Carrie Krupke: Baby Shower

I have had the privilege and pleasure of laboring alongside one of the most wonderful women I know as part of our church plant to West Des Moines for the past 4 years. I've known Carrie for quite a lot longer than that, having also been in a young adult bible study with her and her husband Gerard prior to the church plant, but it has been in the past few years that we have all grown closer together as a group of women in unity. Carrie and Gerard had been seeking the Lord in expanding their family for a bit over a year, when at last He heard and answered their prayers with a resounding "YES" and they are now expecting their first baby girl, due at the beginning of June. I, along with the other women in our community group, had the honor of being able to help host Carrie's baby shower tea and as our resident photographer was the guest of honor, the picture-taking fell to me, which I was only too happy to oblige!

Waiting for the Guest of Honor. Carrie's mom, unable to make it to the shower due to being out of state, had sown the quilt draped over the chair and sent it to Jo, one of the other ladies in our Community Group, giving it just that right touch of home for Carrie.

Each table had a different place setting, donated by some wonderful ladies at our church. I love how we can all come together to bless a dear sister!

Our Community Group ladies. I am so blessed to be able to labor alongside these women; they are truly my home away from home.

Helena, our resident foodie, was in charge of putting the refreshments together for Carrie's tea party along with some other wonderful helpers. Doesn't that spread look beautiful?

A few details. I love this baby shoe, worn by Jo's daughter when she was little. It was just the right elegant touch for the guest table.

In lieu of the traditional guestbook, we asked Carrie's guests to sign the onesie instead that would then go into a frame with some wish cards for Baby ChooChoo.

Carrie and her mother-in-law, Cheryl, listen as Jo gives a brief devotional message.

It was laughs all around as Jo talked about the sudden desire as a mother to tear someone apart with your bare hands when they are a potential threat to your children.

Carrie reacting to the surprise of her hubby Gerard's arrival to the baby shower for a little serenade. 

While Carrie and Gerard (yes, he stayed!) opened gifts, the guests at each table were asked to fill out these "Wishes For Baby" cards. A common theme at baby showers at our church have been to write "advice cards" to the expecting mother, but for those of us who are not mothers, it's rather difficult to come up with something useful. These were a nice change from the norm.

I love this next photo for a few reasons. 1, the expressions on their faces. 2, that they were having completely separate conversations and were excited about totally different things.

Carrie wanted to get photos with all of her guests, a request to which I happily obliged. While I would love to post all of them here, I'll just leave you with this one of Carrie and all of her fellow Drake music grads.

Stas + Teresa = Married!

One of my favorite things about being a part of my church is watching God bring two people together and seeing them grow as a couple. This Sunday (yes, New Year's Day), I had the pleasure of witnessing 2 wonderful people join together in holy matrimony. Stas and Teresa are both part of the West Town Church Saturday night congregation, where Stas has been faithfully leading worship for the past year or so. Teresa started coming around about a year and a half ago and just dove right in, committing herself to the work the Lord is doing with our church. It's been so awesome to see the two of them come together as a couple!

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony; the giving away of the bride

Pastor Dan opens us up in prayer

Several of Stas' fellow laborers from WTC stood up with him

While Teresa's sisters, and good friends stood with her

 

Sitting in one spot makes it difficult to get interesting angles, but I do what I can!

Stas and Teresa, it was such an honor to watch you get married! I pray that you continue to grow in your love for one another and in your love for the Lord!

Faithwalkers 2011

  Darrin, Matt and Allie led us in worship Wednesday morning. I love the simplicity of the guitar, keys and a just a few vocals.

This year, because of the vacation time I had taken to go to Canada in August, I was only able to make it to the first day of Faithwalkers. Although it was really hard to leave at the end of the night, the time we spent at the conference was wonderful. God definitely blessed it! And of course I brought my camera to get a few shots during worship. 

  That night, the Rock band from Minneapolis started of the evening with a song they wrote. The song just repeats the same line over and over, but again, I just love the simplicity of it!

Ella Reese One Year

Today marked the first birthday of one of our infants at the daycare.  Miss Ella is the only little girl in an infant room with 3 little boys and as such she as earned both the nickname and personality of Princess. And she is certainly treated like one! So of course, in true Klassic Kids fashion, we stripped her down to her diaper, put a cupcake in front of her and let her have at it. I can only say that pictures truly speak a thousand words and I'll just let you enjoy the mess Princess Ella made just as much as we did :-)

Ella knows her name; she started smiling as soon as she heard everyone sing it during the Happy Birthday song

A little help here, please....

Chocolate cake makes for a happy Princess

Now we're getting into it!

Love those blue eyes!

Want some cake, Kate?

Sisters!

Time for a nice, unwanted, bath and....

...We're all clean and beautiful!

Have you ever seen so many rolls??

Bathing Beauty

I just had to close with a "Are you looking at me?" picture. Yes, Ella, everyone is looking at you!

Playing Catch-Up: Ben and Helena Loops

I had not realized how far behind I had fallen in my blog posting until I logged on yesterday and noticed that my last post was made in June. So, with the year now coming to a close, I'm going to do the best I can to "catch-up", as it were, and post pictures from some pretty monumental events this year.

Two very good friends of mine, Ben and Helena Loops, tied the knot back in mid-March. Their story is such an encouragement to those of us who are still learning how to wait , not only for a spouse, but how to wait on the Lord.













Ben's nieces were the flower girls for the wedding













Helena's home church in Cedar Rapids was the venue for both the wedding and the reception. Traveling to CR also gave me an opportunity to visit with a good family friend for a bit before the ceremony started.



































Lighting of the Unity Candle. I love this part of the ceremony because I think it's probably the first moment the bride and groom have really been able to have a private moment together.











As part of the table decor, Helena had put together four bookmarks with messages from the gospels. Even on her wedding day, she is thinking about how to reach people for Christ.



































Instead of the typical wedding reception dance, the bride and groom opted to have a board game theme. Here' s a group from Des Moines puzzling out a game of Blokus.




















Ben and Helena, thank you so much for the opportunity to take pictures of your special day! I am so blessed to know you and I look forward to many more years of doing life together at West Town.
All the Love,
Tiffany