Monday, February 21, 2011

James's Baptism

This past Sunday, February 20th, James was baptized at St. Philip the Deacon church. Even with a raging snow storm taking effect, all of the family (except Bapsi) made it to the church for the big event. James, along with two other little girls, were baptized and they were all so cute and had no tears! Funny thing...James was sitting quietly on my lap during the sermon and suddenly in true James' fashion he has a huge fart and then another one (and not only was it a fart but he filled his pants)! Needless to say there were a lot of laughs! Luckily nothing seeped out onto his white outfit but Brian did quickly change his diaper so we would not have to worry about it during the baptism.

After the baptism, we took A LOT of pictures in the church. James was smiling like crazy when his Auntie Corrie was acting like a goofball to get him to laugh. It was pretty funny. After the church almost everyone came to our house for lunch and to celebrate the special day. We were even lucky enough to have Brian's parents, brother, sister, brother-in-law and nephew in for the weekend.


The weekend ended with us getting around 15 inches of snow! Pretty crazy that it was just 50 degrees earlier in the week! All in all, it was a very special weekend and we are truly blessed.




James with Gandma Nancy and Gramps

James and Grandma Shirley

James with his Godparents (and cousins): Mikey, Libby, and Kim

All the Clemens' Kids!

Our family!

Friday, February 18, 2011

And he's off!

Well, this morning marked a big day in the Clemens' household...James is officially rolling over from front to back and back to front! I set him in the middle of our room this morning and within a few minutes he was almost under the bed! While I am very proud of the little man, it means no more leaving him unattended! And of course now he wants to roll over every time I try and change his diaper! I can't imagine what it is going to be like when he is crawling and walking!

Our new "mover and shaker"!

We also went back for a re-check from his doctor appointment last week and I am happy to say that his wheezing was almost non-existent! No more nebulizer treatments unless it starts back up. We are hoping this was just part of a virus and not an indication of infant asthma. Because he was feeling better he also got his 4-month shots and was not too happy with me. All in all, it was a big day for James!

James using his nebulizer!


Oh...and on a side note, Kate informed us tonight that Justin "Beaver" a.k.a. Justin Bieber is her boyfriend!!! This comes only a few days after she came home singing Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA. Where has my little girl gone?!

Silly, silly Katelin!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is Valentine's Day and I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband to be my loving Valentine and three little munchkins to be my silly Valentines! Throughout the day today I kept thinking about the story we heard at Hosanna church yesterday. (On a side note, we are on a mission to find a local church to become members at and yesterday we visited Hosanna. We were concerned the church would feel too large and contemporary but we were actually very pleased with the experience. They had an amazing band that played christian music in the beginning - the kids loved this! - and the service itself had a wonderful message. We will definitely visit again to see if this is the church for us.)

Now, back to the story...the message was one about love and faith. A husband and wife told their love story. It started off with the usual boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, boy asks out girl and boy and girl get married. After the husband was finished providing a background to their story, the wife got up and spoke. She has terminal cancer and has less than 1 yr to live. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998 and was in remission until 4 years ago when her cancer came back and has since spread to her liver. The amazing part of this story was listening to the woman describe how her faith in the Lord has helped with tiny miracles so far. Her belief and trust in God has helped her to overcome her fear. She said when she feels sad or angry she says four things: I am thankful. I am joyful. I am humble. I am prayerful. These four phrases have helped her time and time again. I was amazed at her strength and ability to see the good in her disease rather than the negative. She ended her message with reminding people to live the life they want. Don't waste time - time is limited for everyone. This is so true. I always think I will have more time tomorrow, or next week, or next month. But this may not always be the case.

I wanted to share her story because it was such a positive message to have faith, love and believe in the Lord's plan for you. I want to try and live my life with her positive attitude and I will start by remembering her four phrases: I am thankful. I am joyful. I am humble. I am prayerful.

Happy Valentine's to all. Hug your loved ones today and live your life to the fullest!