You're Always #1 with Me!!

Well......the Concordia Cavaliers appeared in the National Championship Final today and after a well fought fight, came up short to take second place in the NAIA Finals. This was their first loss (0-3) of their ENTIRE season so obviously it was tough to swallow....also to include tough for Caitlin as it was her last soccer game after so many years of playing the game. While they may disappointed, I am so proud of their record and the team for an incredible season and for getting to the FINALS...it was an exciting week to get here today and we enjoyed watching every second of it (on the computer and today big screen!). Click to see the REVIEW and STATS of today's game. Caitlin also (like so many throughout her soccer years) received several recognitions to include the Scholar Athlete Award and her name can be seen listed HERE...she also got on the 2008 NAIA Women’s Soccer National Championship All-Tournament Team and also an Honorable Mention for the 2008 NAIA Women's Soccer All-America Teams. She has served her team so well especially as Captain these past two years and even voted the Character Award this year. So.....I know today was tough, but what a way to end the soccer story....an undefeated season and playing in the National FINAL....we are so proud of you Caitlin...Here we were cheering you on....

All decorated for the big game

I think an award for getting to the finals......

This is when they are getting the second place trophy and the coach hands it to Caitlin and another captain (poor Caitlin is wiping away tears..)..but if you listen you can hear my dad yell "Hold it HIGH!!" They deserve it!!

And...I believe getting something for the All-American Team (I could be wrong, but we loved hearing her name!!)

So, while I know it has to be very bittersweet for Caitlin right now ending this soccer season...I too have been reflecting on all the seasons I have watched her play. From the Pink Dragons, to Lightning, to her select teams, CK High School, and now Concordia...we have seen many a soccer game. I always thought she was "one of the best"...but then I am bias I guess. But her beautiful corner kicks and crosses from the side will be remembered and missed by many that watched her play. I will miss watching that blond pony tail bob behind her as she runs, the beautiful way she encouraged her team and the excitement she gave us watching in all the games. I will miss yelling "Go CV" and bundling up to bear the cold fall games....but I am so thankful I was able to be a part of it and one of her biggest fans...I am so thankful she found such a huge passion and lived it to its fullest and I look forward to her sharing it and teaching her nieces and nephews the way of the game!!! Love you lots sis and Congrats for today and for all your soccer achievements....no matter what the scoreboards show....you are always #1 with me!!!

Happy Saint Nicholas Day

Patron Saint of Children

God, we pray that through theintercessions of St. Nicholas

you will guide and protect our children.

Keep them safe from all harm and help them grow to become

loving disciples of Jesus in your sight.

Give them strength to always mature into deeper faith in you,

and to keep alive joy in your creation.

Through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!! We have been trying to figure out how we want to celebrate this special day in our family. We have some time to keep adding some traditions as the girls are still young to do and participate in a lot of the ideas I have. But, we have decided that along with the nuts and clementines and chocolate gold coins that will appear in the shoes....we are going to a holy card, book either on Saint Nicholas himself or other religious story, and a religious ornament that they can add to their collection each year and take with them when they leave home. Angel was very excited last night as we read about Saint Nicholas and how he took care and loved the children and gave them treats. So many stories and legends about truly this unknown Saint compared to others. I found THIS SITE a lot of fun to find fun ideas to celebrate the day and a lot about Saint Nicholas. Hoping to get some cookie cutters for next year and come up with a Saint Nick breakfast!! Any fun ideas you do for today??

HERE WE COME!!!!

It's Official...The Concordia Cavaliers WON the semifinals today and advanced to the NATIONALS FINALS!!! We were ready to cheer them on today with blue and white decorations, and lots of fans....within the first 12 minutes we scored!!! (this was the #1 ranked team so we were all so excited....then if we could just hold on)....then CAITLIN (yes my sister) had a GORGEOUS goal to give them a 2-0 lead (I believe only her second goal of the season). And to top it off in the last SECOND of the game, we scored again to win 3-0. CHECK HERE for the review. Thanks to all the fans that came and helped us cheer her on, it was lots of fun. If you want to come over tomorrow for the FINAL GAME, it starts at 3 pm!!! Go CAVS and GO CAITLIN.

Novena in honor of...

...Our Lady of Guadalupe...Feast Day December 12th.

First Day

Dearest Lady of Guadalupe, fruitful Mother of holiness, teach me your ways of gentleness and strength. Hear my humble prayer offered with heartfelt confidence to beg this favor......

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Second Day

O Mary, conceived without sin, I come to your throne of grace to share the fervent devotion of your faithful Mexican children who call to you under the glorious Aztec title of Guadalupe. Obtain for me a lively faith to do your Son’s holy will always: May His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Third Day

O Mary, whose Immaculate Heart was pierced by seven swords of grief, help me to walk valiantly amid the sharp thorns strewn across my pathway. Obtain for me the strength to be a true imitator of you. This I ask you, my dear Mother.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Fourth Day

Dearest Mother of Guadalupe, I beg you for a fortified will to imitate your divine Son’s charity, to always seek the good of others in need. Grant me this, I humbly ask of you.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Fifth Day

O most holy Mother, I beg you to obtain for me pardon of all my sins, abundant graces to serve your Son more faithfully from now on, and lastly, the grace to praise Him with you forever in heaven.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Sixth Day

Mary, Mother of vocations, multiply priestly vocations and fill the earth with religious houses which will be light and warmth for the world, safety in stormy nights. Beg your Son to send us many priests and religious. This we ask of you, O Mother.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Seventh Day

O Lady of Guadalupe, we beg you that parents live a holy life and educate their children in a Christian manner; that children obey and follow the directions of their parents; that all members of the family pray and worship together. This we ask of you, O Mother.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Eighth Day

With my heart full of the most sincere veneration, I prostrate myself before you, O Mother, to ask you to obtain for me the grace to fulfill the duties of my state in life with faithfulness and constancy.

Our father, Hail Mary, Glory.

Ninth Day

O God, You have been pleased to bestow upon us unceasing favors by having placed us under the special protection of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. Grant us, your humble servants, who rejoice in honoring her today upon earth, the happiness of seeing her face to face in heaven.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory.

I want MORE!

Finally (like they haven't been busy or anything) my sister's hubby put up a few pics....here are a couple.....although I want to see MORE!!

The New Mama to "Bertie"

The Sturhahn Family

Proud Marmee...three grandkids in less than three years!

Calling all FANS!!!

Well, if you want to see a good game....tune in this Friday and watch CAITLIN and the CU CAVALIERS in the SEMIFINALS of the Women's Soccer National Championship. Yes....they won the Quarterfinals today! After another GREAT but nail biter game....we were up 1-0 until the last 5 minutes of the game...when it got tied up. But in the first 92 seconds of sudden death overtime...we scored and took the WIN.....still UNDEFEATED for the year!! Caitlin had a great game, despite the two small injuries and the UNDESERVED yellow card....ridiculous. We are so excited as we were not expected to win this game, we never beat this team before. Check out the STATS and REVIEW!! So.....I hope all the fans are cheering and watching if you can when they play on Friday at 2 PST...wish we could be in FL watching (we did check airfares, but too expensive for all of us to go)....so if you are a local and would like to watch the game WITH US....we can cheer them on here!! Go to the NAIA site if you want to watch it LIVE. GO CAVS GO....good luck....we love you Caitlin!!

Albert Gregory has Arrived!!

Totally excited to announce the birth of my new nephew and GODSON, Albert Gregory Sturhahn!! He arrived at 8:12pm EST and weighed in at 7 pounds 13 ounces (not small at all for 3 weeks early!) and 20.5 inches long!!! Mom and Baby are doing quite well, although I wish I could talk to them more and be there and I WANT TO SEE PICTURES!!! Amazing to think I now have 5 nephews and 6 nieces....although this is the first niece/nephew on my side of the family and my first GODCHILD!! Can't wait to hug and meet him. And did I say SEND PICTURES??? Thanks to everyone's prayers!!

Thanksgiving Recap

We had a very nice and low-key Thanksgiving this year. It started off first with Mass in our newly renovated GORGEOUS church....will have to post about that later and hopefully have some pics to show. Then we gathered up all the fixins I was in charge of and headed over to my parents house. We spent the day getting food together, doing arts and craft Thanksgiving projects and traditions and enjoying each other's company especially since my sister Caitlin was home from college and my PopPop was there. Of course we had to try and get some pictures...last year we got a great one of the whole family by setting the automatic camera up...so we tried it again....and got a pretty good one after many attempts of trying to get a very confused Emma to look at the camera and the dolly we put behind it...she did not know what was going on. I have some hilarious shots of Jason and Caitlin while I was setting the camera up being silly in the slide show...take a look. Also when we went outside, Emma was fascinated with the birds and Angel was terrified of a dog...so it made for some very entertaining and draining picture taking and some candid shots...also in the slide show. The girls were in heaven coloring and eating and playing all day...yes, they missed their naps and after the delicious dinner....they crashed!! Well, first Angel decided to literally crash and burn over her feet and busted her bottom lip open. So with ice on lip, she fell asleep and Emma decided she was tired as well....and she didn't even eat a lot of turkey!! I made a new dessert recipe called Chocolate Caramel Slice (thanks to my friend Kate for the recipe) and a new potato recipe,Mustard Roasted Potatoes. All the other foods were family favorites and as always delicious. We went around the table that night saying what we were thankful for and for the most part it was the faces sitting around the table....nothing like the love of family and friends, we are truly blessed with that!! Hope your Thanksgiving was just as wonderful....(I posted our crafts in another post below....quite fun..thinking I enjoy it just as much as the kids!)

Thanksgiving Crafts

We enjoyed some arts and crafts for Thanksgiving this year...continuing old traditions and starting new ones. My mom started this first one and Jason and I have done one every year since we got married...it is the We Are Thanksful Poster. You get some of your favorites pictures of the last year and put them on a poster. We do this Thanksgiving Day and it is lots of fun to look through all of them and put it together. Then we have it laminated to protect it. I have found a way for now (until there are too many) to hang them. I punch two holes at the top and connect with a metal ring and hang on a small dowel rod.....We love looking at all the pics hanging up throughout the year and amazing to look through the past ones as well!!

Ever since I got married I have enjoyed making place cards for each person at the dinner table. This year, Angel helped!! We used her little hand to paint turkeys and it was lots of fun....especially putting the googly eyes on them!

This year I made the girls some Indian feather hats....although had trouble keeping Angel's feathers straight and Emma just wanted to pull hers off!I also started a new tradition we hope to do every year. I printed out templates of leaves and we all enjoyed coloring our own sheet....ok we helped with Emma's. Then we all (again we helped Emma this year) thought of things we were thankful for and wrote one on each leaf. Then I put together our "Thankful Tree" on Thanksgiving and it has been our table centerpiece since....yes I know, now I need out the Advent decorations...I am just behind schedule!! Anyways....I hope to keep the leaves in an envelope labeled with the year and look back at them as time goes by!!
Any fun and neat crafts you do for the holiday??

Prayers Please....Baby Sturhahn

My sister Meghan called me at 630 this morning, so I immediately knew it was baby news. She went in for her check up today (her due date is the 20th) to find out she is already 5 cm dilated....I guess that uncomfortable feeling Megs the last couple of days has been LABOR!! (reminds me of how it all happened with Emma...a bad night sleep was active labor!) So the labor nerves are starting....the doc wants her to come to the hospital and will see what happens next....Mom of course (just like Emma's birth) is in Daytona, FL for Caitlin's national soccer tournament....so she is busily making her way to the airport to catch the next flight out to NYC...at least this time she is on the right coast!! So please pray for a safe labor and delivery and a healthy baby boy!! We will keep you posted!! Wish I could beam myself to NYC!!!

A Prayer to St. Gerard for Safe Delivery
O great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted child of Mother of God, enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love.
O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine Master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the patron and protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the purifying and life-giving waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

*And while I think they have the name picked out, here are the Saints of the Day...hehe.*
St. Bibiana
St. Chromatius
St. Lupus of Verona
St. Pontian