Blessed

Here are some pics of Atticus and the two other babies blessed on the same day he was, Ruth Snow and Elana Mayer.  Oh, it's fun to have this little chubby guy around!  He coos and "talks" to us while smiling.

New Roof!

When we moved into our house two years ago, we knew we eventually needed to replace the roof.  After two years of debating how to do it, trying to come up with the money, and dreading the expense, we finally got our roof redone last week.  And despite having to go all the way down to the rafters and put on new boards, the crew we hired did it in only a day and a half!  Sometimes it really helps to have a small house.  What's more, they did an awesome job, leaving us with a beautiful new roof with good venting and totally cleaning up after themselves (I only found a few nails after they left).  We also got our gutters done, which only took two hours total!  So, if you need referrals for roofers and gutter guys who are really good, reliable, and inexpensive, give me a call.

More importantly, we also had a lovely Easter weekend.  The kids did a really fun egg hunt with Grandma Baker's ward in the huge, beautiful yard behind a neighbor's home.  Everyone loved it, especially since they divide up the kids by age so no older kids get to hog all the eggs.  Emerson, it appears, is moving out of the simple belief in holiday characters stage.  At the egg hunt, a member of Grandma's ward was wearing a big, fuzzy Easter Bunny costume. When we said, "Look, Emerson, it's the Easter Bunny," he replied, "No, that's just some guy in a dumb suit."

  Later, he observed a zipper on the back of the imitation bunny's costume and said, "See, you can see it's a suit right there.  And look, he has shoes!"  Oh, dear.

We also blessed Atticus in our church on Easter Sunday.  It was an absolutely beautiful day and I take it as a miracle that we were able to all get decked out in our Easter finest and make it to church 15 minutes early!  Atticus was one of three babies being blessed that day -- I and two other friends of mine in our ward had babies within 19 hours of each other.  Since Atticus was the youngest, he was the last to go, but miraculously none of the three babies cried.

 Tad was able to convey some special words from our Heavenly Father in his blessing and it was truly a spiritual occasion.  We had so many friends and family come to the blessing and our little gathering afterwards and we want to thank all of them for sharing our special day.

Atticus continues to grow like he's in a contest.  By his two-month appointment last week, he weighed in at 13 lbs. 4 oz. -- after getting down to 7 lbs. 9 oz. in the hospital.  He generally sleeps pretty well and is truly a mild, smily guy most of the time.  He especially likes to smile at me at 4 a.m. when I'm trying to handle our feeding session in a businesslike, though bleary-eyed manner.  I can't resist him and each time I get sucked into a smiling conversation back and forth.  Magical!

Stella continues to love all things princess, particularly her Cinderella cell phone, on which she pretends to have long conversations with Dad, Uncle Tim, and others.  She truly is Tad's little girl, completely sharing his sense of humor.  She calls everyone silly names like "Duckhead."  The other day, she, Tad and Emerson were in the back yard doing some cleanup.  She crossed the yard to the sandbox and upon reaching it triumphantly pumped her arms up and down above her head while 

shouting, "Yes, yes, yes!  I didn't step in any dog poop!"  And she loves to push Emerson's buttons, deliberately messing up a word in a song just to get on his nerves.

Emerson is currently immersed in the worlds of Bionicles (Lego-made gladiator creatures that can be reconfigured several ways) and Magic Treehouse books.  No, he's not reading the books on his own.  We read to him after he reads the chapter headings.  He starts soccer next week and loves his uniform, number 11 on the maroon team.  He's excited to start Kindergarten but is starting to realize his preschool friends won't go there with him and his Grandma won't be there to check on him (both realizations frequently accompanied by tears).

That's the update for now!