January is kicking my butt. Just as our family is winding down from Christmas, we're jumping headfirst into a month that includes a baptism and two birthdays. That means a lot of celebrating (yay!), a lot of cleaning for said celebrations, and a lot of "extras," such as doctor appointments and portrait sessions. We're also back to school full-time, which includes my return to Classical Conversations for the first time since Theo was born. {I got the first one under my belt on Tuesday, and it went better than I expected. It helps when you go in with low expectations!} So... I apologize if I'm not as responsive on social media as usual. This month is cuh-razy.

We've already got one of January's major events behind us--Theo's baptism. It was awesome. His baptism took place on January 8th,  "Baptism of our Lord Sunday," in which the focus of the service was Jesus' own baptism (Matthew 3:13-17). Although Theo showed signs of fussiness at the beginning of the service, he mellowed for the actual sacrament. There was a sweet moment in which he wouldn't let go of my scarf as I handed him over to the pastor, which drew a chuckle from the congregation. Thankfully, I'm pretty sure our pastor is a baby-whisperer, and Theo was super-comfortable after that. The pastor's enthusiasm was contagious, and we were so thankful for our family and friends who could be their to witness the miracle. The service included my all-time favorite hymn, "Amazing Grace." It was just so lovely.

If I do say so myself, Theo looked very handsome in his little baptism outfit, which was the fourth outfit worn by our boys for their sacraments of baptism. You'd think we'd be able to reuse at least one of the boys' outfits, but alas. I mentioned here that we aren't able to pass down as many clothes as one might expect, and baptism outfits, at least in our family, have been one of those things.

{baptism outfit #1}

Shane was two months old when he wore outfit number #1 on July 12, 2008. He was baptized in the summer, so he wore a short-sleeved little number. {As I'm looking back at Shane's photos, I am suffering some major mama-guilt! We have scads of photos from Shane's baptism and the luncheon afterward, and I remembered to take a grand total of one photo at Theo's party... of his cake. Oy!} Anyway, Shane was baptized at the Catholic church we attended before our current one. When we were announced during the Mass, I was referred to as "Kris," which I have never gone by in my life. {Okay, that's not entirely true. My paternal grandmother tried calling me that as a pet name a couple of times, but my mom nipped that in the bud. She named me Kristin, not Kris, thankyouverymuch.} This will become relevant later...

{baptism outfit #2 and phantom outfit 2a!}

Conner was nearly four months old when he was baptized at our same Catholic church on May 21, 2011. He was twice as old as Shane and was enjoying an abundance of his mother's milk, so there was no way he was going to fit into Shane's outfit. Wanting to start a family tradition, my mom had purchased a baptismal gown that she intended all of her grandchildren to wear. Sadly, Conner was the only grandchild to wear it. Okay, this is craziness. See if you can follow. (Because I can't, and I'm so confused!) So! The incredibly blurry photo below AND my memory (which is probably less reliable than the blurry photo) recall Conner wearing a baptismal GOWN. (See below.)

I also remember having very few (and very poor) photos from Conner's baptism, so I had him professionally photographed. Now, I went back into my photo archives on our external hard-drive, and THIS is what I found. WHAT?! Where did that outfit come from? It's not Shane's! (Remember, his outfit had shorts.) Bewildered, I headed upstairs to Conner's archival box to see if I could find this phantom baptismal outfit, when I came across THIS framed photo:

HUH?! But this photo isn't in my digital archives! Where did this one come from? Oh my goodness, my brains are scrambled eggs now. Were you able to follow this craziness? I don't know about you, but I need to move on.

{Incidentally, Conner's baptism was the last time our family attended that church. As I was working with the staff to plan his baptism, I mentioned how they had referred to me as "Kris" at Shane's baptism and very, very politely asked if they would please refer to me as Kristin this time. Well, this time, I wasn't referred to as "Kris," but--even worse--they called our family by an entirely wrong surname! Conner's name was also misspelled on his certificate and in the bulletin. You know I'm all about GRACE, and all of these things are incredibly trivial, but there were other things going on that I won't talk about now, and this was just the last straw for us.}

{baptism outfit #3}

Logan officially joined God's family on March 23, 2014. He was two months old when he was baptized at our current church, and he was a CHUNK. We had to squeeze him into the outfit, and it ripped. {Hey! Is that the phantom outfit? Part of the mystery might be solved!}

{baptism outfit #4}

And, finally, here is our sweet baby Theo, baptized on January 8th. He's a good-sized baby too, and is already in 3-6 month sized clothes, so I knew he wouldn't fit into Logan's 0-3 month sized outfit. (You know, the ripped one.) Luckily, I found this super-cute and affordable one here. (I skipped the hat and the mittens.) I think it was the comfiest and least expensive of all the baptism outfits I had purchased for the boys!

Well, there you have it. A tale of four baptism outfits, plus one phantom outfit. Who needs a Rubik's Cube? If you ever want a puzzler, just think about Conner's baptism outfit(s), ha-ha!

So tell me! Does your family have an heirloom baptism outfit? Were your children able to use the same one? I'd love to know!

P.S. If you haven't already done so, don't forget to enter GC&M's first ever giveaway! It ends Friday night at 11:59 PM CST. Winner will be announced Saturday!