the sweetest week of my life

 
 
 
 
 

i used to consider the week after moses was born to be the sweetest slice of life i would ever experience. little did i know that it could somehow get sweeter.

the week after gabriel was born included the added bonuses of seeing my sons as siblings, my beloved dad being around, and glorious london springtime. i was surrounded by the five people on earth that i love the most and that love me the most, as my capacity to love felt like it was doubling. our newborn baby brought heaven to our home and our toddler kept us giggling. the sun shone and the flowers burst and my heart was so swollen. 

i will forever cherish the last week of april, two thousand eighteen. 

 
^^ the morning after gabriel was born. ^^

my mom snapped these photos during our photo shoot with our photographer friend kami on the afternoon after gabriel was born. i love that they show the behind-the-scenes of getting a shot of the wright brothers together … there was definitely a lot of adult supervision when we laid a busy toddler down next to a braaaaand new baby!
 
 
^^ ian and i left mom at the flat and went out to the garden with the two boys … and got our first taste of a bit of two-kid chaos :) ^^
  
moses gave his baby brother lots and lots of love those first days … and learned that grabbing gabe’s face may not be the best gentle move, haha! 

 
^^ ian and i took some walks around our wisteria-laden neighborhood with the baby while moses played with grammie. ^^ 

four days after gabriel’s birth, my dad arrived! he had a speech in italy and stopped by to see my brother in switzerland and then came on up to london to meet his newest grandchild. 
  
 
i love baby yawns ^^ and baby sneezes >> so so much! 
 
 
^^ ian took moses on lots of fun daddy dates during gabriel’s first few days. and we all oodled over gabe’s amazing hair! ^^
 
^^ playing in our magical garden with grandfather!! ^^
 
ian and i went out for a little lunch date and blossom walk through chelsea one afternoon. it was such a beautiful day and really wonderful to have time together and with our tiny baby. ian took a week of paternity leave directly after the birth and it was soooo great to have him around. 
 
^^ how about that petal dust?!? ^^
 
 
^^ gabriel’s first restaurant experience … he slept through the whole thing ;) ^^
 

 
 
^^ since we had so much help with moses, it was soooo great to be able to really enjoy lots of newborn snuggles. ^^
 
^^ our garden!! it just kept getting better and better, especially during this sweetest week ever, which fell at the peak of the blossoming! ^^
 
 
^^ some (pretty failed) attempts at getting a good family picture - to somehow commemorate that gabriel was born amidst so much new life in our city. ^^
 
 
^^ this perfect tiny soul has brought heaven to our home. I can’t believe that perfect ear and those beautiful little toes were created and grew inside of me! such an incredible miracle. ^^

^^ one morning, ian asked if he could stay home with both boys - just to try his hand at it! so my parents and i went to breakfast together! it was such a treat and so much fun! we went to this restaurant that is all the rage in london right now - dishoom. ^^

 
when gabriel was eight days old, we took him to church for the first time! ian and the baby and i only stayed for the first hour (sacrament meeting) … but it felt so good to me to get a dose of spirituality in, and the short walk to and from church was refreshing. little gabe got pretty into the church meeting - haha: 

on sunday evening, we had a little birthday party for my mom and gabriel, who are almost birthday twins! (gabriel was born 45 minutes before my mom’s birthday!). ian made a chocolate cake and we celebrated! 
 
this is not a great picture, but the only one i have of moses with grammie and grandfather! he adores them both and he had such a blast with them. 

…and i will end this post with just a few more pictures of our angel gabriel from the morning after his birth. because he is so fresh and heavenly.
 
 

sweetest eight days ever.