Lydia's Baby Blessing

The day of Lydia's baby blessing was beautiful.  It was so nice to have lots of family and friends around as we celebrated the beginning of Lydia's life.  She is wearing the same dress that Abby and Freebairn cousins Brynne and Brylie wore for their baby blessings and the same hat that lots of family on my side wore,  including me, and has the blanket made for Grandma Z's baby blessing.  I love when we can add more history to the family story!

Look at that proud big sister!

I love our beautiful, peace-bringing angel baby!  We are incredibly grateful for our Lydia!

Ohhh

This is what happens almost every night after we put Sam in bed:

(from the top of the stairs)
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy..." 
"Yes, Sam?"
Then comes the excuse for getting up (water, lost car, something scary, etc).  We say to go back to bed.
"Ohhhh!"  (the whiny, that's not fair sort of oh)

Then the slow sliding down the stairs, thinking if he moves slowly we won't hear the bump of his body on each stair.
"Sam, what do you need?"
"Mommy lay down with you?"
"In a minute, buddy"
"Ohhhh!  I'm sad now!"

You gotta love and hate 2 and even feel both at the same time.

Happy Fathers Day, etc

We love you, Roy and Far Far and Baba Z!  Thanks for being great dads!                                                                                               (This DAD letter idea idea was stolen from Becky and I've been waiting for 2 years to use it.  Thank goodness for a creative sister!)

We blessed Lydia last weekend and it was so nice to have both sets of grandparents in town for the occasion.  The baby blessing will have it's own post filled with pictures, but here's a sneak peek of three generations on my side.

It's really lame that of the five full days my parents were here I took just one picture on my camera.  I'm so bad.  But we had a great time and visited Hidden Pond (aka "Turtle Park" in our family), the zoo, the sprayground, parks, watched "Rio", went shopping (Freebairn female tradition), and had a fun time.  

Please note that all my kids are wearing orange stripes.  Yes, we are that coordinated...or it was just a good day for orange. :)

And on a completely unrelated note, we wrapped up preschool for the year with our good friends.  It was such a fun group of preschoolers and their wild, crazy, fun younger brothers!  Abby was spoiled with great lessons, fun field trips, and a set time with friends each week.  She loved it.  Sam got to have fun playing with other boys and learn how to play with friends.  We wrapped up the school year with a trip to River Farm Garden one week and a swim time the next week.  I love River Farm!  Check out these cute kids!  

   

 Abby in her natural state, surrounded by friends. :)

 Sam in the mud.  Of course.

 Sweet Lydia.  How can you not fall immediately in love with that face?

Memorial Day Fun

We finally got a picture with all 5 of us in it!  Aren't we cute? :)

We kicked off summer by doing the traditional activities of beach, pool, and BBQ.  I loved it!  It's so nice to be able to spend time outside with family!

Okay, Sam is just looking so grown up these days.  Look at him! 

 Roy spent all his pool time helping one or two kids swim (or cart them around, as the case may be)

 Proof that Lydia did in fact join us for the weekend :)

On Tuesday we headed up to Baltimore and met up with two of my BYU roommates and their families.  It was so fun to see Steph and Lori again!  It's been way, way too long and it was fun to catch up, even in the sweltering heat.  Our kids got along, the two husbands in attendance got to chat, and it was so great to see each other again.  It's amazing how there are people in our lives where you are just like a family...that's how I feel about my group of BYU girls.  They are my sisters...it's always nice to have a few extra sisters around.