Sleeping Beauty

After her baptism, it gave Louisa was quite pleased to be a covenant child. In fact, it gave her the peace of mind to sleep through the night for the first time! She has only repeated this feat twice since then, but hey, we'll take an 9 hour stretch anytime we can get it!

Louisa's Baptism

We were glad that Aunt Sarah and Aunt Beth and Caleb were in town for the weekend, because this mea Louisa was baptized on May 16th, 2010.

She wore the same gown and my sisters and I were christened in. She looked lovely while her mother looked dumb with her mouth open!

It was such a lovely day and it is such a delight to know that she is now a covenant child, set apart and special before the Lord. We pray that one day she will come to trust in Christ as her Savior and for now we will try our best to raise her in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

Flashback: Cronkhites Visit

I just realized that I never posted pictures from when the Cronkhites visited us back when Louisa was only 5 days old.

Louisa and Zac (pictured above, second from the left) share a birthday. He turned one on the day she was born! We were so glad they were in town (they live in Boston) to celebrate his birthday so they could come see us too.

Rocket happened to stop by that day too. So he held Louisa while we all ate dinner together.

And then he took this pretty-good-for-having-three-kids-in-it-picture of the seven of us. Crazy that there are seven of us!

And for your viewing pleasure, a video of Rock 'reading' Corduroy to Zac.

Aunt Sarah

The same weekend that Elizabeth and Caleb were here, Aunt Sarah also came into town to meet Louisa.

We spent Saturday afternoon at an auction preview at The Potomack Company (where Zuni used to work). We also went to lunch at Tropical Smoothie Cafe (where Zuni used to eat). I highly recommend the Sunrise, Sunset smoothie. As you can see we were all very sad that Zuni was not there to fill the empty chair at the table.

After a yummy steak dinner, we played Settlers of Catan. This was Louisa's first game. She did not win.

Smiling Sweetie

It's blurry, it's off center, but there it is! Louisa's beautiful smile!We've been seeing it for awhile now, but of course I wanted to get my first pictures of it in our junky car. Please ignore the background and focus on the cuteness.

And here's a somewhat boring but cute video that proves she can coo with the best of them!

Summa Susi

She did it!

Aunt Susi graduated! From George Mason University! With a Bachelors degree in English! On May 14th! And she did it summa cum laude! Which means she graduated with over a 3.90 GPA. Which means I will now refer to her as Summa Susi. I think it has a nicer ring than Smarty-Pants-Studies-A-Lot Susi.

Family (including Fix, who took this picture) came out of the woodwork to sit in the nosebleed seats and watch her walk across that stage.

In case you didn't catch them in the last picture, allow me to point out that Cousin Caleb and Aunt Elizabeth came all the way from Seattle!
After the ceremony we went back to Papa John and Nana's house for the afternoon. Elizabeth bought Louisa this dress, but I think she would have given her a kiss no matter what she wore.

While Elizabeth smooched Louisa, Rock and Caleb spent the afternoon vying for attention from the grandparents. The rest of us sat around and discussed Susi's future. If you know of anyone in the DC area who needs an EXCELLENT editor, let me know!

Then we all took Summa Susi out for dinner at Otani Japanese Steakhouse. Rock took the picture above to document that we were the first to arrive. It's a rare occurrence with two kids under three.

I warned Caleb and Rock that cooking surface would get really hot so they should stay back to keep from getting burned. Rock translated this to mean "The fire that everyone thinks is just for show will probably burn you up and you should be terrified."

J-Dubs (or J-Dub) and Erin also joined us for dinner. They were not afraid of the fire.

Did I mention how exciting it was to have Elizabeth and Caleb there?!

I think Jason intentionally ruined this cute picture.

I know that Rock intentionally ruined this cute picture. Once again, congrats to Summa Susi! We are so proud of you!

To-Do List

One morning at breakfast, Fix felt like he had way too much to do and wanted to write a to-do list so he wouldn't forget everything. As I wrote down what he dictated, Rock decided he wanted to write a to-do list too.In case you can't read it, it says:
Tool Bench
Clean House
Baby Addy in Blanket
Call Somebody
Hold Baby Addy
Finish Milk
Empty Dishwasher
Grocery Shopping
Reading (Olivia, Poppleton, Amelia Bedelia)

"Finish Milk" was the only one I suggested. I was hoping he would finish drinking a regular glass of milk (I am ashamed to admit that he will only drink chocolate milk). He didn't. But it was a pretty productive day regardless.

It's All in the Details...

I thought I might be biased about this, but I talked to Fix and he agrees -- Louisa is beautiful. And she has several uniquely cute features.

For example, the kickin' cowlick on her forehead. This picture doesn't even do it justice. The hairs lying right next to each other literally grow in completely opposite directions. And there is an adorable swirl on the other side of her forehead.

Her hands continue to be precious...

As are her beautiful eyes and lashes. As a side note, please appreciate that unlike her brother, Louisa loves her pacifier. I dread the day we will need to break her of this habit, but for now it does come in handy. And finally, she has this cute little birthmark on her neck/chin. Right now it's hard to tell where it will end up (and hard to photograph it) but I think it's super sweet. Okay enough doting.

Bed

Although there isn't really room for four in our queen size bed...I love spending lazy mornings there with these two babes. Especially the baby girl in the cute pants. She's a lot less wiggly than her brother.

Jeff

Remember back in March of last year when this cute boy went to Annapolis?

The Monday after Mother's Day, he went back.

Rock went to size up the competition for Becky's affections get to know Jeff, Becky's boyfriend.

We enjoyed a yummy meal at Joss Sushi...

Where Rock loved the edamame, ate his first piece of sushi (didn't love it, didn't hate it), and devoured the pickled ginger.

Then we took in the boats in the harbor. Jeff kindly walked Louisa...

While we tossed Rock around (and Becky took pictures).

On the way back to our car, Rock even let Jeff hold his hand for a few moments. Sorry Jeff, we thought it was great to finally meet you but Rock will need more time to adjust. His love for Becky runs pretty deep. I'm sure you understand.

Hamming it Up

When Rock crawled into this planter (that Juju gave me for Mother's Day along with a knock-out rose plant to go into it), I asked him to pose for a picture.

Then he said "Now, I want to take a BAD picture!"

"Now I want to take a SILLY FACE picture!"

I wonder what he'll think of next...

Mother's Day

Some shots with a Mother's Day theme...Since we took a picture of Rock's first Mother's Day...

We had to take a picture (a few days early) of Louisa's first Mother's Day.

Then, on the evening before Mother's Day we had the pleasure of having double grandmother time! We love these two mothers!

And on the real Mother's Day I was blessed to spend the day worshiping the Lord with my favorite people... Fix, Rock and Louisa. As if being a mom to two fabulous kids and a wife to the world's greatest husband wasn't enough, I also got a great gift from Fix. He put the first year of this blog into book form. I can't wait for it to arrive! Thanks babe!