We had our sweet Caroline baptized into the Catholic faith this past weekend. Our faith (and religion) are very important to Nick and I both and having our girls baptized (each when they were around 3 months old)  provides a huge sense of relief that we are doing our part as parents to introduce them into the Catholic community.

A quick note about Caroline's baptismal gown--- which is actually MY baptismal gown. This gown was made for me by my aunt Terri (obviously when I was baptized as an infant) in 1984. It has since been worn by Ryan at her baptism in 2013, Olivia at her baptism in 2014 and now our youngest baby girl, Caroline in 2016. Each time it has been worn, the new Catholic's name and the date of the baptism has been embroidered onto the hem of the dress.

I an enamored by this gown because it has become an absolute family heirloom and I hope that my grandbabies (and generations to come) will some day wear this gown at their baptism.

Baptism is no easy task (I mean, you have water thrown in your face when you are 3 months old) but my sweet babe handled it like a champ and completely won over the heart of Fr. Frank :)

May God bless you, sweet Caroline, all the days of you life.

Halloween 2016: the never ending holiday

This Halloween felt like it was a month long. Seriously, I think we had Halloween related activities every day of every weekend (and sometimes during the week too) the entire month of October. But I have a hard time complaining about it too much because this was the first year that Ryan completely understood the concept of Halloween, costumes and trick-or-treating. It was a real treat (pun intended)  to watch her have such a blast with it all this year.

A couple weeks before Halloween, I took the girls to Party City so they could pick out their costumes. Ryan insisted on being a princess and in true little sister form, Liv wanted to be exactly what her sister was going to be.... so a pink princess and a blue princess is what we got! I saw a ton of very creative family, themed costumes this year and I feel mildly guilty about being such a lazy mommy when it comes to costumes this year (heck, I didn't even dress up the baby!!) but I'm going to play the "new mom card" again 😊 Maybe next year we will do a cute group costume. Maybe.

We also decorated the outside of our house this year since Ryan declared that this was "her most favorite holiday every!"

October 26th we want to Boo at the Zoo again this year. It was a fairly successful trip. We all had a blast, Ryan was stoked about gathering as much candy as possible, Liv wanted to see the elephants and sweet Caroline was just the most content little baby! We didn't see many animals or watch any shows since we only had candy on our minds, but we did stop by to meet the mermaids! Fun start to the Halloween holiday!

Liv isn't a huge fan of taking photos.... but candy sure helped :)

Next up was Trunk-or-Treat at Ryan's preschool. This was a new one for us and it was adorable. Nick and I volunteered to decorate our trunk and hand out candy to the littles (didn't get a pic of our trunk- mommy fail) and Ryan was so excited to join her friends to gather even more candy.

Next day, we went to the Little Gym where Liv does tumbling and participated in their Halloween party and went trick-or-treating in the stores that flank the gym. More candy.

Liv's still not a fan....

Next day, we went to the Trick or Treat Trail at Southlands Mall. So we spent the morning in bouncy castles, listening to 'spooky' story time and gathering MORE candy.

And then there was actual HALLOWEEN! See? Never ending holiday!

But IT. WAS. AMAZING! It was amazing watching Ryan so excited to go from house to house yelling "TRICK-OR-TREAT!!!!!" The delight and excitement in her eyes was truly heartwarming and made me like this holiday that has never actually been my favorite. It has now become and contender and has me looking forward to Halloween next year!