my babies love each other

Asher wanted to hold Miriam and then kept saying "Mine!" and "Mine baby!"

practicing...

her Blue Steel.

Miriam... she's so hot right now.

outside

"Outside" was one of the words Asher said often that we actually could understand long before many others. I love hearing him say it still. We've learned that we can't mention going outside unless we are ready to do RIGHT THEN or else Asher gets very upset that we aren't going out. Now that the weather is cooling down a bit, I've been much more willing to spend time outside with him in the yard. These pics are from last week in our backyard. I'm SO grateful that it seems the 90+ degree days are behind us.

slingin' it

Miriam likes to be held. And I like to oblige her. Of course sometimes I need my hands free too so we've become good friends with the sling. I've even figured out how to nurse her in it! 

The other day she fell asleep after nursing and just looked so cute snuggled against my breast. So I had to take a picture of course. 

Doesn't she look cozy?
(and yes I'm posting a photo with half my breast bared. i figure after the naked birth photos, this is no biggie, right?)

Dad has even gotten in on the sling action. I came home from a trip to the store one day to this. 

A man wearing his baby is a sweet sight indeed.

And the mastitis is cleared up! woo hoo! yay for garlic and cabbage!

in black and white

Miriam photographed August 17th.

I admittedly am not experienced in film photography but these photos have something of a film quality to them I think. I love them.

miriam's blessing

Miriam was blessed Sunday at Church in the same blessing dress that I wore as an infant. Miriam's Great Great Grandmother bought this dress 27 years ago. Me and my two sisters each wore it for our baby blessings and now my daughters (and hopefully future nieces) will wear it too. I love how simple it is with just a few delicate details. And how precious is the bonnet? I can hardly stand the darlingness of it all.

The blessing Jared gave Miriam was really beautiful. My dad, my brother Michael, Jared's stepdad Mike, Jared's uncle Scott, and the bishop were all in the circle. I'm so grateful these men could be there for Miriam's special day. Both of Miriam's grandmothers and her Great Grandma Teddy were also there along with all of my siblings.

big eyes

Taken August 11

2 months old

My gorgeous baby is 2 months old today! My family has been in town because we blessed her yesterday in Church. (Pictures of Miriam in her blessing outfit to come soon.) I'm so grateful that my parents live within a day's drive so they can come visit fairly often. And now 4 out of the 5 kids in my family all live in Utah. 2 of my siblings go to BYU and my baby brother Nick just started at the University of Utah today. You can bet I'm going to make him babysit!

Getting back to Miriam... she is such a sweet baby. She smiles so much these days, especially in the mornings. I took all these photos of her this morning after her nap. She was just grinning away at me. She's started cooing a bit too. She's getting chubbier although she's definitely not as big as Asher was at 2 months. But like him, she loves to be held. She sleeps really well at night, usually only waking once or twice.

It's amazing how even though it's been just two months since her birth (a fast two months at that), it also feels as if she's always been with us. I'm so grateful to have her in our family. We all just adore her.

it's been too long

There has been a serious lacking in pics of the babe around these parts. I got rather behind on my photo editing and am in the process of catching up. Here's a little sampling of my pretty girl from the past couple weeks....

From August 4...

From August 10...

Look at her lift up her head!

And check out the pout...

And best of all we've been seeing A LOT of these lately...
From August 11...

I sure love this baby girl.

one month

My pretty girl is one month old already. 

It feels more like a week than a month, but as everyone says--it goes fast!

She is spending more time during the day awake and lucky me sleeps very well at night. She usually wakes up once after midnight and then again about 6. Then its back to sleep until 8 or 9.

I adore baby feet. She loves to stretch and point her toes. Maybe she'll be a dancer like her mama?

4 weeks

Miriam is four weeks old today so I made Jared snap some photos of us together. It was too dark outside to not use the flash, but I think these turned out pretty cute. I love seeing photos of her with her eyes open. She has the most gorgeous big eyes. It will be really fun to see what color they end up being. They are still a very dark blue right now but are starting to lighten up just a tad around the pupil.

PS... Her hair looks red here, but alas that is just a trick of the lighting. I think she's going to be a blondie like her brother.