Baptism and Memorial Day Weekend

The girls were Baptized on Pentecost Sunday at St. Peters in Oxford.  It was a beautiful day.  Despite all my worries everything went very smoothly.  The girls made it through the whole service and did great.  I have poured water on their heads during baths since they were tiny so it actually barely phased them.  We had a brunch at our house afterwards with friends and family.  My mom and sisters did the food, which was wonderful.  The whole fam did so much to prepare for the day, help during the service and brunch, and clean up afterwards -  I am so grateful.  

One of the highlights of the weekend was that my brother, Richard, was the guest organist for the church service.  The music was absolutely beautiful. 

I meant to get a pic of each child with their godparents and totally failed.  Here are all the godparents listed below.  We are very thankful that they are part of the girls' lives.

Anna - Christina Cafiero, Anna Ruth & Will McCalley

Irene - Melanie & John Beckham, Matthew Nichols

Brooks - Carolyn & Nathan Smith, Richard Byrd

The poor Beckhams came down with the stomach virus and were unable to join us.  We really missed them. 

Family pic just after the service.  Anna left, Brooks middle, Irene right.

Elizabeth Brooks Nichols (her godparents Richard, Carolyn, Nathan looking on)

Anna Carolyn Nichols

Irene Margaret Nichols

This is what getting three babies dressed for a Baptism looks like.  It was nothing short of a miracle that we were in the church on time.

The grandmothers getting Irene (I think?) dressed

Anna Ruth getting Anna dressed

Brooks getting ready.  The bonnet lasted 2 minutes.

Meme and Irene

Anna Ruth and Anna

Carolyn is a pro at everything

Gangsta Brooks.  In all seriousness, a beautiful necklace given to her by her godparents, Carolyn and Nathan.

Fran, Will, Kat

Great food prepared by my mom and sisters

Friends at the post Baptism brunch

We had a wonderful weekend all around.  It was so fun to have grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins in town.  A few more pics....

This is what lunchtime looked like 

Sweet sisters

All the cousins - Lyndy holding Frances, Brooks, Irene, Kat holding Anna.

Fran the entertainer

This pic just about sums up their personalities.

We celebrated Matthew's 36th birthday on Saturday night.  Here he is with his goddaughter, Irene. 

Thanks to everyone that was part of the weekend.  Love to all.

Stop the madness

I bought into liking the color of pink.  Then I even put bonnets on them for Easter.  Now I'm on to bows on their poor little basically bald heads.

And we ate peas.

Brooks

Anna

Irene

Irene

Brooks.  Not a fan.  Smart girl.

Anna.  

Fad Cooking

I only like to cook if I'm inspired.  I only get inspired a few times a year and when that happens I get in this huge kick of cooking all kinds of fun dishes.  The rest of the year I either force myself to cook something I consider boring or we have take out every night (usually the latter). Before the kiddos we would go weeks where we ate out every single night.

I'm currently on one of those rare cooking kicks thanks to a local CSA that we joined this year.   We are getting all kinds of veggies that we rarely eat and I never cook - beets, swiss chard, kale, kohlrabi, to name a few. 

I had never even heard of kohlrabi, but we roasted it and it was delicious.  I did not get a picture because we got hungry while cooking another dish that night and accidentally ate it all.  I used a variation of this recipe.

Our CSA goods from last week.  Can't wait to see what we get this week.

The same night we made the kohlrabi, we also made a kale, white bean, and italian sausage dish.  Mary Kathryn recommended it on her blog, an unlined page, and she was right - it was so good.  And really easy.  Our salad had romaine and spinach from the CSA also. (MK's photo of the kale dish is much better....I need to work on my presentation).

Left - salad with goat cheese, avocado, tomato.  Right - kale, white beans, and italian sausage.

Another night we had a spinach salad with roasted beets as well as avocado, goat cheese, and walnuts.  Beets and spinach from the CSA

You may see a trend with the goat cheese and avocado.  That is a lifelong kick that I am on 365 days a year. 

I also was able to use some of the spinach in a spinach dip for book club last week, and made some kale chips to snack on (got this idea from MK's as well).

This next picture has nothing to do with the CSA.  It just illustrates my current phase.  Rather than my normal mediocre prepacked breakfast, I'm actually making my own yogurt/fruit/granola to take to work each day. 

I really wish I would keep this up but I give it about another week before I move on to some other hobby I like to dabble in and out of once a year, like gardening or tennis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6 months old, muwhahahaha

That's Brooks doing the evil laugh

Brooks, Irene, Anna

Last weekend was Double Decker in Oxford.  So fun (although at times I sort of felt like we needed to charge admission).  It was hot so we had to breakout the sunscreen and hats.

Flying Nun Brooks

Irene

Anna

With Meme at Double Decker

Uncle Sulli and the girls hanging out on Sunday morning after Double Decker.  What a natural!  Irene LOVED Sulli which says a lot because she is not a fan of a lot of people.

I truly cannot believe it has been 6 months.  Seems like just yesterday I was nervous, huge, and uncomfortable waiting on their arrival, and then delirious, relieved, and happy when I finally got to see those tiny faces.  Each phase seemed like it lasted forever during the pregnancy and those first few months, and now time is just flying by.