Brandon's day off

Brandon gets every Wednesday off from school.  We decided to take advantage of this and go on a "date." Here we are at Quiznos (fancy, I know):

From Quiznos, we walked to Trader Joes on a nice big sidewalk.  See?

On the way home, we decided to take a "short-cut."  I should have known, I should have known.  We ended up lost in some neighborhood, a mile or two from our house with a stroller, a few bottles of wine, some yogurt and chocolate covered raisins.  If worse came to worst, at least we would have had our sugar and booze, right?  

At the end of a dead end road in the neighborhood, there were some young kids playing in the street.  We asked them how to get to the park (which is kinda close to our house), and they gave us some semi-understandable instructions that involved going under a chain-link gate and through the woods.  We thanked them, opened a bottle of wine, took a sip and said "what the heck?"  

Just kidding.  We drank the whole bottle.  Ok, kidding again.  We left the wine in the stroller (right where it belongs)...I held Amelia and Brandon took the stroller down some rather steep terrain.  Here I am looking a bit skeptical:

At this point, the trail was pretty visible and once we got to the bottom of the hill we were able to see the park.  We made it home without a scratch, and I think Amelia enjoyed the change of scenery.  We even got some good flower photos out of the deal:

In the end, we had a lot of fun.  I'm starting to learn to treat everything like an adventure.  It's much more fun that way.  How about you - do "short-cuts" normally turn out favorably for you?

Amelia's new friend

Amelia has made a new friend! One of the guys that Brandon goes to school with had a baby boy 4 days before we had Amelia.  His name is Finn and he is pretty darn cute.  His mom, Marie, is the first friend I made here and is really nice.  

Here the babies are at dinner.... at a Mexican restaurant a block from our house:

And here they are in our living room, after dinner the following weekend.  They were actually looking at each other and cooing.  So cute!

It's great to know other people who are in the same boat as us.  Having a baby really does change everything...but definitely for the better.  

I've been trying to think of a favorite memory that I have of Amelia.  It's tough to choose just one.  What's your favorite memory of your child(ren)?

My canning adventures!

I have recently delved into the world of canning! The fruit stand across the street has all sorts of fruits and veggies that are locally grown without the use of any chemicals.  They have great prices...and did I mention they're right across the street?!

So, I got 28 lbs of tomatoes for $28:

Boiled the crap out of them:

Put them in jars, processed them and got 7 quarts!

The same day, I also bought 20 lbs of white peaches for $20.  I know...that's a lot of peaches....but white peaches are my favorite and you only get them in the summer...unless....you can them!  So, after it cooled down a bit we got to work.  Here are the pretty peaches:

And here they are all canned up!

It took a lot of work, but I had a great time! I'll take any excuse to be in the kitchen, though.  

How about you, have you ever canned anything?  Have any recommendations or stories?

Amelia update :)

Amelia has recently discovered how to bat at her toys.  Well, I guess it's not so much "bat" as it is grab her hanging toys and shove them in her mouth.  Who would've thought I could be so proud?

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of her shoving this into her mouth.  I'll work on it (shouldn't be too hard!)

She has also started to bring her hands together:

AND, has mastered the art of being adorable:

The big day! We move to OREGON!

After hours and hours of packing, we were finally on our way to Oregon!  We went through many different moving plans, but eventually ended up bringing all of our "luggage" (boxes and suitcases) with us on the plane.  They had a great military discount.  We were met with extraordinary kindness and help at every turn during our move.  It really was incredible.  From our friends and family to complete strangers, we were helped by so many people in so many ways.  In the end we took 16 pieces of luggage (50lbs and heavier) on the plane for a total of $220.  Yeah.  That's not a typo.  $220!  Total!

Brandon didn't sleep (at all) and before we knew it... we were in Portland, our new home!  We rented a car and a U-haul upon arrival... and the real work began :) 

Later that night we went to Costco to buy a bed and some food.  Just a normal, everyday, Costco run: 

And then we slept.  

The day before the big move! And a surprise birth!

August 2nd was a crazy, insanely busy day for us.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.  Here's what our apartment looked like at 3:30pm (our flight left at 7am the following morning):

 

About 30 minutes after this picture was taken, I got a call from one of my closest friends Kary...she was having her baby.  I got Amelia ready, drove to the hospital....and got there just in time!  I was able to see everyone right before Aubrey made her appearance:

This picture was taken while Kary was still in surgery :(  One of Aubrey's firsts!  This picture doesn't do her justice, but sadly I only have two of her.  We left very soon after she was born. It was an amazing miracle, and so interesting to see it from a visitor's standpoint! 

Here's mama and baby reunited!

I was so thankful to be there for her birth.  The timing was insane!  Welcome to the world, Aubrey Lyn.

Texas and Florida

Apparently we forgot how to use our camera while in Texas.  There are only a few pictures, and not very many show how much we enjoyed ourselves.  Here is Amelia hanging out with her Granddad:

And here she is at 3am, hanging with her dad :) Needless to say, we slept in.  Every day.

After almost a week of temperatures in the upper 90s, we traveled to Florida in search of a milder climate.  Yeah, not so smart.  We know.  Although it was hot, we still had a great time.  We got fireworks:

Mom had her first taste of alcohol in 11 months:

We had a "welcome to the world party" for Amelia:

And got lots of lovin from Grandma and Grandpa (but I only have a picture of Grandma for some reason):

All in all, it was a great trip.  Exhausting, but great.  We originally thought we were going to have a small break...you know, some time to relax when we got home.  Ha.  There's more to come on that.  :)

Our trip...in review

In one of my first posts I talked about my apprehension in regards to traveling with an infant.   I was so nervous.  So much so that we almost didn't go.  Boy, am I glad we did!  She did so good on our flights...and we had a lot of them.  Our first leg was from Anchorage to Seattle, then Seattle to Austin.  It was surprisingly quick (less than 10 hours), and she did great!  Here she is hanging out on the tray table :)

And here we are hanging out.  She looks pretty comfortable, huh? :) 

Needless to say, she did great.  She slept almost the entire 10 hours, and when she was awake she just wanted to be loved on.  We were very relieved.  Especially since we were able to show her off to our friends and family.  The plane trip home was a bit longer and more difficult, but we made it through.  She did great, we just didn't get any sleep...but that's normal, right? :)

Amelia's first bath!

So, I know this was a while ago....but I've got some catching up to do!  We've been so busy with moving and law school and...did I mention we moved?!  Holy cow, this past month has been hectic - but I've been loving every minute of it.  So, without further introduction...here is Amelia during her first bath.

She wasn't quite sure what to think.  So, she did what anyone would do.  She pooped and peed.  In the bath.  At the same time.  After we got that taken care of, we were good to go!  We were so excited for her umbilical cord "stump" to fall off so we could get her in the bath water!

She says "are you sure you guys know what you're doing?" 

Well, we sure don't....but that's the beauty of it all, right?  Making it up as we go, and loving her as much as possible.