The month of May

My Aunt Kathy and Cecilia

 The month of May has always been a very special month for us

first family picture of a family of 6! :)

 It's filled with birthday's, anniversary's, celebrations

My very good looking nephew and of course his parents :)  Also very good looking :)

 but this year the month of May has been even more exciting than usual!

4 beautiful generations!!

 Because it's also been filled with family!  It's hard to beat that!

Cecilia, Bing(my nephew), and Jude....remember, Bing is only 5mnths old! :)

We even got to hang out with Alan's family in Baton Rouge last weekend - and still one more exciting event is still tomorrow!! :)

Somethings the same around here

 Stephen's 2nd birthday party

3rd birthday party 

4th birthday party

Notice anything?  With the new Cars movie coming out - I feel this fascination with McQueen might last a bit longer; maybe I should go ahead and buy the McQueen cake mold for next year! :)

Please help!

 Ok, so you know how after having babies your brain is like mush?  Well, after having two and two toddlers I can easily say my brain is gone!

 so I need your help, right now I have found myself in strange situations - I will be around people and have NOTHING to say!  If you know me you know this is crazy!

 What it comes down to is my day (24hrs) is spent with little ones.  I love this, I am so thankful for this opportunity and time with my children; but when you add in the mush brain and little kids that equals nothing to say!

 My solution, I need to start putting more adult like material in my brain so I can then have something to think about/talk about

So here's what I need - a reading list!  Anything that would keep my attention, anything! I am currently reading a great spiritual book - but I have found that when I'm reading things that are deep it is very hard for me to consentrate on it, b/c I'm tired and my brain is mush.  So please leave a comment, let me know what you are reading, and then next time I see you at the park I won't just stand there like a mute silly goose who only opens her mouth to yell at a child or talk about breastfeeding! LOL

Time flies by

So it's been awhile, and in that time the Maddox family has been up to some fun!

Yesterday, May 13th, marked 5 amazing years of marriage for Alan and I - 5 YEARS! love it, love him, love it all!  And in those 5 years, we have been blessed with 4 beautiful children - yes I do laugh every time I say that!

Today we celebrated Stephen's 4th birthday (even though he doesn't turn 4 until May 18th) 

But before all of that, and I'm sure to come, we've been spending most of our time either outside with family, or hanging out with good friends!

Because for me and this crew, if we're not staying busy - then we're going crazy!  Some would see us and think we're busy and crazy, but that's just my silly kids having the time of their lives!

We've also had family in town (pictures still to come)

And we've been visiting Vancleave (Alan's mom's house) a lot!  I can't express how much an extra hand is - I don't even think I realized it until we headed to Grandma's house and she was there to pick up a baby, or fix a meal, or just be inside with the twins so I could play with Stephen and Abby!  It's been rather nice to say the least.

So I hope you are all enjoying the start of this summer as we are, hang in there with me I promise I'm here it just takes a bit to blog - oh and my mind is kinda blank these days so even if I have a moment to write to you, there's not much to say! 

But one thing I would like to say - THANK YOU to all of you who have made us a meal, or two, let us come over and held a baby, prayed for us, let me cry in front of you, or anything!  Our friends and family have been such an amazing help these past few months!  God Bless you all!!

Christ has Risen, Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter!!  What a great and joyful day it was!

We started by getting the kids into the spirit - our first egg dying EVER

Not exactly sure how to explain what happened.....fun, that's the first thing, then this - we'll just say we started with 10 eggs and ended with 3 - then Augie came outside and took care of the three survivors

The biggest thing of course is they had fun, if you measure fun via mess - then we can say they had TONS of fun

And they did it together, no fighting, no screaming, just laughing, crushing, and smashing!

I have to say on a side note, over the past month or so Abby and Stephen have become best friends!!  This melts my heart (except when Stephen sneaks into her room at nap time and climbs in her crib)

But for sure, their love for each other has brought immense joy in the moments of extreme chaos!

Easter Sunday arrived and we celebrated at Mass then headed to my families house (unfortunately there where some technical difficulties with the camera so the pictures of the kids in their sooo cute outfits didn't come out)

But we still had a blast!  The Easter bunny arrived at my parent's house before we did and decorated the back yard with tons of eggs - the kids faces were priceless as they got out of the van!  It was truly an amazing day!  Thank you Jesus!

Easter is just around the corner, let's celebrate some Sacraments!



Br. Kevin explaining his habit to Stephen

 I know it's one of those things that you just don't have to mention to people, they just know - but  Easter is right around the corner!  As Holy week comes to an end my heart has had and exceptional opportunity to really reflect on the beauty of Easter and what it all means.

My boys with my dear friend!

I mean what more that the celebration of Sacraments could open your mind to Easter!  Last Sunday not only did we have an amazing witness of our faith in our home (Br. Kevin) but we also celebrated the baptism of Cecilia and Jude! 

 It was such a glorious moment, a time to come together with our family and friends to welcome these amazing children into the Church - watch them become children of God!  How amazing, how miraculous!

Welcome to the Church Cecilia and Jude!

To top it all off, today we will head to one of our dear friends first communion! 



Sweet Molly is on the right, this picture is over two years old! 

Molly Melnick (who's mom writes this blog) will receive her First Holy Communion at the Holy Thursday Mass!! So exciting, as we prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord we get to witness these young members of the Church receive him for the first time!! What a gift! Please pray for all those receiving their First Communion, that their hearts will always approach his Holy Banquet with as much joy and anticipation as they will tonight!



It's been awhile

 It's been awhile since I sat down to inform you all of my inner deep thoughts......well, today I have no deep thoughts so you will have to deal with random rambling while checking out some super cute pictures!

Six of the 15 book club kids :)  Fun times!

   People keep asking me "how do you do it?" well my answer is the same every time - I just do it! 

 I don't do it well, we have good days, bad days, and cartoon days (the kids might call those the good days)

But we do it.  As you know, we have two amazing, very active toddlers!  They don't like to sit around all day watching me nurse, so we have to get up and go

 Even if it's just heading out to the front street to watch this all-star ride his bike!! (ps, I am a very proud mama that he has learned to really ride since the twins where born)

 Or we meet up with friends at the park (usually with a bike ride included) 



picture by Mary B Photography

But over the past few weeks, we've been working harder and harder on getting up and going.  I do tell people that if the twins where my only children I would stay home 90% of the time; but since I have been graced with two older children we're off and running. 

Ok, gotta go - both babies crying :)