Welcome to the gorge, Little E!

Welcome to the gorge (aka our backyard!)!  We took E on her first trip to the gorge late Saturday afternoon.  I would say that she loved it, but the truth is that she slept the whole time, until we were on our way home (and then she cried lots).  It was a beautiful day!

Little E with the Columbia River Gorge behind her (looking towards Portland)

The Vista House at Crown Point

Latourell Falls

Wahkeena Falls

Lower Multnomah Falls

              

Upper Multnomah Falls

And I don’t mean to brag, but that’s only half of the waterfalls we could have visited that are within 20 minutes of our house! 

4 weeks.

Didn’t I just write a 3 week post?

I can’t decide on just one, so you get to see all 8 I took of her.  Gorgeous little girl!  She’s so happy and we are so lucky to have her!  I love how she is smiling in 2,3, & 4.  We’re seeing lots more smiles from her, but it’s hard to get them on camera.  Cute!

A little tummy time—she’s so good at lifting her head up—even without that little pillow thing.

Matching girls after church.  You can’t see it, but she has a yellow flower on her dress too.  I love matching!  (Brian matches us each week too—he wears a tie that coordinates—what a good sport!)

More cuteness!

I just can’t get enough of our cute little girl!

    

Brian trying to get E to smile.  She can—she just chooses not to for the camera.

 

Little E’s honorary aunt, Stacy.

3 Weeks!

I can’t believe Elna is already 3 weeks old (yesterday)!  Time is going way too fast for me.  I just want her to stop changing right now.  I don’t want her to even be one day older, let alone years older...I am just loving this stage so much.  Sometimes I just stare at her all day long.  She couldn’t be more amazing!

Here are some pictures from her first few weeks of life:

A few days after leaving hospital—first walk.

All wearing pink—Sunday after church at Brian’s parents house

Check out that mohawk—we no longer try to control her hair…it has a mind of it’s own!

I could just eat her!

Our Fathers—we love them!

Happy Father’s Day to our dad’s!  Both Brian and I have incredible father’s.  We feel so blessed to have been raised by such good and faithful men and now to have baby E have such wonderful grandpa’s!

Grandpa Harris and Elna taking a Sunday nap.

Baby E with her first weekly postcard from Grandfather Clark—she can’t wait to meet him in August!

Happy first Father’s Day!

Brian is an amazing dad!  From the very beginning he has been very involved in his little girls life, being the one to receive her into this world! 

My favorite picture of Brian and Elna—his first time holding her!

Elna’s first diaper change- by Dad

Elna’s first bath- by Dad

Napping together in the hospital

First bath at home—is she not the cutest thing you’ve ever seen?  Scrumptious, right?!

Doing chores together—these make me laugh a little

He’s an incredible father.  Elna is lucky to have him!

Mom’s visit.

My mom came to help us for 10 days after we got out of the hospital.  She was such an enormous help!  We are really really missing her now and we are all getting less sleep—including little Elna.  At night my mom would get up when Elna cried and try to get her back to sleep without waking me.  If Elna could be calmed without food then my mom would put her back to bed.  If she needed to be fed then my mom would bring her into me so I could nurse her.  So helpful! 

Mom also did all the cooking so I could focus on nursing Elna and healing myself.  She made us lot’s of yummy vegan food.  My mom is newly vegan—it’s so fun to have another family member on board the vegan train with me.  She even tried a few new recipes that turned out great!  Food production has definitely stopped since her leaving. 

Mom was so good at getting Elna to be happy.  It might have something to do with the fact that she had 6 kids herself and knows just what to do to calm babies, but sometimes I got a little jealous that she could calm her so quickly when it took me so long.  Now I am doing nights all by myself and I’m just not as skilled at it as she is.  I’ve got the feeding thing down, but after feeding is where things start to get a little hairy.  When she won’t go back to sleep and I’ve tried everything and I just don’t know what to do, and it’s been 3 hours…sometimes we both end up crying a little.

You are welcome at our home any time, Mom!  Thanks for visiting!

Hospital visitors.

Grandpa Harris & Lil E

Grandma Fae

Heather & E & company

Daren & E

Chris & E

Allan & Linda Roberts with E

Bonnie Rust & E

Grandma Elna with little Elna

Stacy Bancroft also came, but we forgot to take a picture.  Next time, Stacy!

We feel blessed to have so many people who already love our little Elna and especially to live so close to Brian’s parents!