de Niall Isle

Assumption of Mary and Baptismal Day

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 10:44:00 +0000

Today is the Solemnity of Assumption of Mary

It is also Adriana's Baptismal Day

Adriana has a birthday, feast day and baptismal day all in one week. Is it luck? I am not sure but we always have a fun week.

Today is also my brother, P.J.'s, birthday

Happy Birthday baby Brother may Mary be with you today and always:

As you can tell my brother is a big kid. He is playing with children he just met!!!

St Philomena Feast Day

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:40:00 +0000

Happy Feast Day Adriana Philomena

Enjoy your day!

Dress up......

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:19:00 +0000

by James

What does God want me to do?

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:51:00 +0000

I have been thinking a lot about this question:

What does God want me to do?

In life?
For my husband and children?
With this blog?
On facebook?
With homeschooling?
and so many more.....

I was listening to a CD from Lighthouse Catholic Media and Matthew Kelly was saying you should always ask the question "What does God want you to do?" It is a great question that I will be asking myself more often. It is similar to the popular question "WWJD, What would Jesus Do?" But it is different because it is leading you/me into conversation with Our Lord.

Ask yourself "What does God want you to do?" more often. I know I will!
Some

Planned and Replanned Birthday.....

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:26:00 +0000

Happy Birthday Adriana.

Adriana tends to spend weeks (well really months) planning her birthday. All she ever really wants is time with the family and to have fun. Mama let's the children choose dinners for there birthday, feast days and baptismal day. This year her plan went a little farther asking Mama to make waffles with the waffle maker we got at a yard sale this spring.

Not only did Adriana have waffles but the whole family ate breakfast together.

Waffles with strawberries jam and banana's and sausage patties, yummy!

We always try to go to mass on birthdays so it is always in Adriana's plan. Her birthday was on Sunday this year so no trying necessary we definitely went to mass.

She enjoyed her hike with Daddy at Mt. Monadnock and that became her destination. Unfortunately the weather was suppose to be thunder storms so we did not want to take the chance hiking so we ended up at go to her originally desired destination, Spec Pond.

Water Play

Where is Daddy?
Oh, Adriana is riding on his back! A Dolphin?

Funny, James loved playing in the lily pad float!

He hated to go in the float last year when he needed to be in it.

Playing with Daddy!

Sand Play

Even Daddy played in the sand!

James learning to make a sand castle.

James stomping on this sand castles!

Dinner and cake!

Adriana choose hear favorite kielbasa and corn on the cob for dinner.

Happy Birthday to Adriana!

Oreo ice cream cake, delicious!

Happy 7th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 10:24:00 +0000

Today is the birthday of our little girl Adriana.

On her orginal birthday

Today at age 7. Wow, look how she has grown into a beautiful sweet smart young girl.

We love her some much!

Happy Birthday Adriana!!

This Week on {phfr}

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:27:00 +0000

This week on Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~
{Pretty}

Adriana prettying herself up with her lip gloss. She is getting old. She will be 7 on Sunday!

I found her in the mirror like this and couldn't resist. She is getting so grown!

I love that she is turning into a little lady and she loves Our Lord!

Mama's new hair cut!!

{Happy}

James and Thomas loving each other!

I love watching these boys playing together! They love each other.

My godson Jules enjoying Big Trucks Night at Thayer Memorial Library in Lancaster.

Miss Susan does a great job with this event. It gets bigger and better every year!

Can you tell he is happy after eating he ice cream.

He must have hugged the iguana 12 times!!!

Jules' mom also as a blog and often links into {phfr} check out Perpetually Nesting.

{Funny}

Watching the children play while doing the dishes is really funny. Running around the house in the basket how can you not laugh. Had to stop to take picture!

James and Thomas playing with cars!

{Real}

James helping Thomas climb the stair.

Thomas really didn't need his big brothers help.

My real is Thomas 10.5 months old climbing stairs!

Again LinkIn with:

The Boys

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 08:37:00 +0000

The Niall Boys

Showing love:

Playing together:

Handsome Boys!!

Getting Dry

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:31:00 +0000

photo by Adriana (age almost 7)

James and his best friend Leo drying off after playing in the sprinklers.

When you ask James who his best friend is (not Mama but Adriana because she is all about best friends) he will tell you Leo. Leo says James is his best friend but these to boys are funny. James and Leo are like brothers, they love each other but even more they love to battle each other. Leo is good at making James crazy and James is good at yelling about it. They are two funny peas in a pod!

Mama's New Cut

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:37:00 +0000

It is the middle of summer and way past time for a hair cut.

Front view

It has been so hot I can hardly sleep. My hair was making my neck hot.

I had to insist my hair be cut!

Back view

Do you know where I get my hair cut?

You guessed it, at home, my husband is my hair dresser!!

His does a great job, don't you think, I just have to wait longer than I would like.

Fun in Lowell and Sunday Summer Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 02:47:00 +0000

Fun Free Friday this week was to the American Textile History Museum in Lowell MA. Mama and the children learned a lot but really we only scratched the surface of knowledge in the world of textiles.

We all had a turn trying to lift 500 lbs of cotton.

Adriana and James trying to spin.

Thomas feeling the sheep textile.

Playing in the grocery store.

Watching and listening about the history of the textiles.

I don't know why my children love the stuffed people but they do.
James called to Lulu the whole time we were eating lunch.
Thomas is just trying to figure out what is going on!

Adriana loved this car and the air bags. Why? I don't know.

James dressing up in a fireman's uniform.

James the fireman.

Every little girl loves to look at a wedding dress.

I don't remember what the plane had to do with textiles except maybe parachutes.

What to baseballs and sheep have in commone?
Wool!

Mama and her children with some cotton bails behind them.

Funny scarecow guy

Saturday we went to the Lowell Folk Festival. Mama believes this will become a Niall Family Tradition. This is our second year and we really enjoy listening to all the folk bands and exploring all the activities.

Fun For Children

Games

Crafts

Art Drums

Subway man

Why do my children love these costumed creatures!

Folk Concerts

The Irish Band, Dervish

We went to Nathan Williams & The Zydeco Cha-Chas - fun upbeat Creole music, Quebe Sisters Band -young ladies fiddling, Birmingham Sunlightsan - an a cappella gospel group, and Dervish - an Irish band that Adriana danced a jig too. She is getting so much better at Irish Step, Mrs Tamburi would be so proud.

Adriana dancing a jig!

Summer Fun at the Urban

On Sunday, after mass, we enjoyed the summer day with our friends at the Urbans.

Mr. Urban brought out the bouncey house. Is Adriana helping?!?!

Yes she is helping with Thomas!
She is a great kid.

What an inviting place to sit and relax.

James causing caose bring a bike into the bouncy house

Great picture of Grandma Jeannie and Leo loving Joni.
A Joni sandwhich!

Adriana enjoying herself!

Jules and Thomas playing.

Water fun before we go home!

Time with my god daughter!

Drying off!! Yes bestfriends!

Riding Down

And away we GO!!!!

James not wanting to go down the hill after being run over
while Thomas wondering why he can't join in on the FUN!!

We had a very enoyable weekend and look foward to Adriana's birthday weekend next.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 10:20:00 +0000

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

We try to Every Thursday, here at de Niall Isle linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{Pretty}

This week we have two pretty one with Mama and one with Daddy.

Adriana and James went on a hike with Daddy while Mama was away. This was the beautiful site:

Yesterday went to the zoo and a pretty peacock follow us around. These pictures are at two different parts of the zoo.

{Happy}

Check out this really happy baby with his siblings:

{Funny}

We also have two funnies this week.

The fist is when we celebrated James' feast day. We played in the ball pit (I know germ infested but it is the summer) and he stopped to pose.

James covered in balls!

The second funny was the crazy children monkeying around at the zoo!!

A train road by the monkey's and laughed because they were out of their cage!

{real}

My upper garden really needs help and even my lower garden didn't get enough attention this year. Unfortunately a lot of our herbs bolted! But I do have eggplant and tomatoes coming! I guess I can say I am happy that things are growing because like Lelia stated in here {pretty, happy, funny, real} I am so not good a watering. I need to get soaker hoses or a timer for next year, learning from my mistakes.

Sad upper garden. So needs weeding. Corn bolted but hopefully some fruit will come too.

Upper garden summer squash, radish and pumpkin in there somewhere, ugh.

Raised bed garden

First raised bed

My Eggplant

tomatoes and sad looking peppers.

second raised bed.

My garden looks sad but I am hopeful that every year I learn more and they will get better. We got yummy beets this year and radish. I'm hopeful for cucumbers and some summer squash. I'm also hopeful that next year we will get strawberries.

Two Stop Feast

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:59:00 +0000

We try to make a big deal out of the Feast Days for our children. We want them to love the saints they were named for and celebrating the day helps them to love the saint and themselves!

Side note: Believe it or not because our boys are James and Thomas many people ask if they were named after tank trains. I get most annoyed when good Catholics ask or even just say "like Thomas the tank engine," to which I usually reply no Saint Thomas Aquinas. I will admit that when Amanda was visiting I teased her that she had to name her new baby "Percy or Gordon or even Toby." I said to her having four tank engine names in the family is so much more fun then having a "Joseph." Really we are excited Amanda and Brandon choose a great strong name like Joseph. Mama really almost cried when she heard his name not that they need our approval.

One Stop Fun's layout

Wow was that a side note. So my point was, we don't name our children after tanker engines we name them for saints. Today the church celebrated St. James the Greater's Feast Day. We have chosen this as James' patron and he can choose otherwise when he is an adult because there are tons of St. James'.

Mama and James having fun!!

Our tradition for Feast Days, or as some call them Names Days, we allow our children to choose dinner for the night and an outing for that day. The outing can be something as simple a park, library, pond or something like an outing to the zoo or York Wild Animal Kingdom. Adriana makes out best because we have the same tradition for birthday as we have for Feast days and she has her Feast day and Birthday 4 day apart.

James loves Thomas;
Thomas loves James
Brotherly Love!!

James choose to have pizza for dinner. When I asked him on Friday it wasn't like he even had to think about it pizza flowed out of his mouth naturally unlike last year when his sister convinced him he wanted her favorite meal, kielbasa.

James choose pepperoni pizza and strawberry shortcake, yummy!!

His feast day outing was spent at One Stop Fun. This is all the fun for Adriana, James and Thomas had at One Stop Fun. We called this post Two Stop Feast because James had two stops One Stop Fun and home for a pizza dinner.

Adriana and James excited to be here and they are showing it!!

Adriana and James in the ball pit before we left

Adriana is the flash of pink in the left picture. She is in the balls on the right.

Thomas playing

Where is James?!?!

The Boys hanging together, Brotherly love:

pre-Feast Day Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 02:09:00 +0000

James had a pre-Feast Day adventure with Daddy and Adriana while Mama was away on her friends retreat get-a-way!! This was extra special because daddy doesn't often go on adventures when Mama isn't around. They had a blast!! It was all Mama heard about when the got home.

Added bonus daddy took pictures.

Climbing up the mountain:

I love this picture of Adriana looking out into the world

"Mama I was looking for our house."

The Wolves Cave

Blueberry picking:

I know Adriana picked blueberries also but James loves to pick and looks so cute doing it, Mama should know I remember picking wild strawberries with him. He will eat them by the handfuls even if they are not ripe!

Resting on snacking:

Heading down:

Some scenic picture:

Mount Monadnock - Fun Fact:
The 2nd most climbed mountain in the world!

Doesn't it look like they had a blast!! It is great to see them having such fun with Daddy. It will be a time to remember!!!

*Update newer clearer map!
The trail they took brought the a little below the summit. It might take a magnifying glass to read the map but this Mama was impressed!!! So impressed I had to show it off even though it isn't visible, lol!

Fatherly James

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 12:09:00 +0000

James in a purple stole.

Fr. Peter dressed James up to look Fatherly in the purple stole!

Doesn't Fr. James Raphael sound so good.

We will see if it is God's will!

Lord we pray that James Raphael hears and answers your vocation call for him!

Happy Feast Day James

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 04:16:00 +0000

Happy Feast Day to my little man James Raphael!!!

St James the Greater.....Pray for us and our friend Jean suffering from Restless leg syndrome (RLS)!

James Raphael we hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy you pizza for dinner, yummy!

{Family Farming Fun}

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 10:15:00 +0000

de Niall Family plus two spent the day at Davis Farmland. We all had a great day!

And we are linked up with:

{pretty}

Daddy petting a beautiful baby lamb laying next his mother.

{happy}

All the children enjoyed petting goats but look at James
happily hugging the baby goat!

{real}

I know this isn't farming but it is what has been real in our family. Last Sunday we had to take James to the ER because of an infection. It turned out to be not jut any infection it was staph infection called mercer. He has luckily recovered nicely and no one else in the family got it, AMEN! Somethime to be totally greatfully for, Thank you Lord. This mama was doing a lot of praying. This is the third time since March that he has had to go to the ER. Hope we don't get used to the ER.

{funny}

James pushing the toy lawn mower up ramp on the playground just so he could send it down the slide! I wish I got the picture of it coming down.

Family Shots

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 04:15:00 +0000

FAMILY PHOTOS FROM WHEN AMANDA AND HENRY VISITED.

3 Little Monkeys and A Big Monkey

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:35:00 +0000

Here on de Niall Isle we live, without a doubt, with monkeys. In fact the only non-monkey is Mama althought that could be debated!! I'm not sure why God has given us such mondeys but if you know us since birth each of our has shown monkey quality and Thomas is not to be excluded.

Thomas 1 day from 10 months

James 3 year and 4 months

This may not seem monkey like to some maybe more dare devil. I'll take that too! Our children will dare to do what other's would never.

Adriana and Daddy climb a tree on Father's Day.

Daddy is a small spec in the sun stream!
Monkey #1

Adriana climbed up by herself with Daddy's guidiance from above!!
Monkey #2

When daddy says he wanted to go for a hike it means lets go in the woods and find a good tree to climb!!

Is Mama a Monkey?

Mama on the Zipline. Someone had to show Adriana how to do it, lol!

Mama pulling herself up with Thomas one her back.
Pulling extra weight, ugh but made it all the way up!!

Maybe she is the one showing monkeyness to Thomas?

A Wonderful Visit: Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 01:49:00 +0000

As many of our de Niall Isle followers know we are in somewhat of a blended family. The definition is tricky but in our case we have 3 children we are raising and 1 child who was raised by her mother but is still our daughter (Daddy's daughter, for clarity) and her children are our grandchildren. Our family consists of Mama, Daddy, Adriana, James, and Thomas but we also have Amanda, 21 years old (sister/daughter), Henry, 18 months (nephew/grandson), and Joseph, due end November (nephew/grandson). We had not seen Amanda and Henry since a few months after his birth. We missed them teribly and were happy for their visit.

Amanda and Henry visited for 10 day. Part of the visit Amanda visited with her mother's side of the family who do not live to far away from us. The second half of the trip was spent with de Niall although she did spend all 10 day on the Isle!

At the start of the trip James, Thomas and Henry (not the trains the Niall boys) got in as much time together as the could. They had a blast together!

Henry kissing his Uncle Thomas!

Now we had 5 days to try to fit in everything we wanted to do include visit with friends, family, swimming lessons for Adriana and James, and a little fun for the children too!! On a mission.

Monday

We had a visit from Bradley teacher and one of Mama's best friends Rebecca and Bradley classmate Mariel. It was a fun coincedence that Amamda and Mariel were able to see each in real life (not just on facebook) and see the children together. Then Amanda was able to go do some errends and deliveries for Daddy just like she used to. Herny stayed behind with Nana and the other children to play.

Tuesday

This was a long day. After swim lessons we has a visit from the Dooley's for more fun play for boys. We ate lunch then watched as the children were running through he sprinklers, sliding down the slide, pausing for dessert and then starting all over again!

Sprinkler fun!!

Run and slide

We are family and best buddies!!!

During our visit a family friend Alisa came over to visit Amanda. We had to go back to the doctor's office to check on James infection so Henry stayed with his Mama and Alisa until Nana (aka Mama) came home.

Alisa and Amanda went off to the mall while the rest of us had dinner at Spec Pond. Mama usually loves the water and loves it even more when Daddy or anyother second hand is with her but tonight was a little different. Mama was informed shortly before we went to the pond that Henryhas tubes in his ears. Mama was so afriad Henry was going to fall into the water she could not settle down. Everyone else had fun as you can see!

Daddy with Henry teaching Adriana to swim!

Adriana showing off her swimming skills.

Henry and Pépé

James playing with Henry in the water!

Wading in the water before dinner and going home!

If you want to find out what happened when we went home that night chick here. Did they fall asleep before Amanda came home?

Kisses, Hi, and Bye

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 12:24:00 +0000

Thomas has started being really cute with kisses.

He is also saying hi and bye now! I love this age!

Finally Asleep

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:58:00 +0000

At 9 pm the three boys are wide awake. Mind you this is after the a long day ending with a visit to the Beach!

Finally Henry fell asleep around 9:30.

Now all the boys are asleep it is only 10:30!!! But don't James and Thomas look adorable!

Happy Father's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 03:07:00 +0000

What made me smile at mass today. Again it is Fr. Peter, James going up with Mama to communion Fr. Peter blessed him with a big cross starting across his eyes and down his forehead. He needed it with the type of mass he was having and then Thomas went up with Daddy and after Fr. Peter blessed him Thomas gave Fr Peter the best smile ever!!! Thomas does give good smiles!!

de Niall Family surrounding Fr. Peter

While getting annoyed at my 3 year old at mass trying to get him to be obedient at mass I kept reminding him to talk to his guardian angel, Peter, and ask him to help you behave. At the end of mass I just said thanks your guardian angel and didn't say his name. James responds saying "Mama I have 2 guardian angles Peter and guardian angel." He probably does have 2 guardian angles but that is not what I meant at all!

Red Root vine that was killing our privacy trees

Happy Father's Day to my dad, Paul Bell, my husband, Michael Niall, and all the priest and father's out there. Fr. Peter once again made ma laugh today. James was saying Happy Father's Day to Fr. Peter in the sanctuary after mass and Fr. Peter kept saying say it louder. James and Fr. Peter went back and forth for the next 5 minutes down the halls of the abbey!

If you look closely you can see the vines growing crazy especially on the left tree!

And the fence look at it growing wild around the gate!

Still making me smile! Don't worry Fr. Peter you aren't insisting my son disturb and annoy anyone who was trying to pray after mass. I love having the spiritual community around us!! The sanctuary is right behind the chapel at the abbey right were everyone can see and hear.

Looks so much better.

Amazing difference, night and day!

After Mass we planned to go for a hike but daddy wanted to do a little yard work first. Mama then started to tell daddy about the crazy vines that our garden lady told her was killing the privacy trees in our neighbors yard. Daddy decided we would take on the project of clearing these tree (our neighbors are an elderly couple).

Hard work pulling the weeds. They had a thick root,
Mama was even using tools!!

Adriana says "Timber!!" as she pulls on the roots.

Daddy went to the neighbors and asked if it would be alright to take down these weeds. It was of course a larger project then we excepted. It is going to take the whole summer to get rid of this weed and we are so thankful to our garden mentor, Carol, for telling us about this weed.

Finishing up the afternoon weeding!

Even though it is mostly in our neighbor's yard it would take down the privacy trees which benefit us an the fence separating the property. It was and still is a great way to get to know our neighbors and for our children to see charity in action. Our neighbors are pleased with the work we got done today. Daddy was happy on Father's Day even though he didn't go on his hike he climbed a tree and was happy!

Daddy is happy climbing trees!

So is Adriana even though she was scared!

Backyard Birds

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 05:54:00 +0000

It took a while before we saw this Robin in her nest in the tree in our backyard

Mama Robin sitting on her baby eggs

It has been an amazing experience having this Robin in our tree. We have started eating dinner out on our deck. One night we just happened to look up and spot the Robin quitely watching us. She is a good Mama protection her babies. Adriana has enjoyed watching the Robin although James isn't quite sure what to make of her. He wants her to go away so we often caught him yelling at her to go away. Three days ago while cooking on the grill Mama looked up and saw the robin feeding her baby chicks:

Mama Robin and her chicks

Baby robins calling for Mama

While Mama was watching the robin and babies she took a really bad video:

Mama is amazed at the aw of God's creation. Seeing the daddy Robin feed the babies was so amazing. Really sorry for the poor video but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

It is amazing that Adriana gets to see these robins and babies in our yard. I beleive this is homeschooling at it's best.

Dinner with Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Adrianne) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 21:11:00 +0000

We have been doing dinner with our friends Ben and Rebecca a few time a month. It is a great we to switch cooking and enjoy company with friends. Last night we enjoyed the company of our friends and we ate a delicious summer salad with steak and some lettuce from our garden.

Lettuce growing in our garden

Adriana and the boys playing just before the Urban's were leaving.

Leo procrastinating his departure.

Jules adding to the procrastination.

Being silly wanting a ride with Jules

Adriana adding to the silliness

Now Ben joining in on being silly and procrastinating

Not sure Jules was enjoying this as much as the rest, poor Jules

We always enjoy the company of our friends and believe we are fostering friendships together (especially among the men) and among our children.