The Storm

A few days ago, when we were in Iowa, we witnessed quite the storm roll in. We had 60 mph gusts of wind, and constant thunder and lightning. There were tornado warnings not very far away.


After the storm, the sky was an eerie orange, and an awesome rainbow appeared over the house.

In Iowa

It is our last full day on The Farm in Iowa. My father spent his summers and many holidays here growing up. My grandmother and great-grandfather were born and raised here. I have so many memories here, and have so enjoyed making many new ones with my little family. My sweet baby Chloë begins the 6th generation of stewards of this land. Her great-great-great-grandfather John Magnus Heline settled here in 1871 after he and his sweetheart Clara immigrated from Sweden. I love this place.

And I've taken hundreds of pictures, and will sort through them when we get back to Idaho, and get a few of them up.

My dad and sister have both written up some good blog posts on being here.

Red Door

We went out The Red Door a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Bryan's Grandparent's anniversary. It is one of the nicest restaurants in our little town, and we really enjoyed celebrating with our local family as well as Bryan's aunt and two cousins from California. Bryan's Grandparents have been living here for the summer, and it has been so much fun getting to know them better, and having them around to see Chloë, and celebrating birthdays and anniversaries with them.


I think she's going to be a concert pianist.

Sound Asleep.

More Bath Time.

I love her little rolls. At 11 lbs, she's already much chunkier than she was at her first bath.


Chunky froggy legs.


So fresh and so clean!


All tired out and sleeping in her new vibrating bouncy chair.


She seems to really love the water. I wonder where she gets it.

...and then there was pink.

Added later: Just to clarify, this is a picture of a load of laundry that turned pink after washing on warm with a very red tablecloth. Oops.

Two extra cycles with lots of oxyclean, and this is as good as we got.

The white onesie is just for contrast. It wasn't actually part of the load of laundry.

Faces

6 weeks old.

Sleeping with Daddy. Sleeping with Daddy gets a Thumbs Up. Adorable when sleeping. Hard to focus when you first wake up. Need to do some eye rubbing. Looking at Mama. Making funny tongue face. Doing some slack-jaw breathing. Looking out the window.

Port Wine Stain

Update from October 2010: We now know that isn't a true Port Wine Stain, but a Hemangioma. See the next post about this here.


When Chloë was 8 days old, I noticed she had what looked like a dark purple splotchy bruise behind her right ear. The only thing I could think of was that she must have pulled on her ear really hard during the night and broken a blood vessel.

But after a few days, the bruise wasn't fading. In fact, it seemed like maybe it was even darker and slightly bigger. It crossed my mind that it looked a bit like a port wine stain, but I couldn't imagine that I would have missed it for the first 8 days of Chloë's life.

After a couple of weeks, I came to terms with the fact that I really must be that oblivious, that that it really must be a port wine stain. But the two blotches kept slowly changing, and I kept meaning to take a picture or two.

So I finally got a few pictures over a week ago, and already they have changed. The rounder spot was once flat, and now has a good height to it, kind of like a mole. Of course I worry because the spots are on her head... close to her brain.

Fortunately, both her Grandpapa Doctor and her Family Practice Doctor think that the growing should slow down, and that the spot shouldn't cause her any problems in the future. If the spots do continue to grow, there are options out there for laser treatment or even plastic surgery. We are praying that we won't have to worry about the potentially painful and expensive treatments.

Fussy Noises

Chloë sometimes makes cute little noises when she's fussy. The faces she makes are pretty darn cute, as well. Here she is waiting for a diaper change. She was trying to be so patient.

Wedding in Oregon

Last weekend we drove to Oregon for one of my best friend's wedding. The 8 hour drive took 10, but Chloë was a trooper and really did well, considering it was approximately 782 degrees.


Thursday. On our way we had to stop at Multnoma Falls. We even dipped her feet in the cold water, which she didn't seem to appreciate.


Friday. The site for the Rehearsal Dinner; a vineyard in Southern Oregon.


The Blakeys!


Saturday. The morning of The Big Day. Manicures and pedicures, of course!


We had at least a thousand dollars worth of flowers, almost all given by neighbors and friends. My mom spent all day Friday, and all of Saturday morning doing amazing work making them into bouquets, and I spent a chunk of time helping with the table bouquets. We had almost 30 sizeable bouquets when we were done.


Me and my beautiful little family.


The wedding was in the Ewers' back yard. It was beautiful.


Tim and Leah!


Botkins and Ewers! It's quite a story. The parents were friends in college, and then got married and each couple had five children. And we're all best friends. My sister was one of the beautiful bridesmaids.


Me and Shannon. She is my Ewers. Even though she's a Harlin now. And now we're starting the next generation: The Blakeys and Harlins. Shannon is expecting a boy in October.


The Reception!


I sure do love these two people. Chloë was a bit worn out, I think.


Dancing the night away!

We relaxed on Sunday (and helped with some of the post-wedding clean up), and then drove back on Monday. It was a great trip.