Vivien's Baptism

Today was a special day as we celebrated Vivien's baptism with our church family, our extended family, and some favorite friends.

As you can see below, we have a little sinner on our hands! This funny picture turned up out of my little photo shoot on Friday. Of course, our inner-middle-schooler likes to laugh at it but we find it to be a good representation of our attitude towards God without the working of His grace in our hearts. Yet by His grace, we can say (as we reminded in today's sermon), "We are great sinners but He is a great Saviour!"

Sweet Vivi Leigh, we pray that you are awakened from the stupor of sin and that you know the perfect grace that our God has promised to us. Our love for you is enormous but God loves you greater still. We will be imperfect parents but He is a perfect God and Father. You are a joy to us and we look forward to seeing the fruit of God's grace at work in your life! Yummy food...pretty flowers...cute girls!

Talking to KK (we missed getting a pic of GG and KK with Vivien but they were here and worked hard to help us make this day special)

Our family minus Amity

The Deans

The Connells

The Beldings

The Browns

Lots of love from sweet cousins

Playing outside...a beautiful day

Video of the baptism to come later!

Can you tell me how to get...?

How to get to AMITY'S STREET?
When Amity woke up from her nap (a very long Benadryl-induced nap), she came into the dining room to see her party and gave some sweet hugs to her Sesame Street friends.

The table was prepared with placemats and stickers.

The balloons were a favorite thanks to GG!

Grover and Elmo were ready to par-tay!

Even Baby Vivien got dressed up for the occasion...

and received a kiss from Big Sister. Friends arrived and received hugs.

Cousins came.

Yummy pizza was consumed.

And then...(drum roll)...the cake was brought out! Famous "Aunt Gecky Cake" as Amity calls it.

Even though Baby Vivien didn't get any cake, she got to enjoy some snuggles with GG.

The cake was as yummy as it was cute!

And so were the cake-eaters!

Then we headed outside for bubbles...in honor of Ernie!

There was swinging as well.

And more bubbles.

All for a very cute two-year old! Happy, happy times Miss Amity! You are blessed to have such sweet cousins and friends to celebrate with you!

Resurrection Weekend

Our Easter Weekend has been a sweet one spent with family. We have been busy and had lots of fun but unfortunately I didn't capture all of the fun with my camera!

Dennis attended our church's Maundy Thursday service at the arboretum and I stayed home with the girls since we had all been having runny noses and I had strep throat. On Friday morning, I ran errands while Dennis stayed home with the girls and awaited the arrival of Lolly, PopPop, and Nanna. They came in from Plainview that afternoon and we had a yummy Italian birthday dinner for Lolly at Alfonso's.

On Saturday morning, the girls and Eli hung out at the Connells to dye Easter eggs and play outside. The boys went to play raquetball but the game was short-lived when Dylan cracked his two front teeth with his raquet. After spending some time calling dentists that might be working on the Saturday of a holiday weekend, we got back to the business of dyeing eggs. Aunt Becky is always crafty (in the good sense of the word)!

It was a beautiful day to spend outside, especially when you are wearing the cute outfit that Lolly made for you...until you accidentally step in dog poop. Oops!

After naps, we had dinner at our house and then had an Easter egg hunt in our front yard. The girls hunted on one half of the yard and Eli had the other half to himself where the guys had really made it difficult.

Unlike Eli and Eiley, Amity had only ever hunted empty eggs before. Such a deprived child! She didn't even realize that she should look inside them and was all about filling up her basket and then sharing with Nanna. This weekend, she started using the phrase "I go show ___." Since Nanna stayed with us, she said "I go show Nanna," a whole lot!

Of the four pictures that I took, I didn't get one with them all looking at the camera! There was just too much to be excited about!

On Easter Sunday morning, we piled into the Pilot with Nanna and the girls and headed to Lakepointe to go to church with the Connells. I sat in the very back and was able to capture a shot of each of my cuties.

I am already looking forward to celebrating Easter next year as Amity is getting more and more interested in her Bible stories at night. We pray that Easter will be much more than eggs and good food and pretty dresses but that her heart (and ours) will see the Gospel and know its Truth. Happy Resurrection Day! He is RISEN! He is RISEN INDEED!

Sisters At Play

Now that Vivien is starting to be more alert and awake for awhile after she eats, we are having fun "playing" with her, especially Amity. Vivien seems to like it too! We love her smiles!

A little tummy time on her super-soft monkey. I think this picture shows that they still do have a lot of the same features, especially their little noses. I don't know where those cute noses came from!

Amity is finally starting to learn to "pose" for pictures!

Vivien loves this mobile just as much as Amity did. She will happily watch it and coo and kick her legs for at least twenty minutes. Amity loves to join her for a snuggle.
One morning a couple of weeks ago, I was feeding Vivien early in the morning and Amity woke up earlier than usual. I went in and got her and sat at the desk chair with both in my lap. Apparently, I said something about my "two girls". Now, Amity likes to say "Mommy's two girls" whenever she is hanging out with her sister!