Christmas decorating

OK - so in true 1st time parent fashion, Paul and I take pictures of just about everything and Dane hanging his first ornament was one of those pics. So maybe he was more interested in his hand than the ornament but at least we tried.

1st night out

Last Saturday night Paul and I were invited up to Park City to the grand opening of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It was our first night being away from Dane. My sister, Wendy, came down to watch him for the night. While I've left Dane with Wendy before so I could go to work, this was the first time leaving him at night. I was missing him so much that night and missed being the one to put him to bed. I missed his sweet smell (mixed with spit-up), adorable smile, and cuddly hugs before he drifted off to la-la land. I only cried three times...

Even though i missed Dane like crazy, Paul and I had a great time with our friends. It was nice to spend some time together and go out. Thanks Wend for being a great aunt and taking care of our little guy.

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...