and perhaps because) there were only 3 kids on his team at practice this week:

Mason gets ready to dribble and shoot!

Barrett carefully dribbles closer to the goal.

Braxton is really keeping the ball close!

Ethan gets ready to shoot.

Jet gears up to kick it in,

Olivia actually tried hard today :)

London made her goal :)..and proceeded to flirt during the scrimmage lol (below):

We got these red pinnies to practice scrimmage with and both teams did so well--they are ready for their first game!

John even put on a red jersey to boost morale haha.

Look at these adorable babies--they have both grown so much even in just the past few months since the fall season! Here they are last september and at our halloween party last year:

So cute!

Olivia's growing up

 Olivia. She is a silly girl, and snot sometimes. She is very helpful with Frankie and Eustace. But I think she gets bored at home all day and causes trouble with Lucas or gets defiant with home school lessons. Today I got kinda silly to help motivate her to do her work and she did well. She understood better with a math game yesterday--sometimes I don't know if I didn't work enough with her on math because I put more effort into Lucas, or if she just acts like she doesn't get it because she's bored. She definitely is excelling with reading and phonics though. They have very different strengths.

 She wanted me to fix her hair for soccer practice last week :) So I took some pictures--and actually got some with her eyes open! Look at them eyes:

 Emily came over to help with them last week and they did some crafts and played at the park. She went back home to Houston for spring break so we won't see her til next week:

Lucas & Olivia Interview 3/2015

Just random questions. I want to record their differences periodically. A little project to preserve their childhood while it lasts :) It's so clear when playing from my computer, but uploading to youtube really diminishes the quality :( Click the little gray cog/wheel thing on the bottom right and set the quality higher to 480p.

Mother's Helper

Our mother's helper Emily came to help again yesterday. I always get a lot of cleaning done and did some school with Lucas too. Frankie is happy playing with her and Eustace pretty much sleeps a lot. The kids enjoy her enthusiastic response to their inane comments all day :) 

Still haven't started soccer because of the snow and ice, but we are giving out uniforms today for pictures saturday...hope we actually get to practice soon!

I also had my first day as a co-catechist for 1st graders at the church. I learned how normal Lucas is haha. It was fun and I am going to head the lesson on Lent after we get back from Spring Break. 

Lucas is a "rocking star"

He got his haircut tonight and loves it:

And he finished another puzzle by himself:

A Snowy BBQ

Snowy weather here still. Preventing soccer practice and games :( But we still have fun at home:
                         Eusty has been smiling a lot and he has a cute little dimple on his right side.

We put on a bunch of layers and played in the snow a bit (I put the rock salt on the front steps that got really icy last winter):

And i'm finally getting back on my bike. But unfortunately the only way to do it without so many interruptions is to wear Frankie (hey, that 20 extra lbs burns more calories!):

We had friends the other night, Lucas' soccer coach and his wife and kids. It was a lot of fun! We had a lot of food as usual, and told lots of revealing stories about each other haha. The kids had too much fun up in the game room :) I hope to do it again sometime. Here are a few pictures of the kids eating :