Busy

We've had a busy couple of days. Madeline was invited to two classmates costume birthday parties this weekend. James was able to go along to yesterdays. It was at one of those jumpy house places.

The kids had fun dressing up and had a blast at the party. Madeline dressed as a good witch and James wore his old astronaut costume (you can tell because the pants are too short) because his dragon one wouldn't work very well to jump in.

On Thursday evening Madeline's school had a circus theme festival. They have a themed festival every October, and it's free for all the students families to come.

In the library and computer room they had a very funny clown putting on a show. And they also had an art station set up where the kids could make paper animal face masks.

In the gym the Texas State University gymnast came to perform as the circus tumbler act. They were very impressive and the kids said a lot of "WOWs!"

Fun entertainment!

They also had an area in the gym were the kids could walk the tight rope (a long wood plank) and practice balancing in these funny shoes. We had a very fun time!

Her 1st Competition

Yesterday Madeline competed in her first competition with her cheer squad. The girls on her squad range in age from 4-6 years old. And they've been practicing for this competition for about a month now. Considering this is the first time all these girls have done cheerleading I think they did good for their 1st competition. They had to have a 3 minute routine which consisted of 2 cheers, 2 lifts and 1 dance routine. Here is the video clip of their routine. Their squad was the 2nd one up in the competition and we followed a really experienced squad (who won 1st place) so all of us parents were a little worried - but the girls did their BEST & had fun ...that is all that matters.


Kyle Invaders PeeWee Squad Cheer Competition from Melissa Spence on Vimeo.

Madeline is in the back row 2nd from the left. She calls out the first cheer by saying, "Ready!?". In the first lift she is the spotter standing behind the girl that is lifted. During their dance routine to music I thought she did great by actually "running" in place instead of just moving. And during the last cheer Madeline is one of the girls who kneels down on the right side to lift one of the girls up, actually it is Madeline's leg the other little girl trips and falls over. Whoops! At least she got up and they completed the lift! Way to go girls!

Unfortunately they didn't "place", but all the girls earned a gold medal on a ribbon for participating. The whole event took nearly 3 hours and on the car drive home Madeline konked out. We were so proud of her for having the courage to get up there and participate!

Homecoming Mum & Block Party

It was a busy Saturday for us. Madeline had her last official football game to cheer at, their homecoming game. I guess the youth leagues have "homecoming" games like the schools do. And we learned here in Texas that not only is it homecoming season, but homecoming mum season. What is a mum you ask? It's a Texas tradition. To make these big corsage like pins (mums) for the girls and garters for the boys to wear around their arms on homecoming game day.

So there were several volunteer moms on our league that made all the homecoming decorations, mums and garters.

Madeline is on the front right kicking her leg up. She really enjoyed her first season of cheering.

Here is Madeline and Ashley, her best cheer buddy, after the homecoming game with their mums.

So more girls on her squad with their mums.

It started raining after the game.

They even picked names out of a bag to choose a homecoming queen and king at each game. Madeline's friend Ashley got picked.

And here's Daddy with his homecoming beauty.

And this afternoon we had a block party on our culdesac. My friend Kate from across the street came up with the idea and asked me to help her orchestrate a party. So I made these invites and passed them out in the beginning of October.

Here is one of the desserts our neighbor made, isn't it creative!?

Kate set up a jump house in front of their home.

As well as a table to paint pumpkins at.

Our neighbor's daughter checking our other neighbor's son.

We invited Mia to come over for the block party and have a sleepover. She enjoyed holding one of our neighbor's twin baby.

The guys, probably talking about sports or beer.

We set up the food table and some table and chairs at our home.

No, none of our neighbors called the cops, actually he just happened to be driving by our street and stopped by to talk and show us his really cool cop car! The kids loved the lights and his really big guns inside his car. And the cop was nice enough to show us how he can check our speed from the front and back of his car.

Some of our neighbors older kids enjoyed a couple games of darts in our garage while James and Aaron sat and watched. It was a fun block party. And we got to know some of our neighbors a lot better. We'll definitely have to do this again!

So now we're getting ready to head to bed. Here are the girls in their Spongebob pj's. Nighty-night!

Misunderstood - Series Part IV

Click here to read the intro to this Series.
Click here to read Part I of the Series.
Click here to read Part II of the Series.
Click here to read Part III of the Series.

Misunderstanding Assumption IV
"Catholics re-sacrifice Christ at Mass in the Eucharist (real presence - body and blood of Jesus Christ) showing that Calvary wasn't enough."

The Pope celebrating Mass during his UK visit last month.

Once again this misunderstanding stems from a misconception of what the Catholic Mass is. Mass is an offering—a new offering of the same sacrifice—not a a re-crucifixion of Christ. It's a celebration. It does not add to or take away from the work of Christ—it is the work of Christ. Because the Mass is a participation in one heavenly offering. While what happened on Calvary happened once, its effects continue through the ages. "Jesus is eternally a priest, and a priest’s very nature is to offer sacrifice. In the case of Christ, the eternal sacrifice that he offers is himself. This is why he appears in the book of Revelation as a lamb, standing as though he had been slain (Rev. 5:6). He appears in heaven in the state of a victim not because he still needs to suffer but because for all eternity he re-presents himself to God appealing to the work of the cross, interceding for us (Rom 8:34), and bringing the graces of Calvary to us."

The Catholic Church teaches the sacrifice of the Mass has scriptural evidence. During the Last Supper, the Lord said to his disciples, "Do this in memory of me." In Greek, this statement reads, "Touto poieite eis tan eman anamnesin." The phrase touto poieite can be translated as do this or as offer this. In the Old Testament, God commands the Israelites "you shall offer (poieseis) upon the altar two lambs" (Ex. 29:38). This use of poiein is translated as offer this or sacrifice this over seventy times in the Old Testament. So the same word that is used for the sacrifice under the Old Covenant is used for the sacrifice of the Mass in the New. Every time this word (anamnesis) appears it is within a sacrificial context (see, for example, Numbers 10:10).

It’s a common mistake to equate sacrifice with death. To understand the sacrifice of the Mass, it is essential that one understand the biblical picture of a sacrifice: It is always a gift; it is not always a killing. This is why Scripture can speak of a sacrifice of praise (Hos. 4:12) and the sacrifice of thanksgiving (Ps. 50:14).

Christ wants his salvific work to be present to each generation of those who come to God "since he always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). He surely has not abandoned us. Through the instrumentality of the priest, he is present again, demonstrating how he accomplished our salvation: "For from the rising of the sun to its setting my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 1:11).

Madeline actually asked me for the first time about the Eucharist the other night before bed. She asked "what is it for and what does it mean". I thought to myself I beter answer my 6 year old in the most simplest of terms. I said that the Eucharist is a mystery of Christ, that Jesus instituted this sacrament of love for us to bond and unite with Him and be filled with His grace because He is really present in the Eucharist. So when we take this bread and wine we are unified with Him because it becomes divine food and He told us whoever eat and drink this divine food abides in Him and He in us. John 6:53-57. After I told this to Madeline she really pondered and tried to take it all in. She is begining to understand this beautiful sacrament. And next school year she will learn all about it and recieve this Holy sacrament.

A girl in Rome receives her First Holy Communion.

So with this post I hope I have cleared up that the Mass is not a re-crucifixion of Christ, but a celebration that partakes in the one, eternal sacrafice Christ made for us.

"At the Last Supper, on the night he was betrayed, our Savior instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice of his Body and Blood. He did this in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the cross throughout the centuries until he should come again, and so to entrust to his beloved spouse, the Church, a memorial of his death and resurrection: a sacrament of love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us" (Sacrosanctum Concilium 47).

References:

http://www.catholic.com/

School Picture

Today Madeline came home with her 1st grade school picture. Pretty cute huh, toothless smile and all. I thought she gave a great smile. I always have fears of her giving a fake or awkward smile - cause I know I did when I was a kid!

I wanted to compare it to her school picture from last year. They grow up so fast!

And then I thought it would be fun to compare to pics of Stephen and I around that same school age. So who does she look like more? I think she's a good mix!

I love October

I love October. The start of Autumn is just such a wonderful time of year. For us Fall has been great when we lived in California, Oregon and here in Texas. Unfortunately earlier this month we missed an October wedding. My brother Tason's best friend Drew got married to his long time girlfriend Melinda. Drew is a really cool dude. He's got an infectious smile and he's always greeting everyone with a bear hug. Stephen and I really wished we could make it out to their Southern California beach wedding but it just didn't work out that we could travel at this time. Luckily my parents attended the wedding and my mom took a ton of pics and videos.

Tason was Drew's best man. Oh and if you look at the above picture, yes the guys all wore flip flops with their suits. It sounded like it was a lovely Fall wedding. And the newlyweds are even back from their Hawaiian honeymoon. We were able to help them out with a Hertz rental discount. :)

I've also been enjoying all the Fall and Pumpkin photos my family and friends have been sharing of their babies and kiddos on their blogs and Facebook. Made me want to look back at some eGo photos of Madeline and James on past Octobers. Hopefully we'll have some time to visit a patch before Halloween this year! At least Stephen got my fake pumpkins down from the attic. They are displayed and glowing in our upstairs windows facing the street. When James saw them yesterday he stomped his foot and sounding upset he said,

"I don't want pumpkins, I want it to be Christmas!"

Kyle Texas Parade

It was a beautiful Fall day to kick off our town's city parade. And Madeline was participating, her cheer squad was marching in the parade and throwing candy.

Here's Madeline's squad! She's right below the white arrow. She did awesome. The girls had to march pretty far, but they made it all the way to the end waving their pom poms and yelling their cheers.

Go Invaders!

Our town has 2 high schools and their bands and cheer squads participated too. I loved these girls uniforms with their white cowboy boots.

This squad did many daring stunts and flips, they were great!

James liked seeing all the police, fire and medical cars in the parade. They made sure to have their lights flashing and sirens on. Here's an old Kyle cop car.

And here's the new Kyle cop cars.

We waved to the firemen!

We saw lots of animals too,

like these horses drawing a carriage wagon...

...and these cows, pigs and rabbits. :) It was a fun parade. Afterwards the director of our football league treated all the cheerleaders to a sundae at Dairy Queen.

New Look

Hot diggity dog, I found a super cute, new look for my blog! By the way doesn't Penny Lane look so sweet in the pic? She was only 4 months old. So I spent the afternoon updating the look of my blog, adding and deleting stuff from my sidebars and coming up with a new blog title and description. So what do you think!?

Looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow Madeline's cheer squad will be marching in the Hometown Kyle Fair Parade. And on Sunday we've got the Vikings vs. the Cowboys. Can't wait! Hope y'all will browse around my updated blog, leave me a comment - I love receiving them. And have an awesome weekend everyone!

Facelift

I feel like my blog needs a facelift. Any of my readers care to share where they find their great looking blog templates?

Also I forgot to mention, please hop on to my Dad's blog "Handyman-Ed". He just recently posted about 2 home projects he's completed. He hasn't posted in over a year!

Fun Cousins Weekend

We had a great time with Eric, Nathan and Kiara this weekend. So glad they came to visit. I love seeing my kids play with their cousins, getting to know them better and being excited about doing stuff with them. Reminds me of my childhood and all the fun times I had with my cousins. I think we went to McDonald's twice this weekend, but the second time was to take advantage of their buy one get one free frappe and smoothie drinks, of course the kids got ice cream cones.

We also went to Cabela's just to get out of the house and do something. That's such a fun store to explore. The kids like the shooting gallery range.

And James took interest in this bear at Cabela's.

We also went bowling. The kids did great!

Nathan was a great helper with James.

Madeline thought Nathan was so silly and funny.

They stayed one extra night so they could watch Monday night football with us (probably could've done without since we lost and Stephen showed his not-so-happy side). But before the game we had fun dressing up in our purple Viking gear.

Yup they both fit in that one jersey.

Too funny! We miss them already, but it was a great weekend.