William's Baptism Weekend

We were able to celebrate the baptism of our nephew and godson William over the weekend. Luckily it was in the cities, so we didn't have to travel; instead, my family came to town. The girls had an absolute blast hanging out with their cousins. My mom and dad and sister Nikki, with her husband and four kids, arrived at our house on Saturday. My sister Terri & husband Aaron came over with William as well. Terri & Aaron just moved back to the area, so it was the first time in quite awhile that we were all together. It was quite interesting at times with 7 kids (ages 6, 3, 2, two at 18 months, and two newborns) and 8 adults, but I think we all enjoyed visiting and spending time together. Thankfully the weather was nice, so the kids spent most of their time playing outside in our yard and in the park across the street.

This morning, we dropped the girls off with Jamie's cousin's family who watched the girls during the church service. Since Jamie & I were going to stand up front during the baptism, we weren't sure how the girls would react so we decided it would be best (and less stressful!) to leave them behind. Then we went to Grace University Lutheran Church for the service. It is a beautiful, historic church that sits right on the U of M campus just blocks from where Jamie works. The baptism took place toward the beginning of the service, and I had the pleasure of holding William during this important event. It was very nice and personal, and it was great to see Terri & Aaron at home in the church that they love.

After the service, we picked up the girls and brought them to the reception at Davanni's Pizza. We had a private room, which worked out perfectly with all of the kids...and they all loved having pizza, of course! We were a little nervous about how the girls would act, since we arrived at the pizza place at the time they usually go down for a nap, but they did great. I think it helped having all of their cousins there to play with! It was actually the first time that all eight Thronson cousins were together since the birth of William & Owen. We attempted to take a cousins picture, but it was tough to get all of the kids to sit still!!! It was a very special day, and we felt lucky to be a part of it.

The girls absolutely love their baby cousins. They get an immediate smile on their face when they see William or Owen, and they keep saying "baby, baby, baby" over and over. It is odd to hear them call other kids "baby" when they are still my babies! :) They love to give them hugs and kisses, and of course they try to poke them in the eyes once in awhile! I guess they don't quite have the being nice concept down pat yet. They have really taken off with talking; Olivia especially will repeat just about anything we say. She recited all of her cousins' names with us this weekend. They are really at a fun age; we've been having so much fun with them this summer.

Our newest nephews William (born 5/9) & Owen (born 6/5): Violet & Olivia:
Jamie & me with William:
Thronson family after William's baptism:

The kids at William's baptism reception, with our cousin's son BJ
(left to right: Olivia, Emma, Evan, Maya holding Owen, BJ holding William, Alex & Violet):
Olivia giving Owen a kiss:
Violet giving William a hug:

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all fathers! Olivia & Violet sure love their Daddy. He does so much for them. He cooks for them, reads them books, plays with them outside, and gives them lots of hugs!! He also picks on them once in awhile, but he claims it will make them tough. :) The girls are very lucky to have such a great Daddy. And we are lucky to have such fun girls! Not all kids and parents are as fortunate as we are.

We were reunited with the girls on Saturday after being apart from them for a week. Olivia gave me smiles right away, but Violet just stared at me like she couldn't believe I was suddenly back. They had a fun week at Auntie Jill's house; they went to cousin Nick's baseball games, to a jewelry party, and to the park to feed the ducks. They were quite exhausted by the end of the week! But we certainly enjoyed having a week of freedom from parenting.

On Saturday, we celebrated Jamie's grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. What a wonderful milestone to achieve; not many people get to experience such a long time together. It was cute when Grandpa stood up to thank everyone, and said that "it has been such a short 60 years." Time truly does go fast. All of Jamie's cousins were there, and only a couple of the great grandchildren were missing. So almost all of the family was together, which was fun. The girls, however, wanted to spend their time at the park across the street instead of in the hall with everyone. I guess I can't blame them too much!

During the girls' stay at Jill's house, they developed an infatuation with stickers. So tonight when they started saying "sticker, sticker," I started searching for some. All I could find was some garage sale price stickers, but the girls didn't care. They were sticking them all over themselves and Jamie. At one point, Violet had a whole bunch of stickers all over her face and right on top of her eyes. The best part was she had a "make offer" sticker on the tip of her nose. Too funny!

Jamie's Grandma & Grandpa Pomeranz, celebrating 60 years of marriage:

All of the cousins from Jamie's mom's side:

Great grandchildren:

Violet & Olivia walking to the park:

Olivia wanting someone to push her on the swing:

Violet:

Olivia & Violet with Grandpa (Ba-Pa) Suchy:

Violet having fun with garage sale stickers:

We've survived 18 months!

Olivia & Violet had 18-month pictures taken on Saturday, June 6. It was quite a hoot. The pictures were taken by a photographer that is very laid back. He said he doesn’t force kids to take “posed” pictures; he lets them act as their usual selves and tries to capture pictures of them in their normal element. Well, he spent most of our photo session chuckling at our girls. Violet was pretty cooperative right away, but it took Olivia a little bit to warm up. Once they became comfortable, they were wrestling with each other and running around diving into his backdrop. At one point, they almost ripped the backdrop off its hanging clips. Their pigtails became wild and dismantled; toward the end of the session, Olivia’s hair bow was hanging limply by a single strand of hair because it was practically ripped out. But we ended up with some pictures that are totally them! As the photographer said, I would rather have pictures of them with wild hair and smiles than with perfect hair and crabby faces. The only bummer was that the weather was rainy, so we weren't able to take many pictures outside.

Some of my favorite pictures are below. All pictures from the session can be viewed at www.kalinkauppila.com/suchytwins, but I'll warn you that there are a lot!

Olivia & Violet:

Olivia showing her "I don't know" shrug: Violet: Olivia hugging Violet: Olivia & Violet being wild:
Olivia:

Violet:

Family Picture:

Violet trying to sit on (and bite) Olivia:

Olivia & Violet:
Olivia:

Violet:

Olivia trying to steal Violet's teddy bear:
Swapping teddies:

Now we're happy: