Sunday, September 25, 2011

babies are a blessing

Dear Jacob,

Today was a special day for you. It's a tradition in our church to give new babies a name for the church records and a blessing in front of the congregation, and today your daddy gave you yours. You are too little yet to remember it, so I'll do my best to record the event so some day you will see these pictures and read these words and know what an important little person you are to our family already.

Love, Mom


Rob with Jacob this morning.

Jacob wore these little shoes today.
They were Rob's when he was a baby, and Rob's mom recently gave them to us, so I wanted to use them on this special day. I'm glad Jacob's feet weren't any bigger! They just fit him.

Oh dear. We tried to get a good family photo.
This was the best of the bunch.

Rob gave the following blessing and was joined by Chris Henley, Danny Devine, and our Bishopric.

Our Father in Heaven, by the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood and in the name of Jesus Christ, we come before Thee to give this baby a name and a blessing. The name by which he shall be known is Jacob Murray Anderson.

Jacob, you have come into this world in a time of strong confusion and chaos, when many will seek to mislead you. We wish to bless you with a desire to know the good things of the gospel. We bless you with a desire to study the scriptures and the words of the prophets. We bless you with a desire to learn the gospel and share it with others. We bless you to have a desire to serve a mission and to be prepared to go to the temple and be endowed with power from on high. We bless you, that when the time comes, you will seek a wife and be married for time and all eternity. Jacob, we bless you that you will seek to be a peacemaker and to be an example to your family.

We bless you with these, and all other blessings which your Father in Heaven might bestow upon you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

This post is brought to you by the number 3.

Toby turned three this weekend!

He is still my beautiful boy with the big brown eyes.

He asked for a blue cake with fish on it.
I made this to (try) to look like an aquarium. Toby really liked it, so I guess it was a success.

We had just a couple of Toby's new little friends over for dinner and cake. And we got Toby 3 goldfish for his present. He gave them all names that start with T, (his favorite letter,) Tiny, Tubby, and Todd. So far they are all still alive. :)

3 little monkeys.

Birthday interview with Toby:
What is your favorite color? Blue.
What is your favorite food? A hot dog. And corn on the cob too.
What do you like to play? Balls.
What's your favorite animal? Fishy.
What's your favorite movie? A monster movie. (Monsters vs. Aliens)
What's your favorite song? Lullaby. (After some digging I found he means "Rockabye baby...")
What do you want to be when you grow up? I wanna build bridges.
What's your favorite thing to do with Charlotte? When Charlotte plays in my room.
What's your favorite thing to do with Jacob? Getting his pacifier for him.

We are so glad to have Toby as part of our family. He is very loving, gentle, kind, and polite. He can recognize most of the letters of the alphabet now and can almost write his name. (The letter B is arch nemesis at the moment, so he skips it and writes T-O-Y instead.) He spends HOURS building things and always wants to help dad work in the yard. Our Little Man wants to do anything that is 'grown-up' and can be quite stubborn about it.

We love you Tobs. ;)

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

time flies

I wish I could say that I haven't blogged in the past three weeks because I have been lounging around and soaking in all the newborn cuddles... but the truth is that life is rarely that simple, is it? Take a deep breath and sit back and relax, because here are just a few photos and explanations of what we have been up to since our bouncing baby boy was born.

Charlotte started ballet at Columbia County Ballet.
She loves going to class every week and coming home to show me what she has learned every day until she has class again. She has dreamed of doing something like this and I am thrilled to see her so happy. :)

Not to be outdone- Toby is a budding engineer.
He was trying to build a 'bridge' across the legs of the highchair, but the magnets were too weak, so he came up with the idea of building this support structure. lol He is really very clever with mechanical projects and will spend buckets of time building and tinkering.

I started using a produce co-op called Bountiful Baskets.
The first week I came home with broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, honey dew, pears, oranges, and bananas. The next week was a completely different assortment. I can't wait to see what's next! We are eating a LOT of fruits and veggies these days!

Of course there has been bonding time with baby Jacob.

And Toby has embraced his big brother-hood and had his first diaper free day today!

Rob's mom came for a week long visit and we all enjoyed being a little spoiled by "Grandma" as she cooked, cleaned, babysat, and helped make life easier in a million small ways.

Also, the day Jacob was born, Rob's Grandpa Anderson (in Atlanta) fell and hit his head. He was not taken to the hospital that evening, and by the next morning was in a coma that he never awoke from. He passed away on August 30th and the past weeks have been a bittersweet time of visiting with family and celebrating a kind, generous family man's life, and of course of mourning for his loss. We did enjoy the time we had with Rob's dad (above with Jakey and Rob,) sisters, brother, in-laws, and a few of his 80-something (I'm estimating) cousins, and are glad we happen to be living just a few hours away at this time.

Also, Rob threw his back out and needed an MRI and a bit of downtime himself, and Monday would have been my mom's 69th birthday, had she not passed away 3 years ago. So... we've had a few things on our plates. It's completely dorky, but many times lately I have thought of a quote from Ferris Bueller's Day Off-- "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." So, here's to taking a deep breath, and pausing to appreciate all of our many, many blessings. :)

on the catwalk

Just after Jacob was born we had a phone call from Nicole Bolinger. We had met a few weeks previously at church, and her family is new to the area as well. She asked if she could come by and take some photos of Jacob for practice shooting infants. "Sweet! Free photos!" ;) So here are a few of my favorite 1 week old shots of Jacob- our 'model' baby.