A week of water blessings

Hello friends & family,

We've just had a great week of fun & celebrations so we thought we'd check in with you to share our stories. Last week Granny & Gramps traveled up from Alabama to go even FARTHER north to the lakes of MN with our family. We spent several days swimming, golfing, & eating our way through the lovely Gull Lake area. It was a lovely retreat for the 6 of us. Greta had a big time swimming every morning and playing "bunny & crocodile" in the pool (it sounds much more macabre than it actually was). She also discovered gummy worms for the first time which was fun until it came time to eat "Sam"...her favorite worm. It was a bittersweet goodbye.

We came home and got busy getting ready for baby Wes' baptism. Trips to the farmers market broke up the household chores & cooking. Granny & mommy even found time for a little vampire entertainment (don't judge...we deserved some mindless entertainment by some handsome mythical characters!). We were blessed to have 3 pews full of family join us for Wes' baptism on Sunday. It was a magical day- the sermon, children's time & communion were all linked to baby W's baptism. Truly a blessing realized. Everybody came to our house for a 4th of July cookout-style meal where we recounted over and over again how our life is a lived testimony to God's grace & love. Big sister enjoyed the day too...dancing her way through the service, sitting on her Grandma's lap during church, making a meal of mostly mustard, and she got to stay up LATE and watch her first fireworks show. She was totally enamored with the display. Over and over again she'd say..."Oh Granny, watch! This one will be my favorite!" Perhaps our favorite Greta quote from the weekend is when our family began to arrive at our house for lunch after the baptism and she said..."Oh WOW! Look how big our family is getting!" I love how kids often comment on those little lived gifts that might go unnoticed amongst the busy-ness of a family gathering. The Preacher & I have been totally overwhelmed with the joy of it all. We hope these pictures give you a sense of how great this week has been!

Memorable Memorial Day Week

Well we survived the solo parent trip down to AL for Memorial Day. In fact, we more than survived it...we enjoyed it! Everyone (particularly the grandmas) was concerned that I had lost my mind when I proposed that I could travel alone with an active toddler and a 6 week old baby. There were lots of prep-talks with Greta before hand and she shocked us all by being a very attentive and calm little traveler and baby Wes was a natural. SHEW. That being said, I don't plan on going it alone again any time soon. Next trip south Daddy will definitely come with us! We missed him way too much.

Greta and cousin Evelyn fell right into their play rhythm effortlessly. They play together so well with only the occasional "who is in charge" struggle common to 3 year olds. It is really awesome. As usual, Granny & Gramps maximized the play opportunities with trips to the park, the pool, the princess party.... Yes, I said Princess Party. Our nieces Evelyn & Amelia have birthdays close to Memorial Day so we decided to celebrate their birthdays late/early so we could all be in on the fun. Evelyn loves to play princess so Granny created the ultimate Princess Birthday celebration for her. We all dressed up. All of us. It was quite the gas to see Uncle Dan dressed to impress as the King of the affair. The girls had a great time and made a great memory. In addition to all the great family time, some friends from Birmingham came up for a visit and brought their darling kiddos for a mini-reunion. I miss being close to so many of my friends and their families. It was lovely to have a morning to catch up and see how big their little people are getting.

It was a good visit. I found myself having "moments" everyday when I was overwhelmed with how fortunate we have been. Tearful, happy, relieved moments. This was a picture that seemed almost impossible in January. It was our first Haggstrom family gathering since our ordeal and you could almost feel our collective sigh of relief that it did indeed appear that our life might be "normal" again. That joy coupled with the safe arrival of Wes & my nieces' birthdays was almost too much happiness to contain under one roof. Friends stopped by to see for themselves & share in our joy. It was good...really good. Here are a few attempts to capture our fun week...

A Sign of the (Passing) Time

Dashman & Gboo at the Arboretum

Mom & the A#1 snuggler

Greta's 1st attempt to put jammies on solo. Don't tell her she forgot to take off her day-wear.

Dressed to impress w/ the A-K girlies

Wes doing his thing!

Has it really been 6 weeks since Wes joined our family? Was Greta that sick just 4 months ago? Was it really 8 years ago today that this odyssey began? Tyler & I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last night with a yummy sushi dinner out (thanks Aunt Jayne & co=babysitters extraordinaire!) and we talked alot about time and how recent/far away some of these events feel. It is odd...I feel like Tyler & I have always been together, like I can hardly remember what life was like before he shmoozed his way into my world (with a taco dinner... story for another time). I feel the same way about Wes' and Greta's births...who was I before they rocked my world and I became their mama. I don't have clear memories about life without them. I still feel like those weeks in Jan & Feb when we worried we might know this feeling much too well were like yesterday. Strange how fluid time can be.

May has zipped by so quickly and yet the days are not chalked full of activities...but man are they FULL. Full in the rich, wonderful sense of the word. We've been hangin' around the house, which is not to say that we haven't been busy! We've entertained some of Gboo's friends in our basement h(e)aven (newly minted big sisters like Greta!), but we managed to get out today & play with our buddy Dash at the arboretum too. Wes has been a trooper (so mellow...that makes 1 so far for our family of 4!) and slept through most of the commotion that follows wherever big sister goes. We're getting the hang of getting the 4 of us out the door on time (or within 5 min). We're hoping Wes stretches out his nights & sleeps in his crib all by himself SOON! He's a serious snugglebunny-not something I want to discourage, but would like to channel into awake time not bedtime! But he's eating great and growing rapidly. Oh viking baby...don't grow up too fast please! Our other big news: I am braving the sky with both of our munchkins this weekend so we can go see Granny & Gramps in AL. We are excited about seeing so many of the folks that prayerfully supported us over the last 4 months. Greta is pretty pumped about playing with cousin Evelyn too! So Florence peeps: consider yourselves warned...the Christiansens are coming, the Christiansens are coming!

We'll update post Bamalama time, so I hope these pictures will hold you over until then!

Brotherly-sisterly love....

I promise I'll update soon with a newsier posting this weekend...but until then, let me offer you a few pics of "Big Sissa" and "Baby Wes" lovin' each other. Seriously, a little sibling love affair is beginning to develop between Greta & Wes. Wes has been enthralled with Gboo from the start and now Greta is beginning to show real interest and care for Wes. Can't lie to you, it makes my heart skip a beat to witness! Greta asked to hold Wes yesterday while Daddy read stories to both of them. And then today as I changed baby Wes' clothes Greta decided to surround Wes with her "amimal friends" to cheer him up (he does not dig wardrobe changes). This led to a little pep talk and conversation between big sister and little brother that was too cute not to capture on film. Love from the sleepy Christiansens!

Happy May!

Well, yes we're still behind the times and tardy posting pictures. Highlights from the last week and a half:

Greta decided to hold Wes

Everyone else wants to hold Wes

Wes is holding up his head...doggone Viking baby

Wes continues to be infatuated with his sister, Greta continues to tolerate her brother

Wes wants to eat all the time

Wes wants to sleep much of the time....on you

Granny abandoned us and now we're going it alone (just kidding Gwanny)

Tyler went back to work [read: and left me all alone with these 2 kidlets]

All in all we're sleepy but happy and doing well! Here are the pics to prove it!