PEPS and Portland and a Polka - 6 Weeks Old!

This week we joined a PEPS group! PEPS is a Program for Early Parent Support. We had our first meeting on Tuesday. We met our group leader, Krystal, and other moms and couples that all have babies between 0-3 months. We will meet each week for 2 hours for 12 weeks, and then hopefully continue to meet with our group regularly after that! Lots of people say they still get together with their PEPS group for years! We really liked our group, and all the families live around our area. Hurray! One of the couples we even already knew from Hypnobirthing! This week we talked about our "arrival stories" (birth stories for everyone in our group), and everyone's was different and really interesting! Next week we host the group at our house. We took a picture of all the babies. They were so adorable wiggling around! Lily was perfectly still listening to all the commotion of the babies around her...so funny!

 It looks like Lily's punching Wesley in the head! If only she had that much control over those hands...

 This week we also took our first walks with the stroller! I'm so happy. I was getting desperate to be able to walk for actual exercise, so we are fudging the 3 month suggestion a little. We managed to dodge some serious rainstorms in order to try it out this week. So far so good!

This week Lily has been really interested in sounds and singing. Here she is listening intently to our PEPS friend Wesley's video of him trying to roll over and making the cutest squeaks! We've been dancing, singing, and listening to lots of different kinds of music (apparently Lily loves electronica!). We also think we are starting to see some smiling...she busted out a big one while listening to Wes' video. It's still hard to tell if it's the real thing, but it's fun anyway!

Watch out Portland, Lily is making her first trip! Can you believe we needed so much stuff for one small girl just for one night? Luckily, both of the girls did great in the car. We had a fantastic time meeting Great Grandma Dorothy and Great Grandpa Bert and lots of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Thank you Aunt Chris and Uncle Chris for hosting such a great party!

 It's not a party without the Hokie-Pokie and a good polka! Yes, Lily, you are a part of this crazy family. We can't wait for the next party. See you all soon!

Happy Birthday from Lily!

Lily is celebrating two special birthdays this week!

 Happy Birthday Great-Grandma Dorothy! We can't wait to see you on Saturday!


Tomorrow is Great-Grandpa Friesen's birthday! Happy Birthday!


Lily is so lucky to have so many Great-Grandparents!

Lily's Good Looks

I think I've determined where Lily's good looks came from!

Lily - 2 Weeks

Jason - 2 weeks

Lily - 4 weeks

Jason - 4 weeks

Maybe a little bit from Mom, too. We can't wait for that first smile!

Michal - 3 months

Rachel and Michal

I've raided Jason's baby book (thanks, Nan!). Here are some more cute ones of Jason. I think she is going to be adorable, just like her Daddy!

Jason -12 weeks (Check out that hair color! Look familiar??)

Jason - 6 months

Jason - One Year

Jason - Two Years (is this adorable or what???)

March Roars in like a Lion...5 weeks!

This week Lily and I checked out the library's "Baby and Me" Storytime. This is how excited Lily was on the way. And yup, still in pajamas (9:30 is kind of early for us!). All the toddlers loved checking out Lily (babeeeee!), and we sang, rocked, and listened to a story. It was great!

We had a great visit from Alicia and Jackson (who is only one day older than Kenley!). Jackson was very interested in Lily, and wanted her to do all kinds of things (like wake up, get out of the blanket, walk, etc).

This adorable outfit is a hand-me-down from Kenley. Check out pics of Kenley in this outfit here! So cute!

We also finally went to Baby Diaper Service 101 (which they cancelled in January, we cancelled in February when Lily came early, so we finally made it in March!). We signed up for 60 weeks of diaper service! That's a lot of diapers! Luckily we had some lovely gifts from thoughtful friends that helped us out a ton. We are very excited about Lily's relatively low cardon footprint, and we are even more excited to have someone else wash our diapers (washing our own has been a LOT of work!). We will have the same service that mom had for Rachel and I when we were babies, too!

One month old: Lots of visitors, a birthday, and a photoshoot!

Lily is 1 month old! This week Jason noticed that she is beginning to follow things with her eyes, mostly his fingers as they move across his face. She also loves to bounce, and we occasionally catch her pulling her own hair. We've been doing a lot of dancing and singing (she think the songs Daddy makes up are dorky but entertaining). She is getting MUCH better in the car...phew! She is a snuggly bug!

 We had a snow day this week! Actually, all kinds of weird weather. But it gave us a chance to wear this super cute duck suit to Snugglers on Wednesday and our playdate on Thursday!

 Last weekend Lily got to meet Aunt Chris, Cousin Noah, and Aunt Mary!

 For Bebe's birthday we went out to brunch at Anthony's in Kirkland. Finally a chance to wear the cute head band Bebe gave us on the day we found out Lily was a girl! We all laughed when Megan was helping carry Lily to the car and Kenley had a total meltdown: "But that's MY new baby cousin!!"

 Three weeks is rumored to be the best time to start a bottle. Luckily Lily took to it no problem! Big cousin Kenley couldn't wait to help feed Baby Lily!

 This week Lily took her first nap in her crib! She loves it, can't you tell?

  On Sunday we had our 1 month old photo shoot. Here are some out takes!

So tired of taking pictures...