Mia and Cole Get Baptized

This past weekend was a busy one! In addition to Lisa and Bob being in town with the kids (more on that in another post), we had Mia and Cole baptized on Sunday. They were baptized at Woodridge United Methodist church, the same church I was baptized and confirmed at, and that Cort and I got married at. Pastor Dave also performed the baptism, which was special since he had married Cort and me. He also mentioned how Pam and I were on his first retreat when he first came to the church as a youth pastor many, many years ago. :)

Pam and Dave (who was there in spirit!) are Mia's godparents and Jen and Ian are Cole's. We couldn't think of better people to look over our little ones!

I was a little nervous how the kids would all do (Noah, Claire, Aidan and Ava were also all there-that's a lot of kids to keep quiet!) for the first part of the service before they went off to the nursery, but they were all stars. I wasn't sure also how Mia and Cole would react to the actual baptism, but both kids did great and just wanted to touch the water. :) Pastor Dave was nice and let them do that. I had a good laugh when Mia then patted her head after touching the water and baptized herself. :) Afterwards we headed back to our house for lunch and even were able to enjoy some nice weather outside! It was a very special day!

Here are a bunch of pictures (courtesy of my aunt-THANK YOU!)...

Getting ready for the baptism

Ready for our lines :)

Mia's first (and excited)!

Mia's baptism

Cole's baptism Everyone

After Mia and Cole being announced

And some family shots....

The Grandparents

The Graske Clan

The Sellers Side

With Grandma

The Godparents

And back at home....

The beautiful cake courtesy of my mom

Mia opening gifts (love that her and Ava have their crowns!)

Mia with my childhood bible my parents gave me. Cole was given my confirmation bible.

Aidan-he has some loose teeth, so is his "before" teeth shot

Mia and Mommy

Could this be any funnier? I love Mia's face here like she is wondering if Cinderella is going to eat her cake.

And the party moved outside-it was beautiful!

Aidan, Mike and NoahThe only person small enough to fit at the kiddie table with the kids :)

Checking out the neighbor's dog

Cole with Gigi and Poppa

Aunt "Cappy" reading with Mia (after a wardrobe change)

Cole having a late lunch (he didn't get to have the Patio!) Mia knows how to work people over to read to her :) Ryan is so good with her!

Thanks for looking!!

Samantha's Birthday Party

This past weekend, Mia had a blast at Samantha's birthday party. She was so excited to go and it most definitely lived up to her expectations. :) It was held at Boozle B's in Plainfield, which is a place where the girls get to dress up. Not only did they get to dress up, they got to pick out jewelry, have their hair done (with neon hair extension-WOW!) :), and get their makeup done. I have some good pics on my camera, but unfortunately I am swamped this week getting ready for Mia and Cole's baptism this Sunday. So for the time being, here is a video clip, and stay tuned for pictures....

There was some crazy freeze-dance going on. You can see Mia, Ava, and Sam in this clip.

Our Green-Eyed Girl

When Mia was a baby she had the bluest eyes. I thought that there was no way they would stay that way since I figured that my dark traits would take over and she would end up with dark eyes. Surprisingly enough, her eyes stayed blue for quite awhile. For the last 6 months to a year though they have been changing to a more hazel/greenish color, depending on what she is wearing and what light she is in. These pictures are a perfect example.

I just had to share these because this sweater is just too cute and too funny. It makes me just want to pet Mia. It comes from my mom who is awesome at getting Mia things that are not the typical pink all the time. :)

A rare semi-serious picture

Posing

She wanted to sit outside-I think it was like 30 degrees!

I have a couple more I need to go through including one not-so-happy one. :)

Mimi's First Haircut

If you can believe it, before yesterday Mia had never had her haircut. That is 2 years and 7 months without ever having to have a trim! Really it is more like a year though since her hair only started coming in last February. :)

Either way, she has had a lot of frizziness and dead ends in the back and I was wanting to just get it evened out a TINY bit. I was very nervous that I was going to go in and they would chop off her curls and I would have several people who read this blog to answer to. : ) Luckily though, the stylist trimmed Mia's hair ever so slightly and it is now nice and even in the back (which you can't really tell unless it is wet since her hair is so curly).

I took Mia to Kid Snips in Naperville since they had sent us a postcard for a $10 haircut. Kid Snips is one of those places where they get to sit in the fun chair, watch TV, get a prize, etc., etc., etc. Sarah and Ava came along with us too. The girls both did great. Neither of them acted phased like it was a big deal at all and it was very quick and painless. The stylist also gave me some tips on how to prevent some of the frizziness and said that Mia's hair appears curly from the top, so even if her curls got cut off it would still be curly-who knows?

So now what you are all waiting for-the pictures!!

Before-super-excited to be in cool chair

During-getting her sprayed down

The first official cut-I will admit I was nervous. :)

After the haircut (I know you are thinking you probably can't even tell the difference!)

And styled

I had to add this too because Mia was loving the chair.
And this is so cute-they gave us a certificate with Mia's picture and the first lock of hair they cut as a keepsake.

Plugs

I wanted to take a minute and plug some cool things that family and friends are doing.

First off, my sister Jen is doing the March for Babies, sponsored by the March of Dimes. As you probably know, my nephew Noah was born 6 weeks premature, weighing in at only 3 lbs. 6 oz. He has worked hard to overcome the obstacles of being a preemie and is doing so well these days. The the March of Dimes is a great organization that helps with preventing prematurity also providing comfort and information to families with a newborn in intensive care.

Here is a link to her page. Go check it out and if the spirit moves you, make a donation!

Here is a picture of Noah only a couple days old (he was such a tiny peanut!)....

and now doing great and going to be 3 in June!!!...

Second, Shannon and her cousin Kelly have just recently started up a business called Relatively Speaking Clothing. They are making cute personalized baby and children's clothing. Check them out and you can see a cute diaper cover they can personalize. Mia had one of these as a baby and I loved it!

Last, my sister-in-law Sarah started a blog! You may have noticed already on my blogroll, but if not, head over and leave her a comment telling her to update-he, he!! :) The picture on her header is good enough reason to check it out-too funny! That was an outtake from some pictures I had taken of the kids in the fall. Here was the winner that day, although the outtake is much funnier....

That's all for now!

Mia and Cole

One thing I love now that Cole is getting bigger is the interaction between him and Mia. The two of them can be so cute together, and Mia really has a way with making him smile and laugh. The two of them sit in the backseat sometimes just laughing back and forth and it is just the cutest thing. Here is a picture of the two of them together....

And here is a video from dinner about 2 weeks ago. Mia learned that if she banged the tops of her play pots together, Cole thought it was completely hilarious. Strange considering he is VERY sensitive to loud noises and normally dissolves into tears when he hears one. This day however, it was the funniest thing in the world. :) (Pay attention to the fact too that Mia is a bit of a camera hog!)

Rocking Cousins

This totally makes me laugh how they are just rocking in silence.

Party in My Crib!

Lately Cole has been very much mesmerized by his mobile. All I have to do is put him down in his crib, crank the mobile and leave and he will watch it and fall asleep. He flaps like a wild man when it first starts up he is so excited. :)

This picture makes me laugh because he is looking so seriously at it!

Just hanging out

Mia vs. the Shopping Cart

I have to say I had a great birthday weekend-lots of meals out (On the Border, Mongolian BBQ, Meson Sabika, Texas Roadhouse-yum!!) and time with friends and family. However, my actual birthday (Monday) was a bit more eventful than I would have hoped. :)

First, while picking up some formula at Target, Mia was running behind our cart and took a header straight into the wheel. It was one of those where it is immediately bruised. She also was bleeding slightly from her nostrils and her nose was also scraped up and swollen. We got her to the front of the store as quick as we could and got ice on it. She recovered from it pretty quick except for being very hateful of the ice we were trying to stick on her face. :) A call to the dr. reassured me that it is very rare for toddlers to break their noses due to the fact they are still mainly all cartilage (there is your random fact of the day). Needless to say I think both Cort and I were slightly more traumatized than Mia. A dose of motrin and a nap later and all was well!

That evening Cort and I went to dinner where I proceeded to slice my thumb while cutting my bread-don't ask! After finishing dinner and picking up the kids I took a solo trip to the urgent care just to get it looked at. Thankfully no stitches were needed and they cleaned it up and bandaged it nicely for me. I guess you could say my birthday went out with a bang!

Thank you to my friends and family for the wonderful gifts, babysitting, and dinners!! I am very lucky to have you in my life. :)

Here is Mia, a bit banged up (this actually looks better than she does in person-there is a good amount of bruising around the bridge of her nose)

Thanks Pam for the paper!!!

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

So today is the 10th anniversary of my 21st birthday (in other words I am 31-yikes!). Cort got me a flip video for my birthday which I had really been wanting so that I could upload video to the blog and facebook. It is so easy!!! I was playing around with it this morning and here is a quick clip of Mia singing "Happy Birthday." She was cracking me up because she was singing "Happy birthday BECKY," instead of saying MOMMY. :)

Mia and Ava aka 2 Little Ragamuffins

The other day Ava stopped by for a little while to play with Mia. I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the two girls lately and since they were playing by the kitchen so nicely I decided to snap a couple. Unfortunately, they were looking a little ragamuffinish (if that is even a word!). I still think they are pretty darn cute! :)

PS-I swear I do comb my daughter's hair!

Why it is nice to have an older child....

This was the scene as I was making dinner the other night.....