Welcome Baby Lydia!

Our baby is 2 weeks and 4 days old today!

Lydia Katherine Neuffer was born on June 15, 2016 at 12:45pm, weighing 7 pounds 4.4 ounces. She has brown hair and silvery-blue eyes (which have been closed tight most of the time until the last week or so!)

Her middle name, Katherine, was my middle name before I got married (I dropped it and made my maiden, name my middle name). We chose her first name because we think it's pretty and classic!

I was induced at 40 weeks + 5 days. Everything went quickly and smoothly! We stayed at the hospital two days.

It was love at first sight!

And second sight, 

and third sight,

and fourth sight... you get it. :)

This was taken on our way out of the hospital - it's incredible how much she's grown in the two weeks since then! Watching her grow is amazing.

She's a happy baby (a 'fusser,' not a screamer), and is only upset when she's hungry or when "Lambie," her favorite pacifier, falls out of her mouth!

We brought her home when she was 2 days old. Barkley did't know what to make of it.

He's been calm and patient with all the change. Her cradle takes up his former sleeping spot so he's been crawling under the bed at night... it's pretty funny!

The Saturday after she was born my mom flew up from WC. Her visit seemed way too short. It was so, so good having her here!

Let's zoom in on that one... 

Love!

During her stay we managed to venture out a few times.

Fairbanks Farmers' Market

My 26th birthday was when Lydia was only 5 days old. We celebrated with a little picnic at Chena Lakes - as low-key a bday dinner as possible. :) It was great. She slept through the whole thing and Barkley got to run around.

She really is in that carrier. :) The blankets are hiding her from this angle!

The rest of my birthday was spent like this... recovery mode.

Matt made me this pretty Alaskan wildflower bouquet from the fields around our house - 

And we had a quick birthday FaceTime with Ellen :) 

She sent us the adorable picture book Dogs and everyone loved it - Instant family fav.

Plus lots of birthday love from friends/family.

A few days later Mom took us out to Pike's Landing for a real birthday dinner when I was feeling up for it. We sat on the patio over the river and it was so pretty. We love these 75° Alaskan summer days!

The sign across the vier says 'Love Alaska'.
L was exactly 1 week old here!

Mom's week-long visit ended waaay too soon.

The day after she left, the Neuffers flew up from Provo. :) It was amazing to see Heidi, Mike, Jenica and Daniel all the way up here!

All packed into the Rav! :) 

They arrived in the middle of the night (flight times to Fairbanks are a little crazy) and the next day was Sunday. Our church starts at 1:00, so Lydia got to know her aunt, uncle and grandparents before getting ready for her baby blessing!

Not sure what's going on here

It was a little early (she was only 11 days old) but we wanted to have her blessing while family was in town. Heidi brought a blessing dress (that ((Great)) Grandma Neuffer helped put together!) and got her ready to go!

Baby Lydia didn't know what to make of all those clothes. Ha! I love the look on her face here :)

Proud dad :)

We were all laughing about this elaborate shoe / sock combo!!

The blessing was great and it was so good having this group here to celebrate!

The rest of their stay went by in a blur. We had fun showing them them the sights but mostly just enjoyed being all together (especially because Daniel leaves on his mission next week and we won't see him for 2 years). 

We did s'mores on the back patio - (it was 10:30pm here... the sun really never sets in the summer!)

A couple short hikes for the rest of the group (not me).

They saw the big oil pipeline and a few other tourist things.

Does anyone else know of Awkward Family Photos the board game? (I think Steph & Brent introduced us to it) So funny! We played almost every night. :)

Dinners all together... I LOVE this pic - I love how you can look close and see what everyone was  up to... making dinner, talking on the phone to someone about Lydia, snacking, and taking baby selfies! :)

Showing them around UAF (this was at the university botanical garden) -

Picking strawberries

Matching outfits!

We spent an afternoon at the lake! They rented kayaks and swam and even got Barkley to swim! We've actually never seen him swim (tried to get him to do it but he's never wanted to let his feet off the bottom!)

Matt even got him to swim out to his kayak and climb in :)

Happy pup! Love the clouds reflecting off the water - Alaska is beautiful

Meanwhile Lydia and I hung out on shore and stayed dry. 

Matt and Barkley racing out to a ball... Matt won :)

And a lot more. :) 

Resting with Grandpa Mike -

More resting... how she spends most of the day :)

Getting ready to go somewhere was always a team effort -

"Cool Dad" out to dinner :)

And a little video... Mom voice in full effect. :)

It's hard to believe all of this happened within her first 15 days. It was SO good introducing Lydia to family who loves her, and it'll be amazing when more visors come later in the summer. It's incredible watching her grow and change. We absolutely love our little girl!