Silly pictures

Not too much is going on around here ... just the usual. But there's never a dull moment. The kids have been really cute lately and I just had to share:


She looks like such a princess in her sunglasses, doesn't she? (She did so great in swimming on Saturday, by the way. I was so proud of her!)


Albert John looks pretty cool in his, too!


Both kids, especially Stella, need a lot of cuddling first thing in the morning. Dad is always happy to be the cuddle guy.


John made A.J. a Halloween costume a little early. How Battle Creek of us, dressing our son in a Kellogg's Pop Tart box! We can smell them being made at the factory when the wind is from the north!


Sonic Burger! John went to Fort Wayne, Indiana on Saturday for a record and CD show. The most important landmark in Fort Wayne is that it's the nearest Sonic Drive-In. John brought me back this delicious burger. It's one of the things among many that I miss about Kansas, my daily trips to Sonic!


And I enjoyed it thoroughly.


A.J. is doing so many cute and funny things lately. He's always running and investigating everything. But he still has time for me once in awhile.

Sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism

We enjoyed a wonderful time with family yesterday.

Here are some pictures of A.J.'s special day.

A.J.'s Grandma Kathy made sure he looked dapper in an all-white Polo outfit:


And I think it was Grandma Kathy and Papa Joe who took some of these pictures of the service:



There are only 4 days during the year in which our church – St. Thomas Episcopal – does baptisms ... Epiphany, Easter Vigil, Pentecost and All Saints. Yesterday was Pentecost and it was a beautiful service. Here is the baptism itself:



The baptism took place during the Sunday morning service, and much of the service was centered around the baptism. It was a really beautiful ceremony. AJ's head got really wet and he got lots of oil on his head, too!

Afterwards, Father Caskey took him up and down the aisles of the church and the parishoners shook his little hands and congratulated him.


He has two wonderful godparents: Tony and Kathy. I am so glad they will always be part of his life.


And now we start another busy week with appointments for Stella and all kinds of other stuff.

I had a good Mother's Day though.

A visitor from far away

Just before 8 a.m. we got a visit from my sweet Grandma Goldie. She came to Michigan with her friends Kris and Theresa to bowl in a senior ladies tournament in Livonia. Since we live right off I-94, they stopped by our house on their long journey home.

Granny couldn't contain her excitement at seeing Mr. A.J.



He thought she was pretty neat too.

Unfortunately, Stella had already left for school. But John went in to work a little bit late and visited with Granny, too.



It was so good to see her! I miss her! I miss everyone back in Kansas and I hope I can visit again soon. It sure was nice to hear a Kansas accent in person again.

Here is AJ pointing at the camera. He points all the time, which makes us very happy.



A.J.'s baptism is this Sunday and we are busy getting ready for it and really looking forward to a nice day.

Difficulty blogging

Well, the auction may have ended, but life has continued to kick me in the rear. I've been trying to catch up on the things I didn't do before the auction ... get my hair cut, buy new underwear. I had a great couple of days of pampering this week. On Tuesday, a short "do" and a new set of highlights. On Wednesday, a pedicure with funky green and blue polished toes.

But Wednesday night, all hell broke loose.

And by that I mean a vomiting and diarrhea-afflicted baby. I barely slept all night. There's nothing worse than cleaning up a horrible mess when you're dead tired. I suspect it's rotavirus, which would be nice since that would mean the rest of us likely wouldn't get it. I know that's wishful thinking. So far so good. I just can't deal with the whole family being sick again.

But the boy sure has been sick. He's living on Pedialyte. He can't keep anything else down. He's cheerful, though. That little belly of his sure is shrinking. These are the trenches of motherhood.

The only good news . . .

Stella started her career as an equestrian last week. Last Friday, in fact. Her lesson was scheduled for 6:30, and she was tired. Well, the pictures speak 1,000 words. She screamed the whole time.



They tried to lift her on to sit on the horse, but she wouldn't have it.



Eventually they gave up and took the horse out after Albert John climbed under the gate to join the fun.



But the good news is that I took her again on Wednesday after school, which was earlier in the day, and she rode the horse! After about 15 minutes of crying, she eventually sat on the horse and realized that it was quite fun when the horse started moving.

So I hope this turns out to be something Stella will really come to love. I get such of kick out of seeing her happy.

I didn't get any pictures of her riding because I didn't take my camera since things had gone so poorly the last time.