Happy Birthday BoyS!

Dillon on his birthday present.

I can't believe my oldest child is nine! Last weekend, Dillon had a small pool party for his birthday. Then last night, his actual birthday, we had a family birthday dinner with just us. Tommy's parents arrived shortly after to be in town to watch the kids while Tommy and I head to the hospital to have our 5th baby!  (I had a scheduled induction.)

 Everything went smoothly this morning as Tommy and I delivered:

Matthew James Arboneaux

at 9:52 AM

Weighing 7 lbs 10 oz

and 20 1/2 inches long

We are all doing fine, thankfully!

We are the Champions!

He was so proud of  his 1st place medal that he wore his jersey and brought the medal to school to share it with the class.

Dillon has been singing that song to himself since this past weekend when his baseball team won the championships.  This was his first year playing baseball, so he improved throughout the season.  His best 2 games were the ones at Saturday's tournament--during the 2 games, he made it on base 4 or 5 times and only struck out once.  The other 2 or 3 times he got hits but didn't make it on base, he had one or 2 RBIs.  I think he surprised both his coaches and us--Tommy and I were so proud of him!

The girls also had an extra good time.  Since it was the last day of the season, the end of year picnic was going on at the same time.  I had to miss some of his games because the girls kept wanting to go back for more food.  :)  Bringing the whole family to the games can be a challenge, but it's definitely worth it to have all those extra cheerleaders supporting their sibling!

Dillon's stance--Tommy has to remind our happy-go-lucky kid to get "angry" at the ball.

Brooke after she put on Dillon's hat.

Beauty

My Mandevilla Plant

I never thought that a plant could bring me as much joy as my mandevilla does.  My sister-in-law introduced me to the mandevilla plant last year, and it was love at first sight for me.  I couldn't stop staring at hers, so I bought one for my deck as soon as I got home!  Around here, the mandevilla is an annual due to the winter temperatures; however, I read that if you bring the plant indoors and put it near a window for the winter, it can survive.  Due to the price of the plant, I did that with mine this past winter in order to be more economical.  I was wondering if it would bloom this summer, and to my delight it is starting to bloom now and should continue all the way into the fall!

All this pondering about beauty made me think about how beauty is often taken for granted these days.  It is often times seen as wasteful or inefficient, particularly when it comes to places of worship.  Although I have never had the pleasure of visiting the Vatican, I have heard it is one of the most beautiful displays of architecture and art in the world.  For this, it is often criticized because all that treasure could be used to serve a "better" purpose.

St. Peter's Basilica

What better purpose than to glorify the creator of all beauty?  Most often, the artists and craftsmen responsible for creating this beauty wanted to use their time and talent specifically for that purpose.  Because our culture has lost sight of that does not make their efforts glorify God any less. 

If gazing at a bloom of a flower can make me feel closer to our creator, than how much closer can pondering artwork depicting His life, His written Word, or His followers bring me?

Happy Birthday Brooke! & Alyssa's Ballet Recital

My baby is growing up!

Since we have no family in the area, and more than the average number of kids, we try to combine big events, so our family doesn't feel obligated to travel down here too often.  Fortunately, 3 out of 5 of our kids' birthdays are/will be in June, so we can combine those family birthday parties.  :)

Opening presents is serious business!

Alyssa's dance recital happened to fall on the same weekend as Brooke's birthday.  With life and children's sports, we just did something small for Brooke's 2nd birthday.  We invited the grandparents down for the weekend and my parents were able to make it.  With 3 older siblings buying her gifts, Brooke still had more than her fair share of presents to open.  We celebrated that on Saturday night.  (Her actual birthday is today.)  Brooke is at a really cute age, so her attempting to blow out the candles was amusing.  Here's the video for all you out of towners.  One of my favorite parts is actually Dillon stealing a cupcake as soon as it was over.  Boys!  :)

Then on Sunday evening was Alyssa's recital.  Her age group (5-7 year-olds) was the youngest to perform.  They were really cute, and some of the older kids' dances were really good.  We were all very proud of her, and she seemed to really enjoy performing--she has always been a little ham!

Alyssa was actually embarrassed to get those flowers for some reason.

For more pictures of this weekend click HERE.