Hello Family,

We wanted to share some picture of the past couple of months.  We haven't been doing too much traveling, but we have just been having fun exploring our part of Germany and really getting to know our community.  We have gotten pretty involved with our church and have made some great friends--some very devout couples--which has surprised us since this is such a small military community compared with the other bases in Germany.  

We've started a little bit of homeschooling with Philip, although he does go to a preschool two mornings a week.  Not enough to actually learn and retain.  But he loves to be around the other kids.  

Surprisingly we haven't had any lasting snow.  It snowed once a few weeks ago, but was melted within a day and it has been cold, but dry ever since.

Amanda has been discovering some wonderful thrift stores and Andrew has been playing lots of music on the guitar lately.  He is in charge of the Christmas morning Mass!  Stella likes to giggle and crawl away quickly if she thinks she found something naughty to play with, and Philip likes to watch youtube videos of sea lions barking.  We are also going to host a big fondue party at our house close to Christmas, for which Amanda has been collecting fondue pots from said thrift stores.  

Happy Birthday Baby Carl!

Wow... I can't believe it has been a whole year since our dear baby Carl was born.  I didn't even do a post on his birth... it has been quite a year.  Before Carl was born, you probably remember, I was stressing about not having another c-section.  Well, God has a way of putting things in perspective, I guess.  I was so happy that I had the VBAC, but now, compared with all that's happened this year, it doesn't seem like that big of a deal.  Don't get me wrong, I am still grateful, but if I would have known what this year was going to be like and if I would have had a choice in the matter, I would have traded God the C-section for all these other crosses that He apparently thinks I need to experience.  I have confidence of course, in God's wisdom, and know that he works all things out for the good of those who love him, but at the same time I can say that even though I know with my intellect that God never ever abandons us, that I know how it feels to feel abandoned by Him.

Sorry...  I forget sometimes about not wallowing in self-pity.  Let me get back to my dear baby Carl!  Here, he is today, one years old!  We had a very little party for him, with mini-cupcakes from Wegmans. 

So getting out of self-pity mode, Paul and I are so grateful for Baby Carl, for eachother, for our other wonderful boys, for all of our family members, and for all God's gracious gifts, even the crosses.

By the way, any of you who haven't read the books by Fr. Jacques Phillippe should not delay one minute.  Just go to Amazon and order them right now.  You won't regret it.  His books have really pulled me through tough times these last couple of years and I constantly go back to them.  In fact, he has a new one, that I need to buy, since I haven't read it yet - it's called The Way of Trust and Love - about the spirituality of St. Therese. 

Anyway, please forgive my depressed ramblings, and enjoy the cute pictures below.

Oh, how do you guys like the picture in the Header up there?  I was trying to size it to make it smaller but was having a hard time keeping it centered.

Please share what's going on with you, when you have a chance.  I am especially looking forward to birthday pics of all the one year olds!  (Please post belated pics of Alistair's birthday!)

So Cute!  Carl and Daddy!

With a candle in his mini-cupcake; look at that smile!

Biting into his mini-cupcake

Dominic gets two mini-cupcakes.

So does Thomas.  Typical Thomas face here.

And Andre ate his cupcake before we even finished singing Happy Birthday to Baby Carl.

All done with his mini-cupcake.