my little anya's baptism!

8.22.10

anya wore the same baptismal gown isabela wore!

this last sunday, august 15th at the 11 o'clock mass, my little anya was baptized!!! jaccob is still finishing up with the navy in virginia, but he flew down to spend time with his girls for a week. the baptism had been planned a couple of months ago so that we could be sure he'd be here in san antonio for the blessed event.

jaccob was ecstatic to see us when we went to pick him up at the airport and we were all so happy to see him :) isabela just wanted to be held by her daddy and from the minute he picked her up all she did was smile! we showered him with lots of love and attention and you could tell he was in heaven!!! the next day jaccob's dad flew in and it was nice to have him here for the weekend. he absolutely spoiled the girls and you could see it in the girl's eyes that they were happy to see their papa :) jaccob's cousin tina and her daughters hanna and megan drove up from houston to be with us and we were so happy to have them.

another person who is very close to our family who flew in for the baptism is our friend matt. he was actually one of the first people to see and hold isabela in the hospital when she was born! ever since then he has been taken with her and is like an uncle to her :) we affectionately refer to him as tio mateo! he loves her a lot and you can see right away that she loves him a lot too :) he moved to virginia beach, va a year after we had moved into the area and so he's seen her grow up since she was a year old. matt was also the only person to visit anya and me in the hospital when she was born...such a wonderful friend to be there for the births of both my daughters! you can see now why he is so close to us (also he is my sister's best friend!).

of course a baptism cannot take place without godparents and thankfully we were very lucky and blessed to have my cousin armando and his wife yolanda be anya's godparents :) they live in dallas and came down on saturday to spend the weekend with us. this was their first time seeing anya and they were in love!!! they couldn't stop gushing over her and held her every chance they got :) they are expecting their first child in january and cannot wait for his or her arrival. i can already tell that they are going to be amazing parents...so full of love, hope and promise for their future child. i'm so very happy for them! as a gift to their goddaughter they gave anya a small pendant of the "virgen de guadalupe" with her name engraved on the back. if you look closely at the b/w photo at the very top of this post, you can see her wearing it on a necklace. it is absolutely beautiful!!!

we had anya baptized at the church we've been parishioners at since we moved to san antonio in '91. it's a church that i hold very dear to my heart and i was so excited to be able to hold the baptism there :) anya was an ANGEL through the whole mass and especially during the ceremony! they hold the baptism during the mass, because they want the whole community to take part in it, which i really liked. like i said before, anya was such an angel! she was so calm and happy and didn't even cry!!! i had people come up to us after mass to tell me how good she was through the whole thing. everything turned out beautifully and i was so excited to have such wonderful family and friends there to celebrate in such a joyous occasion!

after church we went back to my sister's house and had a wonderful time socializing, eating, laughing and having a good time :) jaccob and i were so happy to be together with our girls and all our loved ones, and it was truly one of the best weekends of my whole life!!!