All for Jesus

What  a weekend! First of all, Matt and I made history by not spatting even once during our hot and cramped travels to NYC! But even more importantly, Brother Pierre Toussaint (who I talked about here) gave his whole life over to the service of God by professing final vows of poverty, chastity, obedience with the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR's).

Even though I was up, down and all around the back of the church because our sweet baby Hope refused to take a nap during the 3 hour mass, I was still truly moved by the presence and gentle power of the Holy Spirit.

Through my smile I am saying: "Please go to sleep, pleeeease go to sleep."

This was our campsite in the back of the Church.

One of the most powerful parts for me during the mass was when the brothers laid prostrate in adoration before God while a beautiful song calling on the intercession of the saints was sung. If you have never seen this before it may seem a little weird in the picture below, but there really is something so raw and just plain awesome when witnessing someone lay there giving everything so humbly to Christ.

There were 5 CFR Brothers who made final vows. A good friend from College, Mikey Lefever now known as Brother Angelo, was in that group of Friars. I could kick myself for not getting a pic with him, but none the less I felt blessed to be able to see him make vows. 

7 years ago at our wedding (when I was young and tan), I remember peeking out from the back of the church to take a look at the 400+ friends gathered to celebrate with us.  In the midst of all those people it was Brother PT (who was then known as Alain) who caught my attention. He was kneeling in the back of the Church praying and in that moment his pure heart and love for God really touched me. And today again, as he was surrendering his whole life to God and to the service of others my heart swelled with joy and pride at the person he is and that I can call him friend. 

Matt snapped this pic of Hope right after the Brothers profession or vows. She was ha-ha-happy. 

Witnessing the brothers vows reminded me of Matt and my vows to each other. Even though we may be living out a totally different vocation, really they are one in the same. We vowed to love and cherish each other and to welcome children lovingly into this world. This was our final vows to each other and to God until death do us part, or as Matt says until we kill each other (haha!). So please pray for us as we try to live our vows out as radically as the inspiring CFR brothers from this weekend!

***Now to inundate you with some of my favorite pictures from this weekend. Here.We.Go.

This weekend we were able to see one of our best friends Dominique (Brother PT's sister) and her daughter (my God daughter) Therese. Therese pretty much stole the show with her cuteness, I mean look at that face!

Therese and Hope made first steps in becoming best friends. 

We were also able to see some of our other best friends Ann and John and their cute little boy Maxson. Talk about exactly what the doctor ordered. Before the final vows we met up for some spicy guacamole and drinks. Within seconds of seeing each other the 6 months that we had been apart seemed to vanish, leaving us right back to where we left off. I guess that is what makes "good friends" good friends. 

This pic was taken after 3 intense hours of baby duty during Mass. Ann's little boy Maxson is 19 months, so you can only imagine how much fun that was for her and John!

Isn't he glowing?

Believe me when I say, there is nothing better than when the friars start playing music. 

NYC Bound

Matt, Hopie, and I are off to New York City, the land of the big apple and more importantly of the CRF Friars. 

My better half watching Hope, so I could write this post. He really is better, no exaggeration. He even got me a shot/cup of wine to wipe away any anxiety I have when flying (which NEVER occurred before my 4 babies) and probably because I am just more fun to travel with when I have a little alcohol in me. 

I will be Hope's food source (per always) and pacifier for the weekend. No complaints here though, she's easy to make happy and one baby for 3 days, can you say easy peasy??

We are making this trip to NYC to witness our dear friend Brother Pierre Toussaint make his final vows to the order of the CFR Friars. To put that in laymans terms this means he is making a lifetime commitment (similar to marriage) to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR) order. He is giving up all to follow Christ and taking the vows of poverty, chastity, obedience for the rest of his life. 

Matt has known Brother PT since Pt was 10 years old, so for the last 15 years! And I met him when he went by his birth name, Alain Guitea and was a student at Ave Maria University. Alain was/is one of the nicest and kindest people that you will ever meet. During our early days of marriage we would get to spend quality time with Brother PT while he took study breaks at our abode. We would order Chinese, watch the show of Jack Bauer (aka "24"), and always always be laughing our arses off at something. I will never forget when he babysat Isaiah one night and we came back to a happy baby, yet facing out the wrong way in the exersauser gnawing on an upside down bottle. I can picture it like it was yesterday! 

Also, I can't help but share (because I bubbling over in excitement, really I am, not making that up) that we will be seeing one of our bestest friends Dominique (brother PT's sister) and her baby girl, my God-daughter Therese. 

Now we just have to board our flight, nurse Hope to sleep and basque in the glow of the clouds for 3 hours while having absolutely nothing to do. 

PS. The only way we are able to witness this miraculous event is that my mom (who is in terrible back pain right now) dad, and Mags are watching our 3 other littles. Thank you, thank you Mom!!

7 Quick Takes

Joining Jen@ Conversion Diaries and the whole gang for a round of 7 Quick Takes!

1. I just found a 3 week old draft of 7 quick takes in my archive of posts. I thought that I had published this bad boy, but somehow forgot. This "thinking I have done something but not actually doing it" happens to me ALL of dee time. Like take for instance texting. I always think I have texted someone back, because in my head I do and I say things so perfectly there (in mi head). But in reality nothing ever hits my phone in the form of a text. Same goes for emails and calling people back. Literally, I have conversations with people in my head and think that they actually happened. So with that being said, I am doing a group apology right now to all of you who are the victims of my careless and blondish ways. I am sorry and I love you.

Back to quick takes. So, I will be including old and new takes, because I could never let precious pics and captions go to waste.

HereWeGo...

2. We are so blessed here at Team Boda for all of the holy people that we know and who brave a visit with us! Father Isaac, Matt's bestest friend, came to visit us, which is one of our kids (and Matt and I) fav visitors! Father Isaac is a CFR Friar and he is nothing but inspiring with the way in which he lives for God, serves the poor, and is just so "real" while being so holy. Father Isaac writes for the CFR Blog too, so CHECK IT OUT.

I couldn't get Grace to stop sticking her tongue out. 

3. I took these 8 months pics of Hope late and once again I am late with the 9month pics. I am just a little slow with the sticker picture thingy. Better slow than whatever.

She really is the sweetest babe ever. 

4. My mom helped me pack up the rest of our Sailfish home, so I made her be in the shoot too.

I hope that I inherit my mom's "young genes". 

5. I had the best photo idea this morning and stewed on it for over an hour trying to figure out the best moment to present it to the kids. My idea: I wanted to snap a pic of all the kids holding signs telling their age. Fabulous, oh-so original idea, right?! Great in my head, but to get all 4 kids to cooperate-- not so good. To say the least, it was a quantum fail.

Even my dear instagram could not help me out. 

I did manage to snap a cute one of Hopie girl though. And as usual she has been the best behaved all day.

I got this one too. 

6. So, like a month ago our car stalled in the middle of the road (aka: we ran out of gas like a mile from our house). How do you run out of gas this day in age when there is a gas station on each and every corner, I do not know, but embarrassingly enough we did. The only non logical explanation I have for this very stupid stupid mishap is that my name is Kristin Loboda and the 3 bigger kids were with my parents while Matt and I were taking breakfast date/break from packing the house with Hopie girl and we must have been so googly eyed at each other with no whiny kid distractions that we just didn't notice the neon yellow light screaming NO GAS.

I shall continue... so our car stalls and we put our flashers on and cross the street. We begin flagging people as they drive by, so that they know to slow down and go around our car. Like so in the picture below.

Well, one guy was texting and never even saw us on the side of the road or our van stopped dead on the road.

And *Boom* *Crash*

The first word out of my mouth was a looooudd curse word of the worst kind, scandalizing the ears of our innocent lil babe and shocking my dear husband. And thus showing even demonstrating more my desperate need for prayers from friends and strangers alike.

The texting guy was fine, just looking for his phone when he got out of his truck, but our car was totaled.

So, the moral of this story is DO NOT text and drive. EVER. And do not run out of gas in the middle of the road.

7. Jen put a challenge out there to blog every day for the next week and funny enough Matt has been challenging me to do a 30 day in a row blogging run. Would anyone actually want to read everyday for 30 days. Probably not, but I think (still just a think) I am going to try it. Don't worry I will let you know via FB and I will completely understand if you de-friend me during my 30 day blogging fest.

7.5. Does anyone else have a child who insists on looking like Rambo everysingleday??

Super late: 7 quick takes

1. Yes, just sitting here drinking my skinny girl peach margarita that my wonderful Matthew just went out and got for me. He likes to get a little bit of liquor in me *wink wink*... meaning (of course!) that just one drink makes me relax into the fun Kristin that he loves.

2. Is it really Saturday night and I am still trying to link up with Jen via Grace for 7 quick takes? Yes, I am a little slow, but I have been juggling 7 things in my head and lets see if I can get them out in a quick 20. Ready. Set. Go. That was 2, of course.

3. I mentioned earlier in the week that we were blessed to have two of the CFR Friar's stay with us in our humble abode. Matt and I may have lost a little sleep (Isaiah, Isaac, and Hope camped out in our room for 3 nights) to make this happen, but it was well worth it. I SO want my kiddos to desire after God and having Godly/fun/cool/real people in our home makes it that more enticing for them. I forgot to snap a photo with the boys and Brother PT, but be assured there was a lot of pillow fights, wrestling and talk about basketball, baseball and candy (Brother PT loves candy and has included in his vows the giving up of vegetables for the rest of his life) going on. Grace was right in on the action too saying: "Brother PT is my best friend. He play dolls with me," which actually never happen, but somehow she thinks it did, so IT DID.

4. We also had my cousin Maria and her husband Aaron and their 4 awesome kids in town staying at my parents beach condo.  You know the kinda of person that you feel like you could just hang out with forever and it would always be fun, stress free, and easy. That is Maria. Since we were kids I have always loved being with her. If we lived in the same State, I am sure that I would be at her house everyday drinking coffee, working in her organic flower and vegetable gardens, all while the kids played in the backyard. *Sigh* the perfect dream! Needless to say, the time that we were able to spend  with them was fabulous.

That's Maria. Yes, she is a supermodel.

This is one of 2 attempts at trying to get a picture with all the kids. It went well, don't you think?

My other attempt, a little bit better, maybe?

5. Today Grace and I went to her first "all girls" birthday party. Let me start off by saying that Theresa, a.k.a super mom, put us all to shame, making it the most special la la loopsy birthday party evaa. She hand made la la loopsy dolls for each girl where they could finish stuffing it, dressing it, and the like all on their own. She also had non-stop (and I mean non stop) fun and adventures la la loopsy style for 2 1/2 solid hours. It was so nice of her and Veronica to include our 2 year old Grace.

Grace dressed her own person, per usual. She was all ready to rock and roll. 

Grace in true Diva form. 

Grace with the sweet birthday Girl. 

6. Did I mention that I have been lovin' me some skinny girl margaritas, now peach margaritas, and also their mojito bottles?

7. On a totally different note, my heart has been breaking for Boston and all the victims of the terrible bombings. Prayers and more prayers are being said over here for everyone that has been affected.

5 Favorites

I'm linking up with Hallie at Moxie Wife blog for 5 favorites!

I love this idea of 5 favorites. Everyone that links up with Hallie is short, sweet, and right to the point. I, on the other hand, have already thought of a monologue for each thing listed, but I will do my best to follow suite and constrain myself. 

As I was thinking of my favorites, I also thought of my not-so-favorite to parallel each item and it was really cracking me up. Does anyone else do that?? Probably not, but for some reason I just HAD to mention it.

1. Babies who are 6 months 

Love n' me some 6 month old babies. I just can't seem to get enough of my Hopie girl and her best friend, Zuzu, who is also just as cute as a button!

2. The CFR Friars who are visiting! 

There is nothing better than when the Friars are down for a visit! Brother PT, who is holding Hope, is such a dear friend and it just feels like family when he is around. Not to mention we can talk about our mutual love for his niece (my God daughter) Therese, which is so much fun. We have been truly blessed to have him and Brother Ignatius in our home for the last couple of days.

3. Udi's Bread 

Here at Team Boda we seem unable to survive without this here bread. Hence, packing all four kiddos in the minivan at 4pm today to make an unexpected visit to Trader Joe's. (We also needed a solitary tomato for tonight's taco's, so the trip was well worth it. :) And yes, we pay a whopping 5 dollars for each loaf we buy, and yes, Matt makes a comment at least once a week about how outrageous that price is. But as far as gluten free bread is concerned, this is the best we have found. 

4. Kind Bars

Today at Trader Joe's we also picked up some of these amazing bars. Have you ever tried them? The kids and I love them. They are super good and this particular one tastes like a chocolate dessert. They are gluten free, high in protein and low in sugar, all things I love in my granola bars. The down side is that they are a tad bit pricey when handing them out 4 at a time. But I figure a buck 80 a pop for breakfast or quick snack is better than stopping at Wendy's, which we never do anyways. So I am actually saving money, Right? Did you follow that logic? 

5. Babies on the Beach

For more go and visit Hallie and all her friends!