Two Sundays ago we blessed Nathan. Both times Quinn has blessed our babies I have felt so grateful for the power of the priesthood, and so grateful that he holds it worthily. I don't think it will ever get old to me to hear him bless our children with the greatest desires of my heart for them.
Cait fell asleep in the car on the way home from church, so we took a picture without her and by the time she woke up Nathan was asleep, so this is all we got.
It turns out you can bless babies in just Sunday clothes, so instead of spending money on a blessing outfit he'll wear once (I've never liked hoarding clothes for sentimental value) we blessed him in the only Sunday outfit we have. It has a little vest but I couldn't bring myself to put it on him because it seemed like it would be so hot to wear all that in the summer!
Quinn's family all came down for it and we had a great day. It was a little far for my family to come, but they all got to be there for Caitlyn's blessing in Utah where it was a little far for Quinn's family to come, so we've been able to have both families for at least one blessing. :)
Last week was Caitlyn's 2nd birthday (holy toledo!). My beautiful friend
Joy Gardner told me once that her family has a tradition of putting a gift at the foot of the bed of the birthday boy/girl so that right when they wake up they see that their family remembered their birthday and wanted to make it special. Quinn and I want to take every opportunity to make our kids feel loved and cared about, so we decided to adopt that tradition. I didn't think the foot of the bed thing would work well for Cait at this age, so instead I put the gift by our bed since she always walks into our room with a big grin on her face when she wakes up each morning. Sure enough, in she came with a big smile first thing in the morning on her birthday, and I grabbed the present (an Elmo and Abby book) next to our bed and we made a big fuss about her being the birthday girl. It was fun!
We got her a little cinderella princess dress because I'm trying to remember to do more girly things with her, like give her jewelry and dress-up clothes -- stuff I couldn't care less about but think I should at least give her the opportunity to care about if she wants to.
We took her to Souplantation for dinner (no waiting for her order, she gets to run around the healthy buffet picking out what she wants to eat -- what's not to like?) and afterward gave her one more present, a Mr. Potato head set.
On the way home from dinner Quinn said, "Well, Happy Birthday Cait! Have you had a fun birthday?" And Caitlyn replied, "No! I don't birthday anymore!" which I thought was quite a humorously classic thing for a 2-year-old to say on her birthday. :)
Here's Caitlyn on her first birthday:
Isn't it amazing what happens in one year for a baby? She actually has some hair now! She can also walk (mostly run -- well actually, mostly jump since she LOVES jumping around), talk, sing, tease (and then say with a big smile, "just tease!"), count, say her alphabet sounds, give the biggest hugs and kisses ever, be a little mama to her baby brother, and the list goes on and on!
So here's to two great years and two sweet babies, and many more to come! (Meaning years, not babies.)
