Christmas cookies

Chef Frankie with Sous Chef Teresa, not licking fingers of course! Giving it the old college try at least...

Sharing a moment

"Yeah, haha, Rose, the water's perfect. Come in!"

"Mommy? He's teasing me. And also, I'm stuck."

Lord, hear our prayer

Console those families, dear Jesus.

Happy Feast Day

There is so much to unpack from the historical record of this miracle. I keep finding out things I didn't know! I wish I could attach audio file of our family friend Fr. Hudgins' homily today. He talks about the huge bump in conversions (we're talking millions of people) right after this apparition took place, when previous efforts to convert the Aztecs had been fairly fruitless. All the Aztec imagery that is part of Mary's appearance apparently made quite an impact. And you could say there was a certain urgency in obtaining Aztec converts, given their systematic, grisly and frequent use of human sacrifice. Anyway, fascinating. 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Poor Rose

This is Rose's impression of Mommy over the past few months... hard to get a good nap around these parts!

Pearls of wisdom

Ahh Autumn and sweater-vests.

Teresa's wisdom  confounds the wisest of sages. One morning in the car:
"Mommy? I had a dream last night."
"Really? What'd you dream about?"
"Well, I don't know. My eyes were closed. I couldn't see it."

A litte silver polish really makes these earrings pop.

Frankie, too, has some pearls floating around up there.
At dinner: "Mom? Did you know we're eating dead pig?"

One quiet afternoon: "Mom? Are there other worlds?"
..and shortly after: "I can't wait to visit Outer Space."

We know it's time for a haircut when David opens the pantry door and says, "Mommy I want some hay-cuck."

And finally, a note written one (hectic) morning by Frankie and left on the table for Dave:

"it has been a hard morning for me!"

Hope you've all been cozy-ing up during these cold days and enjoying Notre Dame football.

This month's recap

Dave made Lola's chocolate cake for the first time in his life... a delicious milestone.

Teresa got a end-of-the-year office party and birthday party wrapped into one. The "happy birthday" song ensemble was quite impressive with so many adult voices! 

Gift highlights: princess pj's, princess sheets, princess dress... you get the picture :)

Dave's "secret santa" caught wind of how much laundry we go through in a day... 

She scoots! Under tables!

"Mommy, I wanna go potty." No successes to recount yet...

Celebrating Gracie and Julia's birthday outside - making princess necklaces on a beautiful day. 

The princesses themselves.

 A blessed Thanksgiving to all tomorrow!

4!

Our sweet girl is four today. 

The highlight of Teresa's big day so far has been being able to take a whole vitamin instead of half. It's the simple pleasures in life, people! Happy birthday to our affectionate, thoughtful, orderly little girl!

David sings ND Fight Song

I finally caught him.

In the Fall mood

We seem to have entered officially into cold weather season. Accordingly, we lit our first fire and roasted our first s'mores.

And yes, we may have broken out some soft Christmas music too...don't judge.

Am I supposed to go to bed now?

...and the subsequent crash. 

Happy road to Thanksgiving!

Halloween Night Review

A sweet picture of the Towers dressed in All Saints costumes for a childrens' Mass.

Julia as St. Kateri, Maria as St. Faustina, Anna and Gracie as unidentified religious saints- Hilary, can you fill me in?
I'm loving St. Faustina's habit.

And then on to a night of trick-or-treating ...

Anna is a believable doggie, don't you think?

Julia the ladybug, Teresa the tutu-couture, and Gracie the bat are also quite themselves in costume.

A night of firsts for Teresa: trick or treating and spending the night out... without her parents! Big girl.

Maria led the posse as Annie Oakley, very appropriately. 

Teresa performing a dance to win her candy. (just kidding)

Halloween Night Preview

Lola gives Frankie a lesson in how to pose as a Spanish dancer.  

We've got a Spanish dancer and a couture ballerina. David will have to make his debut next year. We'll save his Elmo costume :) Happy Halloween everyone, and All Saints Day tomorrow. And thank you, God, for protecting us from the monster storm and power outages.

No dignity for babies

I came into the girls' room to retrieve Rose, expecting big girls to be in their beds. What I found...

....was this.

"Mom, she even has a bow and arrow!"

Rose the Hawaiian warrior princess? 

Reading to Junior

Indulge me, please

Last night during the debate, Vice President Biden said something that I feel compelled to write about. It's a stale tidbit, stated in the public square ad nauseum, and aside from personally driving me up a wall, it illustrates the extent to which our culture has become hard-hearted.

Biden said something along the lines of, "I accept the Catholic Church's position on abortion 'de fidei,' but I will not impose my faith on Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. who disagree with my faith."

Aside from the shoddy reasoning (since we "impose" our beliefs on others about all kinds of morality through our laws), the proponents of this line show a stunning lack of mercy. Sure I believe that the fetus is a human being, like my church does, but who am I to tell others that human life in the womb should be protected by law? Can you imagine using this line of reasoning in another way, like, Sure I believe toddlers are human beings, but who am I to tell others they deserve protection by the law?

VP Biden actually conceded that fetuses are human beings. I so wish Paul Ryan had pressed him on this. Wait, you say you believe life begins at conception... we're talking about whether our laws should protect a tiny human life, not whether or not to ban extra large sodas... don't you think you should feel some urgency about this? So you're saying women reserve the right to wipe out the lives that aren't wanted?

I always come back to slavery, because it's a evil that quickly appeals to our modern sense of justice. Don't you think there must have been so many people who loathed the idea of slavery, but because of fear or political gain or cowardice they refused to push their "personal morality" on the public? We naturally recoil at such hypocrisy when it is exposed.  I'm convinced abortion is the slavery of our day, albeit a silent, hidden one. It's all around us, heralded as a woman's hard-won right by the extremists (Nancy Keenan at the DNC, anyone?), and permitted as a necessary evil by the lukewarm, meanwhile keeping the money flowing to powerful lobbies.

So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth (Rev. 3:16). Why not just join the camp of "It's not a person yet; personhood begins at blah blah blah" rather than claiming to stand with the Catholic Church on abortion and then not? Be cold or be hot. Don't pretend to be both. People like Joe Biden, who on weighty issues that have to do with the direct killing of human life (or so he states) fear taking their positions to a logical conclusion, are allowed to be comfortable living out a contradiction as long as no one presses them in public. Opportunity lost, Paul Ryan.

Thanks for indulging my indignation.

Please pray for a dear relative of the Farrs who just got diagnosed with breast cancer, that her path to a cure is as smooth and painless as possible.

And to add a little mirth to your day, watch this.

Introducing...

...the newest member of the Cook family:

Christopher Fish Cook

 Christopher hails from our local Petco. A big shout out to Aunt Natalie for bestowing on us this colorful new member of the family!

School notes

The first day of school seems to have been enjoyable. She must have been a little preoccupied, given that she didn't eat her beloved fruit snacks at lunch! Much was covered in the academics department, and we're slowly working our way through the material, trying not to make kindergarten seem tedious to Frankie in the process. This is an ambitious program, complete with Latin, History, Geography, Catechism, Grammar, Science, Music and Handwriting...I'm probably missing a few subjects. Oh, and I'm reading The Hobbit to her.  She's five years old. But I'm trying not to stress over any of this. There's only so much a 5 year old can absorb, and only so much I can physically go through with her. It's great material, and Frankie's a quick, diligent student, making my job pretty easy.  

Can you take a picture of us all wearing jeans?

Do prints look good on me, Mommy?

David has started putting sentences together of late. Usually imperatives, like, "Ice cream today, Mommy." 

Bye!

Frankie's first day of school

I'm anxious to hear how it goes today. Frankie was ready to go with her handwriting book, pencil case, bright pink recorder, notebook, lunch and snack. Ahh school days. 

She looks so little!

The younger students standing on their nametags during the morning assembly...Frankie is in the far back unfortunately.

And some recent photos of Cook family doings:

The Littles together. 

Pushups during the Notre Dame/Navy game.

Daddy and Rose having some fun.

We'll let you know how school went. Happy fall!