Alice's Baby Blessing

In our church, we give babies a "baby blessing". This is basically just a time to give the baby a name and a little blessing as they are new to this world. It is not a christening or baptism. It is a sweet little moment and Tyler gave her a lovely blessing. It does not really matter what they wear but I had some baby clothes of my grandma's that I repaired and thought it would be special for Alice to be blessed in them. 

 We picked the name Alice mostly because it fit her so well when we saw her. We also like "Alice in Wonderland", and the name Alice is all over in several books, including Harry Potter. We picked Juliet for both of our families. Tyler's grandpa's name is Julius and Tyler has an aunt Julie. I have a great grandma Julia, a great aunt Julie and a cousin Julie. So we wanted to incorporate some form of Julia/Julie/Julius into her middle name and Juliet fit well with Alice. I really love the name Alice Juliet.

 These are shoes that were mine as a baby!

i

 Alice kept sticking her tongue out because of the wind possibly.

This picture is my favorite! 

Family Pictures

I am trying to get all caught up on blog posts since I got so behind in the whirlwind of moving. So all my posts are a bit dated and still from Utah. I will get to where we are at soon! 

In our last week in Utah, my friend, Becky, kindly took some family pictures for us. It was just a quick little photo shoot, but she got some good ones. We took some family pictures before we left Virginia as well. It is nice to have pictures from each place we've lived.

This one just might be my favorite:

 Don't mess with the Laurent girls. Haha!

Harry Potter Party

Becky and I hosted our annual Harry Potter party as usual. However, this year we were both in the process of moving and this was also to be our last time having the party together. We were both rather busy, but thanks to some other friends we were able to pull it together. We had a lovely time doing trivia, munching on Harry Potter themed food, and playing "pin the pig tail on Dudley" ( a great idea from my friend Lori).

Elanor was a merperson from the lake this year. I just used material I already had and I think it turned out pretty good, albeit she does not look fierce. We forgot a spear (at least she did have a rock necklace).

 This picture makes me laugh! Im not sure why she did this pose but at least you can see the green in her hair.

Alice was a mandrake and played the part well.

 I was Professor Sprout (my hat did stick up and have patches, but I don't have a picture with it like that!), and Tyler was Harry.

Tyler did a great job drawing Dudley and the kids really loved playing this game!

I sadly do not have a picture of Becky and I, but we did have a lot go fun and stayed up late with some other die-hard fans playing trivia (we write our own questions). We have had fun over these past three years hosting Harry Potter parties together and I will really miss doing them with her. It was a wonderful thing that the Pitchers moved in above us. Becky is a kindred spirit and I will miss her.

4 Months...a little late.

Alice was 4 months on July 31st! 

She was 11 pounds 6 ounces (5th%)

and

23 inches (also in 5th%).

I cannot remember her head circumference, but it was small. Alice is on the charts now, which is a big step for her. She is gaining weight and is looking like a proper chubby baby!

 She coos and squeals and smiles all the time. She really has the best smile! Alice also starts crying out of the blue when she had been happy and cooing a second before. I'm not sure what that is about. Her cry is still incredibly loud and often high pitched. However, she easily smiles and will do so at anyone.

She loves her parents and also really loves Elanor. They are so very cute together! Alice has also been grabbing and holding things.

Alice has a great stare and can stare anyone down.

 She is still not sleeping through the night and her naps are still hard as well. However, we think she is pretty much one of the cutest babies, plus she is just so sweet.

 We took some family photos before we left Utah and here are a few cute ones of Alice:

 She can also do this awesome trick right now:

She is the sweetest, loveliest baby and I'm so happy that she is ours.