Green Valley Lake 8-14-09

Our most recent trip was to Green Valley Lake, California. Our friends Richard and Celeste have a beautiful lakefront cabin there. This tiny mountain town has an elevation of 7,000 feet and is located between Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear in the San Bernadino National Forest. We drove up Friday afternoon. This was Vienna and Stella's first trip to the mountains. Stella could smell the lake from miles away.

Stella enjoyed the weekend as she got to play with Richard's dogs Jake and Roxy. Roxy is a little older so she wasn't as interested in playing, but Jake is the same age as Stella and they enjoyed tormenting each other by stealing the tennis ball time and time again. Stella also spent alot of time at the dog beach, swimming to her heart's content.

We spent the weekend relaxing, walking by the lake, taking a golf cart ride, and finally Saturday night enjoying a Led Zepplin tribute band at Lake Arrowhead.

The weekend did however have one small, yet tramatic, incident. We noticed Vienna's fingernails were getting long and I suggested to Chad that he should cut one of her nails. We didn't have our baby nail clippers, so we decided to use the regular kind. Needless to say, that was a big mistake. As I held Vienna, Chad clipped away. Vienna started to cry, actually it was more like a wail. I quickly asked him if he cut her, he said no. I looked at her finger and saw blood. Instinctively I just put her finger in my mouth to apply some pressure. I knew immediately that she was indeed bleeding heavily. Chad checked the clippers and sure enough, there was a big piece of skin inside. Vienna started screaming very loudly. I have to admit I went into panic mode. Celeste heard Vienna crying and quickly came into to see what happened. She immediately found her first aid kit. We applied pressure with cold washclothes and even tried ice. It seemed like forever to get the bleeding to slow down. Vienna was obviously in alot of pain. Chad held her and was very calm. I on the other hand was pacing from room to room trying to figure out what to do.

Finally we laid her down and held her arm to try to keep her still. We managed to wrap her finger up as tight as we could. She eventually calmed down and then I laid her down for a nap. She had worked herself up so much she fell right asleep. Chad and I proceeded to talk about the accident for hours. This even haunted us until bedtime. The challenge was keeping a bandage on her as she constantly puts her fingers into her mouth. We changed her bandage often and within a couple days if finally scabbed over. I wonder if she could have used a stitch or two, but we were way up in the mountains and did the best we could. The injury just so happened to be to her future wedding ring finger. Luckily her finger is basically back to normal. What an experience. I'm terrified for the first time she falls and skins her knees.

All in all, it was an eventful weekend!

Vienna Photo Shoot - July 2009

Beach Babe

Of course we couldn't wait to get Vienna her very first bikini, then again I think Chad could have waited, ha!

She's my little beach bunny.

California - Catalina Island

By popular request I have decided it's about time for another blog entry. It has been way too long. So much has happened since my last entry I'm not sure where to begin.

As many of you know, we recently moved back to California. We packed up mid-June and drove from Dallas all the way to Palo Verdes, CA. Chad drove his truck with Vienna and Stella. I followed behind in my car. Vienna tends to sleep better in Chad's truck with the dual exhaust. It was a very long and very HOT drive through West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and finally California. We spent four nights on the road. Upon arriving we drove straight to Juliet and Steve's house. They were so very generous to let us stay with them for a little while until we found a place to live.

We are currently living in Belmont Shore, a little beach community in Long Beach. We found a cute little apartment just one block from the beach. While Chad and I are heavily focused on looking for work, we have also been enjoying our new environment and catching up with old friends.

One of our first adventures was a trip to Catalina Island with Juliet and Steve. We headed out early on a Thursday morning on Steve's boat. It took a little over an hour to get to the island. We stayed on the boat for two nights. During the day, we relaxed on the boat, fished, swam, ventured onto the island for sightseeing via a golfcart tour, shopped and enjoyed exploring different restaurants. Vienna was so content on the boat. She slept mostly on the trip over and back, as well as easily throughout each night. The waves rocked her to sleep, just as we had predicted. All in all it was a great trip and a much needed get away after our grueling drive from Texas to California and our challenging search to find an apartment.

Babysitting & Photography Session

How lucky are we that when we drop Vienna off at Gramps and Nini's we come back to getting full photo printouts of our baby girl. We know that as soon as we leave, Gramps gets the camera out. See the beautiful pictures he took on Sunday below. We love you Gramps!

Lake Travis Vacation

This is a little out of sequence since we took the trip to Austin before Mother's Day, but I still wanted to post a few photos. A couple weeks ago we decided to rent a little cabin on Lake Travis for a mini vacation. I hadn't spent time away from our house in a very long time (the hospital stay doesn't count!). We packed up Vienna and Stella and drove four hours south. We were a little nervous about how Vienna would handle the car ride, especially since she had her two month shots the day before. She actually was really good and slept almost all the way there.

The cabin sat at the top of a steep cliff with a view of the lake. By the time we got to the cabin it was already dark outside and we weren't familiar with the surroundings which made us a little nervous about Stella taking off to find the water nearby. We had no doubt she could smell it and would want to get in it asap for a dip. Stella was very well behaved and stayed near us on the patio. The next morning we walked her down to a boat launch area so she could swim.

We spent the day exploring the area. Chad took us to a state park he used to go to when he was in college. The park sits on Lake Travis as well so we were once again able to let Stella swim to her hearts content. We now joke that the trip was actually Stella's trip. We think she had the most fun of all of us! Chad took us to one area of the park known for it's high cliffs. Although not recommended by the park rangers, people often engage in cliff diving. Chad did as well when he was in college, and after seeing the cliffs, I think he was crazy! We headed home and grilled out and just relaxed on the patio.

After spending two nights in the cabin, we decided to head into Austin for lunch at Trudy's and then head home. It was a great little getaway, I look forward to our next trip. Vienna was relatively easy to travel with and actually slept quite a bit. We're thinking about camping in the next couple of weeks. I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to tent camp with a newborn, we may end up renting another little cabin. Stay tuned.....

She loves her carseat

Vienna loves her carseat and I just had to post this photo! She is pretty darn cute!

Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. Juliet was in town visiting for the weekend from Los Angeles. She was so happy to meet Vienna and spend some time at the house just hanging out. Sunday we had brunch with Juliet, Nini and Gramps at Agave, a new restaurant in our area with amazing mexican food. It was my very first Mother's Day and so nice to be surrounded by my loved ones. Chad planted some beautiful Tiger Lilies for me. Here are a few photos from Sunday.

Just a few favorite photos from Gramps

One long night

Saturday night was our first experience with a very upset little baby. Vienna spent most of the day wide awake, never took any of her usual catnaps. She was very fussy in the evening until we finally got her to sleep around midnight. Then at 3:30 in the morning she woke up crying. I tried the usual, changing her, feeding her, rocking in the glider, walking around the house patting her butt, putting her in the stroller and wheeling her around the house, swaying from side to side, bouncing up and down, nothing was working. As her cries turned into screams I knew we were in trouble. Chad somehow managed to sleep through this, unless he was pretending. I walked over to him, sat her on his chest and said, time to get up, we need to go for a ride. He got up in a stupor, and within minutes we were out the door with the baby and Stella. As we drove away Vienna started to doze off. She was alseep in minutes but we didn't want to chance it and decided to take our time and drive a little further. We stopped at 7-11 for a cold drink and proceeded on. Finally when we got home around 4:30 am, we all headed back into the house. We left Vienna in her carseat sleeping, parked in the stroller at the foot of the bed. The next day mommy and daddy were a little tired, to say the least. In the afternoon when we were waiting for Nini and Gramps to come over, I found Chad and Vienna snoozing in the glider. I just love this photo! I just hope we never have a night like that again, or not for awhile at least. Who knows what our neighbors will think of us leaving at all hours of the night!

7-1/2 Weeks

Today marks seven and a half weeks since Vienna's birth. My how time flies! It's been awhile since my last blog entry. I think I just needed a break. It was that, or the fact that every time I try to update this site, Vienna wakes up or needs me, it never fails. Hopefully I can get this posted today!

Vienna is changing daily. As expected, our first couple of weeks were challenging, specifically adjusting to our new sleep schedule, or lack thereof. Of course she's not yet sleeping through the night, that will take some time. She is however sleeping a little longer each night. I usually get up once or twice a night to feed her. Lucky for me, most times she falls right back asleep as do I. I've come to realize Chad requires much more sleep, or uninterrupted sleep than I do. Maybe it was the sleepless nights during pregnancy that prepared me ;)

We have been lucky to have many visitors in the past few weeks including uncle Clay and Hayley from Los Angeles, Nicole from Minnesota, and lots of friends and family here in Texas. Juliet will be visiting in a couple of weeks, also from Los Angeles. We feel constantly blessed to have Nini and Gramps living nearby. They have been able to see Vienna several days a week and share in our excitement to see her everchanging personality.

Vienna has started smiling from time to time. Who would have known a little smile, even if it's quick, could make me so happy. I can't wait until she's laughing and making more sounds. Recently she's had some new screams, some happy, some not so happy. Of course I prefer the happy ones :) Vienna is getting stronger everyday, I don't think it will be too long until she's holding her head up on her own. Chad plays "tummy time" with her almost everyday on her playmat. Between the playmat, the playpen, the boppy chair and the new Graco swing, our living room is starting to look like BabiesRUs!!!

Unfortunately it would take me forever to sum up the last 7 weeks in one blog post, I'll do my best to post more often, even if it's just photos. Vienna is waking up, I have to run!

Close Ups

Per recent requests, here are a few more photos, including some close ups of Vienna.

Chad drying Vienna off after her first bath:



Vienna sticking her tongue out:

Vienna catching flies, ewwww:

Just after a long feeding: