Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Mom, thanks for...

dressing me up real pretty,
reading me fun books,
entertaining me during diaper-changings,
doing all your funny mom voices,
letting me cry on your shoulder,
helping me roll over,
teaching me how silly Dad is,
taking me on long walks,
feeding me the finest foods,
letting me set my own curfew.

I love you so much,

Baby Ellie

Big Fish, Little Fish

Meet Nate. Nate is Elizabeth's 1 year old cousin. He is the cutest, sweetest, happiest baby ever and he happens to live right by us here in Texas, together with his 3 big sisters and his parents. Honestly, you've never met a more endearing little guy and anyone who's ever met him says so.

We were over at their house the other day and my SIL Katie was good enough to take some pictures of the two babies together. I love this shot because this is how they most often seem...just sort of trying to discover each other and make heads or tails of one another.



And, just for good measure, we did a side by side comparison (notice the symmetry of the postition of their legs!) Look of the size of that boy! Elizabeth has her work cut out for her to achieve that kind of stature but she likes a challenge. Besides, it's good to have lofty goals. Thanks Kate for the pics and thanks Nate for being so dang cheerful! You're the best...both of you!

Let's try a brain teaser...

First person to solve this gets a warm, fuzzy prize:

Imagine you have a pulley and a rope. On one end of the rope hangs a monkey (holding on with his hands) and on the other end of the rope (on the other side of the pulley) hangs a weight. The monkey and the weight weigh exactly the same amount. The monkey decides it wants to climb the rope. Which direction will the weight go when the monkey climbs?

Back in the Saddle Again

As I have been accused of being a hermit in the past weeks, I wanted to assure you all that I'm fine and am not hiding from anyone. Quite the contrary, though, Elizabeth is the best toy I've ever had.

However, in full recognition of the fact that I deserve all the ribbing I've been getting for being remiss in my blogging, I thought I'd provide an update of what's been going on at the Casa Braun. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I'll let the following photos do the talking.






Yep, that'd about sum it up. Collapsing in a heap the minute Elizabeth decides to go to sleep. What a great reason to be tired though. The day before Elizabeth was born, I read a quote that said "many speak of the toil and frustration that comes when a new baby is born, but few whisper of the wonder." So, if I'm honest, that's the real reason that I've been lagging with my blogging. I just can't stop staring at the baby. We just LOVE being parents!

Stay tuned, though. Elizabeth was blessed this weekend and so I've go tons of great pics to post.