Birthday Extravaganza

Well, I guess it wasn't really an extravaganza, but it was still fun. Since our birthdays are just 6 days apart we usually have a joint party with a few friends. This year Sara got us a tasty ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. We had some friends over and played games and ate cake. On my birthday we went out to lunch and on Matt's birthday we went to dinner at Red Robin (free burger on your birthday!). I guess you can tell what we like to do for fun :) We also went to some batting cages that weekend as well. All in all, we had a great birthday weekend. Our main present was a camcorder, which we just barely got in the mail. Hopefully we'll be able to post a short video of Rachel soon. Matt also made me 2 slide shows, one of our first 4 years of marriage and the other of Rachel. He's going to post the Rachel one soon. It's really cute! He is so good at thinking up creative birthday ideas. I got him a book and a sweatshirt (I'm not so good at the creative thing, obviously!).
The second picture above is of Rachel and me on the morning of May 3rd, the first morning in 9 months that one of us hasn't had to get up with her at night (except for a few times where she miraculously slept through the night). We decided to start letting her cry it out. The first night was great, she only cried for about 20 minutes. We've had a few rough nights since then, but it is exciting to think that all 3 of us will soon be sleeping through the night! I know I look a little tired in the picture, but I was so happy!

A Nats fan is born!

As many of you who read this blog already know, the Stevensons are big time Braves fans so when they were looking to pick up tickets to a game we were all ready to take Rachel to her first encounter with our nation's past time. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived at the stadium so the game was delayed for a little over an hour and we were happy when it finally started even though all the cheering woke Rachel up from her nap. She was entertained for the first couple of innings then decided that her dad needed a different view of the field so we spent the next several inning hanging out behind expensive seats with all the other parents that brought their younglings along with them (by that I mean babies not young Jedi's). Rachel's favorite part was when they had the presidents race round about the 5th inning of the game. She was absolutely captivated by the massive craniums of our founding fathers as the raced around the field. Don't remember if Tom or Abe won (and yes, I realize that Lincoln was not officially a founding father), you'll have to ask Rachel about it some time. The Nats got destroyed by the Braves and all in all it was a fun day. We restrained ourselves from buying a box of Krispy Kreme donuts from a street vendor on the way home though one person in our group got a killer deal on a unofficial, official Nat's hat. (looking back I wish I would have used the word Nats more in this post). And now for the part everyone wants to see anyways, the pictures:

Rachel and dad, GO Coug...I mean Nats!

This is the "I've had just about enough of this silliness" face.

And all the ladies enjoying a photo op. *Bonus Activity* Try to
position yourself so that Sara is not looking at your forehead.
(From the left: Michelle, Sara, Jenny, Heather)