Gracie's Baptism

This past Sunday, April 28, 2013, Russ and I were blessed and priviledged to be able to bring our precious daughter before God and our family and friends, to be baptized. We are, yet again, humbled to be able to do this, and also humbled by what the sacrament of baptism signifies for us and our children. The washing away of our sins through Christ, and that God makes an eternal covenant of grace with us, His children, and adopts us to be His children and heirs unto everlasting life.

I was approached by one of the guests of one of the other couples who had their baby baptized and she pointed out to me in our conversation that even though we may be nervous going up in front of the whole church, being the center of attention and such, if we look at the big picture and what the true meaning of the whole day is, it should bring us such peace to think of what is actually happening during baptism. I admit I hadn't put a lot of thought into the day in that way, so I am thankful for her kind words.

Gracie did very well, and slept through the entire service. We had the 3 boys sit with my parents, so it was nice for Russ and I to be able to sit through a service without interruption from Calvin who lately has had to be taken out 2-3 times a service. Rev. Eriks preached a very fitting sermon from Proverbs 4 on how we need to warn our children of the path of the wicked.

After the service we had a cake from Costco (thanks Lindy!) and some various goodies from the homes of all our relatives who were able to join us for the special occasion.


The yummy cake


My mom holding Simon (of Matthew & Chelsea) named after my great grandpa Buquet and my dad holding Gracie, named after my great grandma Buquet


Our family


My sister Chelsea and me with our babies. They are about 6 months apart.


Simon and Gracie visiting with each other


Gracie in her dress






A close up of her shoes and leggings :)

I happened to stumble across this blog post from another blog that I follow. It was something that I really needed to be reminded of today and will continue to need be reminded of, EVERY day of my life. I know I'm not the only person that struggles with feeling like they need to please people and with the worries about what they think of how I do things or how I look. Therefore I'm posting this because I KNOW there are others who would be encouraged by this as well.

I tend to be more of a horizontal thinker than a vertical thinker. HUH??? This means I tend to worry more about what PEOPLE who are horizontally arranged around me think, than what GOD who is vertically arranged from me thinks. I NEED to remember that the audience that is MOST important to please is my audience of ONE.....God. I can't be so worried about what others think about how I parent or discipline my children, such as when we decide to start having them sit in church, or how long we keep our newborn isolated instead of letting her get sick to build up her immune system. I can't worry about what people think of how I look, or about how long it's taking me to lose the extra baby weight I gained. (Believe me, there are people I know that are not afraid to let me know how they feel about all of these subjects). I need to remember that as long as I'm doing what is right in GOD's eyes, that is all that matters. This is something I tell my kids all . the . time. Especially when they come home from school, hurting because of what someone has done to them or said to them. Looks like I need to take my own advice and put my focus fully on my faithful, heavenly Father. He's the only one that I should be focused on pleasing.

Audience of One by Big Daddy Weave
If you'd like to watch this video, you may have to scroll down to the bottom of the blog and turn the sound off on my songs. :)

Gracie is one month old!

Gracie, you are one month old already! It's really hard for us to believe that you've been here for that long!

We had your 1 month well child visit yesterday and your pediatrician is very pleased with your progress.

You weighed in at 10 lbs 9 oz and were 22 inches long.

Here is a little bit of what you are up to these days.
~ you take two good naps a day
~ you are a champ at nursing and you eat every 3 hours or so
~ you are in size 1 diapers
~ you wear size 0-3 month clothes
~ you love to be swaddled at night
~ within the last few days you've started really watching us and even giving us a sweet smile once in a while.
~ you are especially fond of your dad (who wouldn't be) and smile at him the most

Bradyn is NINE!!

On Friday, March 22, Bradyn celebrated his ninth (WOW) birthday!! Russ and I decided it would be fun to take him to a Griffins game for his birthday, and it just so happened that there was a home game on his birthday. He wanted to have a friend along, so he asked his best friend from school, Caden Engelsma to come with him. Russ picked up some Pizza Hut on the way home, and it was a quick and easy, yet different supper for the birthday boy. My mom graciously offered to make a cake for him and dropped it off by our house on her way home from work. We had our pizza supper and cake and ice cream and then Russ was off with the two boys to the hockey game. He dropped off Bradyn's friend after the hockey game was finished. Bradyn was super excited, even though the Griffins didn't pull off the win. It turned out to be a really close game with quite a fight, which the boys thought was cool. All in all Bradyn said he had a great birthday. We are once again amazed at how quickly the past year has gone by, and are thankful that God has given us the blessing of our oldest son.