Thursday, December 30, 2010

Benjamin Gabriel

Our precious boy arrived on December 20th, weighing 6 lbs. 12 oz. and measuring 19.5" long. He was born at 38 weeks and it was a wonderful delivery.

I've been soaking up every sweet moment of his newness! I can hardly put him down. I just love to snuggle him, kiss him, watch him sleep, stare at his tiny features... he's just as darling as can be! Ahhh... so in love. :) We're all in love with him.

When Josh and I first saw him it only took a couple of seconds for me to spot dimples! I was SO surprised. I hadn't even expected them or even thought of them as a possibility. Josh and I both have dimples and we always assumed our kids would have them. But when neither Jude or Selah were born with them I just quit thinking about them. So I love seeing Benjamin smile in his sleep because those cute little dimples show up. :)



I tried a few days in a row to snap some newborn photos of him, but it wasn't really working out. On Tuesday I gave it another try, but I ran out of good daylight rather quickly, and had kids playing all around me, so it was a little adventurous. :) But we got a couple of these quick shots. I'm going to try to take some more pictures of him this weekend when Josh is home.

Thank you everyone for your sweet Facebook comments! They've been so fun to read. :)







Selah loves to help take care of Benjamin. I just love that she's my little helper. She brings me diapers, helps lotion his skin, loves to hold him, and today helped give him a bath. Jude likes to help too, and is such a loving big brother, giving Benjamin lots of hugs and kisses. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Beautiful Babes

I was so excited to snap some photos once I was off bed rest! What beautiful little subjects these three are! And dear to my heart, and my kid's hearts too, being close friends.

My friend Mauria and I had fun "singing & dancing" to get her kids, all under the age of 5, to look and smile at the camera. It was pretty hilarious. As soon as Everly would smile at us, the boys would look away, or as soon as the boys would look and smile Everly would give us a blank stare. Then the sun would come and go every 2 minutes. It was fast and furious, and I loved every second of it! :)




I love all of these sweet smiles. :)

Keep on the look out this next week... a newborn photo may pop up on my blog. No, I haven't had this baby boy yet, but soon! :)

I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas season!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Off the couch...and greeted with Kankles! :)

Today is a big day. Today I'm 36 weeks along and I get to go off bed rest! (I have to take it easy still until next week, but then I'll be considered full term.) I've been on bed rest since Oct 22nd and I'm really excited to start moving around again and using my muscles. I actually threw caution to the wind a day early and was up and about and noticed that my ankles disappeared. Hmmm.... lovely. :)

The past several weeks have turned out to be quite a blessing in disguise and a neat season of life for me. It was challenging and humbling to sit on my fanny and let others do everything for me, but also amazing to see the love of others and their gifts of serving, and I found myself seeing life from a different perspective. I've referred to many things lately as "my view from the couch". I watched family and friends enter my house on a daily basis and love on my kids, do my dishes, make food, sweep floors, fold our laundry, bring me tea, clean my closet (oh horrors!), take Jude to preschool and pick him up... and bless our family to no end! Very humbling, and also so inspiring. To have such a servant's heart really says a lot about a person. And there are many people in my life that I want to be more like. {heart}

I haven't been very present in the cyber world since I went on bed rest. Why? Mostly because I felt consumed by all that's been going on here, and my main focus has been to keep this baby boy from arriving early. So forgive my serious lack of blogging, emailing, etc. I definitely needed to just withdraw for a bit. :) It was kind of my way of coping too.

I took a lot of camera phone photos from my spot on the couch over the last several weeks. Terrible quality, but sweet memories.... like my little couch buddy, Everly, hanging out with me while my friend Mauria zoomed around my house cleaning things, Grandma Janet taking the kids outside to run off lots of energy (I wish I had a photo of that), Granddad playing the game memory with Jude, Grandma Jill baking with the kids & re-organizing their toy closet every single week (thank you!), Grandma Chris reading them stories, Jessica making the kids laugh at the lunch table, etc... it wasn't until about Thanksgiving that I switched to having my regular camera handy. haha. Much better!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a great time! Food, card games, watching funny videos, dessert, & laughter. My dad and step-mom Janet, siblings and step-brothers came up and we had a lot of fun together. Janet and Dad made an incredible gluten free dinner that was just amazing! Thank you for making the day so special and for doing SO much to bring it all here!! Love you guys!

As soon as Thanksgiving was over I switched into Christmas mode. I was so excited to have a beautiful tree to look at each day and for the kids to get into the Christmas season!

They made ornaments and set up our little nativity scene.

And we got a tree... from Lamb's Thriftway down the street. :)

And Jude & Selah did a great job decorating it!



Here's the ornament Jude painted (on the left below)...

Why am I wearing shoes in this picture? Because I snuck out to ride along to pick out our tree. It was just down the street. It doesn't count. :)

Last week when my friend Mauria was here, her daughter Everly was looking extra cute and I had to snap a photo of her. She and I share the same birthday and she's been my couch buddy for weeks. Selah just adores her, and loves to be near her. Jude does too. They both refer to most babies they see as "Baby Everly" and she's gotten them even more excited to meet baby brother.

Lastly I have some photo shoots that I haven't blogged, from back in October! I just love the families and clients I get to photograph. And I love developing friendships over the years with them! I LOVE what I do!

I adore this family and always look forward to seeing them!







Our good friends Aaron & Val & this is their new baby girl, Lily! Isn't she sweet?!

Phew! Now, I'm caught up on my blogging. :) I hope you're all having an amazing Christmas season!