Baptism Weekend

Today was Nicholas' Baptism Day. It was a wonderful day!
We got up early and everyone got ready and we made it out the door in plenty of time (nice for a change!). We got to the church and got settled and took a couple of pictures before the service began. Here we are with Nicholas' Godparents, Laura and Aaron Hardin.



Nicholas' Baptism was a the beginning of the service and went really well. It was a nice ceremony and he was so good during the whole thing.

After church, we went for a luncheon with everyone. In attendance with us were the Hardins, Aunt Dawn & Uncle Jack and Krista, Kendal & John, Grandma & Grandpa Roberts, Great Grandma Tilton, Aunt Nadine, Grandma and Grandpa Kamburoff and Aunt Susan & Uncle Will. Lunch was really good and we were so glad we did it this way. Worked out perfectly!







We had cake (and still have a ton of it!!)




It was a really terrific, special day and we're all so glad that our family and newly extended family - in the Hardins - were able to join us and were all so generous!



Yesterday, Tony and I took the kids downtown to Family Day at the Browns Stadium. It was a nice time - a perfect weather day! We had a nice time. There was some cool Browns-mobiles to look at - these fans can get really original!

Then there were some things to play in outside the stadium.

Hannah got to take her picture with Chomps!! (I kept calling him Chubbs!!)

Then we took some seats and watched the first quarter of the scrimmage. It was fun! Doesn't Tony look so "manly" at the football game?



He wouldn't have it any other way - taking his kids to the football stadium is right up his alley these days - pretty cool!

Then we went to Shooters for lunch. It was great! Nice view of the water and watching boats come in. We had such a great day!

What a nice weekend!

Love the Love

I know I've said this a thousand times already, but I LOVE how Hannah and Nicholas love one another. I'm just so in awe of their bond and I'm so glad it's such a special relationship. They're the greatest!

Last weekend, we went to Jack and Dawn's for Kendal's 15th birthday. It's just wrong that she's 15! I can remember when Tony and I were just dating that she was a little girl and loved that I was reading her a book of nursery rhymes one day. Anyway, she's a beautiful young lady and we're glad we could celebrate her day with her!

Hannah was a total fish in the pool. She didn't get out once (well, once to pee) for over 2-1/2 hours. She even braved up and started jumping in.

She felt most comfortable with her water wings AND floaty, but she did lose the float for a while and swam with just the wings for a while. John was great and played with her most of the time. I loved how much confidence she gained in the pool in just this one day!

Sunday, I took Hannah and Nicholas to the park. Nicholas loved the swing! He laughed the entire time! It was great!!! He's just getting so big!

He's not a fan of the carrots, our new vegetable this week. He eats them, but certainly not as quickly as the peas or green beans. We'll try squash in one more day. He's so close to crawling. This week, he's really been mastering his "inch worm" crawl this week and is able to turn himself around much better. He'll be on the move soon. His top two (maybe four) teeth are working their way in. I can see them in the front of his gums, so I'm guessing they'll break through in another week or so. I hope they do soon - he seems to be bothered by these teeth this week.

And the last bit of news for us is that Aunt Susan is back in town!!! We're so happy she's back.....and with an Uncle Will now too! YAY!

So much happening

We have had such a busy week! Lots of good stuff happening.

We started vegetables with Nicholas this week. Green beans first last Sunday. He made some funny faces the first night, but then gobbled them up the next 3 nights. We moved on to peas next on Thursday night. Hannah hated them when she was a baby, but Nicholas liked them very much! So despite what his bib says "idon'tlikepeas.com", he likes them a lot!!

Hannah got to feed Nicholas again one morning - she's such a great big sister and they love one another so much! I love the bond they've created between them and hope it strengthens and lasts forever!

Nicholas is SO ready to move!!! He's been rolling from back to tummy and tummy to back and enjoys his tummy time. He's been scooting backwards on his tummy for a few weeks and this week, he started getting up on his knees and rocking back and forth and wants SO BADLY to crawl!!! He tries, but he can't get his arms to go the same time his knees do. So what he's accomplished this week after trying so hard is that he gets on his knees, rocks back and forth and then falls forward down on his chest and then will bring his arms up. He's trying and I'm sure, he will be crawling very soon! I'm not so sure I'm ready for a baby on the move - guess I don't get much say in that though!!!

Wednesday for bathtime, Nicholas moved on to our kitchen sink. He has officially outgrown his baby tub. The sink is just the right size for him right now until he's more stable sitting on his own to go into the bathtub. It was so much easier to bathe him there since he was just too big for his other tub - there was getting to be no room for water in that thing!

After his bath, I was getting him ready for bed and his skin is so dry, so I decided to try the baby aveeno lotion again to hopefully help him. Instead, he woke up Thursday morning covered in the big giant red hives like the first day the whole allergy thing happened. So now I know, without a doubt, that the lotion was the cause of that reaction. I didn't put any lotion on his head or back, just on his tummy and that's exactly where the breakout was. So now I'm not 100% about the formula allergy, but I still think there was an issue with it - he definitely had a rash after the regular formula and has been fine on the new stuff, but the lotion is for sure a problem.

Thursday was my dad's birthday. After a little restaurant mixup, we met them for dinner. It was a very good dinner - love the steaks from Longhorn. Here's the 62 year-old Grandpa with is grandchildren!!

Friday was Hannah's "half birthday"....she's now 4 and a half! What a big girl! I'm glad she has a winter birthday so she can wait one more year before going to kindergarten! I'm not so sure I'd be ready for that just yet!

And the other big news for yesterday is that my sister got married! She did it on the beach in Florida last night at sunset. I'm so sorry I didn't get to go - it just didn't work out for me to get a plane ticket and go. I'm sure it was great and we're now looking forward to having her back home in Ohio. She'll be back next week, I think by Wednesday.

VBS Week

Last week was Hannah's first year attending Vacation Bible School! She LOVED it!!!

Monday morning, she was excited to go, although a little nervous. Here she is on the way there that morning.

And as we were walking in....this year's theme was "Son Rock, Kids Camp".

I realized I'll be a total wreck on the first day of school, because it was a little hard to leave her there the first day and she was trying with all her might not to cry. We both did great and she had a great first day. She came home with a CD of the songs, and crafts, crafts and more crafts!

I had such a busy week running her to VBS each morning, picking her up at noon, getting her lunch and running her back to daycare for the afternoon. It was really great to eat lunch with her all week!! That's something a working mom doesn't get to do and I realized how cool it is to get to do that for a week! We had Wendy's twice, she came back to my office twice and we ran home one day.

Friday, they had a close out program. It was so great. Hannah was an old pro at attending and the routine of being there. She was so excited to sing the songs for us. This is Hannah and Allie before the show began.

And here are a few pics of her singing her little heart out! Taking pictures in the church wasn't so great....sorry for the grainy pictures.

So anyway, she had a fantastic week and had so much fun! We can't wait for it again next year. I'm thinking I'll take the week off next year though.

Nicholas is sitting up on his own now!! Here he is one night last week where he was sitting on the floor. I kept a pillow behind him just in case he fell back, but he sat there playing for quite some time all by himself!!

Hannah likes it now too because she can play with him more now than when he was just a little baby lying there doing nothing!

He's also now rolling over in his bed at night....makes me crazy! I'm sort of ok when he sleeps on his side, but I'm still so nervous when he sleeps on his tummy. I know I can't stop him now, but I'm a nervous wreck!

Friday night, we went to the homecoming fair here in town....sorry, no pictures! It was super hot, but Hannah got to ride several rides before we left just before the storm rolled in.

Saturday, we went next door for Allie's birthday party. It was super hot out, but the kids enjoyed water fun outside while we stayed inside in the air condition! Here they are are as Allie opened her gifts and after singing happy birthday.

Even Nicholas enjoyed the party!

Saturday night, Hannah wanted to wear her KISS shirt as a nightgown (Tony soaks that up) but she wanted him to wear his shirt like hers! Too cute!

And how cute is Nicholas in his dinosaur jammies - he even has claws on his feet!!! How ferocious! We call him a snugglesauraus!

And lastly, how about this awesome sunset Saturday night outside the front of the house....well, really it's not the sunset, but really cool clouds because of the sunset!

Nicholas is 5 Months!

"Happy Birthday" little guy! Today, you're 5 months old! You're getting so big, so fast and the months just fly right on by! I'm not so sure I'm ready for you to stop being a baby, so stay little for a while longer!!!

Nicholas is doing great. He has two teeth on the bottom and I think there might be two more working their way in. He is almost sitting up on his own. He can do it pretty well if he supports himself in the front, but he usually topples over to the side and occasionally backward - that one hurts! He can roll from his back to his tummy and from his tummy to his back. He scoots backwards when he's on his tummy - he's so ready to be on the move!!! He loves to raspberry, does it all the time! He knows it's funny too!!! He still enjoys napping in his swing, playing on his activity mat and in his exersaucer. He likes to grab his toes. He is finally sleeping better. As I posted earlier, he has had one night of completely sleeping through the night and most nights only wakes a few times and easily goes back to sleep. He goes down for the night between 9:30-10:30 most nights and sleeps until we wake him around 7:15 each weekday morning (until around 8 on the (good) weekends). He does this kicking thing when he's in his bed where he lifts both legs and slams them down on his mattress. It's loud and I'm not quite sure why he does it?!?!? He's still mostly on breastmilk, we supplement with the liquid gold (aka Nutramigen formula) and he has rice cereal for dinner and a bottle. He's such a little chunk, probably around 18 pounds. He's so very happy and loves to watch his sister. He's such a blessing and we just love him!!!!

This picture is from last week - so cute!!! You can sort of see his teeth. I used this picture for his baptism invitations.

We didn't get the greatest pictures today. He wanted to move around instead of sitting still for a picture session. Here is what we came up with.

And how about this sweetness? They just adore one another! Hannah is so sweet and tender toward her brother and Nicholas just can't get enough of watching his sister. I sure hope they'll be buddies like this forever! It's funny when they pose for pictures together because Nicholas is like half the size of Hannah already!

And tonight, Nicholas joined us at the dinner table in his highchair. We just used the one that sits on a chair. I think I may continue to use this one instead of the big one since it takes up so much more room and this one, with the tray, is perfect! Anyway, it was nice to have him join us for dinner at the table - LOVE this family!