funny face

Even blurry, I love this.

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.

floral friday

From Grandma's garden...

Same variety as last week, different color.

make new friends, but keep the old

Last fall, I got an unexpected and welcome email from my freshman roommate Erin. We had lost track of each other a few years back, so I was delighted to hear from her. Turns out she had come across my blog! Just another reason why I love blogging. Erin had recently moved back to Utah herself and has two little kiddos of her own. We made plans to get together and catch up but weren't able to make it happen until this week!

We met up at Liberty Park and chatted while the kids played. It was so fun to reconnect!

I love how serious Levi's face is in this pic.

Lounging on the fake grass and eating snacks.

Don't you just love how the internet brings people together! :-) 

the new toy

My parents were very generous in the gift giving for Asher's birthday this year. How fun is this thing?

His very own slide in the playroom!

And of course it came in a very large box which is pretty much the coolest thing ever to a kid. They have even slept in it!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

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.

more beautiful breastfeeding pics

Just a little reminder to check out At Mother's Breast... I'm getting on a regular posting schedule over there and plan to have new photos up each Tuesday. Today you can see beautiful Liz and her darling Pearl baby. Pearl is one of the prettiest babies I've ever seen! And if you haven't been over there in awhile be sure to check out all the mamas and babies that have been featured so far.  Also, At Mother's Breast is now on Facebook!

floral friday

From Grandma's garden... anyone know what these are called?

This might be my favorite of all the photos I took this day!

home birth poem

Home Birth
by Jared Anderson

She strains,

Lovingly labors

Not only to bring life

Into the world

But also against all those

Who say

“It is simply not done”

Awakening

Vestigial memory

Of how it has always been.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jared wrote this little poem Sunday night after we came home from visiting our friends Amy and Clay who just had their second baby at home-- a successful VBAC. We both had issues (she a previous cesarean, me a breech baby) that in many circumstances would have resulted in c-sections, but we both had normal, beautiful home births without complication.  I love how succinctly Jared captured the spirit of those of us who choose to birth at home and what we must often work against to do so.