Julie's Baptism

Sorry about the long span between posts, but it has been a crazy couple of weeks. We were out-of-town 4 out of the past 5 weekends! I am slowly trying to put my house back together, clean, and decorate for Christmas as we settle back in. Rather than writing a massive post, I think I'll catch you up through a few smaller posts.

Sunday, Nov. 7 was Julie's baptism. She was baptized in the church where I was baptized (as was Reese). We had a private ceremony which ended up being a good thing. I would have felt awful if someone else was trying to tape their child's baptism during this time. While the ceremony was beautiful and I thought it was quite moving, others may have had trouble focusing and praying because, well, we experienced a colossal meltdown from many angles. Joey, son of the godparents, was not too fond of being separated from his mommy and daddy during the ceremony at first. He did, however, eventually realize the freedom he gained from this and wandered up to the lectern and went after the Chrism before being shepherded back to his parents by Uncle Chip. Meanwhile, Reese - who was on little sleep and lots of adrenaline as she was very excited about the baptism party and her pretty pink dress - lost it. I mean LOST it. She started crying so hard that she was having trouble breathing. Needless to say, the priest elected not to preach a homily or to add any extras to the event, but he did do a great job handling the distractions. It's funny, with Reese's baptism, we have all of these pictures of her in her dress beforehand, of the event itself, and of every possible combination of family members possible. Not for Julie. We were running late before the baptism after having taken her to go see my grandmother, the event itself was a little chaotic, and with all of the crying and chaos we just didn't really take pictures afterwars. We were just ready to get to the party. Luckily Julie's godparents took a few pictures with her on their own. Ugh. Poor second child...

The party was great with yummy food, good times with our family, and a wonderful location. Here are a few of the pictures we did manage to get:

Julie's godparents (Uncle Adam and Aunt Krisitn), Joey, Todd, me and Julie

Julie squirming around

Julie being baptized!

Our happy family

Trick-or-Treat!

This year was the first time Reese was excited for Halloween. And when I say that she was excited, I mean she was EXCITED. She started counting down the days until trick-or-treating in September. Somehow dressing up for Halloween must have been brought up at school because Reese told me that she told her teachers that she wasn't going to dress up for Halloween. I thought, "Oh great, they're going to think we're some sort of conservative nuts who won't let our children participate in Halloween." So I asked Reese what she wanted to dress up as and she immediately decided on being Tinkerbell. Not that she knows who Tinkerbell is or has seen her in a movie or anything. Undoubtedly she decided on Tinkerbell because she loves her Tinkerbell dress-up clothes - a green sparkly dress and wings, what more could a girl ask for? I was of course happy because this meant that I didn't have to buy a Halloween costume :-). Of course she practiced for Halloween all month by dressing up like Tinkerbell and making the wings fly all over the house.

As with most things, the anticipation of trick-or-treating turned out to be more fun than the event itself. Reese was very excited to dress-up the day before Halloween in order to visit her great-grandmother and her grandpa, GrandJan, aunts, uncle, and cousins. By the time trick-or-treating came around, she was so excited that she was running around my mom's house. Until it came to going outside, that is. My brother and his son, Joey, joined Reese and I (Julie stayed with my mom and Dave) and we all went to my sister's house. We were outside for maybe 5 minutes before Reese asked to go back inside "to get warm." Granted it was a bit chilly. Plus she was SO excited by the 5 pieces of candy in her pumpkin - quite a large bounty for a child who never eats candy. I convinced her to go to a couple of houses with her cousins Kylie and Zoe, but only if I held her the eintire time. Joey was really cute, making my brother Adam hold his pumpkin and insisting that he open every lollipop he got on the spot so that this little Superman got to walk around with a sucker in his mouth the entire evening. It was very sweet as you can see from the pictures below.

So Reese has taken up saying, "Yessss, Sir!" in response to any question she is asked. I've told her many timese (after she has said this to me) that I am not a sir but a ma'am so she should say, "Yessss, Ma'am!" to me. Today I asked her if she wanted more food for lunch to which she responded, "Yessss, Sir! Wait, you're not a sir, you're a man!"

In other news, Julie turned 4 months this past weekend. I took her to her check-up today and she weighs a not-so-whopping 13 lbs. She is in the 95th percentile for height and only the 31st for weight. She continues to be my long, lanky, laidback little girl. She did, however, find her loud voice on Monday while visiting her great-grandmother. She is very amused by her ability to sqeal like a dolphin (or maybe more like a hurt cat...). It's fun to see her so thrilled by her new tricks. She entertained my family with her big smiles and silly giggles all weekend. I feel so lucky to have such a happy baby.

Julie cuddling up with her blankets

Julie and Papa

Looking out the window

Tinkerbell is all business getting ready for trick-or-treating

Reese and Joey

Superman's sucker

Cousin Zoe

Reese and Kylie