Cooper's Baptism

Our sweet baby Cooper was baptized this past Sunday. It was such a special day. I made an effort to really slow down and absorb it all this time. Given the ages of our three, we were concerned with how they would all behave! At Bob's last year, Anne was 2 1/2 and she got scared standing up there in front of all the people. Once she saw her grandmother in the first few pews she wanted to go be with her. Luckily, it all went down without too much of a scene, but it had me nervous for this ceremony. Miraculously, they all did great! We had several talks with Anne about what would happen and she walked right down the aisle holding my hand like a big girl while I held Cooper in my arms and Will held Bob. She then held the hand of our minister and helped her present Cooper to the congregation. So sweet! Bob and Cooper both got a little squirmy, but neither made a peep. Hallelujah!

We attempted to take pictures before the service. The children were not into it. So much for my Christmas card pic :-)

Bob with JJ

Cousins

 Anne covering her face. She was not into pictures. 

My dad James Cooper with his namesake James Cooper

Mommom and Cooper

After the Baptism we had family and friends over to our house for a luncheon to celebrate. It was easy to plan since we had just done this a year ago for Bob! I had Cooper's little brass hand and footprints displayed along with the page from his baby book. I left it sitting out and Bob nicely scribbled all over it the next day. Typical.

Decorated for the party

It helps to have an empty room to put tables and chairs in :-)

Cooper and Aunt Jan

My brother and my dad

 Will and his sister

Sweet friends

The weather was great and so all the kids played outside and ate lunch at the picnic tables. I probably should have changed Bob's outfit before sending him outside...

My mom, me and my sister-in-law

Our guest of honor getting a bottle and heading off to nap!

Cooper will be 6 months old tomorrow and is the best baby ever. He is very laid back and definitely goes with the flow! He weighs 18 1/2 pounds now. Hard to believe he was ever 4 pounds! Thank you for all of the prayers that have gotten us to this point. All the trauma of my hospital stay and Cooper's time in the NICU seems like a distant memory, thank goodness!