Ebb and Flow

I'm currently experiencing a lull.  Both children are napping and I have the house to myself.  I should be napping but....obviously I'm not.  :)  Fall - my favorite time of year - has arrived and it is too beautiful to nap.  (Remind me of my foolishness when it is 3am tomorrow and I'm on the 3rd of 4th night feeding and so incredibly tired.)  For now, all the windows are open, letting in the crisp 70 degree weather.  The leaves outside are starting to show their fall beauty.  And I have Oktoberfest music playing on the TV.  :)  Pretty perfect if you ask me!

Before our next wave of visitors come, I thought I should share some last pictures from my mom's visit and then go into Julie Pedersen's visit and little Jakob's baptism!

So...some final pictures from when my mom was still here!

Jeffery modeling his new lion towel.  He was roaring like a lion!!!

Complete with his name (spelled correctly!) and A TAIL!!!!!  :)  Hahahahaha!

Some last minute cuddles and story time with Oma before she leaves!

You can't do this through Skype!  :(

(sigh)  Moving on.  Dave's sister, Julie, joined us in VA for a short but wonderful visit.  As she has been quite the international traveler this past year (lucky her!!!), we haven't seen her for a while so it was wonderful to have her visit!  And Jeffery couldn't have been happier.  Her first morning with us, she spent almost an hour playing with him and his toys on the floor and making him a VERY happy little boy.  They were 2 peas in a pod!  

Playing with his new train set from Auntie Julie P.

Jakob and his friends, Pooh Bear and Bubba

This past Sunday was a VERY special day for our family as little Jakob Becket was baptized at our church.  My mom brought my grandfather's 104 year old baptismal gown....the same that Jeffery wore during his baptism and we spent some of the last morning of her visit carefully ironing the gown and preparing it for Jakob's special day.  I know Grandpa would have been so pleased to have seen Jakob in such a special garment.

104 years old.  A sacred garment is more ways than one!

After the last Mass on Sunday, we assembled in the narthex for the baptism and were honored to see so many of our friends there to join us.  We had asked our good friends, Mark and Lauren, to be Jakob's Godparents and we were thrilled to be adding them to our "family".  Jakob was a fairly good baby and only fussed at appropriate times and was completely quiet and still during the actual sprinkling rite.  Our Associate Priest, Father M., celebrated the ceremony and I could have not been more pleased with how much time and thought went into the explanations he gave throughout the baptism.  It was truly a beautiful beautiful ceremony and I choked up on more than one occasion.

Wants to remain a heathen viking baby!  :)

We started the ceremony outside

Just entered the church.  Mark and Lauren are awesome Godparents!

Quiet in his Godmother's arms

Mark, the Godfather :), holding the baptismal candle

These two people, Mark and Lauren, are amazing people who have helped us in our lives so much....especially this past year!  When it came time to find a house, we turned to Mark, a realtor, and with his help, we found our house and had our offer accepted within 2 weeks of starting our search.  He was amazing through the whole thing.  Lauren was my doula during Labor and Delivery and I would have been lost without her.  She was the one relieving pressure in my back, forcing me :) to get out of bed....which is what I credit for my fast delivery...., and reminding Dave and nudging him to speak up about specific medical procedures we did or did not want done during and after the delivery.  And then....she was one of the first people to see little Jakob take his first breath and hear his loud yell.  The fact that these two people would consent to be our little Jakob's Godparents means the world to us.  Truly!  We are all blessed they said "yes".  

The Godparents and Parents

The new family

Afterwards, we invited people back over to our house for a baptism/house warming party.  We had almost 50 people at the house and it was wonderful!  Again, we were so blessed!  Dave says that it was a dream come true to have all those wonderful friends/family at the house, enjoying themselves, and tons of kids playing in the backyard and having a fantastic time!  Have I said how blessed we are?!  :)

Yummy cake!

All tuckered out after a busy busy day

Cuddling with his new rattle from Auntie Julie P.

All too soon, it was time for Julie to go too.  :(  It was a quick visit but one that we treasured just the same.  Jeffery ADORED playing with his Auntie Julie...and Jakob got some good cuddling time in with her.  Again....why do we live so far away?!?!?!

 Cuddle time with Auntie Julie.  Nothing could be sweeter!

Arriving too late for my mom or Auntie Julie to see was the new rug we got for the nursery!  We have been looking for just the right rug for a long time and finally found it and are absolutely thrilled!!!  It has really finished the transformation of the room and Jeffery (who is currently still sleeping in the nursery while Jakob is in our room) loves to play on it as it is nice and cushy.  :)  The nursery is really coming along nicely.  

Arriving a day too late for the baptism party...but just in time to enjoy the fall season...was our new deck furniture.  Sears delivered it and Dave spent the following evening assembling it.

And the next morning, we bundled up the boys as it was 50 degrees out and quite crisp (and beautiful!) and had our inaugural breakfast out on our deck.  It was heavenly and I think breakfasts out there may become a habit.  Lunches too for that matter!  :)  And maybe some "after the kids have gone to bed" glasses of wine or Oktoberfest beers!  :)  It has become, as my dad said it would, another room of the house and we have a beautiful beautiful season ahead of us to enjoy it!

Happiness is breakfast on the deck.

Jeffery is a HUGE fan of the new set up since he can sit in the chairs like a big boy and join mom and dad for meals.  Not to mention all the airplanes and birds he sees and trains and big trucks he hears.  

And now, as both boys are still sleeping, I should probably close my eyes as well.  Lulls are nice.  Both boys are sleeping, we don't have visitors until next week, etc.  But activity is nice too.  Jeffery makes me laugh so hard, Jakob is such a cuddle bug, Dave's parents will soon be visiting, followed by my sister and then our best friends and Jeffery's Godparents.  And then another lull.  Better yet...it is an ebb and flow.  And it all makes the moments of days turn into memories for years.  And I'm treasuring each moment...each ebb and flow...right now.  :)