Mia's Baptism, and an epic family vacation all in one 7QT!

Wow, where does the time fly?  I'll give you the low-down on big happenings lately, while I will also be linking up with Jen over at Conversion Diary.  

A little bit late never hurt anyone.

1. 
Speaking of which, Jen just released her awesome book Something Other Than God.  I have the Kindle version on my phone, and even though I promised myself that I had to finish another book I have started (months ago) before starting Jen's book, I couldn't resist and have been sneaking in a few pages all day.  (Sneaking from who? Who knows.)  

She also has a bunch of contests including who can come up with the best drink called "The SOTG."  I am really considering entering this one...my brain has been formulating ideas for the past 24 hours and I might be on to something.  Or maybe it's a sign I just really need a drink.  Either way.

2. 
So last week my parents, sister, and brother's family came into town!!  We are usually all in one room only when we come to SD, and recently that has been mainly just for the past few Christmases.  It meant the world that they came out to celebrate Mia's baptism, and it was also so nice for my brother's family to see where we live!

3.  
Whenever my parents are in town, I always come up with a list of things I need help with from both of them.  From my mom I need things like, how do I clean this certain un-clean-able thing? And from my dad, it usually involves a trip to Home Depot and/or electrician lessons for Joel (farmers know everything, you know?)  Anyway, one of the things I asked my dad to help with was to "stabilize" the Little Free Library my neighbor generously made for us.  Here is a before picture.

As you can see, it did look like it needed a little work.  When my dad said he could add a few nice touches, I let him have free reign to the project to make any improvements he wanted.  Well, a day later he came up with this almost-finished product (I still need to paint it):

Doesn't it look awesome!!??  You can't really see the roof in the picture, but it is epic.  Wooden shingles and everything.  And in the picture is Mia, my sister Maddy, and my two nieces Sadie and Kynslie.  

I can't wait to paint it-- any suggestions on paint colors???  I'm all ears!  


4. 
I should have maybe mentioned this above, but my sister completely surprised us in coming!!  It was so awesome to have her there, it just made the entire trip complete.  What a little sneaky snake she is.  And props to my mom for keeping the secret!  She's a pretty honest / no poker face kinda lady.


5. 
On Saturday we all went to the Zoo.  The weather decided to take about a 15 degree dip and was aMAZE-ing, and we spent the entire afternoon there.  The girls rode a camel, and we saw my favorite - the giraffes.  Are not giraffes the coolest animals ever?  Anyway, here is a family picture - probably the best one we've ever taken, minus Joel trying to help Mia with her water bottle.

All I wanna know is, when did my sister become the prettiest in the family?

6. 
Sunday morning was the Baptism.  Here's a close-up of Mia in her little dress..

(I also made a little white bow headband to go with..so cute!)

I found the dress from an Etsy shop that sells handmade items called Simply White Designs.  The owner was so nice, answered a ton of questions for me before I purchased, and the dress was perfect and beautifully simple in my opinion.


7.  
My brother Andy and sister-in-law Lyndsey were the Godparents, and the baptism was during the regular Mass, right after the homily, which is a little different than normal but I loved that so many people were there to witness and be a part of her baptism.  

I just think it is so beautiful and inspiring to me when I see other baptisms during Mass. It's such a welcoming feeling into the greater church community, and reminds the entire church (in my opinion) of the new little souls entering the church, the need to pray for them, and the responsibility we all have to be a good witness to our faith and to build community. Now I'll get off that soap box and cue a photo :)

  
After the baptism we had a great little get-together for lunch with some friends, and the day flew by and off my family went back home Monday morning. It was such a whirlwind of a trip but it was so, so good.  The weather was even better than expected, the Zoo was great, I beat my niece Sadie at Memory, (she could go Pro if she wanted), and Mia got to spend some really fun play time with her cousins, aunts and uncle and grandparents.

It was so, so good.