She's Here!

Baby Sophia is here!  She was born Sunday morning and is just as cute as can be!  According to Stephanie, the labor and delivery went smoothly, and they seem so happy to finally be with their sweet little bundle!  I went with Kelly and my parents to the hospital while Bill watched Ave at home.  I think that I may have taken more pictures of Sophia than I did of Avery in the hospital!

She is so snuggly!

I can't believe I'm an aunt!  Yeah!

Sophia's first manicure!  She had some long fingernails and kept scratching her poor little face.

The new and improved Bassett Fam!

Papa and Jackie showed up right before we left

This whole experience has reminded me yet again how God answers prayers- even small ones.  I realized last week that we have a wedding coming up out of town soon, and we were going to possibly miss the birth.  To make matters worse, my parents and Kelly are going to be watching Avery while we are gone.  Steph was scheduled to be induced the day before Kelly was going to be coming to help out which would have made it impossible for my parents to be there for Scott and Steph.  Avery would be extremely difficult to entertain in a hospital for an extended period of time!  I have been praying nonstop that Stephanie would go into labor on her own so I could be there.  I'm pretty sure Steph was praying for an earlier date too :). I am just so thankful that I was able to be there to see sweet Sophia just hours after she was born.   God is good! 

I am just so in love with her!  I know that Sophia and Avery are going to be such good buds!  I can't wait to see them play together in the future!

The Wedding!

On Saturday evening, we headed out for the main event of our trip- Matt and Hayley's wedding.  It was in a remote area outside of Boerne that was beautiful!  I was a little nervous about how Avery would be at her first wedding but luckily it was outside so she could be whisked away if needed.

The ceremony was beautiful!  Hayley looked stunning as usual.  Billy took Avery away after about 15 minutes just to be safe, and I stayed behind to watch.  Our friend, Steven, performed the ceremony and he did a great job.  My favorite part about it was that he asked Matt and Hayley individually what they loved about the other person.  Their responses were so sweet that I got a little teary eyed!  You could really sense just how much they love each other.  

The happy couple!

Kyle's mom, Sabra, took this picture during the wedding while the kiddos were playing.  So precious!

After Matt and Hayley were hitched, we went inside for a little bit of food.  The food was amazing...the pulled pork sandwiches and mac n cheese were my fav!  They also had bottles of real Dr. Pepper and Coke (the original sugar kind).  They were SO good!  Avery ate a bit while I managed to shovel some food in and then Bill and I were off for pretty much the remainder of the night following around our crazy child.

The handsome ring bearer enjoying some macaroni!

Daddy and Ave- she is trying to plot out where she wanted to go next

Family pic where the ceremony was held

Chels and sweet Landon.  He was such a trooper for being there only a few weeks old!

I'm pretty sure that this was an expensive piece of camera equipment that became a hat!

Avery loves taking pictures...can't you tell?

Genie in a bottle

They were so over it

This is what Avery did the whole night...she would find leftover water bottles and pretend to drink from them.

She also decided to make some new friends with the table next to us!

Checking out some Christmas lights on the trees with Lacey.  She is getting excited about the holidays too :)

I just love this picture!  It cracks me up!

The babies were changed into their jammies by about 8:45 just in time to hear some speeches.

Thank goodness there was plenty of outdoor area for the kids to explore.  They all really had a good time and were completely worn out by the end of the night.  We left to head back to the apartment right after the speeches so unfortunately we missed the cake, first dances, etc but we didn't want too push our luck.  I'm not gonna lie- it's a little exhausting bringing a baby to a wedding but we really did have fun and the wedding was really beautiful.  We wouldn't have missed it! 

Thankfully, Avery slept SO much better the second night.  We woke up and stopped by Cracker Barrel for breakfast, my favorite!  Ave got her very own menu with crayons that just made her so happy!

Not sure what this face is all about but it makes me laugh!

And last but not least, to top off our trip, we had to stop at Bucees on the way home!

It was such a fun trip, and we were so glad that we went.  Congrats to the Bates!  We are so happy for you guys!

San Antonio Trip- Morning of Day 2

On day 2 of our San Antonio trip, we decided to take a trip out to the zoo.  I have been wanting to go with Avery for a long time.  She LOVES animals and I just knew she would love the zoo.

Avery did not sleep so well on the first night there because we made the mistake of having her sleep in the same room with us.  She would wake up in the middle of the night and instead of putting herself back to sleep, she would look at us and cry until we would get her.  She was perfectly happy to be in bed with us but we were sleeping in a double bed that barely fits two people much less three.  When I was mentally going over the pros and cons of just letting her just sleep between us, I couldn't get past the possibility of suffocating her with my pillows!  Anyway, an early morning meant that we were able to not only watch Shrek at 6am but we were at the zoo when it opened around 9am.  This actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

There was some rain coming down on our way there, but it stopped by the time we arrived.  Since we were there so early, we were able to see several animals being put into their cages for the day like this jaguar...

Avery was amazed!

The main attraction that I wanted to see was the hippos!  I have a strange fascination with these huge beasts and wanted to get up close and personal with them.  We looked at some fish for a while until the zoo keepers let them out.

A little distracted by all that was going on

Here they come!!!  I apologize for the huge amount of hippo pics but they were so cool!

The fish were cleaning their mouths- a little gross!

Ave was clutching Bill for dear life. She did this a lot that day!

After we saw all that we needed to see of the hippos, we walked around the rest of the zoo.

A crocodile- we watched him for a good 5 minutes and still couldn't really tell whether he was dead or alive

Loving life

Elephants!

Ave was beyond terrified of this elephant statue!

These African wild dogs were her absolute favorite.  She loved them so much and immediately started barking when she saw them!

She was scared again, this time with monkeys.  In her defense, they were a little creepy.

Ave got to pet some goats!

Of course the one picture of Avery actually petting the goat is taken from the most inappropriate angle!

Sic 'em!

I SO badly wanted to get this zookeepers outfit for Ave's halloween costume!

Instead, Ave picked out a bear that bounces.  She kept hugging it the rest of the day.

I don't know who had more fun, Avery or me.  I cannot wait to go to the Houston Zoo this fall in some cooler weather when she will be able to appreciate it even more!