Henry's Baptism

On July 1st, Henry was baptised at our church, Sunnyside Presbyterian, the same church that Magnolia, Boothe and I were baptised.  He wore the same gown as the girls.  Our families came to church that morning and then we all went out to brunch at Sorin's on the campus of Notre Dame.  I just love these times of family celebrations.  How blessed and loved we are.

 Henry looks a little worried here.  Not sure if it's the water that's about to be poured on his head or the fact that I put him in a dress in front of all these people!

 He fell asleep right after he was baptised and slept through the rest of the service and afterwards while we were getting some pictures.  He woke up once I passed him to my mom so everyone else could get their picture with the special guy.

 Magnolia wanted to get her chance to hold him and get a picture! ha

Boo's Bouncy Birthday

The last of June/first of July weekend was busy for us.  We had a cookout for Boothe's birthday on Saturday and Henry was baptised at church on Sunday.  The next post will be about Henry's baptism, but for now I'll share about our little 3 year old's party.  We rented a bounce house for the day but didn't tell the girls.  Literally they came home from running a few last minute errands with Dan on the morning of the party and the bounce house was set up in front of our garage when they got home.  They had no idea except that we had a big surprise for them at the party.

This was Boothe's face when she first peeked around the corner of the house and saw it.  Then she gasped, said "I Love It!" and took off running towards it.  We were really pleased with the quality of the company we rented the house from.  I think their website is http://www.just4jumping.com/.  We would definitely use them again if we did something like this another year.

 We set up the backyard for the party.  I let Boothe choose the color of the table clothes and plates.  I wasn't surprised when the theme of the party quickly turned pink!

 This bounce house was about the size of our garage.  I was shocked by how big it was.

 We set up lots of water activities for the kids.  It was (like almost every day this summer) a hot one.

 The slip and slide was definitely a fan favorite!

 We had almost 300 water balloons filled up for a big fight.  These are some of the kids before Boothe threw the first balloon.

 This was right after all the balloons had been popped.  There was a bunch of water left in the coolers and as the kids lined up to take the picture, Dan and Jeremy surprised them.  No one knew it was coming.  I love some of these facial expressions! ha

 Cake time for the birthday girl!

 Time for cards and gifts.  She got some movies and books, dress up clothes and workbooks, My Little Pony toys and jump ropes and cold hard cash.  She is loved by so many!

 Paint her green and I'd say this is a little grinch smile, what do you think?

 Cute twirly party dress? No.  Fun bathing suit to enjoy all of the water activities?  No.  Underwear only?  Yes, please.

 Magnolia & Kaelyn, best buds for about 4 years now! They met when they were only 9 months old!

 Each birthday, we take a very informal family photo.  These are the best we could get!  Ha.  The more kids we have, the crazier these pictures seem to get!

June Cousins

In June, this was the best we could do of the boys.  I did get one at the baseball game at the beginning of the month too.  With our vacation and both boys having colds and not feeling well (aka not smiling much), it was tough to get a good one.  Maybe July will be a better month for being photogenic.

Happy Independence Day!  We are enjoying a pool, a hamburger and way too much dessert!