2015: Year in Review (Part II)

Part I

July

We discovered that Liam absolutely does not like anything that goes pop, snap, or bang. The 4th of July was more than a little traumatic for him...

Liam started putting together puzzles without any help and Michael made a self-motivated leap from sounding out words when prompted to reading entire books to himself (and he hasn't stopped since).

We had another lovely visit from my mom.

And John Paul continued to develop his own little unique sense of humor (a prelude to developing his own little unique sense of mischief, naturally).

August
Alex went back to school, we welcomed a new nephew, and the boys and I spent a lot of time in the basement playing Iron Chef America.

Iron Chef Michael presenting his dish to the judges

 We also started what should have been a small house project (clear the drain in our bathroom sink). But it turned into a long, drawn-out process of totally replacing the vanity and plumbing. Michael was a great helper.

September
I started my fourth year of teaching for the Denver Catholic Biblical and Catechetical Schools and worked too many late nights to finish up writing projects before going on maternity leave at the end of October.

October
We started counting down to little Colette's arrival (starting the anxious count down waaaay too soon, as usual). More late nights writing.

At the end of October my mom came out to spend a whole month with us and Alex and I took our very first baby moon and spent a night away at a lovely little bed and breakfast. I didn't get any pictures, naturally.

November
Liam turned 3.

Colette finally made her appearance on the 14th, the day after her due date. You can read more than you ever wanted to know about here birth here.

Her brothers have not stopped adoring her.

Okay, none of us have!

a special sweater made for her by a family friend

Colette was baptized on November 29th.

We were thrilled to have my mom with us for a whole month, and for Dad to join us for Thanksgiving. We were thoroughly spoiled by all the time we got to spend with my parents in 2015, and I think we are all still going through withdrawals!

December
I enjoyed my maternity leave and we worked on adjusting to life as a family of six (okay, we're still adjusting). We had a wonderful Advent and Christmas, and much to my relief neither John Paul nor Liam managed to pull the Christmas tree down on themselves during their daily un-decorating binges!

2015: Year in Review and Massive Photo Dump (Part I)

I love year-in-review posts. Well, let me clarify. I love reading other people's posts, but I find them incredibly difficult to write. They take such a long time and I find myself wondering "Wow, what did we do that month? Anything? Apparently not..." But I'll try anyway--especially since I was so horrible about blogging in 2015 AND I didn't do a Christmas newsletter.

January
We started the year out by choosing a patron saint for our family with Jennifer Fulwiler's Saint's Name Generator. Our patron for 2015 was St. Godehard of Hildesheim, feast day May 4th, patron of traveling merchants (not really applicable), and against childhood sickness (hooray!) danger at sea (not planning any transoceanic trips, but good to know), fever (hooray!), hailstorms (well, we'd love a new roof but better not to have to deal with it), Oh, and against birth pains. Well, I guess that one's wasted because we're planning on waiting a while to try for #4 and won't be delivering a baby in 2015. Ha. Hahahaha. (This, friends, is what we call foreshadowing...)

Michael turned 4.

Alex and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

Alex helped sponsor the high school's trip to March for Life in DC for the second year, and my wonderful parents came out to spend the long weekend with me and the boys.

February
Lots of time spent writing, *finally* got a second crib and moved JP from his little bassinet to a real crib in his own room, and, um... it was cold? See? These posts are so hard!

March

We found out we would, in fact, be having a baby this year. We took the pregnancy test on March 6th, the feast day of St. Colette--the name we'd had picked out for a girl for several years. So right from the beginning I was 99.99% sure we were having a girl.

John Paul turned 1 and took his first couple of steps.

We acquired a hand-me-down piano from my parents.

April

We spent Easter in Lincoln with my family and 7 out of 10 people in the house came down with the stomach flu. But it was a great visit anyway!

John Paul got his first hair cut and started walking in earnest.

May
We enjoyed a visit from my sister and her family.

At the end of May we went camping for the first time as a family. It was... quite the adventure. I loved camping growing up, and I hope we get to do a lot more as the kiddos get older. Camping with none of our own gear and three kids four and under was a little stressful. But it was still a beautiful weekend and some good memories.

And at the end of May we were privileged and blessed to attend the ordination of our dear friend and Liam's godfather. And somehow I didn't get any pictures except for a rather lame attempt at a family selfie on our way to the Mass. Sadness.

ignore the nose-picking going on in the backseat, please...

June

We had a gorgeous late spring/early summer and spent as much time in the yard as we could.

I turned 30, and my gut feeling was confirmed at our 20 week ultrasound when we learned that yes, we were adding a girl to the crazy mix of wild little boys.

a perfect birthday celebration at home with my boys

John Paul did not approve of the Otter Pops

We spent the last part of June visiting family in North and South Dakota. As always sleep was the hardest part of the trip, but we had a blast and the boys were such patient and fun travelling buddies.

meeting second cousins

we had a lovely visit with Alex's grandma--and despite his best attempts, John Paul did not manage to completely destroy her home OR throw himself down any crazy steep staircases

at the lovely cabin we rented with my parents and sister--it was so special to spend a week all together in the Black Hills

fishing

success!

we Rappanas are serious about our popcorn

we loved all the time with cousin James

And with that I think I'll have to make this into two parts so I don't break the internet with the number of photos in one blog post... Part II here.

Liam Turns 3

So way back in the last days BC (before Colette), this handsome guy turned 3. I spent the weeks leading up to his birthday wondering when Colette would come and how that would affect him... would we have to delay his birthday party? What if they ended up sharing a birthday--would either of them feel cheated? And so on... It seems more than a little ridiculous to admit it now, but I guess it went hand-in-hand with my unhealthy birth story obsession this time around.

And sure enough I woke up the morning of Liam's birthday party (Sunday, November 1st) with clear signs that we would be meeting Colette in the next 24-48 hours. Or so I thought. Little did I know that I had nearly two full weeks of prodromal labor ahead of me--but that's a story for another day.

Labor signs, fears, and contingency plans aside, Colette did not in any way disrupt Liam's birthday party. Or his actual birthday. Our celebrations were pretty laid back, but the birthday boy seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself.

the birthday boy in his "engimeer" hat

Liam absolutely loves hats, and although this was not going to be an all-out themed birthday I thought it would be fun to get something that would be a fun dress-up accessory for him and could serve as party favors for the cousins (although I don't know how excited they were about them). Amazon to the rescue with a cheap pack of one dozen train engineer hats. Liam was delighted and still wears the hats around the house most days.

my Aunt Lisa's chocolate cherry bars in cupcake form for dessert--a hit, as usual :)

a boy can never have too many trains

Oh my Liam--in that precious/infuriating stage between toddler and little boy. I love how he phrases things. Every request begins with "Should I..." Should I have another cookie? Should I go play trains? He loves telling knock knock jokes and reading stories. He has the sweetest little singing voice. And he has a bit more than his fair share of temper when things don't go his way... a tendency which is in no way improved upon by his determination to never nap again. sigh The joys of three... But they truly are (mostly) joys with this sweet little boy who suddenly looks so big and tall and sounds so old when he says "I love you Mom!"

Happy birthday Liam Roderick!