Janie’s Blessing Day

On November 10, 2014 . . . Janie was blessed.  It was a wonderful day with family and friends.  Wes gave Janie a beautiful blessing . . . the part that I will always remember is when he blessed her to be a calming influence in our home.  Twice.  Life’s a little crazy with boys.

Wes’ parents came in to town that weekend which we always love!  Grandma & Grandpa G. are quite wonderful – we just wish we could see them more often.

Since the entire Marz clan isn’t together all that often & ready for photos . . . we took some family photos!

Everyone pitched in and we had dinner at our house on Sunday night with family and the McDonald family.  It was great to celebrate Janie!

Janie: 1 month old

Can’t believe this little lady is a month old.  We sure do love having her in our family.

She’s quite a good baby – I can’t complain at all about having a hard newborn.  That can always change but so far, so good.

A little bit about Janie . . .

- she smiles!  and “talks”.  It’s pretty cute how responsive she is.

- she loves her binky.

- she loves to sleep in her carseat.  She’s very portable!

- at night she still sleeps in her little papasan chair.  She likes being elevated and is a great sleeper so we’ve kept her there so far!

- she varies between sleeping for four hours at night to sleeping eight {yes, I said 8} hours at night!  Didn’t know that was possible with a 1 month old.

- She’s generally pretty content during the day.  She will let you know when she’s hungry or if she needs a diaper change or a little attention, but is overall a happy girl.

- When she’s awake and laying down, she is almost always kicking one of her legs.

- She’s a little chunk.  At her one month appointment she weighed 11.2 pounds and was 22.5”.  Her head had grown a lot since she was born so Dr. Carrie was talking to me about that.  She measured my head and determined that the big head is probably just genetic.  Lovely.

- she loves her bath.

- She is a great eater.  She latched on from day 1 and has been a great eater.  She’ll nurse or take a bottle!

- She likes to be swaddled.

- She is a cuddler.

- She is very expressive with her hands and eyebrows.

- her nighttime routine consists of her being kept awake . . . a bath around 9pm that calms her down and wakes her up for a little bit . . . mama feeding her and Wes’ magic touch of rocking and cuddles before she’s out!

- Janie and I spent a lot of time sitting in a chair on the driveway watching the boys play outside.

We love this little lady of ours!

Janie’s name

When we went to the hospital to have Janie we really had no clue what we were going to name her.  We didn’t really even talk about it much {which is nothing new}.  You see, I’m extremely indecisive so if you give me 6 months to decide her name I will take the entire 6 months.  If you give me one day in the hospital, I’ll figure it out in one day. 

Jane is my middle name and I knew I wanted to use that somehow.  Just wasn’t sure if it was going to be her first name or her middle name. 

When the nurse brought her back to us after her bath, she said . . . “you’ve got a sassy one.”  Once again, nothing new!  For some reason that ruled out the name Jane as her first name.  Just seemed too sweet and classic for my sassy little one.  Growing up, my dad always called me Janie and I’ve always liked the name – a classic with a little bit of a twist.  Wes liked it, too. 

So that’s where Janie came from.  Her middle name, Anne?  Well, my mom’s middle name is Jane and her sister’s {my Aunt Linda} middle name is Anne.  I got the middle name Jane and Sam got the middle name Anne.  I figured I’d keep that tradition going {but since we’re not planning on having any more kids} I decided to use both for our little girl!  So she’s named after her Aunt Sam, Aunt Linda & her Aunt Leslie!  Lots of Anne’s from a great family.

Halloween 2013: 2 Ninjas and a little girl

I love Halloween!  It’s always a crazy time of year but I love it.

Sometime in September, the boys were both up at 6am and they were downstairs and found a Halloween catalog that came in the mail.  They discovered and cut out Ninja costumes and from that day on they knew that’s what they wanted to be.  I really tried for Super Heroes but failed.  Ninjas were it.

Somehow all of the activities didn’t overwhelm me this year.  Only a few involved actual costumes and we just had fun!

PUMPKIN PATCH.  We had our annual playgroup trip to the pumpkin patch.  I had fun with Ryan while my mom cuddled Janie.  We sure missed our big Kindergartener, Nate!

HARVEST FESTIVAL.  We’ve gone to Bartlett Elementary Harvest Festival for a few years now with cousins and friends.  But this year was SO exciting for Nate because it’s finally his school!  He ran around and had a great time saying hello to his cute friends.  And once again, was a cake walk winner.

ABBIE’S HALLOWEEN HOOPLA.  Abbie had a dance performance combined with a fun carnival that we got to go to.  It was super fun!  Classic Halloween games and it’s always fun to watch Abbers perform.

GILCREASE ORCHARD.  There is an orchard across town that I’ve always wanted to take the kids to.  So we finally did!  They were out of fruit and the vegetable options weren’t our favorites but the kids loved picking pumpkins and it was a fun, family outing.

PUMPKIN CARVING AT THE SCHENKERS. Natalie hosted a group of us for pumpkin carving and bike riding . . . an annual tradition.  Love this night with friends!

PUMPKIN RUN.  Nate’s school does a lot of activities that involve exercise for the kids.  They had a pumpkin run for all Bartlett families . . . every six laps meant the kids got a prize.  We now own a boa and pom poms!

TRUNK OR TREAT. I don’t have pictures to show for this one but it was a great night out with our ward!

HALLOWEEN!  We’re finally at Halloween day!  It was fun that both kids got to go to school. 

I got to go in to Nate’s class to take pictures for a scrapbook project Ali and I are working on.  And then went back that afternoon for the school parade.

Trick or Treating was great in our neighborhood with friends.

Another successful Halloween.