ABOUT LITTLE MISS HAZEL--AND OUR TRIP TO UTAH

Barbie and Kyle's first addition to their family, Hazel Christine Mills, made her appearance in 19 October 2008, at 4:47 a.m. (It was a long night.) She weighed 7 lbs. 12.5 ounces, and was 20.5 inches long.

We went out there to see them December 4-8. Some of the pictures here were taken by Barbie and Kyle before we arrived. While we were there, Kyle downloaded the pictures from his camera into ours so we could have them too. I didn't know it was possible to do that. Isn't technology wonderful? ^0^

Little Miss Hazel at 2 weeks. This Sweet Little Lamb apparently has some growing to do to catch up with her mom & dad. She not only regained her birth weight at 2 weeks, but she weighed in at 9 pounds. She's also 1.5 inches longer.

"Working out" in her gym.

Here she is a month old. At the one month mark she was 10 pounds 10 ounces and a whole 23 inches long. Her height is off the chart, and her weight is near the top. I guess that's what happens if your mom is 6'2.5" and your dad is 6'8."

A week later it was Thanksgiving. Barb and Kyle celebrated by going over to Kyle's parents' house. Hazel is about 5 1/2 weeks old here.

Hazel celebrated by spitting up on herself and on Kyle's dad!

This family picture was taken the day after Thanksgiving, so Hazel is just shy of 6 weeks old.

The Thursday after Thanksgiving we flew to Utah. Jim, Kathey, Kirsten and Betsey all went. This was our first time to meet Hazel.

Hazel's Aunt Betsey made this counted cross stitch to hang in her room. While we were there we took it up to Bev's Framing in Ogden so Barb could pick out a mat and frame that she liked. They will stretch out all the wrinkles, put it under non-glare glass and have it ready to hang in the nursery shortly after Christmas.

And here's what Hazel's nursery looks like.
They did the stenciling on the walls and Barbie made the gorgeous curtains.

BLESSING DAY

Hazel was officially given a name and a blessing at church on Sunday, December 7. She was seven weeks old. Uncle Peter also flew in to take part in this special occasion. We're sorry Helena and Doug couldn't also be here. (Helena's baby is due in just a few weeks.) Here are Peter, Betsey and Kirsten with Barbie and Hazel. (These pictures were all taken out in the hall after church.)

And Here's Aunt Betsey with Hazel.

Kyle nicknamed Jim "Poppy" awhile ago, so here are Poppy and Hazel.

If he's going to be Poppy, I've decided to be Nana.

Precious Lil' Angel. I loved the bow and the bracelet.

Three generations--back home again at the end of a perfect day.

TEMPLE SQUARE

While we were there we also went to see the Christmas decorations on Temple Square. It was fabulous, but very cold. Barbie, Hazel and Kirsten waited for us in the Conference Center while Kyle, Betsey, Jim and I went to see the lights. Jim wheeled me around in my chariot. I was glad I had it. The air is a little thin out there in them 'thar hills.

Our trip to temple square had some unexpected highlights for us. Jim and I had never been in the new conference center, even though it's not so new any more. Betsey said the conference room is just as huge as it looks on TV, and I really wanted to see it. Yes, we got to see the conference center, and the unexpected bonus was that we lucked out in that we got there on the night the Tabernacle Choir was practicing. Practices are open to the public, so we got to go in.

As we walked in Betsey exclaimed, "They're not wearing their clothes!" I just had to laugh. The only time we ever see the choir is when they're performing for General Conference, or for Music and the Spoken Word on TV, and they wear their performance outfits. Here they were looking like ordinary people just wearing ordinary street clothes. The picture is a bit blurry, because the camera wasn't set right, but you get the idea. They were practicing Christmas music. It was SO fun to be there.

Here's another view of the conference room, with some other spectators.

Well, that's about it. We had a fabulous trip. It was wonderful to meet sweet little Hazel and to reconnect with Barbie and Kyle. It was also great that Peter was able to be there, and have a bit of bonding time with some of his siblings and Kyle. It's hard when we all live so far away from each other. Kyle has lots of family in that area. Lots of cousins, and Aunts & Uncles came to the blessing. His grandparents were even there. Everyone went to Kyle's parents' house afterwards for a wonderful brunch. It was a perfect day.