Lunch and Dinner

We met up with Neil's cousins Julie and Chelsea for lunch at Costa Vida. Cafe Rio knockoff, but still sooo good.

Julie is an AMAZING person who founded a non-profit, Rescue A Million, to save children and the environment!

Chelsea is an awesome singer at her parents' cowboy dinner theatre and is about to leave on a Mormon mission to Florianopolis, Brazil! We'll practically be neighbors (don't think I'm not already plotting how to swing up there to see her!).

 I love how Nile is "waving" from inside the stroller, haha.

For dinner we met up with a couple of Neil's childhood friends and their families at San Tan Flat.

We had tried to do dinner there on a weekend night right after we got to AZ, but it was completely packed with a mix of leather-clad bikers and Midwestern snowbirds. There was a 2-hr. wait for a table that night, so we bounced.

This time we went on a weekday so we got right in. We were early (!!!) for once in our lives, so we took some pictures of the place till everyone arrived.

Big Girl!

Five weeks old today!

Nile really has a strong neck and likes to practice holding up her head. I set her in this little chair and she loved it, and sat listening to Aunt Becky practicing guitar.

She looks like such a big girl! I want her to stay a newborn forever!!

Pizza Mart and Birthday Party

Neil has been talking about Pizza Mart ever since we got here -- a place he remembers from his childhood as having the original $5 pizza (Little Caesars and others being copycats). So we finally hit it up for dinner this past weekend. I must say I can't really recommend it -- we definitely got what we paid for, but Neil was happy so that's all that matters, right?

Afterward we went to Dallan's Spider-Man-themed birthday party. He turned three!

The gift-opening was a hard event to control and all the cousins hovered and eventually started to take over. Some crying ensued.

Nile enjoyed watching from the sidelines with Dad.

And with grandma.

 And aunts and uncle.

 Everybody wants to hold her! (Yes, she had a wardrobe change, you know how that goes.)

I'm Going To Miss These ...

... when we go back to Argentina.

Oh, and Oreo shakes from Jack in the Box!

One Month!

Baby Nile is one month old today! Can you believe it? Me neither.

It's been nothing but a party over here; sorry for the radio silence since Easter. Well, by party I mean one whirlwind month of partying all night, Nile-style. Kind of a whirlwind and a blur. I'm so glad neither Neil nor I have to work right now. In all seriousness, it really has been so fun hanging out and bonding with our new little daughter. She is so sweet and precious. And it's been lots of fun hanging out with her aunties, uncles, cousins, grandma and grandpa, friends and friends, etc. etc.!

Some of what we've been up to:

 Four generations: Neil, (Great)Grammy, Nile, Grandpa

 (Nearly) The whole fam. Granny Franny's birthday.

  Cousin Camryn's first birthday party.

 Auntie Becky and cousins Gavin and Dallan.

 Cousin Lillian.

 Grandma. Nile often has a skeptical look on her face, don't take it personally.

 Grandpa.

 Mommy!

Baby Nile at one month.


And to bring things full circle, a couple old pics just for fun that I found on cousin Julie's Picasa album today.

A Very Happy Easter

We had a great Easter, I hope you did, too. We went to "grandma and grandpa's" house for an Easter egg hunt with the family. We'll really miss being around everyone when we head back to Argentina in a month.

 Cousin Gavin admiring the "cute baby!" (his words, not mine ;)

 Cousins Lillian, Gavin and Dallan.

 Lillian and Camryn.

Me, Nile, and Aunties Clara, Lisa and Becky.

 

 Grandma and Grandpa.

Great Aunt Glenna.

 

All the grandparents.

 Happy baby.

Baby Girl

She's here!

Nile was born on Tues. March 23 at 6:30 a.m., weighing 7 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 20.7 inches long.

As I was nearing the "pushing" stage, I saw out of the corner of my eye that the nurse had written the following, minus the actual time, weight and length, on the opaque bathroom door:

It was pretty exciting and really encouraging to realize that this was it, she was going to be born TODAY!

 

 

We are having so much fun with her already, she is so sweet. I feel bad for thinking that she did not look cute in her ultrasound pictures, because I am totally in love with her now and I have that parent syndrome of knowing that she is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! :)

She is such a joy, and I feel really transformed by parenthood already. I will share the details of her birth in the next post. She's sleeping right now which means I should be sleeping, too!