Month: October 2011

Caroline’s Blessing Day

Post author By Joy
Post date October 25, 2011

9/25/11

We had Caroline’s baby blessing at church when she was 2 weeks old (Sept. 25th). Yes, it was early, and I was a little bleary-eyed. But it was wonderful to have some of our family and friends around for this special occasion. (Thanks so much to the Fernstens for these photos. And sorry about all the backtracking on the blog.)

Pace gave a wonderful priesthood blessing to Caroline at our 9am church meeting. He wasn’t a fan of her blessing dress because it was big, poufy, & slippery. He said she was sliding out of his hands during the blessing & he almost dropped her. But he didn’t! We came home & had lunch & hung out at our place. It was a gorgeous Sunday.

Daddy + Mommy + Caroline

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Family Photo! Charlotte is holding her pink purse for the photo, of course.

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The one below is more typical of our everyday life…

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Nathan & Rachel Fernsten. We’re SO glad whenever we get to see them!

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This is my little Grandma! She’s my dad’s mom. We love her. (Caroline does, too. Can you see that hint of a grin on her face?)

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The men in attendance. (Jason McGowan was at the blessing, too.) Yancy Zimmerman was in town & surprised us by coming, along with his wife Leah & son Jeshua (the little redhead)!

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The women (minus Becky Stoddard & Whitney McGowan). It was a nice surprise that Stephanie Zundel came, too! Love her!

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Lookalikes: Rachel & Charlotte

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Us with my parents & grandma in a washed-out photo (are these starting to seem like wedding pictures??)

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Us with Pace’s parents

Caroline

Caroline: 6 Weeks

Post author By Joy
Post date October 19, 2011

(Rachel, this is mainly for you since you asked me several days ago to post some photos of Caroline!)

These are the only ones I’ve taken lately!! She’s 6 weeks old now. Looks the same as when she was born, except chubbier! Still sweet & not fussy!

Not a great pic of me at all, but I wanted to show Caroline’s size. Chase was getting over the flu & Pace was sick with it. Rough weekend. I was paranoid—I’d leap out of bed whenever I heard anyone make a sound in the night! SOOOO glad no one else in the family got it!

Charlotte

Here’s Charlotte.

Post author By Joy
Post date October 19, 2011

She’s a happy, endearing girl. She often surprises me with the observations she makes about things & the new vocabulary she uses (like “complicated”, “testimony”, & “fantastic”). And she makes us laugh! I remembered to jot down a few things that Charlotte recently said…

– She was bawling about something as she walked into the kitchen. As I hugged her, she glanced at the pantry & bawled, “I think I just need some fruit snacks or somethiiiiiing!”

– Last night I was calling to Pace from outside, but he couldn’t hear me. So Charlotte screamed out in a loud, wild voice, “PAAACE!!!” and then turned to me and asked sweetly, “Don’t I have a beautiful voice?”

– Gretchen (Pace’s mom) was trying to get her to go to the bathroom. GG challenged Charlotte, “Come on, I’m going to beat you to the bathroom!” and Charlotte responded nonchalantly, “No, I don’t want to beat you.”

– She was climbing on the space heater in Caroline’s room. When I told her not to because it could tip over, she told me, “But I’m here. To protect it.”

– Pace was telling me some things about his day, when Charlotte came up, threw her hands up in the air, & asked him incredulously, “Are you kidding me?!?” And he just kept telling his story until she’d interrupt again with, “Are you really kidding me?!” This happened a few more times & just cracked me up.

Charlotte has been a pretty good sport lately, even as I’ve been spending a lot of time nursing & diapering Caroline. But we multitask… We have a lot of tea parties, we read books, we chat, & we play games. I’m glad she’s content to just hang out with me at home a lot! She carries around her purses filled with jewelry, buttons, play money, & lots of random little objects.

And Charlotte still really loves books! She can usually be found with a book or 5 in hand. Takes after her Grandma T.

She loves her GG!

I just realized that she’s wearing that same dress in every single picture of this post. Yes, my kids are quite opinionated about their clothing. Chase & Charlotte each have their favorite outfit (which is NOT my favorite outfit) & that is what they want to wear, every day! Oh well, life’s short, so I’m TRYING not to sweat the small stuff!

Family Fun

Yes please

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 17, 2011

Yes Chase and I want this for Christmas.

Chase Chase Adventures

Our Big Boy

Post author By Joy
Post date October 16, 2011

Chase recently finished a great soccer season with his team, The Tigers.

Chase has definitely found “his sport!” He LOVES playing soccer, it’s a great outlet for him, and he’s good at it too. I’m bragging, yes. We were proud to watch him do his thing out there. If only the soccer season were longer than 1 stinkin’ month! (next few photos courtesy of Rachel)

In other news, Chase recently carved a zucchini guy that sat on our porch for a few days to greet visitors.

I definitely let all our zucchini get out-of-control large. I thought it was kinda cool, until my Mom said that you’re supposed to pick zucchini when it’s small so it will taste good, & so the plant can put its energy into making more zucchini rather than sustaining the big ones. Lesson learned! (But at least we’ve enjoyed tons of zucchini, delicious tomatoes, and even some bell peppers, mint, & thyme from our garden.)

Below are just a couple pics of Chase from when we were at the Museum of Ancient Life (with GG & Charlotte). He looks like such a little angel. Haha!

Caroline

Caroline at 2 Weeks Old

Post author By Joy
Post date October 16, 2011

Caroline is now 5 weeks old, but here are some sweet pictures that Rachel & Nathan took when Caroline was 2 weeks old (they were in town for the baby blessing). There are a lot of pictures, but I really selected just a few! I’m so glad they caught these tender moments for us with their fancy camera. Smile

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Caroline Family Fun

Baby Caroline at 1 month old

Post author By Joy
Post date October 6, 2011

This is what our sweet baby looks like right now.

Yes, she still sleeps all the time! It is amazing to me. When she’s awake, she calmly looks around and I just love gazing at her. But really, she’s the sleepiest newborn I’ve ever had. And the easiest newborn I’ve ever had. Not that I think newborns are easy… But really, Caroline has been fussy like maybe once so far. And she doesn’t spit up. Well, she DID have a few random projectile episodes at first. Once, she projectile vomited all over Charlotte from head to toe which made Big Sister start to cry… But that hasn’t happened in a couple weeks now.

Caroline weighed 9 lbs. at her 2-week appointment, so she’s doing well in her weight gain.

Look how tiny this bundle looks in her crib. Before we know it, she’ll be as long as this crib! I don’t remember what my other 2 newborns were REALLY like. That might be a good thing. But it just goes by too quickly and I know it! I wish I could bottle up all the (good) newborn memories so I could really remember it all a few years from now.

My mom had to leave a week ago. It was hard to say goodbye. It was crucial to have my mom here to help ease us into the newborn lifestyle. She hung out with us, spoiled us, folded laundry, did our dishes, & helped tremendously with Caroline. I especially appreciated sharing the “load” when it came to the diaper changes! haha, get it??

Charlotte is great with her little sister. She likes to get really close to Caroline’s face and talk in a high-pitched voice. Charlotte HAS been more defiant/opinionated & crying more lately, but she’s been doing alright overall. I try to make time to spend with just her.

Chase is very tender and helpful with his baby sister, also. He goes & gets things when I ask him to. I still have to remind him not to carry Caroline around. He doesn’t seem as affected by this whole situation as Charlotte, maybe because he’s older & more independent.

Here’s my little family, all holding each other on their laps!

Pace has been great, too. He has been patient with me having baby gifts everywhere, dinner NOT ready when he gets home, & my boxes of regular clothes all over the bedroom as I transition to my normal clothes. I am grateful for my wonderful husband. Even if he’s a little crazy (see picture below).

That pic was taken after a bath time. Caroline really loves her baths! And I love when she’s all fresh & clean & snuggly.

Personal

Contacting Us

Post author By McAdmin
Post date October 5, 2011

In case you want to get a hold of Joy or I today, I wanted to let you know how you could. Try Google talk, email, or just stopping on by. We are in the middle of a phone transition and have limited access to phones. SORRY!