Three months old and a weekend on our own

This past weekend, Matt was able to drive up to Utah with his brother Wade and his family. They picked up Matt at 8:30 PM Friday night, and after 6 hours, 3 Dr. Peppers, and never-ending conversation, they arrived safely in Murray. We figure Matt and Wade probably would have stayed up that late talking anyway; this time they just caught up in the car! They had fun hiking the "Y", eating with Matt's parents, and enjoying each other's company while shaking their heads throughout the BYU v. Nevada (Reno) football game. They returned to Vegas Sunday at 5:00, fitting in a quick dinner at our place before Wade's family drove back to Kingman.

Meanwhile, John and I kept busy in Vegas. My friend Erika came over and helped me make amazing cake truffles for Susie's baby shower. Chocolate mint truffles, so delicious! Here's how you make them:

1. Bake a Devil's Food Cake (from the box).

2. Break the baked cake into chunks and drop into your Kitchen Aid/mixer. Add in 3/4 of a can of store-bought Cream Cheese Frosting. Mix.

3. Using a melon baller/ice cream scoop/hands, ball the cake mixture and place the balls on wax paper/tin foil on a pan.

4. Throw the pan in the freezer for a few minutes to keep the cake balls firm.

5. Melt chocolate mint dipping chocolate [I used Dark Chocolate Mint "Melts" from Michaels] and roll the cake balls in the chocolate. Place the chocolate dipped cake balls back on the wax paper/tin foil to harden. They store best in the freezer.

The truffles were a huge hit at Susie's shower. It was a great shower, a wonderful mix of many different friends from times throughout her life. Baby Claire is very well stocked with some of the cutest little girl clothes! Can't wait to meet her!

I've been busy with my new calling as well: Gospel Doctrine Teacher. I teach/facilitate discussion about scriptures, right now focusing on the Old Testament in the Bible. My first lesson was this past Sunday, on Isaiah 1-6. There is SO much in Isaiah; I learned a lot from reading the Institute manual and lesson material. I was a little nervous teaching and taking care of John on my own, but there were many kind people offering to help! Everything went really well, and I'm excited to really study and learn through this calling!

We managed to stay busy and have fun, but we did miss Matt! I'm still slightly afraid of walking through a dark house... so John slept in the Pack 'n' Play in our room:) Saturday night I picked up "Temple Grandin" at Redbox; what a powerful tribute to Temple's mother and a fascinating glimpse into the experience of living with autism. It's an HBO film, but it's out on DVD now and I highly recommend it.

Well that's it for this week's highlights! Delicious cake truffles, great autism movie, big Isaiah lesson, and missing Matt. Here's an adorable video of John enthusiastically telling Matt all about our fun weekend:

One more video...

Here's one more cute video showing one of John's favorite new tricks (controlling his fists):

A few favorites

Matt is easing back into the swing of the dental school routine and I'm enjoying John and developing tutoring jobs for the fall. John has had some exciting mini-milestones recently. He loves to make conversational sounds now (repeating ahh sounds back to me), started to laugh, learned how to put his hand in his mouth, and now smiles and laughs at toys. I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by! He is 12 weeks old right now, and I am so grateful I can just do a little work from home so I can be with this little guy!

We've caught some fun John moments on video; here are a few of our favorites:

An oldie but goodie: Matt distracting John with back and forth cries

(To view these videos full-screen, double-click and watch through YouTube)

John laughing

John trying to talk

Also, some fun pictures from the week:

John is such a happy morning guy

And he's generally happy as long as someone's playing with him

All this smiling, laughing, kicking, and fist holding can be exhausting :) Thankfully, as a result of all this energy expending, he's finally starting to sleep through the night!

Blessing John Sterling

We just had a wonderful weekend celebrating John! Many members of our families were able to come, so we had quite the fun party! Family came in town in waves, and we had a great time introducing John to a few new faces in addition to celebrating with family he's already had the opportunity of meeting.

Here's John Sterling with his Great-Grandpa Sterling:

All of our family stayed at the beautiful JW hotel down the street from us, so we were able to enjoy their pool several times. John was shocked at the temperature the first time we tried the pool.

But then he started enjoying kicking around!

Saturday night all Alleman and Colton family got together for dinner. Matt's parents catered a delicious Cafe Rio meal which we enjoyed at our local church building. It was a great venue for kids to play, adults to socialize, and all Cougar fans to watch the BYU vs Washington football game!

Sunday we dressed for some family pictures before the big event.

Allemans

Coltons

Then we dressed John in his adorable blessing outfit. My mom found this in D.C., where many Catholics christen their babies. I love the little vest and tie!

John's blessing was beautiful. Matt's mom and sister Kori transcribed a copy so we have a record of the blessing. John has infinite potential to do amazing things! I was overwhelmed with the strong affirmation of love in John's life- the love of an aware Heavenly Father as well as the love of a vast family. I pray that I can raise John to live up to all of the blessings he was promised. Parenting can seem a daunting task, but when I feel that strength and love from God, I know John will be ok. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that I'm not on my own helping John reach his potential!

After the blessing, our friends and family headed to our house for a light lunch. We had fun socializing for hours!

The Grandmas and Greats!

We were sad to say goodbye, but we had such a fun time celebrating this special little guy! Thanks to everyone who was able to attend. We are so grateful for the love and support of many!

If you're interested in seeing more pictures, here's our web album of photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/beccaalleman/BlessingJohnSterling?authkey=Gv1sRgCKPrwZ-hy6uvuAE#