Saturday, January 12, 2013
Baby Smith #5's First Photos (Ultrasound)
I'M BACK! Well, at least for this post! For those who may have followed my blog for awhile you may have noticed that I haven't posted in awhile (My dear follower, A.R., you come to mind :) ) Each day my goal is to survive and try to hold down my food, hence I haven't had much energy or patience to sit at a computer and update my blog. Not to mention I have been fighting a cold and sore throat these past few days. Whew! I'm looking forward to healthier and nauseous-free days ahead!
I'm 11 weeks pregnant today! Yippee! The first trimester and even past my first trimester I feel yuck and have all day and night "morning" sickness. But, this too shall pass (like my other "yuck" phases in my last 4 pregnancies) and I'm just thankful that our little one is growing strong and healthy!
Here are a few pictures from my ultrasound appointment last week. I was 10 weeks, 3 days and he/she is a beauty and amazing! The heart was beating rapidly at 161 beats/minute and my husband I and could see the spine and its legs and arms moving about, maybe even waving "hello" to us! :)
The baby is looking at us with the "alien" looking head :) Is he/she smiling at us???
Now the little fingers are waving in front of face!
Here's some more information about Week 10 of Pregnancy from What to Expect. Fascinating!
Your baby's growth is fast and furious when you are 10 weeks pregnant.
He or she is nearly an inch and a half long and the size of a prune,
but not nearly as shriveled (even with all the time it spends in water).
In fact, your baby is really taking a human shape now. Bones and
cartilage are forming, and small indentations on the legs are developing
into knees and ankles. The arms (complete with elbows) can flex
already, but don't run to the store for a baseball bat just yet. Though
your baby's arms are taking shape and getting stronger, each one is only
about the size of this number 1.
The tooth bud fairy is making her appearance this week, heralding the arrival of your baby's little choppers, which are forming under the gums. (Those pearly whites won't break through the gums until your baby is close to six months old). Other systems are go, too. Your baby's stomach is producing digestive juices, the kidneys are producing larger quantities of urine, and, if your baby's a boy, he's already producing testosterone (yikes!).
I hope to be back sooner than later for a next post! But, until then I'll be busy growing a sweet baby!
Have a blessed day!
The tooth bud fairy is making her appearance this week, heralding the arrival of your baby's little choppers, which are forming under the gums. (Those pearly whites won't break through the gums until your baby is close to six months old). Other systems are go, too. Your baby's stomach is producing digestive juices, the kidneys are producing larger quantities of urine, and, if your baby's a boy, he's already producing testosterone (yikes!).
I hope to be back sooner than later for a next post! But, until then I'll be busy growing a sweet baby!
Have a blessed day!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Happy New Year 2013! Mary, Epiphany, and Top Ten Posts
This post contains affiliate links.
I had a good New Year's Eve with my family, despite feeling nauseous all night (from being 9 weeks pregnant) and I'm going to try to forget that I welcomed the new year at 12:30 AM this morning in the bathroom losing my Red Robin dinner that I ate earlier in the evening with my family...OK too much information! :)
But, before going out to eat at Red Robin our family attended a Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Mary last night. Last year I posted about what we did for New Year's Eve and I have links all about Jan. 1, the Solemnity of Mary, on my 2012 New Year's blog post HERE.
One way our family rang in the new year was by playing a fun and easy dice game called "Farkle". Have you heard of it? My husband and I bought this game of luck and strategy for our children for Christmas and I think my husband and I like it more than our cupcakes (or at least we like to try to win against each other all the time :) ) It's a great game for the entire family and I highly recommend it. I also love the fact that math skills are used to keep up with each player's running totals on the score pad. :) 
This weekend, our homeschool group will celebrate our annual Epiphany Party that we have been celebrating for several years now. It's always fun to gather all our homeschool families in our group after the Christmas rush and celebrate such a beautiful feast day. For a great article about the Epiphany feast day be sure to read The Epiphany Revealed! I just found this website called "Truth and Charity" on the Catholic Homeschool Moms Facebook page where you can go HERE to randomly draw a saint for the new year. Your saint becomes your family's patron for the new year where you can learn more about him/her and pray for their intercession. I got Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori which is interesting for many reasons and his feast day is August 1 which is very close to my Aug. 3 due date. :)
And just for fun I thought I would start the beginning of 2013 "bloggy style" and list the Top Ten Posts that have been viewed since I began "A Slice of Smith Life" in June 2010. I couldn't figure out how to get only the most popular posts for 2012, so here are the most popular posts from 2010 to present. If you would like to read any of the posts listed, just click on its title and it will take you directly to the post. These stats came from Blogger....
Posts
| Entry | Pageviews | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov 4, 2012, 5 comments
---------------------------------------------------------- |
9916 (I have NO idea why this particular post has been visited the most so far)
| |||||||||
Jan 13, 2011, 24 comments
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3963
| |||||||||
Oct 26, 2010, 21 comments
----------------------------------------------------------- |
2857
| |||||||||
Aug 25, 2010, 33 comments
------------------------------------------------------------ |
2731
| |||||||||
Sep 25, 2010, 12 comments
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2295
| |||||||||
Dec 21, 2010, 16 comments
------------------------------------------------------------- |
1128
| |||||||||
Mar 8, 2011, 20 comments
------------------------------------------------------------ |
1029
| |||||||||
Aug 21, 2010, 26 comments
-------------------------------------------------------------- |
1010
| |||||||||
Dec 7, 2011, 5 comments
-------------------------------------------------------------- |
592
| |||||||||
Nov 13, 2011, 10 comments
|
555
|
If you are a blogger and haven't joined in on the fun at "No Ordinary Blog Hop" that I co-host with several other bloggers, be sure to click on the NOBH button below. Hope to see your blog linked at NOBH soon! Have a blessed 2013!
Friday, December 28, 2012
Animal Puzzle Cakes on Sale at Amazon!
I just saw this deal posted on Amazon and since I've never seen anything like this before and I could use this for my own "cupcakes" (children), I purchased one for myself and I'm sharing the deal with my readers. You can get this Puzzle Cake Build-A-Cake Set for $4.98 (regular price $14.99) and if you are a Prime Amazon member, like we are, you can get free shipping. So for $5.00 I thought it was worth it to buy it and one day I'll have to see if it is any easier to make a cupcake cake with this Wilton set compared to the horse cupcake cake I recently made for my daughter's 5th birthday in November. Although, making the horse out of cupcakes wasn't too difficult. :)
If I ever make a cake using this set (I'm thinking it will be cute for our new baby's birthday one year), I'll be sure to blog about it :)
Thursday, December 27, 2012
What are the 12 Days of Christmas? 2012 Edition
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
This picture was taken at the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass at my parents' church.
Although the calendar says December 27 and the Christmas carols are no longer playing on the radio and in stores, it is still Christmas! Christmas begins on Christmas Day and continues for 12 more days until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, when the Magi visit the Christ Child and bring Him gifts.
So
did you know that the famous Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of
Christmas", celebrates the beginning of the Christmas season, Christmas
Day, in the liturgical calendar and ends on the Feast of the Epiphany?
Many mistakenly believe that the 12 days refers to the 12 days prior to the celebration of Christmas Day.On our Christmas tree we have this beautiful ornament of a partridge in a pear tree that was given to my husband and me by an aunt who has since passed away. We treasure this gift from our loved one and it wasn't until I started researching about the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that I realized that there is some controversy surrounding what the partridge in the pear tree symbolized, as well as the other items mentioned in the song.
Several years ago, I read that "The Twelve Days of Christmas" has religious symbolism and according to Father Edward Dowling in the article, "The Real Meaning of "The Twelve Days of Christmas", “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was written to educate the faithful in the doctrines of the faith and yet not be obvious to the persecutors. The numbers are simply a mnemonic to help Catholics remember some basic facts. Recall the words of the song. “On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me: twelve lords a leaping, eleven pipers piping, ten ladies dancing, nine drummers drumming, eight maids a milking, seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.”
Father Dowling's article then lists what each phrase of the song means as a way for Catholic Christians to remember the doctrines of the faith:
“My true love” refers to God, “me” is the individual Catholic.
The “twelve lords a leaping” are the twelve basic beliefs of the Catholic Church as outlined in the Apostles Creed.
The “eleven pipers piping” are the eleven Apostles who remained faithful after the treachery of Judas.
The “ten ladies dancing” are the Ten Commandments.
The “nine drummers drumming” are the nine choirs of angels which in those days of class distinction were thought important.
The “eight maids a milking” are the Eight Beatitudes.
The “seven swans a swimming” are the Seven Sacraments.
The “six geese a laying” are the Six Commandments of the Church or the six days of creation.
The
“five golden rings” are the first five books of the Old Testament
called the Torah which are generally considered the most sacred and
important of all the Old Testament.
The “four calling birds” are the Four Gospels.
The “three French hens” are the Three Persons in God or the three gifts of the Wise Men.
The “two turtle doves” represent the two natures in Jesus: human and divine or the two Testaments, Old and New.
The “partridge” is the piece de resistance, Jesus himself, and the “pear tree” is the Cross.
It
wasn't until I did a search on the internet about "The Twelve Days of
Christmas" that I realized that the religious symbolism behind the song
is thought to be fiction. For example, Snopes
states that the song was NOT created as a "coded reference to important
articles of the Christian faith." Then Snopes goes into detail why
some claim this to be false. "The Twelve Days of Christmas", according
to many articles that I have read, might have been mixed up with another
song titled, "A New Dial" which dates to at least 1625 and assigns religious meanings to each day of the 12 days of Christmas.
After reading many articles about the real meaning of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song I'm not sure if the song has religious symbolism or not since it appears there is no sound proof for it to be true or false.
What do you think? Have you heard about the religious symbolism in "The Twelve Days of Christmas"? Were you aware of the differences of opinions in whether or not the song was created as a type of catechism during a time of persecution? I think this is a fascinating topic and would love to hear what others think about it.
There are many parodies that have come from "The Twelve Days of Christmas" song and I would like to conclude this post with 2 variations that you may have never heard, but I found them to be fun and entertaining.
The first video is titled "The Twelve Days of Homeschooling" which I found funny as a homeschool mom myself to my four children (with child #5 in the womb :) )
This second video is the group Straight No Chaser singing a creative and entertaining version called "12 Days of Christmas Medley".
On this second day of Christmas, I wish you a Merry Christmas from our family to yours!
I recently read Tiffany's plans that she did for all the 12 days of Christmas and it was all just so beautiful and impressive so I am linking to Tiffany's page, Catholic 12 Days of Christmas, over at Family At The Foot Of The Cross for my own future reference and to share the lovely ideas that Tiffany has done with her family during this holy season! Maybe one year I will be able to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas as beautifully as she did! Thanks Tiffany!
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I'm Tracy. I love my faith, family and on most days, homeschooling my 5 blessings. When I'm not busy baking cakes for my family or making memories in real life or dreaming I had a housekeeper or professional chef, I enjoy documenting a slice of Smith life in blog land.
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