He had a birthday

 Jude had a birthday a couple months ago already here. On August 18th, my little guy turned FOUR! Wow. Jude's birth is a special marker for me since so much happened right within a few weeks that he was born. He is so full of joy and so good natured - he was just what we ordered! And he still is that same sweet goofy little boy. I love him to pieces! I tell him that all the time and he immediately responds with the fact that he loves me 'sooooooo muuuucccch' with his arms wide out. He is very affectionate!

Yet again, Jude's birthday fell right in the midst of an especially busy time for our family. His birthday fell during the week we were moving into our new place. And here we are a couple months later.

I am loving having Jude at home with me and he is the oldest in the house with Faustina off to school. He is doing a great job with his reading lessons, he is in Catechisis of the Good Shepard at the Cathedral (with his Auntie and cousins!), he does swimming lessons, and he plays  A LOT! 

A few things about Jude at the age 4:
- He has the biggest, bright-eyed, wide-mouthed smile
- He loves loves toys. He can play with toys for hours at a time by himself humming away
- He especially loved Legos! That has been his favorite for the past 6 months. Grandpa Gary let him take a box of small legos home with us one night, and he has played with them every day since. He even spent a day with our friend Lizzia building legos since that is her area of expertise
- Jude really likes cars and trucks. He takes regular note of cars while we are driving in our minivan. He points out all the 'cool cars' to me. He thoroughly enjoys riding in Dad's truck.
- Jude is very very sweet with his baby sister, Agatha. He will lay on the floor on his belly and talk to her in baby talk and stroke her face for 15 minutes at a time
- Jude is buddies with Faustina. Of course, sometimes they have their arguments, but they are fast friends
- Jude takes his role of being an older brother to Benedict quite seriously. He likes playing with him, but he also really seems to enjoy 'teaching' him and trying to regulate him. 
- If you get Jude alone, he will talk your ear off! Sometimes in a crowd, he tends to be quieter at this stage in the game. But he likes his one-on-one time with people. And let me tell you, he is quite the charmer
- If Mom and Dad let him, Jude could watch movies all. day. long. He is enthralled with movies - and he is pretty good at memorizing a good part of them
- Jude likes balls and games. He has pretty good form when kicking and throwing too!
- Jude is a man of detail. He likes little things and he won't forget little things. He is very precise when he plays with his toys.

This is on our way to mass in the morning. Dad got Jude the new Cars movie and this is a card from Grandma Mary.

Jude was VERY excited about his birthday present from Grandpa and Jeanne. They got him a 'Cars' bike. Before, Jude was riding a bright pink 'Jewel' girl bike. So, this is quite the upgrade!

This is an example of Jude loving his 'little toys' and detail. He is looking at the camera and lining up his car just right with it, I guess?

These two are happy campers. Both of them, from birth!

We're in

We're in our new place, that is. And, actually, we've been in for a couple months now already, which is hard to believe.

There has been lots going on, of course. The main thing has been getting settled in since we got keys to our new house August 13th. But Jude has had a birthday, Faustina's going to school, the babies are getting bigger, we've been entertaining a lot at our new place which is fun. We have Korynne, a new friend,  living with us since the end of August which is wonderful. We're at the age where everyone we know is having a baby, so we are making lots of meals to spread the love. Life is fun. Life is good!

We really do love our new place. We are completely blessed by the Lord with how everything fell into place. It is one of those, "Let me count the ways...." of how perfect it is for us. It has everything I could have wanted in a house, plus more that I could not have even thought of on my own. The yard is absolutely spectacular. It is almost .5 acre and the mature gardens, lawn, and view are continually breathtaking.

Here are a few pics from August when we moved in.

Here Jude is playing at our old house on Morgan Ave. Our moved to the new house ended up being fairly smooth since we rented from the owner for almost 2 weeks before we closed. We were able to do some work on the new house before we moved furniture; we were also able to forgo movers and a big truck and just move things over slowly.

A picture of Jude - just because he is so cute. I am loving having him at home and having more 'one-on-one' time with him. He is too easy and pretty much always happy.

Here we are on August 13th when we first got the keys. It was a fun and memorable morning!

Mike had a saw in hand, ready to cut a whole in the wall where we planned to open space up. Within 20 minutes of having walked in the house, it was done! This is my 'get it done'  Polish, CEO personality type husband at work! Our realtor almost had a conniption vehemently explaining that we immediately needed to get house insurance. We did, pretty soon. 

 

Where Mike cut the wall down, there is a beautiful hardwood sliding door in the wall! Right now now we have the computer in this room with a hid abed (sp?) couch. There are 2 doors on the room that can be shut, so we have been using it for when guests come to sleep over. It works out well.

We were all watching from the window seat.

Our dear friend, Peter, was with us to help rip up the carpet so that we could refinish the wood floors.

There have been beautiful sunrises that we have a great view from the dining room windows and our bedroom over the river valley.

This is part of the view from our deck. You can barely see the river way back there over the bluff. The tall white thing is a flag poll. Crazy, we have our own flag pole?! There is a huge rock by the flag poll which the kids have loved playing on and around. Apparently, it is there as the result of practical joke a guy played on the owners of the home years ago.

Okay, well that is all the pictures for now. The camera just died! More later.

Agatha at 3 months

Here is our little babe at 3 months. She is absolutely delightful!

We are excited that the kids have a new cousin! Elspeth Lee was born in South Bend, IN last week! We probably won't get to meet her for awhile. But we are excited for the Lee addition and Agatha now has a little girl cousin to hang out with.

We're moving! "Goodbye, Highland... Hello, Highland?!"

Why the crazy title post?  We sold our place on Morgan Avenue in Highland Park and are moving to Highland Avenue in S. St. Paul!

Our new digs - front yard from the street!

This is our new home - we are very excited!  It was built in 1895 and is in the Victorian style.  Here's some history on this place first...

"Offered for sale for only the 5th time in 118 years is the Arthur D.S. Clark House, featuring expansive river valley views. Extensive exterior restoration, third floor renovation, and garage addition are just some of the updates to this historic home.

"Arthur D. S. Clark moved to South St. Paul (then known as South Park) in 1886 where he operated the Clark & Co. grocery store, a thriving business that helped establish the first Post Office in 1887. The Clark store also served as a church and Sunday school. His large family first lived in a home on the Northwest corner of 15th and Thompson Avenues, when in 1897 he finally move them into the newly constructed mansion we see today.

"The home was extravagant for the area, adorned with elaborate porches and climbing vines, as well as water and power supplied by a windmill. It even had its own grass tennis court! The beautiful Victorian stayed in the Clark family until 1959, when it was sold to the Schmidt family. From that time, only two additional families have owned the home - will you be the 5th?"

Apparently, yes, we are the 5th owners!  Very cool!

Side view from the yard.

Kitchen - needs a little work, but high ceilings!

Main floor - living room.

Formal dining room off kitchen.

Main staircase - fireplace close-up; Cynthia loves the wood burning fireplace!

Main floor: study/library.

3rd floor - game/movie room?!

Full Bath recently finished on 3rd floor.

Deck built to match Victorian style of home - 3 car garage in back.

These are just a few highlights.  House has 3 bedrooms on 2nd floor and large laundry room on 2nd floor.  There are multiple ways to expand to 5+ bedrooms as our family grows.  In addition, Mike is still only about 15 mins. from work - Deo gratias!  We are excited to move on August 13th.

Here are some pics of our current place on Morgan - it's been a great home and we'll miss it.

July is here

Agatha is now 2 months!

We had another excellent 4th of July this year. Somehow, the 4th has ended up to be a very memorable and especially fun day of the year for us. It is not necessarily a holiday that I have ever really 'looked forward to', but somehow since Mike and I got married - we always end up having a fantastic day.

This year we continued our tradition of going out to Deephaven for a neighborhood parade and small carnival. It is so very cute - I feel like I am in small town South Carolina 50 years ago! Faustina had so much fun last summer, she has been looking forward to it for the previous 12 months. We were lucky to have both Kim and Joseph with us too!

One thing that was extra special was to randomly run into some acquaintances there. Our friend's parents own a home in this little neighborhood - so, as we were leaving the carnival we stopped by their house to say goodbye to them and meet his parents. We chatted for awhile and then they invited us in. Well, these folks have a gorgeous home, one of the more beautiful rose gardens I have ever seen, and it turns out they are deeply invested in their catholic faith. They gave us a quick tour of their home - but the highlight was to see their beautiful artwork and the 1st class relics of saints they had. They had an altar in their basement that was beautifully adorned and have had mass said there before. They even had a relic of the true cross - incredible!

Here is Jude with a 1st class relic of St. Jude. The tray behind Mike's hand has many more relics on it!

Here is the relic of the true cross. Benedict is trying to confiscate it.

Anyway, the rest of the day was also fun, the weather was perfect. While the kids were sleeping, Mike and I looked online for homes. We found one that we are pretty interested in - time will tell what happens with that!