SOLEMN VESPERS

We are so blessed to have such wonderful and orthodox priests at our parish.  Our Pastor, Fr. Hart was recently honored by being invested as a Monsignor by our holy Bishop Vann.

The title “monsignor” is a papal honor recognizing a priest’s service to the Church. Each priest is nominated for the honor by his bishop who submits a request and biography to the Holy See.

Our holy priests give us the Sacraments.......without our holy priests, there would be no Eucharist!  Being blessed with wonderful and orthodox priests gives people the gift of true Shepherds guiding their flocks home to our Heavenly Father!

As our Pastor, Monsignor Hart is a truly holy shepherd for our parish.  We just adore him so!  We are so blessed to have him at our church!

 (A picture of 5 newly invested Monsignors for our Catholic Diocese- Msgr Hart is on the far left)

Here is the program from the evening

We were honored to be invited to watch our new Monsignor Hart receive the pontifical honor designating him as a monsignor during a solemn vespers service.  It was amazing and beautiful

What a truly blessed opportunity for our family to share in this special evening.

Thank you, Christ Jesus for Your Holy Priests

Jesus ordaining the first priests (His chosen apostles)

(John 20:19-23)

 

"19  When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
20 And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.
21 Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit:
23 whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."

HOW ARE WE SPENDING OUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON?

After welcoming our campers home late this morning, we made a special lunch for them and then the kids made chocolate brownies ALL BY THEMSELVES....Well maybe with a little help from Mom

 Savannah was in charged of adding the water and oil

 Madison let Nicholas break the egg before she poured it into the mix

Everyone helped to stir the chocolaty mixture and soon after, we could smell the double chocolate treats filling the house

We ate warm brownies (with milk of course), the kids played legos, I cleaned up the house and blogged about our weekend, Daddy fixed the washing machine, and then we headed to Sunday evening Mass as a family.  After Mass, we are picking up Nana and Papa for a burger at Papa's favorite burger place....Chapps!

 It was truly a great weekend and a very blessed Sunday!

BOY SCOUT CAMPOUT

My 2 boys....Daddy and Nicholas left today for the Boy Scout Campout.  Nicholas couldn't even sleep last night in anticipation for today!!!  They had some awesome boy time!!!

 They got there Saturday morning and set up their camp

 Of course there is always time to fish a little

 It was a beautiful and hot day!! Plenty of water for the men to stay hydrated

 There are my boys together just hangin out being guys!!

 More fishing....

Horse shoes....

  Hanging out with the other scouts......boys just love to sit around a campfire

There's my little boy....such a young man

 Here is Nicholas saying the Scout pledge during the special ceremony, earning his Tiger Scout patch

After a special ceremony where he had his face painted like a warrior.....he was awarded with his special patch

Wow, I am such a proud Mommy!! Congratulations Nicholas!!!

 Roasting some Marshmallows to finish the evening before retiring for some much needed sleep

The girls and I received this pic of our boys with a special goodnight message for us girls!  We love you boys.  We cannot wait until you are at home with us!

GIRLS NIGHT PEDI-PARTY/SLUMBER PARTY

While our special boys were gone away at the Father/Son Boy Scout Camp Out, me and the girls had a special girls day together......doing "Girl" things

1. We laid around

2. Went out to lunch

3. Rode bikes

4. Giggled A LOT!!

5. Went to the grocery store and bought our favorite snacks (see pics below)

6. Gave each other Pedicures (see pics below)

 So Many colors options!  Which ones should we choose!?!?!

 The girls painted my toes

 So much concentration

 Then I painted their toes

 This was to speed up the drying process...We had quite the salon

 Madison modeling a little bit!

 My finished toes.....Not sure if anyone would hire them professionally quite yet, but it was so much fun!

 Savannah's toes.....kind of a "John Deere" color scheme

Madison's toes....I did hot pink on them and then a teal "Crackle" paint on top...kinda hard to tell in the pic.....not sure if anyone would hire me to do toes professionally quite yet either!!!

Madison added smile faces to Savannah's toes.....a touch of elegance I must say!

AFTER THE PEDI-PARTY, WE.....

7. Made dinner and ate our snacks

8. Watched a TOTALLY girly movie in Mommy's bed, of course

LASTLY......

9. Slumber Party!!!!

 We all piled in my bed for the night.....with of course all of our special blankets and snuggley animals

 Goodnight Madison

Goodnight Savannah

My prayer for my little girls is for them to grow up to be gentle confident Christian women/wives/mothers following the special path that Our Lord has set for them.  I want them to realize their call from Christ, answer yes to Him, and love and serve Him throughout their entire lives, bringing other souls along with them to Heaven

I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!

WHAT AM I DOING TONIGHT?

Stormy weather hit our area tonight.  My true love, Jeremy, had his church meeting canceled.  We decided to fore go the kids activities for fear of some big Texas hail and without saying, decided not to go out to dinner as planned because of the approaching storms.  We had been at the lake all weekend so the groceries in the house were lacking.  Hummm what do we eat.....but of course, a family favorite..... breakfast burritos for dinner.  All of the kids helped prepare the meal.  What great family time that was (which was a blessing in itself) and we ate them on the back porch to watch the storms roll in.  I love nights like tonight

 It was pretty hot all day and then the sky grew dark and a cold front came in.  It must have dropped 20 some degrees in about 30 minutes

 We sat on the back porch safe from the threatening rain and ate our dinner together, with of course the weather channel on the TV.  The kids thought that this was really exciting........I did too!

 See how dark it was outside.  This was still rather early in the evening

 Here is the scary doppler shown on TV from Channel 4 (Our humble little town in right in the middle of the red part)

 Everyone stayed tuned as we ate.  Soon the wind really picked up.  We could barely keep our plates on the table.....then the rain came and we all ran in the house for safety from the blowing water!

Wow, it sure did come down outside (with the wind, it was almost raining sideways at times)  It is still thundering loudly but has the rain has calmed down for now.  More storms to come in a few hours.  It may be a big family slumber party at our house tonight......yeah!!!

Thank you for keeping us safe, Lord....thank you also for spring rain (tomorrow is the first day of spring!) and stormy nights that keep my family home from our outside activities

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!

WHAT DID WE DO ON ST. PATRICK'S DAY?

We had a GREEN breakfast......from the GREEN sprinkle pancakes to even the GREEN milk!

 The pancakes looked like play-do

 Here is Savannah enjoying her GREEN pancakes and NOT green sausage

 GREEN pancakes make GREEN teeth

 GREEN milk creates a GREEN milk mustache

 Everyone showed off their GREEN milk mustache

I think that Sophia may have had the biggest GREEN milk mustache

 The boys spent the entire day building a new addition to our boat house to house the tubes that we pull behind the boat.  They did so good.....it looks amazing....those boys and their projects!!

(Jeremy painting the outside...almost done)

There is Felix as they are finishing painting the new addition.....gotta love those great friends that are so giving and helpful!  

Lori and I (the girls) sat on the deck all day giggling and talking.....we never run out of things to talk about.....or laugh at!!!  The weather was perfect!!  We had such a great time!

Where were all of the kids, you ask???

 THE WHOLE GANG!

Nicholas, Sophia, Savannah

Our "Tweenies" Madison and Isabella

Joey

The kids played ALL DAY (actually ALL WEEKEND) with water balloons (those mini ones from Walmart...ya know the ones that hurt your fingers to tie....),   They had the BEST time!! Boy were they muddy!! Those little feet were just black with earth!!  

A water balloon fight picture

Then we went to Mass in the evening (Did you know that St. Patrick's Day is a Holy Day of Obligation in Ireland....we just learned that at Mass tonight)

 Jeremy and I even got to go to Confession after Mass with Monsignor Juan.

What a great day!!

What a great weekend!!

As you can see there were NOT a lot of pics taken this weekend at the lake for the blog.  I TRULY just relaxed and enjoyed our friends!

What do I have to thank our Lord for this weekend....

THANK YOU JESUS THE BEAUTIFUL WEATHER....(not too hot and not too cold)  THANK YOU FOR YOUR HOLY MASS, THE SACRAMENTS (and the Grace that accompanies)  THANK YOU FOR RELAXING WEEKENDS AND GREAT FRIENDS