My Adventures: February 2014

At the beginning of this month on February 2, 2014 we blessed out new little girl. It was such a grand day. For years I wondered what it feels like to have your own baby blessed, and now I know. It is wonderful. I don't know that I feel anyway special feelings except that I know that the little girl that is being blessed is a daughter of God and that she is mine, and I am so lucky to have her. I also get the feeling she is here to bless not only our lives but the lives of those around her. I love blessing day.

The party started on the Wednesday before when I picked up my parents from the airport. My mom was a real sport and got in the back between the girls and my dad sat in front with me. Kylee (I decided nick-names were too hard, so our kids get real names unless I think of something truly clever) was so excited to see her Oma and that she was coming on a plane. I love that Kylee can talk, because it is so fun to hear her use her words to try to express herself. She has lost almost all her signs, but she does hang onto 'please' which she also says, and 'thank you.'

Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday were spent with my mom and dad just visiting and hanging around. Kylee and her Oma made a book together using stickers. Kylee still loves that book and wants to look at it and read it and add to it all the time. Papa spent a lot of time reading and looking up information. I think he enjoyed having good Internet and time. Tia of course loved being held and loved. While Oma and Papa were here we tried sleeping the girls in the same room. It was a rough night, and then a rough, rough, rough day, so we decided we would wait awhile and then try it again later. A couple other fun things we did were to go shopping because Papa forgot his suit pants, but I was also able find a cute top (yeah), and have take-out Chinese food (yummy). They also graciously took Kylee outside on a walk when it was quite frigged outside. Papa also played with Kylee and I in the snow, and helped Guapo shovel the sidewalk and driveway. Overall it was such a joy to have my parents all to myself for a little while.

Saturday, Gaupo's parents arrived. We had a great time visiting with them. That night we had what Guapo wanted for a blessing meal--turkey, cheesy potatoes, corn casserole, and biscuits. Gaupo does great turkey's so it was a great meal even though the potatoes we still cold in the middle (booooo).

Sunday was the big day. We have 1:00PM church, so everyone kind of relaxed into the morning by taking their time getting ready and watching Mormon Messages videos. Kylee even took a little nap and we took pictures of Tia before church. Guapo did a beautiful job blessing Tia. We were also so blessed to have support from our neighbors (not member of our faith). Our next door neighbors (Mark, Amy, Garrett, and Brain) and the one just up from them (Linda) both came. We felt very loved and supported. After church, we had a scrumptious dinner of Freshetta pizza. I don't know if everyone really got enough (that is a first for me I usually have plenty of food), but they all claimed they did and they seemed happy so I guess it was a success. We finished off the night watching ABC 15's special on the Gilbert, AZ temple, and eating milkshakes. Gaupo makes the best milkshakes. That night I stayed up talking with just my parents until about 11:00PM. It was so nice to talk to them without kids wanting my attention. I love my mom and dad, so it was great to have time to listen and talk with them.

Monday, I had to take my parents to the airport. I left the girls with their Grandma and Grandpa and headed out. Luckily traffic wasn't bad, and my mom gave me M&M's to eat on the way home. (afternoon driving and me don't get along very well) Once I got home, Gaupo was also home, and we all had lunch and enjoyed visiting and relaxing together. That night Grandpa Merrill took us out to eat. We were going to eat at a place that I had never tried, but found out it is only open for breakfast and lunch. Consequently, we went to 3 Margarita's which was very good. We even got to be entertained by a live Mariachi band. When they asked us if we had any requests I said ' Actually, we have a sleeping baby here so I would prefer if you didn't play right here.' "Oh, okay," was the reply. It was such a treat to go out and eat.

Tuesday, was good-bye day for the Grandparents, but they did stay long enough to go to story time at the library with us. It was fun to have them, and Grandpa Merrill got them to get us 'Goofy Minds the House' which we are now enjoying.

As you can see, it was a pretty low key affair, but we had so much fun. We were also so glad that we got to have both sets of Grandparents come and spoil us. Here are a few pictures from the blessing day.