Lent 2022

I don't often post about religion on my blog largely because for me I keep my faith journey mostly private. The quick background on me is that I was raised Catholic {so was Brent} to parents who were Catholic {my mom} and Methodist {my dad} which is the same for Brent except flip his parents. My parents both went to the Catholic church together, but my dad has never converted. Brent and I were married in the Catholic church, and he agreed with my desire to raise our kids Catholic.

One of my favorite pictures from our wedding - you can see how pretty the church is!

Some big milestones in our family {in case you wanted to go back in time}:

Trent's Baptism

Drew's Baptism

Trent's First Holy Communion

Paige's Baptism

Drew's First Holy Communion

This year, I decided to be very intentional with my Lent. A lot of times I haven't really done anything or did something half-hearted or more self-serving {always tied to losing weight ha}. This year I decided to focus on:

1) Sacrifice

2) Growing my relationship with God

3) Growing the kids' relationship with God

So here's what I've decided to do!

1) Give up fast food - we don't eat a TON of fast food, but I sure do enjoy it! I've already had a few instances of being around some and definitely felt the sacrifice of not even '1 little bite'!

2) Reading the Bible - a co-worker {hi Morgan!} told me about an app called ReadScripture that has a daily video {5-8 minutes}, a few chapters from the Bible, and 1 Psalm to read daily. It takes maybe 10 minutes a day! Kristen {the bestie} and I are doing this together, and it's great to have an accountability partner and also someone to talk to about Lent/what we're reading/growing in our faith.

3) I signed up for a Lenten challenge at church - I get an email every day with something to think about and something extra to consider doing. Today's challenge was avoiding social media for the day, so that's what I'm doing today!

4) I'm working to be more intentional with praying with the kids and also want to go to Stations of the Cross on a Friday.

I'm excited to be more intentional this year and see where and how I grow!

Drew's First Holy Communion

On Sunday, May 2, Drew celebrated her First Holy Communion! Due to Covid, Drew didn't go to church for religious education classes this year, and we did the lessons at home with me as her teacher. It was a pretty good experience for both of us, but usually my mom is the teacher at church, and I'm sad she missed out on that opportunity.

Normally, there is 1 mass that is specifically for the First Communion kiddos, but this year {again due to Covid} they split the kids up, so Drew was with 4 other kids. My parents, Brent's parents, and my sister with her kids came. I was so glad they were able to join us!

Drew was SO excited! And here is the big reveal of her dress!

Didn't it turn out amazing? I love that my mother-in-law made it.

And the big moment!

Posing with the other kids and our new priest, Fr. Piega

A couple of funny things about this picture:

1) the girl to the right of Drew is technically YOUNGER than Drew. 

The height difference blew my mind.

2) Drew did NOT want to wear a veil, which was fine. I wanted her to be happy.

But Trent commented on the other girls being way overdressed, ha.

This picture gives me all the feels.

One lucky girl! She loves and is SO loved by all 4 of her grandparents.

After the service, we went and had hamburgers with my parents, sister, and her kids at a local place that has an outdoor play space. It wasn't a fancy party or anything, but we had a great time celebrating!

Easter Weekend 2019 Rewind

Oh man, I feel like I got hit by a bus! This has been such a busy weekend but oh so fun! I love when we get to spend a lot of time with family, but remind me next year to take the Monday off after Easter, ha. Especially because the big kids had a 4-day weekend and Paige had a 3-day one!

We started off our weekend right, by having our new golf cart delivered! Brent's been wanting a new one for a while with a backseat so the whole family could ride SAFELY together. So he finally made that dream a reality!

The girls picked their spots right away.

And isn't Drew ADORABLE in her ballet outfit.

Saturday morning deep thoughts between Brent and Paige.

While sharing Pringles!

Trent spent Friday night with his friend, Jaxon, 

so Saturday morning was his first chance to ride on the golf cart. 

We spent Saturday at my parents' house with my mom's side of the family. My sister's family was going to spend the night, so Trent and Drew finagled a sleepover for themselves too.

Baby Harper was the star of the show!

Hunting eggs!

Drew picked this outfit out at Target a few weeks back.

She has been SO excited to wear it AND to hunt eggs!

2nd cousins! {The hiders and hunters}

Checking out all her loot - so sweet.

Chalk outlines - this made me laugh - they all look like dead bodies.

Frisbee tossing

Such a comedian and such a cutie!

Forced picture-taking

Sisters!!!!!!!!!!

Babs and Paige

When the chalk gets wet...it's bathtime!

The Swope Six...before the littlest had to go home.

Sunday morning we had a great church service - my sister came with her kids, so my mom was very happy! It was a little bit insane with all 6 of the kids, but I loved having everyone together.

LOOK AT MY CUTIES!!!!!!!!!!

We went to Brent's parents' Sunday afternoon and hunted eggs and Nana also got a pinata. Brent's brother and his wife weren't there because one of our nephew's had a golf tournament, so we only had 4 kids. They had a great time being spoiled though!

My mother-in-law got Paige her own watering can because hers are too heavy.

She was so excited to be able to water all the plants!

We stayed up too late, ate too much food, and had too much fun! The weather is turning beautiful, we're really in the sweet spot of the year!! Gets me so excited for the summer fun that is coming!!

Paige and Rhett's Baptism

Yesterday, we baptized Paige and Rhett! The more children Kristen and I have, the harder it is to coordinate anything, so I'm so happy we finally got this accomplished. {grin}

I knew I wanted to have Schuyler and Kristen be Paige's Godparents. They are also Trent's {his baptism is here} and Drew's {her baptism is here}, and she has always been more than a best friend to me - she's also helped me in my faith journey in countless ways - so it's a no brainer for us to choose them. [And to quote Drew's baptism post: I joked that they better not get sick of Gurley children because if there are more, they are stuck being Godparents again!' See? No brainer.]

What makes it super special is I'm Beau's Godmother {her baptism is here}, and this time they asked Brent and me to be Rhett's Godparents. Originally Kristen wanted Rhett to be baptized at their childhood parish in Pensacola {where Beau was baptized}, but it was way too hard to coordinate that, so I suggested the double baptism, and we both got INSANELY excited.

Terrible picture, but see my face? 

That's how my heart has felt ever since we came up with this idea.

Other fun facts about Paige's baptism: she is wearing the dress my mother-in-law, Janet, made for Drew's baptism, and Beau also wore the dress. I love traditions like this! I plan on saving it forever, and I hope I have granddaughters who will wear it someday! Also, Janet bought Paige the same bonnet she bought Drew - you untie the back of the bonnet and it becomes a handkerchief for her to carry down the aisle on her wedding day - I mean come on! - but Paige kept pulling it off her head the minute we got it on, so no pictures in the bonnet, ha.

So enough talking - let's see this ceremony!

Fr. Adrian was a little confused when he called us up to the front of the church because he was expecting 2 sets of parents and 2 sets of Godparents. We had to explain we were the parents AND Godparents, ha!

I don't think we have any great pictures of this, but Beau and Drew are wearing matching dresses. I sent Kristen a text of the dress I bought for Drew to wear, and she said Beau had it, so since they were baptized in the same dresses, it seemed perfect to have them wear matching dresses to their little siblings baptisms.

Playing with Rhett's feet is so fun!

You can see the matching dresses here a little bit.

All smiles!

Yay!!!!!!!

Yay again!!!!!!!

Busy drawing

Trent was really proud to help out and light Paige's candle.

A blessing for the mothers

Presenting the babies! Another cheesy grin from me!

Afterwards, everyone came to our house and we had pizza and cake! 2 mamas with full-time jobs and 5 kids between us meant we wanted an easy celebration! I did bake and decorate the cake, but it was 100% store-bought ingredients and not my best decorating work. Drew helped me decide the design, and she put the sprinkles on - she's a great assistant!

It may not be the prettiest, but it sure means a lot!

Not the easiest to read, but it's the babies monograms with a heart in the middle.

Now we are 100% done baptizing Gurley babies. We'll see what those Williamsons end up doing... {grin}

Trent's First Communion

On May 20, Trent received his First Holy Communion. He was enrolled in religious education classes all year {with Babs as his teacher!}, and the culmination was this event. I was so excited and proud...and he was not, ha. Such a boy, that one!

Friday evening was his class play AND the dress rehearsal for First Communion, so we had to get to church early and practice with just the Director of Religious Education. They had a photographer there to take some posed shots of the kids, and Trent was being so uncooperative until the photographer started talking about Pokemon. Then he was putty in her hand!

Griping about me trying to fix his hair

This picture cracks me up. His life is so miserable isn't it?

Oh? You know what Pokemon is? Maybe I don't hate this so much.

GQ Model

Then he practiced with Ms. Diane

Finally! A smile!

Discussing where I can go QUICKLY to buy a belt. Did you notice T isn't wearing a belt in any of these pics? When Brent was helping him get dressed, we realized he doesn't have a belt, ha. I stressed and stressed over his outfit and never even thought to get a belt!

So we left and had just a little bit of time for us to stop and get a belt and get him changed into his costume for the play. THEN I realized he also hadn't eaten and wouldn't be home until easily 8:30...#momfail. So at Wal-Mart {ugh} we found a belt {that is reversible between black and brown and was $7! Score!}, got him a Lunchable and some chips {ugh} and also found a Dan TDM t-shirt. Trent is OBSESSED with this guy - he's a British gamer who has a bajillion YouTube videos playing Minecraft. He's like 24 and totally adorable in a nerdy gamer way. Trent FREAKED when he saw they had t-shirts, so of course I had to buy him one!

The next day we got everybody into their Sunday best and loaded up for church. Brent has now been to our church for Trent's baptism, Drew's baptism, and now Trent's communion. He'll have to go again this summer for Paige's baptism - the horror! Trent's godparents, Kristen and Schuyler, also came with their kiddos, both sets of grandparents were there, and also Brent's MeMa! Of course I got zero pictures of everyone together and Trent, Drew, and Beau acted like wild animals who had never been to church! 

And finally! Trent's First Communion! Look at that belt!!

His whole class

It was a very special day, and I did tear up a little as he was receiving communion. He's been really meh about the whole thing, but the next time we went to church he was pumped to go to communion, ha.