6 Weeks old

Adrielle, it feels like you are growing up so quickly. You have become much more aware of everything that is going on with your body and in your surroundings. You are a great communicator and you've gotten much better at letting us know what you are going through and what you need.

You still love to be held, especially when you are sleeping or frustrated, but you've also really started enjoying time by yourself. You love play time as long as you aren't tired, and like to be free to kick, move around and shake your right arm like crazy. However, once you get tired you love nothing more than to be swaddled in a nice warm blanket and to have daddy sing to you and dance with you until you drift off. You are an especially big fan of the waltz.

Eating still takes you a while and you still struggle with gas, but burping you is one of our favorite times to watch you since you are so awake and alert. And you look so cute leaning forward or with your little face poking up above dad's shoulder.

Most of all, you've become a lot more social. You coo and squeak and talk back at us when we play with you. Near the beginning of the week you started to smile a little more often, but the last couple days you've really begun to smile in response to us. Mama can get you to smile pretty often now, and daddy is learning how to as well. You are getting so smart, you understand so much more, and even though we wish that you could stay like this forever, it's great to watch you grow and learn.

Enjoying bathtime

Your first pair of shoes

Mama's good friend Silvia came to visit

Cute outfit

Beautiful smile

And a bonus video of Adrielle's wakeup routine :)

Beautiful smile

More cousins, first outing, and Easter

You've grown so much in the last three weeks. You were able to meet more of your cousins when Casey, Candi, Canyon and Alena came.

You are also beginning to learn to interact with the people and things around you. You've learned to focus your eyes really well and you are always studying everyone's face who is holding you are. One of your favorite things to do is to lay down on your play mat and watch the fire in the fireplace. You are so mesmerized by the colors and the flames. You've also been learning about your arms and hands. You get upset at me when I wrap them up if you aren't ready to sleep because you want to move them around and play.

The weather has been getting warmer, which both you and mama are very happy about. The day before Easter was especially nice and so we decided to take you on your first walk. We still bundled you up to make sure you were nice and warm and put you in your stroller. The sun was very bright but you seemed to really enjoy the movement and noise being outside.

For Easter, and Julianne came over and we had our traditional Easter meal and then everybody took a very long nap. You slept in one of your favorite positions, laying on daddy's chest and gave mama a chance to catch up on her sleep, while Julianne napped with her puppy.

Then we dressed you up in your Easter dress that we got from Oma and Opa and took some pictures to show off how pretty you are.

In your fifth week you and mama have really gotten used to each other and are so comfortable with each other. You also went to the park for the first time with mama and our neighbor Chelsea Fullmer in your stroller, and you like to help around the house by sleeping in your sling so that mama can carry you with her. You still do much better sleeping when your close to somebody else. You are so adorable when you are falling asleep. You always have to peak a few times as you are drifting off and make sure that we are still paying attention to you before you can feel comfortable enough to sleep. You slowly open your heavy eyelids and look into our eyes before the weight of sleep forces you to close them again. You are also eating more and getting chubbier.

We still can't believe that you are really ours and sometimes it feels like we are just taking care of you for somebody else. Everyone still tells you how pretty and perfect you are, most especially your mama and I. You are an absolute joy to have with us and we are very blessed and privileged to be your parents.

Adrielle at 5 weeks

Adrielle is two weeks old

Adrielle, you are our little angel and we feel very very blessed and privileged to have you. You are a wonderful baby and you bring so much joy to your mother and me. We still find ourselves just watching you and not quite believing that you could be so incredibly precious and not believing that you are ours. We love the faces that you make and the way you coo at us. You are always really cuddly and loving with your mama, and when you are upset then you almost always immediately calm down in daddy's arms.

Grandpa Rick and grandma Susy got here before you were born and stayed for the first three days after you got here and got to be with you and helped out mom and dad cleaning, painting, and fixing the house up. Then, last weekend, when you were a week old, your cousins Aiden, Erik, Analeigh, and Emmitt came to visit you. Aiden and Analeigh could not get enough of you, especially Analeigh, who has been anxiously awaiting your arrival since she first found out that we'd be having you. Ryan and Summer did us a huge favor for your birthday present and built food storage shelves and sealed large buckets of food storage for us while they were here.

With Analeigh :)

with Aiden

Thank you Ryan and Summer!

With cousin Erik

Emmitt and Adrielle

Aunt Julianne came on Saturday also with her lighting equipment so we could take some baby photos of you that turned out really great (thank you Julianne!).

Wednesday we gave you your first bath. We made sure that the water and the bathroom were nice and warm so that you would be comfortable. You were happy for a most of it, and mom and dad had a blast taking pictures and watching your reaction to the water.

After her first bath

Then this weekend you got to meet some of your cousins from Boise when Jon and Cherie brought Natalie, Karina, and Catherine to meet you. Grandpa Rick and grandma Susy came back too. Natalie and Karina loved holding you and kept touching your face and fussing over you, and little Catherine would sit next to you and stare at you with a huge smile on her face. She kept saying "baby" over and over again and looking at everyone around her to make sure that they were seeing you too. One time when mama took you to nurse, Catherine found one of your teddy bears and was looking all over for you to give it back to you. When I told her you were in our room she walked over to the closed door, held the teddy bear up to the door and looked at me. I asked her if she wanted to me to give it to you and she gave it to me and then waited until I went in, gave it to you, came back, and told her that you had it before she went back to playing.

Precious girls

Karina with Adrielle

Sisters with their babies

Grandpa Rick's version of heaven (minus a couple other grandkids)

Catherine giving "besitos"

You are such a joy to have with us, and you are always on your best behavior whenever anybody comes to visit you. Everyone loves you and thinks you are such a beautiful and perfect little baby. You have even been a good sleeper and seem to know the difference between day and night already. Last night you slept for 5 hours between feedings and then 3 before the next one so we could sleep too (though to be honest, dad sleeps through a lot of your feedings anyway, but you are very thoughtful of your mother). We love you and can't believe we get to keep you.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

This is Adrielle

I hope to update this blog more often now that Adrielle is here. Hopefully I'll be able to share enough on here so that everyone can follow what we're up to and how she's doing and progressing. As a first post, I just wanted to upload a video we took tonight to help you all to get to know her better. This is Adrielle just being herself.

Valentine's Ball

In one of our last dates without having to worry about a babysitter, we went to a Valentine's Ball at the Provo library. Our next door neighbors heard about it and we ended up going with 6 couples total from our ward. We had a three course dinner and then there was dancing with a live jazz band. One of Michelle's good friends, Jameia, did her hair for her.

Masquerade...Paper faces on parade

About a month and a half ago a good friend of ours named Chris Hill told me that there was going to be a masquerade ball in Provo on the 29th. I knew that Michi had always wanted to go to one and so I bought tickets and was going to surprise her...only then we were out dancing with Chris and he asked me in front of her if I had bought tickets yet. The surprise was ruined, but it all ended up working out in the end. In fact, we ended up being able to spend the whole day together due to an altogether unexpected turn of events...

For anyone who has ever had a class in the infamous Clyde Building on BYU, you know that the whole thing is made of brick and cinderblock and terribly underfunded because they like to pour their money into the business school. For example, last semester they were drilling holes into the wall next to my desk for three weeks to mount these safety monitor boxes. Then they were drilling holes for 4 weeks next to the main computer lab after that. Basically, if you can't hear drill reverberations, then you know that it's 5 p.m. and time to go home.

Anyway, Thursday morning there were contractors in the basement of the Clyde who were...you guessed it...drilling holes into the walls. Unfortunately, one of them drilled right into the main powerline and caused a surge that fried the main circuit board for the entire building. He was taken to the hospital with severe burns, but luckily he's in stable condition and should be fine. The circuit board, however, was burnt to a crisp, and because it was a specially designed part from the 60s or 70s, they had to reorder it from the original manufacturer in Ohio. So all classes within the Clyde Building were cancelled for Thursday and Friday until the part came in.

So Friday morning, instead of going in to work, we went up to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival and watched a movie called Bran Nue Dae (click on the title to see the trailer). It's a musical comedy about an aboriginal boy in Australia who runs away from boarding school and is trying to get back home. It was actually really enjoyable and clean (we were worried because none of the movies there have ratings). We cruised main street afterwards to see if we could spot anyone famous, but we didn't.

We got home a couple hours before our dinner reservations with our friends so we could get ready. Michi rented her costume from the Hale Center Theater and I wore my tux, and our masks were vintage from Venice, Italy (Michi bought them traveling around during the Olympics). Anyway, I can let the pictures tell the story from there, but in short we had a great dinner at Macaroni Grill and a lot of fun masquerading with our friends.