A Weekend To Remember...

This past weekend was bittersweet. It had its joyful moments with Samuel, but it also had its sad moments in remembrance of the angels that are forever missed. On Saturday, I had our monthly Face2Face meeting (for baby loss mamas) and then headed immediately over to a balloon release in honor of a good friend's daughter, Harper Grace. June 25th marked Harper Grace's first birthday in Heaven. The balloon release in her honor was absolutely beautiful. I'm glad we were able to take part in it -- remembering their sweet little girl with them.

For whatever reason, I failed to take many pictures while I was there, so these are the only ones I have...

Samuel and his buddy, Finley -- two rainbows in attendance at Harper's balloon release...

Harper's mama, Rhiannon, loving on Samuel. We continue to hope and pray that Harper's baby sister makes a safe and healthy arrival come September!

Now why I don't have any more pictures from the event? I wish I would've been more focused on getting more, but with that being said...I'm glad we were able to be there and honor their sweet angel with them on her big day!

The rest of our weekend was spent with our very own rainbow, Samuel. I kept thinking about Harper throughout the weekend, leading me to think of Livy and where we were in December during her first Angelversary. (The life of a baby loss family isn't an easy one and the grief doesn't end when you do get that joyous rainbow baby -- it just eases up a little bit.) I kept thinking how thankful I am that Sam made it and would then excitedly think of where our friends will be (hopefully) in September. I absolutely can't wait to hear the announcement of their rainbow's arrival and the pictures after, as they experience what we are now going through with Sam. Everyday brings its own new experiences with this little guy and I'm more than grateful for every single one of them! Heck, Sam has already learned how to push himself up while laying on our chest, nearly dive off the front of the Boppy pillow while getting his picture taken, and he can now roll over to his stomach -- which scares the crap out of me! I'm not exactly ready for him to be this active already, but I'm loving it nonetheless.

With all of his new adventures, he has now graduated to his own bed instead of sleeping in the pack 'n play in our bedroom. If he's going to refuse being swaddled like he does now (I'm definitely taking back the larger sized SwaddleMe's and getting him SleepSacks!!) and roll around like he does, I want him to be hooked up to the Angel Care monitor so that I know he's okay and don't have to check on him every 5 minutes. His big brother, Oba, has already taken on guard duty, as he went straight under Samuel's crib when I put Sam in there. So sweet...

Well, before I head to bed, here are a few of Samuel's latest pictures...

Rather upset about getting his picture taken, he pushed his way right up over the Boppy pillow -- about gave me a heart attack!

After putting him back down, he turned his head -- someone is done with this whole paparazzi thing...

Apparently, he gave up on being mad and faded away into dreamland...

Love these feet...they've already outgrown the sleeper he went home from the hospital in!

It didn't quite work out how I wanted it to, but it clearly shows how tiny he is...

James decided to test out Sam's walking skills -- someone wasn't amused...

This made up for it...

Another chair attempt...

Looks like torture, but I promise it wasn't...

He slid right down, though...

Lastly...among the pictures taken, this might be the winner for a birth announcement? That's assuming we get around to doing them...