..it's true what they say.........

......you love your kids no matter how goofy looking they are! ;)

..safe to say he's a bit cross-eyed ;)..

and even with those cross eyes i still think he is the cutest little thing in the world! (please say they grow out of this? please?!)

..bosom buddies..

aren't these little guys just too cute for words?! i love them!

..ONE month old..

my sweet baby boy is one month old today! i have such mixed feelings about it, too. it makes me so sad to see how fast time goes and how much they change...i wish he could stay this tiny and perfect and innocent for at least a few more months! but then everyone says how much fun all the different stages are, and i am excited to watch him grow and learn and develop a personality of his own. i still get amazed every single day that we all started out as these tiny human beings...that we grew in our mothers' bellies. life truly is such a miracle!

i will probably jinx myself by saying this, but i think there could be no more perfect baby than finn. he has been such an easy baby from day one. he really only cries when he is hungry, and even then, half the time he doesn't cry...just starts making funny noises, as if saying, "mom, come feed me!" he did have some tummy problems for a few days, and i am pretty sure we can go right ahead and blame it on the garlic and onion pizza i ate for dinner one night! whenever i can tell that he's a bit uncomfortable in the tummy region, all i have to do is give him some gripe water (thanks mary!) and he cheers right up.

..hi didn't love the taste of the mylicon drops, so we switched to gripe water..

finn is one amazing little sleeper. at night he sleeps for 4-5 hour stretches, so usually i only have to wake up once in the night to feed him. there have been a few times that he slept for 7 hours in between feedings, and who knows how long he would have gone if i didn't wake him up (i had to relieve my own engorgement!). i must say, the few nights he slept that long were wonderful nights for me! :-) he has slept in his crib ever since he was born, and i am so glad we decided to do it that way. for a few minutes i considered putting him in the pack-n-play in our room, but then i just kept him in his crib and it has been great. our room is so close to his so we hear him when he wakes up, and bc the crib is the only thing he's ever known he falls asleep just fine in it! i put him down while he is still awake and within a few minutes he is sound asleep.

out in public he is an angel baby, just like he is at home. i can tote him anywhere and he just sleeps the whole time. everywhere i go people comment on what a great baby he is. he is just so content to be in his carseat, in his crib, on my lap, in anyone's arms. there is only one thing i know of that he doesn't like - the baby bjorn! the first time i put him in it he made the funniest little objection...but i carried him around in it for a while and we even went for a walk with him in it and after a while he didn't seem to mind as much.

he didn't like baths when his umbilical cord was still on, but once that thing fell off and he could be fully submersed in the water he loved it! he mostly just takes showers with his dad since it is so much easier, and he loves those too! he doesn't even mind getting out, as long as we wrap him tightly in his little robe to dry him off.

baby finn still loves to pee/poop right after we have changed his diaper. there have been times where i have literally just put his clothes back on and they are somehow wet again! there have been a couple times where he has pooped while we were changing him - it has happened to both lance and me. lance FREAKED out...ha ha he screamed like a schoolgirl at a justin bieber concert, told me to take over and ran into the shower! no, he did finish changing him, but he did take a shower after, it was hilarious. i screamed when finn did it to me, more out of shock than terror or disgust, and it didn't cross my mind to get in the shower afterwards. ahhh the differences between men and women! ;-)

one of my favorite things in the world is still to watch lance with finn. he seriously is SO cute with him, and so many people have commented on it. lance is always so concerned about finn and if he is comfortable, hungry, wants a binki, etc... he loves to hold him and feed him and just spend every spare moment he has with him. he is so proud to be a daddy, and i can see in his face and by the way he interacts with him just how much he loves sweet baby finn.

in the last week or so he has started to move his arms and legs a ton. every time we put him down we swaddle him, and every time he wakes up his arms are out of the blanket and up by his head. half the time his feet are hanging out too!

finn likes his binkis and he will drink from a bottle. he is a good nurser also...it took us a couple weeks but we made it! he makes the funniest face when we give him mylecon drops or gripe water, but he takes it like a champ! he loves having his back and head rubbed, and when you stroke the bridge of his nose he closes his eyes and nearly falls asleep. he loves to look around - you only have to be with him for a few minutes (while he is awake) to notice how alert and observant he is. and finn and claus love each other. duke comes up to finn a couple times a day and sniffs him, ha ha, but other than that he doesn't get too close to his baby brother.

..claus cuddling with finn :)..

..duke wondering what the heck this tiny person is still doing here ;)..

he has been such a joy and a blessing to have in our home. i can't imagine my life, and our family, without this little guy...he makes every day better.

..a few minutes old..

 
..one week old..  

..two weeks old..  

..three weeks old..

..one month old! {this is what we call the "milk drunk" face :)}..

 love you sweet boy!

..mom's day..

my baby boy is 4 weeks old today! does anyone know how to pause time, or at least slow it down a little? i cannot believe how fast these past four weeks have gone by. each day is such a new and wonderful experience. even though it seems like all i do is feed finn, change his diapers and sleep, i have never felt so fulfilled in my entire life. the amount of love this little boy brings into my life and into our home and family just amazes me...i never knew it existed.

..baby finn @ four weeks old..

it's funny, because people are constantly asking me if it has "sunk in" that i have a baby, and i have such a hard time answering that question! on the one hand, my life revolves around him...i am constantly thinking about him/worrying about him/staring at his perfect face in awe. he has been here for a month, so you'd think it would have sunk in by now that he really is here. the truth is, i feel like i have known him forever. his presence in our home is new...yet it isn't. he is so familiar to me. so there really hasn't been anything to sink in. my baby boy and i are back together again, with lance, like we all were before we came to this earth. my testimony of the truth and reality of the plan of salvation and eternal families has been strengthened so much in one short month, thanks to sweet baby finn. :-)

another thing that is so interesting to me is that everything about motherhood is so foreign, yet it is all so natural. makes no sense at all, i know! there are moments and times when i simply have no idea what the heck i am doing...but i feel like this is what i was made for. this - being a mother - is who i am and who i was always meant to be. i cannot express how eternally grateful i am for this experience and opportunity. finn has already changed my life more than i would have ever thought possible.

i am so thankful to my mother for being such an amazing example to me throughout my life. her strength and courage is so inspiring and i would consider myself lucky to turn out half as good of a mother as she is. it's weird, because when i was younger i would get mad at her and say, "i won't be anything like you when i am older," and now i just hope that i can be just like her in so many ways. :-)

..baby finn w/grandma cindy..

..me and my boys :)..

happy mother's day to all you mother's out there, and to everyone who will become a mother someday. the world is a better place because of who you are and all you do!

..my 'sabbath day' child..

one day - about a month before i was due - i was hanging out with a bunch of my family and the nursery rhyme "monday's child" was brought up. so we all started talking about the day's of the week that we were born, and how it really did/didn't relate to the people we are today. normally i am not a supersticious person, but after going through the different day's of the week according to this poem, i became OBSESSED, haha...every week for an entire month i would just pray that finn didn't come on a wednesday or a thursday because i did not like what those days were in the poem. SO stupid...i mean it's not like this poem means anything at all. nevertheless, i couldn't be more thrilled with the day of the week that finn finally decided to make his entrance into this world. afterall, the sabbath day child beats all the rest. :)

"monday's child"

monday's child is fair of face,

tuesday's child is full of grace,

wednesday's child is full of woe,

thursday's child has far to go,

friday's child is loving and giving,

saturday's child works hard for a living,

but the child born on the sabbath day

is bonnie and blithe and good and gay...mr. finn @ 3 weeks old..