Babies & Baptisms

Three of Andrew's cousins' children were all baptized the weekend before Thanksgiving. It was a beautiful ceremony and pretty much all of the family was there. Let's just say I was SO thankful it was a private baptism. SOMEONE was all over the place during Mass the baptisms. Did I mention that we have a TODDLER???

Beautiful Blake and Charlotte


Handsome Taylor and Blaise


Sebastian, Andrew, and Carson


Attempting to get a cousins picture...Missing Carson & Blaise


Got Carson


Still no Blaise...now where's LuLu



Proud Parents (Garrett & Blake) & Godparents (Dan & Lauren)


Garrett's Precious Mini-Me


Proud Godparents (Emily & Andrew)


Sweet Blaise


Always paperwork...Sarah looks excited


Wannie & Khaki



Alexander is such a big boy!









Someone was worn out...




Sarah and her precious Blaise


The Beautiful Fayle Famly


Hanging with Papi



It was such a blessing and privilege to be a part of this special day and to welcome these precious gifts from God into His family.

Jesus said, "Let the children come to me...for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

In creating this post I realized that I had COMPLETELY forgot to post the pictures from Carson's own baptism. He was baptized July 24, 2011, my parent's 35th anniversary. With the two birthday parties and going out of town, I must have totally forgot. We did ours during 11:30 Mass. Carson tried to steal the candle from Father David. Go figure. Afterwards, we catered a fajita lunch at our house. It was a great day and JOYOUS occasion!

Andrew's side of the family


Godparents - Amanda and Jeremy


My side of the family




Godparents


Sorry, Uncle Dave... kind of over the picture thing by now


Jeremy & Jamie


Thanks for the matching Bibles!


Thanks, Cousin Kim, for the pretty cross


Sweet boy

16 Months!

I'm keeping it simple this go-round... BULLETS!

No smile in this picture {tear}. I'm just amazed I actually got a picture of him sitting still and not messing with the monkey.



- The kid LOVES to DANCE!!! Not sure exactly when this started, but has definitely been in the last month that he just starts groovin'! You tell him to DANCE and those feet get GOIN'!!! Precious.

- The kid LOVES to knock on things.

- The kid LOVES to mimic actions. If you tap on something, he taps. You put your hands in the air, he does too.

- He's got the "All Done" sign down. I ask him if he's all done and do the sign. If he is, he does it back and acts like he's pushing his tray out of the way. If he's not, he takes another bite. He's starting to do the "More" sign too...but only if you ask him.

- He's a nightmare to change. The cell phone is just about the only thing that will distract him long enough to go through the diaper change routine. Oh, or the tub of Vaseline... that always ends badly though.

- He thinks he's Evel Nnievel. This kid has NO fear. He loves to stand up on top of all his ride-on toys... or a wagon. He's in that 'climbing on EVERYTHING' stage.


- He looks ridiculously cute in old man pajamas. wink wink

- Goes to bed and sleeps like a champ. He has so much energy that he is POOPED by the end of the day. Most nights he's sleeping from 7 to 7. YAY! AND, he RARELY fights it. If he does, it's for MAYBE 5 minutes... TOPS.

- Has recently been really interested in FORKS. He's trying. He's not too good at the stabbing food part. He certainly understands the concept though.

- Still LOVES books and reading. YAY!


- Has been "talking" a lot more. If you tell him "no", it sounds like he says "yes" back to you. Hilarious (at least for now). He says "da" for dog. He always notices one if it's on TV. He says "ba" for birds and ball. He says "bebe" for baby. He likes that word a lot. He points to lots of things and makes some noise in a very questioning way, like he wants confirmation from you. He also point and says "this", but it sounds more like "dis." So sweet.

Pointing to something and telling me all about it....


- Is VERY affectionate. He hugs and pats everything. Hand him a book, he holds it up near his face like a baby and pats it. He does this with lots of things.

- Likes to make elephant and monkey sounds. He's current obsessed with elephants and giraffes. He LOVES the elephant and giraffe figurines I got in the $1 bin at Target.

Making a monkey sound...


- Has become a relatively picky eater. He definitely knows what he likes and hasn't been too willing to try new things. His favorite foods are eggs (and pretty much any breakfast food), black beans, chicken, steak, sweet potato fries, dried cranberries/apricots/raisins, Nutragrain bars, yogurt, baby fruits & veggies (yep, I've been busting those out again to make sure he's getting enough fruits & veggies), Nilla wafers, cheese, and PB&J. He used to LOVE green beans and broccoli and lately they just end up on the floor. He doesn't like fresh fruits cut up either. So frustrating.

- He's gotten SO much better about not throwing his cup. We've been practicing putting it in the cup holder and he is SO proud of himself each time he does it. YAY!

- Has had quite a few ear infections. Two singles and a double. Every time we took him in, it was for something else and he ended up having an ear infection, so who knows, he's probably had more.

- Antibiotics REALLY give him the runs. We pretty much had never had issues with leaky diapers...until now. Not fun.

- Could win an award for the best "Bed Head." This child has some serious wild man hair. Hair cut #2 is in our near future.

- Is pretty much NONSTOP... this kid has ENERGY and is a full-fledged TODDLER!

- Loves crawling through his tunnel.

- Loves rolling around on the couch.

- Finally fell off the changing table for the first time. I'm amazed it took this long as wiggly as he is. He's fine, he's so big it barely phased him.

- Still HAS to have his blanket to sleep. He LOVES that thing!

Like I said, never still...




Carson - We LOVE you and you make every day a new adventure!!!

5K = No Problem!

If you've been following my running updates, you will know that I've only been going a mile. It's been the "just get up and do SOMETHING" mentality versus really trying to start running any significant distance.

Back in the day, our Thanksgiving family tradition usually included the Turkey Trot. The last time I did it was in 2003, and my dad and I did the 8-mile race. As previously noted, I thought I was going to die. I did it cold turkey (no pun intended) - hadn't really run in several years before we did it. The deal was that I would run the 8-mile with him before I graduated college. It was a promise to my dad, so I kept that promise. It was also a promise I wished he had forgotten about. I couldn't walk for 3 days. I did it though. By far the longest I had ever, and still HAVE ever run.


Anyways, so my recent running stint was only a mile. We were signed up for the 5K, which is a little over 3 miles. If you've ever done the Turkey Trot, you know the first 1/2 mile is pretty much walking since there are over 30,000 people there. The Dallas Morning News estimated 38,000 this year.




Long story short, this was easy. I felt good. I felt really good. I seriously contemplated going to the right for 8-mile instead of the left for the 5K. My dad did too, except we didn't have enough money in the parking meter. Plus, I'm not sure if you are supposed to do that.


It must have been the "mass crowd" affect or something. It's a lot easier to do things when you are with a bunch of other people doing it too. At about the 2.5-mile mark, Andrew started picking up the pace in a racing sort of way. I sensed he was trying to race a little, so I picked up the pace too. We were pretty much in a dead sprint by the last stretch. I cut over quickly and blocked him out with a "big, fat man" and ended up finishing first. He "claims" I blocked him out... I certainly didn't do it on purpose. The whole race was somewhat of an obstacle course because of all the people (and strollers and dogs).


Not that we were really "racing", but I did WIN among our family! hehe
I'm pretty sure that my Dad, brother, or Andrew could have "won" if they really wanted to. My dad does run 5 miles 3 times a week... pretty good for a 60-year old man!!!

I can certainly say that I like running with a group WAY better than doing it on my own. I liked that "race" factor. For some reason, running is not a sport/activity that I can really push myself on my own. I NEED someone there to beat or at least keep up with.

So, anyways, it was fun. I'm going to keep my eye out for some local 5K's or even something a little longer, like 5 miles. I'm not sure when we'll be in Dallas on Thanksgiving again, but I'd definitely like to do the 8-mile again someday. Someday when I've actually trained for it.

Oh, and we were going to bring Carson, but since he'd been under the weather, we figured it was probably best to not take him out in the cold with masses of people. THAT was a good decision. He stayed home with my mom and "helped" her prepare our Thanksgiving feast. The Turkey Trot was most definitely a BOB-fest! (Note: A BOB is an all-terrain/jogging stroller for you non-young kiddo types.)