Austin was baptized at church this past Sunday. He did great! Loved the water! Wish we had a better video to share. A couple used our camera and Flip so you could see. However, we were told that the service would be recorded and available for free on iTunes. Turns out only the sermon was recorded! Bummer. (But Pastor Scott's message was great this week, so we recommend downloading it anyway and tuning in: http://sermon.net/rss/christlutheran/main) We're glad we took our own video after all. :) We all sort of look like ghosts, but you can still see Austin's smiling face!
Austin loved the water
Happy child of Christ!
Austin waving to Grandma S & V and his Godparents "Wish you were here!"
This is the handmade chest he was given to store all of his church keepsake items over the years.
It's really nice, such a great idea!
In his Sunday best for such a special day!!
Austin will be 6 months old next week. MY how time flies! He is getting big, as you can see, and I have many more pictures and videos to share. I'll try to keep it to only the cutest ones, as you know we just love to show off our little boy and would upload all 100 videos we have of him if we could! :) More to come soon, have to catch the time during naps!
His latest developments: he can now roll over back and forth and likes to do barrel rolls across the living room floor until Dave comes to tickle him. He knows his name now and turns to look at you when he hears you say it. He reaches up to be picked up and reaches out to grab toys. He also likes to grab noses, mouths, and any other part of your face he can get his hands on. He likes to pull mommy's hair. During bath time, daddy dumps a stream of water in front of Austin's chest and he likes to reach out and let the water run through his fingers (so cute!!). And, it has started. Teething symptoms have been emerging in the last few weeks and we can feel three little bumps on his gums.
Quick update on the happenings of Dave and Elise. Dave is up to the usual, practice is going well and he's just loving every day that he gets the opportunity to serve. We have set a goal to have our own practice doors open by October of this year. So we're just starting the beginning steps of all that. The plan is still Greensboro, NC. It's about 2 hours north from Charlotte. I'm sure more news to come as we make strides with build out and the move and all!
For me, life as mommy is a thousand times more pleasurable than I could have ever imagined! It's so SO amazing to watch God's little creature grow up, and to realize He chose me to care for him is something I think about and cherish every single day. Austin and I have fun while daddy is at work. We go for at least one walk every day and fill the rest of the time playing on the floor or reading books in bed. Ahhh, life is so good!
"Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored."
~Daniel Webster
So since it's been quite too long since our last post, it seems we have some catching up to do here on our blog. Well, first we had to play catch up in all things life -- meaning we are finally getting back into the swing of things after 2 weeks of being home. Yep, it took us a long time to get used to things again. Although we both started new lives when we got home from our road trip, with Dave starting a totally new trimester at school (this is his first trimester where he has real patients and works in the school's clinic) and me switching professions and working long hours to save lives, it's been hard getting used to never really seeing each other again. I guess that about sums it up.. We just cannot wait to be through this stage of our lives and moving on to bigger and better things, like owning our own office!
So I finally remembered to grab the digital camera cable from the car and to upload these pictures from the last day of our road trip. 'Bout time!
Here are Jay & Kendal and all of their wonderful children (minus Zack who had to take a test that morning)! Kids, left to right: Ruslan, Elena, Kenny, Alex, & Natalia
Natalia and Ruslan took us around the back yard and introduced us to their horses and dogs. It was a perfect morning for playing outside!
All the kids were excited to show us their new kittens. Mom didn't really want us to touch them, but they were super cute to watch! :)
Now on to other topics that we meant to post long ago:
These are some pictures I took on my way home on my first day of working at Revolution. It had been a gloomy, rainy, muggy day on May 5th and just as I left the office, the clouds were breaking and the humidity was lifting. And what a pleasant sight! It was the first double rainbow I'd seen in a very long time!
This was as I drove down a hill right by our office. Since I was driving, I could only get the right halves of the rainbows, but they were perfect bows, complete on both sides. Really cool to see!
And here are pictures from Ella's baptism a couple weekends ago. After the service, we spent time at Scott and Laura's house for a celebration with family and friends.
The proud parents with Grandpa Putzer and Grandma Haraldson
Ella was just adorable!
Besides working a ton in the past couple weeks, something exciting we did this weekend was went out to Waukesha, WI to screen for our good friends Jay and Heather Davidson. They graduated from Northwestern in December '08 and are opening their office TODAY! We went out to help them screen on Friday and Saturday. Nick E and Loretta also drove out with us and are hanging around to help thru today. (We had to leave on Saturday night because I had to clean a house on Sunday morning and babysit Sunday night, Dave had extensive studying to do, too..) It was very exciting to see a brand new office and two passionate chiropractors ready to get cranking on saving lives and changing the world! It made us want to be at that level all the more! Thanks to Jay and Heather for all the training this weekend as well as the delicious food!!
Today, Dave and I are relaxing by currently watching a movie (we got rid of cable a couple weeks ago since we barely used it and were just throwing money away) and getting some computer related work finished. Later, we'll be going for a bike ride or walk on the local trails by our apartment complex then heading out to discover a new co-op in near-by Minnetonka in hopes to find the selection of organic foods we love. We can't wait to just sit down in our own company tonight with a good bottle of wine and just chill! It's going to be a great day!! We hope you all are enjoying your time off from work and school, but of course remember our soldiers of now and the past.
This past weekend didn't start out so well. We basically didn't see each other Thursday thru Saturday. When Dave wasn't at school, I was working and vice versa. I was screening for a doctor in Minneapolis Thursday night when Dave got out of school. We got to eat a late supper together at least, but had to move right along to Friday. Then, right when Dave got out of school on Friday evening, I was heading out to babysit for a family in Burnsville. We literally passed each other driving on the highway. When I got home, around 11:30pm, he was sleeping already. Then Saturday morning, he had to get up at 7:00am to screen for a doctor in St. Paul. When he was finished up there, I was getting ready to head out to babysit for another family, this time close to home in Bloomington. I didn't get off work until about midnight, and guess what...Sunday morning we were leaving early, around 4:00am, to get to WI for Becky and Nick's new daughter's baptism. Well, when that alarm went off just a few hours later, it was Dave who actually struggled to get up the most. Then I fell back asleep, too, and somehow we luckily woke up at 7ish. We scrammbled to make it out the door, and while we didn't make it to WI in time for the baptism, we did make it in time for the party and to see everyone who was there.
Here's a video clip from our drive up to Wausau, WI. (It was my attempt to get back at Dave for his Christmas trip video clip. :)
Before I ramble any further, I should introduce the newest Wagner GIRL!:
Graciana Marie Wagner
Born on December 19, 2008
6lbs 6oz
She has three brothers and one sister. We're so happy Nick and Becky could welcome another girl to the family. Helps to even things out. :) Here is a picture of Graciana with her brother Kevin and sister Melissa. All of Graciana's siblings were so proud!
Me with my newest niece!
And here is the proud mom, Becky, opening some baptism gifts.
After arriving at the Wagner home, Dave and I were welcomed by, now second youngest, Xavier who had just celebrated his birthday around Christmas time (yup, that's right, they've got two in December now). He took us down to the basement to show us his gift -- which he was VERY excited about. We had no idea what to expect since it was in the basement... Well here's what he got:
-- The Birthday Boy, Xavier
They got him a blow up castle, you know..those things that kids can bounce around in. So cool!! And the other picture is Xavier using his blow up punching gloves -- hilarious to watch a two year old beat up uncle Dave and uncle Chris with those things!
During our visit, we watched the kid's Sunday School Christmas Program on DVD. Melissa had her eyes glued to the screen the whole time. She loved all the songs and dances she got to do. So toward the end of our visit, we asked her to sing one of the songs for us, which her brothers Kevin and Dominic also learned for the progam. Here's her adorable performance! And sorry it's sideways...I stupidly turned my digital camera.. :
It was a great weekend after all. From Thursday to Saturday we never guessed it would have been such a fun weekend, but getting to see everyone again and just relax with the kids on Sunday really made it a fun weekend. See, we're still smiling!
