JAMSquared

Last Saturday afternoon was Aspen’s baptism. It was held at 4 PM at St. Theresa Catholic Church. I’d never visited that church before and the stained glass window behind the alter was gorgeous. Aspen did really well and it was a very nice ceremony. Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many pictures as I normally would as I was helping Julia out by taking photos with her camera.

Apparently, it was more interesting to look at her Aunt Sarah than smile at the camera.

Since Brian was keeping Cameron occupied and Sarah was the godmother, James held Trevor since Jessica was happy to play in her carrier for the majority of the ceremony.

Here’s my cutie pie with her Daddy. Doesn’t she look fancy in her party dress?

Earlier in the day, Jason and Julia held a cook-out to celebrate the day’s big event. I’m glad I was able to help out by bringing dessert (blog post on that to come). I think the party started right after Aspen woke up from her nap. She still looks a little sleepy in this photo, but it was such a great photo of my Mom.

Jessica fought and fought naptime that morning and so she was kinda sleepy at the party. We actually ended up leaving to take Jessica home for a nap before the baptism.

After Aspen’s baptism, my parents, Sarah and her family and us went to eat dinner at BJ’s Restaurant. Jessica did pretty well, considering she didn’t get a morning nap and only got a relatively short afternoon nap. Here we are waiting for our table. The wait wasn’t too terribly bad since we called ahead.

Sunday morning before Sarah and her family left, Trevor and Jessica got to play together. For some reason, Jessica really liked holding his ear. She does like to grab my ears too for that matter.

This is a pose that we’ve begun to see a lot of recently. This makes bow wearing difficult, because the bow typically goes where her hand is located.

We then went and had breakfast tacos at Torchy’s Tacos before they headed out of town to go home.

Aspen, currently Jessica’s only girl cousin, was baptized yesterday and I made her this card using the Special Blessings set. I bought this set a while back, because I knew it would come in handy for times like these. Pictures from the baptism and related family time to come soon. The inside of the card reads “on your Baptism day.” I knew Aspen liked her card, because as soon as I gave it to her and her Mom, she put it in her mouth.

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Special Blessings
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Pretty in Pink
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Afternoon Tea
Ink: Versarmark with white Stampin’ Up Detail Embossing powder
Accessories: A Muse Twinkle Stickers (in centers of flowers on DP); Stampin’ Up Pretty in Pink 3/8″ Taffeta ribbon

Sunday, March 28th was Cameron’s 2nd birthday. We took a road trip up to Sarah‘s place for his party held Saturday afternoon. We arrived Saturday at lunch. Then the kiddos got to play some before taking naps to be bright-eyed and bushy tailed for the party. Unfortunately, Jessica did not want to nap. She finally slept for about an hour on James’ chest upstairs after the party got started at 4 PM.

The birthday boy had a blast blowing out his birthday candles. Sarah had to light them multiple times since he kept blowing them out before everyone sang him the birthday song. Watching him open the presents was fun. He kept getting excited and wanting to play with his new toys. Sarah had to reel him back in to open the rest of the gifts.

A lady Sarah works with was nice enough to take a little family photo for us.

After the party attendees departed, the kiddos got to play a little bit before going to bed. Since Jessica didn’t really nap very well, she slept like a champ.

The morning brought some play time with Papa and her cousins.

I love the expression on their faces in this next photo. You can certainly tell they’re related.

Before Jason, Julia, and Aspen left, we had to have a little photo shoot with all the kiddos and the grandparents. Of course, at this point, getting everyone to look the same direction is nigh near impossible, but at least everyone was happy.

We stuck around and had lunch with Brian, Sarah, Cameron and Trevor and then we headed back to Austin. Jessica took a nice long nap in the car, as did her mama.

As promised, here are pictures from our trip to Midland last weekend. It was a very busy weekend.

My Dad had so much fun at the breakfast table, he ended up being the last one to change from his pajamas.

My sister wouldn’t want to see the other picture I snapped of her and Cameron.

After breakfast, we all hung out. Cameron found a giant foam hand that he immensely enjoyed. Of course, it made all the Longhorn fans happy, especially since my sister is an Aggie through and through.

I can’t wait until all the kiddos are old enough to play together. It will be so much fun. Growing up, I never really spent much time with my cousins. Partly, because I didn’t have many, two on my Dad’s side and three on my Mom’s side. And partly because none of them traveled and they lived a ways away from us. So I think it is great, that we all live close enough to see each other often and that we’re all willing to travel.

After lunch on Saturday, we went over to James’ parents house and visited with them a bit.

Then we stopped by his grandparents for a little while. His grandparents will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary in September. Isn’t that exciting? Yep, Jessica has her thumb in her mouth. I think it is so cute how she covers up her nose with her fingers when she does that.

We got back to my parents house right as everyone was leaving to go on a walk. We walked to the playground near the elementary school I attended. That brought back memories. We used to walk home from school. Aspen and Cameron enjoyed the swing. I didn’t bring Jessica’s coat (I didn’t realize we were walking to the playground) and so she stayed tucked under the blanket in her car seat/stroller.

I can’t wait until the kiddos become cheesers. Then Julia won’t be the only one smiling. Plus it will be so much easier to get them to all look at the camera.

On Sunday before church, my Mom got to hold all the grandbabies for a photo shoot, similar to the one my Dad experienced at Christmas. It was so cute how Cameron had his arm around Aspen.

Then we tried to get all four of them on the recliner, which was a tad difficult. We should have stuck with the loveseat from my Mom’s photo shoot.

Jessica did pretty good in the car both ways. The way up would have been faster if we had realized all it took was a light on once it got dark outside to make Jessica happy.

James and I attend Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church. We found our church while we were engaged and searching for a church that would fulfill both of our desires for a church. Our search consisted of attending numerous Christian churches. It was difficult as James was raised in a Baptist church and I grew up in a Catholic church, two Christian churches on opposite ends of the spectrum. After our marriage, which was performed by a minister friend of the family, we joined SHPC. We have not been the most consistent attendees of church, but we both think it is something important for our children (Jessica won’t be an only child) and will become more frequent church-goers.

One of the most important things for me when we were searching for a church, was infant baptism. The Baptism of children witnesses to the truth that God’s love claims people before they are able to respond in faith. Baptism in the Presbyterian Church, usually occurs during infancy, though a person may be baptized at any age. Parents bring their baby to church, where they publicly declare their desire that he or she be baptized. When an infant or child is baptized the church commits itself to nurture the child in faith. When adults are baptized they make a public profession of faith. The water that is used symbolizes three accounts from the Bible’s Old Testament: the waters of creation, the flood described in the story of Noah, and the Hebrews’ escape from slavery in Egypt by crossing the Red Sea. Unlike some denominations, Presbyterians do not require a person to be entirely immersed in water during baptism. Baptism is received only once. Its effect is not tied to the moment when it is administered, for it signifies the beginning of life in Christ, not its completion. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) believes that persons of other denominations are part of one body of Christian believers; therefore, it recognizes and accepts baptisms by other Christian churches.

Jessica’s baptism was performed Sunday, January 31st by Rev. Larry Coulter at SHPC. It was a very beautiful time in Jessica’s life. She did great. The unfamiliar situation didn’t cause her any distress.

After being baptized, Pastor Larry carried Jessica around the sanctuary so that the members of the church could see the child they were committing to nurture in faith.

After the end of the church service, we all returned to our house for a little brunch. I had to have a picture of Jessica with all of her cousins: Dawson, James’ sister’s son and the oldest cousin at 9 years old; Cameron, my sister’s oldest son; Trevor, my sister’s youngest son and the youngest cousin (just 3 weeks younger than Jessica); and Aspen, my brother’s daughter.

We also got a number of photos of Jessica posing in her baptism gown. She is such a cutie, don’t you think?

Kristy, thank you for being the lovely photographer. I could not have captured this moment without you.