Emily and Scott's Wedding

Breana's sister got married at The Vineyard on June 20Th. It was beautiful and the food was awesome! They do dinner by reservation, also. I highly recommend it.

Jody and I ended up eating at a table by ourselves in the basement. Sounds like no fun, but we made it fun and the basement looks like a wine cellar and is very romantic. This picture was by chance and I even tried to recreate it and couldn't. It suites him, no?

It was out first evening out without Elise. She even stayed the night at her Gigi's while Jody and I got a room at the hotel where the family was staying. We tried to make the most of it, but really missed her. Gigi and Elise loved it, though!

Sweetest Voice

Most of the time she really looks like she's trying to tell you something and she always bookends the conversations with huge smiles!

New Riverwalk

We have a beautiful new section to our Riverwalk in San Antonio. Jody and I decided to get out one morning (has to be morning to be bearable) and check it out. Very nice - we recommend it. We bought the Baby Bjorn the day before and have to say it works well. Elise wore long sleeves for sun protection and a big hat! We flipped the brim for pictures and took it off in shady areas. She really did look around (or to one side or the other) while we walked. She seemed pretty comfortable and, thankfully, it was a cloudy day.
The barges do go down the new section.

Artists were commissioned to create some points of interest along the way.

The water was actually pretty clear - you could see some fish!

The new lock and dam system that allows the barges to travel both sections of the river. One section is about 9 feet higher than the other.

The re-purposed bridge.

Glenda met us down there!

Can you see the water coming through his mouth?

It was pretty hot by the time we were finished, but Elise had no complaints. Maybe because we bought her the "cool mesh" Bjorn.

It was pretty, free and had some exercise mixed in (especially with a twelve pound baby hanging on you.) There are a lot of benches along the way and shade under the bridges. Way to go SA!

7 Weeks Old

She is smiling and cooing now! It's so funny how you feel like you have single-handedly created world peace when you get her to smile. And when she talks! Forget about it....

She hasn't liked sleeping in her crib, so I took a picture of her first nap in it. It lasted 5 minutes.

Oh, and....

Yeah she does!

Busy Parents

For three years now this pair of House Finches have nested in my candle-chandelier-ball thing that hangs right outside our kitchen window on our back porch. If you look closely you can see four babies begging daddy for food.

But, for the first time, this year those babies grew out of the nest and the mom immediately laid three more eggs. It really was a matter of days.

Not quite Octo-mom, but close!

Bunnies and Cousins

Elise wanted to share her bunny impression. Pretty dead-on, if you ask me.

Elise and Great Grandma at our house for Easter breakfast. Don't think I'm Awesome Mom that hosted breakfast for 6 people with a 3 week old. My mom made everything, brought it over and cleaned everything up before leaving. If you haven't had her Egg Casserole you haven't lived!

I remember when Samantha was born. I carried her around pretending she was mine and certainly didn't correct the woman in the restaurant that asked me how old my baby was - "Oh, she's 3 months," I said with a smile :)

Now, here she is with her "real" mommy helping her to hold my "real" daughter seven years later. Thank you to Sam, Lilly and Brooke for letting me practice on them. I've never had more fun learning to do anything!

In the Beginning....

Elise Irene Curtis was born on April 3, 2009 at 4:56pm. She was 8lbs 1oz and 20 1/2 inches long. She is four weeks old as of Friday! She is Jody's parent's first grandchild and my parent's fourth granddaughter!
We had a very large room at the hospital which allowed almost all of our visitors in the room at one time. Hanging out with all of my family waiting for my labor to progress was awesome. My mom got to be in the room during the birth and the three of us watched The Bonnie Hunt Show in between contractions.
The postpartum room was just as nice and it was fun showing her off to everyone. It was also the site of Jody's first diaper change! We did have to stay a day longer than we thought because she was a little jaundice. However, we were thankful for one more night with the help of the nursery.
I don't have a means of comparison, but I think she's a pretty good baby. We can usually get her to calm down and sometimes she would sleep for more than four hours if we didn't wake her for a feeding. This picture was a day or two after bringing her home and I think she has changed already (yes, the eyes are even bigger now,) so I will post more, soon!