Gouverneur's Baby Blessing

We had a great trip to Utah and Idaho. We flew in Saturday night and had Gouverneur's blessing Sunday at the Fillmore's. The Hawkins family reunion started that evening so we had a huge turnout. Mom Fillmore put on a delicious spread. We love having them home from their mission.

Mingling beforehand.

Most of the men who participated.

My SIL Amy just got home from her mission. She is DARLING!

Gouverneur is so lucky to have 2 amazing grandmas.

His grandpas are equally awesome.

We love this sweet little boy.

This picture makes me laugh. We have more boys in our arms then we can barely hold. I love it!

Getting a picture of these boys was completely impossible. Sterling Henry and Dellin couldn't keep their hands out of their mouths.

Sterling gave Gouverneur a beautiful blessing. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful husband who absolutely loves being father. My boys are so lucky to have such an amazing man to look up to. No wonder they are obsessed with him.

18 and 2

Dellin and Gouverneur had a doctor's visit today. Gouverneur turned 2 months yesterday and Dellin will be 18 months tomorrow. Dellin is still the skinny mini whereas Gouverneur is chubby.

Dellin's stats 18 months

Height: 34 inches (95%)
Weight: 23 lbs. 10 oz. (25%)
Head: 19 1/2 (90%)

Gouverneur's stats 2 months
Height: 24 inches (90%)
Weight: 12 lbs. 5 oz. (75%)
Head: 16 (75%)


We love our boys so much. They are so sweet and we love to watch them grow-up.

6 YEARS AGO TODAY...

I married this guy.

6 Years later, we are happier than I ever could have imagined.

I had to include a couple engagements photos. I look so young in these.

This was our actual engagement photo.

I love you Sterling.

MOVING.

We are in the thick of it. Boxes and piles of stuff everywhere.


It's gonna be a long week.

The boys are at least having fun.


And Gouverneur smiles non-stop now. He is the cutest!

We are staying in Arlington but leaving our apartment and moving to a house.

Wish us luck because we have a ton to do before our officially moving day of Thursday.

His first piece of mail.

He's legit.

Gouverneur's newborn pictures.

My friend Andrea took Gouverneur's newborn pictures. I LOVE how they turned out. She always does such an amazing job!



I usually don't love hats on my boys but I couldn't resist putting this one on him.

I LOVE that she caught this smile on camera.


This picture was taken when Gouveneur was 8 days old... I love it. I love babies so much and there is nothing I would rather do than sit around and snuggle them all day.


I love this shot of the boys. It explains that day perfectly. Gouverneur crying because he was hungry, Sterling Henry happy to be holding his new baby, and Dellin trying to figure out where this kid came from. Priceless.

Brother love.

THANK YOU ANDREA. You've done it again!

The Daddys

We have a serious case of what I like to call "the daddys" around here. My boys are absolutely obsessed with their dad. From the second they wake up till right before bed they are either with their dad, or asking where he is. It doesn't make me feel bad because I know they love me but it also hasn't stopped me from hoping that Gouveneur is a momma's boy.

Here is some proof of how they feel about their dad.

Soon after we got these elephants they became "daddy elephant" and "baby elephant."

Sterling and Dellin each have a bear that they love. Sterling got his as a gift before he was born. Dellin received his on his first birthday from Colby and Maria. The next day, they were named "daddy bear" and "baby bear."

Naturally the hammer head sharks are "daddy shark" and "baby shark."

And of course my favorite, "daddy Thomas" and "baby Thomas." I may have encouraged this one a bit because "mommy Thomas" would have been weird.
Once when reading a book there was some animal, maybe a horse or something that Sterling Henry said was a "mommy" so I know I'm not completely forgotten.

I love that my boys love their dad and I love that they suffer from "the daddys".

Take me out to the ballgame.

Our sweet little Gouvernuer is 6 weeks old today. He is such a darling baby. He gets lots of love and attention from his two older brothers.

We celebrated last night by taking him to a Nats game. They played the Cubs and it came down to the wire. The Nats lost, but it was a very exciting game.

I think he loved having mom and dad all to himself.

Little Angels

Do you ever miss your kids while they're sleeping?

We do!

4th of July

We had a wonderful 4th of July. We went to a pancake breakfast at our church in the morning and then spent the rest of the day relaxing. We met up with some friends in the evening and walked to the Iwa Jima memorial to watch the fireworks. We have done this for the last 3 years and love it.

Before the fireworks started.

The boys loved the fireworks.


Even Gouverneur enjoyed his first 4th of July firework show.

I love pictures with fireworks in the background. It is so festive and fun. I also love my little family.

I hope you all had a great 4th as well.

BOY STUFF

Our family does a lot of "Boy Stuff" and I love it. Don't get me wrong, someday I can't wait to go to princess parties along with all the boy stuff, but for now, we're having a lot of fun.

We headed up to Pennsylvania on Saturday to go to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Sterling and I had been there before we had kids, so it was real fun to take our boys there.

The place is packed with old, restored trains, models, and train toys to play with. Little Man was in heaven—train heaven.

Family photo—one of our first with Gouverneur here—at the turntable outside.

After the train museum, we headed to Fort McHenry. Fort McHenry is the famous fort that protected Baltimore and that the Star Spangled Banner was written about.
It is right on the water in Baltimore.

They had some reenactment soldiers. Sterling Henry especially loved the band.

Little Man wanted to turn his hat backward when his dad did.

We really had a fun time. I love weekends!

FIVE FAST WEEKS

Gouverneur is 5 weeks old today and cuter than ever. The time has really flown right by. He is such a little cherub. He is a total muncher and is a pretty good sleeper too. I get two questions all the time. "Where does the name Gouverneur come from?" and "How's it going having 3 kids under 3?"

When we decided to name our baby Gouverneur (pronounced Governor), we really hadn't told a lot of people beforehand. After naming him we've found that most people seem to like it. We have had one person tell us the name is awful and "stupid" and that we should change it, but really, who listens to people who say things like that anyway?!?

Sterling came across this name years ago and really liked it. He wanted to use it on both of the older boys. I wasn't super keen on it at first, but with time it grew on me and now I LOVE it.

Gouverneur Morris was one of the founding fathers, but somehow he's become forgotten. He was a member of the Continental Congress, he knew George Washington well and pushed for funding and supplies for the Continental Army and helped save American credit during the Revolution as a member of the treasury committee. He later spoke the most at the Constitutional Convention and even penned the U.S. Constitution, including the famous preamble ("We the people of the United States ..."), and was one of its signers.

He served as ambassador to France during the French Revolution where he risked his life to save many others and was even involved with a plot to save King Louis XVI himself. And he negotiated and personally paid for the release of Lafeyette. Returning to the States, he served as a U.S. senator, plotted the grid of streets of Manhattan that we know today, and was head of the commission that planned the construction of the Erie Canal. What a guy! And did I mention he did all that with only one arm and one leg--he badly burned his right arm as a boy and lost his left leg in a carriage accident as a young man?

I always think boys should have a strong name to live up to and Gouverneur fits the bill perfectly. I also think it goes well with Sterling and Dellin.

One week before he was born, Sterling found a guy on Facebook who had the same name and spelling. He messaged him to see how the name had treated him. The guy said he always loved his name, and most people he met did too. He also said his dad and grandpa had the same name. And it helped that the guy seemed like a nice, normal guy. So we decided to go with it.

As far as having 3 kids under 3, it is going great. The first couple of weeks were pretty tough but that was to be expected. The hardest part of doing anything is just leaving our place. Once I get all three kids in the car, I can go/do about anything. We are moving to a house at the end on this month which will make that a lot easier.

Sterling Henry and Dellin seem to love the baby. They also really love each other. They love playing together and play pretty nice most of the day. They are boys, so it does get pretty wild and crazy around here.
Siblings are such a blessing and I know that these 3 boys are going to love being so close.

So there you have it.