scary santa

Every year my mom's family gets together for the Johnson Christmas party. My aunt has had the same Santa come to this party for over 20 years. It's one of my favorite traditions. This was Dane's first experience with Santa and while it looks like he was scared, he was really just tired and not happy about life.

Ready, set, ...
CRY!!!
Santa #2 - just add beard. :) Dad, stop pinching him and he'll stop crying. Actually, Dane loves his grandpa, just not last night.

great grandparents

Last Sunday, the 9th, we went to Paul's grandparents for the monthly Barlow Family night. The only ones to show were Paul, me, Dane, Allison, and Chad. We talked about our favorite Christmas memories and then instead of playing games, we were able to spend some time talking to grandma and grandpa about some of their memories/stories of growing up during the depression. Since I don't have any living grandparents I really cherish the time we can spend with them. And I love that Dane was able to meet his great grandparents even though he may not remember them very well.

smiles and funny faces

Since we haven't been able to post pics for a bit, here are a few of the many pics we've taken of Dane. He's a keeper!



Dad giving mom the look! :) Smile sweetie.

Smiles and funny faces continued

Gotta love those dimples
He makes us so happy! His laugh and smile melt our hearts all the time.

Blessing pics 2

We also realized we didn't get a picture of Paul, Dane and I all together for his blessing so individual ones will have to do.

Blessing pics

Here are the pics from Dane's blessing. The first one is right after his explosion. I realized I didn't have any pics of him in his outfit. Silly boy.



Thanks family for coming!
Four generations of Barlows - Grandpa Howard, Dad (Paul Senior), Paul, and Dane Barlow.
Mieka's supportive friends: Jennifer, Nicole, (Mieka), Ann, Liz. Thanks for coming ladies. :)

Blessing Day

Ok - so I've tried to post pictures of the blessing day three times now and it won't let me so I'll have to add them later. On Sunday November 25th was another milestone in little Dane's life. It was his blessing day. All of my immediate family except my brother Dan and niece Jessica were at the blessing. And all of Paul's family came into town from California to be there. In addition to them, we had Paul's good friend Patrick, Grandma & Grandpa Barlow, Agrelius girls (cousins), and Mieka's friends - Nicole, Jennifer, Ann and Liz.

Paul and I feel so fortunate to have such a great support group of friends and family. We both treasure the relationships we have with the ones we love and I think that was reflective in the number of people that came to support us on Dane's special day.

I'll admit I was a nervous new mom. I was a little snappy at Paul (sorry hon), and worried that things wouldn't go just right - whatever that is! I had to wake Dane up from his nap to get him dressed and over to the church. That meant he didn't get to eat all the way before the blessing so I was afraid he'd cry during it but he was a champ. And Paul did a great job on the blessing. I'm so grateful that Paul was able to do that for our son. Shortly after the blessing Dane had a huge blowout and it went all through his outfit. At least it was after rather than before. hahaha.

Today was also a great day because there were four generations of Barlow that were present. Paul's grandpa, his dad, Paul and now Dane. So of course we got pictures. Well - that was about it for the day.

Smiley Little Boy

Ok he was cute before, but now that he's starting to smile, its just getting ridiculous...

Chubby buddy

The last couple of days Dane has had diahrea and spitting up a lot more so I called the doctor's office and they told me to bring him in. It turns out that nothing was wrong but it was better to get it checked out just in case. The doc said that the reason he is probably spitting up is because he's been eating too much. He went from being in the 25th percentile for his weight at his two week appointment to being in the 75th! He weighted 10 lbs 1 oz tonight. That's 3 lbs in four weeks! I guess i produce a lot of milk and he likes to eat it all up. He's not on a diet but I need to make sure to watch and when he acts done, let him be done eating rather than keep encouraging him to eat. It's nice to know he's growing. We love his chubby legs! :)

Social Smiles

So they (those dang books) say that babies will start to have social smiles around 6 weeks. This is where they will smile back at you when you smile or speak to them rather than just the random smiles for no reason. Well - i think Dane had his first social smiles today. When he's had his awake time and I've been playing with him, he's given me lots of smiles and even some cooing. However, when I would try to catch it on camera or video he'd go stone cold. Figures!

I was able to get one shot but the flash was too bright.


So I tried to get one without the flash but he would get distracted everytime I put the camera up. I had to get him smiling then hurry and snap the pic - that explains the blurry photos.