Happy Mother's Day!

On my first official Mother's Day, I just want to thank the lovely lady who made it all possible.

When I was little,
and you tried teaching me something,
and I complained,
and you said, "You'll thank me later,"
you were so right.

Thank you Mom! Thank you for raising me. I am only beginning to get an idea of how much work that must have been. Thank you for teaching me to sew. I'm sorry for being so darn stubborn, and I'm glad some of it sunk in. Thank you for teaching me how to cook, and clean, and do laundry. I still kind of hate doing all those things, but I'm so glad you taught me how to do them. Thank you for teaching me to try new things, and for doing crazy new things with me. For being my golf buddy, my Costa Rica buddy and my gym buddy. Thank you for making me a better person, a harder-working person, a smarter person, and a stronger person. Thank you for helping me survive being a mom. Because it truly is the hardest thing I've ever done, and I can't imagine how I'd get through it without you. Love you!

Our bright-eyed girl!

Last Saturday, my fabulous cousin Jamie took some great pictures of Eilly for us. It was not an easy task, but the photos turned out so beautiful and fun. Many people have remarked on our kidlet's bright eyes, and Jamie did a great job of capturing them. Here are a few of my favorite faces of Eilly:









We were ultimately trying to get a picture of Eilly in the beautiful Easter dress my mom bought her. Unfortunately, a shot of smiling Eilly sitting perfectly in her fancy dress while squeezing her Easter bunny was not in the cards, but I think I like this one better anyway.



Poor Eilly's mood started going downhill pretty quickly. I dragged her to the Great Cloth Diaper Change that morning to help set the record for the number of cloth diapers changed simultaneously (6,277!), so she was in dire need of a nap. We went to great lengths to try to improve her disposition. Garrett provided the musical entertainment, and we all tried our darnedest to coax out a smile.







When all attempts failed, we contented ourselves with some peaceful pacifier pictures.





Trying to capture just a few more pacifier-free photos, I tried to stealthily snatch the pacifier out while Jamie snapped away. Needless to say, it didn't work. But I love her sad faces too.







Then it was definitely time for a nap. Even though our little photo shoot did not go quite as well as we had planned, I love the range of faces we were able to capture. There are so many little faces she makes, and I don't want to forget a single one. Thanks so much to Jamie and Angie for their quick photo snapping, silly song singing, and all-around amazing baby-cheering-up skills. Love you ladies!

Eilly's Blessing

*This one was also unfinished, but I thought I'd better finish it! Mostly because I love how her cute outfit turned out.




Here are a couple pictures of Eilly in her lovely blessing outfit. It was so great having our families there to celebrate with us. I know Eilly won't remember it, but I sure will. I love how her blessing outfit turned out. I made it before she was born, so I needed something that would work well for a boy or a girl. I spent hours designing the perfect pattern and knitting it. I'm so glad it turned out so well. Then after she was born, I knit her a bonnet to go with it. It was so much work, I hope we can bless all our kids in it, though Garrett pointed out to me that merino wool is probably not a good idea if we have any summer babies. I told him they have air conditioning in the chapel. :)