Stella's Baptism

I love any reason to make a cake in our house and Stella's Baptism was a wonderful occassion to celebrate this past weekend.

Liz and Peter are her Baptismal Sponsors - unfortunately Peter couldn't make it back, but somehow I don't think Liz minded having Stella all to herself!

We are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends in Iowa City and Rachel and Caity were able to help us celebrate this very special day.

Stella and her new god mother.

 This is the closest thing to a family picture I got on my camera.  This is what happens when you're running behind for the service and ask Abram to take a picture after sitting through the church service.  If you'd like a good laugh, double click on the picture below and take a look at Josh's expression.  That is what two kids under 3 will do to a man.

Mr. Drew and his parents joined us for Stella's special day and he gave a great performance on the organ after church.

Once we got home, like all city girls, Stella made a quick outfit change for her party.  I believe she may be a daddy's girl.

What Fun! 8 Weeks Old

Stella has started to grace us with her beautiful smile during her 8th week of life.

 I think she's beautiful even when she's not smiling.

I forgot to post our birthday present to Abram - a new kitchen.  He still prefers the real thing but this is a close second.  His 'kitchen' windows overlook our patio so he can keep an eye on papa while he is grilling.  We have to thank Max for letting Abram try out his kitchen this past winter so we knew it would be a hit.

Adding 'mo sauce' is Abram's favorite kitchen activity.

We celebrated Father's Day by giving papa lots of love and coffee (for late nights with Stella) and a potholder (because we blamed Abram for hiding it but of course we found the original one a few hours after papa opened his new one).

I made a middle of June resolution to try to snap pictures of Stella in all her beautiful outfits before she out grows them.  So far I have remembered to do this a grand total of one time.

This past weekend we had the treat of having Liz visit us from Denver.  We were lucky that Liz and Peter lived in Iowa City when Abram was born until this past October.  We sure miss them and were excited to have the visit.

Unexpected Trip

This past Friday our air-conditioner went out!  Without going into all the boring details - we (I) couldn't take the heat any longer and we headed to Aunt Vicki and Uncle Chris' in Omaha.   

Top 10 Reasons Our Trip to Omaha Rocked

10.  V and C are the coolest

9.  Chris is  a wonderful chef and spoiled us with yummy food

8. Henry Doorly Zoo

7. Omaha Children's Museum

6. Abram called their backyard the 'park'

5.  Josh and I got to have a date night

4.  Visiting Great Grandpa Clayton

3.  They have air conditioning

2.  Their air conditioning worked

1.  They let us sleep in their wonderfully air-conditioned home

We met some fun new friends.

Abram's favorite were of course the penguins - I think they liked him too.

It was so fun to watch him try to 'get' the penguins.  

Throughout our trip you could hear him saying "get it", "hold it", "want it."  Unfortunately for Abram, but fortunately for the animals, he was not able to get or hold any of them.

The sting rays and sea turtles also got quite a bit of attention.

Getting a closer look

 

We got to ride a train around the zoo - very  cool

 

Stella had some quality time with Papa while we rode the train

Josh had some work to do so Stella joined him in the yard.  (for all my cancer friends) Don't worry - you can't tell that they were sitting in the shade of a tree - Stella doesn't have to worry about Melanoma yet.  You can ask Josh that I am almost obsessive about making sure Stella's beautiful skin doesn't see the light of day!

Abram had fun playing in the sprinklers...

Watering the buckets...no flowers needed

 and playing in the pool.  He enjoys pretty much anything involving water and splashing.

 The best part of the entire trip (in my opinion) was that when Abram got up at 5 a.m., Vicki and Chris volunteered to entertain him so Josh and I got to sleep in.  We felt like new people.  I'll tell you two members of our family shed a few tears when we packed up to head home and I'll just say it wasn't Abram or Stella.

Thanks for having us!!!!

Having Fun....I think

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend but I wasn't able to capture very many smiling faces.  Here is a picture of Stella with the beginning of a smile - as soon as I bring up the camera her smile vanishes.

Josh and I took Abram to our local park that has some kiddie amusement park rides.  Abram was really excited to ride the train.  He was very patient while everyone was getting on the train. 

It's a cute little train that goes around the park - you can barely see Josh in his orange shirt towards the back.  Unfortunately the train decided to break before it could take off so all they got to do was sit on the train.  Abram was very good about the change in plans and we took off for the fish ride.

The fish ride is only for children and it was Abram's first time riding something by himself.  I was very nervous he would get scared and try to get out of the fish while it was moving.  Abram impressed us all by staying on the ride.

Though he didn't ask to get off the ride he didn't look like he was having too much fun.

This is the face that he had the entire time.

I was sure when he got off that he would want to be done with rides but he asked to go on the mini-ferris wheel.

There is my baby way up high all by himself.

He had the same face as he did on the fish ride.

The plane ride didn't produce a smile either.

The carousel didn't fare much better.  I'm sure he was having fun but was concentrating on hanging on but it was so painful to watch!  My little boy is growing up.  We'll be back to the rides this summer and hopefully we'll look like we're having a little more fun.

Yesterday we decided to make banana muffins since we had been negligent in actually eating the bananas.

Abram is a wonderful helper in the kitchen.  The hardest part is waiting for them to bake.

Still waiting.

 Finally...

 Success!

Stella turned 5 weeks old today and I got a picture of her on her play mat this morning.