Blessing Photos

About a week after we blessed Coleman I took him down to Kiddie Kandids to have them take some "official blessing pictures". This is the only time I take my kids there (I do the rest of their pictures myself) because I have to get a picture of each of them with their little fancy chair in their blessing outfits. I'm actually not super thrilled with how they turned out. The girl who took them was very cute and nice, but she just didn't quite get it. Cole kept giggling at her and not once did she actually catch a picture of it! Anyway, it's probably illegal for me to post these images, but I paid for them and I'm giving credit so hopefully no one will arrest me.

This picture is the whole reason we did this!

My favorite one... isn't he the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I don't even really like this picture... BUT can you believe what a TUB he is becoming? He is so chubby I just want to squish him -- in a good way.

Coleman's Blessing Day

We blessed Cole in church on November 2nd, exactly 11 years to the day from when we blessed Max. I seriously can not believe how fast time has flown. It was a beautiful day and Chris gave a beautiful blessing. We are grateful to everyone who supported us and were there with us. It was the day after grandpa's funeral and we felt fortunate to have so many people who would not have been able to be there otherwise. After church we crammed everyone into our home for a brunch and enjoyed being with all the people we love the most. It was a wonderful way to cap off an emotional couple of weeks and a joy to take a day and celebrate the sweet spirit who has joined our family. We are so blessed to have Cole with us and are truly enjoying him. He is a wonderful addition to our home and we love his smiles and the happiness he brings into our home.

Our family... look at all of them!

Very proud parents with their adorable little boy.

This is almost everyone who came. (we're missing my brother Joel and his family, but they came later) Again, thank you ALL for coming and sharing this special day with us.

This is all the men who participated in the blessing. Coleman's cousin Matt, Uncle Mike, Grandpa Higbee, Dad, Grandpa Farnsworth, Uncle Sam, and Great Uncle Dallas.

Just for fun... the babies LOVE cousin Hunter so we took this cute shot of him holding Lizzie, Ana, Sarah and Afton.

Coleman, 2 1/2 weeks old

FINALLY!! Brace yourselves for a TON of pictures. I took these pics of Coleman waaaay back on Sep. 28th when he was about 2 1/2 weeks old. It was a little challenging because I was all by myself try to keep him content and balanced in the different set ups, get my camera settings right, hold the reflector and take the picture. It was pretty exhausting. I was inspired by the adorable pictures my cute cousin Shannon (an actual real life photographer) took of her adorable son, who is just a few weeks older than Coleman. Hers are much better than mine and you can see them here. Chris finally showed up and I was able to get some great shots of him with Coleman and he got a few of me. 

This isn't the greatest shot... his hand is blurry, but I was so excited to catch one of his first little smiles!

Father and Son.

Check out this awesome blanket my super talented and crafty Aunt Melanie made for Coleman. Can you believe it? It is made from Cashmere sweaters she got a DI! I seriously LOVE it!

Here I am... I love the profile shots so you can't see the huge "lack of sleep" bags under my eyes!

Precious little parts...

I just LOVE that sweet little face. He always has this really alert, knowing look in his eyes. 

Well, there they are! (How'd I do, Shannon?) It feels so good to finally have them posted. You won't believe how much he's changed since then and I'm glad to finally be back to blogging so you can see!

Brothers

Max is so happy to finally have a little brother. Even though they are 11 years apart I know they are going to be great friends. Max is a great kid and I am grateful Coleman has such a wonderful example to look up to and follow. I caught the boys doing a little bonding the other day and just had to take a few pics of them together. Max is already trying to teach him things like "high fives" and "pound" and always greets him with "what's up, dude". I see the beginning of a beautiful friendship here... I love it.

Coleman

It's amazing how quickly time flies. I cannot believe that Coleman is 3 weeks old today. We are enjoying him so much. He is such a sweet little baby and has already brought so much joy into our lives. We couldn't be happier that he is here. So, I posted some pictures the day he was born, but that's all you've seen of him. I'm sure you've all just been dying to see more and you're about to have all your dreams come true! In fact, you are probably about to have way more Coleman than you ever could have wished for. Enjoy!

Labor and Delivery

As I mentioned before, the labor and delivery went great. I have really easy deliveries and, for that, I am very grateful. Yes, we did have all our kids there. I never thought I would be "that" person, you know, that would have all her kids watch her deliver a child, but it was great. We actually had them all there when Afton was born too. I am really glad we let them be a part of it all and feel like it made it a lot more special for them. It does have its challenges... the wait can get a little boring and it is not fun dealing with bickering children while also dealing with labor pains, but we all made it through. I love some of the expressions on their faces in these pictures... priceless. At one point I had to ask Cassidy to stop making "disgusted" faces because it was too much for me to watch and Max chose the "G-rated" version and hung out by my head. Abby loved every minute of it (she wants to be a "baby doctor" someday- the kind that delivers babies) and actually coached me through some of it, cheering me on and telling me how great I was. Afton was the sweetest and was so concerned about little Coleman. Anyway, it was a great day and I'm glad we were all together.

The rest of his life... so far

Believe it or not I haven't taken that many pictures of Coleman (other than 1 planned "photo Shoot" I did a few days ago- look for those to be posted in the next day or so)... this is pretty much all of it. It starts about 30 minutes after he was born with the first sets of visitors, and goes through all the pics I have. I really didn't cut that much out. Must be that 4th child thing! It is interesting to watch them in order and see how much he has changed in the first weeks of life. He almost looks like a different baby from the beginning picture to the end. It's been fun to watch him change and wonder what he'll look like and what kind of personality he'll have. It's been a great 3 weeks and I'm looking forward to the next 3, and the next 3, and the next 3.... and taking LOTS of pictures!