Mmmmm...smell that holy baby smell!

Anthony Lawrence was baptized on Sunday, August 17th. With 4 kids 4 and under, you can imagine the craziness that is our house when we are trying to get out the door to go anywhere. On any given day there are always things that come up...feeding the baby, changing the toddler's last minute poopy diaper, going potty, someone needs a drink, someone needs a snack, finding that one toy that just has to come with us, finding socks that match..."No, not those socks!", deciding who is going to sit in what car seat, demanding to buckle themselves, which can be a blessing when they can actually do it, but when they can't, the song from Jeopardy plays in your head while trying not to lose it (we wouldn't want to stifle their independence now, would we). Oh, and if we're lucky the baby will poop right as we're lifting him into the car...

...That is why when we finally got in the car to go to the baptism, I was just glad that we weren't going to be late, even if we weren't going to be as early as we had originally wanted to be. My hubby thought we were late, but I was just glad we would be there when it started. The baptism was to start at 1:45, we pulled up at 1:40. Woohoo! 5 minutes before it was to start was a victory for us, but I didn't celebrate too much because we still had to get out of the car, into the church, and put Anthony's baptismal gown on. Thank goodness for our dads who met us at the entrance of the church to park the car and get the rest of the kids out while we took the baby in.

We walked to the back of the church and they were starting already, calling families forward (at our church each family starts in the back and they call you forward to "present" your child for baptism).

Wait...

...What!!!

They were starting EARLY?...Yes...EARLY!

Not something that goes well for families with young children (at least not our family, we need every minute we can get)! Needless to say, our victory quickly turned into defeat as we threw poor Anthony into his gown and didn't even button it up so we could begin...

Ugh! What a start to the ceremony!

Anyway, onward we go to what really matters...

There is such a sense of peacefulness that comes from having your baby baptized and wiped clean of that original sin he is born with. I always tear up when my babies are baptized. The feeling of peace and joy that washes over me when the priest or deacon pours the holy water over my baby's head and says those words "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." It is always a reminder of the beauty of belonging to "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church," and God's amazing gift of His unending mercy.

The best we got...blurry, but not terrible

A little side note...During his homily the deacon said to the fathers, "The most important thing you can do for your baby is love their mother."... Well, my husband has mastered that! He is so good at loving me! My children are so lucky to have a such a wonderful example of selfless love as their father! I am so blessed to call him my husband!

Anthony with his godparents, Joey's sister, Maria, and brother, John. Look at him, smiling up at his Godmomma! He was smiling at John a lot during the ceremony, too. He's happy they are his godparents.

Anthony did wonderful the entire time! I was impressed, as I thought for sure he was going to demand to be fed at the most inconvenient time, but he didn't! He got a little fussy, but nothing that a little bounce and pat didn't fix.  He was giving away smiles through much of it too, which had me convinced that he knew something special was going on.

Welcome to the Catholic Church, Anthony! We hope and pray that you always feel Christ in your heart and know how much He loves you and we love you!

This cake was AMAZING!

*Not really happy with the amount we captured on film, but hey, he's number 4...I guess it comes with the territory.

Let's try this one more time...

So, here I am trying to this blogging thing again. I am not sure why I stopped, I guess it just became the last thing on the list. There are a few reasons why I am giving it another shot, but we'll get to my inspiration next time.

Some of you may remember that previously my blog name was "Brown Eyes and Blessings." Well, that was 3 years ago and quite a bit has changed since that last post! The biggest change being that we have added 2 new blessings to our family. Emma Joan is 17 months old, and we recently added number 4 in June, Anthony Lawrence is 2 months old, today, actually.

The reason for the name change is baby number 3, my Emma Joan! When she came out we were a little shocked, she looked so different than our first two. Joe and I just assumed that we would probably always have dark haired, brown-eyed babies. Well at birth, Emma's hair was light brown with all these blond highlights and her eyes were much lighter gray/blue than Gianna or Dominic's ever were. We were not sure if she would keep those blue eyes or not, but did know that all 4 of our grandfathers had blue eyes, so the recessive genes could be there. Well, she did keep those beautiful blue eyes! And her hair lightened quite a bit. Everyone always asks where she came from. Well, she is our grandfather's gift to us, we guess! More on our little spicy thing another time, she has quite the personality that keeps us on our toes!

Emma about a week old

Emma this past Mother's Day

Blessing number 4 is Anthony Lawrence. He is our "super surprise" baby. But an amazing gift from God. I keep saying that God has big plan for this little man because his a miracle! He is such a good baby (other than the typical "hold me, Momma and don't evvveeerrrrrrr put me down, EVER" stage that he is currently going through) and I thank God for that everyday! His big sister and brother could not adore him more. They still get so excited to see him, hold him, kiss him, hug him, and talk to him.

Anthony, about 6 hours old

Sweet baby boy!

On to the new name now...

As those of you who have multiple small children probably can guess and sympathize with is that I get that comment "Boy, you have your hands full, don't you?" all.the.time. Well, the truth is, yes, my/our hands are full, and yes, we have MANY hard days, and I often make comments to my husband like "Man, our life is crazy!" Yes, there are challenges on top of challenges to having 4 children ages 4 1/2 and under, but it is so so worth it, and my/our heart(s) are overflowing with the joy and love these 4 little ones bring to our lives.

I mentioned earlier that Anthony was our "surprise" baby. Many people may view that as a terrible thing, and while having 4, 4 and under was really hard and overwhelming when we found out, we knew it would be okay. That this child was God's will. That is the beauty of NFP, you know that you have allowed God to work through your marriage and your love to bring about these lives that you may not have planned, but He sure did and He wants in this world! God has big plans for each of these little lives, how blessed we are that God has entrusted them to us and to have them as our children.

So, there we are...yes, our Hands are Full, but our Hearts are Overflowing with love, joy, and God's blessings!

All our little blessings: Gianna (4.5), Dominic (3), Emma (15 months), and Anthony