Baptism Anniversary

Today is a very important day in the Counts family, the first anniversary of Curtis's Sacrament of Baptism! The only day that Curtis has ever slept through an entire mass! He even slept through the pouring of water on his head! It was an extremely special day for us, our priest even allowed us to have his baptism in the middle of the Life Teen mass (and not in the usual community baptism style) he was a hit with all the teens! I love remembering how Deacon Don lifted him above his head and proclaimed him for Christ. What a sight considering Don is at least six foot tall! It is hard to believe that a year ago today our little man looked like this...

And now he is walking and talking and eating hot dogs! The time really does fly. Tonight we are going to have a big dinner with Barrett, Jessica, and Clare (whose baptism anniversary was yesterday) to eat some cake, burn the baptismal candles, and celebrate the beautiful entrance of our babies into the Christian community. We pray today that we can continue to uphold the promises we made to Curtis on that day and that he will grow to do the same!

Our trip to Grandma-ma's

FREEZING!!! That was the theme of the trip, literally in the single digits the entire time we were in Illinois. Curtis's pj's froze when we left them in the car overnight! Curtis looked like a native American woman with blankets covering his entire body every time we walked from the house to the car. He was definitely NOT a fan of the cold weather. Once when we were leaving church the wind caught his breath and he let loose and continued to tell us about it until we were back in the heated house. Its a darn good thing that we live in Texas and it only gets cold about ten days a year here. I got to play interior decorator at my uncle's house that was awesome. He gave me his credit card and set me loose at the Quincy Mall...dreams are made of less! I told him he was more than welcome to fly me up anytime to continue the house overhaul! Another highlight of the trip was that Curtis got to see snow for the first time. As it fell outside of our car he just pointed at it and yelled, "dat, dat, wow!" Curtis was truly the perfect child the entire time we were there (not that he isn't normally or anything). He handled all of the long plane rides and car trips like a big boy and obeyed his grandparents and mommy the whole trip. He is really growing up on me! Be sure to check out all the pictures on my Picasa site.

Here is a quick preview of Curtis and his GiGI. (The warm temperature on the TV in the background was definitely for another city, it was only 6* that day in Quincy!)

BBQ anyone?

We have a deck!!! Jacob and his family were amazing this weekend and worked the entire time Curtis and I were in Illinois (more about that later) and finished the entire deck in two weekends. It is absolutely gorgeous!! I am so proud of Jacob for taking on such a huge task and for making our backyard a live-able space. We will definitely be having more BBQ's and outdoor parties in the near future! Its a little muddy since it has rained non-stop this week and Gracie loves to run on the deck...but you get the idea!

Deck Building

Two and a half years after buying our house we decided we had waited long enough and finally decided to tame the jungle that is our backyard. Jacob, the Bucchorn boys, Daryl, & Barrett got to work this weekend on building a deck (thank you SO much everyone for your help). They got an amazing amount done in just one weekend and we now have all the posts sunk and all the frame boards up. Next weekend while Curtis and I are in Illinois visiting my grandmother Jacob plans to lay all the top boards and hopefully get the deck completed. I had no idea how fast this HUGE project could come together with so much help! Be sure to check out the photos on Picasa.

Luke Anthony Harrison

Luke has made his arrival! As you can see he is amazingly beautiful and everyone is doing wonderfully. He was 9 lbs 3 ounces and 21 and 1/2 inches long. He looks a lot like Drew in the face but has dark hair and eyes. We can't wait to meet him! God is so good! Congratulations Kelly and Jacob! We love you!

Thankful

After watching The Greatest Gift...(awesome movie p.s.) I am feeling rather sentimental. Wow! I am totally unworthy of the amazing blessings that I have in my life! As I sat and watched the movie today Curtis walked (yes he is walking everywhere now!!) over to me and planted a huge wet slobbery kiss right on my lips then walked away laughing. What a total and absolute joy that is! Last night I found a box of sentimental things I had kept from my childhood amongst the terrible middle school pictures (really why do they allow pictures at that age?) was a letter that never got added to my letter jacket. Anyway, Curtis picked it up and was marching around the house and giggling about it. Never in a million years when I got that letter my senior year could I have imagined how little it would mean to me and just how very much the little one carrying it would! Just two of the millions of very special moments we have had in the past year. Being a mom is such an amazing roller coaster and I love every single minute of it! Just had to share!

Catching up

Here is the short and long of what is going on in our life lately:

1. Our niece turned one!!! She is a such a beautiful little girl and we are so blessed to live close enough to see her so often. Here is a picture of her on her big day.

2. We had an amazing Christmas with both sides of the family. Curtis gave me the best Christmas present ever and was a perfect angel during the entire Christmas Eve mass. He was super cute in his fancy Christmas duds:

3. We had a super exciting New Years Eve...we were in bed by ten :) Thats was happens when you have children I guess!

4. Seems like I am forgetting something....oh ya...CURTIS TURNED ONE!!!!! I can hardly believe it! We had a wonderful little party and he hammed it up like usual. He started to really walk this week and was loving showing off his new tricks. He blew out his candle on the first try and was HYSTERICAL with the eating of the birthday cake. He decided to eat it right off the table instead of using his hands but the best part was that he was looking around at everyone while he was doing it just to make sure everyone was watching and laughing. Then to finish it all off he gave himself a big sticky round of applause. He is the biggest ham I have ever met! It was a perfect first birthday. Maybe later I will post about how ridiculously emotional I have been about him turning one...or maybe I will spare you. Enjoy the birthday pictures and God Bless!