River is One Month Old

Our little River Jane turned one month old on Sunday.  She is a beautiful little baby and her personality is starting to show.  She loves to cuddle, especially with her mommy. Her dark, purple velvet colored eyes like to watch the faces of her loved ones, and she's starting to coo and make faces when we talk to her. Here are some pictures that we took of her in her blessing outfit:

Here she is as calm and chill as she usually is.

Here she is in the dress, shoes, and headband that I crocheted, as well as the slip that Aunt Leslie made.  She and MayLynn shared the same blessing dress, but it looked beautiful on both of them.

She didn't want to open her eyes when we took the pictures outside, but she sure did look pretty in her dress.

Her eyes were open for the inside pictures, but she didn't want to show off her dress very well.  So instead she and Daddy had fun finding ways to show off her pretty eyes.

When all is said and done, her binki says it all: she's a little Mommy's girl, and Mommy loves her too!

River's Baby Blessing

Yesterday was a very special day for our family. Our families were able to gather in love and support as Bryce gave our little River Jane Allen her name and blessing.  We had almost all of our siblings there and many of our friends and extended family as well.

Before the meeting started, I was able to capture a few wonderful pictures of Bryce with our little River Jane. You can already see how much they love each other.

After the blessing and meeting, we gathered at Gailey Park for a luncheon and family gathering. We visited and took this opportunity to take a couple of family pictures.  Here we are with the Royer Family - only my brother Teddy and his family were unable to attend. 

And here is the Allen Family. This is the first time in several years that we've had the entire family together.

It was a wonderful day and we loved celebrating our little River girl with our family.

Christensen Family Reunion

On Saturday we went to a family reunion for our Christensen Family (my Mom's family).  I was able to help my Mom put together this slideshow for the family to help the kids know who everybody was:

Happy Pioneer Day

Yesterday was Utah's Pioneer Day, where we celebrate the pioneer heritage of our state.  We celebrated the holiday by spending it with family.  We spent the evening and night before the holiday visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Christensen in Brigham City.  Both grandparents took advantage of the opportunity to be able to hold and cuddle with their youngest great-granddaughter.

The next morning we had a wonderful Grandma-made breakfast: french toast, bananas, bacon, and fresh raspberries from Grandma's garden.  Then we headed over the hill to Logan for Bryce to meet with a few Opera colleagues. While he did, the kids and I had fun playing in the shade and soft grass outside the tabernacle.

Owen and MayLynn had fun pretending to be animals, running from tree to tree, and climbing lamp-posts.  River just had fun chillin' in the shade.

 

After Bryce's meeting and our play time, we had lunch with my brother Teddy, his wife, Brit, and their baby, Glen.  I didn't pull out the camera at lunch, but here's a picture of them that I helped my mom put together for the family reunion that we're going to tomorrow.

One of the best things about being back in Utah is being able to spend time with family - especially for the holidays.

Family of Five

I was helping my mom with a photo project this evening, and so we decided to take a good family picture of the five of us to add to her collection - and here it is.

3 Weeks of River

River will be 3 weeks old tomorrow. We've been having a lot of fun watching her get bigger every day. The top two pictures were taken at 9 days old and the bottom two at 13 days. In just 4 days she started holding her head up better and started interacting more with others,

These pictures are all of playtime with Daddy.  Bryce has really enjoyed having time off from work to get to know his little baby girl.  The top two are at 16 days old, the bottom left was taken yesterday and the bottom right was taken while playing with Bryce this evening.  

We also took a drive up to Brigham City earlier this week and Grandma & Grandpa Christensen got to meet their newest great-granddaughter.  Grandma especially enjoyed hugs and cuddles from River.

While I've been recovering and River has been adjusting to life in the big world, the other two kids got to go visit with Grandma & Grandpa Royer in Blanding.  These are a few pictures that they have shared with us of the fun things that they've been doing.  They will be coming home again tomorrow and then we'll get to be a big happy family again!

1 Week Old on the 4th of July

River celebrated her first week of being on this earth on the 4th of July.  She is already such a cutie, is very mild mannered, and likes to be cuddled by just about anybody.  We've had a lot of a family around this past week, so there have been a lot of people who have gotten to cuddle with her.

Holidays are time for the whole family, and it's been a lot of fun seeing how much bigger Owen and MayLynn seem to be now that we have a new baby to compare them to.  Owen especially has taken to being a big brother twice over very well.  I really enjoy watching him interact with River and I cherish the love in his eyes as he holds her.

Having a baby sister has made MayLynn seem so much older.  She loves her baby sister, and although she doesn't understand quite as well as Owen, she still loves her baby sister and has fun playing with her.  I hope that these two continue to grow up well together and enjoy having a sister close to play with.

Since I'm still recovering from having River, I didn't get to participate in activities away from the house on the 4th, but Bryce did catch this good picture of all the cousins together at the parade. From left to right (in the front) we have Jack (StacyAnn & J.J.'s son), Emery (Craig & Lindsay's daughter), Owen, and MayLynn.  Also in the picture we have Aunt Lindsay, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt StacyAnn, and Cousin Rilee (Bryce's cousin Jason's daughter).

Now, to help speed up my recovery and give them a chance to get to know my family better, Bryce has taken Owen and MayLynn down to Blanding to stay with my parents for a couple of weeks, but before he did, we took this quick picture of the five of us.  I'm hoping for better family pictures in the future, but for now, here are the five of us preparing to set out on the next big adventure of being a family of five.