Hallelujah Is My Song: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Happy Anniversary! (A Wedding Day Flashback)

Happy 4th Anniversary, Philip! How has it already been 4 years since that special day?!


Reading the card Philip sent me before the wedding

Me and my sister

The girls

Flowers unite!

Love this picture

Me, my sisters, and my goddaughter

My aunt gave me her wedding dress. I had a few alterations done to make it my own. Isn't it beautiful? What an awesome gift!

Lace detail and my shoes

I had to add another picture of the dress. I felt like Cinderella!

Philip & the groomsmen

The dudes

Mom & all of my brothers escorting her

The entourage of ring bearers and flower girls. Are they adorable or what?!

Talking with Dad, doing everything we can not to get too emotional before walking down the aisle.

Locking eyes for the first time that day

We are gathered here today...

Handing off my bouquet to Philip so that I can wipe my eyes. Our priest made us get emotional during the homily.

Receiving a crucifix for our home. Here, it is being blessed by our priest.

You may kiss the bride

The ringbearers (my adorable nephews) were ready to party!

My family

My bouquet. A friend from my sorority did all of the flowers. Weren't they beautiful?

"Savor the Love" Life Savers for the guests

Our cakes with "The Best Day" Lladro statue from my grandparents in between

Cutting the cake

First dance

It looks like we're the only two in the room!

Father-Daughter Dance

Dancing with Philip & his sister

Philip & his sister

Me & my siblings

We had an 11:00 wedding and luncheon afterward. After the reception, just the two of us went downtown in the limo while our family partied on at my brother's house.

We took a bunch of pictures downtown

We had so much fun walking around in the dress & tux. We received a lot of well-wishes and cheers from people walking by.

Smooch!

Foreshadowing?

This picture was taken in a beautiful building downtown

If you can't have an exorbitant amount of public displays of affection on your wedding day, when can you?!

Looking at Philip across the passageway

Champagne toast at dinner as husband and wife.

It was a beautiful day, and things have only gotten better since. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family to share in these last four years! Here's to many, many more!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Another New Bedtime Update

The 9:45 p.m. weeknight bedtime is officially a habit for me and Philip. We finally got our Blizzards! Hooray!

We turn off whatever we're watching or stop whatever we're doing at 9:30 to get ready for bed. Philip preps the coffeemaker for the morning and lets Monty out while I start my getting ready for bed routine (which, by the way, seems to be taking longer and longer with each year!).

We "go and see the babies" together--always Walt and then Janie. In their sleep, Walt is a mini Philip and Janie is a mini Catherine. Walt startles when he hears us come in, sits up in a sleepy fog, smiles at us, and lets us lay him back down. We usually find Janie in some contortionist position that looks impossible to sleep in, and she sleeps through us repositioning her and re-covering her with her blankets.

Philip and I read for awhile in bed. I'm re-reading The Happiest Toddler on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp, and someday I'll finish Mockingjay. Philip usually starts dozing after a few minutes of reading and turns in for the night. I try to get my "pillow talk" in with him early so that I don't end up with sleepy Philip, snoring between sentences.

If I'm not reading a book, I check Facebook or Pinterest for awhile on the laptop. I am self-imposing a strict lights out by 10:30 p.m. policy. I've gotten carried away with that quiet time all to myself and have stayed up until 11:30 or midnight a few times! So much for an early bedtime!

Philip and I go in spurts of being good about praying together before bed. We have a great book called Day by Day With the Catechism: Minute Meditations for Every Day Containing An Excerpt From the Catechism, A Reflection, and a Prayer by Peter A. Giersch. We'd alternate who read the passage each night, discuss the reading, and the person who read from the book led us in a spontaneous prayer and closed with a formulaic prayer that the other would join. I'm sad to say that we've gotten away from that practice, and I'm putting that book on my nightstand right now to remind me to get back into it. What do you and your family do for prayer time? What about you and your spouse?

Despite being faithful to the 9:45 p.m. bedtime and getting out of bed at 6:00 a.m. for my prayer time, the kiddos haven't been on board with this plan. Two weeks ago, Janie and Walt were getting up at 6:45 and 7:00 respectively. This week, they wake up minutes after I'm out of bed, and today they woke up when they heard Philip's alarm clock. So, I've had to do my prayer time most days during naptime. It works fine on the days that I actually get to do it, but it would be so nice to have that dedicated time in the morning to start things off right, use naptime to get a few things done, and maybe even have a little break.

How do you other moms out there do it? How much do you sleep? When are you getting up, praying, exercising, getting the stuff done you can't get done with kids around, and having a little you time? What's your average day look like?

Despite my best intentions, I can't seem to make prayer time at the beginning of the day work on a regular basis, and I'm afraid it might mean learning to get by with less sleep. Those of you who know me know that that's going to be a struggle--for everyone involved! :) I suppose I better start praying that either (1) I learn to get by with less sleep or (2) the children start sleeping in.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Happy Birthday, Walt!

Our sweet baby Walt turned one last Saturday. I know it's cliché, but we can't believe how quickly the year flew by! I thought I'd share a few pictures of the fun day. Of course, I couldn't help but think of all of the similar mannerisms Walt had to Janie on her first birthday, and I had to add a few shots from her first birthday as well.