June Pics

Even though I didn't post much in June (bad blogger!) we sure did take a lot of pictures. I did put up three posts today, Father's Day, Cardinals Game, and Meijer Gardens.

I also uploaded all of our June pics to my Picasa page. Here's the link to the album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aseleener/June2008

Here are some random pics that I wanted to share.



A couple of weeks ago it got a bit chilly so we put a sweater on Lena when we went out. It was also her first time wearing jeans!

At a garage sale we found one of those walker things. This one is old school; the new ones no longer have the bottom in it so the kid can't actually walk in it. Lena really enjoys being able to use her legs and stand up. She LOVES this thing. She was in the kitchen while Mama made supper when this picture was taken.

Sunday morning at church. June 22. Notice the cute dress and flower shoes! I could NOT get her to look at me for the picture.

This is one tired baby! She always ends up like this after her last bottle of the day, between 10:00 and 11:00. So cute.

Holy sunburn! He claims this was not intentional and that he forgot he was wearing his necklace, but I wouldn't put it past him to do it on purpose.

Also, I added the "Subscribe To" function to my blog, in case you would like to get updates when I post. It's located on the right hand side.

Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park

Grandma Sheryl was in town this weekend. Yesterday we just hung out at home. Today after church we decided to visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids. We had never been there; we tried to go with the Chrysts in March, but the line was unbelievably long.



Today was the perfect day. Although the weather lady said it would rain off and on all day, it was sunny and beautiful. And it only got up to the low to mid 70s. Perfect!



We visited the herb garden first. That was really neat. Then we stopped by the children's garden. It's name is the "Lena Meijer Children's Garden." Lena thought it was neat seeing her name in big letters like that!







It was so sunny that we had to break out the sun hat. She kept trying to chew on the strap until we got smart enough to put it behind her head.

It was a great day for some really cute overalls and flower shoes.

Grandma Sheryl was bad and broke the "No Standees" rule on the tram. Shame! I took this picture as evidence. I'm sure the tram police will be knocking on her door any time now.

We saw lots of neat flowers. This is a water lily I thought was exceptionally pretty.

Walking around looking at pretty flowers and artwork made Lena sleepy. Good thing Daddy's shoulder is perfect for resting on.

We had a great time at the gardens and look forward to going again sometime. Thanks for visiting us, Grandma Sheryl. We had lots of fun with you.

Cardinals/Tigers Game

Today we got to go see the Cardinals play the Tigers in Detroit. The tickets were my Mother's Day gift. It was a bit stressful for me at the beginning since it was my first time being apart from Lena for more than a few hours. Even though she didn't get to go to the game, she cheered them on from home.

It was neat visiting a new stadium. Comerica Park is really nice.

This is the view from our seats. Pretty good! We were even in the shade, which was nice since it was 84 degrees today.

The game went into extra innings because it was tied at 2. In the bottom of the tenth, the Cardinals faced the heart of the Tigers lineup. They chose to intentionally walk two hitters and before long the bases were loaded with only one out. Then our relief pitcher, Mike Parisi, walked (not intentionally) the hitter and it forced the winning run for the Tigers. Not the ideal turnout, but a good game nonetheless.

A really neat thing was that we were surrounded by Cardinals fans on all sides of us. We weren't expecting that! And actually we found out that the couple sitting in front of us were LCMS Lutherans! What are the odds? They were very nice people and took our picture for us (unfortunately that one didn't turn out.)

We also got to visit a church, Historic Trinity in downtown Detroit. It was only a little over a mile from the ballpark and we stopped on our way to pick up some choir robes they were giving to Good Shepherd. We enjoyed seeing such a beautiful church. They were even nice enough to let us park there for free.

Even though it was hard being away from Lena for so long, we really enjoyed our visit to Detroit. It was nice spending the day together, just the two of us.

Next year we would like to see the Cardinals play at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

Can't wait until Lena is big enough to go to her first MLB game!

Look-Alike

It's official! Lena looks more like me than she does Jim! I went to www.myheritage.com and uploaded pictures of all of us and it scans them and tells you who your baby resembles more. Too see the official results, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page.

Jim's First Father's Day

We had a great Father's Day. Jim's dad, Grandpa Brian, came up for the weekend. We all walked to The Cracked Pepper Saturday morning and had a nice breakfast. Then Jim and Brian spent the rest of the day doing little fix-it jobs around the house. They painted the window frames on the front of the house, installed some new light fixtures on either side of the garage, and worked on our water spigot. We went for a drive in the afternoon (to look at the fields; Grandpa Brian is a farmer) and then came home and had a nice dinner out on our deck.



Sunday after church, we took Grandpa Brian out to eat at Monterey Grille in Caledonia. Very good! Then Grandpa had to go home and we relaxed the rest of the day; spending most of it out on our deck. We have a little play bed that Lena hangs out in when we go outside. She loves being outside! She has so much fun looking at the sky and the big tree in our yard, kicking her feet and cooing and giggling. And eventually she falls asleep and enjoys a nice outdoors nap.

Sunday evening we had the classic American summer meal. Jim grilled burgers and I made potato salad (see the recipe on my cooking blog.)

Jim really enjoyed spending his first Father's Day with his dad. Thanks so much, Grandpa Brian, for visiting us and helping us fix up our house.

It was inevitable

So last week Lena discovered her feet. She has been enjoying grabbing them and holding them, one hand on each foot. It's kind of nice because she always has toys with her wherever she goes! I knew that it wouldn't be long before the feet found their way into her mouth. She loves putting her hands in her mouth, so I knew the feet wouldn't be far behind. Well, look how we found her today:

Doesn't look very comfortable, does it? She seems to enjoy it. Amazing how she can fold herself in half like that.

She looked at me like, "What's the big deal, Mama?" Then she promptly went back to gnawing on her toes.

Last week, the night of June 4th, was the first time Lena slept in her crib at night. And she slept there all night long. All by herself. So proud of her! I had been unsuccessful in getting her to nap there during the day, so I just assumed she wouldn't sleep there at night either (she's been sleeping in the bassinett in our room.) But that night, on a whim, I laid her down there and she watched her mobile for a while then went to sleep. It was a little stressful for me not having her right beside me, but I am really happy that she is comfortable enough sleeping by herself. She gave us quite a scare Saturday morning though. I feed her before bed, usually between 10 and 11, and then she wakes me up around 6:30 wanting to eat again. Well Saturday morning I am awoken by Jim asking me if I had already fed her. I said, "No. What time is it?" It was 8:30!! We both went running in there, just sure that something was wrong, but there she was, fast asleep. We woke her up and she just looked at us and grinned her big beautiful smile! She is so amazing!

Early this morning, around 3:30 am, she woke me up crying. I went in there and she had flipped herself onto her stomach! That is a first! She was crying because she absolutely hates being on her stomach. She has been rolling onto her side and sleeping that way lately. I rolled her back over, she smiled at me, then went back to sleep. Such a good little baby.

It's so great getting some use of the crib that we spent so much money on!

Today's Walk

We finally got to go on a walk today. It has been so hot lately that we haven't been able to go. But today was absolutely gorgeous; a perfect day for a walk. I brought the camera because I wanted to get some pics of the flooded Thornapple River. According to our rain gauge, we got at least 9 inches of rain Saturday and Sunday. The river is really high right now.

Apparently Lena found our walk to be boring.

Jim made a little turtle friend.

Here's a little swan family.

Daddy loves his baby girl!

So glad we got to go today.

Five Wonderful Years

Five years ago today Jim and I were married at Zion Lutheran Church in Woodburn, Indiana. It was the beginning of the most stressful, but most wonderful time in my life. In that five years, we moved five times, both completed grad school, had three cars totaled (flood, semi-truck accident, and theft), had health issues, made many wonderful new friends, bought our first house, and created life. We faced numerous challenges during that time, but it was all for the good of our marriage. Moving to St. Louis after the wedding was by far the best thing we could have done for our marriage. Without old friends and family close by, we clung to each other. When we fought, there was no where else for us to go, so we stayed home and worked it out. When times were tough, we had only each other to lean on. We were not only husband and wife; we learned the importance of being best friends, confidants, conversation partners, prayer partners, travel buddies, and lovers. We were fortunate to learn these lessons early on; some couples never do.

Today I would like to say Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband. I could not imagine a better partner for me, or a better father for my baby.

I love you, my Jimmy!

Lena's First Big Trip

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these pics. There is always so much to do when returning home from a long trip!

The first stop on our trip was the Fort Wayne area. We stopped in Auburn so Lena could meet her only uncle, Uncle Scott.

Then we went to Harlan and she got to meet her Great-Grandma Marian for the first time.

Here are four generations of Irvings. Great-Grandma Marian and Grandpa Brian.



We had dinner at Aunt Amy's house with the Zinks. Here are four Zink generations. Great-Grandpa Jim and Grandma Tammy.

Four Taylor generations. Great-Grandma Gloria and Grandma Tammy.

Then Lena got to meet Great-Great-Aunt Freida, Uncle Bill, and Cousin Jane. Here she is with Frieda.

Then we hit the road for Missouri. Lena was such a good girl and slept most of the time we were in the car. We installed a mirror so we could see what she was up to back there. I know this doesn't look comfortable, but we couldn't make her head stop doing that and it didn't seem to bother her too much.

All dressed up for her first party. This was a party for my grandparents. April 10th was their 60th wedding anniversary and May 23rd was Grandma's 80th birthday. This was Lena's first time wearing shoes. Notice the tongue sticking out. What a goof!

Lena meets Great-Grandma Doris for the first time.

Four Shadduck generations. Great-Grandma Doris and Grandma Sheryl. Interesting tidbit: All four of us were born in presidential election years. :)

Four Cornelius generations. Great-Grandpa Clyde and Grandma Sheryl.

My mom's family. Aunt Connie, Uncle Forrest, Uncle Gary, Uncle Denny, and Mom.

Lena loved the party, but it sure did wear her out! This is my Aunt Jan's lap she's on.




After the party, we headed back to Fort Wayne because we found out some friends of ours from Texas were passing through. We met them at the Seminary and went out to lunch. This is Paul, Erik, and Kathy Christensen. They are members of our vicarage congregation in Hamilton, Texas.

We really had a great trip. We travelled a total of 1800 miles in 6 days! Lena did so great! She didn't mind the car at all. In fact, as we were passing through Illinois on Sunday we ran into a hail storm. We had to pull over and the hail was coming down on us pretty hard. Lena never even woke up. Lucky for her, she's a heavy sleeper like her dad.

These weren't even all of the people Lena got to see on her trip. She also got to meet Jim's Aunt and Uncle Carol and Mark, and their sons Jon and Adam. And she got to meet Jim's cousin Lindsay and her husband Brian. Then she got to see Grandpa Lee at his office and meet our friends Bobbi and Cathy. She also met Pastor Steve, a bunch of friends in St. Louis (including a little buddy 5 weeks younger than her), and some more Corneliuses that I didn't get pics of.

Really fun trip but it's nice to be home now.