Gavin's Baby Blessing

Baby blessings are so special.  I love hearing Rich speak with the Spirit and the power of the Priesthood and blessing our brand-new babies with blessings that our loving Heavenly Father wants for them.  Gavin's blessing was no exception - it was beautiful!  Like Claire's baby blessing, it was more about his essence than about specific accomplishments.  (That is so Rich and I, by the way.)

Gavin was blessed with the following:  a strength to his character, clarity to see his path in life and what it should be and to have the determination to follow it without hesitation, to continue to develop the characteristics that we see in him so far: peace, happiness, and general connectedness with others, to have peace and calm in stressful situations, to see clearly right and wrong, that he will be a joy to all those he comes in contact with, that he will be blessed in his ability to find friends and relationships that strengthen him and that he in turn will strengthen those he comes in contact with.

Looking back, I feel a little bad that we didn't dress Gavin in white.  I should have asked to borrow an outfit from friends.  Still, what a handsome little man!  

With Uncle Todd.

With cousin K.

It happened to be C's birthday, so I whipped up some cupcakes.

Sleeping with Laura, the happy Grandma.

February 2011

Buddha Baby LOVES splashing in his bath.

Big smiles and a tongue phase.

Discovering Gavin's toe jam.  Haha!

How can this kid move?

Busy sleeper.

Dance party.  Behind the kids I'm hiding a floral nightie that Claire begged me to wear.  She now loves to play dress up in my things herself.

Playtime at REI.

Do you think Gavin is done?

I read "The Help" for my book club.  Great book!

Little Girl Growing Up

I can't believe how much Claire is growing into a little girl at 2.5 years old.  She looks even more grown up with her first salon haircut.  She's a sweetheart and a joy - expressive too.

Gorgeous big blue eyes.

Soft, sweet and a little shy.  A favorite photo of mine.

Thoughtful.

Confident.

Relaxed and Calm.

Sensitive.

With a little bit of vampire.  :)

Giggly girl.

Loves to dress up.

So bright, in countenance and intelligence.

Loves to be silly.  We're both playing with our tongues here.

I think she attacked me with the brush after this.

Funny girl.

Still so little.

Be gentle to her heart.

Gavin at 2 months

Here's my big guy.  By 2 months he had gained 5 pounds to weigh in at 14 lb. 2 oz.  Hello, 95th percentile.  Crazy.  My Dad asked if he got any exercise and I told him the only exercise Gavin gets is when he does a full-body pike toward me so he can breastfeed.

Determined eyes.

Wobbly head.

Big boy feet.

Prepping to kick those chubby legs.

Adorable!  He is so soft, sweet, chubby, kissable, with gorgeous blue eyes and a cute little cleft chin like his Daddy.

It's January 2011, y'all.

I am loving talking to this little guy.

Filling his diaper really wore him out.

My friend Amanda babysat Claire while I went to a Dr. appt.  Amanda learnt the great idea to set Claire up with packing peanuts.  I guess it kept her occupied for a long time (45 min. maybe?).  Amanda sent me home with a bag full so I could repeat this engaging activity.  Well, at home Claire threw around the packing peanuts like a wild child and was over them in 5 min.....

Claire thinks having a baby brother is super fun.

A cozy bundle.

 Cutie-pie.

Hauling around 2 kids.  

Rich played hooky from work to help me on a family outing to the Seattle Art Museum for a Picasso exhibit.  I took charge of Gavin and enjoyed myself, learning more about his famous artwork through the headset tour.  Though, I was bumping into people or having to wait to get an up-close look - it was ridiculous how many people they crammed in there.  Rich who was on Claire duty, had to drop out of art appreciation mode to corral Claire from climbing under the ropes and up to the sculptures.  I'm sure we made a scene. Oh well.  Rich's boss called him and with the lobby noise soon figured out that he wasn't at home, which actually worked out since they wanted him to stop by the office to fix a problem.  Luckily, his boss knows the concept of work-life balance and commented to me what a hard worker Rich is.  That's my man.