First days in Brazil

Mom and baby arrived safe and sound and actually enjoyed the trip! Camila, though, today, said she never wanted to leave Oregon again. She had forgotten what 110 degrees felt like.

Here are some fotos of them at Camila's sister's house.

From 2010 pics

Here's Giovana napping in the hammock. She apparently LOVES it. In fact Camila is worried we won't be able to get her to sleep in her crib when they get home.

Cirque du Soleil

Last week I took Camila to Cirque du Soleil. Feeling adventurous, we took Giovana with us. She was good for most of the show, but toward the end of the first half, and the end of the second half I had to go to the back of the tent with her because she had reached her "tired" threshold.

Giovana's first day on the river

A break in the weather Saturday meant a trip to the river.. We got a call from our friends Kraig and Brandy, inviting us out on their boat. So we took Giovana, and she loved it. Fortunately Kraig had a life jacket that (almost) fit her.

Brandy, unbeknownst to us, is a professional photographer, and quite talented. She got some great shots of Giovana. These are a few of the pics she took. The rest can be seen in our Picasa album: Boating With Giovana

Kraig and Brandy.














Playing with the ducks...





Mom, dad, and future board-sporter having a great time!

Morning Scwigles

Yes, "scwiggles". Spelled correctly. I made it up so of course it's spelled correctly.. It's the sounds my baby makes in the morning. Well, now she makes them all day long. They're featured in the award-winning film footage below... After the award-winning photos below..

Seen here sporting a stylish hoodie she got from her friend Lola down the street.

From Giovana

Hanging out in her swing chair...

Giovana's first roll-over

I got lucky and had the camera rolling to catch Giovana's first roll-over. Woot. She's freakishly adorable. Here she tells you a little about her day.

Fun moments with the baby..

So the last 7 weeks have shown Camila and I that having a baby doesn't mean the end of life as we know it. We've actually had several fun outings and moments with our baby. Here are some of them.

Two weeks ago we were Mary, Joseph, and Jesus, in a presentation for the kids in our church.

We pulled together our costumes using blankets, table runners, and scarves borrowed from a neighbor. I wasn't much of a Joseph, but Camila made a great Mary.






The week before that, in Church, we blessed Giovana. That's a religious ordinance in which the baby receives its name and a special blessing. Giovana was dressed in a special white dress, and looked like a little angel.





Later that afternoon, mom and baby got in a nap. Dad was too busy taking pictures..




Here are some fun faces of Giovana..
















This weekend we took Giovana to a ceramic shop and painted a coupla mugs. I managed to get Giovana's foot print in the bottom of my ice cream bowl. We also got her hands painted on the outsides.








For more pictures, click here.

2:30am Fire alarm

At 2:30 in the morning, I discovered that while this can't put out a fire...

.. it does an excellent job of putting out fire alarms!




For some reason I couldn't wrangle the cover off to stop it, so I just put it out of its misery..

Yup, more cuteness..

I'm now that guy, the one who thinks everything their new-born does is blog-worthy. Couldn't help throwing this one up... she's so dawgon adorable! Credit to Gramma who took it, she's visiting with us for the week to help out.

Sleeping like a baby

I can't remember the last time I slept like this.. Of course, my spine is not that flexible any more. But I'm talking about the restfull part.

My scariest cut

I've cut a lot of things over the years, with a lot of different types of saws. I've used various big saws to remodel my kitchen.










I used my mighty 17" reciprocating miter saw to cut my grandpa's casket lid in half (for more on that click here).











I used a scroll saw to make the drawer and closet handles for Giovana's room.














But yesterday I made the scariest, most nerve-wracking cut in my cutting-history...




I used this

to cut these






off of this




Never been more nervous about a cut in my life! Fortunately all went well, and baby and fingers are fine. Dad is a little spent, though.

We had our baby!!!

8 lbs 9 oz, 20 inches long, and 3 count 'em 3 hours of pushing!

All of it, of course, worth the effort. She was born yesterday (Monday the 2nd) at 7:48am. She was born 2 weeks prior to our official due date, but has no signs whatsoever of being a preemie. Er, the 8lbs 9oz says it all. Camila's new least-favorite word? "Push!!!"

From Giovana's Birth

We weren't supposed to deliver until the 17th, but Sunday we hadn't felt the baby kick so we headed to the hospital to check it out. I remember our conversation on the drive to the hospital. It went something like this:

"You know, we should probably finish packing our hospital bags so we're ready when this thing happens for real."

"I agree. Let's do that after we get home this afternoon."


Well, when we got there the doctor diagnosed Camila with Preeclampsia which is a very serious condition that can only be cured by child-birth. Also serious because the mother feels fine, until symptoms like seizures and death happen. So they admitted Camila immediately and started her on labor-inducing procedures. So much for packing hospital bags. By 3am, Camila's water broke and she was in full labor. At 5am we started pushing. At 7:48 our baby was born. And at 8am our OB showed up to deliver our placenta. Wasn't that nice of him?


Here's some footage of some of mom's first moments with our new Baby.




And here's Dad and baby...





We're all doing fine at the moment. Dad is a bit of a zombie. As of this writing we're crashed at the hospital, all 3 of us wiped out from a night of delivery. We're sooooooooo grateful to all the support, text, calls, and emails we've gotten from our family and friends.

Thank you!!

Released from my calling

I remember when I got called to teach the Sunbeams (3-year olds) at church, my reaction was, and I quote:

"Uhg... Are you serious?"

I think I only said that inside my head. But I did say it. And I'll be honest, the first coupla weeks were a difficult adjustment. I had 9 kids in my class, and all I saw at first were 9 little babysitting responsibilities. My heart was not in the right place.

But after almost a year of teaching these 9 kids, my attitude has changed 180 degrees. Now I only see 9 little bundles of love and goodness.. Sounds cheezy and cliche I know, and I never imagined myself feeling that way in the beginning. But these kids grew on me quickly.

Two weeks ago I was released from my calling. Yesterday was my last time teaching them, and I have to say, I was a bit choked up when I got them all together to take this picture.

I think I grew more than they did!

A bloggable weekend

Our weekend has inspired me to want to start blogging again. I miss posting updates. This weekend gave me some good material to work with.

It started with a baby shower for Giovana, thrown by some of the women in our ward. Way to go ladies! They showered Camila (and Giovana) with gifts, goodies, and made her feel special. We both appreciate all the hard work that went into it!

Giovana's baby shower

From Our notable Weekend

Then Saturday morning we were joined for breakfast by this little friend. I'm assuming she's an early arrival for our halloween party next weekend. Up close she's very scary. I broke out the camera and had some fun shooting her. She seemed to enjoy the attention.



These pictures are intense. You should click on them to see them in a larger resolution. Be sure to use the zoom feature (look for a magnifying glass) to see the details.






Here she's demostrating how eerie she can look crawling over the edge of something. We talked about giving her a feature role in our spook alley. But I'm concerned she'll get stepped on..




Click on any of these amazing pictures to be able to zoom. The clarity and detail are incredible. My camera does an amazing job with the macro setting.








Okay okay. So spider photo shoots is fortunately NOT the most exciting thing we do in a weekend. We sometimes go out (emphasis on 'sometimes'). This weekend we joined our good friend Kraig Hiersche for a night at the Dublin pub to listen to live music by the Sessions, with guests 'the Betties'. Two hot bands, I loved it. I haven't been out for live music in a loong time. These guys seriously rocked!




A great weekend.