It's inevitable that when you are trying to pack a lot of information into a post, you are going to leave some stuff out. But the stuff you leave out should be small stuff, not big news like this...
First off, congratulations to my sister Ashlan who is now engaged! Jennie and I couldn't be happier for you and Bryan and we are excited to welcome Bryan into our family. We love you guys and can't wait to see what the future holds.
And the second news is Jennie's best friend Berkeley is pregnant! We are so happy for you and we are praying that it is a boy! We know that you are going to be awesome parents and it will be so much fun to watch our kids grow up together.
So, sorry for leaving that out, but on the bright side you got your own post out of it!
A lot has happened since we last blogged, so let's just take it from the top...
(I will be doing a second post of just pictures shortly)
First off, and this probably deserves it's own post, Helen Elliott (Jennie's grandmother) passed away on August 12th. It was the most peaceful funeral that I have ever been too. She had mentioned to us that she was ready to go, so we are sad that she isn't here any more, but we are happy that she is in a better place (that sounds so cliche and doesn't begin to do justice to where she is).
On that note, you may notice Helen's last name... Yes, Elliot is named after her. When we decided to go with Elliot, we had a peace about it, but since it is such a rare name for a girl (not to mention a boy's name), there was still part of me that was wondering if we were doing the right thing. Well, during Grandma's funeral, I got complete confirmation. Since we were pregnant we have been praying over Elliot and for specific character traits, mainly a servant's heart, compassion for others, a laid back attitude, and to do God's will for her life, to name a few. It was awesome to hear how Grandma Elliott taught 2nd grade Sunday School for 35 years! And that she was always asking what she could do to help out at church. If that isn't a servant's heart, I don't know what is. I just felt during the funeral that naming our daughter Elliot was exactly what we were supposed to do and it was a very peaceful feeling. We love you Grandma and we miss you! We are so glad that Elliot is named after you!
Jennie and Elliot took their first plane ride as Mother and Daughter to Amarillo so that Elliot could meet all of our friends and family that haven't had a chance to come down. Flying out of Dallas was an adventure to say the least, but once they got there they had a great time visiting everyone. I think Elliot misses Bunny, Nonni, and Pops already!
When the girls are away, the boys will play! I thought that I would get to catch up on sleep while they were out of town. Quite the opposite! It was the busiest weekend that I have had in quite some time. Ryan, Dad, and Uncle PJ all came in town for the weekend and after dropping off Jen and Elliot at the airport we headed over to our Fantasy Football Draft! Once again, the Air Jordans look like a team to be reckoned with. From the draft we went to Dallas for the Dave Matthews Concert (more on this below). That got us home on Saturday night around 1:00 am. On Sunday, I drove to Haskell, TX for Grandma's funeral and found out 2 hours into my 2 hour and 30 minute drive that Ryan had left his keys in my car, making his return trip to Austin very difficult. Once I got back in town, I picked up Dad and PJ and went to take Ryan his keys, we then picked up a bite to eat, helped Ashlan unload her car, then checked out The Dark Knight on the IMAX screen.....at 10:30 pm. So we didn't get home on Sunday night until 2:00 am. Monday it was back to work, which included a game that night. Getting home around 10 pm, I then had to straighten up the house from "Boy's Weekend" in preparation for Jennie and Elliot to come back. I think I got less sleep that weekend than I have had since Elliot was born. It was fun though...
We spent last week trying to catch up from our busy previous weekend, but last night we were ready to break out of the house for a big "date night"! We had Ashlan baby sit and after over explaining everything to her, we set out for the Tom Petty concert. We caught the train over to the AAC and got settled into our seats. It was one of the most fun nights we have had in while. The people watching was fun, we were making each other laugh all night, the Petty show was awesome (especially the sing alongs on Free Fallin and Learning to Fly), the train ride home was an adventure as we were treated to continuous drunk conversations going on all around us (including a couple that didn't stop talking from when they got on the train, to when they got off. Luckily they weren't sitting across from us.). All in all, it was a really fun night and nice to get away just the two of us, however, we did find ourselves missing Elliot quite a bit.
Another big bit of news is that we got Elliot's daycare situation squared away! It was a tremendous stress relief, not to mention answer to prayer. Jennie goes back to work two days a week at the end of September, and now we have somewhere to take her while Jennie is at work. Thanks Angie!!
So that is what we have been up to in the past month. Sorry for the lack of post updates, but hopefully once the baseball season ends we will be able to post more often. I hope you like the updated look as well. I figured that it was time to switch to pink!
A quick aside... The Dave Matthews Band lost one of their founding members last week. LeRoi Moore (saxophone player) died of complications from an ATV accident in June. This has been my favorite band since I was in 8th grade and I have been going to see them live for 10 years. To be honest, if I had to rank my favorite band members from 1-5, LeRoi would have come in 4th or 5th, but I found myself missing him during this last concert. Since his accident they have had a fill in playing with the band, thinking that he would eventually came back. Unfortunately that won't happen. He was a really cool guy that will be missed. He wore sunglasses to combat stage fright, and sometimes during a show he would take them off and that made you feel good because it was like we made him feel comfortable enough not to hide behind his glasses. I loved those rare treats. It was also fun to listen to his solos to see what Wizard of Oz reference or TV theme song he was going to try to sneak in. I will miss that. Below is an example of that. LeRoi, you will be sorely missed. If you run into Helen Elliot, please play "How Great Thou Art" or "Amazing Grace" on your saxophone for her.
I can't begin to tell you how glad I am that the Yankees have left town! Their fans are not easy to deal with and, to make matters worse, they were the last four games of an 11 game homestand. I am very tired, and am glad to have the weekend to recharge.
A quick update on the home front...
Thanks for all of the support regarding our last post. I can say that things have gotten better, but there are still difficult times to be sure. Elliot is eating and sleeping well and we can officially rule out colic! Jennie had an appointment with a lactation specialist earlier this week and they gave her a lot of good pointers and really boosted her confidence. So, thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. They are working and we are learning how to be parents!
There are still times when she is fussy and if you happened to have a hidden microphone in our house, you more than likely will hear the following lyrics coming from either one of us...
She's a good girl, loves her momma
Loves Jesus, and America too
She's a good girl, crazy about Elvis
Loves horses, and her daddy too
(I took some creative liberties with that last line, cause we don't want to think about boyfriends!)
It is an originally a Tom Petty song, but we sing the new John Mayer version which we can't enough of. I have lots of thoughts on John Mayer, but that is for another blog. Here is his version of Free Fallin'. I love this song... Enjoy!
