Eli's baptismal day

Eli and Caroline were baptized last weekend.  It was a wonderful day!

Fr. Joe offered to do the ceremony it was right after 4:30 mass on Saturday.

Chris and Caitlin, and Dave agreed to be Eli's godparents.  You're in good hands, Eli!

Tiff took the pictures for us - which was very much appreciated since we found out last minute we couldn't use flash during the baptism.

Fr. Joe invited the older kids over to help blow out the candle - it was HARD to do!

So excited for Eli!

Fr. Joe and our family following the baptism

GG Rita was able to make it - meant the world to us to have her there

Our family with the Godparents - Can't believe everyone is looking and smiling!

And of course, I forgot to get pictures of Tiff and Gordy or Meemaw or Grammie and Grandad with Eli - but they were all there, too!  He has such a great family to support him!

After the baptism we headed downstairs for some salad, lasagna, and bread, and of course, some delicious cake.

Eli's smiles

Eli was extra smiley one afternoon - so glad I had my phone around to snap a few pictures.

It seems like these phases go by so quickly and I want to remember all that I can!

Riss Lake Nature Trail

Both of the kids have been asking to go back to the neighborhood nature trail.  We found a beautiful Sunday afternoon and took advantage of it.  The trail was covered in leaves, but we found some awesome hiking sticks and got moving!

I wore Eli in a baby carrier and he did awesome.  He slept the whole time.  This kid just loves to be held and it works out well that he is super relaxed in the carriers.  Too bad he's super heavy already!

Colin was being goofy and thought this huge thing would be his walking stick! :)

We had a slightly disastrous moment when Maggie got herself into some burrs.  Of course, they were inside her jacket and rubbing on her back and side, so we couldn't ignore them.  Brian took some time and got EVERY SINGLE ONE of them off.  That's a good Daddy!

Hunting for burrs stuck on Maggie's jacket

 Our little hikers

 Such a fun afternoon

Eli just hung out the whole time

We spent a lot of time throwing rocks and acorns into the pond.

That is where we think Brian lost his sunglasses.  And not just any sunglasses, the ones he bought in high school in 1998.  So, being the good wife I am, Eli and I went back to the trail trying to find them the next day.  No luck, but I posted something on our neighborhood Facebook page and someone else found them.  Yeah, the sunglasses live on! :)

2015 World Series Champions

As with most of the Royals playoff games, the 5th game went into extra innings - meaning it was a late night.  Brian and I were awake anyway with the baby, but the kids went to bed.

As luck would have it though, Colin woke up needing to use the bathroom at the perfect time.  It was the 12th inning and the Royals were about to clinch the title.

We got some night time pictures of the kids with the game!

In case you haven't heard, the KC Royals won the World Series Championship for the first time in 30 years.  

Brian took the kids (minus Eli) to the parade and had a great time.  The school's were all canceled for the day due to the amount of kids that were going to be absent anyway!  There was an estimate that around 800,000 people showed up for the parade.  It was complete chaos.

Brian met his brothers downtown (even the Texas Tesons drove in for the parade), and they had a pretty good spot to watch the parade.  It started at noon, but they got there quite a bit earlier to make sure they had a spot.  Maggie immediately decided she was cold and wanted me (who was home with Eli), and Brian said she got pretty fussy.  She doesn't really like crowds or loud noises, so this probably wasn't a good decision on our part, but he said she calmed down and seemed to enjoy herself.

The kids were sitting on the hood of a parked car for a while

Waiting for the parade to start

The parade was a lot of fun (maybe even more so for Brian and his brothers), but it took quite a while for them to get home afterwards.

They all got to ride a shuttle bus back to their car, which was probably the highlight of the day for Maggie.

Colin obviously enjoyed himself as well!

Brian remembers going to the parade in 1985, and it was really neat for him to be able to take Colin and Maggie to this one.  It was a family friendly event, and even though it was a traffic nightmare, Kansas City handled it well.  

Now Brian is trying to decide what to do with his time in the evenings when Eli is up at all hours of the night, instead of watching the playoff games.  :)  I guess we'll just try to sleep!

Halloween 2015 - Power Ranger style

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  The kids had planned on being Power Rangers about 6 months ago, so we got their costumes online.  Meemaw wanted to make them, and I'm sure they would've turned out fabulous, but with the baby coming, I didn't want to have to mess with it.

Brian and I just decided to wear a Power Ranger mask.  I did let Meemaw make a Power Ranger hat for Eli since it was decided he was going to be the green Power Ranger.

We started out Halloween morning by carving some pumpkins.  Usually we do it before Halloween, but our days got away from us!

Maggie picked out a silly face design for her pumpkin

Maggie took this picture of her pumpkin

Colin decided on a Minion theme for his pumpkin, pictures on that later on...

We went to 2:30 mass downtown and then straight to Grammie and Grandad's to meet up with our KC cousins for some pictures.

It's really hard to get all the kids looking and smiling, but here is our best one.

Eli was still getting his costume on, but he was there, too!

Grammie and Grandad joined in this picture - that is a really full couch!

Here is our best family picture - not super great, but it'll work.

Eli wasn't too impressed with our family costumes, but maybe it'll grow on him!

Our 3 Power Rangers!

We also got some pictures at our house before Brian took the 2 older kids out.

I stayed at home with Eli to hand out the candy.  I haven't done that before in the 3 Halloween's we have lived here, and it was actually fun!  The kids were very polite and everyone stopped coming by the house early because of the Royals World Series game.  Works for me!

 Watch out!  Our house is protected by Power Rangers!

Here are the finished pumpkins

(plus the Royals pumpkin that I painted!)

The kids are such goofs!

Happy Halloween!