{life with} the Cuties: gramps

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Chattanooga chooCHOO!

the first weekend in October (oh, yes, more than a month ago), we went to Chattanooga. It was so much fun that I had to post, no matter how late!

Sadly, i forgot my camera. Thankfully, my fantastic father-in-law is a professional photographer.

Our days away from home (and at home, for that matter) always start out super early. When we are on the road, though, we need to get out of the house and avoid waking others too early--so away we went!

We found a butterfly bench which provided oodles (5 minutes) of entertainment

we put a slightly concerned Cutie Cakes in the Whole Foods punken patch

and then Cutie Face decided to join her for a sisterly photo-op

Cutie Cakes really couldn't get enough of the pumpkins

it was still early, so we visited Rembrandt's and the sculpture garden

The Cuties were content to check out the sights

the glass bridge was particularly nifty

what was the most cool, though, was the hot air balloon festival

It was very impressive

and great daddy-daughter bonding time

It also made for great scenic backdrops

The park with the balloons also had "instruments"

playable with a handy stick

late breakfast made by Gramps is always a special treat

especially when it is pancakes

it seemed like this was the weekend of festivals

We found a great one complete with bouncy castle

a firetruck,

and a chalkboard car

(what? you don't have one of these at your festivals?)

so much fun!

Pumpkin decorating and popsicle eating rounded out the day

and pretty much wore out the Cuties

It was a great fall family weekend,

made perfect by spending time with Gramps and Jen-Gram!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Baptizing the Cutie Cakester

A year and a half ago, Cutie Face was baptized on Super Bowl Sunday--exactly one week before she hit the 6-month mark.

This year, Cutie Cakes was baptized on her sister's birthday, 2 days after turning 6-months. It was fun to see the similarities/differences at the same age, stage and, more importantly event (BAPTISM!).

While our invitation might seem casual, this day in Cutie Cakes' life is a HUGE deal to us...

As mentioned before, we belong to a PCA church and baptize our kiddos as infants. We do not believe this is a saving sacrament but, rather, an act where a child enters the Covenant Family. Much like circumcision was (is!) used as a sign to set infant (males) apart for God, PCAers (Presbyterian Church of America) view baptism as the New Testament mark of the covenant. Again, feel free to check out this link posted a few months ago when Sweet Pea was baptized--it makes more sense than I do!

The whole gang headed back down to our neck of the woods for this special event...

Cutie Cakes was a little nervous about being in front of so many people so she gnawed on Mimi's hand for a bit.

The older cousins were the sweetest. The held hands in the service and sat quietly while we sang, prayed, and listened to the Word. The best part came after we finished a song--Lil Miss exclaimed, "YAY!" and started clapping. Then Cutie Face said (very loudly), "Lil Miss said 'YAY'!" It was too much.

Cutie Cakes big moment finally came and we stood up in front of the church body as a family. The charge that our pastor gives us as parents is so incredible. I wish I had a video of it so I could remind myself of what my true calling as a mother should be and to draw encouragement from it when the day-to-day begins to wear on me.

You can see my dad in the picture on the right. He is an elder at our parent church (we're a church plant from a larger church in the suburbs) and held the baptism bowl for us. You don't know how neat that is to me that he was able to do that. Thanks Poppy!