Audubon Zoo

Audubon Zoo- New Orleans

We went to a beautiful zoo during Thanksgiving break!! I sure loved it. The animals had a lot more space than other zoo's we've been too. There was more shade and great scenery for pictures. There was fun things for the kids too!

Climbing the big tree

Daddy trying to learn tricks from the elephant.

Gramsie and Adelyn

Saints Fans

I have always loved the priest Fr. Paul at Our Lady of Grace in La Coste, TX. He has a way with making people feel like he's speaking directly to them during homilies and he has an incredible sense of humor as well.

The next day after arriving home to San Antonio from Thanksgiving break, I decided to attend Mass at Our Lady of Grace. I had really enjoyed our trip to Louisiana. One special thing we did was watch the Cowboys/Saints game on Thanksgiving day at my Uncle's house. Most of us there were quite into it. Only Scott and my sister n law Kathryn were wearing cowboys shirts or cheering for them. The Saints won that game and it was close. Well, at Mass that Sunday Fr. Paul announced that there were no bulletins because after his favorite team, the Cowboys had lost on Thanksgiving he told the staff to go home on Friday and have the rest of the day off. Hehe.

Well this past weekend my parents and my brother and sister n law visited so we could celebrate an early Christmas. On Sunday we got up and went to the 10:30 AM Mass which is the more upbeat and lively one. Berch asked me if it was okay to wear his Saints shirt and if Ithought Fr. Paul would "approve" :) I told him I wasn't so sure about that. We meant to leave with enough time to get there a few minutes early and get seats. I like to sit close so Zachary can see. We left late though and arrived just after it had started. I figured there was no way we were getting seats together let alone up front. The usher, however, directed us all the way up to the front on the right side. There were two seats in front for Berch and Kathryn and enough room behind them for the rest of us.

We proceeded with the Mass. When we arrived at the homily we all sat down to listen. Now, Fr. likes to walk around while he talks and pass by each person in the front row on each side just so he can look at everyone in the church. He was discussing being accepting of all people and how it didn't matter what religion someone was. He said it isn't necessary to argue about who is right or better, but remember that all people are created equal. But then all of the sudden he stopped in front of Berch and exclaimed "but sometimes there are those who test our limits!". He then proceeded to take him by the hand and lead him up to the front of the church. The congregation began laughing as they looked up and saw my brother in his Saints shirt. But what really iced the cake was when Fr. Paul lifted up his purple vestment, unzipped the white one and revealed his Cowboys shirt. The congregation was roaring at this sight. I looked around and saw Mom, Dad, Scott and Kathryn laughing hysterically in their seats. I myself laughed so hard my cheeks hurt.

I love Fr. Paul. He has a way of making you feel as if he's speaking directly to you and he presents his homilies so that you can apply them directly to your own situations with ease. He is very sincere when he speaks to you so that you may feel he knows you personally. On top of all of that, he's hilarious. He has really impacted me and is a good model of how I want to be to people I am close to and also those I don't know well or at all.

That afternoon the Cowboys played and won. The Saints however, lost the game they played in. So I suppose Fr. Paul had the last laugh.

Zachary has been saying so many funny and clever things that I'm starting to forget all of them and I've got to wright them down.

Last week we went to my parent's house while Scott was gone on a trip for work. The first night we were there Zachary let my mom put him to bed. He was having a very serious conversation with her and asking her lots of questions.

"So why was Pa-pa's job in Dubai?" was one of them and they went into the elaborate conversation about why we moved there and us living there for some time.

Later when I had gone to kiss him goodnight he said, "Is Aunt Liz's house far away?"

I was a little surprised and wondered what had made him think of Aunt Liz. "Yes" I told him., "She lives in Louisiana close to Ma-ma and Pa-pa.

I found out later about this conversation he had which made the puzzle fit together. He looked at the large poster on the wall of different trains.

"Where did you get that, Gramsie?"

"I'm borrowing it from Aunt Liz".

"I don't like all of the trains on there. I just want a poster with one train".

"Oh okay well we can return it to Aunt Liz".

He started to close his eyes.

"You can borrow the Tahoe" he told her very seriously.

This morning he told me:

"I still want to be an astronaut"

"That's great" i told him. If that's what you want to do then you can do it"

"Well, I need to practice my floating" he said.

I smiled to myself.

"Okay".

"Why can't we change gravity?" he asked.

I was so proud of him for wondering that and I tried to explain it as simply as I could.

"It's part of the earth"

New Things in November and December

Adelyn has been crawling since the second week of November I think. She has been army crawling using both arms at the same time. Two days ago she started alternating her arms. Her hair is growing too! It looks spiky right now. She is still a very busy one!! She lost some weight when she had an ear infection a few weeks ago. She's been eating better since, but sometimes I think she'd just rather be doing something else than eating. Distracting her with her water bottle has gotten her to eat more after thinking that she was done. :)

Zachary has grown taller and I can tell his little mind is developing. I see him acting out events in life through his play. He packs up our entire toy area of the gameroom for his adventures or his moving day. I can tell he's thinking hard about how things work.

The other day our freezer broke and of course the fridge runs off of the freezer. So Scott spent some time working on it and I did the night time routine by myself. When he was going to bed I asked him to pick a song like we always do but he said, "our refridgerater broke". I said "yes it did, can you pick a song?" But he wasn't finished. "My refrigerator isn't broken". I said, "No it isn't. Can you pick a song now?" But then he said, "my refrigerator isn't broken, well, because, it's made of plastic". I laughed. "You are right" I told him. "That is very good thinking".

And he has moments when he makes me melt. I woke up one morning this week to Adelyn crying a little on the monitor. A few seconds later I heard, "It's okay Adelyn. You don't have to cry. I have bad dreams sometimes but they're not real. They are just pretend". And he went on for another minute. I could hear her crying cease and I listened to the sweet sounds she made while he talked to her.

There are so many great moments of parenting young children.