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Wednesday, April 28, 2010

7 Ways to Celebrate Mary's Month with Your Family

I'm blogging over at our parish today:
It's almost May, which means it's almost time to celebrate Our Blessed Mother in a special way!Marian  Basket

1. Pray the Rosary together:
Here is an idea for praying the Rosary with your children.

2. Read a book about Mary, as a family. There are SO many great books out there, here is a sampling. Be sure to check our parish library for more books about Mary.


Read more...

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Goodbye, Baby Mullet!

John's "party in the back" was getting to be a little too crazy for us - so I did a little trimming and...voila!

The party.

(...how to keep a baby still during a hair cut)

All done! Looking good, John!

Goodbye, craziness!

Friday, April 23, 2010

7 Quick Takes ~ Vol. 17

Hosted at Conversion Diary

1. Learning about generosity: I just began passing on some of John's clothes to friends with baby boys. I was going to save them all for (hopefully) future sons, but I changed my mind under the influence of some generous friends from church who are who are constantly giving us hand-me-downs for John. I asked them if they wanted me to give them back when John outgrew them and they said "No, just pass them on..."! I was so amazed by their generosity and it made me reconsider my stance on hording all of John's clothes. God has really provided for us with John. I am so thankful for this and I decided that I want to be a conduit of God's generosity to our other friends - so I am passing the clothes on. I know that if we are blessed with another son in the future, God will still provide for us. Note: I did keep some clothes that were sentimental to me - hey, I'm not that good! =)

2. Baby Kisses: I mentioned in a previous post that John has begun to intentionally give kisses. I must say - his kisses are the best! We ask him to give us a kiss and tap on our cheek, then he will lean in with his slobbery mouth gaping open and plant a big kiss on our cheeks. It is precious! Sometimes he doesn't want to give us a kiss - but you can tell that he knows what we are talking about.

3. Mission Impossible: This week has been very busy for us. On Monday and Wednesday I helped out a friend who is the PE teacher at Star of the Sea. We taught the students a game called "Mission Impossible." The students were divided into teams and their mission was to get from one side of the gym to the other - without touching the ground. There were mats spread throughout the gym, jump ropes, laundry baskets, Styrofoam noodles, poly spots, and scooters. With those tools, they worked as a team to get everyone across. If someone touched the ground, they had to go back to the beginning and their team had to figure out how to go back and retrieve them.

It was a lot of fun! We modified it a little for each grade, so it was a challenge for everyone. It made me miss teaching and being with all those kids - but boy did I miss my little Johnny by the end of the day! He was watched both days by some friends and he did really well! That was the longest I've been away from him!

4. Fresh Veggies, here we come! A couple of weekends ago, my parents and I cleared out a space in our yard for a garden. I bought some seeds a few days ago, so soon we will be planting them and eating fresh salads! I can't wait!

5. Cool Blog: For all you Catholic moms out there, a friend recommend this great blog to me called Catholic Icing. It has super fun ideas for celebrating feast days in the home. I am so excited for John to be interested in this stuff!

6. Beatles Question: If your name was Magill and you called your self "Lil" - why would other people call you Nancy??? It just doesn't make sense to me...

7. Happy Birthday, Mom! Today is my wonderful Mother's birthday. She is down in Oregon right now, but we really wish we could be with her! Love you, Mom!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

He can walk! ... almost ...

Here is a video of little John walking with his shopping cart (given to him for Christmas from Great-Grandma). I predict he will be walking on his own pretty soon!



Also, today he started being more affectionate by giving us kisses on the cheek when we ask for them!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Egg Wars 2010 - And the winner is..."

Today was the last day of Egg Wars.
In honor of it being the last competition, we took a video.

"Jesus" vs. "Grandma St.O"



Poor "Jesus." It's important to note the quotations around Jesus' name - because we all know that Jesus (with no quotations) is a huge winner because He conquered all sin! In light of this game, I am sure He is a Good Sport! =)

So we present to you - the winner of Egg Wars 2010... "Grandma St.O"

Good game, everyone!

Friday, April 9, 2010

Our Little Merman

Here is a video of John at the swimming pool:

Celebrating Divine Mercy with your Family

Picture of a doll of St.Faustina
I'm blogging over at the parish today:

God's Mercy is so great!
I hope you have all been enjoying the Divine Mercy novena. While browsing through some Catholic blogs, I have come across some neat ways to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.

Read more...






Egg Wars - Day 4

Egg Wars 2010

I was placing my bets on "Grandma St.H" after her performance yesterday and her quick defeat of "Grandpa St.O" this morning!


After that battle, we had the Grandma's battle it out. "Grandma St.H" vs. "Grandma St.O"...

Guess who won...

Congratulations "Grandma St.O" - that sure was a surprise victory!

Tomorrow will be the final showdown - Between "Grandma St.O" and "Jesus." (Grandma Stockton told me this morning that she wants Jesus to win... I hope so too!) In honor of this grand event, we will be capturing every moment on video! Check back in tomorrow to find out who the champion egg will be for 2010!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Egg Wars - Day 3 (Posted one day later)


NOTE: I tried to post this yesterday, but my internet was being slow. I apologize to all of the fans out there who were probably refreshing this web-page every ten minutes to see if more results were in! Just kidding!!; )


Well, we had a busy morning yesterday, so we had to postpone the competition. But we made up for lost time and competed until we both had two loser eggs to eat for breakfast.

Day 2's champion - "John" - first took on "Grandma St.H"! We had high hopes for "John" because of his stellar performance on day 2. But alas, "Grandma St.H" had a little more gusto!

Poor "John" was quickly out of the running!"Grandma St.H" moved right along to compete with "Aaron."
It was an easy win for her though. I think "Grandma St.H" might have some steel in her shell!

So we brought out the godparents, "Lou" and "Jenna." Perhaps they could take down the mighty "Grandma St.H."


No such luck!

"Grandma St.H" has conquered for today!!! She skillfully took down four of her competitors! This leaves us in great anticipation... Will she be as strong tomorrow?


Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Over at Star of the Sea...

I'm going to start writing for our parish's blog. I wrote my first post today.

"Calling all mothers!!Mother Mary

I would like to invite all of you to get involved with the parish's group for mothers. It's never too late to join!

I am the mother of a ten-month-old son, and I know it can be hard to get out of the house. I am so glad that I've been able to get involved in the mothers group! I have met a lot of great moms who share my desire to have Christ at the center of our households."

Read more...

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Egg Wars - Day 2

Egg Wars 2010

First up this morning: "Dad" vs. "John"

And the winner was... "John"!

Next up, "John" took on "Grandpa St.H."

With little effort, "Grandpa St.H" was soon cracked on both ends! "John" has been declared the winner for day two!!!

Just look at those poor, tasty losers:

Hooray for John!! Will his egg be able to defeat all the others? Stay tuned...

New Habits

Seventy-one days ago, I began a journey. Andrew told me about this website called "Habitforge." Decide on a habit you want to establish and they will send you and email every day to ask if you are working towards that habit. Say "yes" or "no" and they keep track of your answers. The goal is to do it for twenty-one days in a row. If you say "no," then you have to start back at day one!

My goal was making my bed. It's something that takes only a few minutes in the morning, and it makes be feel so good about myself when I do it; yet, I have always been lazy when it comes to bed-making.

After seventy-one days of trying to do it twenty-one days in a row, I finally did it!!! Yesterday, in honor of it being my last day of the twenty-one day run, I washed the sheets and made it extra-nicely!

I have been really curious about what will happen on my computer screen when I finish - Will an animated character dance across the screen? Will fireworks go off? Or will they give me a thousand-dollar reward?

...No, all I got was this:


But even better than that colorful circle is this beautiful sight:


Thanks, Habitforge!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Commencement of "Egg Wars" 2010

The St.Hilaire family has a tradition of bumping their Easter eggs together to see which ones get cracked. We did this last year, for our first Easter together. I did take pictures of it but never blogged about it because I think I was pretty distracted in preparing for John's birth.

Here's how it works:

1. Last night we painted our Easter eggs - all of them have a family member's name on them and they represent that person.
2. Each person uses their egg (since it is just me and Andrew, we will play for the other people we chose to represent).
3. You hold the eggs facing each other. One person goes first and taps their egg against the other person's egg (begin by doing nose to nose).
4. The person with the cracked egg turns the egg around to the other end and they tap that end to the other person's egg.
5. If both sides of your egg get cracked, the you are out and you punish your loser egg by devouring it with a dash of salt and pepper!
6. The winner goes on to challenge the other eggs.
Each day, we will tap eggs until we have two loser eggs (so we can each eat one for breakfast).

Here are the contestants: Mom, Dad, John, Grandma St.O, Grandpa St.O, Grandma St.H, Grandpa St.H, Uncle Lou, Aunt Jenna, Uncle Aaron, Jesus, and Dymphna.

Today, the challengers were "Mom" (me) and "Dad" (Andrew):


Round one - nose to nose - "Mom" tapped "Dad" - and the winner was "Dad"!!!
Round two - bottom to nose - "Dad" tapped "Mom" - and the winner was "Dad" again!!!

Poor "Mom":
Today's winner is "Dad" - he will go on tomorrow to challenge "John"!

This just in: "Dymphna" has been disqualified due to a premature crack in her shell, thus our breakfast this morning was "Dymphna" and "Mom."

Who will win? Who will be the Champion Egg for 2010??
Tune in tomorrow for more results!

Easter 2010

This year, Andrew, John and I went to Mass in the morning (There is no way John could make through an Easter Vigil...). It was packed! The pews were full, people were standing all along the perimeter of the church, and the vestibule was crammed with at least forty people! We rushed out after Mass to get home, where we hopped in the car with my parents and drove to Edmonds.
We almost always have Easter breakfast at The Pancake Hause in Edmonds with my mom's side of the family. We've been doing that since I was a little girl! We arrived a little late. Everyone was finishing up their breakfast when we showed up. It was really nice to see everyone!

Then we headed over to the Holyrood Cemetery to pay respects to my grandpa, who passed on last February. We all really miss him. We shared some memories of him. My Aunt Leslie talked about how she thinks of him when she wanders around the house turning off lights that her children leave on. I guess my grandpa was known for doing the same thing...

After that, we all went over to my grandma's house. There we visited, watched John in all his cuteness, and made plans to fix up Grandma's house to sell. We also found out that we may have a future organist in our midst (see the pictures below)

We forgot the memory card for our camera, so these pictures from my dad's phone will have to do:

John with Great-Grandma!

We hope you all had a joyous Easter with your families!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

He Has Risen!


"And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. Behold, I have told you. '"
~ Matthew 28: 2-7


He has risen! Alleluia!


Happy Easter to you all!