Holy Sacraments! (Part Two)

As promised, I'm back with the second installment of "Holy Sacraments!" I know that many of you, considering the dearth of blogs during August, did not believe that I would be back so soon, how wrong you were!! In fact, I bet you feel a little silly for doubting me, and I want you to know, it's OK; my feelings are only a little hurt, but I will get over it. So now let's begin the recap of events for August 12. You may remember from a previous blog that my sister Susie got married on the 11th. Christa & I, being the savvy parents we are, realized that my whole family was likely going to be in town for that event . . . and providing that we could get Michael, my brother, to stay in town for longer than 24 hours, we had a good chance to have them here for the baptism, if we had it the next day. Despite my brother's complaints, we went forward with our plan. Invitations were sent out and dresses were bought. Here now is a summery of that glorious day.

Emily had really been looking forward to her baptism, Joseph had two baptisms (a long story), and Emily couldn't wait to get started. However, she had learned her lesson from the wedding and tried to not get too excited so that she had an outside chance at staying awake for this. We got up very early in the morning so we could all get ready for the second big day in a row. We decided to not dress Emily in her baptism dress until we got to the church, just in case she wanted to go play in the mud or something. Before we left for the church, Emily took a quick nap; she wasn't taking any chances, she would be awake for this no matter what. Once we were at church, we quickly changed Emily into her pretty dress and started to take some pictures and greet our friends & family who had come to share this special occasion with us. Emily was very happy to see her Aunt Kate & Uncle Ron, not to mention her Cousin Laura, who she remembered but wasn't sure why. She was also happy to see so many of Mommy & Daddy's friends who she hadn't seen in quite some time.

Very soon it was time to begin, and Emily was wide awake. Father Rich would be performing the baptism, which was very lucky for us, as he had recently transferred to another church. It turns out that he likes Emily quite a bit and was more than happy to come back and do this for us. Emily was THRILLED, during the service she paid rapt attention to him and smiled the whole time. She was a very good little girl, and even held her hands together during the prayers. When it was time, we all went out to the baptismal font and prepared to baptise Emily into the church. Emily remembered our practice from the other day and knew just what to do, when Father Rich was pouring water over her head, she leaned back and dunked herself. I was very impressed that during this whole process she never cried, in fact, she smiled the whole time, this kid loves Father Rich. After he anointed her head with the oil, he told us that no matter how many baths we give her, the scent from the oil will last about a week. Another part of the baptism Emily really enjoyed was her baptismal candle, she was just enthralled with it, The Godfather was holding it and she couldn't take her eyes off it. That came in very handy during pictures because all we had to do was hold it out in front of her and she would be looking at the camera and smiling.

After the baptism we invited everyone to a small party at one of the local forest preserves. We had hamburgers, chicken, 3 different types of salad, chips, chocolate cake, and lots of fun (Not to mention personalized & individually hand-wrapped Hershey's Miniatures). Grandma Kathy & Auntie Mandy had lots of fun finding really cute decorations for the party, and everyone loved them. They even found some very cute angel rubber ducks that they floated in little pink pails. It wasn't long before this rowdy group discovered that if you filled the ducks with water, they can be used like little squirt guns, which they all did using me, the humble cook, as a target. Emily received lots of really nice gifts which she helped unwrap, this kid is a sucker for tissue paper. Before long, it was time to go. Everyone seemed to have had a really good time, and when it was over, Emily wanted to know when her next baptism would be. I had to explain to her that this was it and she would have to wait quite awhile before she got another sacrament to celebrate.

So there you have it, "Holy Sacraments, part two." Some information for you before I go though, Emily changed her clothes four times this day: pajamas to the outfit she wore to church, outfit for church to the baptism dress, baptism dress to party outfit, and party outfit to pajamas, if this trend continues as she gets older, I'm gonna go broke! Once again we are one more post closer to being caught up, this is turning into a serious blogging blitz!

Dressed in our Sunday best for a very special day.




What a sweetie pie!





Emily was having the time of her life. She was just smiling, laughing, and chattering through the entire morning. It was highly amusing.

Presenting our little girl to God and asking the church for baptism.

Time for the sign of the cross on her forehead.

Flirting with Father Rich...

" Hey, Daddy, I was here the other day."

Father Rich was just going to pour a little water on her head, but Emily craned her neck to see what was happening and dunked her own head into the font. Silly girl!!

Drip, Drip, Drip...

Being anointed with oil (the smell of the oil lasted for about a week after her baptism, even with several baths...it wasn't a bad smell, it just lingered for awhile.)

The Godfather lights Emily's baptism candle from the Pascal candle.

"Hey, Uncle J, what's that? It's pretty!"

Yay, Emily!!!!

We took a quick picture with Father Rich before heading to the party/picnic.

Emily with her Godparents...Auntie Mandy (her fairy Godmother) & Uncle J ("The Godfather")

Hugs for Mommy

The picnic gets started as everyone arrives...

Only the cutest decorations are appropriate for such a special girl.

Since Emily has such an affection for rubber duckies, we thought that would make a good theme for our party. This was one of the table centerpieces (which also doubled as weapons against Daddy later on in the party).

Grandma Kathy came up with this very clever flower arrangement. (Look closely, that's not macaroni floating in the vase...after all, this was a baby dunking.)

Snuggling Grandpa Jerry and drinking some water. It was such a hot day!

Emily plays with a water bottle, while Chase watches.

See what I mean about the rubber duck weapons?! Can you think of anyone more deserving of this attack?

Daddy manned the grill for the afternoon. Our friends Jeff & Steve kept him company while he cooked up about 40 burgers and 5 lbs of chicken steaks.

Our friends Carrie & Joe came and brought the newest addition to their family, little Aubrey.

Emily & Chase spent a little time playing together in the Pack n Play while the adults ate their food. Here they are "sharing" Emily's little bird, whom she showed no interest in until Chase was playing with it.

Who would have thought, Emily eating a rubber duck.

Mmmmm...Chocolate Baptism Cake!

Kaitie could hardly stand it while Grandma Kathy cut up the cake!!!

Since the doctor said that Emily has to wait for her first birthday before taste-testing chocolate cake, we thought she should have a different kind of treat at her party. Here she is tasting Vanilla Custard Pudding for the first time. Yummy!

Our friend Trudy was having fun blowing in Emily's face. This was cracking Emily up!

"Mommy, look at all these presents!"

3 people, one facial expression. Here we all are reacting to Auntie Mandy's gift, a beautiful baby ring.

Emily thought that this pink tissue paper was great fun.

An angel kitty from Great Grandma Pauline.

"Daddy, you dunked me today. Now it's my turn to dunk you."