Easter & Cole's Baptism

It was a very special weekend for our family... 

Our family spent the weekend in my hometown of Springfield, SD.  It was Cole's very first trip away from home - and he met TONS of new people, all of whom were very amazed by how alert and curious he is!  He is like a wise old soul stuffed into a cute little body =)  So inquisitive, and such a character!  If we hadn't been away from home, he would have really shown them what he's all about (his newest thing is having 'conversations' with people - the boy can really hold his own in a debate ha!).  He was a bit more reserved since he was out of his element!  I'm so happy that most of my family was able to meet him (and soon most of Jason's family will be meeting him as well!).

We attended Easter service at the church I grew up in - bright and early on Sunday morning.  May I just say it was a beautiful day!  Cole was baptized at the beginning of the service.  It was very special to have him baptized by the same pastor who married Jason and I, and who also baptized Aidan and Ty.    

Cole did great during his special moment - it didn't bother him one bit when the Holy water was placed on his head.  As we stood up in front of our family and congregation, Cole just quietly scanned the crowd.  Aidan and Ty were up with us, too, as they also received a special blessing from the Pastor. You can see in the picture above, the two big brothers were conked out!  Cole slept most of the time, too.  They were very good boys!!  

It was very important for us to have Aidan and Ty come up with us as Cole was baptized.  We wished we had been able to baptize them in church, but circumstances were a tad different when they were born.  We baptized Aidan at 4 days old - under the assumption that his life on this earth would be very, very short.  We held his baptism in the NICU room where he spent his first 2 weeks of life.  We were not able to have family there with us because of the room restrictions.

We were so thankful the Pastor came on short notice.  We had Aidan in our arms, we were glad we were able to baptize him - but it was also a very scary time.    

Then, when Ty was born, we once again were not sure how his health would be.  We baptized him at our home when he was a little over a month old.  

All that being said, it was a blessing to have Aidan and Ty in the church with us and Cole!

The boys' Godmothers - my sisters Karlin, Diandra & Marissa.

Our favorite Kansas family - The Hartley's

We were so lucky to have our friends, the Hartley's, come all the way up from Kansas!  I know I have mentioned them before, but just to say again, they mean SO much to us! Claire and Lola + Aidan and Ty -- together we call them the quads because they look so much alike!!  (and act alike, which to us parents means we are TOTALLY ganged up on!). The quads all share in the fact that they have microcephaly, and without that similarity we would never have met the Hartley's.  For reasons such as this, we have to be thankful for the boys' micro for leading us to a connection we wouldn't have had otherwise! 

This was their first time meeting Cole, and it was their son Cal's first time visiting us!  More on the quad reunion + Hartley family soon - tons of pictures to post!!!  We are so thankful they were able to share this special weekend with us - and I think it's safe to say they go beyond being just our friends - they are family to us!*

*Ok, I went a little 'link' crazy in the above paragraph - but just wanted to link y'all back to some prior posts about our two families & link you to Gwen's blog!!

The Hartley's were troopers and stuck with us during our whole family-filled day of Easter festivities!  As I said earlier, this was Cole's first time meeting A Lot of new peeps - I loved seeing him win everyone over =) He takes after his brothers in the charisma department!!

It was another first for our family, as it was Cole's 1st Easter.  And as much as I was overjoyed for this 1st Easter for Cole, I couldn't help but become really excited in anticipation for his 2nd Easter - when he will be able to walk, gather Easter eggs...  My mind goes back and forth between wanting time to sloooow down, and wanting it to hurry because I am so darn pumped to see Cole experience all the things that we had wished Aidan and Ty could do.  Cole can experience all that Ty and Aidan can't -- but how awesome is it that A & T will be right there by Cole's side, enjoying the "ride" through him!  

Dyeing Easter Eggs!

I don't want to overlook Aidan's 3rd and Ty's 2nd Easter!! That alone is a milestone in itself!  SO BLESSED to have shared this Holy day as a family of five!  ** Life is beautiful!!

A flashback to Easter's past...

Aidan's 1st Easter

Aidan with his Auntie Diandra - they called each other ahead of time to make sure they both wore green ha!

Aidan & Ty -- Easter 2010

The boys love their Peeps!

Now, back to the present --  we celebrated Easter to the max - with candy!  family!  friends!  games!  playing in the sunshine!  bunnies!  duckies!  And of course, the most obvious reason to celebrate - He is Risen!  

Showing he can still be tough, even with a bib on!  Ha!

Chocolate bunnies from Grandpa!?  Don't mind if I do!

Ty is obviously the messier eater.

A precious moment - Cole meeting his cousin Hanna for the 1st time.  They loved each other!

Scott with Cole - and Cole doing his very best Easter egg impression!!

Karlin with Lola - and Lola "meeting" my nephew in the belly!!

Ty singing to Gwen!  The boy can hold a tune!!

Deal me in!  Cole's best poker face.

My handsome Ty guy with his duckie from Auntie Karlin & Uncle Tanner.

Cole with his very 1st Easter bunny from Grandma.

Whew!  Did I leave anything out?!  I hope you all had a great Easter!  Please stay posted for more, more, more!  The boys' Scentsy fundraiser will be starting tomorrow so I will post links for that.  I will also be posting more about our visit from the Hartley's!

**Sidenote - You may have noticed that there is now music playing in the background on my blog.  I whipped up a playlist of songs that remind me of my blessings (my babies!), and the songs will hopefully coincide with my postings.  You can find the music player at the very bottom of my blog - you can scroll through the songs, you can stop or pause the music if you like (or just turn your volume down).  I wanted to share these songs in hopes that they will inspire you and make you think of your special ones, as these songs do for me!