Best. Weekend. Ever.

Our priest and friend, Msgr. Ogle, and the newly baptized Anna.

What a great weekend! I can't believe it is Wednesday already and I am just now finding time to post everything. Seriously, uploading and rearranging and editing and organizing and... Well, I can be a bit perfectionistic so I've been over these photos a thousand times. I am giving it a rest and putting it out there, finally... 

Anyway, the funniest part of the ceremony was when Msgr. Ogle poured water over Anna, who was the most well behaved baby ever, and I am not just being bias, she didn't make a peep! Anyway, so she gets the waters of baptism poured over her, and as Msgr. Ogle was going through the rest of the Rite, Gabe dips his hands into the water and makes the sign of the cross... I look over and there he is, crossing himself, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." So cute.

I think it is safe to say that Manny and I have found ourselves in a "Post-Party Depression" since the last of the family left on Monday. We have been thoroughly exhausted but in the good way, if that makes any sort of sense at all. On Friday, as we were running around like crazy, I kept thinking "Cherish this..." even when what I was cherishing was a shopping trip to Costco with my in-laws. Manny and me seriously have the best moms, make that family, ever, and we couldn't have pulled off our "vision" for the baptism after-party without them, or without Manny's grandmother's amazing homemade salads she brought up with her from Miami. 

When Dad and Rafi, Manny's younger brother, flew in Friday evening, I was cherishing just the drive back home from JFK, mentally noting that it would be too soon we'd have to return them back to the airport. 

Seriously, living so far from our family depresses the heck out of me! But enough about that, my mantra is to Think Positive. Thinking... Positive... Repeat. Repeat again. And reminding myself when the next time will be that I will see everyone helps too. Florida fam: Thanksgiving! Ohio fam: Christmas! Repeat, one two three four. 

Our best buds.

An added bonus to our weekend was the fact that our D.C. friends bussed and/or trained up to NYC for Saturday's party. It was so humbling to see our buds come support us. I know I have received many blessings from my alma mater, Franciscan University, the best being that I met Manny there outside the student center during a study break one Spring afternoon, and the second best being our awesome friends we met there who are our second family. I am so proud of all of them, and love knowing that we've been through thick and thin together. I am the youngest of everyone, they are mostly all '03 grads, (I'm '05, and yes, I was on the traditional 4-year plan, not 6 or 7!), and I told them this weekend that if they would have told me back in my Freshmen year of college that in 7 years they'd be coming to see me baptize not my first, but my second!, baby, I'd tell them to lay off whatever they were smoking.

It just meant so much to us, and we love them all. 

I hope everyone had a good time; I know we had a wonderful time and were so gracious for everyone's presence. A lot of people traveled from far away places, and we were so, so, so very happy to see everyone.

As the sun was on its way down Saturday evening, we brought out the fire pit my mom and Rob bought us (early Christmas present!) and everyone sat down and talked late into the night... 

Our lil' pyro, Gabriel. 

I think the funniest part of the party had to be the Jell-O shots we mixed up earlier that day and everyone took part in once they Jell-O-fied... One big "Opa!" and a second later, they were gone. (And since we forgot to pick up the little plastic shot glasses, we put them in the Dixie cups we use every night before bed when we brush our teeth... And Gabe could just not understand why we wouldn't let him have any Jell-O!) 

And since I've touched base on this on the blog before, I feel it necessary for my own accountability to touch on it again... I had set a goal to lose 50 pounds before Anna's baptism, and when I weighed in on Saturday morning, I was at 49! Come on, gimme that ONE pound! But anyway, I felt good because I knew I had worked hard. Since the baptism, and all of the amazing food and cheesecake that was my diet (or lack thereof) over the weekend, I am finding it quite difficult to get back on track... I did terrible on Monday, not so terrible on Tuesday, and just a lil' terrible today. Tomorrow I am getting back to my keepin' on keepin' on of this weight loss journey. Because that is what it is, isn't it? So when i finally reach my 50 pound weight loss goal, you'll know it. Hopefully I can tell you about it soon. Like, very soon. 

In the meantime, Check out Anna's Baptism Weekend photos!