Living my Dream

Argosy Harbor Cruise - Seattle 2009

2009-08-19T21:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we took the boys on a cruise in downtown Seattle. It was fun!

Summer Fun

2009-08-14T21:38:00.001-07:00

A drawing for the Easter Bunny

2009-04-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter from Evan and Noah!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful little 4-year old Evan!

2008-12-28T10:14:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

Dear Noah ...

2007-12-25T13:04:00.001-08:00

You really love your bassinet. Whenever you get tired or overwhelmed by what is going on around you, you just want to lay down in it. Usually we walk with you for a bit to get you calm and comfy (and to steal some cuddles), then we lay you down. It doesn't really matter HOW sleepy or fussy you are: When it is time for you to sleep, you just want to lay down in your bassinet and get some shut-eye. If you have already drifted off to sleep during the walking phase (or are very close to it), you just get comfy and keep sleeping. If your eyes are still wide open but you are obviously tired, you almost always close your eyes instantly when we put you into the bassinet. Even in the evenings, when you tend to be fussier than at any other time of the day and our need to comfort you is greatest, you insist on being put into your bassinet. As soon as we do you calm down, sometimes with the help of a few gentle strokes on your head/cheeks. Then you go to sleep.
You make things so easy for us, little guy! This comes in real handy when your dad is at school and I have to get you and your brother Evan to bed on my own.

I hope that you will find your crib to be just as comforting to you when the time comes. Evan always has. Your crib will be put exactly where you are sleeping already. This should make the transition easier. Your field of vision, however, will expand tremendously, so I wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if you won't be drifting off to the magical land of nod every time your head touches the mattress.

Part of me is looking forward to the switch simply because it will be the final step in setting up your room as YOUR room. Then we can be done with this your bedroom/our bedroom situation. At the same time I will miss having the bassinet around. It is so convenient, and seems so comfortable to you. I guess it is good thing that I won't have a choice in the matter. You are already almost too big to fit in it comfortably.

In the last few weeks it has also become apparent that it is necessary for you to have your own quiet space when it is time to take a nap. Things around here are simply too noisy. You have a hard time finding any peace and rest when the volume levels of the dishwasher, washer and dryer can match that of a jackhammer. In addition to that, your brother Evan insists that all his trains have the loudest whistles or that they HAVE to crash into a big pile of broken wood and metal for the umpteenth time. This, of course, wouldn't be realistic enough unless it was accompanied by an insane amount of extra-loud crashing sounds as the trains go smash. So at the tender age of two months you are already being taught something of value by your big brother; you are being taught how to become a sound sleeper!

"Happy Christmas to all...

2007-12-24T10:45:00.000-08:00

... and to all a good night!" Evan loves the story "The night before Christmas", and keeps on repeating the last sentence of the book! Soo cute! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

More Sweet Baby Smiles

2007-12-07T20:58:00.001-08:00

Here are more of Noah's sweet baby smiles for you to see! Have fun!

Sweet Baby Smiles

2007-12-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

Noah has been smiling for the last week or two. He also started rolling over not too long ago. Batting at toys hanging over him is another new hobby of his. I just wonder who allowed him to grow up that fast, because it wasn't me! It sure is fun having the little guy around! I love all the baby snuggles I get from him! At that age you don't have to fight them for the cuddles yet!

Evan & Noah

2007-12-02T08:49:00.000-08:00

Getting ready to go out for a bit. Evan always rocks Noah when he starts crying! So sweet!

Sometimes we like to let Noah hang out with Evan in his room while he is playing. They both seem to enjoy it!

And here is a cute one of Evan that I took last week while we were out and about! Have fun!

Pumpkin Patch 2007

2007-12-01T13:19:00.001-08:00

Picking a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch at Bi-Zi Farms was another highlight of October. Evan had so much fun, and so did we! We went on the first day that they were open, and it was rather empty. Also, for a change, it was not raining (which is why we went in the first place). I took a ton of cute pictures (see below), and we had a chance to do everything they offer there without being run over or having to wait in line. We went to the petting zoo, hay bale maze, pumpkin launch, corn maze, hay pyramid, and tractor ride to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. In addition to that they had an old fashioned corn grinder that would let you take the corn kernels of the stalk, then let you grind them to chicken food. There were also chickens walking around for Evan to feed the corn to after he ground some of it. There were also all kinds of tractors for him to sit on and look at, and we got a free hot drink, which is included in the entrance fee. We had a great time! Evan picked a dark green pumpkin for himself, and Charles picked a huge, bright orange one. Evan had fun sitting in the wheel burrow, and also washing off the pumpkins with a brush and hand pump. Going to Bi-Zi Pumpkin Farms has also been made an annual event! Have fun!

Yacolt Steam Train

2007-11-29T07:38:00.001-08:00

In October we went on a trip to Yacolt to take Evan on a Steam Train Ride. All of the excursions include a trip through a 330 foot long tunnel, a trestle crossing the Lewis River and a half hour layover at Moulton Falls. The steam engine that is pulling the old fashioned coach, caboose and open flatcar is an actual historic 1929 ALCO 2-8-2T steam locomotive. It was really impressive, not just for Evan!

We got there with lots of time to spare, this time at least. On our first attempt of catching the train we got a late start and lost our way in addition to that, so we didn't make it in time.

Since Evan seemed set on sitting in the open flatcar, rain or not, I am very happy to say it was a sunny day. The sky was a beautiful blue, and it was so warm that our winter coats were laying next to us (Evan however insisted on wearing his mittens partway through the train ride).
Sitting in the flatbed car turned out to be the best choice of all the cars. The old fashioned coach didn't seem overly exciting, and the windows in it were so tiny that it would be hard to see anything through them. The caboose is also pretty cool, but the flatbed car was a better choice for this beautiful autumn day.

Although Evan was a little wary of it at first, the tunnel turned out to be fun for him! He was also very impressed by the steam engine itself of course, the steam that came out of it and the cool whistling sound it made. It must have been the coolest of all steam engine sounds even I recall hearing. Evan decided that he liked the whole trip so much that he told us very clearly at the end: “Want do it 'gain!”.

Other good aspects of this particular train ride are that it is only a 45 min drive from where we live, and the tickets aren't overly expensive. They even offer special event train rides, such as a train robbery during the summer, as well as Halloween and Christmas train rides, complete with a chance to pick a Christmas Tree during a stop.

We decided that going on a Steam Train Ride in Yacolt will become an annual tradition of ours! Here are the pictures!

Our impromptu family picture! I am so happy to have it! We just don't have enough family pictures, something I want to change in the future.

And here is a picture of me with my big 9 months pregnant belly. I know it´s crazy, but I kind of miss having my big round baby belly already again. I felt the same way after Evan was born. The first time I left Evan with his dad to go to my postpartum exercise class I felt oddly lonely. It´s unbelievable how fast the discomforts that come with pregnancy are pushed to the back of our minds after baby is born! Or maybe it´s just me? Anyways, have fun!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

Big Tough Bear!

2007-10-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Evan's new best friend, Big Tough Bear, has been making a lot of trips with us recently. Here is a picture of Evan and Big Tough Bear together at the pumpkin patch (more to come)!

Have fun!

Just a couple of pictures...

2007-09-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

... that we took last week. We decided to get some pizza and take advantage of the still great fall weather and have a picnic in the park! Isn't he getting SO big!?!

Clark County Fair 2007

2007-08-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

This year we actually managed to make it to the Clark County Fair with the kids. We went together with Evans' friend Michael and his parents. Unfortunately it was a very hot day, and we didn't bring our stroller, so it was quite exhausting for all of us (especially considering that I have gotten HUGE)! Anyways, here are some pictures.

The thing he liked best was the Pony Ride however. He had saved up his sticker chart and was so excited to actually sit on a pony. He was not scared at all, and talked about it for the rest of the week. Whenever we asked him if he liked the train ride or the car carousel better, he would think about it for a moment, and then say "Pony Ride" with a big smile on his face! Have fun!

Pool Fun!

2007-08-21T12:39:00.002-07:00

Here are two layouts I made about our trips to the pool. Evan is having such a good time every time we go there. He loves being in the water! Have fun!

Credits: Dani Mogstad - Cabana Boy and Erecinella - Breath of Fresh Air.

Credits: Ad freebie by Kellie Mize (designerdigitals.com). Backgrounds: Dani Mogstad - Under Construction, Erecinella - Breath of Fresh Air and DDE - Sweet Liberty Paper Pack.

Cannon Beach, Oregon

2007-08-09T12:21:00.000-07:00

Another trip we made while my mom was here was to the beach. It was Evan's first time at the beach, and our first time in many years. The weather was great. It was extremely windy though, so you didn't notice the heat as much. As a result, Charles and I ended up getting a sunburn. Luckily we were smart enough to put lots of sunscreen on Evan, and apparently it worked well. He did not get burnt by the sun, neither did my mom. Here are my favorite pictures of the day. We are hoping to make another trip to the beach before fall.

Evan wasn't sure what to think of the "moving" water at first, but after his dad played with him in the waves for a while, he decided that it was the funnest thing to run into the waves and back out. He didn't want to stop playing at all, even when he started having blue lips and was shaking all over. He also wasn't too happy when it was time to go home. He is a total beach boy!

Here are a few more.

These pictures I took before we left for the beach. After all it was Independence Day, and I had to have some pictures taken of Evans' very first 4th of July!

Have fun everyone!

A Day out with Thomas

2007-08-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

While my mom was here we went to Mt. Hood Railroad at Mt. Hood, Oregon, to spend a "Day out with Thomas". Evan had been counting the days for a long time before and couldn't wait to actually see Thomas. He had a great time, although I wish the railroad would be a little closer to where we live. Being stuck in a car for two hours with a tired toddler sure is not what I call fun! He did great though all things considered. Take a look!

I am sorry about not writing more. Just trying to catch up for now! Have fun!

In just one hour ...

2007-06-26T11:11:00.001-07:00

...we are off to pick up my mom from the airport. Evan is trying to get some rest before she gets here. Why does Lufthansa always have to arrive exactly during Evan's nap time? Last time my mom and Tommy came to visit we let Evan skip his nap just to sit around the airport for over almost two hours when he could have been getting some much needed zzz's in his crib. So this time we plan on going later, and hopefully things will work out okay this way. It should take her a while to get through customs. They even took pictures and finger prints last time, so we should have some wiggle space. Good thing we live only 16 min from the airport.

Anyways. I wanted to post some pictures from last week before I got too busy taking new ones. These were taken at our pool. Remember this? It turns out he still loves this swim ring best. It puts him in a natural swimming position, and keeps him from accidentally getting his face under water too often, although he is learning to deal with that pretty well.

We also took his little sail boat to the pool, but he sunk it within the first few minutes. And with the sails wet it didn't float anymore, so we will have to give it another try soon.

On Saturday we met with his little friend Michael, and his parents. The kids had a blast, like usual. Evan is so gentle with Michael, and very patient. He usually cuts him some slack for doing things Evan knows shouldn't be done, like throwing sand all over the place. We are trying to explain to him that Michael is very little and still learning, and that babies don't always understand what we are trying to tell them.

And here is one of Evan's newest hobbies. He loves to do somersaults, although he usually ends up sideways. While we were at the park, he decided that it would be fun for his dad and Miles to join in. Good thing they are big children at heart!

Almost time to wake my little guy and go to the airport. Looks like the plane is going to be on time. The next ten days will be pretty busy, although hopefully a little more relaxed then the last time they were here. We plan on showing my mom the area, so that she can see that it can also be a very nice place to live. Last time they came here it was all cold and rain the whole time through, and of course all gray and muddy. I can't wait for her to see some of the beautiful nature you can find here. Multnomah Falls will be one of the stops, as well as Cannon Beach, Oregon. We also have tickets for "Thomas the Tank Engine" which will take us through some beautiful scenery just by itself. Evan has been talking about the Thomas train ride ever since we bought the tickets, and he can barely wait. He knows that it won' t be long now because grandma will be getting here today.
Of course we are pretty limited as to where or how far we can go, because we still have to make sure that Evan gets to take his nap at midday. He can skip once maybe, but if we do that too often he will just be cranky and tired and that's not worth it. We want him to have a happy time with his grandma.
Some other places we will be visiting are Toys'r'us, the Learning Palace (they have lots of "Thomas the Tank Engine" accessories), many playgrounds, and the carousel at the mall, as well as Tuesday Story Time at the library! Those are Evan's plans for Grandma! I am sure we will have a great time! The next update will probably be after my mom flies back to Germany. I will make sure to show lots of pictures. Have fun!

We're having a boy!!

2007-06-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

The ultrasound last week went great! We found out that I am at about 22 weeks right now, and also that we are having a little baby boy!!! It was very easy to see, so there should be no doubts! We are so thrilled to know the gender, and can't wait to meet our little Noah! We are so very excited for Evan too, because how fun is it to have a brother?!? They will most likely share similar interests, and probably be up to all kinds of trouble! It will be so much fun! Here is a picture of our little Noah!

Evan was super patient and well behaved at the ultrasound. He is very excited about Noah, and talks to him all the time. He even tries to feel him kick, and pets my belly as to massage the baby! Charles also felt Noah kick for the first time this week, and he was so very excited! Feeling the baby kick, from the outside especially, makes it so much more real, even for me!

Father's Day was great! First thing in the morning Evan ran over to Charles with his present, yelling "Happy Birthday, Papa!". The present Evan and I had put together over the last several weeks was a folder for college with Evan's paintings on it. I had Evan paint pictures that I slid into the front and back cover of the folder, and also had him draw on the tabs inside the folder. That way Charles can have Evan's artwork with him while he is at school.

After the present was opened and cards were read, Charles and Evan spent the rest of the morning putting together this little wooden sailboat! They both had so much fun with it! Before his nap, Evan took Charles out for lunch - just the two of them! I wish I could have gone too, but really wanted to give the two of them some one on one time! In the afternoon we walked to a nearby playground to get Evan moving and outside into the sun and fresh air! It was a fun walk! Here are some pictures from the sailboat building!

Of course we also celebrated Charles' birthday last week. We had Charles come home early form work so that we could spent the rest of the day together. Evan was so excited about it, and couldn't wait to give him his presents! He is so good about it too. Whenever we have a present that he knows about, we tell him that it is a surprise, and that so and so can't know yet. So whenever Charles asked him what his present was, all Evan said "Surprise!", and "nein have it" ("nein" being German for "no" or in this case "not"). I tend to give things away, so I am even more astonished by his ability to not tell the birthday child about the surprise! And he doesn't even seem to have a hard time with it. I can learn a lot from my little boy!

Looks like in our house June is all about dad! I think we should declare June as the official "Spoil Papa Month"! However, Evan didn't completely forget about spoiling me a little bit as well. Here is what I got just a few days ago. Am I lucky, or what!?!

Evan is waking up from his nap, so that's all for now. I have one more picture for you before I go. Our little artist was hard at work!

From the left to the right you can see a sun (purple), a road (green), two trees (at the bottom of the picture, one in brown and green, the other one orange), the letter "E" above the trees (black; he likes putting in extra lines on purpose - you can tell because he will look at you and smile as he makes the extra lines, trying to see what your reaction will be) and of course two cars and a bunch of dotted lines.

He made another one with clouds and grass and a colored car, but that one will be a surprise for his Miau-Oma when she gets here next week. We are so excited to have her visit! Too bad she is only staying for ten days, but at least she will be back in October, when Noah will be born! I bet I will be glad to have the extra help! And it will be just so much fun to be able to catch up with my mom! Have fun!

The perfect swimming hole, as of yet!

2007-06-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Like mentioned before, we have been looking around to find a good place for us to swim this summer, besides the community pool (which is always crowded). So far we have been at two parks. One has a fairly big river going through, which is were people go to swim. It is rather shallow and has a slow current, so I think it will be great! Evan definitely approves of the place, probably because there are about a million rocks that he can pick up and drop back into the water - one of his favorite past times. And it is only a 30 min drive from us!

There was also a playground at the park. Evan was so very proud of himself for sitting on the carousel all by himself while the big kids pushed. I, of course, was terrified! He tends to say "done" in a really quiet voice, so it would have been hard for us to even hear him in case he decided that he was done. Then as soon as the word "done" is out of his mouth, he tends to let go of whatever it is that he is holding on to at the time. Also, you never really know just how fast the big kids think they need to go, and if he will be able to hold on to it as long as it might be needed for us to get to him. I guess I was worried for nothing. Everything went just fine! And he was so very very proud of himself, you could see it written in his face! He did great!

Another park we found is right here in Vancouver. He likes it because he can walk around the creek and play in the mud. It also is surrounded by big trees, which keeps it cool even on the hot days. That´s always a plus considering that our apartment must equal a sauna on these kind of days! Good thing we just now bought an air conditioner. Now to just get it installed in a side opening window...! Not impossible, just not so pretty as if it was a top opening window. At least it should keep the place cool and allow Evan to have some restful nights from now on.

As for the pregnancy, things are going great! Of course I have plenty leg cramps, back aches and about a thousand trips to the bathroom, but I think there is no way out of this. I am getting soooo big, it´s not even funny! I am already getting reluctant to move around a lot, and I am just 20 weeks along. So very different from my pregnancy with Evan. I can also feel the baby kick now. We are all looking forward to the ultrasound on Wednesday! I can´t wait to find out if we are having a boy or a girl! Most importantly we want it to be healthy, of course!

Evan is very involved in the pregnancy. He showers the baby with kisses and hugs, and talks to it all the time. He tells me to eat certain things he thinks are yummy, as to share with the baby! He will be a wonderful big brother! What else could a mom want than for her firstborn to be excited about his baby sister or brother?? Have a look yourself and see how involved he is! Unfortunately I have no pictures of him hugging the belly, or kissing it, yet! But I will post them if I am lucky enough to get some!

It might be hard to recognize, but he is holding his baby dolls hands while we are driving somewhere! He likes to hold baby Michaels hand as well, whenever he gets to ride in the car with him.

We can´t wait to get him a full set of baby doll equipment! That way he can play along and get familiar with all the things babies do. He already mentioned how excited he would be to be having his very own doll swing!

And this is what he does whenever he is not playing with his baby doll! He must spend like at least half the day driving and parking his wheeled toys! And if he doesn´t park his indoor cars, he is busy parking his sand box cars...! Little boys and their wheeled toys!

Have fun!

Summertime!

2007-06-04T14:32:00.000-07:00

This week we finally ventured out to the pool a few times. The heat has gotten so unbearable that we just had to go and cool off in the cold water! The first few times Evan was just content sitting on the steps playing with his toys, but when we took a brand new green swim ring there was no holding him back getting all wet!! He loves using the swim ring, and he loves playing wild with his dad, splashing and jumping into the water! Can you tell he likes green?!!?

And here is one more masterpiece of our little artist! Enjoy!

We´re expecting!!!!

2007-05-25T11:24:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-18T21:14:00.001-07:00

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!

2007-05-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

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!

Just another page...

2007-04-24T13:13:00.000-07:00

... of my little boy when he was still a wee one and happy to sit in one spot (mostly) and observe the world from there. This page came together by accident. I had made one for a friend of mine and liked it so much that I ended up replacing a few elements and the picture, and using it for myself as well as for her. I just love the bright orange background! I am actually using the same background for another page for last years summer album. I just have a little bit more fine tuning to do on it before I can publish, so check back soon. Plus we have some REALLY exciting news...! Have fun!

With all the rain...

2007-04-19T19:34:00.000-07:00

... that falls in the great Northwest come the beautiful forests with all their mosses and ferns and all things green. As much as I hate how much it rains here, I love the mossy forests just as much. This is what we have been up to last weekend. This lake is open for swimming in the summer, but I already love it for the trail that goes around it and for the rustic campsites they have available up on the campground that is next to the lake. Evan had a lot of fun walking along the trail that goes around the entire lake. It was pretty challenging for him with all the roots and rocks sticking out of the ground. He made it his mission to find the biggest rocks he could manage to carry and then drop them into the lake as soon as he found a spot that was to his liking. As for me, I was just happy being out and about on a sunny day!

Click here for the album.

Osterhase -

2007-04-12T11:48:00.000-07:00

... one of Evan´s first and favorite words. It means Easter Bunny in German. He sounds so very cute when he says it too! This year we had our first Easter egg hunt with Evan. He had a blast! And even after he had gone on three different Easter egg hunts on Easter Sunday, he still asked for more when the day was done. It is such a joy to watch him enjoy himself so much. Here is a layout I made about Evan´s Easter egg hunt at home. Polaroid frame template from Heather Ann's Quick Fill Page Sets. Alphas are from Shabby Princess´ Spring Breeze Kit and Shabby Mommy Kit, as well as Dani Mogstads Birthday Bash Kit. Background Paper is from the Spring Breeze Kit. Tag is from Miss Mints Craft Jar Kit. I plan on making a layout from his second Easter egg hunt with his great-great-grandma as well so check back soon. Have a great day!

Just like ...

2007-04-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

... he loved his little Puky Wutsch, he now loves his Puky walking bike! He wants to go on walks with it all the time! At this point he is so fast that we have to run to keep up with him. He also loves to lift his feet off the ground whenever he can, and he does it so well! I can never get enough watching him do that. It just amazes me so much that he can keep his balance like that. The other day on the way to target we walked by an elementary school just as everybody was getting on the buses. He loves school buses, so we let him watch for a while. While we were crossing the school grounds all the little kids where pointing at him, saying something along the lines of "Wow, look at him. He doesn't even have training wheels, but he is so little!", or "Look, only two wheels and no training wheels!". Charles and I couldn't help but smile at each other. We totally understand their amazement because we feel the exact same way. We were already astonished enough when he managed to ride the walking bike with no problems, but to see him lift his feet off the ground just leaves us without words.
Here is a layout I made from one of the many walks we go on at the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail. That day we also sat down and watched a bunch of frogs that were right next to the trail. On some of the pictures you see Charles and Evan telling me to shush, so that the frogs would come back out - just in case you were wondering if he was picking his nose or saying shhh. Have fun everyone!

Little artist!

2007-03-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I am completely off on this, or maybe it is because I am biased, but the fact that Evan can draw cars seems out of the ordinary to me! He has wanted us to draw cars for him for the longest time now. However two weeks ago he came over saying "Auto" (German: car) showing us his very first self drawn car. Charles and I were so very excited and told him how much we loved the car he had drawn. We asked if he could make some more for us to hang up and so he sat right back down and made two more cars. Ever since then he has been drawing cars nonstop, even with watercolor. And to top it all off, he won´t stop at cars. Every now and then he will actually draw one of the letters he knows. He will put an immense amount of effort into making sure that we know what letter it is he just drew. Some examples are "O", "E" or "P". He really is a little artist! Take a look yourself! The line that can be seen at one end of some cars is the exhaust, the dots usually are the headlights (don´t ask me how he came to that, I have no idea!), or in case of a police car, the emergency lights.

A little sunshine ...

2007-03-18T07:14:00.000-07:00

... goes a long way! I am so done with the rainy season. I am ready for some sun! Sitting inside just gets boring after a while, especially if you don´t have a car. But during the last few weeks we actually have had the sun come out on a somewhat regular basis, so we spent as much time as possible outside. Here are some pictures of Evan playing with sidewalk chalk, and then some of him and his little friend Michael at the playground. Have fun!

This should have been posted in October....

2007-02-06T14:29:00.000-08:00

... but I am late as always. Nonetheless, here is the photo album from our trip to the pumpkin patch at Bi-Zi Farms in Washington State. It was a nice day with lots of sunshine - too much sunlight if it came to taking pictures. At least some of them came out really nice though. I am so looking forward to going there again this year, more than once even. They have a huge corn maze as well as a little bale maze, a petting zoo, hay rides, huge pumpkin sling shots, a straw pyramid and of course the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins. The 6-acre corn maze by itself should be enough for one trip, and Evan always loves the tractor rides. But for now enjoy the pictures of last years visit.

This one I had also wanted to post in October. We had spent the afternoon at Charles´ aunt Carmen's house. She had the bulldozer sitting in her front yard when we first got there. Getting Evan to actually go inside the house (it was pretty cold that day) was almost impossible. Luckily they also have a little bunny that walks around their house like a cat and since Evan loves bunnies as much as bulldozers (or all things on wheels for that matter), he decided to go inside after all (only until he remembered the bulldozer though).

Have fun!

The playdough kitty...

2007-02-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

... Evan and I made needed a food dish as well as a water dish. At least that is what Evan had decided. He also wanted the cat to have its own play dough cat bed so the kitty would have a place to rest.

Earlier this week Evan found his lacing beads. We got them to keep him busy on the flight over from Germany. He hadn't played with them in a while and so was very excited to find them the other day. He sat down and started threading the beads on to the string, then he would want me to tie the ends of the strings together and wear it as a necklace. Unfortunately most of the beads are too big for him to get the string through himself, all except one. He managed to put the string through all the triangles by himself.

Then yesterday I decided it was time to make some sugar cookies with Evan. I had been wanting to for while now and was very curious to see what Evan would think of the idea. It had been a while since the last time we made cookies together, so this was definitely new and exciting for both of us! He had fun decorating them, although most of the candy, especially the miniature m&m´s, ended up in his mouth instead of on the cookies!

I also managed to get some more scrapbooking done. I am finally starting to figure out how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements for digital scrapbooking. I used to use Jasc Paint Shop Pro for all my digital scrapbooking, so using a new program made things difficult for a while. I really don´t like having to use an unfamiliar program and so usually just avoid it. I am glad I finally got around to giving it a try though, because it really is so much easier. The layout is about a corn maze we had visited with Evan last fall while still in Germany. I used Miranda M´s "Ripe Bananas"and Dani Mogstad´s "Boo" kit.

Have a good day!

Cute Toddler Crafts...

2007-01-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

... are starting to fill our walls. I love it when Charles comes home from work in the evening and Evan takes his newest creation over to him, looking so proud of what he did! I just love it and can´t get enough of it! Here are the two he has made in his "Let´s explore" class, and of course some pictures that I took while we were there. I am so glad to have the pictures. That way Evan can show them to his dad after he comes home, and neither of them feel like they missed out on quite as much. Charles gets to see what Evan did during his day and Evan gets to share it with his dad.

Evan loves all games that have to do with colors, and to top it off this one was not only about colors, but about sorting all things with wheels after colors. The school bus tent was the first thing he ran to when we came into the class room, and he never got bored of it throughout the class . He would even call "bye mama" as he was driving off to school. Playing with the play kitchen was also on his to do list for this weeks class. I am glad I signed up for February as well! Both Evan and I enjoy going there so much, plus getting together with little people of his age gives him an opportunity to take turns and share toys.

Here are my newest favorite pictures of Evan! We were out and he was having so much fun practicing his jumping skills. He was trying to jump off the curb with both feet at once, and giggled like crazy every time he landed on the ground.

This week...

2007-01-26T14:48:00.000-08:00

... I managed to get some scrapbooking done, partly thanks to Janet Phillips who gave away this awesome free template on her blog. It was my first time using a template, so it took me a while to figure out how to actually use it. I decided to use a Halloween picture of Evan for the page. This is what I came up with.

I used Dani Mogstads "boo" kit, Shabby Princess´ "Shabby Fall" Freebie and Miss Mints "Pumpkin Cobbler", as well as Janet Phillips free template.

This one I made a while back while I was making a page about little baby Michaels first bath at home. Unfortunately I don't remember which kits I used. If anyone recognizes it, please make sure to let me know so I can give the proper credits.

Also, we had another parent/toddler class on Wednesday. Evan had a blast playing with the pretend kitchen that they had there. He especially liked a little milk carton and a clear plastic bowl that came with the kitchen. He put the bowl into the sink and filled it with water, or milk. He also liked using the microwave, making little beeping sounds as he pushed the buttons to start it. I enjoy watching him play so much! He is the cutest little guy in the whole universe! Of course I am biased, but which mother isn't?

Have fun!

Last week...

2007-01-24T22:37:00.000-08:00

... we had our real first snow. It started at 5 something in the morning and didn't stop until late in the afternoon. Charles´ work closed early because of the traffic situation, so we were able to spend the rest of the day together. It took him over two hours to get home, 1.5 hours longer than normal, but at least we had the afternoon together. We bundled Evan up in his snow clothes and took him outside to play in the snow. The roads were pretty slick from all the packed down snow so it was a little tough for all of us to move around. He had fun though, especially with some icicles he found hanging off our stairs.

This one I took the other morning when Evan was busy playing. He loves playing with his cats and makes them do all kinds of things. I had to laugh so hard when I saw him do this! On a side note, the cat on the seat is named Dommy, like his grandpa. It was his idea!

And one last one for Evan´s aunt Niki. She gave him this cool poster for Christmas. He decided to hang it right next to his bookshelf and always makes sure to park Lightning McQueen right below it when it´s time to go on his nap. He also likes comparing all the cars to the stickers he has also featuring the characters of cars. Thanks Niki!

More Christmas Pics!

2007-01-22T20:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from our Christmas get-together with little baby Michael and his parents. Evan handed Michael all his presents and helped him unwrap them as help was needed. Evan himself got a bouncy ball from little Michael and his parents. He totally loves it! Whenever he wants to use it he will say "huiiii". So for the next little while Charles and I are on bouncy ball duty until his legs grow long enough for him to use it by himself. Click here or on the picture below to see the album. Have fun!

5 Generation Picture!

2007-01-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here are two different versions of the "5 Generation Picture" we took during last years Thanksgiving Dinner. Sorry I took so long to get them on the blog, but here you go.

Für alle in Deutschland: Evan´s Ur-ur-Oma Maxine (hinten rechts), Evan´s Ur-Oma Yvonne (hinten Mitte) und Evan´s Oma / Charles´ Mutter (hinten links).

Sorry it took so long but ...

2007-01-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

...things have been crazy at our house since the holidays and Evans birthday. I will try and give you a recap of everything important that we had going on. Besides Christmas and Evan´s birthday we had Grandma Ilona and Grandpa Tommy come over from Germany to spend both occasions with us.

On December 24th we celebrated Christmas Eve. In Germany, Christmas is celebrated on the evening of the 24th, not on December 25th like in America. Since celebrating in the evening is impractical for us considering Evan goes to bed by the time it would start, we usually celebrate a little earlier. Evan had already been waiting to open his presents since the morning when he had first seen them under the tree. He was so very patient though! He waited for all of us to get ready, including me and my camera. For the rest of the afternoon and evening it was present opening time for us. We all had a good time being together and Evan very much enjoyed his presents and the play time that came with them.

In the afternoon of December 25th, we celebrated Christmas with our extended family.

Click here (hier klicken für Fotos) or on the picture below to see some photos. I had the same problem as always with the lighting. Just can´t seem to stop my pictures from turning out blurry. I wonder if my camera just can´t handle low light situations or if I have my settings wrong. Anyways. Here you go.

Next was Evan´s birthday. Since Charles had to work until 3 PM that day, we decided to have the big "party" after he got home from work.

In the morning we put lots of balloons into his crib, sang him a birthday song, gave him one present and a special birthday breakfast, consisting of three waffles topped with ice-cream and m&ms and a candle on each side that he had to blow out. I am sure I don´t really have to tell you but he LOVED his breakfast!! He is still talking about it now and then. Grandma and Grandpa also gave him one of their presents when we picked them up at the hotel.

While Evan was taking his nap, I set up his birthday table. On the way out of the house I made sure to not let him see it since we wanted Charles to be there too for that. Everything worked out great and when we came back home Evan was very ready to have his party. When we first let him into the decorated room he took a look around, then grabbed the first present in view, walked over to his dad and sat on his lap to open it. After that he actually took the time to look at the rest of his decorations. He started playing with the train on his cake and even relocated the candles one by one beforehand so they wouldn't be in his way. For the next little while all he was interested in was picking out which present to open next and then opening it. He was so cute about it too. Every time he was done with one he put it aside and walk over to his birthday table saying "mehr" (German; more) along the way.

Later in the afternoon we took him on a walk so he could try out his new Puky walking bike. We were so excited to see how he would do with it, and even more excited to see that he enjoyed riding on it. I can say I am definitely ready for the spring, even more so now that we have this cool little bike to take out with us. It will be so much fun to be taking him out on walks when we don´t have to bundle up in five layers every time we want to go outside.

In the evening his great aunt Carmen called to say Happy Birthday. She talked to him on the phone, and he just kept saying "ja" (German; yes) over and over and over again. Then all of a sudden he started laughing like crazy. Then he stopped just long enough to listen to what his great aunt Carmen had to say, and then started up laughing like crazy again. He is such a silly little guy!

Although things had been a bit hectic during the preparation phase (Charles didn't have the day off and I ended up customizing a purchased cake instead of making my own like I had wanted to) things came out great in the end. Evan enjoyed being the Birthday Boy and he liked having so many balloons and presents just for him. He had picked the "Thomas the tank engine" balloon himself the night before. I am also glad that his grandparents from Germany were able to visit for his birthday since he cares so much for them. To see the pictures of the day click here (hier klicken) or on the picture below.

Many thanks to uncle Andre, aunt Verena, Milo and Silas for the present they sent over, as well as to Anke and Jörg who also sent a present over for Evan. He enjoyed all of them!

And last but not least click here to see some pictures of Grandma´s and Grandpa´s visit to America. (Hier klicken für mehr Bilder von Oma und Dommy in Washtington.)

Have a good day everyone!

Let´s Explore!

2007-01-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

Because I like to go out and give our little boy the chance to socialize, Evan and I signed up for a parent/toddler class which gets together once a week. The first meeting was yesterday. It was great! It´s kind of like the play group we already go to at the same Community Center, but with less people and slightly different activities. While the other play group provides a large indoor space in the form of a big gymnasium and many big toys (like little tike's cars, slides and crawl through tunnels), this class is more like a pre - preschool class. They offered a few play areas with various toys, like a play kitchen and pretend food, a little people house (which Evan REALLY liked), and big, soft building blocks. In addition to that they had puzzles, color games and sorting cups as well as some winter themed crafts. Evan made a picture of a snowman and some snow flakes with my help. He loves using glue to put things on paper. We are both looking forward to the next class. Here are some pictures I took during the class. I am still working on his Birthday and Christmas pictures as well as some that we took while his grandparents from Germany were visiting. I will update asap. Have fun!

First hair cut!

2006-12-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

So we went and got Evan his first hair cut last Saturday. We had been pushing it off for weeks now. We were just not sure how he would react to someone touching his head and cutting his hair. He surprised us yet again, however. Things couldn't have gone any better. He made things so easy on us. At first he seemed a little concerned, but settled down when he realized that he was allowed to sit on Charles` lap. We had even brought our portable dvd player along with the dvd "cars" (which is a special treat since we usually don´t give him a lot of screen time). We set it up right in front of him, so he would just have to point if he wanted to watch, but we never needed it. He did fantastic! There was no big change in the looks, just a little trimming in the back, by the ears and the bangs. But it was needed. Here are the before and after pictures. Have a great day everyone!

Little black kitty...

2006-11-01T14:40:00.000-08:00

This was a first for Evan! Halloween, that is! We thought that he should be a cat for Halloween, and when I found this awesome costume at leaps and bounds, I knew it would be perfect. Evan loved the costume from the start. He loves cats, therefore dressing up as one could only mean fun for him.

Charles didn't get off work until almost 6PM on Halloween, and since it was getting cold and dark by then, we decided to take Evan to only a few houses around our neighborhood. At first he was a bit confused about what exactly it was that we were doing. But after the first people put candy into his pumpkin bag, he had no doubts left in his mind. He walked from door to door as if he had been doing this on a regular basis. To my biggest surprise he did not insist on eating the candy as soon as he got it. He was content to wait until we were back home.

I´d say all in all his first Trick-or-Treating has been a success. He only got scared once when the person opening the door was wearing a big scary looking mask. Otherwise he had only good experiences. Plus he saw many cats along the way, something that never fails to bring a smile to his face. And after we were done we even let him eat some of his candy. He chose a lolly pop, and since this kept him from eating any other candy, he kept giving a lot of it to Charles and me. He is so good at sharing!!

I hate taking pictures using a flash, so I don´t have any pictures of the actual trick-or-treating. However, I did get him dressed up in his costume after his nap for the sole purpose of taking some photos (and of course to have fun). He had a blast playing in the leaves. He spent the whole afternoon filling his pumpkin bucket with leaves and then taking them to the little bridge by the managers office where he would dump them into the water.

There are more pictures to come, I just didn't have the time to work on them yet. Plus, we went to the pumpkin patch last Saturday, and his great-aunt Carmen's house on Sunday. I took pictures at both occasions and definitely want to share. Have fun everyone!

So yesterday...

2006-10-24T22:26:00.000-07:00

... we met little baby Michael. Michael´s dad has been friends with Charles for a long time. We were so very excited to have the two little ones meet. We´re hoping to have them grow up together and become friends just like Miles and Charles are. It´s also exciting for Katie, Michaels mommy, and me because we plan on doing the "mommy thing" together.

Little Michael is such cutie. I can´t believe how tiny he seems. There I go thinking my boy is still like a baby in so many ways. Then I see him next to Michael and it´s like: Wow, when did my sweet baby turn into this awesome little boy! Well, here is a picture of the two of them together, and one of Michael alone. Cutie patootie! Have fun!

For aunt Rosalie...

2006-10-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

Here is our little boy with a fisher price piano that his great-great aunt Rosalie brought over the other day along with some towels, dishes and other things we can use for our household. Thanks a lot again, Rosalie and family! Evan loves the piano! He will also pick it up and carry it around whenever he thinks it should stand somewhere else. He is so very independant! Have a good day everyone!

Getting settled in...

2006-10-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

... at our new place took us a little while. Things have been back to the everyday-normal for a few days already, but I just had a hard time finding time to update my blog. Evan is back on his regular one-nap a day and sleeping through the night schedule. It took him about a week to get adjusted, but now he´s back to sleeping like a pro. We decided to take the chance and put him on a complete time based schedule, and he took really well to the change. As you can tell, this is the smile of a well rested little toddler!

The flight itself went rather well. We had already expected things to be difficult for Evan when it came to sleeping on the plane. We were not so much worried about him getting bored. We were prepared for that. We had brought new toys, books and crayons, etc. .Sleeping however is a completely different thing. Evan hasn´t slept in his car seat or stroller ever since we put him on a regular napping schedule which was when he was about three months old. So we were dreading the flight, knowing that it would be a big deal for Evan to go to sleep. And it was. Surprisingly he was a really good boy despite his tiredness all the way until 8 hours into the flight when he just couldn´t cope with it anymore. At this point he had been up almost three times as long as he usually stays awake at once, plus all the excitement that he had to deal with was getting him exhausted as well. Luckily I managed to get him to fall asleep on my lap rather fast even if only for a little while. Of course it wasn´t any kind of really good sleep. He startled up a few times, but went back to sleep with a little convincing from me. Then he woke again when we were getting ready to land. At this point we had to put him into his car seat in order to buckle him up. Overtired as he was he didn´t agree to this and cried until we touched ground. Then he was so amazed about what was going on that he forgot his misery and instead decided to look out the window. When it was time to get off the plane we expected him to want nothing to do with them anymore for a while to come. But we hadn´t even walked ten feet before he started pointing at the plane, and making his plane sign - his way of telling us that he wanted back on. We asked him if he wanted to fly again, and he said "Yah!". What an unbelievable little boy! After going through immigration services and getting all of our luggage, we finally could meet Evan´s American family. We had expected him to be extremely shy around them, since he usually is around strangers. But he must have been too tired at this point to care. He let people hug him, hold him and take him by the hand, much to the delight of his grandma and great-grandma.

We planned on staying with Charles´ family for the first few days until we could get an appartment of our own. That was very helpful, especially since they had prepared a room for Evan and put up his crib before we even got there. This way it was ready for him. However sleeping was the last thing on his mind once he realized that there was a horse living in the backyard of his great-grandmas house.

We managed to get an apartment the next day, didn´t move until the day after though. It was already late and we didn´t want to drag Evan around again. He had just gotten a little comfortable at his great-grandmas house, so we stayed there until the day after. The move itself went fine. Since we had to rent a U-Haul anyways to get our current luggage, some boxes we had stored at their place last time we moved, plus my bike over to the new house we decided to stop by wal-mart to pick up some of the basics.

We have been living at our new place for almost two weeks now. We know our way around already since it is the same apartments that we had lived in before. So far things have been going good. We are settling back into our routine. Evan is enjoying himself a lot. He likes to go on walks around the apartment complex, of course, needless to say, with his Bobby Car and Puky Wutsch. There is a little bridge in front of the managers office that Evan loves to walk and drive over. He has also already met many little people his age which he had a good time playing with. That´s one of the positives of living so close to so many other people. There is almost always somebody to play with. He also enjoys his new weeride child carrier for the bike. It´s one that is mounted to the middle of the bike, so he is right up there with me. This way we can talk with each other while on the bike, and he can see more. He loves pointing out all the squirrels we see on our way to the store, and all the puddles he wants me to drive through. He also gets to push the buttons at the lights which he enjoys a lot. He seems to think that the toy section at target is just as good as the toy store we went to while living in Germany, and always asks us to go there by making the train noises of the trainset he likes to look at.

Otherwise we have taken Evan to the mall, the library, a playground and many stores. I think what he likes the most right now though is what he can see right outside our apartments. He has the best of views to the construction site that is right next to his balcony. When we first moved in it was nothing but a piece of wasteland. Then the next day while I was playing with Evan, Charles called over telling us to look outside the window. So we did. I was so surprised to see a big yellow backhoe driving right by us. Evan, of course, had a blast. Charles and I still aren´t quite sure what to think of the fact that we will be living next to a big construction site for who knows how long, but Evan is definitely pro construction site. Since then he has watched several backhoes, bulldozers and a huge truck type thing working away. We do appreciate that he will get a first hand view of something being build up from nothing. Having an almost constant gathering of various interesting construction vehicles right in front of his room must be one of the most exciting things imaginable for a little toddler boy.

Okay, gotta go. Evan just woke from his nap and we have to finish cooking. Click here if you want to see more pictures of Evans´ move and first two weeks in America. And this one is of Evan in front of our new place. We live in the upstairs apartment. Have a good day everyone.

A little bit sad...

2006-10-01T10:08:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow will be our last day in Germany, our last full day at least. Our flight goes Tuesday at 10:00 AM in the morning. We are very excited about the change. But honestly, right now I am mostly very sad!

We went to see my dad and his family this weekend, and it made me very sad to think that I won´t be seeing them for a while. It also makes me sad knowing that they won´t get to see Evan grow up, and that they all will be strangers to him next time he sees them in person.

Then today we invited Evan´s cousins and their parents over to let them play one more time before we would be going away, and it was just as sad. What can I say? I am not good at goodbyes. It´s just so final. I also feel so bad for taking Evan away from his cousins. Altogether there are three of them, all boys, and all of them one year apart in age. In addition to that they all play so very nicely. Even the youngest, Silas, just started crawling, so now he is much more involved in everything.

It´s good knowing though that nothing has to be final, and that we probably will keep moving back and forth between America and Germany for a long time to come. After all we do want all of our children to grow up experiencing both cultures. But for now we want to try and get settled and established.

We still have lots of packing to do, so I will go for now. However I do want to leave you with this picture that I took of Evan and Milo today. This is what I saw when I went to check on them after they had disappeared out of Evan´s room where we all had been playing. It was so funny seeing them on the rocking snail together, especially since we hadn´t heard any loud noises at all after they had left the room. Just to imagine how those two little people managed to sit on this thing together without tipping it over or falling over themselves...! It makes me laugh! Have a good day!

Where to start...?

2006-09-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

A lot has been going on lately, I don´t even know where to start. The last three nights Evan has been reluctant to go to sleep and I am not sure what brought it on. He is a very good sleeper and always goes to sleep on his own, in his own room, after our usual routine. However the last three days he has been yelling "mama" every time I left his room for the night.

On the first night we assumed it was because his closet and changing table had been taken out of his room and he was dealing with the change. But then again yesterday and also today. Like always, I am sure he has his reasons, but just what the reasons are is what makes me wonder. He is so very amazing though.

Tonight I went in after he had yelled for me at the top of his lungs (yelled, not cried) again and told him that it was his bedtime, that I wouldn´t be picking him back up and that it made me a little bit angry that he yelled for me like that. I made sure that he knew I wasn´t upset about him, only at what he was doing, and then I asked him to please stop it. I gave him some more hugs and kisses and assured him that we love him lots. Then I left the room.

There has not been any demanding yelling coming from his room since than. Babbling, yes. Yelling, no! If that isn´t the most amazing thing than I don´t know what is. Those little people are just full of surprises! You always think they´ve done everything possible to amaze you, and then they do it again. Parenting can be so rewarding! It´s always on days like these that I can imagine having quite a few more and actually being able to handle them too. Now just wait and see how many I think I can handle on one of the days where they wake you up at night, don´t nap well, eat bad and are cranky all day. Anyways, I dare say he has gone to sleep. I don´t hear a thing. I always say it, but it´s true - that little boy is spoiling us rotten!

In other news, we have purchased our plane tickets a while ago. We will be flying on October 3, not even a month from now. I am a little sad about leaving Germany again. Everything seems so final. I never like leaving a place I´ve lived at for a while. I just don´t like the fact that if you are leaving the place it will not be part of the present anymore, but part of my past forever. Plus we have lived in America before and I missed my family a lot then, so I am very worried about the possibility of me missing having them around this time as well.

On the other hand I am very, very excited of course. Charles and I both love change and can´t wait to be at a new place. We´ve always wanted Evan to grow up with both cultures. He has the big advantage of having lived in Germany for the first two years of his life. It will help him a big deal with his German language skills. He has definitely picked up on the German side of things a lot. The first words he said were all German. Lately he added a few English ones as well.

It will be quite a challenge to keep up with that since Charles and I prefer communicating in English. However, one advantage of speaking German in America is the privacy you get when you are in public. Ever had that embarrasing "Mom, why does that man smell so bad?" moment when you were waiting in line? I personally haven´t yet but am sure those situations aren´t too far away with Evan learning to speak. I am hoping to avoid those moments by speaking German with him while we are in public (as well as English of course). But English is already the language we talk most whenever Charles is around. So, the only times I am really comfortable speaking German is when Charles isn´t around. For a native speaker of German I guess that seems a little weird. However, knowing that it will be my sole responsibility to teach him German, I will definitely give my best.

Otherwise we have been busy going out and doing stuff with Evan. The weather has finally been bearable again so we wanted to take advantage of it. On Sunday we went to see his grandparents and aunt. His cousins and their parents were visiting as well, so needless to say Evan had a great time. Right behind the house is a big chicken and duck yard, and the little ones had so much fun hanging out there. I myself had a great time trying myself as a photographer. I have decided to start practicing my photo shooting skills. My big goal is to make my own name as a photographer sometime in the future.

If you are in the digi scrapping community, I am sure you have heard of at least one of the following: Tara Whitney Photography, Sweet Dreams Photography, Brittany Woodall Photography or Captured by Carrie Photography, just to name a few. If you have never heard of any of the names listed, you should defintily go check out their work - it is fantastic! I want to do that! I love their work, and I love taking pictures. I think I could improve enough to possibly make it a profession one day.

The only thing I am missing for sure is people skills. I am not a people person. I don´t like socializing. So that is a big drawback to my future plans. If I am uncomfortable, people I will take pictures of will be too. For now I will just keep practicing with friends and family to see how I will do with them. Maybe everything will fall into place when they time comes.

So the visit at my dad´s house was also my first official private photo shoot try-out. I do like the results, a lot! Since we didn´t meet for the sole purpose of having a photo shoot, the backgrounds are sometimes uglier than I´d like them to be. Also, I don´t actually like how grainy my photos come out all the time. I am assuming it´s because I use a high ISO speed. But if I don´t most of the pictures end up blurry. I am desperately hoping this would resolve itself if I had a higher quality camera? Not that my Canon Digital Rebel XT is shabby, it is fantastic quality for our budget. I am just wondering how this is the case. If anybody had any experience with that, I´d love to hear it. I am very frustrated at how grainy the pictures come out. Anyways. Here are the results of my first attempt at being a photographer. Let me know what you think. I´d love to get some honest feedback!

Click here for the album.

And here are a few pictures summing up the last few days. On the first you see Evan in his fancy dress shirt. It was the first time he was wearing a dress shirt and I love how unbelievably cute he looks.

Here you see what we did yesterday morning. I read about the idea in this book
and couldn´t wait to give it a try.

And this one is of Evan helping his dad clean a patio table. He loves being the one holding the water hose, as you can see.

Don´t forget to check out the little slide show of Evan I put together the other day. You can find it on the side bar. Have fun!

It´s so fun...

2006-08-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

... having cousins! And they´re all boys too. They´ll probably be coming up with all kinds of mischief while growing up. This Tuesday I finally had a chance to take a picture of Evan and his cousins - together. The little boy in the middle is Evan´s younger cousin Silas. Their birthday is almost exactly one year apart. The big boy on the far right is Evan´s older cousin Milo. He will turn three this winter. So far that´s the only cousins Evan has and probably will have for a while to come. The three of them play so nicely together, especially Milo and Evan. Silas is too young to play along with most of the things that Evan and Milo do. One of their all time favorites is playing with Evan´s wooden train set. But sometimes they will go over and sit down with Silas and play with him for a little while. We are very much looking forward to having Evan be the older brother himself. He´ll make a fantastic older brother! He already is a fantastic little boy! Click here for a few more pictures of the three. Have fun!

Checking on cars...

2006-08-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

... has become a routine for Evan. We told him that he needed to look for cars when we first started going out on a lot of walks with him. He usually does really well with it. I had a chance to tape him at his best yesterday afternoon when him and me went on a little walk. When he first sees the tractor he really wants to cross the street. I remind him to check for cars, and he does. First he looks left, then right. He sees a car to the right, so he points it out to me, the way he always does. Then he waits for the car to pass by. He does so great with this, and we are very proud of him! Have a good day!

Like father, like son!

2006-08-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

When I saw the look Evan had on his face on this picture I knew I had to find the one of Charles at Christmas in 1982. I can´t believe how much they look alike. They are about the same age on the pictures, and they definitely have the same look on their face. I was always hoping that my little boy would look like his father when he was a little boy. How lucky am I!?!

And here is another one of Evan having fun with his Puky. He loves driving through all puddles, and he will do it over and over and over and over....! I think you get the idea! He even got his grandpa and grandma to jump into and run through the puddle that day. He really is irresistable!

And here´s the layout...

2006-08-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

... I came up with to document how well our little guy did with his first helmet. It´s a simple one. I wanted to keep the focus on the pictures which I really really like. That and I wanted to make sure I got it scrapped before new pics would start piling up. I know I´d never get to it otherewise! Anyway, here it is:

brand new helmet
Fonts used in this layout: Arial, Wendy Medium and Tempus Sans ITC.

And here is one I made a long time ago, but never published on my blog yet. The pictures were taken in spring when Evan first discovered the outside water faucet.

100% silly boy
Credits:

Overlay: Summer Driggs Happy Daze kit.
Background: design by dani Cabana Boy Papers
Stamp: modified from Shabby Princess' Silly Boy: NutNut kit

Fonts used in this layout:

TopSecret
SM_coarsisM
Rub This!
Arial

Journaling reads:

Evan, you and I usually try and hang out with your dad downstairs while he's tilling the garden. You love exploring the dirt. You have had so much fun doing so for a while now. Lately you have begun venturing out to see what else there is
to discover. This morning you managed to find something that held your complete attention until it was time for your nap. You found the outside water faucet!

Since you had loved having a water faucet available at your level when we were at the animal park, I figured you might have fun if I turned it on for you. You had already been trying to turn it on by yourself for a while now, but so far it was simply too cold out to let you play with water. It didn't take you long to figure out how to turn the water up so that more water would come out. You then got busy figuring out all the things to do with a dribble of water, a bucket and a shovel! More than once did we have to change your sopping wet clothes for a dry set, but that's only a little price to pay for what you get - an afternoon full of fun and an entire new world opened up to you!

Have fun everyone!

And I thought it would be hard...

2006-08-16T04:29:00.000-07:00

... to convince that little boy that his helmet is the coolest. I was so wrong! When the helmet arrived in the mail yesterday, Evan was the first to open the package and put on his helmet. He liked it so much that he wanted to try it out right away by going on a walk with his Puky! So we did and here are the pictures. Evan´s grandma came along as well. Of course we had been talking it up and pointing it out on other kids for weeks before we got it, but still! Evan is the best!

Evan and Milo ...

2006-08-14T11:13:00.000-07:00

... always have fun together. Yesterday we were on a walk along a bike path. We brought his little, oh-so-loved, Puky Wutsch! He had a lot of fun with it, and so did Milo. For the most part at least. At first Milo would run circles around Evan as Evan drove his Puky Wutsch down the path. Later, Milo decided to become a little more involved by pushing and pulling Evan along. Evan seemed to be okay with this. It wasn´t until a little bit later that Milo decided that he also wanted to ride on the Puky Wutsch. From that point there was a bit of competition as to who got to ride the Puky Wutsch when.

A couple of things we wanted to point out for you:

On the movie you can see Evan wearing red shoe covers. Those are actually made to protect little people´s shoes as they ride around on any type of ride-on vehicle. Because the ride-on vehicles for his age group are very low to the ground, little kids tend to drag their feet on the ground as the drive and push. Evan wore down two pairs of shoes before we decided to give these a try. Luckily he seemed to be okay with wearing them!

At the beginning of the video you see Evan picking a flower. This is something he does a lot. Charles has told him that his mommy likes flowers when the first flowers started blooming in spring! Ever since then Evan has constantly gone out of his way to pick lots of flowers for me! We usually get enough to make a bouquet out of every day! I am so lucky!!! Because Charles taught him to get me flowers, every flower is also from him!

At some point during the movie you can see Evan holding his finger up to his mouth and going "sshhh". We had told him to listen for some sirenes, and so he did. When he goes "daa-daa-daa-daa" he is actually imitating the sirenes. He loves doing that.

Also note how he finds that tiny puddle and steps right into it. He is such a little boy!

Click here for some more pictures. The people on the photos are my brother and his family, and my mom and step-dad. The little boy playing with Evan is his cousin Milo and the little guy in the stroller is his other cousin Silas. Unfortunately, both the video and the pictures are bad quality. Sorry about that. Have fun!

The newest addition...

2006-08-12T12:33:00.000-07:00

...to Evan´s toys is a bobby car trailer. His grandparents brought one over for him the other day. He was excited about the trailer, but wary to actually use the bobby car with the trailer being attached to it. After getting on and off a bunch of times he realized that even though the trailer was following him around it was not doing anything but that. He started having a blast, driving round after round going from his room through the hallway, the dining room, living room to the balcony and from there to a new round starting at his room.

After a bit we put up some of his huge building blocks in the middle of his room and he drove around them forever, having the best of times chasing me and my camera. He thought it was the funnest game I ever invented, even though all I was doing is trying to take a picture of him enjoying himself.

Also, take a look at what he has in his trailer! Can you actually see the grapes? We always like to let him pick his own fruit at the store and the last time we went he picked grapes. He loves having some in a snack cup for him to munch on and since it is fruit we let him. There is also a little Lego plane in there. It used to be mine or my brothers when we were little. Ever since we went to the airport in order to prepare him for the move, he loves playing with his planes. He´ll fly them around the house making engine noises the whole time. He is so very cute! We love that little guy! Have fun!

Here's a picture...

2006-07-26T03:18:00.000-07:00

... of our little guy that shows just HOW much he loves his kitties! I took this a few weeks back and have been wanting to post it here for you guys to see! He really does love his kitties! He always tries to cuddle up with them whenever one is brave enough to stick around. Miss Hissyfit really is good about staying put whenever Evan comes over to sneak in some cuddles and to give her some pettings. She is such a scaredy cat, but the bravest of the three when it comes to braving Evan and his high-pitched meows or flying wooden blocks... ! Have a good day everyone!

I came in third place!!!

2006-07-24T12:15:00.000-07:00

I made it to the TOP 6 at "The Next Top Digi Scrapper" contest over at peppermintcreative. I am so very excited! This is so cool! There really was only one winner for each level (the contest was divided into two levels: level one being the "everyday" scrapper, level two being designers and more established creative team members). Because everybody was so curious, they decided to post the winners AND the next top five scrappers for each level. I am so excited!

Evan is doing great! He is such a fun boy! It is still so very hot over here, so we are mostly stuck inside the house. Sometimes, in the afternoon, we hang out in the backyard since there is usually enough shade for the little guy by then. Despite the heat Evan usually makes it fun for all of us. In the early mornings we usually walk down to the store to take care of our grocery shopping. There are two little constructions sites, a place to rent tractors and a place where tractors pick up farming supplies, along the way. I am sure you can imagine that Evan has a blast each and every time we walk by those places, especially when we take our time and let him look around for a while!

It's late over here in Germany, so I will go for now. There is so much more I'd love to share, and I am hoping to find the time to do so in the next few days. Have fun everyone!

Yay!!

2006-07-21T01:04:00.000-07:00

Check this out! I am one of four winners of the "best snapshot" contest over at www.designbydani.com. Yay! That also means that I won a $25 gift certificate for her store. I can't wait to spend it, Dani Mogstad has such wonderful products! Plus the photos of the winners will be used as inspiration for upcoming kits! I am so very curious to see what they come up with!

The "Next Top Digi Scrapper" contest is in it's final round now. Here is my entry for this week:

Until the end of time...
Journaling reads:

Last night Charles surprised me with the most wonderful at-home date ever! He sent me out to pick up some Italian food while he set up the living room with what must have been a few dozen candles. Everything looked so cozy and romantic! After I came home with the food, he led me to the candle-lit living-room, knelt down in front of me and said:

"JennyBear, do you want to spend the rest of your life with me?". I said: "Yes!", and kissed him. But that was not all. He asked me again: "JennyBear, do you want to spend the rest of your life, and beyond with me?". The second question filled me so with gratefulness and love that I could only give him a kiss for my answer. I will never forget this evening!

I love you, Charles Matthew!

Credits:
Miss Mints “To my mother” Kit. Title is Michelle Pearsons “flowerpink” background from the ultimate digiscrapper collab Kit. Stitches are from Shabby Princess' “Splendid” Kit and Miss Mints “Denim Ink” Kit.

Fonts used:
Times New Roman, TopSecret, Young Love ES, FG Astrid, Antique Type, Lucida Sans Unicode, Mael, MA Sexy

This was the challenge:
THEME: Let's Give 'Em Something to Talk About! Yes pictures are important keepsakes, but so are our thoughts, words and feeling! For your final assignment you are going to be journaling a dialogue. Whether it be a conversation you had with your husband or kids, or one you overheard from the next room or in line at the grocery store. The topic and choice of photo is completely up to you. It can be spontaneous (if you are able to remember and write it down!) or planned. Feel free to sit down with a list of questions and interview your kids! The tv show 'Kids Say the Darndest Things' comes to mind. Anything goes. Remember I am looking for direct quotes here, not a summary. NOTE: Conversation may be a 'simulated' or imagined conversation between pets, if you so desire.

The winners will be announced on Monday, July 24 at peppermintcreative.com. They will also announce the five next best winners. I am so curious to see if I made it to the top five! It was certainly challenging at times.

Have fun!

First Peanutbutter and Jelly Sandwich ever!!!

2006-07-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Evan had his first pbj sandwich today. Aldi's weekly sale was about popular American food products, so we picked up a jar of peanut butter to let Evan have a try. We could have probably found it somewhere else also, but never really thought about it. He liked it, A LOT! It was so cute watching my little German-American boy eat one of the most popular snacks in America for the first time in his life. He'll be getting plenty of those after we live in the States again. I tried to find a website I could link to, so that you could see what kind of things are considered "typical American" by the average German, but unfortunately they already show next weeks sale instead of this weeks. While checking on their homepage I found out that Aldi actually started having branches over in the States!!! I couldn't believe that. As far as I can tell they only have them on the east coast though, so far. But still. Charles and I are desperately hoping that they will expand and also come to Washington State, so that we can keep shopping there even after we move away from Germany. We do most our shopping there, and at its competitor Lidl. Their products are awesome, really great quality. I found this article on Wikipedia.com. It explains the basics of aldi, and was very interesting to Charles and me. They talk about some interesting facts, like how you have to put a quarter into the shopping cart to use it, which is typical for Germany anyways. It must be so weird for Americans though. I don't think any other store does that...? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyways. Evan and I had a great day! We played all afternoon together. He had so much fun going through all his toys - train tracks, building blocks, stacking cups, his books, his huge dump truck, ...! Later in the afternoon his grandma came up with some cherries from her backyard. It was the first time Evan got to eat cherries, and he loved them. He interrupted playing and sat down next to the bowl of cherries, eating them so fast I couldn't even keep up with taking the pits out. Such a cute little guy! I just wish he'd sit and play in his little pool, so that the heat wouldn't be so unbearable for him! We're only in July though, so he'll have another two months to change his mind about it. We'll see!

Have a good day!

Just some more pictures!

2006-06-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

I don't actually have much time to write. "Lost" is on soon, and Charles and I enjoy watching it together. But I do have some more pictures that I wanted to share with you. I took them the other day while Evan was playing. I love those days when he has so much fun playing with his toys and us! On the first few pictures you see him reorganizing his play mats. I planned on sweeping the balcony and needed to move them. He thought that was fun and helped me out. As soon as all the playmats were moved, he decided that it would be just as much fun to move them back. Having a toddler in the house really does keep you busy. There's not much you can get done as involved as they get. I wouldn't want in any other way though. Maybe the house isn't quite as clean as I'd like it, but I can be sure that my little boy enjoyed himself and learned a lot by the end of the day. And he really is so very helpful. Sometimes after we're done with dinner, he gets up and goes straight to the cabinet where we keep the dustpan and handbroom, picks it up and brings it over to his highchair to clean up his mess. He helps us clean the litterbox every night (I know, it's yucky - but he loves it and he is not allowed to touch the litter or anything else except the scoop!), empty out the dish-washer or take dirty laundry into the dirty laundry basket. Charles says he must have that from me...! He must have, because he certainly can't have it from him... (o : Anyways, click here for the photos. Evan turned 18 months old today, by the way. From now on he'll be closer to his second birthday than his first. He's growing up so very fast! Makes me wish I could stop time now and then, to enjoy him even more!

To go there...

2006-06-20T03:06:00.000-07:00

... early in the morning was a great idea! The Wildpark in Pforzheim is a place we always enjoy and go to often. But since it has been so hot these last couple of weeks, too hot to really do anything, we decided to go there before Evan's midday nap. We always go outside anyways in the mornings now that it's too hot during the day, so why not pack up some snacks and Evan's Puky Wutsch and make a bigger trip out of it? We were the only people there and had a chance to watch as some of the animals were fed. We saw many more animals on this visit than we had on any visit before. Not only was it because of the quietness, it was also their hunger that lured them out. We had such a good time and definitely want to try and do this more often. You can find all the pictures here. Have a good day!

So here's the album...

2006-06-19T12:21:00.000-07:00

... I put together from our trip to the castle grounds in Durlach yesterday. I didn't think that I would like many of the pictures I took, but I really really do like them now that they are finished! The first few pictures are very similar, but I couldn't make up my mind about which ones I liked best. Just consider it a Father's Day special...! Have fun!

Click here for the album!

This little Puky Wutsch...

2006-06-18T11:55:00.000-07:00

... is the coolest! Basically, the Puky Wutsch is a mix between a trike and a walking bike made especially to fit toddlers' needs. We went and picked one up for Evan yesterday, and were so very excited to give it a try today. The castle grounds in Durlach seemed like the perfect place, especially since it's so hot and there is a lot of shade everywhere. It's also just a very nice place! Evan had a blast! At first he wasn't interested in his Puky, because the playground seemed so much more exciting. But once he had played with everything that caught his interest, he got on his Puky and drove off. He does so good at it! He literally must have spent an hour on that thing, driving all over the place. He has also so much fun whenever one of us follows him around! And amazingly, he manages to tell us exactly what he wants who to do when and where. I'll be posting one picture of today, but definitely want to be adding an album in the next day or two when I had some time to edit more pictures. We love that little guy, and have so much fun with him each and every day! One of his newest words he uses is the German word for rabbit - "Hase"! He says it so very clearly, and loves using it!

Anyways, here's a layout I just made a few days ago. I have tons of christmas pictures to scrap and finally started yesterday.

Credits:

Background, Alphas and Gingerbread Man: DigitalDesignEssentials Jubilee Kit, Overlay: Summer Driggs "Happy Daze", Staples: ShabbyPrincess: 10Things I love about You Mini Album, No.1 square: Shabby Princess "SweetSerenity".

Fonts used in this layout:

YoungLove and typewriter.

Have fun!

We went...

2006-06-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

...to the swimming pool today. We shouldn't have picked a holiday for Evan's first visit at the public pool. It was so packed it wasn't even funny. Luckily Evan had fun anyways, although he did seem a bit crowded in the beginning. The water also was a little bit cold at first, but that didn't stop Evan from going down the slide in the toddlers pool! He's such a dare devil. We also went to the big pool together, but it was so full we barely could move. It didn't matter though, because Evan also enjoyed being at the playgrounds. He loves those bouncy animals lately.. There was also a big area full of gravel which was part of the water playground. I just love the look of delight on his face when he found the gravel. Click here or on the photo below to view todays album!

And here is one more fun picture of Evan that was taken yesterday in the backyard. I had given Evan one of his little water bottles. It was the first one of this kind, and he had a blast with it! He drank almost three quarters of the water at once. Have fun everyone!

Just checking in...

2006-06-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

...to share this super cute picture with you! It was taken today at Evan's bi-monthly toddler meeting, and I think it's just the cutest! In case you were wondering what they are doing, they are watching the turtle that lives behind the fence you can see on the picture. And for those who aren't quite sure which one Evan is, he is the one with the baseball cap. Have fun!

Yesterday was Charles' birthday!

2006-06-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

He turned 25 years old! Too old for his taste! We didn't do anything big. For some reason I just couldn't get anything planned. Every time I tried everything was like a big jumble in my head. Plus he had already found his present in the mail two weeks ago, so there were no more presents either. Except Tortellini Salad. I made a big bowl of it just for him, and by the end of the night he had eaten it all! That's normal though. He seems to turn into this wild animal every time he eats something he really likes. In the morning Evan and I lit some candles, put them on a cake and woke him with it. Of course Evan helped him blow out the candles, being one of his favorite past times and all. I managed to get a cute picture of the two of them, but it's a little blurry. Later in the morning I took Evan for a walk in the fields nearby to give Charles some time off. Unfortunately the grass had just been cut and so it was nearly impossible for Evan to walk at all. We'll probably try and come back some other time. I did get some cute shots of him though! Click here for the pics! We spent the afternoon together in our backyard, playing in the now filled sandbox, and going on a walk to the video rental place downtown. Charles picked a movie for later in the night - Ong-bak. It's all about Moy Thai. It was actually pretty good! I was surprised that I liked it since I am not too superexcited about martial arts movies. It was a good day! Happy Birthday, Charles! I Love You!

In summer...

2006-06-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

...there are endless possibilities of what you can do. I love how you can spend all day outside and still not get bored of it! Yesterday was one of the first real hot summer days, so we took Evan downstairs to our newly planted backyard! We put up his pool and brought a bunch of other toys along. He loves pushing around his big trucks, so they had to be down there with us. Not only was it the first swim of the season, Evan also had his first ice popsicle yesterday. The first one that counts anyways. We tried to give him ice cream cones before, but the idea of licking it and not biting it seemed just a bit too abstract for him. I totally understand! But yesterday he got the idea, probably because it had a non-ice-cream topping. I took a bunch of pictures of the little guy hard at work and decided to try using a photo album in order to show you some of them. They are a bit different than what I usual do. They are bold and bright, but I love them! The focus is not on Evan solely. I like it better that way. By seeing the surroundings as well you kind of get a feel of what was going on. We all had such a blast out there yesterday! Today we actually went and got sand for the sandbox. It came out great. I'll make sure to post some pictures of it next time as well. He loves having the sand available, especially to put it into containers and take it around the backyard. His favorite place to dump it into so far is the pool! I guess that's one way to simulate a nice beach vacation...! Anyways, the photo album is here. Have fun!

Finally got it done...

2006-06-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Today my friend and I drove up to Frankfurt to get the doctors appointment needed for the immigrant visa out of the way. We found the place okay! A parking space however was nowhere to be seen. I had expected as much since I had been there once before. After driving around the block for what seemed like hours, we were lucky enough to find a parking space right in front of the building. The appointment itself also went okay. The only thing I still need is a second set of MMR shots, then I'll be good on the doctors side of things. It was funny, because I had the same doctor as three years ago. The way back went fine too. We stopped by IKEA which is right along the way. I mean seriously, could anyone resist that!?! And I am not asking the male readers here...! Overall it was a fun trip. However it was my first time being away from Evan for so long, so that was tough. I knew he'd be fine with Charles, and most likely having lots of fun playing hard like always, but still. It was tough leaving in the morning. At least it is out of the way now.
Next is filling out even more paperwork, getting it signed, and then making a call to the consulat for my appointment. Hopefully everything will go good there. It's so hard to know exactly what they want half the time.
On another note, I just found out that a photographer I really like actually has a blog. You should take a peek, she is incredible. I am hoping to be able to afford getting our photographs taken by her one of those years...! Click here to see some of Tara Whitneys amazing work! I am so jealous...!

Well, have a good day everyone!

Wildpark

2006-05-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

On Sunday afternoon we went to the Wildpark in Pforzheim. We met up with Evan's grandparents Ilona and Thomas, and his cousins Milo and Silas and their parents. Milo is 2.5years old now. Evan had a good time, like always. Milo always gets so very excited about Evan. He calls him "Ebae..", or something that sounds like that. After he had lost sight of him on the playground once, he started yelling for him at the top of his lungs! It was so funny seeing him stand there in the middle of the playground, turning in circles trying to spot Evan, all the while yelling: "Ebae..", "Eeebaaeee..."! The two of them always play together so nicely. For example, Milo will wait all patiently for Evan to fill up the bucket with sand. Since Evan is one year younger than Milo, he needs much longer to accomplish such a thing. Milo also always tries to hug Evan, but Evan doesn't really know what to do with this yet.

The goats at the petting zone scared Evan at first, but after Charles showed him how to pet them, he tried to pet every single goat there. He was not at all interested in feeding them though. He kind of wanted to, but pulled his hand back way before they would even come close.

On the way back to the car he started being all silly, they way he sometimes is when he is enjoying himself a lot. He will run wildly all over the place, making the funiest of sounds, doing the silliest of things. It was during that phase that his grandparents picked him up and let him swing through the air (we call the game "Flieg, Engele, flieg" in German). He so loved it! He would giggle and giggle and insist on being flown some more! It was a fun trip! We love going out with him and letting him walk around all independantly! I think what makes this such a wonderful age is how much of a little boy you can already see in him, mixed with all the innocence of the babyhood still lingering...! It was a great day. We love the outdoors! Giving Evan the chance to play and grow up with his cousins is something I will definitely be missing when we live in America. As much fun as being able to live in two different countries is, it is also difficult. We are drawn to both countries, like them both a lot. Moving away from one place means to be leaving so much behind every time, plus it simply costs a lot! But we wouldn't be doing it if we didn't want to. After all, we do want Evan to grow up with both cultures. We just have to make sure that he'll feel at home at at least one of the two by the time he's all grown up. We love the change, and are welcoming it!

And here is one more layout I made the other day.
Silly Boy
Journaling reads:

You have always loved the cat beds. Even before you could walk you would find one and drag it around the house. You are such a silly boy!

Credits: Shabby Princess' Silly Boy: NutNut kit. Fonts used in this layout: Matisse ITC, La Bamba LET, FG Astrid. Frames are by my dh!

Black border is only for display purposes.

Have fun everyone!

Excerpt from Evan's diary: Thursday, May 25, 2006 - Kindorado

2006-05-25T20:53:00.000-07:00

This afternoon we decided to try something new. Somebody we work with told us a while ago that there is an indoor playground in Karlsruhe. I wanted to look up more information online, and did so the other day. I found this webpage. The weather wasn't the best, so it seemed like the perfect day to give this a try. On a picture I had seen online it looked like they had an area specifically for toddlers. But the whole place was really toddler safe, as long as an adult was around to guide you through (which was necesarry anyways, even at the toddler area). Everything there was padded, litterally everything. That was something your dad liked a lot. The noise was insane though, after all it is indoors. Just imagine many children running and playing in a big hall. After your first shock you started being interested. We started off in the toddler area, where you, after some hesitation, started to climb around a bit. Then we went over to check out some of the cool children vehicles they offer, and found a double trike without pedals. You enjoyed sitting on it and driving around, and did really well with it. Then we went up onto the big play building. We had to climb through a dark crawling hole in order to get to the high bridge. You didn't have a problem with this, and also had a good time going over the bridge. In the middle of the big play building is a big pool of balls. We went back down before you had a chance to try it out though. There were a lot of big kids anyways, and they play wild. It'll be more fun for you to give this a try next time when it is not quite so busy.

Next we went over to the big area of trampolines. We thought you might like being there, and you did. But so did I. I didn't expect it, but it was so much fun jumping up and down, it made me giggle. It was just so cool how easy you were able to get up so high. You were such a daring little boy. You walked onto the middle of a trampolin all by yourself and even started bouncing up and down. Just imagine, such a little guy with such short legs trying to jump up and down! Your dad and I laughed so much, and encouraged you a whole bunch. You had a blast!

After this we decided to stop by the toddler playground again and then slowly make our way out. After climbing through the tunnels one more time, you sighted a big tower that a boy had build with big LEGOs and headed straight for it. We let you, because we try and let you work out things by yourself. We read that at parenting sites and it seemed reasonable to us. And surprisingly, so far, it has always worked. You do wonderful working things out by yourself. Sometimes you give in, sometimes you stand your ground. We never had to interfere yet because things might have gotten out of hand. We are very proud of you for how well you are handling yourself. You seem like such a considerate little man. Anyways. You were heading for the tower set on knocking it down, when the little boy of maybe ten years got in your way to protect it. You looked at him, then tried to walk around it. The boy was very determined not to let you push over his tower and got in your way again. It was such a fun sight. We sat on the ground, maybe ten or fifteen feet away, and watched you. You kept trying to get around the boy, going in circles around the tower. The boy was doing the same, except he was trying to not let you get past. You didn't really understand that the boy was just trying to protect his accomplishment. You guys continued your efforts for about two or three rounds. We had such fun watching you, it looked so goofy. You, with your determined look on your face, and the boy, with a panicky look on his. Also, consider the age difference. Oh my gosh, just thinking of it makes me laugh! After about two rounds you got frustrated because all your efforts failed, and kind of started crying. You didn't really cry, more like as if you were gonna start, but then after a cry or two, changed your mind. In the second when you cried though the boy started looking at you even more panicky, and worried. He got closer to check if you were okay, but only as long as he needed to realize that you had stopped crying and that you were okay. Then he backed up towards his tower again, making sure you wouldn't change your mind. Oh gosh, you guys were so funny. I guess the boy got worried that he might get in trouble for making a little "baby" cry. We called you over to remind you that we were still there, ready to hug you if you wanted to be hugged. You saw us and came straight over for some hugs. Then you pointed at the tower, telling us everything that happened, you know, the way you do when you get hurt. In a way you really did get hurt, just not physically. You were disappointed and frustrated. We told you that the boy was proud of his tower and that he didn't want to you to knock it over, but that we'd be building one for you just for the purpose of being knocked down. Then we tried to get you to help us pick up LEGOs for the tower. Off course you knocked it over as soon as you could. Shortly after we made our way home, it was getting late. What a fun afternoon. We can't wait to go back there. This place is perfect if you want to give your kid the chance to run and move. Love you lots, Evan! Have a good night!

About hedgehogs and fish...

2006-05-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

Lately Evan gets so excited about two things: hedgehogs and fish! My mom had found a hedgehog last fall. Because it was too small to survive she decided to care for it throughout the winter until it could survive outside come spring. The other day when she got ready to give it back its freedom, Evan and I were playing outside. She held it in her hands, so Evan got a perfect view of the cute little animal. He was so astonished! The hedgehog was wide awake sniffing and looking here and there, all the while making these funny, what I like to call "grummeling sounds". Even after my mom had taken the hedgehog back inside, Evan kept immitating the hedgehogs sounds, which wikipedia describes as a series of grunts and sniffles. He hasn't stopped since. You know the book we just got for him the other day, "Unterwegs auf dem Bauernhof"? It has a hedgehog in it, hiding under a green bush on a farm. As soon as we start looking at the book, he skips ahead to the page with the hedgehog. He cracks me up! I just love it when that little guys starts making the hedgehog sounds. He has only seen one once but it seems to have left a big impression on him. Oh yeah, every time he sees his grandma he will start "grummeling" and pointing her way - his way of telling us that grandma showed him a hedgehog! Those little people are just the cutest! It's great how they make you see the world and all its little wonders all over again through their eyes!

Now why he is excited about fish I am not entirely sure of. He always seemed to get most excited about the aquariums when we went to the pet store with him and he never failed to point out pictures of fish in magazines. Since we don't have an aquarium and won't go and buy one anytime soon due to the fact that we are moving back over to the States, we decided to download an aquarium screensaver instead. We guessed right, he loved it. The funny thing is that he will sit still forever to look at the fake fish on the screen. He is a very busy boy who barely ever sits still for more than two minutes (except for story time). But not so with the fish. He will even walk over to us, grab our hand and take us over to the computer where he indicates for us to show him the fish. We decided to definitely be getting an aquarium sometime after the move. It has such a calming effect on our little busy bee. I have always felt the same way about aquariums. They do have a calming thing about them. Plus it'll teach him to care for animals. That's always a good thing.

Yesteday we mowed the lawn we had planted three weeks ago. It had grown so much that it definitely needed some trimming. It still has some bald spots from being overwatered right after we planted the seed, but nothing that can't be fixed. It'll be good to have a nice lawn available for Evan for the summer. He also got a big sandbox from his grandparents that we have down there for him. And once the weather gets warm enough, he'll have his own little swimming pool too. Looks like we're ready for the summer!

And to finish up for today, here is a picture I took of Evan. He was on his way to the crib for naptime when I took it. I just love the catchlight in his eyes, and really everything else about it! Have a good day everyone!

That's it for me!

2006-05-22T04:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I didn't make it to the next round at the Ultimate Digiscrapper Contest! I had a feeling about it, like I knew I wouldn't. Too bad, it was really a lot of fun! I wonder if they make this an annual thing, that'd be so cool! I am happy I made it to the last one hundred though. I am curious to see who will be the Ultimate Digiscrapper! Two more weeks to go!

Here are some layouts I made a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to post for everybody to see! Just gotta love white space! Evan is such a cutie! I don't know how I will ever manage to scrapbook all of these precious pics of my little guy. I'll probably still be busy twenty years from now. Anyways, here they are:

{i want}
Journaling reads:

Evan, you are such a cutie! We spent the afternoon downstairs building a fence to protect the new lawn from being dug up by Lady. When it was time for the afternoon snack I took out a fruit bar and called you over. The moment you saw it in my hands I had your full attention! I couldn't resist but take those pictures while you, poor hungry little guy, had to wait for me to finish up. You had been signing "i want" or "more" for a few months now but neither your dad nor I ever get bored of seeing you do it. You have the sweetest, cutest look on your little face when you want us to give you something or open something up for you. You are simply irresistable!

Fonts used in this layout: sloneczko (bees), TopSecret, undertypewriter, Times New Roman; dirt splotches are undertypewriter

sixteen months
Journaling reads:

You love to have us sing the song "Morgens hüpft der Riese..." and know all the appropriate moves to it. You can climb into your highchair by yourself, but you end up sitting backwards. You like playing with your baby doll. You can almost run (jog). You are starting to talk more - "mm" for moon and a cows moo-ing, "heiß" and "bye daddy" are the newest additions to your ever increasing vocabulary. You give the best hugs and kisses! You love playing in the car, especially with the blinkers. You can stack four blocks and you manage to connect the train tracks from your wooden train set all by yourself. Your favorite book is "Am Flughafen". When you hurt yourself, you tell us a big story about what happened using gestures and your best attempt at talking! You sleep for a solid three hours on your only nap during the day! You like push-toys (stroller, big dump trucks, hippo). You can steer the bobby car.

Fonts used in this layout: Verdana, Tempus Sans ITC. Date stamp by me (font used for date stamp: TopSecret)

Have fun!

No internet!

2006-05-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

Our dsl router broke, so we have been without the internet for the last four days or so. We are working on fixing it, but it could take up to two weeks!! I can't believe how much the computer, including surfing the www, has taken over my life. I guess that's the way it is though if your hobby is digital photography AND digital scrapbooking. What a luck my dear husband also is a computer geek...! Now just to make sure we won't teach Evan the wrong values! Luckily we both love the outdoors too, and usually don't have a hard time deciding between going out to play with our little boy or staying at home so that the computers are available for either of us. Making memories just beats organizing memories that have already been made, even if it is in a fun way like it is with digital scrapbooking.

Anyways, I made it through round two at the Ultimate Digiscrapper Contest and have just posted my layout for the third challenge. The challenge was to use at least three pictures and have 40% of the layout be journaling. I thought it would be an easy one to do since I use many pictures most of the time. But it wasn't! This challenge proofed to be the toughest one yet. In the end I am very happy with the way the layout came out. If you're interested in seeing it, go here. I haven't even had a chance to check out any of the other layouts entering the contest. I am dying of curiosity! I will go and have a look as soon as this is posted.

As to how our little boy is doing? He woke crying the other night, and had some fever in the morning. It turned out to be a virus that also made him have a sniffy nose and a little cough. It seems he is already back to normal though. We were so amazed at how well he did at the doctors' office. He loves the waiting room and would be there for hours if we let him. He does not like being examined however, but who would if the guy examining him is poking him with needles half the time, right!?! He used to start crying the moment the doctor got ready to look at him, but not this time. You could see that he wanted to, and that it was so very hard for him not to, but he did NOT cry in the end. We're not sure what brought it on but we are most certainly very proud of him! Such a brave little man! We love that guy to pieces!

Have a great day!

Trip to Pforzheim

2006-05-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

Today we decided to finally go and buy some more picture books for Evan. He is such a book lover and looks through them all the time. He loves all books with tractors in them, and ever since the weather has gotten more sunny and there are lots of helicopters in the sky, he has also taken a liking towards everything flying. I had two books in mind that I wanted to get for him. One is called "Unterwegs auf dem Bauernhof" and it is about a momma cat trying to find three of her kittens on a farm. Needless to say Evan also loves also everything with cats, so this is like the perfect book for him. Plus it has flaps he can open and look behind, also one of his newest interests. The second book is called "Schau, mein Hubschrauber". It is just a little book but it has a helicopter on every page. He had so much fun in the city. He was so busy looking at everything around him. He is never actually interested in the books while we're at the store. Instead he loves walking around all over the place exploring everything there is to be explored.

After we had gotten the books we stopped by at a park that is on top of the new mall they built in the pedestrian area. It is really nice up there and we had wanted to take Evan there for a while now. He enjoyed it up on the rooftop and had a great time figuring out what the big silver things were for (we're not quite sure ourselves, but it looks like some kind of toy you might find on playground). I took this picture up there and while it is totally overexposted, I like it just the way it is. To bring the day to a nice end we stopped by a toy store on the way to the car. We had so much fun. Charles and I just love looking at all the fun toys that Evan might be interested in and showing him some of them. I don't think I need to say much about the little boy. A little boy in a big toy store speaks for itself, I think. Right before we left we found this really cool trike that he also liked a lot. He sat on it and we pushed him around the store. He was happy just sitting there steering the trike around the aisles. He amazed us again when it was time to put it back up. We expected a big battle, but he was so understanding about it. He is in his prime time for temper tantrums, and we sure have our share of them (like when it comes to hand washing) but at least just as often he just up and decides to be so good about it. Those little people are just the most amazing of all!

Before we went back home we stopped by at a bakery and got Evan something yummy to eat. It's not like we could get by the bakeries without him noticing anyways. He must have a sensor build in. Seriously. It was snacktime anyways though and he was so needing this after seeing all those exciting toys.

I am so excited about tomorrow night. They'll be announcing who made it to round three in the Ultimate Digiscrapper Contest and what the new challenge will be. I am so hoping that I will make it! It's so much fun to be challenged like this. And the prizes are amazing too. I wouldn't mind doing some digi shopping...! Not that I believe I would ever make it to the end. However, with so many prizes, I wonder what place you have to come in to win something? Anyways, I'm in for the challenge. I'll know more by tomorrow.

Have fun!

The Everyday Wonderful

2006-05-13T03:24:00.000-07:00

Having Evan around is just the most wonderful thing that could have ever happened to us. He comes up with the cutest things when you think of it the least, always making us smile. Just the other day he crawled up on the couch (which he LOVES to do) with a book of ours that he had picked up off the shelf right before. Ever since he can get onto the couch, he does so constantly. The funny thing is that he totally tries to imitate us. As soon as he has his little heinie up there, he plops back into a comfortable position. Once he sits the way he feels is appropriate, he usually starts kicking his legs all leisurely. What a funny little boy! Now the other day when he took the book up onto the couch he found a cat bed there as well and decided to sit in it. He has always loved the kitty beds. He dragged them around the house even before he could even walk. If he finds a kitty bed that has a kitty sleeping in it, he will usually sneak in a cuddle or two and then tell the cat to leave her bed so that he can take it somewhere else. If they don't move he'll simply pull it out from under them, if we are not fast enough to stop him.

Also, whenever he gets tired he will walk to his crib and pick up his pacifier(s), usually as many as he can find and carry, and his little Winnie-the-Pooh blanket and keep it with him until he is peacefully sleeping in his crib. We really appreciate that he makes it so easy on us to know when he is ready for his nap. There's also increased crankyness and lots of yawning involved, but the clearst of all his tired signs is the "I want my lovey" sign! He's just so full of cuteness!

Oh my, I am not sure what I am doing!

2006-05-11T03:06:00.000-07:00

This is the first time ever that I am trying to have a blog and I am not sure what I am doing. I've visited some blogs here and there and liked what I saw. It seems to be easier to update than our webpage, so I wanted to give it a try.

I am part of the Ultimate Digiscrapper Contest. It's a five week contest, with one challenge a week. Right now we're at round two and I am still in! This weeks challenge is to scrapbook about yourself. I am happy what I have come up with and am very curious to see if I'll make it to round three. It really is a lot of fun, so hopefully I won't be eliminated quite yet. Fifty percent will go on to the next round and there is unbelievable talent present. It'll be a tough one. If you want to take a look at what my layout looks like, check it out here.

Evan is the cutest. Yesterday his little truck broke, so he brought it to Charles for him to fix up. Whenever Charles does something that seems interesting to Evan, he crawls right into his lap and watches him. He did so yesterday as well. After seeing what Charles did with the screwdriver, he wanted to get involved too. I just love watching the two of them together.