New car!

Our old van (the '98 Dodge Caravan that my parents bought when Kevin was born and then gave to us when we got married) bit the dust back in December... threw a rod on the freeway and came to a lovely grinding halt, which was great fun. We've been saving money and waiting until after Nora was born to buy a car (so we could get hospital bills out of the way). I researched like crazy and we finally got a loan and bought a car at the end of April. We ended up with a 2005 Honda Odyssey, and we LOVE it. It's in great condition and we couldn't be happier. Though we're grateful to my grandparents for letting us borrow their little Honda Accord for a couple months while we saved money, we are SO glad to be back in a minivan. This is the first loan/big purchase we've made in our marriage, and we're pretty proud of how well everything worked out. Here are some pics of our new car:

Matt by the car just as Nora spits on him... haha.

Front view.

Automatic sliding doors... LOVE. Our old car had carseats built into the middle seat, so we also had to get Owen a new carseat. This one transitions into two other carseats, so it's the only one he'll need from here on out. It's like a spaceship... and he loves it. :)

LOVE the seats that fold down in the back... in our old van we had to haul the seats out if we wanted more storage room.

Nora's blessing day

We blessed Nora on April 15 in our ward. We were lucky enough to have lots of family there, and Matt gave Nora such a sweet blessing. My mom and I made Nora's blessing dress (well... my mom did most of the work. I designed it and did the skirt and bonnet, and my mom did the bodice and sleeves and then put all the parts together).

Matt's parents, two of his little sisters Jenny and Melinda, and his older brother Jon and his wife Sarah, and their kids

My parents, youngest siblings Madeline and Kevin, grandma and grandpa Bromley, and grandma Auman

Our sweet little family!

Nora with all the men who blessed her: her uncle Jon, great grandpa Bromely, grandpa Farrell, Matt, grandpa Auman (known as "the apartment grandpa" in our house :) and uncle Kevin (who is too young to be part of the blessing but got to hold the microphone :). Our bishop and home teacher also helped, but we didn't get a picture with them. 

Four generations on my side... Nora, me, my mom, and both of my grandmas.

Sweet baby in the dress we made.

I love that chiffon flower trim that we found... we put it on the bonnet, the bodice, and around the bottom of the skirt.