More Family... Great Papa and the Grandparents

The next set of pictures was of Great Papa (my dad's father) with the 5 great-grandchildren. This proved to be a bit more challenging because Eli NEEDED to be held, and Ruston really should have been held. I believe the statement was, "Danelle, put your arm around Ruston to hold him up here on this bench".

Well, you see how well that went... Ruston fell face first into the grass. Notice me running to the rescue.

So, I propped Ruston back on the bench and we tried again. My mom pointed this out, but I think it's funny (yes, I'm laughing at my child's misery)... watch Ruston's mouth get bigger and bigger with each picture because he was getting more and more angry.

This one is actually pretty decent.

Everyone is SO happy... except Ruston. Haha...

Needless to say, Ruston was done with that photo shoot! Great Papa was laughing too, because Ruston was SO loud by this point... SO, Great Papa's pictures were done.

The next set of pictures (and the last, thank goodness!), were my parents with their 5 grandchildren. We took a bit of a break, so Ruston was able to calm down by this point.

Ok, well maybe it was the 5 grandchildren and Boris. That dog thinks he has to be in every picture, but at least he cooperated.

Ruston was a bit focused on Boris in this picture.

Then Omar (the other dog, between Thea and my mom), decided he needed in on the action.

And Danelle was EXCITED! If I remember right, my sister, Dayna, was trying to get all the kids to look up and be happy... so she put her hands up, and Danelle followed! Haha...

So then Dayna put her hands down, and Danelle followed again. What a good little copier! :)

SO... that was an exciting 15 minutes for all those photo sessions. Shane really did a pretty good job at getting some decent pictures that will always be good memories!

Family Photos... sort of

After the baptism, we had a family gathering at my parents' house. All 5 cousins (Ruston, Danelle, Thea, Nicholas, and Eli) were there, so pictures were in order. My mom took this great picture of the "lineup" at lunch.

We decided since all the grandchildren/great-grandchildren were there, we needed to try to get a picture of the kids with their great-grandparents. Attempt #1 did not go well while we were still at the church. Actually, it looks like it didn't go well, but it went better than the ones later in the day...

When we got to my parents' house, we tried the great-grandparent pictures first. Here are my mom's parents with their 5 great-grandchildren!

Then we went for all the great-grandparents and all 5 kids.

You know how hard it is to get 5 kids under 5 to look at the camera and sit still for a picture?!

And Boris (the dog) had to get in on a few of the pictures too.

Mind you, these are the BEST from the photo shoot. Shane, my brother-in-law, had his camera on rapid shoot, so it would take a ton of pictures in a very short time... so even though we had some squirmy kids, every once in a blue moon looked half way decent. Stay tuned for more pictures!

Baptism

On July 11th, Ruston was baptized at Living Word Lutheran Church in Moses Lake, WA. Ben and Kelli Hesse are his godparents. Kelli started out holding Ruston, but this was quite short lived.

SO... I got to hold him while he was baptized by my dad. I believe this picture is when my dad was putting the sign of the cross on Ruston's head, and Ruston swatted dad's hand away. After the service, Jim Nestingen (visiting pastor who had ordained dad the day before) said he likes "a feisty one!" Haha... Ruston's definitely a feisty one!
Ruston was not much for leaning over the baptismal font... he was clinging to me for dear life.
Then he got his baptism candle.
Ruston was pretty mesmerized by this, and really wanted to grab it, so Kelli soon got to hold it, and then it was extinguished.
Afterward, Ruston, me, Ben, and Kelli. Also, the blanket in the picture is a family baptismal blanket. There have been a lot of Hesse family members baptized in that blanket.
Ben and Kelli also took the opportunity to take a few family photos.
Nicholas was being less than cooperative, so he got held too. Ben, Kelli, Eli (less than a month old), and Nicholas (3).
After the service we ate Ruston's baptism cake. I don't have a picture of the actual cake, but this will suffice to say that it tasted good! Notice Nicholas does have a plate with a piece of cake on it, but apparently eating it right off of the cardboard is WAY better!

Welcome to God's Family, Ruston!!!