Vegas Baby!

For Easter my mom's entire family (7 brothers and sisters, kids, grandkids, etc) gathered in Las Vegas for the McLoughlin Family Reunion 2011- being the good catholics that we are there was no better place to celebrate Easter than sin city- I am sure Grandpa was quite pleased- ha ha. Ellie and Tripp had an amazing time will of their cousins and this trip once again reminded me (not that I really needed reminding) about what an incredible family the McLoughlin family is and I am so lucky to be a part of such an amazing group of people. My grandparents, Grandpa and Grandma, to me define what success is- they have a family that they created in which they instilled the importance of family and God that even after my grandpa is no longer with us we recognize how special our family is and how important it is for us to continue to gather together- and we did- all of us were present for a grandtotal of 50! It was a fabulous trip and I am so happy that my children have such wonderful examples to look up to! enjoy the pics.

I Am Blessed!

Lately I have been reminded (far to many times it seems) how precious life is and how blessed me and my small family really are. It seems I am constantly hearing stories of unexpected/tragic loss, sick babies (the worst) and just reminders that we can never take any day for granted. I look at my own life and am just overwhelmed with how happy we are and I just want to press the pause button so that this happiness never passes. Not to say we do not have our normal children "challenges" for instance Tripp has been teething nonstop for 2 weeks which means many a sleepless night for mommy but just the other night when I was feeding him at 1 am I was confronted with the "sad" fact that I will not always have to wake up with him in the middle of the night. Many of you wonder how can she be sad about this but I know in my heart that there will be a day I will get plenty of sleep and I will miss having my little boy curled up in my arms in the middle of the night with me being the only person in the world that can comfort him. Being a mommy is hard but it is by far the most rewarding job ever- even on the tough days. My children provide me joy at some point everyday and all I pray is that we stay healthy and safe together as a family- as all the rest is just details! I also pray that even in those trying moments I can take a deep breath and remember that such challenges are so miniscule in comparison to other's struggles and I am one lucky mommy.