Happy Birthday! Wow - what a difference a year makes!

Seriously, what a difference a year makes! This time last year, Brian and I spent two weeks celebrating our big 3-0! We started by celebrating with a College Party with the June Birthday Crew. Then celebrated our 1 year anniversary/Brian's 30th at Skamania Lodge. And then topped it all off by going to NYC for my 30th. This year wasn't quite as big in the sense of trips and celebrations. But it is definitely much more meaningful. My biggest and best gift by far is having my little man in my life. I told Brian that all I wanted for my birthday was to see my little man's smiles all day (which is my favorite thing right now!). But Brian took it a step farther and gave me the gift of sleep! I was able to sleep in until almost 10am - amazing! We then had a relaxing day with the family and topped it off with my traditional and very gourmet rainbow chip birthday cake! Not sure how we're going to top this one next year!


Family pic

Three generations of Georges!

Road Trippin'

Well, we made it. I was a little nervous about our first long road trip, but we're here at Brian's parents' house in Montana and loving our vacation! I think "loving" may be an understatement for Brian - is there a word that tops that? Enamored, in heaven? Whatever the word, it's still hard to explain how much he loves waking up and choosing between fishing or fishing for the day. I love waking up to the beautiful view of the Madison Range and not having to make any decisions during the day. It's one of the few places where I truly feel like I can "go with the flow".

Some people were a little surprised to learn that we were taking our six week old on a 12 hour road trip. But we thought this was the perfect time to go since he mostly likes to sleep and eat right now. I don't think this will be as easy in a year when he mostly wants to run around and doesn't want to sit in a car seat for 12+ hours!

We actually broke the trip in half and stopped in Wentachee (outside Spokane) to attend my Aunt Judy's wedding. We are so happy for my aunt, especially since everything she has been through in the past two years. We also timed leaving Portland just right so that we could watch the World Cup game in Yakima - USA vs. Ghana. It was Tristan's first sporting event. It was such a great game, although the outcome was pretty disappointing. After the game, we met up with Trav & Bridg and took advantage of the few hours we had left and went wine tasting. This was definitely a great way to start off our Road Trip!


So crazy to see these all over the gorge - they are everywhere!

Watching the World Cup - even with all the cheering, he managed to sleep through it!

Love this video of him "cheering" on the US! (Actually, he's more interested in cheering on his cow. And I wish you could hear him better, but the vuvuzelas do a great job of drowning out any other sound :)

Dad & son wine tasting!

Aunt Judy's beautiful bridesmaids! (Karlene, mom, Aunt Teri, cousin Kim)




Mom and her siblings - hard to get a serious pic of her with all of them together!

Love this pic of Lincoln & Papa Doug - two peas in a pod!

Beautiful baby blues!

You'd think all he ever does is sleep! *6 weeks*

After the wedding on Sunday, we decided to drive all the way to Ennis, MT. Did I mention we left at 4pm??? We were offered to stay at my Aunt Teri's in Spokane, but since we had the dogs, we felt we should just go for it that night. We calculated the trip from Wenatchee to take us 8 hours, putting us in at 1am. Little tiring, but doable. Well, since we were traveling with two dogs and a newborn, we didn't take into consideration that we would stop about 7 times, including needing a nap as well. Needless to say, 14 hours later, we got in Monday at 7am Ennis time. Between being up all night to drive and a general lack of sleep with a newborn, I'm still trying to recover!

Cousin Love

Here are a few cute pics of Lincoln "reading" to Tristan the other night. Lincoln has started to show an interest in his little cousin - it's too cute!

Smiley Time :)

The first time Mr. T smiled at me, I thought for sure it was gas :) His first smile was right before turning 4 weeks! But, he continued to flash his pearly whi-I mean, gums-a few more times after that and I knew it was sincere. And now within the last week, we have our "smiley time" together every day! After his first feeding each morning, we spend about 20 minutes talking and smiling at one another. It's my favorite time of the day! Sometimes we're able to do a couple of these sessions each day. He also smiles and even giggles a lot in his sleep. I'd love to know what he's dreaming about! He's always happiest after he's done eating and has a full belly - must take after big sister Bella!!

Here are some smiley pictures of him. It's sometimes hard to capture the moment since my camera takes so long to focus - by the time it snaps the pic, his smile isn't as big as it was a second before. I thought maybe capturing it on video would be best, but he has a fascination with the red light on the Flip. He'll flash me a huge smile and then as soon as the red light is on, he is instantly more intrigued with the camera. Oh well...hopefully you'll get the idea :)



His first time wearing his reusable diapers. He seems to love them!

June Birthday Crew

Monday night we went to Laurelwood to celebrate all the June birthdays. Falks, Lo and I have been celebrating our birthdays together for 13 years. Since Brian shares a birthday with Lo, he also became apart of what we now call the June Birthday Crew. This year's celebration was definitely a different kind of get-together! Since a lot of us have kids, babies or are pregnant, this celebration was much more low-key. Definitely a change from last year's 30th birthday party!!!

(**Fun side note** Lo and Travis were the ones who set us up and it just so happened that Brian and my second date was a double date with the Netzels for B and Lo's birthdays. Our first date anniversary is on the 20th, B's birthday is on the 21st, our wedding anniversary is on the 22nd, and then we end the month with my birthday on the 30th. As you can tell, June is a busy time for us!)


June Birthday Crew - Brian, me, Falks, Lo & Jason (newcomer to the group). Notice the way Little T is sleeping - for some reason, he loves to fall asleep with his head in the funniest positions, no matter how many times we try and straighten him out!


Tristan hanging out with the "big boys"

First Father's Day

We had a great weekend celebrating our first Father's Day. Mom and Doug came down to join in on the festivities. We had a full weekend of events, from BBQ Saturday night to golf and brunch on Sunday. It was so much fun to get together with the grandparents and celebrate our first Father's Day!

Pre-Father's Day BBQ at Trav & Bridg's

Lincoln could do this all day long.

Checking out the sweet Baby T!


Grama Candy with her adorable grandsons!

Brunch at Veritable Quandry - we had our own private room in their wine cellar. They must have known that we were coming with a toddler and baby!

Of course Lincoln had to fit in some reading time during brunch.

Daddy & son (love the over-the-top cheesy grin :)

Danner family - you can probably tell by Lincoln's face that he was shouting the word, "CHEESE!!!"

Grama & Papa with their grandbabies

Tristan & Aubrey

Just had to share some funny pictures from Tristan's second playdate - this time with Aubrey Jackson. We tried to lay them side by side for a photo opp, but Tristan was not quite in the mood this time! These pics are priceless!

Could they really be experiencing the same thing?! I'm not quite sure what happened in the 5 seconds since Tristan laid down. But, I love how concerned Aubrey is - what a good friend!

The crying must be contagious, or else Aubrey is trying to feel sympathetic to the situation :)

Happy 1 month birthday Baby T!

I cannot believe our little man is already 1 month old! Today we decided to celebrate by meeting Dad for lunch. We were also going to go for a walk along the waterfront, but since Portland weather has been less than ideal (barely 60 degrees and raining), we decided the walk would have to wait. Hopefully this summer we will have more opportunities than this spring has given us!

Happy 1 month to our little man! We have been SO blessed to have him in our lives and love every single moment we have with him! He is amazing!! Here are some 1 month milestones:
Beginning to smile
Starting to "coo"
Loves to observe things around him, especially those who are holding him!
Has a really strong neck and likes to pick it up as much as he can (even if for a few seconds)

Getting more and more adorable each day!

First playdate

Today Tristan had his first playdate. Erin and Logan came over to visit (and bring mommy Starbucks and lunch!). The boys at first didn't really seem to notice one another - it took them a little while to realize they were laying right next to each other. Their favorite thing to do was put their fist in each other's face! I think it was their way of saying hello since they're not quite able to communicate any other way yet :)
Here are some cute pics and video of their first playdate. I'm sure this was just the first of many to come!

Not yet realizing they were right next to each other!

Tristan pointing out the strange creatures above them.


This is how they interacted most of the time - didn't look at each other very much, but loved to reach over with their fists.


Tristan exhausted after his first playdate!

More pics...

Here's our little man at 3-4 weeks!


My favorite picture so far!

One of his favorite ways to sleep - chest to chest!



Love this pic - it looks like he's a little freaked out by the strange creatures flying above him!


What a good sleeper! We went to friend, Brittni's, 30th birthday dinner at a nice restaurant and he slept the whole time!

Trac, me and Lawrence at Britt's 30th. If you look closely at the table you'll see my absolute favorite wine - Evolution!!! I got to have a glass for the first time in 10 months! It was the best glass of wine I've ever had!

Taking a break from helping Auntie Lawrence move to her new house



So precious!!

Mama's first outings

Since Tristan was having such a great time going on his first field trips, Daddy decided that Mama also needed her first outing. And what perfect timing that Sex and the City 2 was opening in May! All of us girls had gone to the original SATC for Trac's bachelorette party two years before and looked forward to going to the sequel together. The only issue for me was that opening weekend was less than two weeks after I had given birth! I had such a hard time deciding if I could leave him at home so soon, but in the end it worked out well. It was Daddy's first time on solo Daddy Duty and Mommy's first outing! I got to enjoy my first cocktail in 10 months - a cosmo, of course (although I felt a little guilty and couldn't finish the entire drink :). I think we all had a good time!

Girls' night out at The Nines for SATC2!

Lo & I - my first cocktail (cosmo) in about 10 months!!

Erin, Lynds & Falks enjoying their drinks before the movie!

It didn't really mean to happen this way, but it became a mommies night out!
Me (Tristan - almost 2 weeks), Ali (Aubrey - 4 1/2 months), Falks (Nick - 2 1/2, Leah - 1 yr), Lynds (Jaxson - 8 yrs, Grant - 2 1/2), Erin (Logan - 1 1/2 months), Laura (34 weeks preggo)

My second outing was the following weekend when I went to good friend, Laura's, baby shower. I decided to leave Baby T at home since Daddy and him had such a good time bonding the last time I went out. It was so much fun to be able to see all my girlfriends and celebrate another member coming into the world! I'm so excited to meet baby Amelia in July!


Beautiful mom-to-be opening gifts for her little Amelia!

I kind of hesitated putting this on here, but while Mama was at Lo's baby shower, Daddy (being the active, can't sit still for more than 5 minutes person that he is), decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to take Tristan on his first bike ride - yikes for Mom!!!! Daddy and son drove down to Uncle T's house to accompany him and cousin Lincoln on a ride downtown to the waterfront. Since it was one of the first nice days all year and the Rose Festival's opening weekend, they decided to take advantage. As crazy as it sounds to take a 3 week old on a bike ride, in the end it turned out okay. That's not to say that I wasn't feeling a little apprehensive while at the shower as I thought about what and how my little guy was doing on a bike ride. But in the end it all worked out. Tristan was buckled into his carseat and was put in a bike trailer. He ended up sleeping the entire time, except for one blowout (see video :) He had such a good time that he was wiped out until 11:30 that night! I have a feeling daddy and son are going to be quite the adventurous pair!