First time at the zoo!

Genevieve couldn't see a lot of the animals because they were either too small, too far away, or sleeping in a corner.  However, she loved the animals she could see.  The elephants got really close, as did the giraffes which was really fun for her, but most of all she loved the petting zoo.  I almost didn't take her in because I thought she might be scared of the animals or not really care...I was very wrong.  She especially loved getting a firm grip on the goat's ears and pulling.  Despite how much she loved them, I think they were pretty happy to see her go.  Another fun thing for her was getting a fist full of hair and screaming.  The sweet goats were so gentle and patient, but we did have to switch a few times because they were running away from us.

She thought that bird was pretty funny.  She would laugh a little bit and then scream at it.  And when I say scream here, I mean a scream that to Genni is a friendly greeting, but to an animal is probably a little bit scary.

I was constantly saying, "gentle, don't grab it's hair..."

Also in March...

Brandon grew a mustache!!!

For those who need an explanation: the men in our ward at church decided to grow mustaches for the father and son camp-out.  It took Brandon a few days to decide to do it, and I'm so glad he did.  He stopped shaving his face for about a week and then the day of the camp-out, he shaved to get his 'stache.  We had fun taking pictures of it, but were both happy to see it go in the end.  

And now for a lot of really cute pictures of our little girl.  Genni got her first teeth, which make her smile even cuter!

See?

First time on the swings!  She insisted on keeping her arms out, even though she was a little too small for the swing.

When she first started crawling, there were a few times that I found her sitting totally still like this, with no toys around her.  Funny girl.

Kiss!

Happy, happy baby...

...especially when riding on her dad's shoulders!  He loses a good amount of hair each time he lets her sit up there, but she loves it, so he suffers through.

This was on a very long (unintentionally so) walk through city park.  It may have been hot and we may have been starving, but it was still fun.

I'm no seamstress, but I really enjoy sewing things for my baby.  I made this little smock for her, and I thought it turned out pretty cute.

Genni has found a few foods that she likes to eat and sticks with it.  Whenever I introduce something new into her diet, it usually isn't well received.  Luckily, we have total control of what is introduced.  So if she sticks with sweet potatoes and spinach, I guess that's not the end of the world. She also really likes to feed herself.  She'll usually let me feed her a few bites and then intercepts the spoon on the way to her mouth and wants to do the rest.

This was her first time trying spinach...she LOVED it, so much so that it got all over her, the highchair, and anything else in arm's reach (me).

 

March and April (Lisa's Wedding)

I've sat down to update the blog countless times in the past couple of months, but Genni's new found freedom in crawling has kept me much busier than I ever would have expected.  So now here we are. Where to begin?!  March and April were whirlwind months for us.  March started out with a visit from Karen and her mom, and it was so much fun!  Karen, Uge and Tulio were close friends of ours in Boston.  They moved to Colombia about a month after we moved down here to New Orleans.  Karen had a conference here, and we were so happy to have the chance to spend time with her (but were sad Uge and Tulio weren't able to come with).  We love it when people visit us (hint, hint...Lloyds, Johnsons, Hoofs, and all you other people who haven't made it down here yet...you know who you are) because it gives us a chance to explore the city we live in.  During Karen's visit we had some amazing food (yes, it usually comes back to food with me...I love to eat, what can I say?).  We ate beignets and gumbo and some unbelievable Italian food.  It was awesome!  Mostly though, it was so great to catch up and see someone who was such a big part of our life in Boston.  Here are a couple of pictures from her visit (I'm still waiting to get the rest).

In New Orleans, any holiday is an excuse to party and have a parade.  The St. Patrick's Day parade was a very interesting experience.  They had a few really fun floats and some fun Irish music playing, and then there were TONS of men dressed up and carrying big towers of flowers or beads.  In order to get a flower or some beads, you had to give them a kiss.  It was very strange, and kind of disgusting.  Needless to say, we were happy to stand at the back of the crowd.  Then there were floats throwing vegetables (yes, you read right).  They throw cabbages, potatoes, and carrots...the typical ingredients for an Irish stew.  It was fun, but  more stressful than I wanted it to be, so we didn't stay long.  I love St. Paddy's Day though, and it was fun to dress up and celebrate a little.

I've been trying to be more of a Suzy Homemaker lately.  One way I'm trying to do this is by recreating a bread recipe from my childhood.  During one of my attempts, I decided to turn it into cinnamon swirl bread.  Brandon was so excited that he took pictures, and he would want them in here, so here you go Sposo:

Unfortunately, they were better to look at than they were to eat.  That was a couple of months ago though, and after many more attempts, I think I've figured it out.  Yay!  Maybe I can do this homemaker thing after all.

Lisa's wedding was amazing(ly exhausting)!  It was so beautiful, SHE was so beautiful, and she married a wonderful man and into a wonderful family.  I was so grateful to be able to spend a few days before the wedding with her, getting to know his family a little better.  It was surprisingly cold during a good part of our visit.  Mom, Genni, and I were sleeping on air mattresses in the living room, which, for those of you who have never slept on an air mattress on a cold night...it takes your core body temperature down another 10 degrees, at least!  We used every spare blanket we could find.  The really fun part of sleeping on an air mattress was having my baby next to me.  I would nurse her to sleep and then when she would try to roll over to sleep on her back, but the mattress would roll her right back into me.  We didn't get a lot of sleep while we were there, but it was worth it, and we still had a wonderful time.  Brandon couldn't miss a lot of work, so he didn't come until Friday night--the night before the wedding.  He has never been a fan of being apart for any significant amount of time, but since having Genevieve, it's pretty much torture for him, so we tried to skype every night.  We had the computer set up on the couch, so it was a perfect height for Genni to stand and look at it, while being able to keep it out of reach.  Each time we would get on the computer, her face would light up and she'd try to get to him.  It was so sweet.  One night, while skyping, Genni started playing peek-a-boo with Brandon.  Neither of us realized what she was doing at first.  She would crouch down and duck her head and then stand up and smile.  She did it several times in a row before I realized she was playing peek-a-boo.  Once Brandon realized it and started to play along, she got really excited about it.  Cutest thing ever!!!  Then the next night when we got on the computer, she immediately ducked down and popped up again.  I have one of the cutest kids in the entire world.  And now, here are a bunch of pictures from the wedding.

Coming out of the temple.  It was a wonderful sealing...I cried...a lot.

Lisa inherited our great grandmother's ring, and here she is with my mom and grandma Mimi.

I love this picture, they were smiling like that all day.  Also, I love her shoes (I found them).

Getting that dress on took a minimum of two extra people, but she looked amazing, so it was worth not being able to breathe, right?

I didn't really understand what we were doing in this picture (as is clear in my wedding photos, I don't really get the cheesy poses and am terrible at them), but Clint's boys were so cute, I had to include it.

Genevieve LOVES her uncle Isaac, and he was an amazing help.

Clint's twins and their cousin Maycee...very cute kids.

We're so grateful that Lisa got married so that we could get a family picture taken :)

Millie and Don.  I love these people.

The cake...that my mom made and decorated, yeah, she's amazing (I may or may not have had THREE pieces, it was just that good...and that doesn't include the container I took back to the hotel for the next day).

These were supposed to be floating in the pool, but they moved the reception to the front of the house at the last minute.  Millie and I spent many hours putting them together...watching Friends, and burning the prints off of our finger tips with hot glue, it was such a magical time.

Does it surprise anyone that I have not one, but two plates of food in front of me?  The food was amazing, I ate SO much of it and don't regret a single bite.

The sealing was perfect, the reception was gorgeous, and we all had a wonderful time...and were so glad when it was all over.  It took a couple of weeks to recover from the serious lack of sleep, and the mass number of calories consumed.  Totally worth it though.