Annabelle's Baptism

Annabelle was baptized last Sunday, 9/13, the day after Joy's birthday since our whole family was here.  Since we don't have a church home in Stevens Point (we are feeling stuck between two choices), we asked our friend and pastor, Matt Wipperman, from Madison to do a private baptism in our backyard.  It was a very short, intimate, and perfect celebration of Annabelle joining God's family.  The Wipperman's have been part of all 3 of our kids' baptisms, so it meant a lot to have them here.  The baptism was followed by food, cake, and very nice gifts.  We feel so blessed to be surrounded by such loving family on both sides and for God's abundant blessings in our lives.

Annabelle update:  She grew a lot in her first month of life from 9lbs 5 ozs to 12 lbs 7 ozs.  She is in 3-6 month clothes already.  She also started out life as a very crabby baby.  The doctor recommended trying a dairy free diet, which made this farm girl rather upset.  But, Annie's symptoms progressively worsened, forcing me to try it.  And, behold, it has helped her tremendously.  So, selfishly, I'm very sad to not have dairy products in my life, but for Annie's sake, we are so happy to have a happy baby in the house.  The hope is that I can reintroduce dairy sometime after Annie is 3 months old, which is a time when a lot of babies outgrow their dairy sensitivity.
 She sleeps well, getting me up two times most nights.  I am starting to long for a full nights rest though.  Joy slept through the night at 2 months and Noah started at 3 months, so I'm really hoping Annabelle follows her siblings' sleep patterns.  She has also started taking at least 1 long nap each day, sometimes 2, which is allowing me to get more things done around the house and spend more 1:1 time with Noah.  Noah often says in a sad/disappointed tone of voice, "Annabelle eats a lot."  Poor guy.  I hope to make it up to him once Annabelle gets a little older.

Here are some pictures of the baptism.