The newest member of the family

We are proud and ecstatic to welcome our newest nephew and Elisa's first younger cousin, DAYTON JAMES PAPE! Dayton was born today at 4:45pm (central). His proud parents are Jennifer's brother, John, and his wife, Kathryn. We are so happy for you guys! Congratulations!!!

Dayton James Pape - August 24, 2006

8 Weeks Old!

Here are a couple of pictures of our sweet baby girl. It is hard to believe that she is already 8 weeks old! She will turn 2 months this Saturday! Unbelieveable! Time is really flying by.

This week we are anticipating the visit of my parents. They will leave DFW on Thursday and arrive in Porto Alegre on Friday morning. This will be the first time for Elisa to meet her Granny and Gramps.

My sweet girls!

New Pictures of Elisa

Here are some new pictures of Elisa that were all taken fairly recently. You can tell that there has been a change in weather here in Porto Alegre based on the clothes Elisa is wearing!

Elisa is taking a bottle for the first time! This makes Mommy happy!

All bundled up for naptime.

Hangin' loose for naptime! It was a warm day.

"What's up, people?!"

Jennifer and Elisa dressed and ready for church. This is what we call the "Little Red Riding Hood" outfit. Pretty cute!

New look

I have been playing around a bit and hope to have secured a new look for this blog. I also want to put out the address for our new blog about our work in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The address for the new blog is: www.flyinginportoalegre.blogspot.com

Father's Day in Brazil

I think that every country that celebrates Mother's day celebrates on the same day in May. Father's day, however, is quite different. In Brazil, we celebrate Father's day in mid-August. This year it was on August 13th. I really enjoyed my first Father's day with Elisa and Jennifer. They really made me feel special!

They gave me a really cute picture of Elisa in a nice frame for my office at the church and they took me to the Outback Steakhouse (which came to town in December 2005).

Later in the day we had the chance to celebrate Father's day at church. We ate chocolate cake and took pictures. Since Brazilians (mainly the men) eat, drink and sleep soccer (futebol) we had a soccer theme for the pictures. Each father and their kids dressed in the jerseys or other atire of their favorite soccer team here in town (we have 2 professional teams in Porto Alegre). Elisa and I sported our International red and white! Don't we look great!


These are proud days for Inter fans. We are currently ranked 5th in the world and have the chance to win the Copa Libertadores da América (South American Championship) tomorrow night! Go Inter!!

The First Adventure

Tonight we went to our first movie since Elisa was born. We took her with us to see Superman Returns. She was awesome! While Superman was fighting Lex and the gang Elisa was in deep sleep. She woke up about 5 minutes before the movie was over, had a little snack from Mommy and went right back to sleep. We couldn't have asked for a better scenario! It was especially impressive since the movie was 2 and a half hours long! Thanks, baby girl! Mommy and Daddy needed that!

Our Growing Girl

It is amazing how you can literally watch your children grow right in front of you! Elisa has been doing just that. She has changed so much in her first month that she almost doesn't look like the little baby we brought home from the hospital. We went to see the pediatriatian a couple of days ago for a check-up and he had a pretty good report. The following is an excerpt from an email that Jennifer sent to family talking about the doctor visit:

Elisa had her 1 month check-up today (actually she's 1 month and 6 days old now) and everything went very well. She is now 56 cm long (she was 50 cm when she was born) and weighs 4.100 kg (she weighed 3.560 at birth). All of that translates to 9 lbs and 22 inches (7 lbs 14 oz and 19.5 inches at birth). The doctor thought she was very healthy and had a "long and lean" build (he actually said "long and lean" in English). She behaved herself today and didn't scream her head off like she did last time. I felt like this visit was a little more thorough since the doctor could actually hear her heart beat and listen to her breathing! She did wet while he was examining her, though. That's our girl!

Elisa likes to play in her crib after waking up from her nap.

It has been pretty cold (mid 40s) so Jennifer has Elisa all wrapped up at church.

Having sweet dreams!

Our little polar bear...

Isn't she so cute!

You can compare this picture to the one of her in this bear suit on the "Welcome Home" post (below). She almost fills it out now. I am glad that the weather has turned cold so that we can use it. She absolutely loves it - as you can probably tell!