Starlight Concerts...

After an invitation from Jane and Royal, we began to attend the Starlight Concert Series at Riverparks this summer. We would pick up dinner and take our chairs and picnic blanket out to the park and enjoy good company and music. Jan and Jim even made it out one week. Luckily it started late enough that the heat wasn't too bad.

At every concert, they had some free door prizes that they handed out. There was always a spa package that they gave away (usually to a man) that I had had my eye on. The last night, when they were about to announce the door prize winners, Emily was getting hungry, so I decided to feed her. Well wouldn't you know that that was the day they decided to call out my name... I tried to raise my hand to claim the prize, but that wasn't enough, so I had to quickly put myself back together and go to the front to claim my prize... unfortunately I was not the winner of the spa package. Instead, I won two pedometers. Below, see some pictures from the concerts.

Andrew and Emily hanging out after the sun went down on the "A Night at the Movies" evening while we watched a silent film after the intermission. We didn't stay until the end though, because it started to sprinkle and we figured we should get Emily back in the car before it started pouring.



Oh yeah... did we forget to mention that Emily also learned to stand at the second concert (ignore the man with the hand placed conspicuously behind her) We were pretty impressed. She started walking at the next one, but we figured we didn't need a picture of that.




Emily and Royalpa enjoying the music.



Jane with Emily in her sun hat.

Weekend of Parties

We had quite the busy weekend.  Friday evening we had some people over for a party to celebrate the release of the new Guitar Hero Aerosmith... basically a good reason to have everyone over.  The party ended up lasting longer than we had thought it would... but we all had a great time, so it was worth the late night.  

On Saturday afternoon, we attended our "Bradley Class Reunion" where we got to see everyone who was in our childbirth class.  It was also a chance to tell our birth story and hear the birth stories of everyone else who was in the class with us.  Only two other couples were able to make it to the reunion, but it was nice to hear about their experience.  

Saturday evening we went to Carisa's for her 30th birthday party.  Emily was so jealous that she had to watch when I jumped in the jupiter jump without her.  There was also a clown... oh yeah... and plenty of alcohol.  

Sitting Pretty

We received a Bumbo for Emily from Jamie and Danielle (Thanks!) shortly after she was born... well actually it may have been before she was born, but that's neither here nor there... and I finally decided to try it out yesterday.  She sits in it like a big girl... and watches us do things around her.  It is quite handy, and it should be helpful in helping her to sit up by herself... and she just looks so darn cute in it.  See for yourself...

At first she wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

Then she realized how cool it was to be a big girl... sitting on her own.

I think it will be nice during dinner time so she can sit at the table with us and see everything that's going on, but we won't have to worry about dropping food on her head.  And don't worry... we won't leave her unattended... as the directions clearly state.  I mean, we leave her unattended all the time whenever she's not in her seat... usually either with dangerous chemicals or knives lying around... NOT!  It always amazes me the labels that they are required to place on products these days.  It only takes one idiot to screw it up for the rest of us.

No more dairy...

A few weeks ago, after some questionable diapers, we took Emily to the doctor's office for some answers. I would have preferred a different answer than the one they gave us... apparently Emily has possibly developed an allergy to cow's milk products. And while she doesn't eat anything containing milk directly, she still gets some of the proteins from my breast milk. So... this means no more dairy products for Barbara. It is amazing how many things have dairy in them that you never think about on a daily basis... and I'm not even being too terribly strict with it. It's only been about 2 weeks since I have cut it out of my diet, but I am still adjusting. I have been experimenting with various soy "dairy" products, and while some are ok... most just aren't the same. I guess it is a small sacrifice for me to make to do what is best for Emily... what's a couple years without dairy? I just hope she gets over this soon...

Texas

We made the looooooooooong trek down to Texas last weekend to go to a wedding and to visit some family and friends. We headed out Thursday morning, and 11 1/2 hours later, we made it to San Antonio where we stayed the night with Kerith and Cody. We hadn't gotten to see Kerith and Cody since January, so it was nice to catch up... even if we only had a few hours to spend together.
Kerith and Emily at Kerith's house in San Antonio. Doesn't she look good with a baby...

Friday morning, we left bright and early for a day in the big city of Beeville. We got to hang out with Beverly, Casandra, Matt, Cuatro, and Cody for the day. Our day included a trip into town to see Freddy, eat lunch, and go on a shopping spree (for Emily of course). We also got a chance to visit with Bobby, Teresa, Hailee, and Ashlynn before they left for a weekend in Corpus. That afternoon also included some other firsts for Emily (even though she slept through most of them). She had the chance to meet some (award winning) steers, goats, lambs, and a calf up close and personal. She also got to go on her first ride in a jeep

Emily with Uncle Freddy...

Emily and Ashlynn...






Emily and Bobby...

Emily and Teresa...

Emily and Peppermint Pattie...

Saturday, we went into town again, and got to eat greasy breakfast burritos... I have yet to find anyplace in Tulsa where I can get a decent breakfast burrito. I guess that's probably best because they aren't exactly health food, but nothings better to get your day started on a morning when you've maybe had a bit too much fun the night before... if you catch my drift. For lunch, we went with Casandra to sample the "best enchiladas in Beeville." I didn't get to try them though, since I am currently off dairy (that's a whole other blog entry... I'll tell you all about it later). We ended our day by attending the wedding of one of my friends from high school.


On our way back to Tulsa on Sunday, we stopped in Waco to meet up with Beverly, Freddy, Cuatro, and Cody at a prospect show for some of Cuatro's steers. We didn't get to see him show since his categories were later in the day, but from what I hear, he did very well. Hopefully we will make it down to Dallas in October to see him show there.

Emily and Beverly at the prospect show.

Emily and I during one of our many breaks on the drive home Sunday.

GIRL TALK!

First of all...this is not a blog entry about Emily talking. While she is goo-gooing and ga-gaing all over the place...this entry is about the non-DJ musician named Girl Talk. Most people probably don't know who Girl Talk is...it's one guy from Pittsburgh, who's real name is Gregg Gillis.

You can visit his myspace page...

http://www.myspace.com/girltalk

Or check him out his info/bio at Wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Talk_(musician)

He calls himself "not a DJ"...but a mash-up artist. If I was going to describe his music, I would describe it as pop/rap/dance music. But the kicker is...he takes about 30 existing songs (from the past 5 decades)...takes snippets of these songs...puts them all together into a new song. The combinations are usually pretty intriguing. I often find myself trying to play "name that tune" with all the songs.

My brother had introduced me to him last year, and Barbara and I had gone to one of his concerts at Cain's last year. He has a new album out (which you can pretty much get for free at his myspace page)...and last week he was at Cain's again. This time around there were about twice as many people there...Cain's was nearly filled. Also, some of our friends went with us this time. Basically...the concert is him with a table and a laptop up on stage playing his music. How much work he actually does up on stage...I don't know. Doesn't really matter I guess if you're having fun. At the beginning of both concerts, he told everyone that they can come up on stage with him...and so about 50 or so people rush up on stage and surround him as he starts the music rockin'.

Everything was going great with this last concert...all of our friends seemed to be having a good time...the music was loud and everyone was dancing. But then...Barbara decided she wanted a closer look. We were all originally hanging out towards the back of the group of concert-goers. Midway through his set, Barbara decided she wanted to get up into the thick of it and get a closer look at him. So of course, I followed. I'm so glad she did. We wound our way through the mass of now jumping...gyrating...hot and sweaty bodies till we made it up to the front of the stage. We were right in front of the table where he was playing. We never got up on the stage with him, but it was cool enough just standing there right in front of him. Below is a couple of pictures I took with my camera phone. Not the best pictures...but they give you a good idea.

Now you might be asking where Emily was during all of this...well I need to give a huge thanks to my mom for baby-sitting that night. The concert lasted much much longer than we had anticipated...and this was my mom's first night alone with her. I think everything went well though...and I know that Barbara and I had a great time dancing our hearts out.

Lots and lots and lots of closely packed people...

Girl Talk...doing whatever he does on his laptop...

Lots of hot and sweaty bodies...

At the end of the show...Girl Talk jumped up on the table...stripped down to his boxers...and dove out into the crowd.

Picture Time

Last month, we took Emily to get her photo taken. Emily was pretty good for the first 30 minutes or so, but after that, she decided she had had enough... luckily we were able to get in some good shots before her fussy spell. Feel free to check them out for yourself... Claussen Studios. Click on the "Client Login" link and find Stuart on the list. The password to view the photos is barbara. Enjoy!

St. Louis... take 2

We had so much fun on our trip to St. Louis with Amber, John, and Makayla that we decided to take Josh and Caleb there for our annual family vacation. We revisited the City Museum for a day of climbing and sliding and made a quick stop at the arch, then we added a trip to the St. Louis Zoo, and the Magic House before we had to make the long trip back. Even though the drive was long, it was worth it. I would definitely recommend a trip to St. Louis for a great family vacation. I wish we had more time (and money) to spend there, because there were still a lot of things I would have liked to have done that we didn't get to do.

Our first stop after we got to St. Louis was the St. Louis Zoo. Here is Andrew and the kiddos in front of a waterfall at the beginning of the day.

Andrew spent the day torturing Josh with the video camera. I think he hated being in front of the camera more than I do.

Andrew, Emily and I on the train at the zoo.

Andrew heading down a spiral into the enchanted cave at City Museum.

Emily and I hanging out on a whale's fin while everyone else is climbing around.

Josh coming down the 3-story slide at City Museum.

Caleb making his way through a hollowed tree trunk tunnel.