Easter Sunday

today was greta's first easter. easter is another holiday where i am thankful that both of our families live close so that we can celebrate the holiday with everyone. first we headed to Easter mass. greta was a complete angel (pardon the pun) in church. she slept a bit, looked around, and was held by her papa and her great aunt mary. after mass we went to greta's great grandma katie's house for brunch. there were lots of aunts, uncles and cousins there to hang out with. however, greta didn't feel much like hanging out, as she had slept a mere 15 minutes in church. we stayed long enough to grab some food and take a quick picture of greta trying to grab grandma katie's necklace. wish we would've got more photos!!






next we drove to joe's parents house to celebrate with his family. greta slept all the way there and slept for a while longer after we arrived, so she was definitely ready to play when she woke up. good thing, because the Ford cousins were ready to play too. we played games, had an easter egg hunt, and had some more food. here you can see greta checking out her cousin hannah.











greta also got the chance to be rocked in the rocking chair by cassie. as you can tell by cassie's expression, she takes this task very seriously.













then ellie decided she wanted to join in the fun too. look at the pretty girls in their pretty Easter dresses. at this point greta had ditched her shoes, tights, sweater, and hairbow. at least the dress was cute....












jacob thought about joining hannah, ellie, cassie and greta in the girly fun they were having, but then he thought better of it. all in all, it was a fun Easter and a great day to share with family.....

Happy Easter!

before she got her bath tonight, greta wanted to make sure she wished everyone a happy easter. a big thanks to janet who made the easter onsie....janet also got the hat for greta, so i thought it was pretty appropriate!

speaking of the onsies, you might remember that at my baby shower, each person decorated a onsie for greta to commemorate her "firsts". the onsies were sized appropriately for how old greta would be at each event. however, greta's valentines onsie (made by emily), sxsw onsie (made by meg), and st. paddy's day onsie (made by megan) ended up being a bit too snug for our buddha baby. we are still trying to think of a way to creatively have greta sport them in a photo. stay tuned...

so big....

here are some pictures of greta practicing her new skill of sitting up. she can now sit for lengths of time and can actually play while she is sitting. here she is playing in her playyard (greta loves her playyard), and then there she is just before she topples over. luckily mommy put the camera down quick enough to catch her.

home sweet home

we arrived home this afternoon and greta decided that home was a pretty cool place and that she might want to take a nap to sleep off our long road trip. looks like she remembered her bed and room afterall. and as you can tell from the picture, it seems like greta has decided to welcome herself back to her bed by rolling over to sleep on her belly (a first). looks like we'll be removing the bumper pads as soon as she wakes up. welcome home greta! we hope you had as much fun on the road trip as we did.....

bbq and a good night's sleep

when we got to nashville we headed to Neely's BBQ for some dinner before checking into the hotel. the food was fantastic. joe and i both look pretty tired but as you can see, greta is still all smiles as usual...

after tonight's stay in nashville it's time to head home to newport first thing tomorrow morning. we wonder if greta remembers what her room looks like....

drinking and "driving"

so our drives back from austin were pretty much uneventful. sunday we headed out from austin and made it to arkadelphia. this morning we headed out from arkadelphia and drove to nashville. greta has been FABULOUS on the car rides, but had a tiny meltdown on our way to nashville. after all of the tears and screams that we could take, we decided (read: melanie decided) that something MUST be wrong with her and that we must stop immediately. we stopped at a gas station and got the hysterical greta out of her carseat. this is when she abruptly stopped all tears and began to smile, coo, and babble. i secretly believe she was saying, "fooled you. i just wanted out for a bit". we hung out in the parking lot for a bit where greta played in the front seat and had a bit to eat and we were on our way. besides this tiny snafu, greta handled car rides like a champ!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

From our little german baby... okay, she's about 50% Irish, but here name is Greta Hansbauer.