More Snow

When my husband and I decided to move here, a friend said, "Well, you better learn to like winter!". 
After about 20 years I can say "What's not to like?"

(Ask me again in late March when the river is still frozen and I might answer differently!)

Cakes

Thanks to a very dear and talented friend, Social Butterfly is taking cake decorating classes.  So far she's made two cakes and I'd say she's doing a great job.
The first one she did on her own, sort of an experimental cake:

After taking two classes, Social Buttefly made this cake:

It wont be long and I'll be "hiring" her to make all the special occasion cakes for the family!  
(With all this delicious cake around here I'm never going to lose this "baby weight" though!)

Therapy

When Night Owl started going to highschool in 9th grade, Beany was a new born.  That was a good year for Night Owl, but I imagine learning the new routines, making new friends, figuring out what various teachers wanted, etc. was all a bit stressful.  Some days, he would come home from school and find Beany and just pick him up and hold him a while.  It seemed to be a relaxing thing to do. 

Now, with PJ, everyone recognizes the "thereputic properties" of holding a sleeping baby. 

Is it the weight on the stressed-out person's chest?  

The steady breathing?

The little baby noises?

The feeling that this little person is just so content to sleep in the arms of the one holding him?  

I guess it could be any one or all of these things,  but for whatever reason, everyone in the house seems to gravitate toward PJ - especially when he's sleeping.

 

For some, I literally have to argue why Mom gets to hold the baby too - and not just when he's crying! 

Life gets a little tumultous for pre-teen girls! Who wants a stuffed animal when they can hold a peacefully sleeping baby!

Night Owl has a pretty intense schedule lately so he does less "just-sitting-and-holding-the-baby".  He's more inclined to multi-task.

At the football banquet we recently attended, Dad was double-proud.  Not only did the oldest receive awards, but the youngest looked darn cute sleeping on his shoulder.  More therapy! 

When the cousins were here this past weekend the excitement of it all was a little too much for Builder.  At one point he came to me and said "Mom, I feel kinda hyper.  Can I just hold PG for a while?"  Therapy!

And then there's the "Looking out the window, watching the river while holding the baby" sort of therapy session.  Jetter and I both prefer this one!

He really does more that sleep!  The sleeping baby pictures were too precious to pass up though!

PJ's Baptism

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day.  My brother and his wife, PJ's godparents, came up with their kids, and my mom and her husband came as well.  It was nice to see them all and my kids really enjoyed re-connecting with their cousins! 
The baptism itself was beautiful and I was proud that my children behaved at Mass!  I have these fears of one of them diving into the baptismal pool (I apologize that I don't know the official name for it) but other than a close call with Beany, nothing of the sort happened!
After the baptism family and friends all came to the house to help us celebrate.  It was a joyful event!

 PJ with his godmother after the "de-robing"!  He looks a bit stricken by the whole event!

PJ with his godparents.

The cousins got to bring up the gifts!

The kids all behaved well ... mostly!

We are so blessed with little PJ!

Grandpa, and Grandma with grandchild #19!