Happiness

 One of the Young Women in our ward is a Photographer and volunteered to take newborn pictures of Declan to add to her portfolio. I happily agreed! She came over and took them when he was 6 days old- still pretty little! I could just eat him up! Thanks, T!  At one point, he was sleepy, so we wrapped him up and he fell fast asleep. Then we unwrapped him to take more pictures. After a while he was done though! She had planned a picture with him in a basket but we didn't get to it.  He has really long fingers and toes- we think he is going to be pretty tall! (His length is in the 75th percentile). What a sweet, little boy!

As I sit here, typing this, Baby LulLaby Radio is playing on Pandora and Declan is asleep in his chair- his little nose peeking out of his wrap (he is doing quite well eating and sleeping now! Knock on wood!). Wipes, a boppy, a swing and several blankets are spread across the room. Life sure changes with a baby around! But I am SO glad he is here! We took him to Church for the first time on Sunday and it felt so good to have everyone together. So good! Declan is almost 3 weeks old (this Thursday) and so, I am a little behind on blogging! We brought baby home to several VERY excited kids! It took us a lot longer than we thought to leave the hospital and the kids had been waiting at home most of the day for him to come (they had no school that day since it was Good Friday).   He wasn't too happy about being strapped into his carseat! The kids had made and decorated super cute Welcome banners for Declan. They also wrote cute messages in chalk on the front porch...

Maximilliano? Declan? Antony? I am thrilled to be on the hunt for a baby boy name but for the life of us, we cannot settle on just one name. We are at a loss for a good, strong, meaningful baby boy name. Let me emphasize WE- I have quite a few that I really like (Brigham, Ephraim, Bennett, James) and would use in a heartbeat. Josh, on the other hand, hasn't been able to persuaded in any direction.  And this is a team process. Me and Him.  With Elizabeth, we went through just a handful of names, and when I said "Elizabeth"- my Grandmother's name- we both agreed and felt that it was to be HER name. In fact, when we found out it was a girl, we called people and told them "We are having an Elizabeth!" It has been a perfect name for her (Elizabeth Renee- Renee after her Grandmother on Josh's side) and fits her perfectly (don't all babies names fit that perfectly after awhile? Well, most of them!) Ethan and Jonah were going to be 'Nathaniel...

**With Email, Facebook and Instagram, you probably know already but I have to post it here as well!**   Oh, Boy! It's a BOY! Baby at 18 weeks. Isn't he cute? We've gotten a few comments that  he looks  like one of  us already- pretty amazing, huh? We went into the ultrasound feeling that it was a boy and we saw it pretty quickly- he was not shy at all! We are super excited! The ultrasound was really long- over an hour- since I am 35 and he was not being very cooperative.  I still had my headache *which turned out to be a sinus infection and after I FINALLY went to the Dr- I didn't think they could give me anything- and started on antiobiotics I feel a ton better!* so the ultrasound was a little uncomfortable. We had never seen a 3D ultrasound (which was only a few minutes of it but still very cool) and that was super neat. At one point, while the little man- "our little kicker" she called him (he moves around a ton already at 18 weeks)- was k...

  Can you see that precious smile? Baby Abbott at 12 weeks. Hey, bloggers! I am finally feeling better! I hit 12 weeks a week and a half ago and began to start feeling better soon after that. That Sunday I was able to do everything I normally need to do! Hooray!! I still need to eat more often, but that is doable!   Crazy Hair & Mustache Day!   You can't see Elizabeth's hair very well- but those are cupcakes back there- with a cherry on top! So...I've decided to change my blog up a bit. From now on, this blog is going to be more of a monthly, Family Update blog. Look for a blog post the beginning of each month.This way, if I ever make this blog into a book, it will be a lot shorter and a bit more concise. Enjoy!