Mother's Day 2009

Mother's Day, a day I had been waiting for for a long, long time. To now finally be a mother, with the most precious of little girls at my side, is amazing and very satisfying. It's humbling to have a 6-month old be able to teach you new things about unconditional love, joy, happiness, a fresh perspective on life, and so much more... all without words. Just plain sweetness - that happy, toothy, drooly smile, those big, beautiful blue eyes that look at you with utter love, her big, kissable cheecks. Can you tell I'm in love? So this was easily one of the most fulfilling, happy days of my life thus far. My first Mother's Day was very meaningful to me.

I got to do everything I wanted to do on Mother's Day, and Matt treated me like a queen, including making me breakfast - lucky me! In the morning we went to church, after that we went to brunch with my family (at the same hotel that we had our wedding reception at - fun), then we went home and took a great nap, and took a nice walk outside. It was a wonderful day!

Mckenna was definitely loving being with all of her Person cousins. Here she is admiring Dan and Abby's 2 1/2 week old little girl, Ayla. I know these two have a lot of fun together in their future!


Ayla is so little, cute, and sweet!


Jacob and Mckenna were having a ball together. Jacob was making Mckenna laugh so hard, just look at her face! I love that there are so many cousins to play with and have fun with... so much to look forward to over the years!


Dad, Tommy, Mckenna and Jacob.


Jessica and Sarah. Brad told me that the other day Sarah said to him, "Let's go pick up Mckenna and Ayla and go shopping!" Isn't that cute? With all of those boys in the house, I'm sure Sarah will definitely enjoy all of her play times with her girl cousins. :)


Little Joel - I think he was sleeping almost the entire brunch. Here he is one day shy of one week old. Little peanut!


Two new mommies with their two cute little babes. Again, Mckenna really likes her cousins! :)


I love these girls!


Happy new parents on our first Mother's Day!






When we got home, we changed Mckenna out of her dress and she took a nice, long nap. After waking up refreshed and happy (as always!), she was ready to play with her in-house fluffy sister, Nemo. You can't tell from the picture, but Mckenna's onesie says "I love my mommy" - good choice Mckenna! :)


Daddy and daughters...


Nemo is really a good sport with all of Mckenna's playfulness with her.


Time for our walk. My Aunt Barb knit this cute hat for Mckenna, and it matches a beautiful knit sweater dress that she will wear in the fall. Could she be any cuter?




Happy and tired at the end of a long and fun day. Thank you God for the awesome blessing of being a mommy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day - we love you!

Love, Julie, Matt, Mckenna, & Nemo

(Make sure your speakers are turned on...)

Baby Shower #5

Today after school our Minnehaha friends at north campus (the high school, grades 9-12) had a baby shower for us and the other teachers that have had a baby in the past year or so. There were 5 cuties that were celebrated - Mckenna, Josiah, Ellorie, Kate, and Keira. Here are some pictures from the shower. Mckenna has been having a rough few days - we think she is cutting some top teeth, so you can see in the pictures that she looks kind of tired and dazed... that's how she seems to be handling her teething periods so far - just kind of quiet and dazed, not really too cranky or crying. I'm happy to say that she is sound asleep at the moment, thank goodness! :)

Cute balloon cakes for all the babes!




This is Baby Lucy and her mom, Sarah. I work with Sarah's husband, David, and they have two boys also. The shower was actually celebrating Lucy's older brother Josiah. MA gives showers for the first baby born to a teacher while they are working at MA. Even though Lucy is younger than Josiah, her brother was the first to be born after David starting teaching at Minnehaha, so he was the guest of honor. Lucy is 4 months old and looks pretty tiny next to Mckenna, who is 6 1/2 months old. I still can't believe how fast they grow from week to week, month to month! As you can see, Mckenna is starting to fade...


Here is our good friend and colleague, Liz. I think Liz is one of Mckenna's #1 fans! Here Mckenna is getting more tired...


...and now definitely overdue for a nap. This is our friend and one of MA's Spanish teachers, Julianna. She and her husband Marvin are expecting a baby girl in August, their first child. Notice the top front of Mckenna's dress is darker than the rest - that is drool! She is quite the drooler these days.


And one last smile for the camera before leaving to go home for the evening. If you look really closely you can get a glimpse of Mckenna's two tiny bottom teeth - so cute!


A nice nap will do wonders! Mckenna slept in the car on the way home, woke up as we drove into the garage, and was all ready for a walk around the neighborhood. Again, look closely to see those two small pearly whites! :)

* * * Joel Andrew Person * * *

Joel Andrew Person
Born Monday, May 4, 2009 at 3:55 pm
7 lbs * 8 oz, 21 inches long

Congratulations, Jessica, Brad, Jacob, Tommy, and Sarah!

Sonja's Baptism Weekend

Cam and Linnea's daughter and our niece, Sonja, was baptized on Sunday, April 19th at Winnetka Covenant Church in Illinois. We were so happy that we could be there to celebrate that special day with them. We got lucky that there was another special family day that weekend too - on Saturday there was a 90th birthday party for Matt's Grandpa, John Hanson. Here are some pictures from our fun weekend.

I can't remember the last time I was at a birthday party with name cards at each seat - fancy!


Isn't this a beautiful cake? I thought so. Gwen asked me if the flowers were real.


The guest of honor, Grandpa John, and Matt's Grandma Harriet. You can't really see it, but Gwen just gave John a birthday card - she is so cute!


Uncle Matt playing bouncy ball with Gwen.


Gwen is very sweet with Mckenna... she loves her cousin!




Mckenna loves her Uncle Cam... "Hey, you kind of look like my daddy!" :)


- BAPTISM DAY -

Ready for the service to start.


Sonja was looking up to the ceiling for a minute or two. I think she was thanking God for all of the blessings in her life. :)


I tried to get a short video of the baptism, but since I was holding the camera and Mckenna at the same time, Mckenna's whines are the loudest part of the video. But you can see the main part of the ceremony. I love when the pastor holds Sonja up in the air after putting the holy water on her head.


After the service we went to Linnea's grandparent's house for a nice meal with friends and family. Get a load of these girls in their car seats as we came in the house from church. I can't get enough of them together, they are just so sweet. And it's extra special that they are just one day apart in age. Here they are 26 weeks old - 6 months! Study this picture for a minute, and then scroll down to the next picture...


...and here are the same girls in the same car seats at 3 weeks old. Oh how they grow and change in such a short period of time - it's amazing! :)


Cam and Matt with their Grandmas, Fran and Harriet.


Grandma Karen and Grandpa Craig with their sweet girls. I'm pretty sure they're in heaven when they have these two sweeties with them in the same room. :)


I love Uncle Cam!


We tried to get some family pictures - the girls of course are wiggle worms, but what little kids aren't, right? I love the girls sweet faces in this picture. Sonja and Gwen's smiles are adorable!


It will be fun to watch these cousins grow up over the years...


Like I said, Gwen is really sweet with her little cousin Mckenna. Here she is giving her a kiss. Notice the red glow on Mckenna's dress - there were a lot of pictures being taken all afternoon of these cuties!


Cousins and sweet, sweet little girls. :)


We love you Sonja - thanks for inviting us to join you on your special day!

-carrots and funny games-

Today I made some carrots for Mckenna to eat. It was so easy! Peel some organic carrots, steam, and puree in a blender. I tried them, and they were actually pretty good. She seemed to really enjoy the new flavor... getting excited when she saw the spoon coming up to her mouth. What a cutie!







This video is so cute. Mckenna has really been into imitating lately... make sure your speakers are turned up!

Kristi's Birthday

Kristi turned 26 while we were in Chicago last weekend, so Matt and I took her out for dinner on Friday since we missed the family party. Happy birthday, Kris - we love you!





Matt is behind the camera, and for some reason he always cracks Kristi and I up every time we're together. I think he likes the easy laughs audience! :)