Elise's Big Day

This past weekend, Elise had a big day--she was baptized! The baptism went very well and Elise did great. She fell asleep at the beginning of Mass and slept soundly through most of it. She even slept when the holy water was poured on her head. Guess she thought it was a soothing bath! She did wake up at one point, but then it was back to dream land. It wasn't until church was over and well wishers came to congratulate us that she decided to fully wake up and squawk a little. After church, we enjoyed a delicious lunch at our favorite restaurant with our family and friends in attendance. In all, it was a wonderful day.


The big moment

Happy girl!

Elise's extended family (minus Grandpa, who was playing photographer)

With Grandpa and Grandma (or as Sloane called them all weekend, "Gampa" which is Grandpa and "Gampa Gampa" which is Grandma)

Her Godparents, Will and Danielle

Blair was crying about some injury she just received. Why am I not surprised?? She averages an injury every 10 minutes. She's definitely our "fragile" girl.

I just liked this picture. (That's the slip that goes under the gown. I decided to use it because you never know when a diaper blowout will occur. And it seems like every poopy diaper lately is a blowout.)

Did somebody say lunch!?!

Her gown was beautiful, but you wouldn't have known that to look at it at the beginning. For the other kids' baptisms, I've never had a problem finding a gown. I always go a couple days before the big event and am able to find a nice dress that's not too outrageous in price. So I went to 2 different department stores to look for a gown and I found a total of 7 dresses. Six of them were one ugly style and the other one was another ugly style. I disliked both of them equally, so we just picked one and brought it home. The good thing about it was that it was on clearance, so the $80 dress ended up only costing $15, including tax. I was at least comforted by the fact that I didn't have to pay a lot for a hideous dress. So I brought it home and said, "Mom, you have some work to do." She agreed and went right to work on it, and the resulting gown was astounding! I even had someone ask if it was a family heirloom! Ha! So here are the before and after...(and I mean no offense to anyone who may have this dress or one like it...I just prefer things really really simple)

Before - flapping fabric with scallop edge on top, way-too-puffy sleeves, top portion and sleeves adorned with ribbon flowers with irridescent sequins, extra layer of fabric around the skirt, open in back like a hospital gown...seriously, way too much going on.



















After - sewed in the scallop edge, tucked in the sleeves, removed the ribbon flowers and sequins, removed the extra layer of fabric around skirt, and closed up the back. Ahh, much simpler...

Now isn't that better! Yea grandma! (And I must give credit where credit is due...Jeremy actually picked this dress. The other dress option would not have been able to be altered so nicely, so yea for Jeremy for picking this dress!)

So proud of Reid!

I am so proud of Reid and I wanted everyone to know why...

First, he recently received his midterm grades and as you can see, he is doing amazingly well! He's always been a smart kid, but his tendency to be ornery sometimes overshadows (and I fear also gets in the way of) his academics. So you can imagine how excited we were to see his grades when he brought them home. (And we have received much fewer notes about his behavior this year so here's hoping it really IS a new year.)

And secondly, we had Elise's baptism this weekend, and surprise surprise, we were running late for church. Jeremy dropped the kids and me off at the front so we could run in while he parked the car. Well, church begins at 10:00am and we came running in at about 9:58. I was in such a hurry to get in that I jumped out of the car, made sure Sloane crossed the street safely, and then left her trailing behind me as I ran into the foyer to let them know we were here. (I even managed an Indiana Jones barely-slipping-through-the-closing-door-while-carrying-a-carseat-in-one-hand-and-diaper-bag-in-the-other maneuver to which some impressed random bystander commented, "Nice!" It must be that superhuman capability moms get when the need arises.) Anyway, when I looked back, I saw Sloane still outside, trying to make her way in, so I asked Reid to go get her and bring her in. Without messing around or getting distracted, he went right away and grabbed her hand and walked her over to me. He didn't run, he didn't knock her down, he didn't drag her by one arm across the floor (yes, we've had that one before); he just calmly took her hand and the next time I looked up, they were standing in front of me! Yea! Then, I realized I had my diaper bag, a blanket, and all this stuff (not to mention still had two kids with me) that I needed to get to our church seat, but I didn't have time to walk it all down to our seat and get back to my postition in the back of the church. So I put my super heavy diaper bag on Reid's shoulder, and quickly instructed him to take Sloane and the bag to our seat. Now you have to understand, asking my 7-year-old and 2-year-old (who is basically just a miniature version of her ornery big brother) to walk unsupervised down the center aisle of church is like asking someone to steal your clothes and make you walk through the mall naked. I'm talking embarrassement city here! Those two would undoubtedly result in an impromptu circus clown act, much to everyone else's amusement, but my horror. However to my relief and surprise, he didn't complain, look distracted, or anything. He just took the bag, grabbed Sloane's hand, and off they went, straight to their seats. I didn't have to run down the aisle to get them, I didn't have to pull him away from giggling with friends...they went right where they were supposed to go. Yea Reid! And then, as if it couldn't get any better, Reid sat in the row behind Jeremy and me in church, and shockingly, he actually SAT in church. Sat still and sat quietly. He didn't fidget. He didn't talk. He didn't fight with his sisters. He just SAT there! I couldn't believe it! He was so well behaved! (He told me later that he was tired so that's why he was acting like he was being good...he wasn't really being good, just acting like it because he was tired.) Oh well, whatever the cause, we'll take it. I was, and still am, so proud of his "responsible big boy" day yesterday. Yea for Reid!!



Happy Easter!... Huh?

Wow, can you believe it, I'm actually at a point where I'm caught up on my blog. How can that be?? The words "caught up" are not a normal part of my vocabulary, as I am usually always behind on everything. But today, I find myself in this unusual predicament, so I started looking for old stuff to blog about. Things that I missed back when they were current. The following is probably boring to everyone but me, but since I don't keep a photo album or a scrapbook (for the reason explained above!), this is where I come to look at old pictures. So it's important to me to include this, late as it may be.

So here's a post that I started a long time ago, but never finished. I had all the pictures, but no details were journaled, which is a bummer because it's the small details that I cherish most about our lives. In any regards, here's what I remember about Easter, 5 months later. 

Blair got this bunny costume as a late birthday gift. The white tulle skirt and wand are right up her alley.

Candy!!!

A picture so rare--they're all looking at the camera and they're acting like they like each other.

This Easter dress is SO Blair. Organza, satin, ribbon, bow, and flower. All pink. I tried talking her into a different one that was cuter (in my opinion, which should be the only opinion that matters, right?) but she would hear none of it. This is a girl that definitely knows what she likes.   

The fam...and an half-decent picture too!

I couldn't decide on a dress for Sloane. This one was chosen because when I showed it to her, she said, "Awww." I'm not sure she knew exactly what she was saying or what it meant; she had just heard me say it before. But it was enough to convince me to go with it. And it was on clearance for just $10! Bargain!

These 2 are 2 peas in a pod.

Yea! The Easter Bunny came! And for the first time in a long time, we had warm weather. Last year it rained, and the two years prior to that, we had to wear winter coats to hunt eggs!

What a loot!

Reid found one of the golden eggs!

Yea for pretty spring trees!

Fun with confetti eggs!

We were a day late on making our confetti eggs this year. It just kept getting away from us. And this was the first year to attempt dye with the kids. It went okay. Not too big of a mess.


How to make confetti eggs, or cascarones, as our friends to the south call them. (But you have to use proper Spanish pronunciation. It's more fun that way.)

1. Hollow out the eggs by poking a hole in the bottom and pouring out the whites and yokes, preferably into a frying pan. (When I was little, my friends and I would pour the insides down the sink drain. Do you know how mad I would be if my kids did that!)

2. Dye the eggs.

3. Stuff confetti inside. Don't fill it up too much or it will be hard to crack the egg later. (We make our own confetti too. It's a GREAT busy activity for kids!)

4. Glue a piece of tissue paper over the hole.

And there you have it. Your very own homemade confetti eggs! Now for the fun part...!

Everyone got to have a turn at "surprising" Daddy with a crack on his head. Although, I'm not sure how much of a surprise it really is when Daddy has to bend down to your level.

Our eggs were really hard for some reason (and we filled some too much) so you had to crunch it in your hand at the same time you cracked it on the person's head. Sloane didn't get that concept so she would just bang it on the top of your head, waiting for it to crack. It never did. And it hurt.

Blair also didn't get the concept. She would THROW it at your head, it would bounce off and fall to the floor, cracking open. So then we'd have to pick up the confetti and spread it around the person's hair. You can see the egg heading to the floor in this picture.



7th Annual Red Sox-Rangers Weekend: Family Time

When we weren't at the baseball game, we were hanging out with Jer's family. As I mentioned earlier, his aunt and uncle came to town for it, as well as his sisters, brother-in-law, niece and nephew (who is Reid's age so you know it's going to be crazy when those 2 get together!). It was a mini-family reunion! We always have so much fun when we all get together. And there's never a shortage of Corona...or boxed wine. :)

Can't go to Texas without stopping at a DQ!

Amy, Angie, Elise, and Kristy

Pool time! The kids favorite part! Kristy and Sloane swimming.

Maren sunning by the pool

 

Elise got to get out of her stroller for once! The water was really warm (for a swimming pool), so she loved it. She didn't make a peep.

Sloane apparently thinks she's royalty and needs to be carried as such by Aunt Amy.

Blair and Aunt Angie became fast friends.

The whole crazy bunch of us.

Speaking of crazy...we have our very own yellow, red, and blue M&Ms right here (as referrenced by Uncle Joe's shirt)

For Aunt Amy--thought you would like these. That's your offspring right there!

And unfortunately, my offspring too.

If you can't beat 'em, might as well join 'em.

7th Annual Red Sox-Rangers Weekend: The Game

In August, we made our 7th Annual Red Sox vs. Rangers trip to Arlington. (Click here for last year's trip.) The biggest weekend highlights for the kids are the hotel swimming pool, the shuttle that carries us to and from the game, and peanuts and cotton candy. Can't get much simpler than that! Jeremy's aunt and uncle from Delaware (they are also Red Sox fans) and his sisters joined us this year, so we had a lot of fun hanging out with them, and the kids liked seeing their cousins again. And we only got one call from the front desk telling us to keep the kids' noise down, so we considered it a successful weekend! However, the weather was extremely hot this year, so we figure Elise's main parental-related complaint when she's 20 years old is going to be "You took me to a

 baseball game--where it was 106 degrees--when I was FIVE WEEKS OLD???" Well, she may have a point there. But, in our defense, we kept a cool wet washcloth on her the whole time and she was constantly being fanned. Throw in someone feeding her grapes, and she could have been confused with a Greek goddess. (And actually, the temp had probably dropped to a chilly 101 by game time, so why is she complaining anyway?) :)

The game goers

Our usual Daddy and kids picture--this group seems to grow larger every other year :)

The shuttle was crowded so big brother had to hold little sister on his lap. I thought it was too cute and couldn't resist taking a picture of such loving siblings.

First order of business: LARGE bottles of water for everyone! (Sloane LOVES wearing her hat. She asks for it regularly...when playing outside, going to school, going to the grocery store. Jeremy loves it!)

Can't go to a baseball game without playing games. Unfortunately, we left our seats after the 3rd inning and never got to return to them.

Home Run!! (You can see the white speck of a ball above the picture of the crowd.)

Even Sloane got to play games this year. She likes hitting the ball so maybe we have another little ball player on our hands!

Our annual family picture at the game.

Cute little Blair enjoying some cotton candy. Aunt Amy's poor pig tails are barely hanging on by this time of the night. 

Reid with a cotton candy mustache. This boy can never take a serious picture.

Wow, are they actually sharing nicely???

"Matchers" as Blair likes to call them.