Little A's Baby Shower

Our sweet friends here in Arizona threw A and I a baby shower.  (To my chagrin I don't have a single picture.)  The shower was so fun!  Since we moved right before A came we hadn't seen many of them for a couple months, it was really good to see them all again.  Everyone was so generous and A was given SO many adorable little outfits.  They also set us up with diapers and wipes to last for a long time!

Underneath all those clothes are several boxes of diapers and wipes.

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to our friends here.  They have been so supportive of us through this whole experience.  From the beginning they did all they could to help us feel comfortable and a part of the community.  When they became aware of the trial we were experiencing they reached out with open arms and helped us get the word out that we were hoping to adopt.  Almost every week someone would tell me about how they had given our card to someone or suggested us as adoptive parents to girls who were considering adoption.  They let us babysit their kids, invited us over for game nights, listened to us moan and groan, and fed us dinner when we had babies fall through.  They were always there to comfort us and celebrate with us.  We are so very grateful to them for their friendship and support. 

We really feel like we have a family here. 

Thank you!

Newborn Pictures

When we were getting everything ready for our adoption profile our friend Rachel did some pictures for us.  They were gorgeous! This is one of my favorites.

She also did our pass-a-long cards which turned out great!

We like her photos so much that we had her do A's newborn pictures too.  Here are a few of our favorites:

The outfits A is wearing are dresses that my sisters and I wore as babies and I made the little white booties.  That cute pink bow is from Rachel's collection. 

Rachel does a great job and we had so much fun!  She was very gentle with A and took all the time A needed to be comfortable.  Check out Rachel's blog at rachelbellephotography.blogspot.com.

1 Month Highlights

The first month of her life we did what every new parent does...

Take Pictures!

I took a picture in all of her outfits and tried to take one every time she did something new.  (Don't worry.  I won't be posting them all, lol!)

This is her first time in her bouncer.  She wasn't sure about the bouncing at first and still prefers the heart beat vibration.

This cute little sleep-n-play is from AG.  She looks adorable in it.  The hat is from K6. The greens clash pretty bad but she looked so cute in the hat!

This is how she looks at Allan.  In awe and wonder.  It melts my heart.

 She loves her daddy and is always so happy when he comes home.  We always sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" when Allan gets home from work.

This cute hat came from a close family friend.  She made the hat (and another one too!), so talented!  They look adorable on her.  I think she looks like a character from Strawberry Shortcake.

Rockin' the 80's in a cute outfit from K3.  K5 got her the leg warmers and the cute flower and headband are from a sweet girl who follows our blog!  We use the headbands and flowers she sent every day!  A loves them!

A loves to "talk" to her stuffed animals. Mostly she just stares at them and smiles with the occasional grunt.

She loves to read with her daddy.

 Allan and I go on a date every Friday or Saturday night.  Since A came we've been having our dates at home.  When she was 5 weeks old we took her out to eat with us at Denny's and then went shopping at Ashely's Furniture to find a new couch. They were having a huge sale and we were hoping to find a deal.  We didn't find anything then but we found one online later.

Our new couch!

This is probably our favorite outfit.  It's from AG - she's got great taste!  It's super cute and easy to get on and off.

Sporting another cure flower from the sweet girl who follows our blog.  She's only 9 and she made them herself!  So talented!

Another one of our favorite outfits!  We bought this one.

A loves to talk to her Dad.  Allan is really good about talking to her and asking her questions.  They have great conversations ;)  I'm glad that he's started doing this already, I'm sure it will make for a great relationship when she's older.

A loves to have time to play by herself or just zone out for awhile, so we got her a play gym.  She LOVES it!  Especially looking at herself in the mirror!

Feeding A on our new couch.

This cute hat is from K3.  It was originally for A's cousin P but it was too small so it went to A.  It didn't fit her for too long but it was so cute!  It came with some little mittens too.

This cute outfit is from K1 and cousin B.  This cousin B is our little angel who passed away.  She would be 3 now and we miss her every day.

Wearing the outfit daddy picked out for her with a cute bow from a friend.

Wearing the bow Nana made her.

Cooking with Mom.

I made a moby wrap and my sister K6 gave me her May Tie (pictured above), which was handed down from a dear sister-in-law who passed away.  A LOVES to be worn in both of them and it's been really nice to have both because they hold her a little differently and sometimes she prefers one to the other.  It's sure nice to be able to work while I hold and talk to her, I get a lot more done that way.  This day we made bread and muffins and then made dinner.

In case you were wondering, the may tie has more back support than the moby wrap.  You have to get it just right on your shoulders so it doesn't dig in but once you figure it out it's really comfortable. I highly recommend it if you need some extra back support.

A learned how to blow spit bubbles, ha!

A playing on her gym.  She reached up and grabbed these rings and surprised herself, lol!  She let go before I could get the camera so I helped her grab on again so I could get this picture.

Tummy time!

A does really well in tummy time.  She can lift her head enough to turn it from side to side.  She hasn't figured out how to use her arms though.  Instead she uses her legs and pushes her bum in the air!  She's had many a face plant unfortunately, but she never seems to mind.  She always starts out pretty happy and then gets frustrated and screams at us.  Occasionally she falls asleep which always cracks us up! 

Another outfit from our angel cousin B.  The cute booties are from AG's friend who gave a bunch of her daughters clothes to AG to give to A. They are SO cute too!

This is also an out fit from cousin B.  The blanket is from Aunt M.  It is the perfect swaddling blanket and is really light weight so we can use it here in the heat!  Thanks Aunt M!

Making dinner with mom again.  This time in the Moby Wrap.  We made salad and Southwest Baked Chicken, yum!

  I have to cut in and say that A absolutely loves her mom. The first time that Kami left A with me to go to the store she was gone for a couple hours. When she got back and came up to say hello to A, A smiled the biggest smile I had seen her smile and started moving around excitedly. She always has a smile for her mom.

Such a happy little girl!  She started smiling and responding to smiles when she was about 4 weeks old.  The morning after we got the news that our Poe had passed away A woke up a little earlier than she usually does.  I laid her down in bed beside me and she just stared up at the ceiling and smiled and giggled for about 30 minutes.  I think Poe made a pit stop to visit his new great granddaughter.

I love this picture, she looks so self satisfied.

 Along with A's first month came a bad case of baby acne.  It went away after about 2 weeks but then her skin was really chapped for another 2 weeks.  Poor girl.  She also had diarrhea for a little while and we were worried that she might be allergic to her formula.  However, the doctor didn't think so and had us try a formula for gassy babies.  She hated that and spit it up a lot so we went back to the original formula and she's been fine ever since.

First day of church, 4 weeks old!

 For her first day of church A only went to Sacrament Meeting.  We had been planning on waiting another week to start taking her but then we were asked to speak in church so we took her to sacrament meeting and then Allan took her home since it was my turn to go to church.  Our talks went well and she was a little angel during the meeting.  She ate at the beginning and then slept through the rest.  When the organ started playing the first song and everyone started singing her eyes went HUGE and she started looking all around her trying to figure out what was going on.  She got used to it pretty quick though.

First day of church.  Allan picked out her outfit!  He did a really good job too, she looked adorable!

Another cute bow and her adorable smile!  She has five dimples!  One under each eye, one at the corner of each side of her mouth and another one on the left side of her face further back in her cheek.  The chubbier she gets the more dimples pop out!

It was a little chilly this morning so I took advantage of it and dressed her in a coat that my Grandma S (my moms mom) made.  This was one of the jackets that I wore when I was a baby.  I wanted to match it with the crocheted hat that AG's family friend made but by this time it was too small :(

Snuggling a bear that our friends little girl picked out for her.  She loves this bear so much!  This bear and her bunny are her favorite animals.  They both rattle.

This was right before we took her newborn pictures.  We didn't take them until she was a month old because we were so busy with everything. They turned out so cute though!  I'll post some of those in the next post.

We like to play on the play gym as a family too!  A loves it when we play together!

Her favorite way to do tummy time is on dad's belly!  She'll lift her head and grunt at him until she is tired out and then they have a long snuggle.

We took some 1 month photos at home too.  My goal is to take some photos like this (with the bunny and frame) every month so we can see how she grows.  This dress is one that my sisters and I wore.

I love this picture!  It looks like she's been up to something!  This is also a dress and bonnet that my sisters and I wore.  This is the blanket that Gram gave her.  It's so soft and cuddly.

Such a happy, happy girl!  Love that smile! The blanket in this picture was made by Nana.  It's gorgeous!

A also loves to snuggle her burp rags.  It's hard to keep them under her chin because she likes to tuck them under her arm and on the side of her face.

She started giggling when she was 4 weeks old.  She usually does it right before she falls asleep.  She'll smile and giggle and then she's out, ha!  It's super cute!  She also does it when she's having zone out time.

A loves to kick her butterfly chime that we hung from her play gym.  Besides looking at herself in the mirror it's her favorite thing to do.  She also likes to bat at the toys above her head.  When she's in her bouncer she likes to bat at those toys as well.  We also have a swing.  She wasn't so sure about the swing at first, especially when I turned it on vibrate.  She made some hilarious faces and then squawked at me to get her out, but she likes it now and when she's gassy she loves it!

Little A loves to roll onto her sides.  She prefers to be on her sides than her back and as soon as we set her down she immediately rolls onto one of her sides.

She also loves to hold onto fingers and if you wiggle out she'll replace her finger with yours so she has something to hold onto, lol!

She's a really good sleeper!  At night she sleeps 3-4 hours at a time and has a long nap during the day!  Mommy's loving it!

At her 1 month appointment she weighed 8 lbs and was 21 inches long!