Carter's Baby Blessing

The Saturday after graduation we were able to bless Carter. Blessings are typically given during our main church meeting on Sundays, but we have 1pm church and both of our parents needed to be back for Monday so we decided to do it Saturday. It was a beautiful day and many of our friends and family were able to be there which meant so much to us! Laren isn't one for long speeches and I always laugh because my family prayers are always much longer than his, so Carters blessing was short, but very special. Fathers blessings are something I have loved getting throughout my life so it was really neat to see Laren give Carter his baby blessing and his first blessing as a father. I'm so thankful that he is able to bless our family in that way. You can learn more about baby blessings and fathers blessings here. After the blessing we came back to our house for lunch. It was so fun to visit with our family and friends, since we've been a little MIA since Carter was born! The weather was gorgeous and we spent the afternoon relaxing and visiting. We were also able to get pictures with all of our family that was in town!

Shoutout to my wonderful SIL for taking these!

I handmade Carters blessing outfit with some help from my mom and I just realized I don't have any photos of just him in it! I will have to squeeze him into it and take a few pictures! 

My brother and his family and my sister and one of her daughters were able to come along with my parents. It was so great to have them there! 

We took a trip to temple square with the family on Sunday. It was a gorgeous day!

Miss Oak holding baby Carter for the first time

Laren and I fell asleep, but Carter was well entertained by his aunts!

Miss Abby was in heaven! She was the first cousin to get to hold baby Carter and she was loving every minute! 

It was so fun to watch her with him. It reminded me so much of myself when my nieces and nephews were babies!

This girl loves her uncle Laren. It is pretty adorable!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing and wonderful mothers in the world! It's feels a little awkward for people to say Happy Mother's Day to me, I definitely don't feel like I should be celebrated quite yet. Carter will be two months old next Saturday and I'm taken back every time I think about the fact that I'm now a mom. Being married and a mom at age 22 was definitely not the plan I had laid out for myself, but I can tell you with every fiber of my being that I would not have it any other way. Being a mom is the greatest privilege I know I will ever have and I'm so thankful that I get the opportunity to be a mother and wife.

I'm very thankful for my mother-in-law and the mother that she is to my husband. She raised a wonderful son that I have the pleasure of getting for all eternity.

I could never fully describe just how much I love my mom, no matter how hard I might try. Laren often shakes his head and laughes at us because our phone conversations never seem to end and we talk about everything! There isn't a day where I don't talk to my mom either on the phone or text or email. She is an amazing example of love and strength and I hope that one day my children will love me the way that I love her!

Happy Mothers Day!!

Friday randoms

Happy Friday!! We're back from Oregon and trying to get back to normal. Our suitcase is still sitting on the living room floor... full! I was really worried about Carter coming home because he got so much love and attention, I was afraid he wouldn't let me put him down when we got home, but my mom and I picked up this awesome baby play mat gym and he loves it so much that he doesn't mind laying on the floor anymore! We had such a fun trip to Oregon and I'm already itching to go back! The weather was absolutely gorgeous and we spent the whole trip relaxing and hanging out with family, it was perfect minus Laren being gone! Yesterday was my post partum appointment and I am all cleared which means my journey to get back in shape can finally begin! I have lost 65 % ( i'm keeping hard numbers off of here until i'm all finished) of my baby weight, so Monday I start Insanity and my healthy eating plan to drop the rest of it! I'm excited to get in shape and fit into all of my clothes again! I will do a post about it once I finish the Insanity program. We were going to hike Timp Caves today, but it doesn't open until May 25th, so we'll have to find another fun hike so we can enjoy the outdoors before it gets too hot! It is supposed to be 90 degrees on Monday, so I'm thinking we will be getting a baby pool this weekend. Here are some fun photos of Carter from when my family was in town two weeks ago!

Graduation

Laren and I graduated in December, but BYU doesn't do commencement or convocation ceremonies in December, so we walked last weekend with all of the spring graduates! My parents flew in the night before commencement and were able to be here for all of the graduation ceremonies. Laren's parents were able to make it for convocations on Friday. It was a long two days, but we had a great time and now I feel like I officially graduated, even though I'm already enrolled as a graduate student! BYU is a fantastic school and I am so grateful I decided to stick it out. I fell in love with it and if I had to do it again I wouldn't go anywhere different. College was definitely hard and I had to work my tail off, but I did it and am so glad I'm done.. for now! It was great to celebrate and be recognized for all the hard work we've put in over the last four years.