Penelope's blessing

On 2/15/15, baby Penelope was finally blessed!

We were waiting to bless her until the right time came along for Jonathan's parents to visit...they told us they would come whenever, but it's always more fun when there's stuff going on. And with Valentines weekend including both a holiday and Charlotte's birthday, why not squeeze in a baby blessing, too?

Earlier that morning I did a little blessing photo shoot with our babe. She wore the same blessing dress that Charlotte wore- the dress that my mom picked out.

 such a fancy girl with her pinky up.

For most of these pictures she had her toes up in the air...I had my mother-in-law hold them down! haha. She's really into her toes lately.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon so we took some family pictures outside before going into church.

Baby blessing days are the BEST days! We really felt the love from family and friends. And as usual, I bawled a bit when Jonathan gave the blessing. We love you, Penelope!

Valentines and Birthday weekend

As a general rule of thumb, life with three kids dictates that my blog posts will always be (at least) a week late. At least.

In an attempt to get caught up, I'm dividing Valentine's Day weekend into TWO posts- because so much happened! We blessed P on that Sunday, but more on that later :)

VALENTINES DAY.

The kids got traditional jammies Valentine's day morning, and we had a yummy breakfast with Jonathan's parents- coconut pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream. It was seriously so good.

We don't normally go out for Valentine's OR give expensive gifts (usually we will give/do something cheesy). But this year was the exception, which after 6 years of marriage is OK I guess. We double dated with his parents. Jonathan and his dad surprised us with a showboat ride down the river. He totally got me, I wasn't expecting that at ALL.

Turns out- the boat ride was actually really cheesy anyway... haha! We got some good laughs later. I also made him a wedding album- a project that took me f-o-r-e-v-e-r to complete. First I had to round up all our engagement & wedding pictures, re-edit them ALL (I didn't care for our photographer's edits), and try to make a nice book out of them. And the price was tricky...fortunately I was able to round up about four different discounts to use on Shutterfly so it was an amazing deal! And Jonathan made me a beautiful casserole dish in pottery...which cracked. So- he's going to try again! (This was actually casserole dish #3. The first one was a flop right away and the second one that he gave me for Christmas cracked after I unwrapped it. ha ha.) I don't care that it cracked, I'm going to use it to plant some herbs :) I love that he tries so hard to surprise me. It's the thought that counts- truly!

Kinda jokingly, I told Jonathan that next year I just want a pint of ice-cream. But I wasn't really joking.

C TURNS 3!

Charlotte's birthday was so much fun! It was surprise after surprise! Aunts and uncles and grandparents and brother made it such a special day for her.

We sung "happy birthday" to her throughout the day, and she loved it every time. Her grammaw surprised her with a bunch of Disney princess barbies- I don't know if I've mentioned or not how much that girl loves her "bobbies". We went out to eat at Red Robin, where she got sung to again and was given an ice-cream sundae. Talmage had to get one, too, of course! We brought all of her presents to the restaurant to open, and she really freaked when she tore the paper off of her light-up Elsa doll :)

Talmage was also really proud of the pink soccer ball he got her, so she can have something to kick around at his soccer practice. It was a perfect little birthday!

Grammaw & Grampaw had to leave on Monday afternoon- so sad! We always miss them way too much!

Tuesday was C's actual birthday. It felt weird not doing anything, even though we had already celebrated the day before... ha. So that morning we had a birthday tea party with her. Jonathan happened to be home that morning for other reasons- so it worked out great! We made orange juice and berry scones, and stayed in our pajamas. Simple and perfect :)

It was a super fun-filled weekend! Penelope's blessing post to come!

three little valentines

Its getting increasingly harder to take pictures of all three kids. So when we did a little Valentine's Day shoot I just plopped them on the bed. ha ha.

Also, moderation in picture-taking is something I'm working on. As in, it's okay to take like five pictures instead of fifty. Until I get to that point of restraint, pardon my plethora of photos. :D At least they're cute, right?

These were the outfits the kids wore on the Sunday after Valentines Day. But since we had family over that day, I took these like a week before. ha. Poor things having to dress up TWICE.

I kinda freaked out when I found these matching dresses for the girls. Ruffles vs. pleats...I don't know which is cuter but I don't care!

And Talmage...he's just as sweet as ever. My number one little man.

 I couldn't ask for sweeter valentines!