Blessing Day

Since we knew Cal was going to have to wait longer to meet Anabelle and we knew we wanted to have family in town for her blessing day, we decided to bless Anabelle during Grandma and Grandpa Broadbent's visit in November.  We also took too long to pick a dress for her to wear and couldn't find one that we loved, so grandma offered to sew one for her instead.  We picked out a pattern and some fabric and she worked really hard and it turned out super cute!!  I wanted a more modern looking one than old, long, beaded and lace ones, so this made me so happy!

 I made her headband out of some extra dress fabric too so that was kinda fun and we were ready to go!  The white blanket we used that day was made by her Great-grandma Gibson who knitted baby blankets for each of her grandkids to use for their babies before she had passed away.  I loved my grandma very much and miss her, so it meant a lot to me! 

 Dad was so nervous about the blessing and if Anabelle would cry, that he forgot to ask the Bishop to join the circle:)  He thought we would join in automatically.  Other than that, it went great and Kyle did a really good job and Anabelle was happy.

 Until.... we tried to take pictures with her!  Every time we tried to pose for one, she would start crying and just wanted to be asleep.  Probably had something to do with us pulling her binki out:)  That didn't exactly improve the quality of the family picture. 

 Haha what sad face!

Hooray for Grandpa!

Poor Grandpa was so sad that he had to wait this long to meet his first grand daughter and it wasn't easy for Kyle either.  But in the end we were just happy and relieved that he was healthy and healing after our little scare!  We were so excited when he was ready to come out and meet her!

If you look closely, you can see that Grandpa's hand/arm were still getting better, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from some snuggle time with Anabelle!

 The weather was still so great for November!  We got to do lots of fun outdoor activities while they visited.

Including another day at the beach.  Gotta love that!

 Grandpa and Anabelle enjoying the shade for a rest.

 We even got to take advantage of the free babysitting and get out for a swim together!  Since I am too afraid to get in the ocean alone, this was the perfect time to enjoy the amazing weather:)

 More picture taking by grandma.  I just like Anabelle in this picture!

 I love how Stephanie looks super happy in this picture.  Babies!!:)

 We had a lot of fun during their visit as always, but it was great to have Cal come and be back to himself after all the worrying we had been doing about his health!  It was pretty scary for a while there and all I could do was hope that we wouldn't be welcoming a new life into our family while being forced to say goodbye to another that we weren't ready for!

Two Eskimos and a Penguin

 Believe it or not, Kyle and I got this little penguin costume before I was even pregnant.  Years before Anabelle in fact.  We just found it on sale at the store our first year of marriage and thought it might be a fun thing to save for a future kiddo.  Then we realized that the chances of timing things right for a baby to fit in this was slim.  Guess we got lucky with this one because she is one cute penguin:)

 I on the other hand, have always been challenged in the costume department and always have the hardest time coming up with something fun.  Which is where the two eskimos come in to play.  We figure a family theme is popular these days and so we went with it.  With such a new baby and no big plans, our only halloween festivities consisted of a ward trunk or treat.  Kyle was such a trooper and wore one of MY fury vests and even let me slather on some eyeliner to complete the eskimo look.  The best part was getting asked if we were egyptians all night long.

But we had the candy and some make-shift trunk decorations and joined in the fun!  In the end we were glad we had some way of being a part of the festivities and were glad that Anabelle got to sport the long awaited costume after all.

In the end we were completely satisfied with our costume selection as everyone else seemed to be freezing cold or hiding their babies in their cars while we were perfectly toasty and Anabelle took a little snooze in her sleeping bag-esk attire:)

Beach Baby

Oct. 27th- just one day past a month old we decided to take Anabelle to the beach for the first time.  We were still having some of that amazing fall weather and it was hot out!  I just remember thinking that I didn't want her to be too hot even in the shade and that she would enjoy the fresh air in her swimsuit.  The only one she had was 3-6 mo. but this big girl filled out quite well:)

 Kyle went that morning to get this awesome shade tent for us and it worked out perfectly!  It was nice to feel like we had our own little space out in the middle of the open beach.

 We had never seen this happen before.  Or else we just didn't pay attention to it.  But the whole beach was covered in these tiny little clam shell things.  I still can't believe how many there were.  I felt a little bad too because you could see they were alive and you could help but walk all over them.

 And we found sand dollars all over which we hadn't seen before.  We kept thinking we had found the smallest one, and then we would beat that with another.

She was so good and we loved being able to get back to the beach and share one of favorite activities here with her!  It was the first of many beach days to come!

Oh How I Adore You!

If you take pictures like we do, then you know how crazy hard it is for me to sort through and pick just a few to blog about! I have the hardest time not wanting to post every picture I find.  I guess it doesn't help that I think my baby is SO cute and that EVERY photo needs to displayed:)  I tried to document every little milestone (basically every day) and all the memories are so fun! Here are just a few from her "tiny phase" that I loved so much!

Some people say they love it when they pass the newborn phase because they start to smile and respond.  But somehow Anabelle always seemed to have a smile for us and I loved it so much! I love how she looks so small all curled up in her dads arms.

 I was really excited to get her cute tights and leggings. Love that cute bum!!

This was on her first trip out when we went to Malibu.

Kyle had taken these on his phone in the hospital so I didn't even seem them for a long time.  But when I finally discovered them, they were two of my most favorites!

Along Came an Aunt

We can't forget that Grandma didn't come alone.  Yes grandpa was stuck at home, but we were super lucky to have Aunt Ashley join the party a few days later.  She flew in from Rexburg to meet Anabelle and go to a best friend's wedding up in Santa Barbara.  In order to maximize time together, we decided to make the trip up there to go along.  Anabelle's first road trip!  It really did actually take longer than we thought to get there, but Anabelle did amazingly well the whole trip!  They are such good troopers when they sleep 90% of the day:)

Even though she spent most of the night asleep in her blanky, she had lots of admirers and looked super adorable in her little pink tool dress and black sweater!

Ashley and Grandma were very patient with us as I was still pretty much in recovery mode and not super "get out and go" yet, but we did go down to the pier for Anabelle's first time and we ate some of their delicious ice cream from the Soda Shop.

We were just happy she could come meet her niece and play for the weekend and Anabelle got a lot of good snuggle time!