we will strive to raise him up in the nurture and admonition of the lord...with only a bribe or two, here and there!

last weekend, we celebrated reed's baptism with a few friends and family. the day after halloween and a seasonal time change may not have been the best time to plan it, but it all worked out! this little guy looked as cute as all the other grandkids who have worn this gown!

(this has nothing to do with this post, but don't you just love the wrist fat?!? neither of my other two ever had a fat roll, and i'm loving that reed has rolls!)

we tried to take some family pictures before church, but you see how well that worked out!

i have decided that i'm not going to waste my time trying to take christmas card pictures. i'm just going to take one picture. the caption will read "i tried. merry christmas." anybody with 3 kids will understand or at least feel sorry for me!!

anyway when wes was baptised, william ran laps around chase and the preacher, pulled on the gown, was just generally loud, and ended up eating animal crackers on the pew with the grandparents. we were determined not to make a scene this go around!

meet collins...


a few weeks before reed's baptism, collins' little brother, griffin, was baptised. i made william stand up in the pew and watch carefully. not the baby, not the preacher...i made him focus on collins. "see how still he is being? see how quiet collins is? look how good collins is being." etc, etc, etc. and then we played a game. it was called the "can i be as good as collins?" game. i told william that if he could be as still and as quiet during reed's baptism as collins was during griffin's baptism that he could have a piece of gum. this is a big deal to him because i don't let him chew gum in church. i did until he needed to spit it out one day and i had nowhere to put it. plus, he has a tendency to smack and see how far he can pull it out of his mouth. i guess gum playing is better than the 2 bright, orange tic-tac-toe boards that he drew in the hymnal, but that's a different story! anyway....william didn't budge during the whole thing. he put his hands in his pockets and stared straight ahead. i don't even think he looked up when reed was baptised! i held wes the whole time and promised him a peppermint if he could be quiet. other than the one "i want my peppermint" outburst, he was good! (hey...i'm not above a bribe!)

of course, we can't get out of the day without incident because reed decided at the last second to blow out his diaper! he tried to ruin the family heirloom he was wearing, but i think it is in good shape for the next grandkid or great-grandkid! we hope.

after church, we made our way to the country club for lunch. we had our own room, so once everyone had pigged out and eaten way too many desserts, the little people found a place on the floor with some crayons and were entertained for a bit...


...until they made their way outside with paper airplanes.


despite the fact that everyone was short on sleep and it was way past naptime, there were no meltdowns. everyone played nicely, and we even got one pic of the henson kids where everyone is at least looking in the same direction.

maybe i'll just use that picture as my christmas card. the two cute girls in the middle of my boys will just be a bonus!