Calvin's Baptism

Today was Calvin's baptism at church. It was such an amazing experience. I used to be strongly against infant baptism. This was before I understood the beauty of Covenant Theology. Within this framework, the sacrament of baptism is an amazing picture of God's promises to us.

Uncle Peter took these pictures and captured this great shot of Dan & William

During Ray's description of baptism, our Wiggle Worm William gave me some quiet snuggles.

Dan showing off Calvin

Calvin's baptism

We were so fortunate to share this, not only with our church family, but also with Dan's brother and sister-in-law and our nieces and nephew. They came down to visit from North Carolina and we were so thrilled that they were able to be a part of this special day with us.

After church, the kiddos enjoyed a game of checkers while Sheepshead played in the narthex at church. A wonderful morning... until William had a meltdown :)

Favorite Recipes

I'm not an individual that LOVES to cook. That being said, I do like to eat. So I thought I'd list some of our Go-To recipes. These are the ones that we eat regularly - meaning, my kids like them, they're relatively easy to put together and generally healthy.

Beef Stroganoff - Crock pot recipe
Turkey Tetrazzini - Usually I'm not a casserole fan, but this I like. I usually make it in the morning, put it in the fridge and heat it up right before dinner. Generally, I'm not a big leftover fan, but I really like this reheated the next day.
Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce, Asparagus & Peas - Not make-ahead, but super quick & a lot of flavor.
Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas & Mushrooms
Chunky Potato & Swiss Chowder - Sneaky way to get the kids to eat some veggies. They love this.

Calvin - All Clean

Calvin LOVES his baths. I only wish I could give them to him more frequently.

Pre-Bath (and boy did he need one...)

and now... ALL CLEAN

Favorite Reads

William really enjoys reading. He enjoys reading books together before bedtime or just on his own too. He's a delayed talker and still doesn't have a huge vocabulary, but this is one activity we love to do together and minimizes his frustration at not being able to communicate clearly. Some of our favorites are:
Brown Bear
Goodnight Moon
Go Dog, Go
Red Hat, Blue Hat

Folder of Lost Pics

I LOVE Windows 7 Photo Viewer, however, it's only on our laptop and I usually do most photo stuff on our stationary desktop which has Windows XP. I'm not a fan of the Photo Application in Windows XP, so I usually use Picasa. However, I'm not a huge fan of Picasa either. I've yet to find a great way to organize my photos. For now, I'm dealing with Picasa, but often I'll "overlook" a photo or miss it. So, here are some recent "Lost Pics" due to my disorganized photos.

Our Small Group Babies
At the beginning of this year, we had 5 couples in our small group. Within a 2 month spread, 4 of the 5 couples had babies. (One isn't pictured here).
This is Calvin, Lorelai & Lydia.



Being Ornery
This is William in Time-Out. It's so sweet when he gets in trouble, because he'll just run over and stand in his Time-Out Corner. He doesn't fuss or throw a tantrum. Sometimes, he will put on a super cute Pout-Face and I was so happy to have the camera ready this time.



Rough-Housing
A recurring event in our house is roughhousing. Dan will come home from work and the boys will immediately scream "DADDY", run and jump on him.



Hiker Boy
Dan & William recently went on a hike. William loves the outdoors. They went on a 1.3 mile hike and Will walked the whole time. Dan was expecting to carry him for at least 1/2 of it. He had a great time exploring leaves.



Boys with Grampy
My dad recently came to visit. It was a good thing he has 2 knees.



Animal Lover

Will really likes his (and Worthy's) stuffed animals. Worthy was never big into animals, so this was a bit of a surprise. He loves to carry them all over the house, from room to room and even outside onto the lanai. He likes them in whatever room he's in.



Recent Calvin
He's getting so big so fast. Already 2 months old.