Skylar's baptism

Wow. I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted and those images were from the week before that. So in the past two weeks not much has happened here. Just the same things for the most part. Our one main highlight this past week is from last Sunday. My niece Skylar was baptized. She was saved a few years ago during a vacation bible school at another church than our own. The local church around the corner from me was having VBS so I decided to take my cousin who was staying with me for the week and invited my sister to bring my nieces. I hadn't had my kids yet. My cousin was also saved that same day.

So a few Sunday's ago Skylar approached our pastor and asked him about being baptized. Now she did this all on her own. I was there and was a little surprised because I didn't realize that she realized what baptism was or what it represented in the life of a believer. Well this past Sunday she followed the Lord in the waters of baptism. As our pastor said "she can say she did it the old fashioned way, in cold water," this is because the heater was not working correctly on the baptistery and so the water was cold and not heated to a comfortable temp. Now I have to say I was waiting and watching for Skylar's reaction as she stepped into the water. This girl never even flinched walking into the cold water. However after being baptized you do see a small hint as to the temperature of the water being cold.

At the bottom of the page is a video of the event. I have included the few pictures that I took as well. Sorry they are dark. I am still trying to figure out the right setting for my camera in our church. They have installed those fluorescent lights and even with setting the white balance for them and using a full open f-stop, I am still getting dark photos inside the church. I have a few more things to play with and hope to have this fixed before the next time that I post images from a church event.

Stepping into the baptistery.


Affirmation of her salvation.


Her Baptismal.


Prayer after the baptism.


Just before the spaghetti dinner that her parents provided for all of our family and friends after her baptism.

Josiah Birthday Party

Last weekend we celebrated Josiah's first birthday. It was a small celebration, mostly family, that's if you consider this family small. In the past seven years my mother went from no grandchildren to almost ten grandchildren (I say almost because number ten is in the oven and won't be coming out until the end of this year beginning of next.) Here are a few pictures that I took.

A precious moment between brothers.

Asa trying to catch up and hang out with the older kids.

Josiah and his birthday cake, well actually zucchini bread my sister and brother-in-law have a no sugar until two rule.

The frog that we found out in the yard. Nicholas was ready to clobber it with his toy bat. We stopped him from doing it so no critters were harmed. Later in the day we saw a tiny frog. Nicholas said he would hold it but someone else had to pick it up for him because he was not going to touch it. I got a good chuckle out of that.

Claudia posing with that silly grin. She still looks adorable though.

Skylar and Nicholas climbing the mountains out in the backyard. Well that's what they called them anyway. The mountains are the remains of some of the fill dirt that was brought into the yard after the house was finished being built. I guess to a six and five year old they are a bit like mountains.

Eli playing in the exersaucer. He was quite enamored with the different toys attached to this one. He had fun playing in it as did Asa.

Testing out Josiah's new wagon. I know all of the kids except Eli, Josiah, and Alivia took turns being pulled around by Uncle Chris (Dada to Asa). They certainly gave it a work out. My sister was thankful to get this one because she lives on a dirt road and the metal makes so much noise. Thanks Papa and Grandma.

Here is Asa pushing Claudia on the little tricycle. He had fun thinking he was the one moving the bike.

Skylar and Nicholas in the corn field. One of the critter tracks that we found. They had fun following me around the yard as I tried to capture images of butterflies and grasshoppers. Half the time I would get a critter in focus and then one of the would come running up beside me. Needless to say I didn't get many images of the critters but I did manage to get some.

I got through most of the day and realized that I hadn't really gotten any pictures of Alaina. Then I realized that she had been put down for a nap. Here she is all refreshed and ready to go.

And last we have a picture of Alivia. How sweet is she? And yes there was someone just out of the shot ready to grab her as soon as she moved. This is actually the third attempt at getting this shot.

Some Cute Pics

Last week I babysat for my nieces. Here are some of the pics from then as well as a couple of others. I didn't get any of Claudia that day because she had gone to the doctor's office already before I got the camera out.

Here is Asa sharing his pacifier with Elmo.


Asa and Eli mesmerized by VeggieTales.


Chris and Chloe taking a snooze.


Eli ready for the hood.


Eli and Skylar looking adorable together.

Can you catch it?

Here is the video that I took of Asa playing catch with Jeremy. The video gives you more of a sense of how Asa was throwing the ball.

Visit to Stacy's

On July 23 we went across state to my cousin Stacy's house. We had a very nice time. We went only for the day. I was dropping my mom off over at my Aunt's house so they could head down to Alabama from over there. It was a long day but so worth it. We look forward to going back over there again later this month. Here are some pictures from this past visit.


Waiting at Aunt Barb's until time to go over to Stacy's house. Asa was so funny with this duck. When you push on the tongue it quacks and the beak moves, at first it scared him then he slowly got to the point where he would do it himself and thought it was fun.


Playing on the blanket that Stacy brought outside for us the kids to sit on. Eli enjoyed playing with the blocks as did Asa. Miranda makes a great playmate.


Asa and Jeremy playing catch with the football. He enjoyed making Jeremy dive for the ball as he would toss it in the opposite direction of where Jeremy was.



Asa going down to the river with cousin Jeremy. He had a fun time down there. Mom would have gone down but the steps down looked a little to steep and she had a slight headache and decided it was wise not to climb down with an off-centered balance going on.


Eli playing with his great-aunt Barb on the blanket out in the back yard.


On the swing in the neighbor's backyard with cousin Paul.

Block Tower Video

So here is the video I promised like almost a month ago now. Where does that time go? Anyhow. This is the video of Chris and Asa building the block towers and then Asa getting a thrill from knocking them down.

update

I have been busy working on uploading video to youtube. I have been working on a website for my photography, hope to have it up and running in the next week or so. I have been job hunting sort of. Everything that is really appealing I need to have my MA in English, so looks like I need to go back and get that. Hopefully I can start by Fall 2009. I will have some more video and pictures posted in the next day or two. I haven't had much quality time on the computer. Most of the stuff I have done is from Chris's computer and well his computer does not have any of my images on it. It is hard to use the laptop when it is just me home with the boys. So here is to hoping that I have some quality time tomorrow night.