One month old!

I can't believe our baby is a month old!  These last 30 days have flown by and Clare has grown exponentially.  We feel so blessed to have a baby who sleeps and eats well, is happy when she's fed and not tired and loves to snuggle.  Yup, she fits right in.  :)  Not ones to stay at home, we've already had her out on a number of adventures. 

We took her "camping" (out to Branched Oak Lake with Grammy & Granddad when they were camping)

We spent Father's Day with Tyler's mom's family.  Uncle Cameron is a pro with the pint-sized set.

We had her play in the garden...

...and meet her Uncle Andy, Aunt Betsy and Great-Grandpa Anderson.

She was baptized on Sunday, June 27th at Southwood, where we were married.

Our last supper before Tyler left was with his family, on the screened-in porch.  Note the matching shirts that Tyler didn't notice all day until someone pointed it out at supper. :)

We went to a house-warming party for Tyler's cousin Stasia, where Clare bonded with our Aunt Sally and Stasia's daughter Anna.

The next month promises to be a little bit quieter but no less fun, as we head to Minnesota for the first time!  I have mosquito netting for the baby.

Finally!

Clare Saafia Guenzel was born on Friday, June 11 at 9:19am.  We have quickly gotten used to each other and now it feels like she's been a part of our lives forever!  We didn't even realize we were missing something...  The last few days have passed by in a blur but we're trying to treasure (and document!) every single second.  Be sure to check out our Shutterfly site for the most recent pictures.  Welcome to the world, Baby!
http://tylerandlaurag.shutterfly.com/

Ready for baby and puppy love

We're just hanging out and waiting for Bambina to arrive.  Tyler figures that she's my child, so that's why she's late.  We're not surprised. 

We've had a lot of fun in the last week, doing last minute errands, spending time with our families, putting together the swing and taking a LOT of walks.  Isabelle has also LOVED having Tyler home and pretty much does not leave his side.  I could SO get used to this!

Tyler's mom's family gave us a swing a few weeks ago

that I saved for Tyler to put together.

My dad and I put the crib together a few weeks ago, now complete with toys, wall decorations and a beautiful quilt from my grandma.

On Friday night, we spent the evening with Cameron and Annie and their new puppy Daisy.  She's half golden retriever and half something else but all cute!  Cameron seems to enjoy putting her into things...

If we're this excited about a new puppy, whatever will happen with a new baby?  Stay tuned!

Shower time!

My fabulous friend Sarah came to Lincoln a couple of weeks ago with her PRECIOUS girls to throw me the best shower EVER.  Our "warm up" game was guess the famous mothers--Mother Goose, Mother Nature, etc.  Next, we played Name That Tune with a CD made by Sarah's extraordinarily talented mama, Melody, and Corrine got every answer right!  She won a darling little cupcake gift basket with a cupcake apron and cupcake mix, a cupcake tin and a gift box for sharing the completed treats.  So cute!  The last game was Guess the Baby Item in a Paper Bag, where you had to feel the item through the bag and figure out what it was.  I actually won (I've played it a lot!) but Diann was the second runner up with 11 right out of 12, so she won another cupcake gift with a cupcake cookbook, cupcake notepad and bookmark and a cupcake oven mitt.  She said that she'll share it with her granddaughter, Alyssa, who helped pick out my gift.  It was a BEAUTIFUL turtle that baby can play with in the bathtub--love it!  We ate heavenly caramel rolls prepared by my momma, Maurina's delicious fruit salad and pretty pink punch.  There were, of course, also Hershey's kisses and yummy mints that said "It's a Girl."  Twelve lovely ladies attended and gave me, I mean, Bambina, some beautiful gifts!  We had a great time and it kind of makes me sad that it's over.  Maybe when we have Baby Number Two I can have another one?

60 Days left!

Life has been uneventful for us for a few months, but, as they say, no news is good news.  Laura's belly is growing at an alarming rate and as the title of the blog states, we are down to only 60 days left (I know because I have a counter on my desktop).  She is staying busy catching up with family and doing all sorts of activities.  Last week the car finally arrived from Italy, almost a month overdue.  To our unpleasant surprise, there was some minor damage to the front grill (still drive-able, but not something we should just overlook) so she gets to go through the claims process as an additional activity.  For anyone who has not dealt with this type of thing in the military, take all your worst nightmares of places like the DMV times ten and stretch it out over multiple months.  We have still not received our claim from moving to Italy three years ago.  Gotta love government bureaucracy.  She is also attending all the requisite motherhood classes, to include a "fit mom's class" to stay in shape.  So you all feel better, I'll go ahead and make the joke that I know you are all thinking - Yes, round is a shape.  ;)  ... Love you honey

As you can tell by my lack of fear of the dog house, I'm still in Korea and will be for the next 55.5 days.  Work is significantly less than demanding.  Due to a delay in a previously planned increase in our tasks here and the Air Force not being able to respond fast enough (see the above bureaucracy comment) our unit currently has six guys like me for only four jobs, so we are a little under worked.  However, due to the normal cycle of things, I'm sure we'll drop back down and be overworked soon enough.  In the meantime, I've been working steady on my masters.  I'm currently taking nine credits, so I'm staying busy even if it is just reading and writing in my room. One nice thing here is that I have been working out six days a week, which is fantastic; roughly five to six days a week more than I have averaged for the last few years.  I have been running off base here, which is pretty interesting.   When you get more than a few blocks from the base, six foot tall white guys are pretty unusual this far north, so I get some interesting reactions.  Some people smile and wave to me when they would never smile or wave to another Korean and others say "Hi" to me practicing their English.  I get the feeling that this far north, the people are a little more conscious of the threat just a few miles further north.  That or they're North Korean spies, you never know...