More Cute-ness & New (Book) Project

Esther is about 9 weeks old now, and is starting to be quite "vocal". She gurgles and coos at us when she's happy, and is pretty smiley, too. (Of course, at this age even her "pouts" are awefully cute!) Here's a little clip of her "talking" to us (the other voices are mostly me and Emily)...

On a completely unrelated note, today I have been "playing" with a really neat website - its called "Shelfari" and lets you make booklists (in the form of virtual bookshelves) and share them with friends, etc. You can see one of my "bookshelves" at the bottom of this blog. The bookshelf is a full-blown "widget", so it updates when I add things on the Shelfari site. It also links to my profile on their site where I'm happily adding more and more books and reviews and such....

I've tried making booklist webpages before with minimal success, so I'm extra glad to have found this site! I have Melinda to thank - she has a bookshelf "widget" on her blog, too... Anyway, I highly recommend the site if you are looking to share booklists (or lots of other book-related stuff). I also recommend a great number of books, of course....

Let me know if any of y'all like any of my picks or have others to suggest!

Singing to Baby

Having put up a couple of over-due posts, I can finally get to today's fun....

Over the last couple of weeks, the kids have really been into singing. This is something I've encouraged since I can sing with them while I'm rocking/soothing/nursing the baby. Now they like to sing to the baby... Anyway, I finally got my act together and filmed a bit:

Three-year-old Natalie singing "Edelweiss" (from the Sound of Music) to baby Esther... Hard to hear but awefully cute...!

...and the it was Em's turn, of course...

(A little easier to hear, I hope, and just as cute!)

Well, I really don't know what the kids' fascination is with "Edelweiss" - they've seen very little of the movie - but it is sweet to hear them (try to) sing it.... So there you go - a healthy dose of "cute" for your day...

Esther's Blessing Day

The Sunday after Christmas, while Jen's parent's were still in town, we had Esther's blessing at church. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (commonly known as LDS or Mormons). Baby blessings are similar to christenings in that they officially bestow a name on the infant and enter that name into the records of the church. (Children are not baptized until they are at least eight years old, though). Infants can be given a name and blessing by any worthy male member of the church. As with our other kids, Matt gave our little Esther her name and a blessing. Here is our darling in her blessing dress:

Christmas!

Christmas was great! (My mom) Grandma Haroldsen was here for most of September, and Grandpa came out the Saturday before Christmas. New House + New Baby + Grandparents = Merry Christmas Indeed!

We didn't do anything "spectacular" --- just enjoyed being family and having fun with the kids. Matt did take 4-yr-olds Mike and Em and 2-yr-old Natalie shopping at a dollar store to pick out gifts for each other and for "Mommy", and they thought that was a wonderfully "big kid" thing to do... It also helped make a grand stack of presents under the tree (without breaking the bank)!

The kids had a good time posing in front of the tree to show off new outfits:

Mike & Em (4 1/2) and Natalie (almost 3)

3-week-old Esther

Christmas Eve we enjoyed the novelty of having a genuine fireplace to hang stockings by:



Chrismas Day we just took our time opening presents and watching the kids play...


...and, believe it or not, I (Jen) was terribly domestic and actually made rolls "from scratch"...

Anyway, we all had a great time! And just think - next year Esther will be old enough to enjoy everything, too!