4th of July

Red, white and blue waffles in the morning:

Family portraits in the afternoon:

(We have been planning these pictures with

Old Navy shirts since before Corbett was born)

Indian food and bird's eye view of 

fireworks over Lake Eola in the evening:

Then stayed up way too late taking even more pictures. 

Another great 4th of July!

Ultrasound Explained

I rarely shared any of Corbett's ultrasound pictures 

with people because none of them were very cute.

Especially this one.

Let's be honest, the baby in this picture looks 

a little menacing. I was so relieved when Corbett 
was born and I learned that he just really likes to 
snuggle with his fist near his face, but not so much
 in a "I'm gonna get you" sort of way.  

Everyone told me that babies are much

cuter than they are depicted in an ultrasound.

Turns out everyone was right.

Apple Pie

Back when I worked for Norwegian Cruise Line, 

each of the counselors had a "silly name" that the kids 

could call us. My name was Blueberry, and my 

friend Amanda was Apple Pie (AP), which everyone 

thought was a little ironic, as she is Canadian.

Anyway, Apple Pie and I have stayed

in touch over the years and she came to visit 

us in June and meet little Corbett. She was a big 

help with him, and didn't mind at all that 

we couldn't really do all of the usual 

touristy stuff with a newborn.

Instead, we had fun cooking, shopping, 

going to Starbucks (AP's addiction), playing lots of 

Skip-bo, and holding sweet Corbett.

We introduced Apple Pie to American fast food 

hot spots such as Chick-fil-A and Five Guys.

And on one of the only days that it didn't rain while 

she was here (darn that Tropical Depression Debby), 

we made it to Downtown Disney, where we saw some 

awesome Lego creations and went a little hat-crazy.

We concluded Apple Pie's trip by going

mini-golfing at a place with live alligators.

It should be noted that I got a hole in one, and that 

Corbett slept through the whole game (what a kid!).

After golfing, we got to hold a gator.

Thanks to Apple Pie for a great visit!

Corbett and the Seven Dwarfs

HAPPY

 GRUMPY

SLEEPY

BASHFUL

SNEEZY

DOPEY

and DOC

The first 5 photos happened

spontaneously, so I couldn't help but

complete the collection with the last 2.

Now we just need to get to Disneyworld

so that Corbett can meet Snow White!

Birthday Adventure

June 8th was a big day.

Jake turned 32 and his mom turned 60.

The original plan was for them to go skydiving

in order to celebrate, but having a brand new baby

around made that a little difficult.  So instead, they 

tried out Orlando's indoor sky-diving, "iFLY."

(doesn't he look good?)

They both liked it so much that "real" 

skydiving is back on the table for another year.

Prior to skydiving, we drove up to

St. Augustine to walk around and eat

Jake's favorite gourmet popsicles.

We finished off the day by 

stuffing ourselves at a favorite

restaurant of Jake's, Texas de Brazil.

Jake ate about one fried banana for every

year of his life (only a slight exaggeration).

Happy Birthday Jake and Claudia!

Meeting the Grandparents

Corbett was lucky and got to meet

all but one of his grandparents 

in his first month of life.

First came Grandma Carol, who 

stayed for a week and was an amazing help.

Corbett (not to mention Jake and I) especially 

loved when she rocked him and sang to him 

after his middle of the night feeds.

Then came Grandma Claudia and Grandpa

Karry.  They were here for Claudia and 

Jake's birthdays (more on that later),

so we did a lot of celebrating.

The day after they left,

Grandpa Bill came into town.

He was here on business, but took

every moment he was not working to 

spend time with "CJ" (as he calls him).

We love the grandparents!

Looking forward to Corbett meeting 

Grandpa Don in Phoenix next month.

That moment

Throughout the pregnancy, 

Jake and I would talk about that moment

when we would bring our baby home

from the hospital.

We'd walk in the door,

set the carrier down,

then look at each other and say,

"Now what?"

Well, that's pretty much what happened.

We watched him sleep for a while...

Then took pictures of him sleeping...

Then we tip-toed around the house

quietly so we wouldn't wake him.

It wasn't long before Grandma Carol arrived

from Utah, so we lifted him out of the carseat

and life at home officially began.

Welcome to your new home Corbett!

The first few days

Jake and I discovered long ago that we 

have very different opinions on names, 

especially boy names.

This is one of the reasons we did

not find out what we were having.

So after the baby was born, we

chose not to discuss names

for the first 24 hours.

Instead, we just stared at our

beautiful baby and took lots of pictures.

Hospital bath

All clean

Wide awake

Fast asleep

First visitors (friends from church)

The next morning, we tackled the beast.

It went a lot better than either of us thought it would.

After several hours of discussion

(and a few phone calls for feedback),

we landed on the name Corbett Jake Deines,

and I'm happy to say that we both loved it.

We hope that he does too!

We also like the nickname possibilities,

including CJ, Corby, and little Jake.

We spent the rest of our hospital stay

resting, talking on the phone,

watching NBA playoff games,

and taking more pictures.

"I'm a boy!"

First family photo

Skin to skin with daddy

This momma sure loves her baby

He's grinning!

Jake ate the hospital's flatbread mushroom pizza every day

Thanks to the nurses, our water bottles were never empty

View from our hospital room

And then we were off!

Time to tackle parenthood at home.

We will never forget our experience at

Winnie Palmer Hospital and the wonderful

care that we received from the

doctors, nurses, and other staff.