Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lily's Baby Blessing


This post is actually coming a little late. Lily was blessed on the 19th, but, Ben and I forgot our camera that day and so I had to wait for my family to drive across the country to get any pictures of the day. Ben and I were really blessed because all of our parents were able to make it as well as my sister Becca, and Ben's brother Joe and his family. We also had a few close friends from Rexburg there to participate in the blessing. It was a wonderful day and Lily was extra good that day (but of course she screamed while we took pictures afterwards.... you know it just HAD to work out that way.....) Well, Ben and I thought it would be pretty cool if our kids were blessed in the same clothes we were. So this is the dress that I wore oh so many years ago when I was blessed. One thing that I will always remember about that day is that when Lily was in our living room she would just stare at the picture of Christ on our wall. She's never really taken any interest in any pictures we have but she would just stare at it for a really long time! That really touched me and it reminded me of this gift that my ob/gyn gave me the night I gave birth to Lily. It's this poem called Day Old Child:
My day-old child lay in my arms.
With my lips against his ear
I whispered strongly, "How I wish-
I wish that you could hear;
"I've a hundred wonderful things to say
(A tiny cough and a nod),
Hurry, hurry, hurry and grow
So I can tell you about God."
My day-old baby's mouth was still
And my words only tickled his ear.
But a kind of light passed through his eyes,
And I saw this thought appear:
"How I wish I had a voice and words;
I've a hundred things to say.
Before I forget I'd tell you of God-
I left Him yesterday."

Monday, July 28, 2008

Our Trip to Utah

Well Ben's family had a family reunion this past weekend so we decided to go and be a part of it. We weren't sure if we would actually be able to make it or not because traveling and camping with a newborn is definitely a new thing to us but Lily proved to be quite a cooperative baby. So since we don't make it down to Utah very often we decided to stop and see my side of the family as well. So first we headed down to Provo to see my sister Lizzie and her two kids. This is a picture of my nephew Benjamin wearing my nursing cover. He was chasing Ben around the house and let his "cape" fly since he was trying to be a superhero. Dang I love kids. While we were at her apartment two girls came over to clean the carpets and Benjamin was pointing at each of us and telling us what our names were. I'm evil and I wanted to confuse him a little bit so I asked him, "Benjamin, what are their names?" as I pointed at the cleaners. He replied, "I don't know, do you know?" So I told him I didn't know and then he whispered, "OH, they're the yuck yucks." It was good to see the Wilckens. Then we made our way north and saw the rest of my family and ended up staying at the Whales.
We left for Heber City on Saturday morning. One of the things I loved most about the camp is that the animals are so used to people being there that they're not afraid to get close to a bunch of people with cameras. I did learn one thing about the deer though- they love to poop. That's right, poop. I got this shot of the deer right after he did his business. It seems like every deer I saw that day just had to grace us with its beauty. :)


One of the fun events of the day was going to the lake. This was a church owned property so of course there were dressing standards but it seemed like they took it to the extreme. We had to wear long pants and closed toed shoes. I thought that was a little weird but I just went with it and Ben and I went out paddleboating on this pretty pond/lake. Later on Ben told me that the reason we weren't allowed to go swimming in the water was because there were leeches in there. Um... gross. I'm glad I didn't know that at the time. Oh and thanks, husband, for letting me keep my hand in the water while we were paddling. :)



Before we got out into the paddle boats we were told that there were a bunch of ducks in the lake and so of course I told Ben that I wanted to see them because ducks are always adorable. Little did I know that they were mostly ducklings! I was so excited. After paddling around for a while (and getting EXHAUSTED I should add..... those paddleboats are a lot of work....) Ben and I decided to pick up his youngest cousin and we paddled her around and had quite a lot of fun running over buoys and playing bumper boats with some oh so lucky relatives. I have to say that I have been quite impressed with how fit Ben and I proved to be in those boats because we had some people paddling for their lives.


One of the big parts of Saturday was the huge family portrait. I don't have a picture of the entire family (because it was taken by a professional photographer) but I do have this picture of Lily. Our family's color was yellow. I personally thought that Lily was adorable, thanks to Chrissy for the bow!

Well later that afternoon it started to get a little stormy in the mountains and I was starting to get a little nervous about having rough weather with Lily. So instead of staying at the campsite overnight Ben and I decided to head back down to Alpine to the Whale's home. Let me tell you traveling with an infant is nothing easy. I had to pack pretty much our entire apartment into our Camry. This is Lily sleeping on her changing pad. Luckily babies aren't very picky about where they sleep, or at least Lily isn't.

So then we made the trip home and Ben had some fun time with Lily last night while I unpacked the important stuff. At one point Ben was reading an animal book to Lily and was telling her all about monkies and he got her to giggle for the first time! Sooooo cute!

Well we had a great weekend but we're glad to be home and get back to a normal life. It was nice to see family and get out of Rexburg. Hopefully we can do this more often.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Sleeping through the night...


Well my little angel must really love me because at less than a month old (well her birthday is the 24th) she is already sleeping through the night! I don't know how we were so lucky as to have a baby who just loves to sleep at night! She's been doing 5-7 hours at a time every night for the past two weeks but for the last few days she has been sleeping 7-8 hours every night. So thank you to our little Lily Jane for being such a wonderful sleeper! You make our job soooo much easier!

Monday, July 14, 2008

Ben's Facial


Today my wonderful husband asked me if he could give himself a facial masque with my St. Ives peel off Hydroxy Masque. I was taken by surprise (although I've learned that with Ben, anything is possible). It's a clear masque obviously but you can see the shine on his face. When I grabbed the camera and told him to smile he made this face and said, "I can't move my face." I love you Ben! Everyday with you brings more joy to my life! :)


Tuesday, July 1, 2008

New Lily Pictures

Well Lily is officially a week old and so here are some pictures of her at home.
Our little "Mexican Princess"

Ben playing on the floor with Lily

Right after her first bath at home.

Asleep in my arms. It was like she was drugged that day.

In her crib.

Lily had her first doctors appointment yesterday and I was so relieved to hear that she was perfect! Her color, eating habits, size, etc were all perfect! We're so grateful for Lily in our lives. This past week has been absolutely wonderful (well except for the sleep deprivation part) for both Ben and me.