God Bless Eleanor Grace!!

The Larsen Family, Ellie is wearing the baptism gown my little sister Katie wore, as well as Claire and Charlotte for their baptisms

 

Little Miss was baptized on May 28th, 2011!  It was Memorial Day weekend and a perfect Saturday evening Mass.  We asked our very good friends Sara and Matthew Easley be the Godparents of Eleanor.  They gladly accepted :)  Jason and I are the Godparents to their son, Hunter.  It is so special sharing such a wonderful bond with Hunter.  I love having a special place in their lives, and I know they will always have a special place in ours!

Matthew, Sara and Eleanor!

We attended the 5:30pm Mass, led by Father John at St Phillip Neri.  Now, this ended up being quite a memorable Mass for us, as Chase thought he should add a little entertainment value.  Of course, being Eleanor's Baptism, the first few rows were reserved for us and our family/friends...awesome.  Who doesn't love sitting in the very front row with a 2 year old?!  Chase and Claire had just woken up from their naps before we strapped them into the car to head to church.  We don't offer Chase snacks during the day because he is a poor eater as is, so he hadn't eaten since noon.  That being said, we usually eat dinner around 6 pm.  After Mass started, you know who was asking for snacks...the one thing I forgot to bring with me.  Luckily, Aunt Carolyn was prepared with a small bag of cheerios (that were suppose to be Charlotte's) and gave them to Chase.  This made him happy for about 0.2 seconds...

Apparently Chase woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the bed because he continued to be quite obstinate throughout the entire service.  Having a large open area right in front of us (and obviously right in front of the alter) Chase thought sprawling himself all over the floor and playing with his toys loudly would be a fun activity.  We tried to keep him contained the best we could, but it was difficult...

Our little Heathen :)

During Father John's homily, which by the way was really moving...he talked about baptism specifically, which really made the service extra special... anyways, Chase, who was talking loudly to his toys, at the perfect moment about 10 minutes into the homily (right as Father John paused) said "BE QUIET!" ...The whole congregation belted out a big laugh as I'm sure my face was turning all sorts of shades of red!  Father John said, "I'm going to just pretend I didn't hear that".


When it came time after the Profession of Faith during Mass to have Eleanor baptized, we had to bring Talky-McTalkerson up with us.  Jason was holding Chase and I was holding Ellie:

holy water time!

She liked the oil

Ellie was a perfect little angel during the entire process...she even cooed when Father John was anointing her with oil.  Before we sat back down he asked us what snack Chase had, we told him Cheerios...he told the congregation he could do a commercial for Cheerios.  Then he asked us how old Chase was, we told him he was two...he said "aaahhh, that makes sense!" and everyone chuckled.  He then asked Chase if he was going to be a good big brother- Chase blatantly turned his head away from Father John suggesting "I will not talk to you!"  Again, everyone laughed...Father John then said to Chase "You are going to be a priest when you grow up...I can tell these things!" Hilarious.   He then told a quick story about a boy who yelled from the back of the congregation "Let's go!" as he was wrapping up Mass one time...this made me feel a little better.  I suppose Chase made for a memorable Baptism- but it made Mommy VERY embarrassed!

We were so thankful to have our few out of town visitors for the occasion.  Of course, the Plaza's were here for the occasion and Marie and Paul came for this sacred event.  We also shared this celebration with a few of our good friends and neighbors.  During these occasions, I really feel blessed to have such an awesome circle of family and friends.  It really meant a lot to Jason and I to have everyone come!  

The Plazas and The Larsens

Grandpa and Grandma and The Larsen Family

After mass, we came back to our place for dinner and cupcakes!  Thanks to Bob Plaza we had a LOT of great food!  He made awesome potato salad as well as the pulled pork (a staple recipe that my Aunt Bun gave me!)  I made homemade strawberry cupcakes as well as frosted sugar cookies and refrigerator cookies (can you tell I like to bake?!) 

The goodies!

The delicious sugar cookies I made (with my mom's help)

Don't worry, there was supervision on standby for this photo :)

Ellie in her beautiful post-Mass Baptism outfit and adorable headband, made by her Godmother...look closely, it has crosses on it! Too cute!