Baby Blessing

I can't believe that I haven't posted these sooner. I uploaded them right after the blessing and then just left the post in my draft file. So sorry. I waited because we were going to take a picture of the little lady all by herself in her blessing dress (which we forgot to do on the actual day), but since we have still yet to do that, I figured I will go ahead and post these and add that later.

Here we are with the little runt not looking at the camera.



In our church, we like to have the fathers give the babies a name and a blessing shortly after they are born. We had hers on March 15th, in honor of Erika's 29th birthday :) and so that Aaron's family could come over from Idaho for it. We were lucky enough to have all the Anderson crew here for the long weekend, except for Brady who is on a mission in North Carolina. For more pics of their visit, you can ceck out my facebook.

Aaron's aunt and uncle also drove all the way down from Camano Island...in the SNOW at the crack of dawn Sunday morning, so we were glad to have them there as well.



Now here's a shot of the Baria clan, minus Ben and Liz who were away at school. You can see that Jadyn was having a bit of a fit getting her picture taken for some reason (usually her favorite thing), so we're a bit rushed!!



And here is the yummy spread of food at the brunch at our house afterward...and Jenn and Michelle who did such a great job making it look so pretty. You guys are the best!!

We are so grateful to have such a cute little papoose and thank our family for coming and helping us celebrate her birth. Can't believe she is three months already!!!

Adelyn's First Road Trip

Last weekend Aaron had an event in Portland, so Adelyn and I decided to go along and make an adventure out of it. We had never been to Washington Park that overlooks the city, so here we are in the Japanese Gardens there.



According to the Japanese Ambassador, these are rated the best Japanese Gardens outside of Japan. They were really pretty, but I'm sure would have been even nicer (and more worth the money) if we had gone a little later when things were in bloom.

As you can see, it was a gorgeous day and we were able to catch an awesome glimpse of Mt. Adams. It isn't every day in the Pacific Northwest that the clouds allow that sort of thing, so I thought I'd share it.

Saturday after Aaron finished working we decided to take a little scenic drive to give Adelyn her first look at the Pacific Ocean. Here we are at Cannon Beach, where Goonies was filmed.



We didn't get a picture of the big Haystack--it was freezing cold and Adelyn wasn't enjoying the blustering wind. All in all though, she was a good sport on her first road trip, though I couldn't get a smile out of her, here is the little cutie close up.

Not So Secret Obsessions

I saw this picture on facebook and of course had to click on it and find out what it was all about. Apparently someone has been kind enough to set up a facebook account for The Chocolate Chip Cookie. I immediately became a fan.



Most of you know that I have a cookie obsession--they are my favorite dessert by a long shot and I find every excuse to bake them. The chocolate chip cookie's page has a link to an article in the New York Times about some tricks to making the perfect cookie. I thought I would share it with all you bakers out there. Have fun experimenting!!

Our New Home

Some of you have already heard, but some of you haven't, so I thought I would share the good news with everyone...we are officially homeowners!! We have been shopping for awhile, and a LONG time ago back in August we put an offer on a place that we liked in Olympia, WA. Like so many of the homes on the market these days, it was a short sale, which really means it's going to take a long time. But I'm happy to say that our perseverance paid off and we got it!!

Here is a picture of it the snowy day that we had the home inspection.



We looked at a lot of other places, but in those five months of waiting, we never found anything we felt better about. And after five months of waiting, we heard from our realtor on a Friday night that we were okay to move in the next day if we wanted to even though everything wasn't final. So we took the challenge, started packing at 5 pm that day and had our stuff in the garage of the new place by seven pm the next night. Yeah, that was an experience that I hope to never repeat.

My parents were nice enough to let us crash with them while we were waiting for all the paperwork to be finalized. We took advantage of that time to paint the hideously pink walls a more soothing color, and give Adelyn some bonding time with all the relatives. Then we signed the papers on Friday, moved in on Saturday (happy Valentine's!!), and got the word that every last thing is said and done this afternoon.

Now if we could only get all our boxes unpacked...I'll post more pictures and have all you locals over when we finally get settled in.

Six Weeks and Smiles

To the long distance grandparents, aunts, and uncles, I'm sorry we have slacked in our posting of cute pics. Things have been a little crazy around here the past couple of weeks. I'll post more about the craziness soon, but I wanted to get some pictures up of Adelyn for you. I can't believe she is six weeks old today!! I thought I would help her celebrate by sharing her latest development with you...smiling!!

This is the day I decided she was smiling for real...and not just from gas or drifting off to sleep. It was about two weeks ago when she was about a month old and she was sitting on my lap and would smile everytime I touched her cheek or nose.



This is later that same day when Aaron was playing with her and confirmed my conclusions about her smiles being for REAL.



Here is a week after that...half smiling...half ready to give a knock out punch. She's a tough girl, I tell you what!



Adorable!



We decided we needed more pics of the three of us, so Michelle helped us out on Sunday. It was Adelyn's first time to wear a dress to church and I'm sure she loved it, despite her tights being way too big.

Videos of Adelyn

Due to popular demand we're putting up a couple videos of Adelyn. Pretty much all we've been doing for the past 2 1/2 weeks is sleeping, feeding, playing with Adelyn...sleeping, feeding...

It's fun though! We hope you like the videos!

This one is one of her just kicking it on Daddy's lap

Daddy does work out's with her every day and her she is preparing for her first push-up!

Baby Pics

First of all, I have to tell you that Jenn posted some more good pictures on her blog, so you should check those out; I promise more good times with the niece's shots.

We thought it would be fun now that we have shown off pics of our new little baby to post some of our own baby pictures so you could more easily compare. I don't think I really need to tell you which is which. Many people have been saying that Adelyn has my cheeks and I thought this picture would help you see just how big my cheeks really were...don't be jealous!





And here is one of the little precious at five days old for ease of comparison--starting to look less scrunched by that painful trip down the birth canal.



And here she is looking up at mommy.