Child of God

We were able to arrange to have Zoey baptized in a short private ceremony on Friday.  She was such a good girl.  My dad took some great pictures.

The church we go to has beautiful windows.

Changing Zoey into Pop's gown.  Nick's grandfather Pop wore it, so did Sue and her siblings, Nick and his, and Sam and her cousins.  It has been repaired, but still looked great after all that use.

Waiting for the action.

Ready to go!

Silly Sam.

With the deacon who performed the rite.  Luke needed a clean diaper, so we waited a bit and used the time for some pictures.

Zoey kept reaching out for him.

Oil.

Water.

Light of Christ.

With her godparents.

The Kellings.

Grandparents.

Swilleys.

The cake.

Such a funny story here.  So Mom wanted to give Zoey the cake.  We went to Publix and to order the same cake Sam had was $50 for half sheet that fed 40.  Seemed ridiculous, so we went to walmart.  This quarter sheet cake was $15.  Tasted great and was pretty.  I forgot though to ask them to put God Bless Zoey on it.  I called in to add that and the lady did not speak English too well.  It was about a 5 minute conversation with me repeating Z-O-E-Y, Z as in Zebra and her saying Doey?  D?  No Z.  Anyway, she hung up on me in the end and I told Mom I was not sure if it would say Zoey, but she said it she would get them to fix it.  Indeed it said Boey.  So she was Joey in our neighborhood newsletter and Boey on her baptism cake :)

Thanksgiving!

Nick parents, brother, sister in law, niece and nephew came in Tuesday and another brother came in Wednesday.  I did a lot of cooking and running around, so pictures are sporadic.

The big girls mostly played really well.  Isabelle is such a sweet girl and was great with Sam.  Sam had some rough moments since we let her skip naps, but mostly did well.  Luke is a riot with his typical boy behavior, hi-ya!  And Zoey did exceptionally well.  She is such a great baby.  Many people tell us she is the happiest baby they have ever seen.  All smiles and clapping right now.

The order of these is all over the place since it is by title.  But here we go.

We did Christmas presents for the cousins.

Luke helping Zoey open the one he picked out.

 We got Isabelle Fancy Nancy since it is a favorite of Sam's.

Zoey loved her presents, but the paper was just so much fun!

The big girls playing their DS's from last Christmas.

I helped the girls use tools on the pumpkins.  Isabelle wanted to carve hers too, but Sam really enjoyed using the hammer and screwdriver.

Grammy got the girls matching dogs in a purse, which was on Sam's list for Christmas.

There were quite a few rounds of tackle Uncle Nick/Daddy.

Cute girl.

Wearing her Halloween pj's with a pumpkin on her bottom.

Getting all 4 in a picture was a challenge, but I tried.

Reading with Uncle Terence.

Her first turkey.

She loved it.  Way to go Zoey!

We went to the park to have the kids run off some energy.  Papa was a great playmate.

Robyn climbed all the way to the top in flip flops!

Speedy Luke.

Much fun was had on the spinning thing.

 So cute!

A kiss from Luke!

More spinning thing.

Action shots.

We had a great time.  We stayed so busy.  The whole time was such a whirlwind.  There was shopping, eating, drinking, cooking, cleaning, baptizing, a picture session, playing and watching football among other things.  The guys never did step up to be beaten in ping pong.

It was my first time doing everything for Thanksgiving.  I have helped before, but this time was mostly me.  I modified Rachael Ray's turkey recipe with apple cider gravy for a whole turkey and made her apple stuffin muffins.  I made my own version of fresh green beans and from scratch mashed potatoes, both are a staple in our house.  I made Alton Brown's creamed corn. he calls it better than grannie's.  I also made easy chocolate truffles, a pecan pie without corn syrup, and Emeril's key lime pie.  Nick made his triple layer chocolate cake (modified from America's test kitchen recipe) and homemade bread.  My dad made his gravy, rice krispie treats and brownies.  Mom made deviled eggs.  There was no shortage of food.  I had also made pulled pork with homemade barbecue sauce and Nick grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.  At least I will not have to cook much this week!  I hope everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving.

Renovations aka the first part of November

It has been weeks since I posted, but I think you will understand when you read what all we have been up to.  Nick has been in the midst of craziness at work. USF-Polytechnic has been giving the green light to become independent if they meet certain requirements, which has kept him very busy with meetings and discussions.  I have been going to playgroups and the normal things.  But I also started off November helping with a charity garage sale for my mom's club.  We all donated things, some of us priced and sold them and we are using the money to sponsor families for Christmas through a giving tree.  We have also had friends over for dinner, gone to some birthday parties, and such to add to the chaos.  The biggest time drain has been the house.  Nick's family came for Thanksgiving (well, part of his family) and we had to clean the house.  And we still had boxes from the move and much to do until I felt we were acceptable for company.  But first we decided to tackle a little renovation.  Noise travels down our hall pretty badly, so we decided to blow insulation into the walls of the girls rooms.  We took everything out of Zoey's room and moved it into our room, except her crib which moved into the office, which is where she slept.  Sam went to my parents for many nights.  Nick only blew insulation into her closet, so we left her stuff in.  But of course the machine did something, the plastic got knocked down and dust went all over her room.  Which meant everything had to be cleaned and come out.  I had just washed and put away all her fall clothes too!  I did 12 loads of laundry in 14 hours and washed off everything I could.  What a crazy week.  Then once the girls rooms were back together, I could work on the rest of the house.  I cannot believe all we were able to accomplish.


Zoey's stuff all over our room.

The crib in the office.  Zoey did surprisingly well sleeping there.

And now a few cute random pictures.

One of the parties we went to was a painting party and said wear old clothes, but Sam insisted on wearing a party dress and changing.

Zoey on our new couch in her jeans and purple shirt, after drinking water :)

Zoey's first time eating meat.  She loved it.  What a good eater and so different from feeding Sam.

Technically, these pictures should be in my Thanksgiving post, but here are pictures from the day Zoey turned 9 months, Thanksgiving!

A cute Turkey outfit, it says thankful for mommy and the feet say little turkey.  Sam wore it too, but it would not stayed snapped.  My happy girl.

Showing off her new skill of clapping.