Pretty Baby

Is it too early to think she might be a model? Probably! Jeanette Soffe took these beautiful photos of Sloane, and a few with her somewhat willing (aka jealous) older brother. He's such a sweet boy. He was giving her "kisses and loves" in these pictures.

If you see the bracelet Sloane is wearing in some of these pictures, it's from her birth father's Sioux tribe. Pretty cool! And it fit (adjustable, of course!), which was a big bonus. She's so lovely and sweet and bright-eyed. The pictures are fabulous but they still don't quite do her justice!

ps...if you see any red splotchy stuff on her skin, this was the day she started breaking out in hives. Allergic reaction to regular formula. She's all better now that she's moved on to soy! And you'd never know she was uncomfortable based on these photos, huh? Yep, that's just how she was the whole time. Don't hate us but we are suuuuuper lucky!

Kodak Moments...

Tagg still loves to read. Maybe that's why he's so chatty! He likes to throw his books (Cars books, usually) in the laundry basket, climb in, read each one, and then chuck it out of the basket; then he climbs out of the basket, puts them all back in and does it all over again. It's pretty adorable. Of course, we read to him a lot and he loves story time with Grama and Ashley. You can never have too many books!



Tagg is a big helper in the yard. Apparently he's been watching daddy scoop dog poop in the yard. I was on the phone and looked over to see him eyeballing "stinky Morgan poop" which I told him to leave alone. Next thing I know, he's got the tools out to take care of the situation. I know he didn't learn that from me! The other thing he learned from daddy? Dirt. The kid loves dirt. You can't really see the extent of the dirt but it was EVERYWHERE! He spent about an hour in our garden picking up dirt and pouring it over his entire body. Awesome!


We know we're super lucky but when the double rainbows appeared out the back door last week, we have to admit...did do a little digging for that pot of gold. Luckily, we found this adorable angelic little girl...treasure for sure!





Nana made Sloane a very special quilt. Not only is it butterflies to match her bedroom, but it's also the exact same pattern as a quilt that mom received from her family when she was a baby. She still has it, in different colors, but mostly the same. It's amazing and we'll have to get a photo of them together but, for now, we thought the pictures of Sloane on her Nana-quilt were pretty sweet.



Lunch with the girls (Mommy, Nana, Aunt Becky, cousin Harper) and Tagg the token male at the mall. Not sure where this face came from because this is BEFORE shopping. I usually make that face after! Harper was trying to give Becky the same face, by pulling on her hair. As you can see, Harper can still take Sloane in a wrestling match. No matter how much we feed Sloane, Harper always seems to have her by a few. As of today, our little girl is 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. Not bad for a 1 month birthday!

Nikelle looooves Baby Sloane! She's very good at holding her and feeding her, just like with Tagg. Cousin Ashley is really enamored of Sloane too but we never seem to have our camera out!

Memorial Day

We spent our holiday weekend - and Sloane's first boat trip! - at Pineview. The weather was a little better than expected but the snow capped mountains in the background should let you know that the water was, uh, chilly (yeah - 50 degrees!).

This was our first trip of the season, first trip with 2 kids, and the first time we've had the boat slipped anywhere but Powell so it was definitely different!

The scenery was really beautiful and we loved waking up in the morning to the birds "singing" on the slip buoys. Scott's work crew was awesome and treated us like family - lots of great food and fun in the lodge, in their gorgeous RVs and on the boats. They have a couple of cute dogs that Tagg just loved. Tagg and Sloane were both wonderful all weekend.

Even though we changed a gazillion diapers, carted down a semi-full of gear, and were up all night between feedings and sharing a bed with a 2 year old who kicks, it was awesome! It's amazing how it just gets better and better! We brought some movies and magazines so we could catch up but ended up watching Cars the movie and playing with Cars the cars. A lot. It was actually pretty cute and gave us all ample Sloane-snuggly time.

Amy and Dustin came up on Monday with Greyson and Henry which was fun. Welcome to life with three boys!

Sure, we never left the slips but the boys had a ball dive-bombing off the shelf into pillows and wrestling, feeding fish and birdies, and driving the boat. Scott's work-family had their kids too and they were very cute - and very brave! They jumped in the 50 degree water about 6 times so we could get pictures. I hope they don't get sick but the pictures (and the bragging rights!) were well worth it!





Tagg is really not into wearing hats right now which is tough since he's so blond. We tried every hat - cowboy hats, bandanas, visors, ball caps, a bowl (just kidding). Luckily, lots of sunscreen makes for a good 'do!


And he's fine wearing his sunglasses which he calls "shades." It's funny - he'll point at hats and say "mommy's hat, daddy's hat" but put one on his head? He repeats "Awww...cute" and then yanks it off. At least he'll keep the shades on, as long as he has binky and daddy!

Happy Family!

Well, we didn't get dolled up or anything but finally some pictures that were not taken at arm's length! Luckily, our kids are so cute they make us look good. This is our first official family photo, taken one day before Sloane's original due date. Tagg is wearing his "funny monster" shirt upon request (his...it was that or the Wiggles!). We are so thrilled with life. Tagg is a wonderful big brother and Sloane is the most amazing, lovely little girl. She's very peaceful yet alert, and Tagg is warming up to her every day. We just couldn't love them any more, and yet somehow we do...we love them more and more every single day. Thank goodness your heart is best when it's overflowing with love!

Aunt Tiff finally got her first photo opp with the new baby, too. This picture was taken in front of a 100-year-old family heirloom crib that Jim and Laura Arnold (our VP of Sales and his wife) graciously offered to loan us while Sloane is a baby. They decorated it specially for her and we feel so grateful and privileged that they embraced us and Sloane with part of their family history. Not to mention that it's super helpful to have a place for her to sleep and keep her things that's so convenient. Thanks!

Tiff and Becky had a little photo shoot with the girls. So cute! Harper is checking at 10 and a half pounds so it's no wonder Sloane looks so teeny!

This is Sloane at 9 days. She's just a wonderful, precious little girl.
Tagg has started playing the role of "big brother." He likes to make sure Sloane has her binky, her bottle, her blanket. He was playing peek-a-boo with her the other day, hiding below the crib, then jumping up and saying "peeky-boo, Soan. I lub you." It was about the sweetest thing we've ever seen. Of course, he also tries to give her Cheerios so we're working on that!

Tagg likes to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Sloane and his cousin Harper, which is really cute because he leaves out about every third word so it sounds like “Twinkle twinkle lil STAR wonder are up above the world so high diamond SKY twinkle twinkle... dinosaur” or whatever random word distracts him at the ending. He often looks at the girls and says "two Harpers or two Sloanes" - buddy, you have no idea! Honestly, he counts to 10, although he prefers to stop at 8 and 4 and 5 are not his favorite numbers so they get left out a lot.

Tagg-a-saurus

I know...how many pictures do you need of Tagg at tubby time? Lots! That's my answer! Check out the hair. Grama finally got him distracted enough to cut it but we did get one good hawk out of it.

Call me crazy...

Photos of Sloane and Tagg on their birth days. Don't they look a lot alike?! I don't think it's just me...other people have commented that they share a resemblance. Yes, yes..."all babies look alike" but it seems like there's a little hand of fate at work here in many ways!

Welcome Home!

Big brother, little sister. The first picture of their first hug. We were glad to see Tagg so happy. Since we brought Sloane home on Monday he was calling the teddy bear Shayne gave her "Sloane" so we were a little worried. Of course he was trying to feed the bear his muffin so that gave us some hope! Since we finished Sloane's room and started telling him about his little sister, he's gone into her room and pulled this teddy bear off the shelf. He walks around hugging it and calls it "Soan Bear." He puts the bear in the rocking chair, covers it with the quilt mom made and rocks it. Sometimes, he crawls into the chair and cuddles with the bear. Now that he's making the connection, we have visions of the kind of big brother he's going to be. And it's pretty sweet! We were sad he couldn't be with us this weekend but maybe this is a less traumatic way for him to adjust to the reality of being a "big brother."

The car ride home was...interesting. Sloane was awesome but the "infant insert" in the car seat was no match for Utah highways! We had to pad her head with burp cloths and blankets to make it less bumpy so we promptly got another insert when we got home! Her little jammies were so big, we couldn't find her hands half the time.

Sloane got to meet Grama and Bompa and Auntie Leese who had been watching Tagg for us. He was almost as interested in Sloane's toes as he was in the books he found at Grama's. (he's not actually reading - yet! ;-) but he did start learning his states by looking at the pictures) She also got to meet Aunt Biff which caused Tagg to have a little jealousy attack. He held up his arms the second Tiff took Sloane and said "Tagg turn Aunt Tiff." It was cute. Happily, he thought mom was a nice back up plan!

Probably the funnest introduction was between Sloane and Harper. The two girls are so cute and it's amazing how much larger Harper is considering she's not even 6 weeks older than Sloane. How fast they grow! Becky says Sloane makes Harper look like a linebacker! We got some really cute pictures of them together. Doesn't this look like they're already telling secrets?! They are already sharing clothes! Yes, Sloane is wearing Harper's going-home outfit in this picture - and it actually doesn't drown her unlike most of her outfits! Harper actually brought her over a handful of little outfits that she's already outgrown which was really sweet. Who cares if they're hand-me-downs as long as we know where her feet are! Marc (my brother) and I are pretty proud of our little girls! Poor Tagg! It's going to be like having twin baby sisters to torment him - and to torment! We're pretty sure that he'll also be their biggest protector!

We need to get some photos of me and Scott with the babies! Those self-portraits from the hospital just are not cutting it! Once we get settled in a bit more, it's paparazzi time!