Ethan's Baptism

As I said in the Phantom post, Andy and I went down to Houston 2 weeks ago for Ethan Patrick Kim's Baptism (Jenny and Jae's little one). We had a wonderful weekend spent with family, and little E became a brand new little Christian on Sunday morn! It was a nice ceremony after Mass, and Ethan did GREAT! Andy and I feel very blessed and honored to be his Godparents - thank you for asking, Jen and Jae!

First, some photos of the Baptism...
Ethan receiving the blessed chrism on his chest:

Ethan getting Baptized! He did great!

E and his proud parents and Godparents...

All of the family who were able to attend the Baptism - Ethan with both sets of Grandparents, his parents, and Godparents:

The Kim Family and their newly Baptized baby!

Dad and Mom as the proud Grandparents:

Andy and me (ahem, I mean "the Godfather" [in a mobster accent of course] and me) with our newest Godson:

Jae's parents reading Ethan his new Bible that Andy and I gave him. Isn't this photo GREAT?!

Ethan gave us a cute framed photo and these awesome Tshirts as a thank you! haha, thanks E! :) These are great!

Ok, so on to more photos of Ethan... because he's just so darn irresistible! :) We had a great time hanging out at Jenny and Jae's and Mom and Dad's homes. Enjoy the pictures -- I know there's a ton of them, but photos are my favorite part of any blog, so I thought it can't hurt to share these! :)

Hangin' out with Uncle Andy:

E just LOVED when Grandpa would get in his face so he could feel Grandpa's scruffy whiskers -- he would just laugh and laugh!

Grandma and Ethan:

E lookin' at his Mama....

What a DOLL!!!

A staring contest with Mr. Monkey.... sorry kiddo, but I'm puttin' my money on the monkey...

Just chillin' with his buddy :)

What a FLIRT!!!

Grandpa and E hangin' out:

So do ya suppose Ethan's got his Grandparents wrapped around his tiny little finger??? :)
Then again, I think he's got his Daddy pretty well wrapped around his finger too...

Uncle Andy and E havin' fun:

And I've got to leave ya with this one.... :)

God bless! Hope you find a reason to smile that big today! :-D

The Phaaaaaaantom of the Opera

...is there, inside your mind... (be sure to read that in a deep operatic singing voice) ;)

So I'm a little behind on posting this one! Andy and I drove down to Houston 2 weeks ago for our nephew and Godson Ethan's Baptism (that post to come) AND we got to go see The Phantom of the Opera on (traveling) Broadway!

Andy's Uncle Dave (David Gaschen <-- if you click there, his website will play "The Music of the Night" if you care to hear it) used to perform on Broadway in New York and now that he is singing full time, he occasionally fills in for Traveling Broadway when the regulars are on vacation, etc. Well I have been wanting to see him play the Phantom for practically 5 years, and SOMEHOW he was playing that role, in Houston, on the weekend when we were already going to be there!!! :-D To say the least, I was pretty pumped.

The performance was phenomenal!!! Uncle Dave did AWESOME and it was just surreal!! AND we had GREAT seats -- thanks to Uncle Dave and Andy's mom!!! (Thank You!) A ton of the Gaschen family attended, plus Mom and Jenny joined us, as well as our family friends the Harmons. So on to the photos... (oh, and I unfortunately never saw Uncle Dave after the performance until after he was out of his costume and makeup... so no photos of that, sorry.)

The obligatory photo of the Phantom sign on the side of the Hobby Center to introduce my photos... yes I'm a dork :)


Proof that I was there -- backstage! haha... took this photo when we were waiting for Uncle Dave, who took us on a backstage tour after the show!

Mr. and Mrs. Harmon with Uncle Dave -- The Phantom of the Opera is their favorite Broadway show and they've been wanting to see him play the role of the Phantom since they met him at our wedding (Uncle Dave sang at our wedding).

So on to the backstage tour -- here is a wall of wigs! Very cool... and creepy... :)

Uncle Dave and his son Andrew -- this was Andrew's first time to ever see his dad perform in the Phantom. I'm so glad he got to see him!

Mom, Jen, and me posing on stage in front of the famous chandelier. That thing was impressive!

The monkey music box that's in the start of the show...

Some of the candelabras and props from down in the Phantom's "den"/the lake under the Opera House... the set was incredible!

Andy appeasing me by posing for a photo with the hallway of gondolas behind us -- each little "gondola" is where the performers get changed between scenes. Seems like it would get chaotic but I bet it works like clockwork! :)

Uncle Dave's dressing room -- "That's what I'm sayin'!"

So this is the CLOSEST photo I have to Dave wearing his mask (it's in his hand)! And he's making a super cool face... probably at me for taking TOO MANY pictures.... sorry! ;) I just get snap-happy...

Andy, Andrew, me, Dave, Mom, and Jen after the show:

We had a WONDERFUL time at the show and during the tour. And Uncle Dave ROCKED at playing the Phantom -- I'm so glad we got to attend! Great job, Uncle Dave! :)

Happy 4th of July!

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend, and hope you did too! Thanks to all of our military - past and present - for keeping us free and safe!!! God bless you all!

Well we started out the 4th at the annual "4th on Broadway" parade and free street festival. It's always a ton of fun (plus there's usually some great people watching... especially mullets) ;) Andy's Uncle David Gaschen and his family (wife Jeanne and kiddos Andrew and Molly) got to ride on one of the floats in the parade. Uncle Dave sang in the big concert before the fireworks show that night. We couldn't make it to the concert, but I bet it was awesome!

Here's a photo of the family before they saw us:

And when we got their attention, I somehow only got Uncle Dave and Andrew in the photo... I was too focused on waving, I guess: (I love that Andrew has a funnel cake! That's great!) :)Here's a group photo from the parade-watching... Our friends Dwight Clark, (us), and Ben and Erin Johnson:

We grilled out and hung out the rest of the day at Ben and Erin's brand new home. It's beautiful! We had a great time - lots of Aggie Golf and the guys smoked some delicious ribs for dinner! It was a feast! Thanks for having us, ya'll!

Ben and Andy playing Aggie Golf:

Mark and Joe watching somebody rack up the points:
Laura, Rudy (Reagan), and Mandi:
Uncle Andy and Shelb:

Ben and Kolbe:
Shelby and Aunt Abby... smile, Shelb! :) Here's one of Rudy... what a cutie!

Erin and Kolb (with the giant green balloon BEFORE it popped... wasn't Kolbe surprised!):

Well that's about it... Hope ya'll had a great weekend! Take care and God bless! :)

Summary of our Summer - Part 2

The month of June seemed a bit slower than May (thankfully ;) ), and it allowed us to catch up on some things around the house and get back to school. I started back at my LAST semester of PT school, and Andy began his externship for Law School. Here are a few fun photos from the beginning of May...

Wayne-Dog helping Andy change the oil in my car.... I'm sure he was LOTS of help! :)

BUSTED!!! Wayne-Dog enjoying his stuffed margarita squeaky toy (you know he's my dog when he loves his 'rita!):I think he's had enough.... tomorrow morning may be rough for Wayne:We did take a trip to Dallas in mid-June to visit our friends Jared and Katie Bares. We had a great time with them, and they showed us all sorts of fun -- from a Rangers game (don't worry, we were thinking "GO ASTROS!" the whole time) to Hurricane Harbor. We were also very fortunate to see many friends from our old college group at St. Elizabeth's, who have all moved out to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, at a BBQ that Jared and Katie hosted at their brand new home. Thanks for having us, ya'll!

Here's a photo of the field from our seats... while we didn't get to see the 'Stros play (they played the Rangers the week after we were there), we still had a great time: Here's a photo of the 4 of us - Andy, me, Katie, Jared:

The following weekend, we got to help Shelby Bergman celebrate her 2nd birthday! The Big 0-2! :) We had a great time seeing all the family, and she seemed to enjoy herself too! Mandi and Joe did a great job of hosting, and check out the awesome Dora cake that they made:One of the final big events of June was Andy's trading in of the ol' Saturn for a new truck! I made him pose for a farewell photo with the Saturn - his tried and true of 5 years:And here he is lookin' tough in front of his new ride! It's a 2007 Chevy Silverado Z-71 crew cab , and he is (we are!) loving it! So the final "big event" of the month was poor Wayne-dog's neutering.... I wasn't going to include it (since ya'll don't really need to know the status of our dog's... well... ya know....), but this picture was too much for me to not include it!

Poooooor puppyyyyy!!! :(

(Look at those eyes!! Do you think he'll ever forgive us?!) ;)

Well that's it for June! We hope ya'll had a great 4th of July weekend (that post is to come... be sure to check back - there are some cute photos of our niece and nephews!) :) Take care and God bless!