Blessed

We don't need a baby blessing to realize just how blessed we are,

but. . .

it certainly doesn't hurt.

We had such a wonderful weekend last week as we blessed our little man.

(I gave Austin the choice of having Chase wear a new tie I had or

the one that I made Austin on his blessing day.

Austin wanted Chase to wear his, I thought it was pretty cute. Austin sure loves his brother)

We were very blessed to have Grammy, Papa and Uncle Kevin

come visit for the first time and be a part of Chase's big day.

(Thanks for driving down, we love you guys!)

Jared gave Chase a beautiful blessing.

Truth be told, he did make my heart skip a beat when he blessed Chase that he'll always be close to his brothers and sisters.

Jared said it was just a slip of the tongue,

I guess we'll have to see if Heavenly Father holds you to your plurals in prayers.

Chase was blessed with some quality one on one time with each of them.

He flirted away with Grammy and they became fast friends.

Hard to believe that these two are 80 years apart.

We decided that if we gave Papa a binky and Chase some glasses

they could be twinsies.

Chase loves his Grammy and I was especially grateful for her willingness to hold him Sunday morning as I tried to get all 3 kids dressed and fed and all of us to the the church by 9am

(really 8am thanks to daylight savings-ugh!)

We were blessed to squeeze some

San Diego play time in too.

We had a picnic, watched some seals, flew kites at the beach,

panned for gold at the Mormon Battalion

and enjoyed a mariachi band at dinner in Old Town.

The kids were also blessed to have some much needed

Dean family cousin play time with these cute kiddies

(you were missed Cosette!)

Blessed to have Ammon in town so we had an excuse to go to In-N-Out

I was blessed with some time with my sister

and was secretly thrilled when her flight going home was full

and I could spend a couple more hours with her and my mom;

chatting it up while chowing on cookie dough in my mom's kitchen.

That's the best.

Blessed that Gramma's house is so fun and exciting

...and perhaps slightly dangerous in an exhilarating kind of way

Blessed with cute kids who LOVE their new brother.

Blessed to have the love and support of all our family

from those who could be there

to those who couldn't but would if they could.

We had a really fun lunch after church that day with

my family (thanks for coming Brandon and Malufaus),

Grammy, Papa, Kev and Jared's brother Mike and Christina.

It was so great to have family there to celebrate this great day.

(here's Chase with the after church blues,

pleading with Gramma to get his mom to stop taking picture

and take him home so he can EAT)

Most of all, we feel very, very blessed to have this little man in our family.

It was a rough little start but we are so happy to have him home with us.

How blessed we are to know that our little growing family

is an eternal one where we can be together forever.

It doesn't get better than this!

So "toot!!"

It's tough to believe that this little man has already been in our family for 3 months.

In that time he's been everything from our precious little preemie

coming earlier than we had ever expected he would,

morphing into our little grunting dinosaur

who, when you tried to get interact with him,

would simple grunt, growl and eventually poop.

At times he's been our "angry little elf,"

normally at dinner time when he wants to be held

and there aren't enough available arms to appease him.

Now at 3 months he has become such a delight to have around

as he smiles, makes eye contact and "talk" to us.

He's been our first "real" baby.

We never had a baby that actually cried.

Avery and Austin were super easy.

Seriously.

The first time I heard Austin cry was when he got his 2 month shots.

I certainly can't complain though.

I've heard horror stories of fussy babies

including what a crying, colic-y terror Jared was and Chase is nothing like that.

Thank goodness.

He could improve in the nighttime sleeping department though.

He's graduated to 3 hours in between feedings though so that's something.

Since it's been 4 years since we've been in baby mode

we had to find our groove again

but I think now we have officially transitioned

into our new family of 5 status.

We've discovered that

as long as Chase has the 4 B's he's a happy guy:

1. Boob

2. Bum

3. Burp

4. Bunker love

Multiple times everyday Austin proudly proclaims,

"Chase is SOOO toot!!"

So "toot" indeed.

A Whole Lotta Love

Valentines 2012

Lovin' the half gallon of red food dye we used that day, including breakfast

(appetizing isn't it??)

...and lunch

(Yes, Avery is our "granola girl" who eats Indian flat bread

instead of a regular pb&j sandwich.

Where did we go wrong?)

...and fancy V-Day dinner

(oops-to lazy to grab the camera on that one)

Lovin' our beautiful V-Day hike 5 minutes from our house

(who knew?!)

Lovin' them home-made Valentines

...but maybe not the clean up.

(You try cleaning up a million spilled sparkly confetti hearts. They were on the bottom of our socks, stuck to poor Chase and to our clothes for weeks afterwards)

Lovin' the hotel and the POOL that Jared whisked us away to

after kidnapping us all for a surprise weekend away.

The kids especially loved their "fancy" hide-away bed

and having a room (and tv!) to themselves.

(My sly little cupid packed everything in secret,

remembering everything from the Martinelli to all of our swimsuits.

Very impressive.)

Lovin' our day at Sea World during our weekend getaway

Lovin' that this little guy has proven himself a TRUE Bunker

by maintaining the true spirit of the holiday

and coming down with PINK eye just for the occassion. Atta boy!!

Lovin' finding this Valentine's morning during breakfast

(remember our Valentine's Day 2009 ice cream heart?!)

most of all-

Lovin' this guy and these kidlets

for so many, many, many wonderfully lovely reasons