::walking::

Guess who finally decided to walk?
He's been doing it for a couple of weeks now, and besides the bumps on the head and bruises that invariably come with the territory, we're all enjoying his newfound skill. He's really a toddler now!

I have much more to come on this subject!

(And thanks to Kari for the darling sock monkey shoes. Baby shoes are my one weakness.)

::do they still look alike?::

Max at about 1 year old:

Sand at about 1 year old as well:

What do you think? Opinions? I definitely see some similarities, but also a lot of differences. Coloring for sure. Max was blond and though Sandy's hair isn't super dark it's not blond.
They're both STINKING cute.

::blessing day::

So first thing, I had the toughest time ever picking which pictures to put up in this post. So I just picked a bunch.



A week ago today we were able to bless our sweet Sandy in church. If you'd like to know more about that please follow this link and read the section titled "naming and blessing children."
Kris gave Sandy the blessing and he did a beautiful job. He said so many sweet and precious things. I wish I had a recording of it so I could listen to it 100 times in a row and memorize it. We had lots of good friends from the ward standing in the circle, as well as my dad. I was so glad my dad could be there, and we missed the rest of our family, but we knew they were there in spirit. I'm glad that we have so much support from the ward though, since we can't live minutes away from the family. It's nice to know that a lot of the men standing in the blessing circle will be the same men supporting, helping and teaching Sandy (and Max) for a long time. That's special.


(I think this picture is so funny--just the angle of his head, his chubby mushy cheeks and the bubbles.)

Afterwards we gathered at our house with a few friends from the ward for snacks and chatting. Sand didn't even know the party was in his honor, but he had a good time.

(preparing for his party--he didn't even poop on his clothes!)


Speaking of Sandy, he was absolutely perfect at church, didn't make a squeak during the blessing. After his blessing he was held by Mrs. Evans, the wife of the dentist we bought the practice from (they came to the blessing, wasn't that nice?) and then he fell quietly and serenely asleep in her arms. That never happens these days!
What a great kid.

It was so nice to have my parents there. It was fun that they got to meet and chat with some of our friends and just be around for just general help and support. Kris and I are so blessed in the parent department. We have four of the best.
Anyway, my dad spent a lot of time with Sand, entertaining and snuggling him. Sandy loved it.


My dad also got a few giggles out of him during the visit. Some of his very first.

I just want to eat him up with that adorable little smile.


It was a wonderful day. I was probably too stressed out with making sure everything was ready and clean and all was going to run smooth, but I survived. Thanks to everybody for their help and love. We are so greatly blessed with friends and family (whether you were able to attend the blessing or not) I can hardly think about it without being overcome. We love you all. Thank you for loving us.


oh, and if you would like to see a few more pictures, including a couple of me, go here to my mom's blog.

::today::

Today we had Sandy's blessing at church. It was so nice and a really beautiful day. I'll post more about it later hopefully. I'm all worn out now.
Sand couldn't have behaved more perfectly today.

(thanks to Grandma Kathy & Lechelle for finding the adorable outfit, it fits perfectly!!)

::baby::

Meet my new 3 month old niece Ann.


I'm so glad I got to meet her before she got any bigger. She's adorable, isn't she?

::halfway through::

This is a hard and fabulous post for me to write for many reasons, but let's just get to the meat of it.

Baby #2 is finally due to come to our family in November. This has been such a long time coming. We are so glad and excited and I'm so relieved that everything is going well. We're a little more than halfway through (22 weeks) and that feels great! November 11th is the official due date!

It's so hard for me to make that announcement for a couple of reasons. After nearly three years of struggling with "unexplained infertility" I've been rubbed pretty raw. And then add a miscarriage in there (pretty early) and I've been frightened the whole time that something was going to go wrong. So talking about it seemed overly optimistic and almost arrogant. I just didn't want to tell anybody so I wouldn't have to explain why I'm so "cautiously optimistic" to put it mildly.

Also, after dealing with all those struggles and feelings for a few years I know how it feels to never have success month after month. And every friend/acquaintance/stranger that has good news breaks your heart--even if you love that person to death and you're truly very happy for them. It's almost as if it feels like there are a finite number of babies in the world and everybody else is using them up before you can get to them. And like time is running out. And like your 1st will be 20 before he has a sibling (if it ever happens). And a zillion other things mixed in there. It's really complex.
So I would hate to cause anybody pain.

And if anybody is reading this who has been struggling, I hope you can take our story of a 2 plus year struggle with a successful outcome (so far) and think of it as an encouragement.

I haven't ever talked about this on the blog before because I just didn't know where to start. I'm also not a great writer, so I can't express myself super eloquently like some of my friends do. Anyway, it's just not something I've ever wanted to get out there--which is another reason why it's been hard to write this post. Where to start? Where to end?

But anyway, it's great news for us. We're so happy and excited!
Thanks for your support and love everybody, and we'll keep you posted.

(also...this may not be big news to some--it's already been out in the cyberworld because I had to make the facebook announcement earlier than I was thinking. But at some point it was necessary to tell people that actually see me, so they didn't just think I was overeating or something.)