Monday, February 5 was the boys' 100th day of school. They both had festivities planned for the day, and the kindergarten students were supposed to dress up as centenarians. I picked up a bow tie, suspenders, and hat the week before to go with Benjy's costume, and he looked so cute as a little old man!
Benjy was also supposed to take 100 of something with him to school, so the kids made fruit loop necklaces on Sunday night with 100 Froot Loops.
Benjy's class:
Benjy with his friends Sophie and Nolan
Here are some pictures from the rest of the week:
Janie has a little sink bath
This is Jane with Oatmeal Jr. in her bassinet. Benjy put Oatmeal Jr. there to be a friend for Jane. He is named Oatmeal Jr. because Benjy has a larger dog that looks the same that is Oatmeal Sr., or just Oatmeal.
This is Oatmeal. Benjy loves this doggie.
This is a letter Benjy wrote to his teacher, Mrs. Erwin. It says, Mrs. Erwin, you're the best teacher ever you're the best.
Sweet sleeping Jane.
Emme and her friends at the playground after school. They buried Addison in the sand.
Jane on her playmat. She likes to lie there and look at the toys above her. She hasn't started reaching for them yet.
On Saturday, February 4, Eli was baptized. We are so proud of him and his decision to follow Jesus Christ, and so proud of the boy that he is. He is such a helpful and obedient son, a kind and loving older brother, and a respectful and considerate friend and student. We love our boy so much! Justin's parents came into town for the baptism and baby blessing, as did my dad. We had other family there as well, including my mom and siblings, Grandpa Herb and Grandma Ginny, and Janice and Ron Gneiting. Eli was baptized Saturday along with Ian Luna and Maya Miller, who also turned eight in January. Maya's aunt spoke on baptism and Dave spoke on the Holy Ghost. Teresa played the piano and the Lunas did a special musical number, so all the families got to contribute to the program. The baptisms took place in between the speakers, and Justin did a great job baptizing Eli (only one dunk). It was a sweet experience to see our oldest son be baptized and confirmed. Afterward, there were refreshments in the Young Womens room. I had my arms full with Jane the whole time so I didn't think to take pictures, which is my one regret from that day! Here are some other pictures I got that day, though. Jane in her dress the morning of the baptism:
The next day, Sunday, was Jane's baby blessing day. Ron and Janice came up from Parker again to be here for the blessing, and Stephen and Miranda came down from the mountains. My parents, grandparents, and Justin's parents were also there. There was a bit of a glitch in that my dad had forgotten to confirm a ride to the church (he stayed at a hotel). Sacrament meeting started and I went into a panic realizing everyone was there who was supposed to be except for my dad. Justin went up and whispered to the bishop that we needed to do the blessing at the end of the meeting instead of the beginning, and he went to pick up my dad. They arrived about half an hour later during testimony meeting. The bishop ended testimonies five minutes early so we could have the blessing. Jane started to fuss right before it was time to bless her, so I was very worried she might scream through the whole thing. However, once she got into Justin's arms she was a perfect angel, and Justin gave a very spiritual and powerful blessing. He blessed her to know that she is named after Grandma Janie Landgren, who was an amazing person and an instrument in bringing many people to the knowledge of the gospel.
Here is the only picture I got of Jane in her blessing dress. I really failed in the photography department that weekend!
I'm measuring life right now in terms of how old Jane is. We're now in her third week! I'm back to normal routine of drop off/pick up and making meals. I had such a nice two weeks of help that it hasn't been a difficult transition. I'm still taking it pretty easy in terms of what we do during the day; I'm trying to keep the errands and outings to a minimum. On Monday, Jessi came over to take some newborn pictures of Jane. I haven't gotten her pictures back yet, but I took some with my camera that turned out really cute. Jane was really awake for most of the shoot, so I borrowed Jessi's basket and got some pictures later on in the day when Jane was more sleepy.
Week 2 of Jane! Justin had to go back to work, but he was still able to drop the boys off in the morning. We also were still having meals brought over from Eli's classmates, so we got a nice two-week babymoon. It was tremendously helpful for me to be able to ease back into the routines of regular life. Here are some photos from Jane's second week:
Wearing a diaper from my baby shower. It's cute to see her little body scrunched up the way she was in the womb.
Some more diapers from my shower. My friends got pretty creative ;)
Jane is such a good baby. She really only seems to cry when something is wrong, and I am able to soothe her pretty easily by removing the annoying stimulus. From the time we brought her home, she has been sleeping for long stretches in the night. I had to set my alarm at night to wake her up for those first two weeks so that she wouldn't sleep through her feedings. I feel completely spoiled by Jane-- none of my other babies have been this easy. I'll definitely take it though, especially since I can't just "sleep when baby sleeps" like they say you should because I have a toddler running around!
Big sister is all smiles
My favorite way to snuggle my babies-- when they're asleep on my chest
Emme loves to hold Jane
We signed Eli up for chess club so that he would have something to do while Benjy has orchestra Mondays after school. He said he had a fun time and that he even beat someone (his friend Solly, who joined at the same time).
Bright eyes
The boys participated in the Oral Interpretation Festival at school. They each had to memorize a piece to perform in front of an audience and judges. They each chose poems from Shel Silverstein's Where the Sidewalk Ends and worked on their memorization and delivery for about a week before the performance on Thursday. We kind of got a late start on it with all the busy-ness of having a new baby, but they did a great job of getting it all done. Here is Eli on performance night with Solly:
Benjy and the other three kindergartners
The boys both did a fantastic job. The judges gave a few special awards, and Benjy got a ribbon for his performance. All of the kids who performed did an awesome job, and there were several kids who had really long selections. Justin and I were really impressed with the caliber of this event. It will definitely be an annual event for our family as long as we're at this school.
I took a couple videos of Jane during the week. It's hard to remember sometimes what a newborn looks and acts like, and I wanted to record it so I can remember. We have started calling her "squeaker" because she makes lots of funny squeaky noises.
I took this picture of little fashionista Emme on our way to Jane's 2 week appointment on Friday. She has a flair for making the most mismatched patterns look adorable (plus I couldn't get over the sunglasses on her hat).
Jane weighed in at 8 pounds 12 ounces, which is a pound above her birthweight. The doctors want babies to be back up to their birthweight by two weeks, so Jane went way above and beyond! It was nice to know she is getting the nourishment she needs. I hadn't been too worried about it because she seemed to be eating well and getting full, but it was nice to have that reassurance.
We had a "friend" birthday party for Eli on Saturday. He really had his heart set on having some friends celebrate with him, and since we had just had Jane, we decided to do the party away from our house. We did it at the Hyland Hills gymnastics center, which turned out to be a lot of fun. The kids had a (supervised) hour on the gymnastics equipment and then an hour for pizza, cake, and presents.
