The Life and Times of Jared and Lindsey: May 2011

Christian's Blessing

Okay, so this isn't from the blessing, but I just had to include it. My friend Keena was able to come up and meet Christian for the first time! I LOVE Keena. She is one of my long time friends and actually my old roommate. I can also credit her with being one of the people to introduce me to Jared! This girl is amazing. She was getting ready to graduate with her B.A. and still made time to come up and see us. Here she is putting my little man to sleep. AMAZING. This is no easy feat, let me assure you. We love Keena :)

Alright, on to the blessing! It was such a beautiful day! Okay, not really, it was overcast and rainy, but I was so happy to get my beautiful little boy blessed. The blessing was wonderful and he was promised some pretty great things. One thing that sticks out is that he will be a peacemaker as he strives to stay close to the Lord. With such contentious parents, we are going to need a really good peacemaker! Either that, or I am in for a treat with some really sassy kids that we haven't met yet! ;) I can see already what a strong spirit he is and I am so grateful for the joy he brings to our lives.

After the blessing, we went to my parents' house for a luncheon. I love my parents! It was so nice of them to put it together so that I didn't have to worry about it. We had some family and friends that were able to come and it turned out to be a great time!

Here Jared and Jon savor the yummy fruit! They are so funny. They were talking and I interrupted to ask if I could take a picture. In perfect unison they turned toward me and without saying a word, they both brought the fruit to their lips. LOVE IT!

Here are Grandpa and Grandma Barlew. He loves being in Grandpa's arms and my mom always talks about how, even when she's holding him, Christian will just watch all of Grandpa's movements. They are going to be best buds! I can't wait for my dad to teach CJ how to fish :)

Here's the only decent family shot I could get. I REALLY wish that I would have gotten him some white shoes. We just figured that white socks would do, but those were off his feet before we got him out of the car seat for the blessing! Oh well!

The Joyner men! I just loved this shot because Christian just looks so disinterested with it all. Big yawn!

Here he is with Auntie Beth! They look like they are getting ready to go out dancing, eh?

I don't know why, but I just love this shot. You finally get to see his whole outfit. I just can't believe how big he looks already!

Alright, these photos coming up still make me laugh! We were trying to get a shot of CJ and Elaine sitting by each other. Cousins! It would be such a cute shot, right??? Elaine could not keep her hands off of Christian. It was hilarious. We would try to get her attention and she would look at us, but her hands would just inch closer and closer to his face. She was completely in love with him, which just makes her even cuter : )

He just looks completely resigned in this shot like, "Okay, poke me again...."

I love this one! It's the closest we got to having them both facing forward and keeping their hands to themselves!

And here is my boy after a long day getting ready to leave grandma and grandpa's!

I am so grateful to everyone who was able to come and participate in the blessing. We are so blessed to have people that we love and that love Christian live so close to us. I am grateful for a husband that is a worthy priesthood holder that could share the blessings and promises that Heavenly Father has in store for Christian. He is such a sweet little boy. I can see his determination, strength, and personality coming about already and I cannot wait to see what kind of person he will become.

Courtney's Wedding

At the end of April Jared, CJ and I had the opportunity to drive to Utah for Jared's cousin's wedding. I cannot believe this, but I seriously did not get a single picture of the bride. To be honest, I really didn't get any pictures of ANYTHING! Sad. Any way, the drive to Utah was a long one. We decided to split up the trip just because I had no idea what to expect when it came to traveling with a 7-week old baby. I think in the long run that this was a good idea because then Jared and I weren't overly tired and CJ wasn't sick of being the car seat for 14 hours at a time, but it sure did make for a long drive. We ended up with only one full day in Utah. Not good! I did manage to see three of my closest girlfriends, but I am sad that I couldn't see more people!

The wedding was a lot of fun. We got to take some pictures with all of the family, although none of them turned out very well. Here's the six kids with their mom...oh and two cousins! I will let you guess which two don't belong....

Here is the entire Joyner gang...so far! One Aby, six kids, six spouses and 13 grandkids, with one on the way! Whew! Big group!

Oh, and here's a picture that I took at my BFF's house. Danel has a grandson, Max, that is three months older than Christian. We decided to sit them next to each other because I swore they were about the same size! And I have to say...they are pretty close. I also love this picture because Christian looks so much like me when I was a baby! I'll have to find a picture of me and post them side-by-side. It was nice to see that there was hope he isn't all Joyner! :)

All in all, it was a short, but wonderful trip to Utah! I was so happy to see family and friends, and eat at The Dodo, but sooooooooooooo happy to get back to sunny California! Moving back to California was DEFINTELY the right decision.

Christian's First Easter

To celebrate Easter this year we started out at church! I love Easter Sunday. We had wonderful speakers and some great musical numbers. The missionaries sang, "Oh Lord, my Redeemer" which is one of my all-time favorite songs and then a family in our ward (and two of my Young Women) performed. They are a super talented family..each kid plays a different instrument: we had the flute, piano, clarinet and even a cello. SO BEAUTIFUL! After church we went to my parent's house for our traditional Easter breakfast. I am a lame mom and didn't even think about getting CJ something for his first Easter! Although, I did get him this brand new sweater-vest, which you will see pictured below, so I guess that counts ;)