Charlie's baptism

So we finally did it.  She's just over 2 years old and we finally got her baptised.  The thing is, we don't belong to a church up here.  Yes, we've been living up here for 8 years now and we've gone to church, just never joined.  So when it came time to get Charlie baptised we weren't sure where to get it done.  Wade's mom asked her church (the church Wade went to when he was growing up) if we could have it done there and they turned her down.  TURNED DOWN baptising a child.  Whose own grandmother is a member and whose own father used to be a member.  I'm not so sure God would be ok with that.  I think it is atrocious that a church would turn down baptising a child let alone one where a direct family member is a current member.  So that didn't pan out obviously and we just placed it on the back burner. 

Fast forward a bit and we found out one of our good family friends, Thom, was going to school to get his pastorial license!  What a great sign!  All the waiting was meant to be!  It would mean so much more to have someone we know and love do the baptism.  So I jumped and (no pressure) asked him if he would be willing to baptize Charlie once he got his license.  He said he'd be honored and so we waited.  It just so turned out that the original timing put her 2nd birthday as the opportune time to do it but unfortunately God had other plans and Thom's licensing was on hold for another couple months.  And so it got pushed to October.  And I'm happy to report Charlie is finally baptized!

Last weekend in a sweet ceremony in front of about a dozen family and friends and even more church members we've never met, Charlie was christened!  Thom did a fantastic job!  We'd never have known it was his first ever baptism if he hadn't told us!  I am glad that his first of many to come got to be with our lil sweet pea. 

Charlie did what I knew she would do and screamed bloody murder but thanks to Thom making it special for her she quickly stopped as soon as he had a giant picture of Happy Feet shot up on an overhead screen.  To which she stopped crying, pointed and said "Happy!!!"  To cute.

So THANK YOU Thom!  And Katie and Jill!  And all of our family and friends that made the trip to her baptism.  It meant a lot to us and I know even though Charlie won't remember it she will be able to look back at the pictures and see all who care soooooo much about her.  It was a wonderful experience.

Love,

Kel 

Now that it's almost September...

I guess I should really work on blogging more!  The month of August is gone and I only posted once this month!  I'm not even sure where the time went...

Some quick updates:  I finally got a new job and start Sept. 5th.  I have mixed feelings about this.  I haven't worked full time in over 2 years and I'm really going to miss my time I had to spend just Charlie and me.  But I know we need this job (the extra $ will definitely help) and the job sounds like it's going to be a great fit for me.  I think I'll really like it once I get started but I think I'll miss Charlie too...

We traveled down to Des Moines last weekend to celebrate Brayden's baptism.  We had just seen him 3 weeks prior but I swear he is a whole new baby!  He looked twice the size and is already holding up his weight on his legs (w/ help keeping him stable).  He smiles so much now too and is such a sweet boy.  I love the lil dude.

Not thrilled to be getting her pic taken at the moment.

Charlie is learning so much at such a rapid rate.  I think she learns several new words every day and continues to amaze me when she says something new.  She's conquering fears left and right as well.  Going down a slide alone?  No problem!  Climbing up high on playground equipment?  Done.  Riding her trike super fast down our driveway aimed straight at oncoming traffic?  Check.  Yep, we've definitely got to stay on our toes around this one now!  She's fast and curious.  Two lethal combinations.  But her squeals of happiness while doing these things?  Priceless.  I love this girl so much.

We've been working on potty training, but it's just that: a work in progress.  We can get her to pee in her potty but not poo.  And she'll only go on it if we ask her continuously and bribe her with M&M's.  We'll get there eventually so I'm not putting too much stress on her.

Since I have been a bad blogger I forgot to post her 2 year stats.  She's still a tiny lil peanut weighing in at a massive 21 pounds 9 ounces, which puts her in the 1st percentile again.  She's 33 inches tall which puts her in the 27th percentile for height.  Seems her height has dropped down b/c up until now she'd always been on the taller side for her age.  She must be getting on track to be a shorty like her mama. 

Still loving Minnie!

Other than that nothing too major going on.  Just enjoying our summer weather and being outdoors as much as possible.  Winter will be here before we know it.  I'm dreading it.

I'll try to stay on top of things here in blog land and post more regularly.  I really have no excuses not to.  Just pure laziness on my part!

Xoxo~
Kel

Easter Recap

Modeling her new shades!

I was really looking forward to Easter w/ Charlie this year.  Granted she is still a bit too young to understand the reason behind the holiday, but that doesn't mean she's too young to get an Easter basket and go on an egg hunt!

I was so excited to see her reaction to her Easter basket and the toys and candy in it.  The night before Wade and I had placed it all out on the TV stand and filled the plastic eggs w/ some Reese's candy eggs.  When she woke up Wade got her a new diaper while I made some coffee and then waited in the living room for her to walk in.  We pointed out her basket and told her the Easter Bunny had stopped by last night and left her some treats!  Her look was more like a 'What the heck is that?' look but it was quickly followed by excitement to tear into all the eggs and basket goodies.  It was a lot of fun to watch her.

Watching the little bunny hop hop hop

Her favorite part of her basket was her new Mickey doll

Look Mommy, eggs!

Easter breakfast (please ignore the gross snot nose)

We decided to wait until after nap time to do the egg hunt so that the weather would hopefully warm up some.  The morning was just too cold!  So as soon as Charlie woke from her nap we told her that while she was sleeping we found some more goodies that the Easter Bunny had left her in our back yard!  She took off when she saw the first egg and didn't stop until she had them all in her basket!  She LOVED it!  She's an egg hunting pro!

And she's off!

Here's 2 more!

  

Mickey joined in the Easter egg hunt

Kobe and Charlie

Chilling w/ Daddy

Flying high!

We had a very nice and blessed Easter and I hope you all did too.  We really should have gone to church services but Charlie has been battling a cold (which lucky me, I now have) and her patience is nil at this moment.  I know I would have spent the majority of the service out in the lobby walking around with her fussing and I just didn't want to deal with that.  Pick your battles, right?  :)

Anyway, happy late Easter!
Kel

Hoppy Easter! (B/c NOBODY ever says Hoppy in place of Happy)

Charlie's first Easter! It's a beautiful day out and the Moh's invited us to join them for Easter service! I got Charlie all decked out in her most adorable dress and tights and we were off. She did very well during the service. Luckily the service was only 35 minutes long b/c she was starting to get fussy towards the end. Only a few minor squeals out of her but no crying fest so I consider that a success. And I almost forgot! My favorite quote from the service came from little Mason to Charlie: "Do you know Jesus? He's a baby!" SO cute! :)

Today also marks the one year anniversary of Paps passing away. It's bittersweet. I know it was his time obviously. He lived a good life and was in bad shape at the end, starting to fall apart not only physically but his memory wasn't working so well either. But I selfishly wanted him to make it until Charlie was born. I wanted him to be able to meet his first great-grandchild. I miss him a lot...

I also got my hair chopped! Six inches cut off and copper tones added in for fun. I wanted a change and I really like it! So glad I have a great hairstylist who can help me with these decisions! :)

Anyway, what's an Easter post without pictures of little Charlie in her Easter best???

Hoppy Easter my Peeps! :)

We Will Remember

Everyone remembers where they were the moment they heard of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. I was at my ex’s house and had just woken up. I was walking to the front door to head to my place and get ready for class (yes, the walk of shame). His roommate was watching the TV and looked at us and said “you’re not going to believe this”. He was right. I remember staring at the TV and thinking to myself, it’s got to be a bad joke. Is today April 1st?

The rest of the day went by in a blur of complete shock. I went to class just to tear myself away from the TV and all the horrible images, but I still couldn't get it out of my head. It was impossible for me to comprehend the massive size of this tragedy at first. I knew it was bad, but it wasn’t until later when they started with the videos from ground zero, watching the people run in fear covered in dust, watching the people jump from the windows instead of burning to death, and then the listing of all the casualties and watching the number tick higher and higher, that it really sunk in hard. These are innocent Americans. People who have families; mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, grandparents and children. Americans who love their lives filled w/ freedom and peace. Why would someone want to take that away? What cowardly bastards would do this type of thing to our great country?

I didn’t have any friends or family in New York and no one I knew was flying at the time so I was lucky to not have been affected by it in that way. However it was impossible to not let it affect you in some way. I went to church w/ my roommate, Kristin. She is Catholic, I am Lutheran, but I joined her at her church since I didn’t belong to one in my college town. It was the most heartbreaking and touching sermon I have ever attended. I am sad to say, that was the last time I’ve been to church (not counting weddings and such). I really need to find a church up here. We’ve been living here for 4 years now. Although I wouldn’t say I am the greatest Lutheran, I am a firm believer that you can have a relationship with God anywhere and not just by attending a church. But still, I’m putting it on my to-do list.

So, where were you when you first heard of the attack?

Victims of 9/11 R.I.P.

We will never forget you.