A Special Baptism

Many of you may know that last weekend Sawyer was baptized at the 9:30am service at Redeemer Lutheran in Austin. All of our family and many of our friends were in town including Sawyer's Godparents, Jerry and Gretchen Hays.

Some of you may know, Jerry and Gretchen's son, Caleb, died in a helicopter crash, over the Christmas holiday break. Shortly after the accident we began to consider Caleb's middle name, Nathaniel, to use as a middle name, if we had a boy. When Sawyer was born, we knew Nathaniel was the perfect middle name for him. Nathaniel means Gift of God, which Sawyer most definitely is to us, but it would also be in memory of Sarah's godson, Caleb, who we love and miss!



The baptism and the whole weekend was an event where Caleb was really missed. We laughed about the fact that Sabine was safe from the hose (which Caleb always enjoyed to spray on her). We remembered how much Caleb loved swimming and jumping off the diving board at our neighborhood pool. As we all stood around the baptismal fount that morning we rejoiced that God claimed Sawyer as one of His own, just like He did for Caleb nine years ago. There were some feelings of sadness, as we just missed having Caleb standing there with us.

Following the baptism, we returned to our seats and continued to follow the order of worship. A couple of minutes later, Gretchen elbowed me and pointed over toward Jerry. Noah, Jerry and Gretchen's other son, had collected a kids worship bag (coloring books, pencils, puzzles, etc) when we entered the church. Noah had began coloring, using a Ziploc of crayons he had pulled from the worship bag, once we returned to our seats. When Jerry glanced down to look at Noah, he noticed a name was written on the bag.

The name written on the bag was Caleb. It was an immediate reminder that Caleb may not have been physically with us for the baptism, but he was with us in spirit.

I hate cars!!!!!!!! and just say no to the miniVAN.

The last couple of weeks have been a real whirlwind of events. We had Sawyer's baptism, all kinds of people in town to help us celebrate, and Sarah driving her car into the ground (well not quite - thanks to Jerry). Look to the next post for more tales from the baptism.

Last week Sarah called me on her way to grad class to tell me that she thought the car was overheating. As much as I wanted to run out and deal with that particular issue that night, I was home with Sawyer. Thankfully she was able to get the car pulled in a Dairy Queen parking lot, and then get a ride to class with a friend. Following class she had the car towed to a mechanic, so they could look at it the next morning.

The mechanic calls the next morning to report that the radiator was bad, and there were $3500 worth of other work he recommended we do as well. We spent the rest of the day debating whether to pay for the service or just have the car towed away for scrap. After much deliberation and Jerry taking a look at the car, we (Jerry and I) decided we should just try replacing the radiator ourselves and then if the car doesn't work we could have the darn thing towed away for parts. Replacing the radiator only cost us $300, which is a far cry from the $4000 the mechanic wanted.

So far, so good. The car has worked just fine, and we are beginning to wonder what we are going to do when Jerry isn't around to help fix all of the expensive things. (He has previously saved us the cost of a central air unit when he helped replace the motor.)

This also means that we are now faced with the very real possibility of having to purchase another car. I hate shopping for cars, or as I like to call it "performing the dance of deceit." The dealer lies to you about the car, you lie about what you are willing to pay, and then you go back and forth over and over.



OR


We have really narrowed our choices to the Toyota Highlander or the Honda Pilot (vehicle for our road-trip with the Huddleston's). I really don't care which one as long as the darn thing doesn't breakdown anytime soon. If you have an opinion on either, great. We need all the help we can get!

Spring in Texas

The spring weather has arrived in Austin! We have been enjoying warm (80 degrees or warmer) and sunny weather this week. This is the time of year when the weather is absolutely perfect in Austin. We send our love to our friends and family that are still experiencing snow in the north. :) Snowy weather is so hard for us to imagine in April, although we both experienced it when we lived in Minnesota. It's just been awhile for us. We are taking advantage of the warm weather by going on evening walks as a family, as well as the occasional visit to our favorite restaurants with outdoor seating.



A spring tradition in Texas is bluebonnet pictures. You know the bluebonnets have peeked when you see many cars pulled over on the roadside by a field. The field will be overflowing with bluebonnets, spotted with kids in white outfits, and parents making faces to capture the memory with their camera.



Minor and I have loved to take part in Texas traditions. We figure while we're living here, why not?! We've done bluebonnets pictures just the two of us or with our friends, the Hays, since our arrival in Texas. This year we took our little comet, Sawyer, out for his first bluebonnet photo session. We went in the evening, so we didn't capture any of his smiles. But, we had a great time!

Easter Weekend

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter weekend together. The spring weather is here in Austin, so we got to enjoy the great weather through some outdoor activities! Friday afternoon we meet some friends at an outdoor bar, so we could watch the Horns win their first game on their road to the Final Four. It was fun to be out and Sawyer was so excited to be out that he slept the entire time!

On Saturday we were invited to an annual Easter egg decorating party. Who knew there were so many creative ways to decorate an egg? Here are some images of the final products!



Here are the eggs in the animal category! There were categories for the kids' eggs and the adult decorated eggs. A winner was voted on from each category, then we voted on an overall winner.



The overall winner, the Texas egg, of course! Texans can always think of a new way to show their Texas spirit! Funny, that the decorator of this egg is a yankee like us. I guess you can't help catching some Texas spirit when you live in this state!



Sunday morning we worshiped at the 10:45 service to celebrate our Risen Lord. We've taken Sawyer to church the last couple of weeks and he's just slept through the entire service. This week he was excited about the Easter message, since he stayed awake the entire service. He was so good throughout the service and seemed to especially enjoy the music from the choir and band. Let's hope this is how baptism goes in two weeks!

Here are some pics after returning from church and Easter brunch. By this time Sawyer was getting a bit sleepy! We are so thankful for the many gifts the Lord has and continues to give us.





Sawyer's Easter bunny outfit...he is just too cute!



We had such a great weekend together as a family, that I got a bit behind on some of the chores around the house. Sawyer thought this was a bit funny! Although, I'm not sure there will ever be a time that the house will be "caught up" again. We're just enjoying too many other things as a family.



One last pic of our little man! We're looking forward to our dear friend and Sawyer's godmother, Gretchen, visiting us for the first time this weekend.



We hope your family had a wonderful Easter weekend, too!
He is Risen! He is Risen, Indeed! Alleluia!

3 Generations of Baker Men

If this isn't a scary sight I don't know what is. It is a good thing that Sawyer is in this picture to help soften the image just a bit. I guess that I didn't realize this until now, but I think that Sawyer is the first male grandchild on the entire Baker side of the family. My cousin David has a daughter.

Pro Evolution Soccer - its finally here

I have been waiting for the newest version of Pro Evolution Soccer (formally Winning Eleven) to come out for my XBox 360 for quite a while now. I was finally able to go and pick it up last Wednesday. As you can see I am not the only one who is happy to see the 2008 version finally arrive.

I have proceeded to lose most of the matches I have played, but loved every minute of late night gaming I can muster together.

New Kid = Changes in Transportation

When we started telling people that we were pregnant, one of the questions that came up a number of times was when are we going to be getting an automobile that is better suited to child transportation. Our fellow friends and family in the blog world have faced a similar decision. Some people decided for less car, some decide for more (not sure they had a choice), some just went with something that better met their needs. We talked about it for a while, and decided that we were just fine with the two sedans that we had (Galant and Accord). Well after a month of being parents we are learning to deal with the negative aspects of getting a bigger car.

As it sits now, the child seat takes up so much space in the back-seat that the front passenger has no leg room because the seat has to be moved so far forward (truth be told this doesn't really effect me, because Sarah lets me drive when we are together). We have also discovered that you need to take lots of crap with you when you travel with a baby (who would have thought). Add in the dog and we are just plain out of room, so....................................

We got a roof rack.


All of those potential problems listed above still don't outweigh the fact we are months away from being free and clear on our remaining car payment, and both cars get good gas mileage have convinced us to stick with what we had. The roof rack was a way to add a little extra storage, and transport our bikes (or snowboards).

I also just want to extol the virtues of Craigslist. I ended up trading Sarah's bike for the rack straight-up. The guy I swapped with said that he could us a bike, and he didn't need the roof rack anymore. Now I know some of you are saying "Wasn't Sarah's bike suppose to go on the rack as well, so if you traded the bike doesn't that defeat the purpose?" The truth is, when we bought Sarah's bike 5 years ago, it was a little more advanced then her riding style (translation - she needs something with less features, so she can just focus on going straight and not crashing). We are already watching Craigslist for some type of beach cruiser bike.