Liddle Family Moments

Happy Birthday to Oliver!

2012-01-30T14:48:00.001-07:00

A very cute little guy turned 1 this past weekend. . .

This was our VERY impromptu session! (I am still working myself up for his official 1 year old photo session. . .)

My little stinker of a 1 year old, is the cutest thing ever, but also the most active! It was hard catching him still for more than a couple seconds. But I’m glad we got some keepers on his actual birthday

The next pictures of Oliver and I were taken by none other than my 4 year old, Caleb! I was pleasantly surprised by a handful of images! Here are my favorites!

I love this little boy! A year ago my heart grew 3 sizes bigger to allow room for yet another incredible baby boy who changed my life and expanded my understanding of Heavenly Father’s incredibly capacity to love ALL of us. Baby Oliver, you are loved more than you will ever know! He makes me smile each day and I LOVE being his mommy! Happy Birthday Oliver!

Our New Home

2012-01-30T13:44:00.001-07:00

I thought it was about time I shared with you all a bit of what our new home looks like. We are so excited to be in this home and couldn’t feel more blessed for the way everything worked out. The wait of 5 months to hear back about this short sale was long, but looking back now we are grateful we stuck it out and hung in there. We felt very guided by the Lord and now that we are in our new ward, we know why. There are amazing people surrounding us and we couldn’t have chosen a better area for our kids to grow up in. We have already received more cookie plates and welcoming gestures from our neighbors than I ever expected. What wonderful people we are surrounded by!

A HUGE shout-out goes to my amazing Aunt, Pam Pettingill, who was our realtor during this long process. She was amazing to work with and very diligent about representing us correctly, negotiating as much as possible to get what we wanted, and ALWAYS kept us updated on where our papers and progress were at. Seriously if you are looking for a hard-working great realtor, let me know and I will get you in contact with her.

Ok, so as much as I want to post pictures of what our house looks like NOW with our furniture, new paint color, etc. in, I just haven’t found the motivation to photograph it like that yet. I guess that means you’ll have to actually COME to our house to see it for yourselves!

Here are the pictures of the house I took back in August . . . wow that was a long time ago! It had been sitting around vacant since April, so it was very dusty and dirty – especially our high maintenance floors! But at least you’ll get a basic understanding of what it looks like.

The first picture shows the front door and our entry way leading into our family room. The big thing you see to the right would be our “pony” staircase going downstairs to our huge un-finished basement. At first we thought it was a huge eye-sore to the house and we talked seriously about ripping it out and remodeling it. BUT I’m glad we are waiting. . . we have lots of options and I’ve actually found it to be less annoying to live with than I originally thought. So eventually we’ll probably change it (even if just to have railing instead of that weird half wall), but for now we don’t mind it and are just grateful it opens up our room quite a bit to what the original floor plan was with this type of home.

Our kitchen and dining room are separated, but still feel all connected. We haven’t really used our dining room as much as we thought, since our kitchen island is BIGGER than a regular kitchen table . . . but at least we have a couple options as to where we eat.

This was probably the house’s BIGGEST selling point when we first saw this house. . . and this kitchen was very poorly photographed online - which was to our benefit since it stuck around longer waiting for us. We love our 5 burner stove top, humongous island w secondary sink (my personal fav!), and beautiful cabinetry (oh yes and it LOOKS like a double oven, but is actually a microwave above the oven, which is kind of cool!). The original owners who built the home were both Chefs thus why there is a ginormous kitchen. . . so I feel slight pressure to start cooking more since I have absolutely no excuse why not to cook in my kitchen. You will be proud to know that I have been making valiant efforts

Probably the thing we also love the most is our Master Suite. Seriously this place is bigger than some of the honeymoon suites at hotels! We feel completely spoiled in this room! More than anything I just appreciate having our own room WITHOUT Oliver in there with us! 11 months sleeping with mom and dad was way too long for all of us! I enjoy hanging out in my bedroom for my own needed quiet time.

After our clothes being in full chaos for MONTHS, I could not have been more giddy to have a huge closet. Embarrassingly enough we fill it quite nicely. . . but some of the stuff is just spread out because we can and the tops of the shelves I use to store baby clothes for my boys.

Yes a closet within a closet. The original house plan had this as another bedroom, but they had it custom made to a huge closet instead. I figured I could use it as a room for our next child since it’s big enough.

John personally loves this tub more than anything else in the house. It is the perfect two person tub as well.

The only thing we weren’t sure about initially was the small yard. We will need to rebuild the deck that is sloping in the middle, add some grass, but we think we can make it a fun place for our kids to play in! We’re just grateful to have a yard!

And who cares that we have a smaller piece of land? We have this AMAZING view every single day! I may be in love with this view each day just as much as my kitchen, master suite, and garage. This view speaks to my soul and I can’t wait for summer nights when we can just hang out on the back porch under the stars.

Well how did you like your tour? Believe me when I say it’s even better in person! and especially with our newly painted walls in the front room! We would love our family and friends to come visit! Thanks to those of you who have been excited for us and supported us through our move. We feel very blessed and grateful!

Reflections on 2011 . . .

2012-01-09T00:24:00.001-07:00

Another year has come and gone, and January is always the perfect time to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings and experiences we had and how we learned and have grown from all of them.

This year we had some Big Changes happen:

*First we started off the new year by expanding our family from 3 to 4! The birth of Oliver at the end of January definitely was the best thing that happened this past year!

*Shortly thereafter, in February, the first of my Grandparents, Papa Craft, passed away of Pancreatic Cancer. We were grateful that he had the chance to meet Oliver before he died, and that we were able to spend time with him here in Utah during his last couple months.

*My awesome brother, Spencer, returned from his mission to Colorado Springs, Colorado! That was an exciting time for our family!

*John got called to be the Elder’s Quorum President after serving for a year and a half as 1st counselor. He really grew a lot in that calling, even though it didn’t last long due to some other changes happening. . .

*John got approached by a Head-Hunter to apply for a job that offered to pay more than we currently were getting. John applied and got hired at Venafi on the Support Team (even though he is currently doing a lot of programming), and with fond memories left what was formally known as PGP (but recently acquired by Symantec) that he had worked at for approximately 6 years. He is extremely happy in this new company, Venafi, and so we are grateful for the decision he made to accept the position they offered to us.

*Literally a week or two after getting the job, John and I made the quick decision to move into the basement of my parents, rent out our condo at Cambria, and save up for a house! We really appreciate the sacrifice and willingness of my family in letting us come. They have been awesome and there are many blessings and memories that have come from making that change.

*Starting in June, I became a dedicated RUNNER! Thanks to my brother, Spencer, and his enthusiasm to run with me during those first very tough weeks, I slowly overcame my mental block of hating to run, strengthened my body and endurance, and actually learned that running is very therapeutic and can be enjoyed! It took me a good couple months to overcome the hurtle of running a mile straight without walking, but I did it! I’ve already run a 10k (not a formal race, just a nice long Saturday morning run), and am actually looking forward to training for a marathon for this coming September with my family! That definitely was something I never thought I’d WANT to do!

*In August, we felt inspired (or anxious) to start looking for homes, and see what our options were out there. We hadn’t planned on looking that early in the game since we knew we needed to save more money, but it was a good thing we listened to the spirit instead! The first day we looked and looked though many homes, but it wasn’t until we got to the last house of the evening, that we found it. It couldn’t have felt like more of a perfect fit! After more searching the next day, and lots of prayers, we decided to put our offer in on this dream house of ours! Fortunately we jumped on it, because within a week there were 4 back up offers behind ours! The timing for us to find it could not have been more perfect or inspired.

*In September, Caleb started Preschool for the first time! He was very excited by it and has been loving it! I am learning to be a little more structured through it, and realize that it’s good Preschool is just twice a week now as I adjust to driving and picking him up on time.

*Caleb turned 4 and I threw my first ever BIG Birthday party! It was a full blown Super Hero Party for Caleb and all of his little friends. I did a lot of planning and prep work for it, and I think it turned out to be a success! I also decorated my first ever cake (with the assistance of my Aunt Amanda) with fondant.

*We did a lot of waiting and waiting and WAITING for this short sale home! It really was an emotional rollercoaster each week while waiting. We thought it would go through by the end of October. . . .oh how wrong we were! But again, we know that the Lord IS mindful of us, some things just have to happen in His timeframe because he knows that it was worth the patience that we learned and the money we saved by it extending almost 2 and a 1/2 months longer than expected.

*Oliver changed CONSTANTLY during the year, and we have loved every stage of it! Smiling, giggling, turning over, sitting up, sleeping through the night!, eating solids, crawling, talking, standing up, crawling up stairs, climbing, walking, crawling down the stairs, etc. just to name a few changes! It just keeps getting better and better!

*December brought along its usual busyness: John’s birthday, my birthday, our 5 Year Anniversary, and Christmas. All of which were wonderful (minus the awful stomach flu bug we all got which post-poned Christmas by one day).

*On our 5 year Anniversary, we officially got accepted for our HOUSE! This dream home of ours that we waited since August for finally went through. We couldn’t have asked for better news for our 5 year Anniversary.

WOW! Crazy, Awesome, Busy, Wonderful Year right? We can’t believe all of the changes that occurred during that year, but we feel ever so blessed!

We are most grateful to be a family, be together, and for the love that we have for one another. At the end of the day, that is the thing we are most grateful for: Each other and being together!

Thank you to all our family and friends for your love and impact that you have on our life! We love you all! May 2012 be the best one yet for all of you!

The Craft Family Christmas Video of 2011!

2011-12-29T23:28:00.006-07:00

This year we did an official Christmas Family video! I have always loved doing video/pictures to music, but I got the most fabulous idea to actually make it a TRADITION each year from John's co-worker's wife, whose family does it every year. How fun is that???? I think that just sounded wonderful, so we quickly picked a song and with a little prodding and begging, we got everyone on the Craft side to be a part of it! I think next year we'll plan more ahead so everyone can be more familiar with the song, but hey, this isn't half bad for a song we threw together literally that day . . .

Oh yes and we do have a reference or two to being sick . . . which totally happened Christmas Eve! A grand total of 12 of us were totally sick and we made a mutual decision to post-pone Christmas by a day . . . which was totally weird and awesome at the same time! So this video captures this snow-less and sickness filled Christmas very well.

So drumroll please . . . As we present: The Craft Family Christmas Video of 2011 in all of its glory!

Hope you got a good little laugh or smile! Merry Christmas!

GREAT Anniversary News!!!!

2011-12-27T14:37:00.001-07:00

Our 5 Year Anniversary is a major milestone! (not that we didn’t think we’d make it this far or something, but it’s just great to see how far we have come in that time from where we started!)

The day didn’t quite turn out the way we thought, but there was some GREAT NEWS that day!

WE OFFICIALLY GOT APPROVAL ON THE HOUSE!!!!!!

Ok now we had got the verbal approval the Monday before, but it just didn’t seem real since we were STILL waiting on the bank and couldn’t do anything. But when we got the call on our Anniversary, it was just perfect! We just had to go over to the house and take a picture of us in front of it (thanks Jill!)

After that news, the day sort of went downhill from there since we ALL got the stomach flu! (Wow that sooo was not fun!), and Christmas got post-poned by a day (That was definitely a first). But still it was a great day!'

Any ways, we’re hoping that things (now that they are a little more in our control) will happen within 2-3 weeks. I can’t even explain how excited we all are! I think the two things that I am looking forward to the most by having this new house are A) the fact that all of my piles and piles of clothes from the 4 of us that are shoved in our room, will FINALLY have a place of order and not drive me so crazy! And B) that Oliver will NOT be in our room anymore! (Halleluiah!). Don’t get me wrong, I love that little guy more than anything . . . but 11 months of sharing with mom and dad is far too long. Sharing with Caleb from here on out might present it’s own challenges but we’ll figure it all out eventually!

I think I’ll post pictures once it’s slightly more clean and when we get closer, but it’s a perfect little home for us. We felt so good about it from the get-go. When we first walked through it, it was already late, dark outside, and we were tired from looking at a bunch of other homes. When our realtor, Pam Pettingill, told us it was a large house on a small lot, I thought “Ha, yeah right that I’ll be ok with a small yard.” But when we walked through it, we just got that “feeling.” Like a really excited, this is the right thing, kind of feeling. The next day we went to look at other houses, but every time I saw another house, I just couldn’t stop thinking of this house and comparing everything to it. When we saw it again, we knew we needed to jump on it and make an offer! Only two days after our offer, another offer came in followed by three more! We just feel so blessed that we found it when we did, and were given the patience we needed to wait out this long and painful process to get it. The home is in Highland, and quite close to my parents’ home which will be really nice (since we still really love them after being so extremely close for 6 months! LOL! )

Any ways, just wanted to share in the fun news! We can’t wait to embark on this new fun adventure we have that is finally just around the corner!

5 Years of Bliss

2011-12-25T07:11:00.001-07:00

In honor of John’s birthday and our 5 Year Anniversary this past week, I want to reflect on my feelings for John. I have wanted to do a post like this for years (I haven’t really shared very in depth feelings I have for this man on this blog), and wanted to take this opportunity before another year passes by.

5 years ago, I made the best decision of my entire life. And 5 years and 6 months ago, I MET the best decision of my life. . . my wonderful amazing John. Just 2 weeks after my high school graduation, while sitting in my new singles ward one Sunday evening for Ward Prayer, a very handsome funny guy was giving the spiritual thought. I had met practically all of the other guys in that two weeks, but not this one. . . it sounded like he was in the army and had just returned from a 2 week training. Hmm. . . I guess I should meet him.

Well from his side, he had noticed me right during the middle of his spiritual thought too. He actually did a double take and lost his train of thought for a moment (I don’t remember this myself). He knew immediately that he wanted to meet me as well.

After ward prayer was through, and groups gathered in small numbers to socialize, John slowly made his way over to the group of girls I was mingled with. He was trying to ‘casually’ make his way of there, but I beat him to the punch and turned on him, introducing myself, “Hi, I’m Angela!” Our conversation started from there. It started like any conversation would have gone with small talk, but it wasn’t until there became a natural break in the conversation where we both could have said good bye, that the conversation decided to keep continuing. It was in that small moment that I had caught John’s permanent attention. He liked talking with me. I could keep the conversation with him going (does that sound like me )

It was ALSO in that conversation that he learned how young I truly was. . . I had made a reference to going to BYU in the fall. John said, “Oh are you going for your Masters Degree?” Me: “Um . . . no I am just starting.” “Oh . . .” is probably was he was thinking. But I had already captured his attention so he wasn’t going to let my age stop him so quickly. I fortunately did not have a clue how old he was. I figured mid-20’s, so I definitely knew he was on the older side. But fortunately did not know exactly how old he was for at least several weeks.

Climbing to the top of Mt. Timpanogos

John brought me flowers to work. And also we spent many a nights talking on the phone while he was away for work. Catching up on sleep usually occurred the next day after a long phone conversation.

That summer will always be my absolute favorite! So many memories and lots of fun! I slowly realized how amazing John was and despite his older age (which I soon learned was 13 years older than my own!!!), I trusted that the good feelings I kept getting when I prayed about if I should continue this relationship, truly came from the Lord. I knew that he would look out for me if I continued to be faithful and continue praying and trusting in the Holy Spirit. Luckily I had the support from my immediate family who thought John was great. That was definitely a factor in my giving John a chance. And he definitely took the opportunities given to him to show them that he is a very good guy and would take great care of me.

In October, John took me to the BYU Homecoming Dance. We had a great evening and then ended it by going to the temple where he sang to me on his guitar and then asked me to be his wife. Saying Yes to him was the best decision I have made. At the time I knew it was the right thing, but now – looking back 5 years later- I KNOW it was the right thing! I realize now even more the AMAZING man that I married!

John is perfect for me in so many ways! He keeps me laughing every day! Not only does he make me laugh, but I love the way he makes others laugh and be happy around him.

Of all of the people I know, John definitely is the best problem-solving person! Yes he is naturally a very smart person, but if he doesn’t know how to fix or do something, his gift is that he figures out how to do it. This is probably the biggest reason to why he has had so much success with work positions he has held. He knows how to calm people who are frustrated about a problem down, and figure out how to solve it. He is calming me down all of the time and fixing small silly issues around the house that I can’t seem to do. So he is definitely a calming influence in my life.

As a continuation of the above mentioned awesome quality of John, because of that, he is also a fantastic: cook (seriously is better than me and more curious as to making cool recipes), a handy man around the house, laundry doer and cleaning guy.

John is such an amazing example of Generosity. He is very giving and has been a great example of not being too attached to physical possessions or wealth. He very humble and recognizes his blessings in this area. I know that I’m a better person because of the way he is in this area of his life. And I know our bounteous blessings have come as a result of this important attribute that he has.

John is such an amazing husband. He sees in me something worth loving and caring for. He is so completely patient with me, and will always be the first to apologize when we have issues (that I usually start). He is more humble than I am in that way. He wants to do the right thing and do whatever he can to make our marriage work and be one of true happiness.

John is a major blessing in my life. He is such a great daddy to our boys, a caring and wonderful husband to me, and a man of God who tries his best to lead his family in love and righteousness. I am so blessed and lucky to call him mine. 5 years with him has seriously been bliss. I can’t wait for eternity!

Happy 5 year Anniversary John! Love you to Eternity and back!

Jingle Bells

2011-12-11T14:40:00.004-07:00

It's been quite some time that I've wanted to share this video. About 3 Christmas' ago, while my Grandma was serving a mission and away for Christmas, that I decided to make a Christmas video of all of her grandchildren/great-grandkids/children. The video involved interviews from us all, picture slideshows, etc. I encouraged my brothers/sister as well as cousins to send in some material for me to work (including interviews as well as talents) with while doing this video. And I noticed a trend . . . there were quite a few different versions of Jingle Bells. So an idea started brewing . . . and WA-LA! My all-time favorite family Christmas song that I've made so far :)

I meant to put it online quite a while ago, but am just getting around to it. Some of the material was used from a few different Christmas'(Brittney is pregnant with Belinda, Caleb is a few months old bundled in John's jacket for our sleigh ride, and basically we're all a few years younger!) I hope it makes you smile and/or laugh as it does for my family and I. Maybe I'll find the time to make another one some day :) Just wanted to share this one to add to the Christmas cheer!

Update on us :)

2011-11-14T01:11:00.001-07:00

Well there is no BIG news yet. . . believe me there will be a post when that does happen.

We are still waiting, praying, hoping, and having a blast while doing so! Originally we thought for sure we’d be in the new house before Halloween, and we figured we could probably host Thanksgiving or something even, but those thoughts are of the past. . . we will just be thrilled and very blessed if we can get the house in time to decorate and be ready by Christmas. It’s going to be worth it . . . this is what we keep telling ourselves! There have been ups and downs in our attitudes while waiting, but once we hit those times where the eternal perspective is before us, we realize that everything will happen in it’s timeframe. We know the Lord is watching out for us. We are so grateful as well to have the opportunity to stay with my family while doing waiting. And we just know that this short temporary moment in our lives is going to make us stronger as a family, couple, and as individuals. A great quote that really puts it all in perspective while “Waiting” is this one (found from pinterest):

“Your Journey has molded you for the greater good.

It was exactly what it needed to be.

Don’t think you’ve lost time.

It took each and every situation you have encountered

to bring you to the Now.

And Now is right on time.”

Annnnyways . . . I know a lot of you were probably wondering the status, so I thought I’d do that first. Basically we are just waiting on the case agent to get to our paper work. These agencies are swamped with short sale offers all over the place and have stacks of at least 150 files to sort through, so that’s why the waiting is soooo long. But eventually they will get to ours and then things ‘should’ go very quickly after that. Our realtor, Pam Pettingill, has been WONDERFUL to work with and I know that she and the seller’s agent have been doing EVERYTHING that they can in order to help this process along, and we feel so incredibly thankful for that. We get informed the moment she does, and they are actively trying to get as much verbal communication with the case workers as possible. Seriously if anyone is in need of a great realtor, let me know! Pam is seriously awesome!

Even though we are trying to be patient, enjoy the now, and count our many MANY blessings that we DO have, we sure wouldn’t mind any extra prayers if you feel like sending some up that the house will happen sometime soon!

Ok well I have about 500 pictures that I REALLY want to share with you all! I mean my boys are the cutest things that my eyes have ever seen, and I have so many sweet ones of them, but time was never something I have a lot of when it comes to sorting and posting my own personal pictures. I’m behind enough as it is with my clients’ photos. But I feel like on Sundays, I should be entitled to work on some of my own stuff now and then. I’ll be putting together a full October post. But here are a few favorites that melt my heart for tonight:

Talk about the cutest brothers together ever! Oh Caleb is such an awesome big brother. I can’t wait to see how their cute little relationship blossoms through the coming years. It’s going to be a BLAST!

Can you believe he is 9 months in this photo? Um I can’t! This sweetheart melts my heart every single MINUTE! I can’t get enough of his sweetness! Or kissing his cute cheeks. Or squeezing him till he tries to wiggle away. Oh I heart my Oliver SOOO much!

September!

2011-11-14T01:00:00.001-07:00

These are just a peek of what our September looked like. LOTS of fun! Also since John and I both have iphones now with built in decent cameras, I am getting more and more lazy and using that about half of the time instead of pulling out the BIG GUNS. At least I’m able to catch more moments in the moment, instead of worrying about the perfect lens or camera setting.

Life really has been fun!

Looks like someone found a new teething toy . . .

Yes this is a cucumber. No joke.

This year was my first year throwing a full-blown birthday party for Caleb with the theme, friends, decorations, EVERYTHING! I felt like a chicken with it’s head cut off most of the time, running here and there the whole time, but I think it was a success. Lots of my ideas came from Pinterest. And actually I plan to do a full blog post on the party with all of the details and games for any you who may want to throw your own Super Hero party for your child. It seriously was a total blast! Here is just a peek at how awesome it was!

Believe it or not, with the help of my amazing aunt, I actually decorated this cake all on my own! No more store bought cakes anymore . . . this was way too much fun to make!

Yes, my Caleb actually turned 4 . . . where did the time go??? I sure love this kid and the funny personality he has now!

Caleb LOVED having his Grandpa and Grandma Liddle come over for dinner and cupcakes on his actual birthday.

And we “attempted” to get some family pictures on our own with the help of my dear friend, Michaelene. I haven’t gone through too many of them, but here are a few favorites.

And here’s a blooper to end it all!

Well that’s September in pictures! Hope you enjoyed them

I Just Feel So Blessed

2011-09-18T00:25:00.001-06:00

Look at these boys that surround me? How could I be any more lucky or blessed???? I thank the Lord each day that he gave me these three boys who make me so incredibly happy EVERY. SINGLE. DAY! Yes I realize how lucky I am, and give them each extra hugs each day to let them know that I do recognize how amazing they are. I sure love them.

Well here’s my monthly picture post.

Guess who started Preschool? Oh my goodness I can’t believe he is old enough for that! He was so adorable on his first day. So confident in himself and ready to start school. I accidentally packed up his CARS backpack in storage, so luckily Josh let him borrow his backpack. Look at this handsome little man!

And my heart melted watching him walk to school with me. What a big boy!

Ok so these are technically Oliver’s 6 month old pictures, I meant to re-do the session (he was quite grumpy for the session), but I never got around to it, and now he’s almost 8 months. Oh well! I got quite a bit of cute ones, but haven’t had time enough to edit more than these two. One of these days I’ll post more. . . . maybe

Play dates with his little girlfriends are fun! Especially now that they all are sitting up pros! So stinkin’ adorable!

My kids love their uncles! And it’s obvious their uncles love them too!

John flew out to New York City for a week for work. I convinced him to actually go visit something, so he went to the Empire State Building, Times Square, and Tiffany’s & Co. And yes he brought me home something from there. Totally surprised me. He promised me it was on the cheap side, but even just the gesture of thinking about me and going in there, made my heart melt. I was just ecstatic when he finally came home after one too many days! I love my man!

Yes for the month of August and September, I have officially just started wearing my glasses full time. Allergy season gets me every year now, and contacts not only irritate my eyes way too much, but the prescription is outdated, so I’m sporting the glasses look for a couple months until it’s time to get my contacts back up to date.

Also I have recently discovered my love for cooking! It’s been slow coming, but I seriously think that pinterest.com has been a surprising answer to my prayers in finding the fun with cooking! Here I am after making a very delicious Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread. Um, yes it was just as delicious as the name sounds. And I was very proud to have made it! Here I go on my journey to becoming a “successful” homemaker!

Because of a pinterest.com photo idea, my friend and I decided to do pictures of our babies, documenting the development stages that are happening now: sitting up, on the tummy, eating toes, rolling over, etc. I rarely photograph this simply with just a white backdrop, but it was actually wonderful to just focus on Oliver (and not so much the surroundings or outfits), and really capture HIM! These are just a couple of my very favorite Oliver expressions/poses. Oh this little man is seriously my world! I love him more than words could ever describe. The way he looks at me, tells me that I am his everything. He brightens every day. I smother him with kisses constantly, snuggle him as tight as I can, and gaze into his perfect eyes frequently. And it is quite evident that he loves EVERY SINGLE BIT OF IT!

These pictures were only taken a week or two ago, and he had 3 teeth popped through. Well now he has 3 more on their way! Crazy! This poor baby has not handled teething very well, but granted it has come way faster for him than what’s probably normal. He will have a full set of 6 teeth here very shortly! But it was funny because the fang teeth came in first on top (before the top middle ones). We thought he’d make a perfect Dracula for Halloween. So he quickly started cutting those middle ones!

This next one was a blooper of us trying to show his teeth. HAHA! Seriously makes me laugh every time I see it!

Caleb and Ruby are the sweetest of friends (you can’t quite tell in this picture since it looks like she is biting him), but they love to run around together and tackle one another. Caleb really loves Ruby.

Well there ya have it! Our family is having a fun busy summer!

Still waiting to hear back about our house we placed an offer. Hopefully we’ll hear back in a couple weeks. Till then we are just keeping busy and enjoying life and the tender mercies that the Lord gives us each and every day.

Living the Good Life

2011-08-24T10:05:00.001-06:00

Like in my post a few posts ago, this year/summer/life lately has been a little crazy (in a very great way!) We feel very blessed.

Here are just a “few” of the things we’ve been doing this past month:

Oliver had his 6 month appointment.

Stats: 50% for height; 2% for weight; 13 lbs 14 oz.

Yep our little bean hasn’t been growing as much these past couple months. So we are loading on the calories now! But he is doing great as far as where he should be developmentally. Sitting up like a pro already and progressing along as fast as he can so he can catch up to the fun kids just older than he is!

This summer has been particularly fun for Caleb. Playing with his uncles all day every day is pure joy for this little man. I love how creative he has been lately. Meet Robin (not Caleb)

One weekend, John, myself, and my mom got a small spell of the flu. No one else got it, and luckily it was quickly over after a miserable 12 hours, but John got some “sick” scars as a result of it:

The kitties were definitely a highlight of this summer. But before we knew it, my dad has already placed the ad on KSL and they were leaving sooner than we all wanted. Luckily he gave me a 5 minute warning before he let the first kitty go home, so I could get this last family picture:

The two white kitties were favorites. Rosey and Dipstick. Oh I will miss those two fluff ball cuties!

I got to take part in a Young Women 13-mile walk to the temple on a very early morning at 5am. And since I wasn’t really part of the organization, I volunteered to take pictures. When I first volunteered, this picture was what I had originally envisioned: (just without the telephone poles and the car it would have been perfect . . . oh well)

One very late night I stayed up with my brother Benson to watch a lighting storm. I had fun trying to take pictures of it. I should have come out 20 minutes earlier when it was REALLY flashing away, but oh well. I got a few good ones at least.

We got lucky enough to go to the Parade of Homes this year twice. The 2nd round, we only hit the Herriman homes, but of course the best and most popular home was UP there:

The other homes were beautiful and I had fun taking pictures for decorating ideas.

Because of the suddenness of the kitties leaving, my parents spontaneously got a puppy on my mom’s birthday. It was lots of fun being a part of that shopping experience! The puppies particularly liked Oliver and his yumminess (or more his spit up).

Meet Ruby. She is a total sweetheart and we can’t wait to have her for many years to come!

And for more EXCITING NEWS . . . We have jumped in and actually made an offer on a house! Yes I realize it was a lot sooner than we were telling people. BUT it felt right and plus with short sale’s it usually takes a couple months (or longer) before closing, and so we were anxious to get that process started so that ‘hopefully’ we can be in a new home before the holidays. But the Lord knows what is best, he led us to this house, and so we are trusting him that everything will work out the way it’s supposed to – whatever that is. I would share pictures, but I’m hesitant to say much about the house until it’s even for sure. But just pray for us that the right thing will happen.

Again, it’s been a way fun month! We have loved it and are kind of sad that school is starting next week (for my brothers). It’s going to be really quiet here during the daytime and I’m a little sad about that. But we’ll figure out some way to keep it all fun still! Hope your summer was fabulous and that you are all doing great! Thanks for stopping by!

My Crazy Cute Caleb

2011-08-07T15:26:00.001-06:00

These pictures were taken several months ago. . . but I totally forgot to post them! They are too crazy cute of my Caleb. This is the “story” of how we got these picts . . .

Earlier that morning I did pictures of my neighbor/friends’ darling girls. And Caleb saw them pose happily in front of my camera. Maybe it was seeing their excitement for pictures or something, but later that afternoon, he came up to me and asked to take his pictures. Um what??? Yes I’m all over that! Plus I had a new backdrop that I was dying to try out on a cute little boy . . . why not my own right? So the pictures that we have below here are literally only SOME of the many many funny, cute, crazy, awesome picts of my little boy Caleb. And they all were taken in less than 15 minutes. And the best part? Caleb was the one to decide all of these faces. They are just too adorable for me and I absolutely LOVED that he let me take these!

(oh and don’t mind the gash on his chin. I photoshopped it out a few times, but wasn’t worth all of the effort. He had gashed it the day before at the park, didn’t even cry about it . . . what can I say? He is ALL BOY!)

And later that day I was lucky enough to get some cute picts of BOTH of my boys together!!!

And I even convinced John to get one of my boys with me. I realized I didn’t have any pictures like that. I love being a mom!

Thank you Caleb for making our lives very exciting and fun! You lighten all of our days and bring lots of happiness into our home! Love ya Bubbers!

Our First Month “On the Farm”!

2011-07-31T00:18:00.001-06:00

I can’t believe it’s been over a month since living here on the farm! It’s been a fun adventure and a growing and fun experience! It’s been a fun summer! I have SOOO many pictures (surprise surprise), and I felt so overwhelmed by wanting to post but having too many that I didn’t know where to start, so this is mostly a picture post (or dump as it may be called). These are just SOME of the things we’ve been doing during this past month (in no particular order):

We have had some fun family home evening nights. This one was particularly memorable!

The Fourth of July was very eventful this year.

Yes for the 4th, we actually chopped off this rooster’s head. Yes it sounds morbid, and frankly it kind of was which is why I’ll spare you the “actual” photos, but let’s just say that because of this rooster, my son (as well as the younger kids) are terrified of the back field. He has chased, pecked, and frightened the children long enough. . . the kids were begging for us to kill the rooster. . . So he spoke his last peace today. Freedom from the tyranny of the Rooster.

Now that the aerial fireworks are legal, this year’s firework show where we were at (just at our house!) was seriously incredible! Free firework show right in our very own neighborhood, and we didn’t even have to buy any of the aerial ones. It was a fun show this year and Oliver’s first time seeing it all! He wasn’t scared even once!

On the farm we get to see lots of fun animals every day.

One particular highlight was being the witnesses of the birth of 4 adorable kittens which we’ve LOVED seeing grow each and every day.

My awesome cousin, Jaylee, spent some time with us which was fun!

We did some outside work projects . . .

And then we would play! Let me just say that the sunset’s this summer have been INCREDIBLE! And these are just a few different nights!

This was a Foam Day event which we went to! It really was a fun family activity going to this free event.

Ok, now I’d like to highlight my two adorable boys and the fun things they are doing lately. First we’ll start with my precious CALEB! Oh how I love this little man . . .

Yes this is his new “bedroom.” I honestly thought the novelty of it would wear off and we’d have to figure something else out, but nope this bedroom is working out just great! He’s our little Harry Potter in his cupboard under the stairs.

All day every day this kid plays outside! That is one thing that I’m so glad about with our new arrangements. Beforehand in the condo, we just would ‘maybe’ get outside for the day. But now that he has full access to a very fun yard, we have barely watched movies this summer and he just gets all of that little boy energy out all of the time! I absolutely LOVE it!

We did do one session of swim lessons. But the hour commute round-trip to get there wasn’t worth doing it more. But Caleb made some really great progress and is floating on his back as well as swimming through the water. He’s my little fish!

We’ve enjoyed some walks as well as enjoying his “uncles.” Even though they quarrel sometimes like brothers, they are the best of buddies too!

Ok, now on to my precious OLIVER who is growing WAY TOO FAST!!!! He is the happiest little squirt. It’s been a little tough though having him in our bedroom at night as we try and train him to sleep through the night. There were some REALLY tough nights, but we are now getting him to go a full 8 hour stretch without eating and he has started to sleep through the full 8 hours, which is wonderful! The key we have found is to be consistent and not give in. When we are consistent at letting him cry it out, even in the middle of the night, he makes more progress faster and all three of us are happier! Oliver is much more stubborn than Caleb (you wouldn’t guess it by that innocent little smile of his . . . ), and he doesn’t like sleep as much as Caleb does, but he is learning and it’s coming along just great!

Oliver is VERY anxious for food! He has actually already cut TWO TEETH! practically at the same time too! He would reach for our food and try to grab at anything to shove into his mouth. I think he realized that the sooner he cut teeth, the sooner he’d get all of this delicious food. Currently his favorites are smoothies, watermelon (and other fruit such as this apple), rice cereal mixed with applesauce, plain water, and he’s even tried ice cream and other sweets that uncles or (dad) has given to him.

(and yes that second picture, Oliver isn’t ‘trying’ to give a different message with those hands . . . haha but I had to post because he seriously does that a lot – even did it in the womb on the ultrasound, and I find it quite funny sometimes)

He is daddy’s little buddy! He loves to have giggle time with daddy.

Also when I got finished taking a shower, I went up to find where John and Oliver went, and the second picture below is what I found! Too cute!

Oliver loves his uncles too! He also loves chins. He will attack your face the first chance he gets. . . and I know. He even gave me a hickie on my chin that I had for several days. Yes a hickie. Didn’t know that was possible with a 6 month old, but it is apparently. He was quite determined to eat my face, and I wasn’t quick enough.

He loves chins. He loves feet. He loves practically anything.

And even though he is happy MOST of the time, he can be a little grump. But a very cute little grump

Oliver and I are going strong still with nursing, of which I am very grateful. Caleb and I only made it barely to 3 months till we completely stopped, and even though I was fine with that at the time, I wanted to have a positive experience this time with it, and it has been truly wonderful! I love my bonding time with him and even though he is tall and still skinny, he is thriving and it’s been a great experience. Oliver loves to hold my thumb like this every time he nurses. It seriously melts my heart.

This little guy is now 6 months old! I need to take his official 6 month of photos (of which I am SUPER excited for!). Don’t be fooled by the color you see in this picture, but I’m pretty sure his eyes are dark blue/green. It’s sort of hard to say, but honestly there isn’t much brown in there if at all. It’s still on the dark grey side though with mix of green or blue depending on how the light hits it. His hair has fallen out drastically since his birth, but it’s still a light brown with tints of red when the sun hits it just right. I can’t believe it’s been 6 months since I gave birth to this little miracle.

Well that’s been our month so far (at least of the pictures I’ve gone through). It’s been lots of fun and we look forward to more fun months ahead!

Beautiful Sunsets are Tender Mercies

2011-07-06T21:56:00.001-06:00

One thing I am LOVING while being in our “transitional” home, is the amazing and ultra incredible sunsets we get to see very clearly each night. It makes me realize how blessed we are and how much the Lord is looking out for us by giving us that tender little mercy.

Believe it or not, this picture was taken with John’s I-phone. Ok, it’s not that I don’t love my Canon 5D Mark ii with 21 megapixels . . . but having a great phone camera for moments like these is just awesome! And this is currently my favorite picture

This night last week, was wonderful as just my little family of 4 spent time together out on the trampoline basking in this amazing sunset, and basking in the love that we have for one another no matter where we live!

Transition

2011-07-03T00:09:00.001-06:00

Random new things in our life with our new circumstances:

*I have more than two willing hands which can hold Oliver throughout the day. Which is good because he wants to be held 24/7 if he’s not sleeping.

*Both of my boys are adjusting in their own ways. Caleb was horrible for primary the first week which is so not like him. Luckily the second week was better. Oliver just wants to be held all of the time

*The structure in my life just went out the window now that I’m in different living circumstances. It’s not really a good OR bad thing. Just different and I’ve just got to find my rhythm with it all.

*Caleb LOVES being outside, yet is scared of “the farm.” Mostly the rooster and the goats. Oh yes and the bugs. Haha! We’ll make a farm boy out of him yet by the time this is all over with!

*We are FINALLY out of our condo officially. That was something I never want to go through again, yet probably will. Packing never seemed to end or the cleaning. But we did it.

*Now we are buried down in the basement with the boxes that we didn’t really pack, but just threw together because we had no idea what to do with it. It’s amazing how many odds and ends we hold on to even though there isn’t a real place for need for it necessarily.

*Oliver is the ONLY nursing baby in the new ward. I have the nursing lounge all to myself. I already miss my Mother’s Lounge buddies that I had in my former ward.

*Oh yes and the Sacrament Meetings are SUPER quiet! Coming from a ward with tons of babies and toddlers, I wasn’t ready for the sound of quiet during church. Especially when the quiet was all of the sudden filled with the noises of my OWN two children and me trying to hush them up so I don’t have everyone staring at me.

*We went from a ward that is CONSTANTLY changing with move-in’s and move-out’s, to a ward where almost everybody knows everyone. But both wards are filled with wonderful friendly people!

*Caleb still has his own bedroom. It’s just much smaller now . . . it’s called, “The bedroom that is under the staircase.” Literally. Yes we have a little “Harry Potter” like bedroom just for him!

*Caleb has playmates with him almost all of the time.

*John’s commute to his new job is much closer.

*It’s wonderful having so many people around to talk to throughout the day.

And . . . that’s about all I can think of right now as far as our “transition” is going. Life is a fun adventure and we are looking forward to some fun times this summer!

Condo for Rent–Will be gone soon!

2011-06-11T10:57:00.001-06:00

Here is the link to our official ad: Click HERE

The other day, I had my fabulously talented friend (oh yeah and who is an amazing architectural photographer!), Michaelene (www.michaeleneokeefe.com), come over and help me take some awesome picture of our condo to help it rent faster (and to use when we go to sell it one of these days). Thank you Michaelene SOOO MUCH! Honesty the only thing that wasn’t MINE, was the awesome Master bed duvet cover and pillows and a few plants placed here and there (those were my awesome Mom’s), but honestly this all really is my condo! I had a guy call and ask if they were generic pictures for these condos or if it really was our place! Haha! Of course my condo has never looked THAT good and de-cluttered in all of it’s life (you honestly should have seen everything PILED in the other rooms), but these pictures made me realize what a cute and beautiful condo we really have! And I realized how important great photography is when showcasing your house! Any one trying to sell their place, give Michaelene a call if you want fantastic pictures to really help your place look it’s VERY best!

Well we already have two prospective renters coming today to look at it, but I figured I would put this blog post up real quick and give any family/friends (or friends that you know) who are willing to pay the rent, a chance to rent it from us if you’d like. We will be kind of choosy with our renters, so it’ll take us a couple days to make a final decision. Call us TODAY or tomorrow if you want to drop by and see it. On Monday we may or may not have already chosen someone.

If for no other reason, I’m so glad I have these pictures to document and remind me of my cute home that we lived in for the past 3 1/2 years. I honestly will REALLY miss it. It has been the perfect place for us to be at, and I love it so much. Our lives have changed a lot since we first moved in, and I love all of the memories created in this home.

Change is a Coming Faster than I thought . . .

2011-06-08T14:54:00.001-06:00

It seems a little surreal to be saying this but . . . we are moving. Like this month. Actually, we are little by little ALREADY moving. It is seriously crazy.

So for those of you who read my blog, might have read the whole post I did a couple posts down about being grateful for the now and not being too anxious for things where the timing isn’t right yet.

Well that experience helped change my attitude. That next week was wonderful! Full of opportunities to reach out and serve those who live around me. I realized that I would bloom where I was planted and enjoy that journey.

Well you know the saying that once you finally start accepting where you are at (or in callings when you fully accept them) and reaching out and truly enjoying the experience, that SOMETIMES that is when the Lord uproots you and makes change happen? Well this past week kind of turned out that way.

What began as a simple budgeting meeting, turned into listening to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace CD’s so we could achieve our long term goal of getting into a house. Well for those of you who haven’t listened to his CD’s – DO!!! Seriously he has got some incredible stuff there, plus he is hilarious and reminds me of Brian Regan talking about finances. It makes it fun. Any ways. . . we started figuring out all of our options and seeing which ones made the most sense. My ideal situation would be to sell our condo for a little more than we owe on it and then buy a house, simple and easy like that. But since that is an impossible scenario right now, we decided on the best alternative option we have.

Any ways, long story short, we will be renting out our condo here (since it’s impossible to sell it at the moment), living in my parents’ 1 room basement for 6-9 months while we Save! Save! Save! and then HOPEFULLY we will find the perfect house that feels right and it all works out for us to be able to buy it and move in next spring. Things happened way more quickly than I am emotionally ready for, but we are just going with the punches and doing the best we can to follow the spirit and do what feels right.

I am going to miss my ward and especially my neighbors SO MUCH! I didn’t quite take enough opportunities to really hang out with them as much as I wanted to, and now it is becoming more clear to me how awesome they all are! I just wish I could pack them in our bags and take them with us to our new neighborhood (wherever that is)! They have all been FANTASTIC neighbors and friends! So please don’t lose contact with us just because we are moving. We aren’t going THAT far away

What are my thoughts about this change? Well when I introduced the idea (after my brother gave me the idea), I really didn’t think it would work out, but John (surprisingly) was the most optimistic about it and continues to be. My parents were very open and willing, which we appreciate, my brothers are (mostly) excited for us to come live with them. I am still very hesitant about it all, and it has been a humbling experience for me. This definitely wasn’t one of those experiences I ever thought I would have while married. But the Lord has opened the door for it to happen, and we continue to trust his guidance day by day.

Well I just thought I’d let you all know so that it’s not a shocker once we just all of the sudden are gone. Things are happening way faster than we thought, so it may only be another week or so. At this point, I am not going to turn down any offers to help. The past couple days have been crazy trying to get anything done with Caleb making messes everywhere, and Oliver just wanting me to hold him constantly (he has been a little extra fussy lately, not sure why), and John working more than usual lately (he is finishing up his job this week and starting a new one next week). I have a really hard time asking for help, and don’t want to inconvenience anyone though. Any ways, I’m sure one way or another we’ll get by! Thanks to those of you who have helped just in the past couple days! (what can I say, I have buff awesome brothers )

Well just thought I’d update you all since this is a very new and sudden change. We’ll keep you updated on how this new adventure goes!

“If You’re a Baby, then Babies Sleep”

2011-05-22T14:27:00.001-06:00

Today after Sacrament Meeting, Caleb was being grumpy and wouldn’t go to Primary. John and I have calling responsibilities that keep us busy during the second hour, so we didn’t have the time to really devote to putting Caleb in Primary without a struggle. So he just followed us around. But once in a while we’d say things to try to convince him to go to Primary. Here was one of the conversations:

Me: “Caleb you’re a big boy. You need to go to Primary.”

C: “No I’m a baby.”

Me: “Ok if you’re a baby, then babies sleep. Go to sleep. Lay down and go to sleep.”

And in order to convince me he was a baby, he did this, right on the ground next to the Bishop’s office:

And because I’m the designated ward photographer, and so happened to have the camera in my hand, I couldn’t resist a picture. What a funny little stinker (or baby as he was convinced he was).

Be Grateful for the Now

2011-05-22T13:58:00.001-06:00

I have many times heard that as members of the church we should be missionaries. Not just to those who don’t know the gospel, but to everyone around us. I’ve heard many times too that one way we can do that is through social media (Facebook, blogs, etc.) I’ve always wanted to be better at that especially since here where I live there aren’t as many obvious missionary opportunities. But I kept telling myself that someday I’ll be better at using my blog and sharing my testimony and thoughts. Well last night I had a very enlightening conversation with my husband that inspired and helped ME, so I thought I would share those thoughts to any who would want to have a sort of “spiritual thought of the day.” And just a warning, these thoughts will often show MY weaknesses and shortcomings, and my journey to be a better person, and I’m just going to have to be OK with sharing that with you all. I know the ones who love me most will still love me despite it all

(photo by www.michaeleneokeefe.com)

OK, well for those of you who really know me, I have REALLY wanted a house for quite some time. Even though the condo we have now is wonderful and beautiful, after three and a half years of living here plus 2 children, have made me want a change of scenery and more room to grow with living space. Yes I want a nicer, bigger, new place. As completely selfish as that sounds, hey, I am only human As humans, we are all prone to selfishness, jealousy, coveting, and envying those thing which we don’t have.

Welllll . . . circumstances in our life have made it so that my dream of an actual house may not be in the too distant future. Maybe. So where do I catch myself at from time to time? Well either driving through nice neighborhoods (neighborhoods that are far above what we could ever spend on a house), or I find myself on Utah Real Estate dot com (I’m not leaving a link purposely so it’s not obviously tempting for you all ) searching for the latest and greatest deals on short sales, etc. I keep trying to convince myself that I’m just “Dreaming” and that there’ no harm in looking for what we’d want in the future, even though I am aware that it’s not quite the time yet to be looking for a house.

So yesterday while doing errands, John and I started to drive through a nice neighborhood and we’d point out to each other all of the nice houses that caught our eyes. I found it actually a fun activity to do together. We were dreaming together. We started to start talking about prices, areas we liked, must-haves in our future home, etc. Then last night once we got home, I saw a great deal that I just had to share with John and he seemed open to seeing it.

Secretly on the inside I started to get my hopes up. Maybe it would be ok to start buying? We could make it work right? Even though deep down I knew that our original plan to wait and save was the smartest decision to make financially. But John seemed interested in it too. We even started looking at ALL of the homes in the area we liked for sale. Some of which were almost 2 million dollar homes! Even though we ooh-ed and ahhh-ed over the grandeur, we were also baffled at how someone would spend so much money. Of course we would never spend THAT kind of money, but after seeing those houses, the houses that originally were higher in price than we want to look for, that price didn’t seem so bad and seemed actually pretty great.

Ok, so here is where the conversation came in. It came during a random time. Brushing our teeth before bed, and yes at 1 o’clock in the morning. You remember how I secretly got my hopes up? Well I started to beat around the bush with the questions to see if John was convinced that we should jump on a good deal sooner rather than later.

And maybe he was tempted for a half a second, but being the great man that he is, he quickly saw a deeper meaning and parallel to what was happening that I would love to share with you all.

He said something to the effect (with my own interpretation as well to his meaning) that we shouldn’t be coveting that which we don’t have. He said that the more time we spend wanting over something that we don’t have, and coveting and envying the things that we don’t need yet, it quickly becomes a slippery slope that can effect bigger parts in our life. He all of the sudden compared it to marriage. How if we become used to the practice of not being satisfied with what we have already or wanting something else that is better, it may possibly effect our marriages. Maybe our spouse will seem not as great as so and so or it might just be that we won’t be completely satisfied or grateful for our marriages.

Well then I chimed in and said, “Well John obviously one day we are going to want to buy a house. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that.” And then he said, “Well then we wait until the time is right and we start COURTING a new house.” Haha! yes I laughed then, because it was so funny and cute the parallelism he was making. But he is so right. We need to be fully grateful for our life situation (marriage, home, family, church, job, everything), but then there will come a time with only a few of those things (job, house, bigger family) we should start pursuing that goal. But we should never covet that which we don’t have or that which the timing is not right for yet.

Even in small things in life, we should be in the practice of having patience and gratitude for the things we have. With so many families and faith crumbling around us in this world, who knows? Maybe the problem started with the simple yet powerful sin of envying and coveting for the things we don’t have, and thus becoming unsatisfied even though what we do have is far more wonderful than we realize? I have no idea and no personal experience with that, but John’s profound thoughts to be patient as I found myself coveting for something I thought I needed, really stuck with me.

I am so grateful for my husband. He of anyone knows the meaning of patience and waiting for the right time and decision. He waited TEN YEARS for me. There were many great girls around him, but for some reason he listened to the Lord and waited for me patiently (to grow up), because he knew the meaning of waiting for the right time and season, and I am so grateful for his example.

I’m sure that one day (hopefully sooner rather than later), we will start ‘courting’ a house, but until then I want to fully enjoy and be grateful for what I have. I really have wonderful people who live all around us, and I want to create lasting friendships and memories HERE and NOW. I know that with the Lord’s help we can stay focused on what is most important which is building the kingdom of God, no matter our life circumstances.

So even though I am definitely NOT perfect in this regard (well obviously considering that my attitude was selfish last night with house-wanting), I am striving to follow after one of my greatest friends’ examples (John), and to find more joy in whatever circumstance I am in, because I am blessed more than I ever thought possible. I have a wonderful beautiful family whom I will work hard to strengthen and uplift. And I thank the Lord daily that I have each one of them.

Well those are my thoughts. Thanks for letting me share them with you! Have a wonderful Sabbath day!

All of my Brothers

2011-05-14T13:02:00.001-06:00

This little idea flashed in my mind real quick as my parents just about left the airport. I remembered a picture that I had taken of my brothers on the way TO the MTC, and decided to quickly take a picture on the way home from the mission.

Here’s the picture of the boys right before Spencer’s mission:

And here’s the one on the way home 2 years later:

I absolutely love it! I love my brothers a lot and am so happy to see them all together again!

Returned with Honor

2011-05-13T23:52:00.001-06:00

Today has been a special day. Elder Spencer Craft has returned home after a faithful mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is days like today that help us all to know to a better degree of what our reunions will be like up in heaven with those we love the most.

There’s just nothing quite like the reunion of a son and a mother. These pictures bring tears to my eyes and joy to my heart. I can’t even imagine what the emotions will be like of sending my two precious sons on missions for two years, or how amazing it will be to finally reunited after that time. But it must be a glorious feeling:

These are just a few of my very favorites from today. We are just so proud of Spencer for the amazing man that he has become and what he has done for the Lord. And we are so grateful to have him reunited with our family once again. Today for the first time in a while, we all felt complete.

Mothers

2011-05-08T23:04:00.001-06:00

My first real testimony of mothers and the power they have in our life began with my own mother:

She taught me the most important things in life, taught me the gospel, instilled confidence in me (even if I went through some awkward stages), taught me how to work, to serve, and also to love those around me. I love that even though I am grown now, I still am learning from her. From an adult’s point of view it is wonderful to see the how much my mom has sacrificed to raise my siblings and I. From her example, I have learned what it means to be Christ-like. I will forever be indebted to her for the loving mother she was to me through my growing up years, and the mother she still is constantly for me.

My next testimony of motherhood came when I married my wonderful husband, whose angel of a mother taught him the same things and always loved and supported him through life. I’m so glad that my husband came from a strong mother whose unconditional love and patience with him through the crazy childhood years, made him into the amazing man that he is today. I will always be grateful for the mother that she was and is still to him.

The strongest testimony builder of motherhood that I have received has been through my experiences so far with my two sweet boys whom I love more than ever. I learn through personal experience the patience, long-suffering, hard work, and unconditional love that it takes to be a good mom. Because I am learning and realizing this, I am even MORE grateful for the wonderful mothers that I have in my life to learn and observe how to be a great mother someday.

I indeed do have a testimony that motherhood IS ordained of God and that Heavenly Father placed mothers here on this earth with a purpose to nurture, serve, and love His children. I am so grateful to be a part of that great work!

And I am so grateful for these three boys who I wouldn’t be a mother without them:

Their love and patience with me has enabled me to be the mother that I am today, and also has encouraged me to continually try harder to be better. I love my wonderful husband who made today so extra special. He is indeed the perfect man for me and I couldn’t ask for anyone better!

And these little boys have my heart completely. They teach me more each day than I ever could have from a textbook. Except that my final exam is every day as I strive to be a teacher to them and teach them everything that my mom taught me, and what John’s mom taught him to become the people that we are today. I feel very humbled that the Lord would entrust these very special spirits to me.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of the wonderful women in our lives! Thank you for your wonderful examples and the love you have given to us as well as our precious children. May the Lord bless you.

Oliver: 3 Months

2011-05-05T00:19:00.001-06:00

Oh my heavens. Just looking at these pictures melts my heart. Because this little buddy has my heart completely. I love him more than tongue can tell. And how could I not when he looks at me like I am an angel? Seriously. He really is a wonderful baby. And he just hit 3 MONTHS!!! I really don’t know where the time went. I have been trying real hard to cherish each moment. To give more cuddles. To gaze into his precious eyes more than I gaze into the computer. To tell him over and over and over again how cute he is and how loved he is.

But still the time slips away . . .

Oliver is such a joy to have in our family.

Here are a few things about him lately:

He still loves me the best. And has attachment issues. He is never fully content in other people’s arms. But he is getting better which is good.

He still hates the car. Will scream and scream. But again, he is getting better.

He is starting to roll over! From stomach to back. He just did it for the first time this morning.

I think he is starting to teeth. Not quite sure. . . he slobbers and chews his fist a LOT!

Everyone says they think he’ll have blue eyes. I’m not so certain (I wish though!). I personally am going to bet on green.

He is starting to put up with his bouncy chair, swing, and kind of enjoys his play mat (when we are looking at him).

He loves his brother. I can already tell. He loves it when Caleb comes over to talk to him. He just seems as content as can be!

He is still going strong with the nursing!!! Yay! This is a huge milestone for me since by this age with Caleb, I had already stopped. Sad day when that happened. So I am grateful and glad that we’re going good!

He has slept through the night a couple of times. But mostly gets up once a night. I can totally do that. Plus he sleeps amazing in the morning, so if I’m lucky I can lay down for a morning nap with him!

He is a night owl usually. Actually I am pretty surprised he hasn’t woken up yet to keep me company this late at night.

He loves to talk.

He loves diaper changing time. Has never peed on me except in the beginning couple of weeks.

He loves baths (always has).

Most people say he looks more like me, and Caleb looks more like John. Whether that’s true or not, that makes me happy.

I am so grateful to the Lord that I have the sweethearts that I have. I’m so grateful and amazed at how my heart keeps expanding and growing in more and more love for this little guy. I am truly blessed.

Oliver has my heart

2011-05-05T00:05:00.001-06:00

Oh where have I been lately? Mostly with this cutie:

I want to take this chance to write a little bit about Oliver. Man, this kid has got my HEART! (as it should be). There is just something about the love that you have for your own. . . to other people, your kids are cute, but not anything out of the norm as far as kids go. Because your kids aren’t THEIR kids. I’ve begun to realize what it is. Yes it has something to do with the fact that I watch over them night and day, do everything for them, and have plenty of time to discover their personalities. But also it has a lot to do with the way that THEY love ME!

How could my heart not MELT every time Oliver looks at me as though I am a complete angel from heaven? Or the way he cries when I leave the room because he just wants to be around me? Or when he is crying in someone else’s arms (it does make me feel bad), but when he gets handed to me, he INSTANTLY stops crying because he knows that he is with mommy. How could my heart not melt??? I love this kid more than anything. Yes it is frustrating when he cries and cries when I TRY to make dinner at night while juggling him in my arms. Or when he is wide awake for a middle of the night feeding, and won’t go back to sleep. Or when he is supposed to be taking a nap, and decides to wake up crying right when I am in the middle of getting something done (like this blog post – yes he is crying, we’ll see when I can get back to this). Or when he cries for a reason that I just can’t figure out.

BUT my Oliver is wonderful in so many more ways that completely out-weigh the hard times. He gives the sweetest, most sincere smiles. He is starting to laugh!!!! (like as a response to something I do, which melts my heart even more!). He gives the best snuggles.

He also has a large variety of expressions. Which we’ve had fun trying to capture:

Oh man, I LOVE this kid! 2 months with him has been pure joy!

Fresh From Heaven: Baby Alvin

2011-05-04T17:12:00.001-06:00

These are literally a FEW of my very favorites that we got at the hospital with my newest nephew, Alvin. His sisters were THRILLED to get to meet him!

2nd oldest sister didn’t quite know what to think of him at first, but he quickly won over her heart too! Thank you to my sister and her family for allowing me to be there literally hours after Alvin arrived, and to capture this special time with their family all together. Later that night, he ended up in the NICU with some respiratory issues where his big sisters couldn’t come to see him, so we were grateful they had this special little time to meet him.

Brothers: (10 days & 3 weeks old)

2011-04-05T14:34:00.001-06:00

It has been lots of fun for me to see how Caleb is as a big brother. Besides the fact that we constantly reminding him how strong he really is when he is around Oliver, or that Oliver just ‘might’ have a personal bubble when Caleb is literally nose to nose with him, Caleb really is a great big brother! He will randomly just say to me, “I love Oliver.” He always includes Oliver in his prayers, and he loves to try and make him smile. I’m sure Oliver will soon realize how much he really does love his brother, even if he does get mauled at times!

I love these two boys and can’t wait to see them grow up together and become best of buddies!

Oliver & Mommy: 8 Days Old (Part 2)

2011-04-04T00:00:00.001-06:00

Here is Part 2 (of like 7 parts) of Oliver’s newborn pictures. This day might have been the hardest. Just because it’s slightly hard to direct the pictures as well as be in them. But thanks to John’s patience and long-suffering with my perfection, he pulled it off and did a great job getting pictures of Oliver and I. And I love having these of my Oliver and I. He and I are little buddies and I adore him.

He wouldn’t really sleep once we were finished with the pictures above. But I still love the pictures below:

Something started to happen . . . .

HAHA! We had a good laugh . . . and a nice wet puddle on the ground!

I love being a mommy!

Oliver’s Newborn pictures: 6 Days Old, Details

2011-04-03T21:28:00.001-06:00

Can you believe that Oliver is 2 months old???? I can’t. I feel like the past 2 month have FLOWN by! And now all I have are these newborn pictures of him to remind myself how TINY he used to be! Oh he is so adorable now, but there’s something about those first couple weeks when they are SO fresh from heaven, that I’m so glad we got these.

Believe me when I say it was HARD getting my own newborn pictures. Beforehand I suspected it would be hard (mostly because of the fact that I had just had a baby), but when it actually got down to doing these, I almost threw in the towel and just had someone else do it. But luckily I split up all of the HUNDREDS of ideas I wanted to do into 6-7 different days. So here’s the first session I ever did. Also the very easiest. After this session, I thought it’d be super easy to do the rest, because Oliver was very obedient. I was wrong, but oh well! I still love these shots (as well as the others), and so you get to see almost all of my very favorites as I get around to editing and posting them here. Enjoy!

This session was my "DETAILS” session. I just had to capture all of Oliver’s details.

Oliver not only has the cutest hair and ear, but he is hairy! I love the long fuzzy hair that is shown on his shoulder (and it was on the rest of his body too). At two months he has already lost most of it. Oh I love the new feel!

One of my ABSOLUTE favorites! I love my smiley guy!

Oh yeah and if you missed my post about this outtake . . . well let’s just say this makes me smile every time

I’m just slightly obsessed with the amount and color of Oliver’s hair. I was very concerned about it while I was pregnant, and could not have been more happy when he came with as much as he did. He came out with more hair and darker hair than Caleb. I just had to capture all of the the details of his gorgeous hair.

Two Months and Eleven Pounds

2011-03-28T23:43:00.000-06:00

Some little person had his 2 month checkup today. He is such a big boy now! Seriously, where did 2 months go??? I also can’t believe it’s been 2 months of little sleep. But this little guy is TOTALLY worth it!

Here are the stats:

Length: 22 3/4 inches; 75th percentile

Weight: 11 lbs 8 oz. 75th percentile (so a very proportionate baby!)

Head Circumference: 41cm; 90th percentile

(oops! Yep he has a big head for his large smart brain – says the doctor!)

Big brother Caleb came to take real good care of his little brother while he got his shots.

The thing I am most proud of in this next picture is the baby chub. Yep my home-grown milk is what provided the necessary nutrition to get those chubs. I had the hardest time nursing Caleb 3 years ago and he didn’t gain much extra fat until I stopped nursing, so with Oliver this time, I am very proud of myself for making that cute thing:

Oliver has been sleeping a ton since after the appointment. He isn’t handling the pain as well as Caleb did. With Caleb I never had to give Tylenol after appointments. But it was necessary with Oliver since he was crying out in serious pain tonight. Poor guy. Guess it goes to show you that every baby is so different.

Katie Marie’s Emergency

2011-03-27T02:28:00.001-06:00

Today was a very scary day. It started off by getting woken up by my mom who had gotten a phone call from my sister. My little niece, Katie Marie, had been climbing up on their armoire dresser (approx. 200 lbs), and it came crashing down on top of her. She was bleeding from her ears, nose, and vomiting blood. All NOT good signs at all! She had to be life flighted to Primary Children’s Hospital where they discovered two hairline fractures on her skull just behind her ears. Thankfully nothing else was broken or injured, yet these two fractures are still very scary. Also another really scary thing (coming from a mom’s standpoint here), is that my sister who is literally 9 months pregnant was at home alone with just her two little girls when it happened, and amazingly was able to move that huge dresser off of her child. There must have definitely been some guardian angels helping her (and a major rush of adrenaline). I’m just SOOO glad that both of them are doing ok and stabilized now. You can read more about the story HERE, but they could definitely use some prayers and fasting for those able and willing.

We were able to go and visit her in the hospital tonight. It was so sad to see this girl who is usually bouncing with happiness and excitement for life, so incredibly sad and hurting from the trauma from the day. We hope she will recover soon and be able to come home shortly as well. We love her and keep praying for her. We are just so glad that all things considered it wasn’t WORSE than it already was. So many “what if?” scenarios are hard to keep suppressed, but we are glad for the tender mercies that the Lord DID give to her and her family, even though going through this trial is still hard.

Very Green

2011-03-17T16:47:00.000-06:00

For my Project 365, I wanted to get a picture with all of us in green. It was tricky when there’s no person to take the picture for you. Gotta love self timers . . . I got two I really love, but I want to share with you the fun blooper ones too. Hope some make you laugh!

Needed a subject to do my test shot. He was more than willing.

Needed a stable “center point” for focus. This just depicts perfectly how my husband felt about doing a “photo-shoot”

And then we got a “semi” successful one of the 4 of us. I kinda like it

Hope you had a nice green, fun, St. Patrick's Day!

Just an idea. . . looking for feedback

2011-03-16T17:20:00.001-06:00

Hi all my wonderful friends and family! Or whoever follows this blog anymore!

I have had this idea for quite some time, but every time I think about doing it, I shut it down quickly thinking that no one would like to do it, or wouldn’t get much out of it. But recently I’ve had a couple people ‘mention’ it and so I’m putting it more out there to see if ya’ll would be interested!

Here it goes:

If I put together an evening of Learning to improve the pictures you take of your own kids, would you come? Would you WANT to come? What aspects of taking better pictures of your kids would you like to learn?

This would be a non-professional photography type class, it would be free, and would just help you improve the pictures that you do take with your own current camera (SLR or Point and Shoot cameras, or whatever you have!). Since a lot of you have various cameras, I’m not going to cover much how to ‘use’ your own camera (that would require a completely different kind of class), but mostly will be what goes into creating memorable pictures that tell your story in the best way possible.

A lot of you already take great day-to-day pictures, so even though I can’t guarantee that you’ll learn anything new, I have worked together some fun tips that I’ve used professionally as well as for personal use. I feel like I really like to do this as my way to give back to the community of my family/friends who have been so awesome and supportive of my photography over the past 3 years, if there’s interest at all.

Any ways, I’m up for feedback. I just want to know if it’d be worth my time/energy that I’d put into it, based on who would come. I’m thinking mid-late April? Just before all of the beautiful weather pops in and you’ll want to take gorgeous pictures of your fun summer!

Ok who’s in? By raise of hands??? Or comments

Comment or email me: angelaliddle (at) gmail (dot) com.

His Favorite

2011-03-13T16:30:00.000-06:00

This is his favorite position and his favorite person. Period.

I’m sure one day that’ll change, but till then, I’m soaking it up

Oh and we finally went to church “together” for the first time today. Look at my handsome, happy little boys.

Day 12: Low Battery

2011-03-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Our cell phone seems to have a really hard time keeping a charge lately. Like it will be low by the middle of the day! Or after a full night of supposedly “charging” it’s only at like 75%? Pathetic, I know. Well I realized that I am having a hard time keeping my charge during the day. Might have something to do with being up multiple times during the dark early morning . . . huh. . . might be the issue. Yes I am not on the bed charger long enough at night to come up fully charged in the morning. Oh well. I just get sleep where I can find it these days. Like this morning when John was gone at the blood drive, he came home to find us at noon, all sleeping like this:

Actually I felt very lucky that BOTH of my boys were willing to sleep at the same time! I think Caleb was “reading” through my chapter books, got bored of waiting for mommy to finally wake up, so he took a snoozer too. Yay for SOME sleep!

P.S. And I don’t care WHAT that battery charger thing says, the health of myself at 34% is not GOOD. But I guess I’ll take it

Oliver’s Girlfriends

2011-03-11T14:02:00.000-07:00

Oliver has had two girlfriends from even before he was born. . . he just never knew it till now. And last week he was able to meet both of them for the first time! Oliver is one stud muffin with all of these girlfriends. . . And both of them as cute as pie!

The first little sweetie is my friend, Michaelene’s little princess. She can be found HERE. She was born 8 weeks before Oliver, but wow the two of them look about the same age and size! I knew my Oliver would catch up to these girls fast!

Michaelene and I are both photographers, so we couldn’t resist taking multiple pictures of these two buddies.

But after one too many clicks of the camera, these two were DONE!

“Please! No more pictures, Mommy!” They cried. Haha! But of course we even had to get a picture of THAT!

Jane and Oliver finally got meet for the first time too. Meet Jane HERE. Jane has been sick most of this winter up until now (darn winter), so us moms were excited when she was finally better so these two munchkins could meet in person. We fully expected them to start screaming and crying during pictures too. But surprisingly they didn’t.

Jane DID try to eat Oliver though. She must think he’s just as cute as I do. Sometimes I think he is so cute and scrumptious, I could eat him too

They just might like each other though . . .

I seriously can’t believe how much they both have grown! If you compare their newborn pictures to now, it seriously is incredible in just a few short months! Life just goes by way too fast. And nothing grows faster than babies.

Motivation

2011-03-02T11:40:00.001-07:00

If your room looked like this, wouldn’t it motivate YOU to go poop in the potty????

Well it sure doesn’t work yet for our 3 1/2 year old . . .

After trying every bribery under the sun, as well as the punishment route for “accidents,” we’ve taken drastic measures for one week to see if even this will work: No toys, no clothes, until he has a success. We started this Friday night, with a success FINALLY on Sunday night. Only to have another 2 “accidents” Monday. So we took the toys and clothes away AGAIN. I say “accident” because that involves him purposely changing from his underwear to pull-up on his very own in order to ‘do his business’. And this kid even knows how to stay dry throughout the entire night. Yep this kid knows what he is doing and refuses to comply to the last “little” part of potty training. . . .

I’m ready to give up and just let this kid choose to be 4 by the time he does it. But we’ll give it one more try . . . just hope I can survive the day with a toddler with absolutely no toys. Sadly enough, he seems to be enjoying it . . .

365 Days Picture Challenge is ON!

2011-03-01T18:42:00.001-07:00

Have you heard of this challenge before? Well I have seen several photographers do this and it is SO COOL! But of course you DO NOT have to be a photographer at all in order to do this, you just have to have the desire to document YOUR life with your camera each day to tell your story. Any ways, I tried it at the beginning of last year and failed pretty quick, and I think it had a lot to do with the depression I was feeling at the time, but something about having a new chapter start in my life, it has made me so much more determined to really do it this time! I will still be keeping this as my family blog where I still will share large posts with lots of pictures, but my other blog: http://angelaramblings.blogspot.com will become my official 365 picture day blog that will ALSO have a lot of personal stuff on there and will be updated more frequently, but will less pictures, since I’m trying to stick to one picture that will depict my day in one way or another.

Wish me luck that I can keep up two blogs! The other one is just more public, so I like to keep this one going strong too with stuff that I don’t necessarily want the whole world to know, ya know? Any ways, just thought I’d let you all know in case you wanted to either join in the challenge and do your own 365 day blog, or if you just want to check my other one. (yes I know I feel like I have tons of blogs to have you keep up with, thanks to those of you who actually do keep up with them!).

Well let the challenge begin! Comment with your email if you’d like more info on the challenge and if you have a blog of your own that I could keep up with!

Info about the picture above: Well a bath was VERY necessary for Oliver after we attempted to do take this adorable picture:

He is over 4 weeks now and I’m sad that he will quickly not be willing to sleep for newborn pictures anymore. I have waited so long to take these pictures, but the time-frame escapes so quickly that I am trying to make the most of it. Luckily he was semi-cooperative for 10 or so minutes. Until the pee and poop that was everywhere was just too disgusting and too much. So then we took a bath.

Happy and clean baby again

Oliver’s Birth Story

2011-02-28T01:21:00.001-07:00

I am finally getting around to sharing this story. It really was a highlight day of my life. Not only because we welcomed one of our very precious children into the world, but also because I had an experience that I never thought I would have. I learned so much about myself and hurdled something that I thought wouldn’t be possible.

(WARNING! LONG LONG POST! Sorry!)

Making the decision to go naturally un-medicated:

This pregnancy was far different than my pregnancy with Caleb. Even before I was pregnant, I had been dealing with a rollercoaster of emotions more than I had ever in my lifetime. For once in my life (that I personally know of), I became stubborn. I became opinionated. I wanted to make decisions all on my own. And for those of you who knew me as a teenager/child this wasn’t ‘normal’ for me. Maybe it had something to do with the heartbreak of the miscarriage before this pregnancy or just me finally catching up to all of the change that had happened so suddenly in my life (college, marriage, baby, photography, etc. all in less than 2 years), but I really went through some self-discovery for the past couple years. This pregnancy was much tougher than it was with Caleb as well. So I felt as though the delivery should be different as well.

I had considered natural birth from a distance and silently. Several of my close friends/family have gone through natural birth (no medication or epidural), and as I looked up to that, I knew that this decision had to come on my own. I silently pondered over that decision for months without committing one way or the other because I knew the decision had to be MINE for it to be the experience I wanted it to be. Up until about 8 months I really knew very little of how I wanted my birth to be this time. Except I had made the decision to have a birth photographer early on, as I knew I would be photographing my friends’ births and knew that after taking those pictures, I would want those same kinds of pictures of my own birth (you can see the birth I photographed of my friend HERE) . As the time kept ticking, I knew I needed to make some decisions, and I realized that I had always wanted to go naturally. Why you might ask? Well for every woman who these days decides to go naturally, that reason tends to be different and personal. Let’s just say (as crazy as it sounds), that I felt like I had gone through so much already emotionally and had enough trials during this whole experience, that to end it all of the sudden with an easy breeze labor (like it was with Caleb), just didn’t seem to be consistent with the journey I had gone on to get this little guy here. I wanted to be truly connected to the end with the pain that it took to get our Oliver here. I wanted to be connected more fully with the support my husband has given me throughout this whole long journey, and I wanted to be fully aware of baby Oliver’s journey into the world as he and I both work together to accomplish that. Yes that is the only way I know of how to describe the motivation that drove my decision. It was a very personal decision that I made, and I definitely didn’t know if I would be able to go through with it since I didn’t take any birthing classes or anything. Luckily I made the decision just in time to have a doula (birthing coach) to help both myself and my husband have the courage and confidence we needed to go through with it.

Ok here starts the actual story of the labor day:

On Thursday, I knew I would have my doctor’s appointment where he would strip my membranes. This is a natural way of inducing someone only if their body is ready. They say it has a 50/50 chance of working (definitely does not work on everyone), and can take up to 48 hours to know if you are going into labor because of it. Well because of Caleb’s birth story, and because I’m pretty sure that’s what set me into labor with him, I was pretty confident that Thursday would be the day. The only difference between what I did for Caleb than I did for Oliver, was I took some herbs with Caleb’s pregnancy that help you actually dilate (black cohosh), something that I didn’t realize what it did till this time around when my Dr. recommended I NOT take it. So I was a good girl . . . and hoped that my body would still naturally get ready like on the same time-table as Caleb.

Thursday morning I was totally nervous. There’s something to say about not knowing when you’ll go into labor vs. knowing that is likely that this will be the day! John took off work and came to my appointment where we anticipated the progress . . . . a 3! Not as dilated as I was with Caleb, but I was proud of my body for making progress on it’s own (I did take Primrose Oil and Red Raspberry herbs which are recommended safe herbs that you can take and which helped).

Ok so thus began the WALKING!!! John and I actually had a really fun day walking around Wal-Mart, running errands, and going to Purple Turtle for some lunch (of which I couldn’t eat much because I was too excited). Of course walking helped contractions, and we were hopeful. But I knew that it wasn’t until we went home for me to sit down that we’d know if they were REAL contractions or not.

And unfortunately, after going home and sitting down, I did not have another contraction for 45 whole minutes (after having contractions semi-consistently 4-9 minutes apart each). Wow I was discouraged. So we stuck in the movie “Anne of Green Gables” (a family tradition for baby labor days), as a way to help distract me from the discouragement. Eventually I decided to contact all of the people waiting on me who would be at the birth, to tell them that it might not happen anytime soon. And guess what? Right after I decided to do that, ten minutes later the contractions started up on their own again even with me sitting down! Yay! But I didn’t want to get my hopes up yet. However, I did start writing down times as well as intensity of contractions as I “tried” to focus on taking a nap. Haha. Yeah like THAT was going to happen! I was just too excited (but looking back I WISH I would have listened to my doula).

For 2 hours, the contractions were consistently 4-5 minutes a part with low intensity. It started to kind of get a little uncomfortable and so I decided I’d really like to go into the hospital to see what kind of progress we had made. You have to realize that with Caleb’s birth, I was dilated to a 5 having only “uncomfortable” cramping, and up until I hit transition, I didn’t experience the type of pain that they describe to wait for before coming in. So the whole hospital’s “wait till you can’t talk through contractions” advice wasn’t going to work for me, especially because my birth photographer was coming down from Farmington. Yeah I couldn’t wait till the last minute to go in.

Arrival at the Hospital:

7:15pm we walked into the hospital lobby. I felt silly again (remember I had been there 2 times already because of UTIs), yet I felt confident I wouldn’t be walking back out for a couple days. This baby was coming whether they liked it or not!

Well when they checked me, I was only a 4. Not enough for me to be officially admitted, but because my contractions were getting more intense as well as the fact that they were TWO minutes apart (yeah that was insane, seriously), they decided to monitor me for one hour to make sure A) baby was ok and B) to see how much cervical change would occur. This meant I had to be confined to a hospital bed for one hour (couldn’t get up), while having some very uncomfortable contractions.

Ok enter Roxanne, my fabulous doula (a doula is a birthing coach). At first I told everyone not to come to the hospital since it still might be a while, and when I found out she was on her way, I felt silly especially since I’d just be sitting in bed for an hour waiting. Well shortly after she arrived, I could not have been more grateful for her being there. She lessened the tension, and provided some great conversation between her, John, and myself. AND my contractions did start getting harder so I was glad to have her there to help provide relief.

After the hour, I had only dilated a half centimeter, but since baby was fine, and because my contractions continued to be 2 minutes apart, the nurse recommended we go walk the halls.

Walking the halls with Roxanne and John is the only thing I really regret NOT having pictures of (I told my photographer not to come yet because I really thought it’d be another couple hours before things would start up). However, I will always think back fondly of that hour. Haha that sounds silly because oh my heck was it hard! Walking only increases the intensity of contractions and so it was PAINFUL! Especially considering the fact that I had less than 2 minutes to get from one spot on the wall to the next before another contraction hit hard. But in between we three had fun in our quiet deserted hallway of Labor and Delivery talking between the contractions. I really just describe to you all how fabulous Roxanne was. Ever since I had considered natural birth, I knew that if I had anyone, I wanted Roxanne to be my doula. And even though I asked her 3 weeks beforehand, she was so enthusiastic, willing, and wonderful about being apart of this birth experience. She helped provide the reassurance my husband needed since he himself was actually very nervous about me going un-medicated (yes he thought I was crazy, yet continued to be supportive).

Well what happened after an hour of walking the halls? I was surprised to find out that I had gone from a 4.5 to a 6!!! Wow! Ok it was show-time! My husband the whole time up until this point had been my faithful Secretary who texted all of the woman who would be present for the birth to keep them updated on when to come. Well at a 6 I could finally be admitted to a room and the Doctor was now willing to break my water to help speed the process along, so we gave them the go-ahead to come! I was anxious for my wonderful photographer, Jessica Kettle, to make it down before the doctor broke my water. She luckily arrived a couple minutes before he did, just in time to get a couple photos of me before I completely confined myself to the bed.

And thus begins the place where the PICTURES can tell most of the story. I don’t take any credit for that smile on my face, ok people. It just happened. I really didn’t know I was SMILING. These pictures are all taken by Jessica Kettle (edited by me).

Also just a warning . . . even though Jessica very tastefully took these pictures to not show the very private stuff, these are still BIRTH and labor pictures. So if that sort of thing makes you uncomfortable at all, just skip these pictures, and come ask me for the rest of the story But honestly I personally think these pictures are the neatest and best way to tell my story.

I had thought that with natural labor, I was supposed to have control over my legs (since the epidural sure wipes out that possibility completely), but I was surprised to find that once I hit a certain point in the labor, moving ANYTHING seemed impossible. I was just SOOO EXHUASTED. Not the mention that with contractions 2 minutes apart, I had only about 45 seconds to 1 minute to really REST before the next one hit. Yep I soon learned that this experience would require all hands in the room to make it possible.

My wonderful doula, Roxanne!

I knew I needed and wanted my husband’s full support through this. He had been there the most for me during the whole pregnancy. Not only as a husband, but as a true and best friend. I was so glad we were able to end that long road of pregnancy with this experience together.

Um and let me say that my husband is a HOOT!!! Seriously he is a CLASS CLOWN! Cracking jokes left and right during this experience and keeping these women entertained, and he was able to lessen the tension in the room. Even though I couldn’t react to his jokes, I would vaguely smile to let them know it was ok. I actually preferred the attention away from me when possible. I just love my man!

And that fan that the nurse brought in was a lifesaver. Yes it soothed my mind, cooled me down, and helped lull me into a sleep state. Maybe that’s because I ALWAYS sleep with a fan at night. It comforts me.

See? I really did show pain once in a while. . . these women kept telling me afterwards that it looked like I felt no pain. But I did. Oh I did . . . TRUST ME! Here is where I seriously wanted a stick to bite down on. I almost bit my husband, but when he actually OFFERED his hand to bite down on, that’s when I realized it’d be best to bite my own finger so I didn’t hurt anyone. Yes I now know why women in the movies sometimes need sticks. It is a natural instinct while coping with pain.

In my own journal I have a lot about what I was feeling during this whole process. I’ll try to briefly just say that it was the most pain I’ve ever felt. I knew it would be, but I knew that if I could get myself to the “Point of No Return” where an epidural wouldn’t help at that point based on timing, that I would just get through the pain one way or the other. I maintained control on the outside, yet inside it was a different story where I needed to focus on my baby as well as my Savior.

FINALLY after 2 hours it was time to push. And surprising to myself as well, I was even smiling.

Anyone seen the movie, “Love Comes Softly”? If not you MUST see it. Any ways, one thought going through my mind while pushing and vocalizing (I realized it’s just a natural instinct reaction for some people, yet I knew I’d make fun of myself for it), was the scene after she had her baby when the little girl came and and said, “You was mooing louder than Gurdie (the cow) when she had her baby.” Yes random, yet it also made me laugh internally I also was tempted to joke with my husband John by using the famous line he quotes for people who go naturally, “You did this to me!” I so was tempted to do it as a joke, but to be quite honest I didn’t have the strength to say it in the way that would let him know I was kidding. So I didn’t . But really I did make my own jokes inside my head at the time

One of the coolest things that happened, which I am SO glad I thought of to ask my doctor, was John actually got to help the doctor deliver baby Oliver. I knew that by the time I started pushing, I probably wouldn’t really care where he was at (and I knew I’d have plenty of hands to hold at that point), and I personally encouraged him to do it with the Doctor because I knew it’d be the coolest experience.

And it was actually when someone said, “John’s got him! John is touching Oliver’s head,” that gave me more hope than I ever imagined to know that my husband had our son, that the end was in sight. It is what gave me the courage and strength to finish delivering Oliver into this world, into the arms of his loving daddy.

And John was the one who got to hand me my precious baby. BEST MOMENT EVER!

Just as I had always wanted, the world melted away and it was just Oliver and I. My little Oliver. He calmed down right away and we bonded instantly.

This next part is actually very important to Oliver’s story. It was the moment we realized the biggest trial that we actually by-passed thanks to the miraculous goodness of Heavenly Father. Oliver was born with a True Knot in his umbilical cord. At the time when the Doctor showed it to me, I had no clue what the significance was until later.

A True Knot occurs early on in pregnancy (approximately 12 weeks) as the baby moves around, and isn’t usually detected except through ultrasounds (and even considering the 7+ ultrasounds we had, they still didn’t detect it). This occurs in approximately 1% of vaginal births, and even less if it’s a True Tight Knot (which we’re not sure if he had the whole time or not). This knot doesn’t create a problem until about 38weeks where the baby gets big and the knot gets tight and cuts off oxygen to the baby, often resulting in a still born. It is something that if they did know about, it most definitely would be delivered C-section because it’s dangerous. That is why babies who are born with a True Knot, Doctor’s call “Miracle Babies.” Even the nurse the next day whom we mentioned the knot to, was shocked and amazed and said she had to pass along the news to the other nurses, since it is a big deal.

Yes my baby is a miracle baby. I already knew that every baby is a miracle, and I already knew that our baby is a miracle personally to us as well, but we never imagined that our baby would also technically be a miracle baby and had a very real possibility of being taken away from us at the very end there. I’m glad I now have a very real excuse for the anxiousness I felt to deliver my baby early. I thought it was just me being impatient and emotional, but now I realize it may have been a higher power that was pushing me to make every effort to come early, thus giving my baby the chance he may have needed to deliver early enough where he was small enough to not let that unknown knot become deadly.

Oh how grateful I feel every time I look at this picture. It is very real proof of the guardian angels that Oliver has in his life, and proof of the love Heavenly Father has for him as he protected him long enough from this knot, for him to enter this world and join our family.

Dr. Watabe couldn’t have been more fabulous! I loved having him there for the whole experience. He even had fun lightening the mood during the labor by cracking his own jokes! It really was wonderful having him for my doctor.

One of the BEST parts of birth photography is the ability to capture these pictures with Oliver happy and AWAKE without disturbing him with a flash. He and I had the best moments just staring into one another’s eyes.

Here was my FABULOUS team whom I don’t know how I would have done without. Thank-you ladies!

Oh yeah, and my goofy husband

Oh I love these next pictures! And of course I wasn’t mobile enough to capture them myself, so again I am SO GRATEFUL to have had Jessica there to capture these.

So there it is! Oliver’s birth story! It was a wonderful day/NIGHT. It was harder than I imagined, yet I was amazed at how quickly I forgot the pain and tiredness, and just basked in the joy of the moment. I had the hugest adrenaline rush once he arrived and I wasn’t able to fall asleep until 5:30am.

I had a wonderful experience with Caleb’s medicated birth, and I also had a wonderful experience feeling everything from start to finish with Oliver’s birth. Which will I do next time? I have no idea! I won’t be making that decision for a while, but for what it’s worth I NEEDED to have the experience I had this time, and I am so grateful that it went so smoothly and quickly(4.5 hours of active labor). I am grateful for the miracle of baby Oliver and the joy he is to have in our family. The Lord really is gracious and watches out for us. He knows our individual needs and if we reach out to him he can help us. I hope Oliver will grow up to learn and have a testimony of that.

Any ways THANK YOU to those of you who actually stuck through this HUGE post. I know it was WAY LONGER than I ever thought (well my Word Document was already 6+ pages long). Hope you enjoyed his story and the pictures.

My Handsome Boys

2011-02-26T19:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday as I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day, Caleb comes up to me and says, “Mommy you’re handsome!” Yes I felt like a million bucks! Even though I wouldn’t describe myself as “handsome,” the sincerity of a compliment from a 3 year old boy means a lot to me. Well speaking of handsome, today after Oliver’s afternoon feeding, he was looking particularly happy and content and AWAKE that I decided to do an “awake” photo mini session (session meaning 10 minutes or less), since there are a lot of family members who haven’t seen Oliver awake. And when he is awake, he surprisingly has always been very alert and just looks at us with the most reflective stare that appears to be searching into our souls. It seriously is my favorite thing. He really is generally a happy baby – granted he has his days or moments! – but I really can’t complain! I sure love my boys!

And this picture will be officially his 4 week old photo. Yes he is FOUR WEEKS! Why does the time fly so quickly???

This is his 3 week old picture:

Oh yeah and guess who is starting to actually be OK with pictures of himself? As well as not always flashing the fake “cheese” smile? Um yes, my 3 year old stud muffin! He is looking way too model-ish in these, but I of course love it

Particularly because this next photo is his REAL smile. The one that makes me so glad to be his mommy!

And here are just a few of my favorite outtakes from our session that show their cute personalities a bit more. Love it

In Memory of: {Great} Papa Craft

2011-02-22T20:02:00.001-07:00

Today there’s a new angel in heaven. My Papa. Before today, I was lucky enough to have all 4 of my grandparents alive. I have also been lucky enough in my life thus-far to have bypassed the experience of loosing someone close to me. The only good thing about this whole situation is that because it was pancreatic cancer, all of Papa’s family were able to have the knowledge and opportunity to say good-bye to him and have opportunities to reminisce of good times before he got too ill. We were able to have our last Christmas together. And we are most fortunate in this situation to have the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. The knowledge that we WILL be together again someday. Even though we will miss him, the gospel makes this possible and so it helps lessen the grief. And I am grateful for that.

With the knowledge that he had anywhere from 3-6 months left when they discovered the cancer again for the 2nd time, there were four people he wanted to wait for (3 upcoming great-grandchildren and my brother on his mission). Only two of those people he was able to have a chance to meet: two of his great-grandchildren, which included my Oliver. These pictures were taken a week and 3 days ago, when Papa was finally able to have the chance to meet and hold Baby Oliver. It was a tender experience to see two people so close to different ends of the veil. Oliver and Great-Papa enjoyed their little visit, and I feel very privileged that this meeting was able to occur.

This four-generational picture will be treasured.

On this second to last visit, we took the opportunity to sing “How Great Thou Art” for Papa on the guitar that he gave to the family (with John being the steward over it). Even Jacob and Caleb sat there and sang “I Am A Child of God.”

Our last visit on Sunday was especially tender, yet hard. My Papa had deteriorated so much that it was hard to talk with him much as he slept on and off and it was hard to communicate. Yet I was able to sit by his bed and hold his hands and just BE with him. Caleb was mostly just playing upstairs with his young uncles, but he came down once and was able to have his last conversation with Papa. I lifted Caleb up so that he could see Papa closer. Upon seeing my Papa’s weakened state, Caleb asked innocently to Papa, “What’s the matter?” And Papa proceeded to try to explain by saying weakly, “I don’t feel very good.” Caleb was able to tell Papa he loved him, and gave him his last kiss, and I was surprised to find a very sincere smile upon Papa’s face (which in this very weakened state was a huge deal). I was also fortunate to be present for the last blessing my father gave to his dad. During the blessing, the thought pressed upon my mind and heart that my Papa not only would be crossing the veil to see his family and ancestors, but would also be crossing the veil and would be able to be with any future children that are still waiting to come down to my family. I have no doubt that he will watch out for them as well as my boys who are here on earth.

Pictures above on left: Caleb with Papa April 2009; picture above on right: Christmas 2010

Picture below: My Papa and I on my past birthday (Dec. 2010)

Papa, you are my buddy, my pal, and my friend, and I love you!

My Three Valentines

2011-02-17T16:19:00.001-07:00

I felt like the luckiest girl this year . . . I now have THREE boyfriends who treat me like a princess. I sort of feel like the Queen Bee of the household because these three treat me so special. Or course the two youngest princes are still learning from my Prince Charming who is a great example of love and being a Gentleman.

This picture makes me smile. And yes it was pure chance that: A) Caleb chose (no coercing on my part) to be in the picture for the literal minute that: B) Oliver smiled all on his own! It just makes me H A P P Y! :)

Want to see more newborn pictures? I just posted a bunch of pictures of Baby Oliver on the photography blog! I’ll eventually get around to posting a bunch more on this blog, but for now head over there for more pictures!

And guess what??? Oliver’s BIRTH STORY with pictures and possibly maternity picts are also coming SOON (I’ve made progress on the editing, just have to condense the story that took 6 pages to write, resized to something that someone might actually WANT to read)! So don’t go too far :)

Follow the Prophet

2011-02-12T15:19:00.001-07:00

This is a tradition that started 3 1/2 years ago when Caleb came home from the hospital as a newborn . . .

And now John and Caleb made sure it happened again for Oliver! A rousing rendition of “Follow the Prophet” on the guitars!

And look who is completely enthralled by the song… I love these pictures lots of my three sweet boys and their love of music.

Yep I’m glad we’re keeping that tradition alive! And if you haven’t heard “Follow the Prophet” on the guitar before . . . please ask John the next time he has his guitar out. It’s quite a fun song! Maybe not the most reverent, but definitely an engaging upbeat song that grabs your attention!

2 Weeks!

2011-02-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

Oliver, you are TWO WEEKS! I can’t believe it! Where did the time GO?!!! We couldn’t be more grateful and happy to have you a part of our family. We love you to pieces. We love when you just stare up at us for minutes at a time. I am amazed at how alert you are sometimes. Especially at 2 in the morning . . . ;) You smile ALL of the time when you sleep. You are happy and content to be awake, and are amazing at making eye contact with us. We fall in love with you more and more each and every day.

Well we dreaded your appointment since it was combined with circumcision . . . but we were anxious to see how much you have grown! Here are the stats:

Length: 20 3/4 inches; 90th percentile

Weight: 7 lbs 8 oz.; 50th percentile

Head Circ: 36 1/2 inches; 75th percentile

We were really surprised by the stats! You gained more weight than expected, and grew 2 1/2 inches as well! Also while pregnant, they said your head was in the 98th percentile, so it’s nice to know that your head is evening out with your body :)

I can’t believe I gave birth to this little guy 2 weeks ago . . . I am finally feeling much more like myself. My body is hurting much less and is generally back to it’s size, even though I still prefer to wear my comfy maternity pants. Recovery was more rough than I thought it’d be for the first week and a half, but finally by 2 weeks, I am doing much better. Hooray!

And even though I am tired from lack of sleep, at least I get to look at this cute little face during the wee hours of the night . . . I think he knew SOMETHING was coming. Just glad I took these picts before the traumatizing circumcision.

I wasn’t planning on being in the room, but when I was told they do get a numbing shot, I felt a little more convinced that I could at least stay in the room, even though I refused to actually watch. Our pediatrician, Dr. Arnold, was hilarious and cracking jokes left and right with John during the visit, which made the experience less awful. Dr. Arnold is not only our Pediatrician since Caleb, but also a family friend/neighbor while I was growing up, so it was great to have him as our doctor.

Oliver did cry quite a bit, and was especially upset when they strapped his legs down. But after guzzling tons of sugar water, he got to a point where he was inconsolable (even though there is a numbing shot, they still feel the pressure). I hurried over to him to help calm him as much as possible. He heard my voice, turned his cute little head and looked at me, and temporarily stopped his wailing. I was glad I could be a comfort alongside daddy holding his other little hand. But after it was all over with, Daddy was the one to comfort his boy, since this is a sort of “Boy” thing. Oliver sure loves his daddy.

First week back home

2011-02-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

Well the first week back was and wasn’t eventful. If you consider waking up with a puking 3 year old on the first night back eventful, than yes it was VERY eventful. Poor John stayed up the whole rest of the night bathing Caleb, scouring the floors, carpet, doing load and loads of laundry, and all types of cleaning in our house.

And me? Well I barricaded myself and Oliver to the bedroom until we were absolutely and positively sure Caleb was 100% better. That took about 2 days till I would be in the same breathing space as Caleb. I felt like an awful mother. I really did love my Caleb and missed being around him, but I just couldn’t risk getting the 24 hour flu with a 2 day old newborn. We were so blessed that neither John, Oliver, or I got the flu, and quickly the people in our household were all healthy again. Phew! That was a long couple first days home though! I just felt bad that Caleb couldn’t be anywhere near his new baby brother whom he was so excited about seeing. Well even though Caleb was probably already sick (and we just didn’t know it), he got a little bit of cuddle time with Oliver before he threw up later that night. Caleb really is a cute big brother!

And this guy??? Could NOT be a cuter daddy! Seriously it has been so much fun having John home so much more this time round, and he has gotten some great snuggle time with this cutie.

We had some other visitors . . .

and Oliver did a whole bunch of this:

While going through approximately 5 outfits, 3 blankets, several burp clothes, and loads of diapers a day! Oh the joys of having a newborn!

I couldn’t love this cutie more!

Our Stay in the Hospital

2011-02-07T21:46:00.001-07:00

I am anxious to share Oliver’s birth story with you all, but since I know I am going to get some fantastic birth pictures from a fellow photographer, I am going to hold off telling you all about my birth experience till I get the pictures back “hopefully” soon.

But just know that things went really well, and even though we got approximately 2 hours of sleep that entire night (after having a baby, I was completely wired up for the rest of the night and hardly could sleep even when given the chance . . . you’d think I’d be exhausted, but it was sort of like the adrenaline excitement little kids have on Christmas morning when they know they have an amazing exciting Christmas present just waiting for them. Yes, having Oliver felt like our official Christmas this year, the best gift we could ever get! Just a month and two days late :)

So going off of practically no sleep, John and I lay in our beds at 7am (after they did their checkups on Oliver and I), and couldn’t stop talking about the birth. And by then, the sun was shining through the windows in our room and we couldn’t help but spend some quality time with our little Oliver.

(be prepared for LOTS of pictures. . . and yes this was actually downsized by a TON!)

Before we had expected visitors that morning, Oliver surprisingly had a full hour of awake time. He seriously is the best baby! When he is awake, he is completely alert and just stares and stares, completely content. I love this about him. We call him our “deep thinker” of the family.

Haha this next one was a funny moment right before Oliver nursed. I think his expression is very expectant, wondering why we haven’t got down to the business of eating, and are still taking pictures. Boy this kid doesn’t know what he got himself into having me as his mother . . .

This was by far my most anticipated, favorite visitor, whom I could not have been more excited to see. . . Caleb came handsomely dressed and excited to see his new baby brother. He even brought us flowers and a cute blue teddy bear as a gift for baby Oliver.

One funny thing that happened while he was there, was when we were explaining to him that my baby came out and that there wasn’t a baby in my tummy anymore. I think he understood it and clarified that the baby wasn’t in my tummy anymore, but then got a very confused look on his face when he looked more closely at my tummy, surprised to see that it still was big. Haha! Yep I still looked 6 months pregnant, and he was confused as to why I had a baby AND a tummy that looked to have a baby in it. Nope I don’t have another one hiding in there, that’s for sure :)

We did enjoy our other visitors who got to come and visit later on that day to meet their new grandson/nephew.

Ok, I just might totally love these two pictures of our little Oliver. He, like his brother, is extremely expressive with his cute face. We’ve already began documenting the many faces of Oliver.

Oh I love these two boys! Johnny makes such a cute daddy, and it is amazing and so fun for me to see his excitement at having another perfect son to look after and adore.

These next two pictures have been what I’ve wanted to do for 9 whole months. . .

Time to go home! We had fun, but it gets a little old having nurses, doctors, pediatricians, CNA’s, hospital staff, etc. coming in every 15 minutes to check on us when all we want is just a little bit of rest and sleep. And even though the food was oh so yummy! . . . they don’t feed husbands, and so it became necessary for me to bring my hubby home and convince him that he really is hungry and must eat to keep up his strength.

So we headed home. And Oliver got to wear the famous Winnie the Pooh outfit that Caleb came home in. And yes it was also swimming on him.

Man, it felt good to get out of that yucky hospital gown and into some real comfortable clothes, and to finally look decently cute enough for pictures with my newest baby.

It had been fun, but we were excited to come home and start getting used to our new “normal.” Still can’t believe I have TWO kids. It almost felt like we were taking Caleb home all over again. And we just “might” have called Oliver by his brother’s name a few times . . . oops! Guess that’s what happens when he comes out looking so much like his older brother.

And again, way more pictures of this dude coming up. Yes, I already have way more pictures than I know what to do with. But how could I help it? This newborn stage is so fleeting and I want to document it fully if I can.

The Only Child’s last day as my only child

2011-02-07T19:43:00.001-07:00

Let me just say I am so glad I had my camera in my purse that day. I’m glad that I followed my gut feeling that after my doctor’s appointment, I would go into labor. I wanted to capture my last moments with Caleb as the “Only Child,” since that moment will never come back. Of course we love our Oliver and couldn’t imagine life without him, but there was definitely something special about having just little Caleb’s world that we revolved around. Luckily he has been such an amazing big brother and hasn’t had jealous moments “yet.” But as John and I left him at his friend’s house that day so we could go walk the stores and see if things would progress, I’m glad we hurried and took these pictures.

Yes this is the day I delivered. And my last moments with Caleb before he officially became a big brother. I love my little stinker so much! Even though I have a new baby, Caleb will always be my baby too. And I’m so glad that he paved the way for his siblings that will follow. I can already tell at age 3 that he will be one fantastic big brother through the years. I sure love my little Caleb.

A Comical Outtake . . .

2011-02-04T00:28:00.001-07:00

When I first purchased this hat several months ago, I had envisioned this cute Eskimo baby, not this scowling Russian looking baby I have here. . .

But seriously this picture makes my heart happy with giddiness at how darn cute he is. . . . Ok, the scowl isn’t exactly his normal look, but he was so calm about the whole thing as I wrapped up his Part 1 newborn session and wanted to just try the couple of hats that I had gotten for him.

I think he knew how ridiculous the hat looks on him . . . :)

It’s like he is saying, “Mom, really? I look Russian, and I think the hat’s way too big on me. But I guess I’ll wear it to make you happy.”

Oh I love this boy! And I really did get some way better “pretty” pictures of him. But this one I look at when I just want to be happy and laugh. And he is sure cute still sporting that umbilical cord for a few more days.

Hope this picture made you smile and possibly giggle at it’s silliness too :) More cute pictures coming of this guy soon. Gotta go to sleep to gear up for Part 2 of his newborn pictures tomorrow.

Introducing . . .

2011-01-28T12:48:00.003-07:00

Last night, 5 minutes till midnight, we welcomed our newest member into our family. We'd like to introduce you all to:

Oliver James

6 lbs 14 oz., 18.5 inches long

Things could not have possibly gone more smooth and wonderful, and we could not be more in love with this newest little guy. Oliver and Angela are both doing so well (oh yeah and daddy too!). We already have taken so many pictures, and can't' wait to share them with you, but for now these two will just have to do for now. We just couldn't wait to introduce our special little guy to you all! WAY more pictures coming soon! :)