We´re expecting!!!!

I am finally taking the time to update my blog and let you know what the REALLY exciting news is! As the title suggests, we are having a baby! Evan will be a big brother, and life will become a little more crazy come October! We are thrilled and can´t wait to welcome the little one into our family! As of yet we do not know if we are having a boy or a girl, but we´ll hopefully find out in mid June. I can´t wait! I am so very curious, like always! We would be happy regardless if it is a boy or a girl; I just want to know so I can go and buy cute baby clothes. Evan seems to be set on having a little brother though. Little boys...! We have finally decided on names as well, for either girl or boy. Here are some pictures from the thirteen week ultrasound and me at about the same time. I have grown quite a bit since then. It is certainly showing sooner this time around and some maternity clothes shopping is in order.

In case you have a hard time recognizing where everything is, here is some help: The baby's head is on the top left, its booty on the bottom right. The baby is facing down and pushing off my uterus wall with its legs. It was jumping around like crazy that day, and we had so much fun watching it.



I can´t believe we are so lucky to be having someone so tiny with us again soon!!! I will be missing my full nights sleep dearly as well as the clear explanations as to where the owie is ("belly aua"), but it is so worth it! I can´t wait to meet the little person that is so lucky to have Evan as his/her big brother.

Speaking of Evan, take a look and see what he has been up the last few days besides visiting the zoo!







And of course he has been busy picking flowers for me, something his dad taught him last spring. I am so lucky, because every flower he picks for me comes accompanied by a hug and a kiss from him. I just love my little Mr. Wonderful!


We have also spent some time checking out nearby state and city parks to find a good spot for swimming. I grew up going to a lake every summer when it was warm enough to be in the water, and have been missing this a lot every time we lived here. However a few days ago someone in the family gave us a few suggestions, so we went to check them out. I am happy with what we found so far. The park has a little creek running through it that is shallow and clean with a sandy ground. It seems to be perfect for Evan to stay cool during the hot season, especially since it is so shallow. And to me it just seems so much more fun to play in a sandy creek than in a pool, but maybe that´s just me! Here is a picture we took of Evan while we were at the park (note the big rock and sticks next to him on the ground - his collected treasures!).


I also scrapped some pages, and here are the results. I used Janet Phillips template and Dani Mogstads "Under Construction" kit for the first page, and a lot of things from all kinds of kits on the second one. The stars are from Miss Mint "For my father" kit, tab and number 2 are from the "Dark Denim" kit. The circle "our boy" is from Shabby Princess´ "Silly Boy Nut Nut" kit.



I wasn't the only creative one though. Look at Evan´s work! He actually wrote the name himself, without me guiding his hand. I would give him instructions on where to start and whether to go up or down or a combination of both, but he held the marker by himself the whole time through. And the "E" is all his work, no guidance needed for that. The other things on the picture are a police car and a sun.




That´s all for now! Have fun!

A train ride, big cats and penguins...

Today Charles took the afternoon off work and came home early. Our weekends have been pretty full as of late, and we wanted to take the chance to have an afternoon for just the family. We decided to finally make a trip to Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon. The weather was perfect for such a trip, and we even managed to see almost everything there is to see. I have to say I am not a big fan of the Oregon Zoo. I am not sure why, but every time we go there I have the feeling to not really be seeing anything but a bunch of trails and empty cages. Plus I just don´t feel like they do a good job in replicating the natural habitat. But then again how much can you make an animal feel at home when you stick it into this tiny little area and expect them to be okay with it. Anyways, enough of my rambling. Here are some pictures from the trip. Evan sure had a lot of fun, and so did we! He loved running around on the trails, and climbing on rocks and little walls. When we asked him what he liked best, he said the train ride, the big cats, and the penguins.





Here you see Evan discovering that we had brought a Lunchables as his snack. He LOVES his Lunchables, as you can see on the picture.


Right next to the zoo is the World Forestry Center. This old locomotive is parked right in front of it, and you can even go on board to look around. Of course we had to stop by to let Evan take a look.


As for the exciting news, I am sorry but it will have to wait just a little bit longer. I will do my best to update soon. Have fun!

Under Construction!

That´s the name of the digital scrapbooking kit that Dani Mogstad made to compliment my picture! Last year in spring I was participating in a snapshots contest at designbydani.com, and I ended up being one of four winners! This is the picture I had entered for the contest:


Being a winner meant getting a gift certificate to use in her store, plus a custom designed digital scrapbooking kit for the winning snapshot. I was of course curious to see what Dani would be coming up with, and when it was finally released I couldn't believe how lucky I was! I totally love the kit! It is wonderful boyish and great to work with. I love all the elements and embellishments, and the detail work is awesome, as always with her kits. Go grab one here, you won´t regret it! Here is what the kit looks like:


Isn't it just gorgeous?!? So last week I was busy making layouts with the kit and it was sooo much fun!! Here is what I came up with:





I am not completely happy with this one yet, and will probably redo it sometime soon. At least the event has been journaled. I just think I could do better, especially since the colors of the kit match the pics perfectly.

So, as you can tell I have been busy. I usually don't get so many pages done at once but it was fun!

In other news, Evan got a very much needed haircut. He looks so handsome with his short hair, and definitely older! It took a lot of convincing, promises and distractions to get him to stay put in the chair, but in the end it worked out okay. I was kind of surprised that he was having such a hard time this time around considering the fact that his first haircut was a breeze. But now it´s done and we won´t have to worry about it for a while. Have a look!


And here is one to compare the before and after look!
As to the REALLY exciting news we have, I won´t be able to tell you quite yet. Check back in a few days and I might have an update on the blog as to what the news are! I am sorry to keep you waiting!