Double strollers?

Anybody out there have a recommendation for a good double stroller? We will have a newborn and a 16 month old... we have just started looking into strollers and I don't know where to start.

The ones that hold the infant carriers just look so enormous!! But I don't know if I would be able to live without using the infant carrier/carseat. When Evelyn was little, it was so easy to just pop her in and out of the car, stroller, etc -- and not have to unbuckle her or wake her up if she was sleeping...

Any tips or ideas?

Just pictures...

So I am completely behind on updates -- so I am just going to include a few recent photos...

Here is Evelyn in a new festive outfit from her Nana (Trav's mom):

Here is Evelyn meeting Moose (her godparent's cat) -- she was much more interested in him than he was in her...
And here is my favorite --- pictures from our tree cutting (these were from the beginning of December sometime). Keep in mind --- it snows like once a winter in Seattle. I was extremely excited to be going to get our tree while we were getting a "snow storm". It definitely made it feel like Christmas was coming :) I also really love the place where we get our trees from... it is a huge tree farm about 30 minutes away. They give you a saw and let you go cut down whatever tree you want. They also provide free hot chocolate and apple cider -- YUM!

Look at Trav's jacket in the picture -- it totally looks like something a gas station attendant would wear, doesn't it?? These were part of our old process engineer uniforms from when we worked together in Iowa... they even had our names embroidered on them -- aren't they great?!?

11 month photos... very late

I just realized that I forgot to put Evelyn's 11 month picture on here... things have been SO busy lately!! This picture was taken actually one day before she turned 11 months.
I was anxious to get the picture taken because I wanted to work on the invitations for her first birthday party. It was quite the little art/computer project for Travis and I. It was a lot of fun!! Here is what one side of the invitation looked like...
We are having her party on her actual birthday (the 26th) --- just invited family and a few close friends that live in the area. We have both sets of grandparents in town for Christmas -- so we wanted to celebrate it when all of the immediate family could get together. Should be fun!!


I have more updates (from Christmas tree cutting to decorating the house, etc)-- but will post them tomorrow or something... I am going to wrap a few Christmas presents and then relax and watch some tv.

Think BLUE!!!

Yup -- it's a BOY!! I had my "big" ultrasound today and we found out the news. Here is the picture that the ultrasound technician printed out for us... she said it doesn't get much more obvious than that!

The picture cracks me up -- hopefully our little guy doesn't get embarrassed someday that I posted this on the internet.. ha ha ha

Evelyn is going to have a little brother next April :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well -- Thanksgiving is almost done. It was a pretty relaxing day. We watched most of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade... Evelyn took a long morning nap (I might have taken a little nap, too)... then we went for a nice long nature hike/walk. There is a great trail by where we live that is very hilly and woodsy -- it takes about 30 minutes to get to the end of the trail -- so we got a full hour of exercise and fresh air today :) Here are a couple of pictures from our hike:

We went to our friends Boris and Sarah's house for dinner -- it was great! I didn't get home in time to watch Grey's Anatomy though -- I will have to watch it online tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving!

Tuesday Updates...

Well -- I accomplished most of the tasks that I had hoped to do while Travis was out of town. One of the main things I did not do was clean my closet and make a big trip to the Salvation Army. I plan on doing that this weekend still. Maybe that way Travis will be motivated to go through his things, too.

On the other hand, I also accomplished a few things that I didn't originally intend on doing (I did a bunch of Christmas shopping, I purchased fireplace fans, and I cleaned some other areas of the house not on the list)

Here are some new pictures of Evelyn:

I bought her a new hat today, and put it on her after I picked her up from daycare. As soon as Travis saw her, he said "who's the skater?". Apparently he thought her outfit made her look like a little skater... I guess I have to agree with him. Especially with the hat on!!Travis missed his little girl when he was out of town. She missed him, too!
Here is Travis trying to steal a few kisses from Evelyn:

18 Week Pictures

Here are some photos of my growing belly. I didn't get any head shots -- I had just gotten out of the shower... I am definitely bigger than I was last time at this point... but still not "showing" a ton in normal clothing. For people that know me, they can tell that I am pregnant... but for strangers, I just look like a normal girl that carries some extra weight in her belly :)

Standing Up

Here is Evelyn doing her new favorite thing --- standing up :) All she wants to do all day long is pull herself up on things - she loves it!

Off to do more cleaning/organizing/de-cluttering/purging!

Monday Night & Feeling Accomplished :)

Well -- it is Monday night and I just finished up task #1 and part of #2... I cleaned the junk drawers and now there is only one full of the essentials (batteries, tape, scissors, matches, pens, pencils). I also cleaned one of the front closets (the game closet).

I definitely am in a purging mood! I read a few articles online today from Peter Walsh -- I guess he has been on Oprah a few times -- but I just know him from MSN. He gives pretty good advice on how to de-clutter your house. He motivated me to throw things out instead of just moving everything around.

Now I am watching the Hills. Definitely a guilty pleasure. The show is pretty dumb --- and the character's lives seem so unreal -- but I still watch it when I can. Travis refuses to watch it, so tonight was the perfect night to catch up on two episodes after my organizing was done :) Seriously though -- does anyone else watch it? I can't stand J*stin-B*bby... and Sp*nc*r isn't much better. I can't believe that H*idi spent her 21st b-day alone with him. Her life is so sad now...! The newest episode is starting... time to go :)

Goals for the week...

Travis will be gone for work all next week. He leaves Monday and gets home late Friday night. I have decided that while he is away I will get some jobs around the house done. Here is what my list looks like:
1. Clean "junk" drawers in kitchen (we have like 4 of them) -- only need one junk drawer for basics (scissors, tape, pens, etc)
2. Organize hallway game closet and bonus room closet (both are being used for storage and are just a mess)
3. Clean my closet and do a clothing drop-off at Goodwill (I try to do this at least twice a year) -- but this time I am ready to purge more -- I have so much clothing I never wear!
4. Clean/Organize spare bedroom closet and the "empty bedroom" closet (these have random things in them -- and we will need to turn the "empty bedroom" into another nursery soon, so I better get going!
5. Donate books to library (I already have a box started, just need to go through books one more time to get rid of the non-classics, non-favorites, etc.

I think that is all for now. I am going to pick one big thing a night and hopefully my list will be complete by the time Travis gets home! Evelyn goes to sleep usually around 7PM, and I usually go to bed around 10 or so --- so that gives me 3 hours every night to work on everything. I am much more motivated when Travis is gone. He typically sits on the couch with Cocoa from 7PM until bedtime every night ---- I find myself getting sucked in to the tv time with them more often than not. AND -- since I posted these items on my blog, I am more likely to get them completed, too!

daycare woes --- already?

So -- Evelyn started the new daycare last week. Everything seems to be going okay so far. I stayed with her for an hour or so the first morning so that she was comfortable with the new place, kids, etc. She immediately started crawling around and playing with the new toys. Jim and Gay (the daycare providers) said that she is doing great --- taking good naps, only fussing when she is tired, she is eating normally, etc. I am happy so far with the new location and Evelyn seems to be adapting okay.

Here is where things start to go wrong... On Friday Travis picks her up (which I had been doing all week). When he got there, Evelyn had a new bruise on her forehead, she was missing a sock, and her eyes were red and watery like she had just been crying. The sock isn't a big deal (Gay found the missing sock over the weekend and gave it to me on Monday morning). The bruise isn't too big of a deal -- Evelyn had given herself a bruise a few weeks earlier in the same exact spot. She waves her arms like crazy with a toy in her hand, and bonks herself on the head once in a while. I realize she is going to have many more bumps and bruises in the future -- some of them we will witness, and some of them will happen at daycare.

The red eyes was a tiny bit of a concern though... Travis didn't ask them if she had been crying, so we don't know if she was crying or just rubbing her eyes. I always ask them at the end of the day how she did. Especially the first few days, I wanted to know if she was crying at all -- because crying and fussing is really out of character for her unless she is extremely tired (we are lucky, I know). I just want to be sure that Gay and Jim are being open about her behavior during the day -- if Evelyn isn't happy, I want to know.

To top that all off, she came home from daycare on Monday with a runny nose. She then proceeded to vomit up her dinner (all over herself and her high chair -- that was fun to clean up after she went to bed). She slept okay last night -- but when I got her up in the morning, she had a ton of dried snot under her nose and she was extremely congested. It is that time of year --- so I can't really complain... But still -- Evelyn hasn't really been sick or had a cold yet -- and now one week into the new daycare she has a pretty bad cold.

I am not giving up yet --- Evelyn does seem happy in the mornings when we go there, and she is always playing with the other kids in the afternoon when I pick her up --- I guess we just had a short series of unfortunate events that are starting to put a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully these events will stop soon!

10 month pictures and Halloween

Here are the 10 month photos. They were taken a few days late this month since we were in Michigan on the 26th. The Halloween hat ones are funny --- the hat makes her cheeks look extra-chubby!!

And here is my little butterfly! She hated to stay still for the photos. Now that she is crawling, it is almost impossible to get her to sit still long enough to get a picture :) Evelyn did go trick-or-treating on Halloween --- but just to a few of the neighbor's houses before it was bath and bedtime.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Back from Michigan

I am a bit behind on posting -- so the Halloween post is coming later...

Evelyn and I had a great time in Michigan. She was such a good little traveler! I was a bit worried about flying alone with her -- but we didn't have any problems at all. Even when our flight was delayed and we had to deal with a 4 hour lay-over in Chicago, she was fine. I am very thankful to have such a good little trooper! She travels better so far than a lot of adults do!

While in Michigan, Evelyn enjoyed her first graham cracker. My dad has been talking about feeding her a graham cracker for a few months now. He was so excited! If I remember correctly, when Kara and the girls came over in July, he gave them their first graham cracker, too. He loves to watch little babies eat!

Here is a random picture of Evelyn in a winter hat. I don't remember why it got put on her in the first place -- but she seemed to like it. Also, my parent's house is always a little cold -- so I think it kept her head warm, too!

Here is a picture from the "photo shoot" that my mom and I did of Evelyn. We took her around the front yard and tried to get pictures of her in front of trees, some pumpkins, etc.
Lastly, here is a picture of Evelyn with her Uncle Gary and his girlfriend Emily. They actually did a little bit of baby-sitting for me one night. When I walked in the door, Emily was just finishing up changing a really dirty diaper. It was perfect timing!! :)

Crawling... Forward!!

Evelyn learned to crawl forward today!! She had been crawling in reverse for a couple of months now -- and is has been pretty funny to watch, she is actually really good at crawling in reverse! But today, she learned the forward motion -- she loves being able to get to what she wants!

I guess that means more baby-proofing to do tomorrow :)

Daycare Solution...

Well -- after much looking and interviewing, we have found a new daycare for Evelyn. The play area is huge, very clean, lots of toys and activities, it seems great. It is another family (in-home) daycare -- very similar to our old daycare situation. We are in the process of filling out the paperwork, putting our deposit in, etc.

The only bad thing about our new daycare is location --- it is kinda near where Travis works, but not where we live. It is probably a good 15 minutes from our house (but not during rush hour). We decided that we would put up with the drive for a quality daycare. But the location is also kind of a motivator for me... I am thinking it would allow me to go to the gym more. Daycare is close to my favorite gym location (with my gym membership, I can go to any of the different locations) This will be great for days that I finish work at a decent time --- I will pack a gym bag with me and go to the gym before picking up Evelyn.

A great thing about this location is they will be able to take on our next infant sometime around next July (I will be on maternity leave for a few months). This is great --- if all goes well, we won't have to search for a new daycare next year when baby #2 arrives!

Here is a picture of Evelyn from this morning -- she likes to sit up in her crib once she gets up -- then she babbles to herself a bit and waits for us to come get her. Looks like it is time to lower her crib mattress!! (we probably should have done it already -- she will be pulling herself up any day now)

It's Bath Time!

Evelyn loves her baths! We recently switched from the small plastic tub to the duck tub. She was terrified the first couple of times we put her in there though... I don't think she was used to being lowered into the tub -- we used to just put her plastic tub on top of the bathroom countertop so she was closer to eye-level.

After a few times of slowly putting her in the tub and getting her familiar with it --- she grew to love it! Now she hates when bath time is over with!

Here is Cocoa watching to make sure everything is okay. She loves Evelyn :)

lack of pictures

I have been updating Evelyn's baby book recently and organizing pictures, and I came to the realization that I am not in any of them! I absolutely love to take pictures --- so I am constantly getting pics of Evelyn alone, Evelyn & Cocoa, Evelyn & Travis, etc... but that means my picture hardly ever gets taken. Do any of you guys have that problem?

I mentioned this to Travis the other day and he is going to make an effort to start getting "Mommy & Evelyn" pictures. Here is one taken last night after our walk:

Big News Again...

Notice anything new about my blog page??

Yup -- big news in my post today -- Travis and I are expecting another baby! My estimated due date is April 16th. (two days after Kara's due date!!)

I have to admit it came as a little bit of a surprise... but a welcome one :) I knew that I could be breastfeeding and get pregnant -- but I didn't know it could happen so easily!! My doctor had to use a couple of ultrasounds to pick the due date because of my breastfeeding/lack of periods/late ovulation.

Funny story -- the day Kara called me to tell me that she had a positive pregnancy test, I had taken a test earlier that day or the day before because I was feeling a bit "off". But my first test came back negative. A few days later, I was still feeling weird, so I tested again -- sure enough I saw two faint lines. I was in such disbelief that I had to run to the store to buy another brand of test to confirm the results!

I was a little nervous at first -- how will we be able to handle a 16 month old and a newborn? Are we ready for another one? But Travis was his typical calm self -- and he was thrilled with the news. Seeing his response immediately made me realize what a true blessing this is. God has a plan for everyone -- and this is his plan for me :)

Yay -- we are having a baby -- Evelyn is going to be a big sister!!!

Looks Like Me :)

This surprised me -- everyone says that Evelyn looks like Travis. I have to admit I was happy with the results though :)

9 Months

Here she is -- my peanut is now 9 months old! Well, she turned 9 months last week -- but I have been a blogging slacker lately. Here are a couple of pics:

Things have been crazy this past week... we had some daycare issues, ended up finding a short-term solution, but are still looking for a long-term solution. Finding a good daycare is SO extremely stressful! We are hoping to find another in-home daycare like the one we were using -- but there aren't many that have infant openings (children are considered an infant for daycare purposes until they are 2 in the state of Washington). We are also thinking about the possibility of a nanny... I love the idea -- but I hate the expense. We are talking to our neighbors about sharing a nanny. They have a little boy that is about 5 months old, and they aren't extremely happy with their current daycare situation -- so it would be great it they want to share a nanny that would watch both of our kids. I just hope we find a long-term solution soon --- the search is stressing me out!

Good thing we are going on vacation the end of the week :) We are leaving Wednesday night and heading to California to visit Trav's parents. Chuck (Trav's brother) and Kim (his wife) will be there, too. They live here in Seattle, but we are all taking a "family vacation" together. Trav's parents rented a place in Bodega Bay, California for us all to stay at for a couple of days. I guess it is somewhere along the coast -- I'm sure it will be nice!! I can't wait for Wednesday already :)

Not much going on...

It has been a while since my last post -- not much has been going on around here. I have been really busy with work lately. The good thing about that is -- my numbers are looking great, which means my bonuses have been nice, too! If I keep it up, I will be in the running at the end of the year for a trip to Hawaii! Our company sends the top 5% or so of their sales reps every year on a free trip somewhere... Keeping my fingers crossed for that :)

Evelyn is getting really close to crawling... she rolls around to get where she wants, and she also kinda crawls in reverse -- but she hasn't got the forward motion down yet. She is starting to do the rocking on all fours thing though. I think crawling is just around the corner!!

I booked a trip to Michigan for the end of October. I have been feeling a little home-sick lately --- so I used some frequent flyer miles to get a free ticket!! I will be in Saginaw from the 23rd until the 28th. My mom is so excited!! She hasn't seen Evelyn since the 4th of July. Travis won't be coming on this trip. I get more vacation than he does -- so I always need to use days without him every year, or just carry them over until the following year (and then I have even MORE vacation days than he does). I'm excited for the trip --- it will be my first flight alone with Evelyn. She did great on our first two trips -- so I am hoping this one will be the same :)

Here is a silly grin for ya from Sunday morning. I love the jammies she is wearing -- I will be sad when she outgrows them.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a pretty relaxing Labor Day Weekend. It began Saturday with the beginning of Notre Dame's football season. Travis was like a little kid on Christmas!! He woke up at 6:30, jumped up out of bed, showered, and put on his ND shirt -- he was ready for the day. Unfortunately, Notre Dame lost pretty bad. I hope this isn't an indication of what the rest of their season will be like... Travis is always in a bad mood when they lose. I don't want to have a crabby husband every Saturday!

Here is a picture of Travis, Cocoa, and Evelyn ready to watch the ND game:

On Sunday we did our usual church/cleaning/housework stuff... and then met up with Chuck and Kim and a bunch of their friends for Chuck's birthday. Evelyn still gets a little afraid of her Uncle Chuck for some reason... I think it might be the beard. She never sees anyone with a beard. She was passed around all night -- lots of people wanted to hold her -- and Chuck was the only one to make her cry. Here is a funny pic:On Monday we went to the Evergreen State Fair. It was a lot of fun. My favorite part was the pig races. We saw them last year, too. These little guys really get racing around the track -- it is so cute!!

I also love to walk through all of the animal barns at the fair and look around. Lots of sheep, goats, pigs, cows, etc.. Here is a mommy pig and her 10 babies. Can't imagine having to feed that many little ones!!
Just had to include this picture because I thought it was cute!!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Well, August 21st was mine and Trav's 3rd anniversary. It is hard to believe that it has been three years already... I am not sure if Trav would say that same, but I think we are more in love than ever :)

We didn't do much to celebrate on our anniversary (since it was during the week) -- I made a yummy strawberry chicken salad for dinner, and we ate it along with some cheesy garlic bread in candlelight (with Evelyn playing on the floor next to us).

It has been a tradition for us to go somewhere every year around our anniversary. It has always been Trav's thing to plan the weekend. It is such a treat!! For example, we went to Portland for our first anniversary. From Friday night until Sunday afternoon, the entire weekend was planned out. He had plans for each meal, the hotel, and all sorts of fun events during the day. We went to a beautiful rose garden in Portland (apparently Portland is known for its roses), we went to a Japanese garden, had a picnic lunch at an old mansion overlooking the city, we went to a show after dinner to see Wayne Brady perform (I think he is incredibly talented and absolutely hilarious!!), we went for a breakfast cruise down the river in Portland on Sunday morning before heading back to Seattle... it was an amazing weekend.

For our second anniversary we went to Mt Hood in Oregon. It was the same idea. Travis planned the entire weekend -- it was great! It is neat to go on a little vacation and not have to do any of the planning and be completely surprised!

This year we were unsure about what we were going to do.... we contemplated taking Evelyn with us for our special weekend, but it definitely wouldn't be the same. Considering her bedtime is usually before 8:00, that means we would be stuck in our hotel room from 8AM until morning... At the last minute, Trav's mom and dad decided to come into town. Trav's dad had plans to help Chuck (Trav's brother) do some work on his house. Trav's mom offered to babysit on Friday night so we could go out and celebrate our anniversary.

As usual, Travis planned another fun weekend for us. The weekend started by us checking into the Fairm*nt Hotel in downtown Seattle. This is probably the nicest hotel in town (it is where all the famous people stay when they come here). The great thing is, we have a very close friend who is a manager at the Fairmont --- he hooked Travis up with the "friends and family" rate. I can't imagine paying their usual rate for a room -- even if it is our anniversary!

When we got into the room, there was a bottle of champagne on ice and some chocolate covered strawberries waiting for us. We hung out in the hotel for a while, enjoyed the champagne and strawberries, and then headed out for dinner. We walked to dinner which was a few blocks from our hotel. We had a yummy Italian meal -- and then went to see a movie. (Death at a Funeral -- I don't recommend it) Even though the movie wasn't great, it was nice to be in the theater and enjoying a night out on the town. We walked around a bit after dinner, and then headed back to our hotel.

In the morning we had breakfast, went to the Seattle Art Museum, had lunch, and then went to a neat little park. We headed back home in the late afternoon. It was another memorable weekend -- Travis did a great job planning everything. I love looking forward to our anniversary weekends! I am hoping it is a tradition that will continue on for many years :)

Unfortunately I didn't take very many pictures --- which is surprising, since I usually take way too many! Here are a few from the weekend:

Travis Saturday morning watching some tv while I am getting ready...
Travis outside of the hotel. There are pigs all over in downtown Seattle. Not sure what the deal is with that... but I decided it was a good photo op.
Me with another pig on Saturday morning...