Can it be 3 months already?

    I remember the last time I was saying this.. almost 4 years ago when I couldn't believe that Brian and I had been married for 3 months. Now I am looking at this darling little human thinking the same thing.. Has it really been that long?
    It is very true that babies change so quickly. Looking at the difference in Lydia's growth astounds me. She looks like a completely different baby!

    This last month has been a blast of new experiences for all of us. We've enjoyed most of it in Utah visiting our family. We have loved having our family experience this beauty's life with us.

          After jumping from party to party and grandparent's homes to sibling's homes.. we have decided that Lydia is sooo social. If there is something going on, she wants to be apart of it-for as long as her little eyes can stay open.

Happy 3 months my darling!

A Name and a Blessing:Lydia Larson

   On Sunday December 14, both sides of our family gathered at my parents house in Huntsville where Lydia was blessed by the power of the holy priesthood by her daddy.

    “Every member of the church of Christ having children is to bring them unto the elders before the  church, who are to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them in his name” (D&C 20:70).

    It was such a beautiful and incredible experience to be surrounded by all those that we love and admire. This beauty was full of smiles (except when she pooped during the blessing and got mad about it ha).

    Her daddy and I were moved to tears and the spirit that we all felt was definitely very real and wonderful.

   

4 generations (Allred, Johansen, Kendell, Larson) 

     How grateful we are for the love that we have felt in blessing our sweet daughter and the support we have received from all our family and friends. My little family is forever and how sweet that is! I am so happy to belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and have the true and everlasting gospel restored to the earth today. I am grateful for a worthy husband who holds the priesthood and can bless me and my baby. I love him and am so happy to have him by my side. 

   I loved blessing Lydia at this Christmas time and feeling close to how Mary may have felt holding her sweet baby Jesus in her arms. It was a special connection that I hadn't quite felt before. What a merry merry Christmas!! So happy to be home and to have our families meet our sweet Lydia!

A peek inside my life..

   4 years ago on this night, Brian asked me a question that changed the direction of my life. Where I was then, surrounded by roses and chocolate and twinkling lights and a sparkling ring to where we are today-4 years later-is quite the change.

In the reflection of an ornament on my Christmas tree.. this is what you would see:


I spy..
a trash full of dirty diapers
last night's dishes piled in the sink
a lazy cat basking in the twinkling lights of a christmas tree
2 weeks of laundry, half-folded on the couch
a beautiful nativity with a happy baby Jesus
a forgotten granola bar
bows, wrapping paper, string and tape pushed aside
poopy baby clothes soaking in oxyclean from that morning's blow out
burp cloths, blankets, and binkies littering the floor
bills and Christmas cards partially opened on the counter
a camera chuck full of the same posing baby at every angle
messy wrapped Christmas presents that didn't quite make it under the tree
and a mom with greasy un-brushed hair, still in her pjs, tickling, smiling, and gushing over
a grinning and giggling perfect big-eyed, blue-eyed baby girl

 


Life is perfect.

Lydi at 2 Months

    Time really does fly when you are having fun. I am having a hard time believing that Lydia is 2 months old already. She is growing SO fast! Sometimes when I go get her in the mornings I feel like I just missed 12 hours of watching her grow because she already looks different!

    We had the chance 2 weeks ago to give Lydia her first haircut. She looked like she had a Jewish yarmulke for a while because she had lost all her hair except for the top part of the back of her head. It even made her look like a little Indian sometimes because her hair would stick straight up like feathers!

    Lydia got extremely.. and I mean.. terrible.. acne a few weeks back and I am so happy to say that it has all cleared up! We were worried for a little bit that it would scar or something because I had never seen baby acne as bad as she had it. We are so happy that it is cleared!

   When Brian is home.. our mornings end up going something like this. Just lots of snuggling and trying to get this moose to giggle. It's our favorite!

And in the evenings, when Brian gets home it is definitely more snuggles and story time. And of course, Minnie has to join in as well. Ha!

Aunt Sarah bought Lydia a Bumbo and she LOVES it! She wants to just be involved in everything and look around at everything! Look at those big eyes!! :) 

We put up the Christmas decorations! Though we won't be here long to enjoy them, we couldn't help but get them out and break out the Christmas music!

Even Lydia helped decorate! 

Welcome Christmas!!!!

Butterflies, Caterpillars.. Oh My!

    Meet the Bug Catcher catching his butterfly and caterpillar (though Brian likes to think he was a Entomologist (insect studier) because it sounds cooler). To get Brian to dress up is no joke.. so we went cheap and simple this year. No trick-or-treating for us this year though I really wanted to. It was freezing and crazy windy here in Chicago.

 So we had a party at our friend's house! Don't you love our dead guy filled with food? Pretty appropriate for medical school ha. Our friend Jess did an awesome job with decorating-including her creepy "family" pictures all over her house ha.

   We had a great night of food, games, and great friends. I wish I would have gotten pictures of everyone's costumes because they were pretty awesome!

    Last week we took Lydia to her "official" first outing to the ward Chili Cook-Off. She loved it! Aka she slept the whole time haha. It was pretty terrific! I love my little family! Happy Halloween!!

Lydi vs Mommy&Daddy

Just having fun looking at pictures of Brian and my's childhood and trying to figure out which one Lydia resembles more. She may just be a pretty good mix! But I can't help but feel that Lydia and I have pretty close furrows and big lips going on ha!

1 Month

     I may have shed a tear today as I put away the newborn clothes. Though it is so exciting to see the growth and development this girl is going through, it's still a bit sad to realize how fast time is flying by. I keep asking myself-am I catching all this? It's as if I want every little sound and wiggle ingrained in my memory forever. Is that even possible to do?

      New things with Lydia this last week: She started "officially" smiling the day she turned 3 weeks (Oct 20). When she focuses her eyes on me, I'll smile and talk to her and she immediately responds with a smile. All week long she has been doing this and it absolutely melts my heart. Brian's mom said that Brian was her earliest smiler and smiled around 3 weeks as well. So she is definitely her daddy's little smiler. 

    Wednesday October 22 she discovered her tongue and pretty much had it hanging out of her mouth like a dog all day. It's just fun to see the "discovery" process when she actually knows what she is doing. It was adorable and so funny to watch. The little things that she discovers just amazes me and makes me want to call Brian and tell him all about it! “Oh look! She just did_(insert ordinary action here)__!” What can I say? #newparents haha 

    At night sometimes after I feed her, I’ll burp her on my shoulder and in her sleep she will giggle. It is such a precious sound. I can’t help but wonder what she is dreaming.

    The last 3 or so days she has broken out in some crazy baby acne. Brian teases that we already have a teenager on our hands.. acne+fussiness. I know it will go away and isn't hurting her, but it is still so sad to see her little face so full of angry red polka dots. The picture below doesn't do the acne justice.. It seriously looks so red and angry.

      What a wonderful month it has been. It is just hard to believe that Lydia has been with us so long already, and yet it is getting hard to imagine life before she was with us.