Baptizing the masses

I mowed the lawn again tonight. . . I think now we've finally caught up with it and hopefully it won't look like we need to bale it anymore.  Somewhere behind Jesse's shop I ran out of gas, so headed to the house for the night.  On the way in I turned off the sprinklers that were going on some new grass so I could water the vegetables we planted.  When I'd finished watering I flung the hose in the air so it wouldn't drag across the little plants and shot myself in the ear with cold hose water.  Time to go inside.

Just after I started mowing, a friendly neighbor stopped by with a gift for our little guys.  When I turned the mower off I heard some whiny crying in the distance.  It was Axel, stuck in the mud I told him not to play in.  He was sitting down with his feet completely sunk in and covered.  Luckily I could reach him without getting stuck myself!  On the way back to the house he wanted to hold my hand and told me he should probably take a shower.  Good call.

And now the first in a new segment of this blog, Axel's Quote of the Week: "Holy crap! The sheriff just drove by!"

We had a big weekend here at the big green house - we celebrated the baptism of Eero, Rex, and Magnus.  The event has been on the calendar for several weeks, allowing Jesse's brother and his wife to make travel arrangements from the D.C. suburbs back to Minnesota.  And even though I began cleaning my home and planning the meal many days early, I was still up late Saturday night cutting Jesse's hair and up at five the next morning to frost the cakes I made (I forgot to order cake until Friday night so I had to make them myself - doh).

The actual baptism during church went very smoothly and was extra special because Jesse's dad performed the baptism. He is the previous pastor from our church, and he baptized Axel so we asked him to do the same for our next kids. Now they've all been baptized by their grandpa. None of them squawked too much - I hope they can still sing. I've heard if babies cry during their baptism it means they'll be good singers. My brother Adam and Jesse's brother Chris and wife Jen are their sponsors; we know they'll all provide excellent guidance. It was a wonderful day full of family togetherness and a delicious picnic-y dinner.

It took over 12 weeks, but we finally got a picture of all six of us.  A bit wild, but this is our life now.

Magnus, Eero, and Rex, piled up for a picture on their baptism day.

Where's Axel? I don't know, I think he went outside.  Oh, yep, here he is.  Playing in the dirt in his church clothes.