Eden at 2 months old

At 2 months old, Eden:
--often sleeps up to 5 hours straight at night
--frequently smiles at us (as a reaction to us, and not just "from gas")
--coos to us
--is usually happy if she is being held
--likes the bouncy seat, but doesn't usually like the swing (just like her siblings)
--likes car rides, but often starts to cry while we are stopped at red lights
--likes to be held up on my shoulder (and almost always keeps her head lifted up) or in cradle position
--her most fussy times of day are while we are all getting ready in the morning or just before dinnertime
--has a love/hate relationship with the pacifier. She usually has to have it to fall asleep during the day, but cannot keep it in her mouth for more than a few seconds at a time. Luckily, she doesn't usually need it as much when she's sleeping at night.
--is still not on any kind of a schedule.
--still has blue eyes and her hair has thinned out and lightened a bit. Her hair is still fairly long in the back though.
--has decided to refuse to take a bottle. Therefore, she and I are pretty much joined at the hip.
--is still sleeping in her carseat next to Dave or I during the night.


For Christmas, one of my nieces drew Eden's name for the gift exchange. Eden received this cute knit dress and shoes from my niece. It was handmade by my sister-in-law Natacha's grandma who lives in Argentina. Eden also received another pair of knit sandals, 2 pairs of knit booties, and a few knit sweaters, all made by Natacha's grandma. They each have so much detail, and are so cute! I know so much time went into making each of them, and I felt so honored to have received them (well, for Eden to have received them). We have all been loving having this little girl in our family. It is fun to see how her brother and sister are with her. I was expecting some jealousy issues from Collin as he adjusted to having a new baby in the house, but other than the occasional request/demand that I put Eden down to hold him or get him a snack, he has done really well. When he interacts with her, it is usually by getting up in her face and yelling "Hi Eden! Hi Baby Eden! Where's your smile?" or something similar. Brynn is still such a good helper with Eden. She always wants to help take care of her or hold her. Sometimes she is sad to leave for preschool or her Sunday School class or whatever, because she misses Eden. Its really cute! Unfortunately Brynn has been sick a couple of times this past month, so she hasn't been able to get very close to her. She is very protective of her, and does her best to keep from getting Eden sick.

Blessing Dress

I love pictures of babies in their blessing outfits, and finally got some of Eden. Hopefully she likes her dress, because Brynn picked it out for her.

Other Misc January Photos

My mom showing Brynn and Collin how to pat Eden's back to comfort her...


Sisters...

Dave has been taking a kid or two with him occasionally to give me a break. They love going to check out houses with him. Dave took these next few pictures on one of those days.


The kids also love visits from their grandparents. Here is their Grandma Cheryl reading some of their new books to them...
Brynn loves holding her baby sister.
This next picture definitely requires an explanation. In the middle of the night a few weeks ago, Brynn started yelling out for us in the middle of the night. Since this tends to happen quite often (as in, about 4 times a night for about 4 nights a week), and I was in the middle of feeding Eden, I just yelled down the hall for her to go back to sleep. After a few more attempts to get me to go to her room, she finally settled back down and fell asleep. The next morning, when she woke up, she insisted that I come check out something in her room. Then she showed me the following toilet paper thing on her bed. She explained that she had made a toilet paper picture of Collin during the night. She was so proud of herself that I had to hold back a little laugh. She had had a cold, and had been keeping a roll of toilet paper next to her bed for her runny nose. I guess she got bored during the night...

Eden's Blessing

This past Sunday evening, we had Eden's blessing at our home. Typically, baby blessings are on the 1st Sunday of the month at our church, but with our extended family's conflicting schedules, we were able to have it our home. It was such a special night, and we were so grateful for the love and support we felt. Apparently Eden wasn't too sure what was going on, and cried throughout half of the blessing. However, I could still feel the love that Heavenly Father has for our precious little girl, and felt so humbled at the blessing it is to be her mom. After being told by a doctor a decade ago that "it would take a miracle for us to have children on our own", it is overwhelming to think that we were blessed with 3 miracles. It is truly a reminder that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us, and it is often so much better than any plan we could ever make for ourselves if we just have faith in Him.(Brynn ended up with pinkeye in both of her eyes, so she and I spent most of the afternoon at urgent care. That would explain why she looks like she has been crying in each of the pictures.)


After the blessing, Collin and my Grandpa B were playing around. Collin pretended to get my Grandpa with the sword and my Grandpa would fall to the floor. Then, Collin would help him get back up. Too cute! Meanwhile, my Grandma was helping out with Eden.

Brynn's 5 year photos

Brynn's 5th Birthday

This time of year is especially busy for our family with all of the holidays and most of our family's birthdays. Brynn's birthday is the last of the bunch. She turned 5 on January 27th. She was really excited this year and had been asking for days, OK more like months, when it was going to be her birthday. She was a little confused about the difference between her birthday party and her actual birthday, but I think she was just excited to get to celebrate twice. She had preschool that day, and was assigned to bring the snack that week. She helped me make cupcakes with sprinkles to bring to her class. During their snack week, the assigned child's mom is also invited to come to the end of class one day for the show and tell time and to read their child's All About Me book. It was so fun to get to see Brynn in her class and meet some of her little friends. It was also fun to see how excited Brynn was to have me there. I know that will probably change all too soon as she gets older. While I was at Brynn's preschool, my mom was watching Collin and Eden. After preschool, we picked them all up and went to our favorite pizza place for lunch. Brynn was really taking advantage of it being her birthday, and kept telling us that she got to decide what she wanted to drink at lunch "because its her birthday", etc. Its funny how there are some things that all kids seem to say (like how they get to do something because its their birthday, or the whole "well then you're not invited to my birthday party" thing which we heard plenty of times recently). That night, we went with my parents, Dave's mom Cheryl and Cheryl's husband Jerry to one of our favorite gelato spots. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures, but it was a good day, and Brynn was happy.

Brynn, at 5 years old:

--you weigh 37.5 pounds and are 41.4" tall (in the 35th and 29th percentile, respectively)
--you absolutely love your baby sister and are so gentle with her
--you are very sensitive and can often sense when someone is sad or not feeling well or upset
--you are also very bright, and will ask question after question until you really understand whatever thing you are wondering about (I already find myself not having the answers to lots of your questions)
--you can spell your name, as well as "Collin", "Eden", "mom" and "dad"
--I'm sure you will be reading before too long, since you can now sound out most of the letters and can tell me what letter most words start with
--you love to rhyme
--you enjoy doing crafts and other projects
--you love to play dress up and often end up wearing your dance clothes on non-dance days. You frequently ask us to watch you perform your dances
--you love music, and I'm already having to ask you to turn down/off your music when you leave your bedroom. You mostly listen to the 2 CDs your dance teacher gave you of the recital music.
--you have become quite a big help to me, and I am often amazed at the things you understand or figure out how to do. You have been making your own bed now for quite awhile, and it is so cute how intentional you are with the placement of each thing. Sometimes each pillow and stuffed animal has its exact assigned spot, and other times you get creative with their placement. You love when I notice those things too.
--your favorite TV show is Wow Wow Wubbzy

Here are your answers to a few questions I asked you:
Your favorite color: pink
Your favorite food: mac-n-cheese, candy
Your favorite thing to do: go to the bouncey place
Your favorite thing to wear: my pink and brown dress with flowers on it
Your favorite thing to play: pick up sticks
Favorite toy: my candy jewelry machine and my bike
Favorite dress up: my tutus
Favorite kind of animal: a horse, because it gives rides and is super friendly and doesn't bite
My best friend: MaJesta, Micaela, and Quinci
My favorite holiday: the days I can ride my bike and do my candy machine. My birthday is pretty fun too.


We love you so much Brynn and are so grateful you are our daughter! Happy Birthday!!

The Family Talent Show

My Grandma B turned 80 years old this year, and when she was asked how she wanted to celebrate, she requested a family talent show. My Grandma has 10 children (my mom being the oldest) and most of them all live nearby and have families of their own. That makes for plenty of people to supply the talent, as well as the audience. When Brynn heard that there was going to be a talent show, she was excited and wanted to do ballet for it. When it was her turn to go up, she got scared and backed out. After a few more people performed their talents, she was given another chance to go up. Nope. However, after some coaxing, compromising, and only a little bit of bribery, she took advantage of opportunity #3. I was at the back of the "stage" (the front of the primary room at my mom's church building) running the stereo for her and my mom sat in the front so that Brynn could pretend it was only her in the audience. Despite some serious technical difficulties (Brynn's CD is so well-loved that it skipped throughout the song), Brynn did a good job. She ended up dancing facing me, because she was too scared to face everybody else, but I was so proud of her. I didn't get any pictures of her during the actual talent show part of the evening, but she ended up showing several of my cousins more of her dancing afterwards. One of my cousins, Chelsea, has taken ballet herself, and Brynn had such a fun time dancing with her.





And one of my favorite parts...the bow.

Eden at 1 month

Our sweet little girl turned 1 month old on January 7th. At 1 month old, she weighed 9 pounds. Her hair has already lightened a bit and thinned out alot on the top. She had recently started smiling to us (besides the random smiles that they say are a reaction to gas), and I was so excited that I was able to get a few pictures of her cute smile. She is in size newborn diapers, and size newborn clothes. She can be kind of fussy, but is usually happy if she is being held. She is still grunting very loudly in her sleep, and keeps us up during the night moreso with the grunting than crying. She is becoming more alert during the day.