6 Years

My hubby and I celebrated 6 years of marriage yesterday on August 21. I want to tell him how much I love him and how blessed I feel to be married to such a handsome, silly, smart, nerdy and wonderful man! Look, honey, we were just babies back then!

James, I adore you and am so happy that you are still my best friend!

Welcome Stuart Louis Ondricek!

My sister Amanda had her baby! They came to visit us this week (at only 5 days old). I adore him and his sweet face!

The proud parents

Good job, Amanda!

Thanks for coming to visit us!

Summer Visits

We have had lots of family in town this week! My grandma and grandpa live in SLC and my parents, Karla, Amanda and Jared were in Utah this week!

Amanda, Jared, my parents, James and I played games

Lily meets her grandpa

Lily and grandpa

Cousins: Amanda's Stuart, Lily and Karla's Barrett
5 days old, 7 weeks old and 6 months old
I thought Lily was still a tiny newborn, but look how she's grown!

4 Generations: Lily, her mom (Myself), her grandma (Beverly Stephenson) and her great-grandma (Joyce Stephenson)

Lily and her great-grandma

Lily and her great-grandpa (Loran Stephenson)

My dad showing off a few of his grandkids

Amanda's baby Stuart and our Lily

Amanda and myself with her baby Stuart

4 generations:
My grandparents, my parents, myself and Lily

Lunch at Sizzler with the family

My parents, Karla, her baby Barrett, Amanda and Jared and their baby Stuart and myself

Photo Shoot

Lily was looking really cute and I thought I'd share.

So, this picture MIGHT just be my favorite picture ever taken of Lily. She's getting these cheeks that are so lovable. I absolutely love them. I hope you all love them, too!

Lily Smiles for Real!

Today was the first time that Lily smiled at me for real! She smiles lots just as she is falling asleep and she's usually wearing a pleasant face when I talk to her. Today I was singing to her and she straight up smiled at me! I tried to get a good picture of it, but these are the best I was able to get.

Live Action Lily

I thought I'd share some video so you can see how sweet our baby's countenance has been as she gets older. I seriously love this child.

Grammy and Grandma

James' mom came to stay with us after Lily was born. (My sister, Marcia, was also due early in July and my mom was with her. Since she's married to James' brother, we had to share the same two people!) "Grammy," as she's known, was wonderfully helpful! She excels at playing with Lily in developmentally appropriate ways, she cooked yummy meals that we can never afford (steak!) and she even took Lily a few nights and just brought her in to me when she needed to eat. We were so lucky to have her and we love her so much!

This week, my mom has been with us! She's "Grandma." She has also been wonderful! She has a pretty OCD cleaning habit and has cleaned our house in places that probably haven't seen a rag for years. My fridge, tub and walls look whiter than ever. For some reason she loves to change diapers, too. And she also treated us to dinner and a movie! We're so glad she could stay with us for almost 2 weeks and we love her very much!

James and I are so blessed to have been born of goodly parents! Thanks to mom Schmitt and mom Stephenson for the help, the companionship and your joyful love of Lily!

Real Tears

I thought I'd post that Lily "got her tears" today. I was unaware of this before, but babies don't have functioning tear ducts when they are born so they can't cry real tears. Well, today we saw the first actual liquid tears come out of her eyes. Hopefully she won't need them too much.

PS I know I'm a jerk of a mom when I take a picture of my baby crying instead of comforting her, but you should all know she was totally fine and this was a very momentary sadness.

Lily Blessed

Lily was actually really sick with reflux on her blessing day, so she was sad when I took her picture.

Here are a few of the people who were able to attend the blessing! We had lots of friends who had to run after the blessing as well. Thank you to all those who celebrated with us!

She was so beautiful in her blessing dress! Thanks, Grammy Schmitt!

Here are some of the things she was blessed with:

She was named Lily Colima Schmitt on the records of our church. James blessed her with good parents that would love her and raise her up in the church. He blessed her with faith and that she would be able to learn and grow and have a strong testimony. He blessed her that she would participate in the church and serve others. He blessed her that people would be able to see her and recognize what a special person she is, and love her. He blessed her with mental and physical health. Finally, he blessed her that through her faith these blessings would be sealed upon her.

It was wonderful and we could all hear the love James has for Lily.