I Baptize Thee...

It was a very eventful weekend for our family. Friday night we went out for dinner with a group of family and friends and then went home and got a few things ready for Archer's baptism on Saturday.

We were up early on Saturday preparing for baptism.  What a gloomy, dreary, rainy day. After taking tables, chairs, food and drinks out to Mom and Dad's, we came home to give the kids naps (and me too!) and then got ourselves cleaned up and ready to go for Archer's big event!

We picked up my grandpa at his retirement home and then made the trek out to Farley for mass at 4:30. Nora was a very good girl in church and Archer was happy as a clam in his seat just watching me. Nora even "sang" and bobbed her head when we sang hymns! I think Father Cain even got a chuckle out of her because he saw her - how could he miss her - she was in the very front pew!

After mass when church cleared out, we gathered up front with another family who was baptizing their daughter, and waited for Father Cain. Oddly enough, the other family baptizing was my second cousin Rhonda Hefel and her husband! I thought that was really neat that we got to baptize our babies together. My mom and Rhonda's mom were very close cousins growing up. Rhonda's daughter Georgie Mae and Archer were born exactly 2 months apart. He was born on September 19th and she was born on November 19th. Father Cain does an amazing job of incorporating and involving any other little children who are in attendance, so he had his "helpers" help him bless the holy water, hold the baptismal candles, place the baptismal bib, etc. My nephew Noah was absolutely enthralled by that candle, which he got to hold. He didn't take his eyes off of it.  Thanks go to my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Meghan, for her outstanding photography skills!

Archer only cried once when he was getting the holy water on his head. I got choked up a few times when he was getting baptized, but I held it together. I remember getting that way with Nora too. It was a monumental moment in his life because he is accepting Christ as his Lord and Savior and I am so proud to be his mother and to guide him through his life as a Christian. It is my job to teach him right from wrong and to lead a good, moral life. He is such a happy, good boy now, I hope and pray that he stays that way!

Following baptism, we had a gathering of family at my parent's house where we had plenty of food, drink and conversation. Nora took a few tumbles off of the couch and chair (which she knew she wasn't supposed to be jumping on!) and even I took a nice tumble down the stairs, but it was so nice to get together with such wonderful people. I love both mine and Jed's families so much and I really don't know where we would be without them. I feel like we get closer and closer every time we see each other. We are truly lucky to be close to our families, in both proximity and in our relationships. It is the way we were both brought up and the way I want to raise our kids too. So Nora and Archer, if you are reading this someday down the road - that's my way of saying don't move away from us!!!

Archer & his Godparents, Boomer & Abbey

Family Portrait