Lulu's Been Blessed

Lulu is one loved girl!  Today she was blessed in our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and so many of our family came to show their love and support for her.  Here is a picture of most of our family that came (but not all).

 Here is Lulu with her Grandma and Grandpa GG (Great Grandparents).  My grandma is who picked out her beautiful blessing gown.  The story is about 3 or 4 years ago my grandma found the dress and loved it so much that she bought it.  Then she offered it to all of her great granddaughters.  Well when I saw it 3 years ago I told her that I wanted it for my daughter one day and she told me that I had to hurry and have a girl to claim it.  Well, in those 3-4 years she only had 2 great granddaughters born and the first did not want the dress, so that Lulu (the 2nd) could claim it, and claim it we did!  She looked fabulous in the dress!

These family pictures turned out so good!  At first Cohen started to throw a tantrum and did not want to  take any more pictures so I threatened him that I would take away his ipad (minecraft) if he did not smile for the pictures and as soon as the words came out of my mouth he said "ok mama... CHEESE!"  It was funny!!!!

Grampy...

 Grammy and Papa...

 4 Generations of beautifulness!!!!

Here is Lulu with her Auntie Niki and Mama!  We kinda like her:-)

Quick story... Arlo was so cute today and was so proud of his sister.  After her blessing he came up to me and said, "I am so proud of Lulu, she's been blessed!"  Later in the day when Lulu was being fussy he said, "She has no reason to be sad, because she was blessed today!"   It was so funny, because over and over today he reminded everyone who came over for the blessing party that Lulu was blessed and she is so lucky!  It was too cute.

These next few are of Lulu in her blessing dress.  There are so many because if you notice the headbands are different.  Grandma Peggy and Aunt Shellbabe both bought Lulu beautiful headbands and shoes to match her dress, so I took pictures of Lulu in both and then I put on the headband I made her for the blessing (so not to play favorites:-)  However, by the time we got to my feather headband she was not too happy, so I will put her in her dress again tomorrow and take more pictures.

This is Grandma Peggy's headband...

And Shellbabe's...

And Mine...

Thanks again to all those who came to support!  Thanks to Tim who gave her a beautiful blessing.  And thanks to Lulu who chose to join this crazy, wonderful family!  We love you baby bean!

FIVE Years and Still Growing!!!

Between gaining a little sister, earning a trophy and hunting for eggs we had to fit in Arlo's birthday! Arlo, the boy who made me a mommy, is now turning 5 and I can't decide if I want to shout for joy or cry that my baby is growing up way too fast!!!

Like I mentioned, this month (April) has been a little crazy, so for Arlo's birthday we invited family over for pizza and cake.  Arlo was pretty disappointed that he did not get his annual swim party, but I have to admit that I was pretty proud of myself for putting together anything at all.  Did I also mention that we had his party on Tim's final week of school.  CRAZY TIMES!  I did still manage to make a cake:-) I was grateful that he wanted a garden cake, because it sounded easy enough.  But, when I started to make it, I had two boys who really wanted to help... I could not say no, so here is Arlo's garden cake!

If you ask me it looks like a chocolate cake that vomited candy!  However, the boys loved it and were so proud of it.  They will probably remember this cake more than any of the others I have made simply because they have the memories of making it as well as the memories of eating it:-)

We cannot have a party without party hats and party favors!

Auntie Jo also stopped by that night to meet Lulu, so she was able to join in all the party fun!

Although it was a small party, it was still big on presents!  My kids are so spoiled!!!

Time to blow out candles!!!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!!  Can you tell he was thinking super hard about his birthday wish?  I wish I knew what he wished for!

The next morning was his actual birthday, so like tradition calls for, he woke up with 50 balloons in his room to help him celebrate his big day!

Cohen woke up grumpy!

As for my big 5 year old, he is now out of toddler clothes and now shops in the big boy section.  He is 45 inches tall and weighs 46 pounds.  He loves music and dancing, his favorite songs at the moment are One Republic Counting Stars and ACDC Dirty Deeds:-)  Arlo is a wonderful big brother (most of the time) He is a picky eater, great at sports, his teachers tell me that he is an absolute joy at school and he LOVES to shoot guns.  He really does not have a favorite color at the moment but if you ask him it is purple (but the purple that he likes is more of a blue than purple) his favorite food is probably Panda Express Orange Chicken, and if he could do anything all the time it would be swimming (in warm water).  The one thing I really hope he works on this next year is teasing his brother a little less.  

I have to say that I LOVE my Arlo more than I ever thought possible and I cannot wait to see what this next year brings us!  Thank you Arlo for being my boy... and if possible, PLEASE STOP GROWING UP!!!!!

Lulu Bean the Queen

What do I say besides... WOW!  My Girl is gorgeous and here is the proof!!!!

Big shout-outs to Megan for taking the beautiful pictures.  She had to work for her money because Lulu did not want to sleep or cooperate in anyway.  Also to Andrea, who made the cute crochet flower and leg warmers!  And to my mom who bought the wings.

Megan also took the time to take a few family pictures.  Of course it was mid-day so it was so bright outside nobody could open their eyes fully, we picked out the outfits that day (we were not prepared) and this was 2 days after I gave birth so my stomach was still HUGE!  But, they are family pictures and  I will always cherish them!