Ready for Baby!

Baby girl is due on Tuesday! Owen was 6 days early, meaning she is officially "later" than Owen. On her own terms and timeline...a true girl! Or perhaps, as we like to tease, she hears all the busyness of her brother and thinks "I think I'll stay in here awhile longer"! We are excited for her to come when she is ready...and regardless, she'll be "evicted" (I'll be induced) on May 24th. So we know we'll be holding our sweet new daughter in our arms in 11 days or less. Amazing!

We are ready for her arrival, or as ready as it's possible to be I suppose. Her room is decorated, clothes, burp cloths & blankets are washed folded in her chest of drawers, diapers & all other necessities are purchased & prepared. Owen is still not quite ready to let go of the crib (which we are totally OK with!) so baby girl will be in a bassinet for the first while...and we hope to transition Owen to a big-boy bed this summer, freeing up the crib for the new baby.

Next blog post will likely be announcing her arrival! Thank you in advance for everyone's prayers & support during the upcoming labor/delivery and transition to a family of 4!

Our little girl's room - shades of pink & green, with accents of blue, yellow, purple, etc.

And not to be outdone, we took this opportunity to re-decorate Owen's room, removing the "nursery" decor and replacing with a safari animal theme!

Linnea at 39 weeks

April Events

What a wonderful and eventful month! Beyond the regular day-to-day highlights, April brought two highly anticipated family celebrations....end of tax busy season (yay for having Brian around more!) and Owen's 2nd birthday!


Classic Owen - never has been a great eater, but we can convince him to stay in his high chair a little bit longer if he has some of his beloved cars/trains/trucks with him.

This boy loves anything that "go's"! Running an errand to Home Depot becomes a very exciting activity when Owen gets to pretend to drive a tractor.


Getting ready to make pancakes with mom. Such a helper!

Owen's morning routine...cozy on our recliner with a collection of stuffed animals, watching Sesame Street. Essentially this is his only TV time of the day, and he loves every minute...especially when it's time for the beloved Elmo's World segment (next to cars/trucks, Elmo is a favorite!). Here he's saying "cheese" for the sake of the photo, but doesn't risk taking his eyes off the TV. Silly boy!


A special and spontaneous visit from Cousin Landon (and Auntie Angie) for Owen's birthday celebration.

(click photo to enlarge)

In celebration of the conclusion of tax busy season, we headed to the Oregon Coast for 3 nights...just the 3 of us! We enjoyed special quality time as a family, treasuring these special days with Owen as our only child before we welcome little sister into the family. Thanks to the beautiful weather, we were able to spend lots of time on the beach and also spent a morning at the Aquarium in Newport.


Happy 2nd Birthday, Owen!

(click photo to enlarge)

We can hardly believe that our sweet little boy is now two years old! Owen loves all things transportation, and therefore the theme of the party was "two two" Train (rather than "choo choo" train, in case that play on words wasn't obvious). We were blessed to have a houseful of family to help celebrate Owen's big day. We love you, our sweet Owen! And we are so excited to watch you grow and learn during this coming year.

Belly Shot

By popular demand - here is a belly shot of growing Linnea! At about 35 weeks (a little over 5 weeks to go...or if she's like Owen and comes early, 4 weeks!) I'm measuring exactly the same as what I measured with Owen. In store for the weeks leading to her arrival: special quality time as a family of 3, celebrate Owen's 2nd birthday (April 30th) plus Easter & Mothers Day, finish setting up the nursery, take a hospital tour (since we'll be delivering at a different hospital than where we were with Owen), and decide on a name!

Garbage Man

Owen and I had a quiet morning with nothing on the agenda, and following his lead of what he thought would be fun, I had a wonderful opportunity to learn a sweet lesson from a toddler: slow down and enjoy the simple things. OK, so not a new or profound lesson, but one I find myself consistently working-on.

Recently I came across a quote that encapsulates this well: "Dear God, please give me your perspective that I might recognize the important and leave behind the insignificant".

The important can come in many packages, but as the mom of a young toddler I constantly find myself treasuring the simplicity of life through his eyes. I watch him in utter love and amazement as he discovers the world. I try to capture these moments in my mind - his little voice, his expressions, his curiosity, energy and enthusiasm. I know these days and ages are quickly fleeting (and onto new equally wonderful phases, no doubt), and with this awareness - I've now put that quote on a sticky-note on my computer to remind myself that "to do" items can often wait. Quality time with Owen is precious and not to be missed!

So - back to our morning today. Tuesday is garbage day, and Owen loves to watch out the window as the garbage man makes his way down the street. Thanks to a sunny start to the day (although cold - at 39 degrees!) I thought we should really go-for-it today. We bundled-up and headed outside to see the garbage man up close and personal. Owen loved it, and proceeded to follow the garbage man from house to house for several blocks. It was precious, and I found myself smiling as I observed him watching the garbage man and truck in amazement. I paused to appreciate those garbage men (and women) who are so critical to our community and often underappreciated no doubt!

Thank you, garbage man, for your hard work and for a reason to get outside early this morning and take a long slow walk with my toddler.

March Moments

With Brian working weekends during tax busy-season, Owen and I took the opportunity to head to Puyallup to visit Blake, Angie & Landon. While there we had a chance to visit with Angie's parents, who also had baby Ethan with them for the day. Ethan is the son of Angie's sister Amy and husband Kyle. So much fun to see these 3 boys together, knowing they will grow up as buddies. Oh the adventures they will have!

Left: Ethan (4 mo) Center: Owen (22 mo) Right: Landon (7 mo)

I celebrated my 32nd birthday this month. Thanks to Brian's family for the sweet party, and to all who sent your warm well wishes!

Owen watching Sesame Street the next morning...with my birthday balloons!

And last but certainly not least, we had the opportunity to see our baby girl in a 3D ultrasound!

In all honesty, I've been wary of these in the past as I realize the baby can look somewhat alien-like. But when presented with the opportunity we couldn't resist :) Now bear-in-mind that her sweet little face is being looked at through ultrasound and through fluid (hence why things look a little warped)...and you can really only see one side of her face (our right, her left). The blur on the left we believe is her arm moving up an over her head (which I can attest to from the jabs I've been receiving!). But wow - it's so incredible! Look at that little nose, those cheeks, those lips...we love her so much already!

A few other fun tidbits from during the ultrasound: we were able to see her little mouth open and close, and also change from a serious expression to a smile and back again several times. We saw her eyes open and close, and watched her move her hands/arms over her face and head. Everything seems on-track for her due date of May 17th (less than 7 weeks away!) and the ultrasound tech was able to see indication of hair on her head - or a "mop of hair" as she put it! Gosh...with hair already apparent she might have enough for a little hair-clip by the time she's born! So fun to imagine these details as we anticipate holding her in our arms very soon.

Thank you to everyone who continues to pray over her growth & development. We are so excited to see what God has planned for her life and know she will be (and already is!) a tremendous blessing to our family and lives.

And now baby girl if you could just tell us.....what is your name?! :)

We love you sweet girl and can't wait to meet you very soon!

Jump Jump!

Owen and I joined my friend Tricia and daughter Madelyn for a play-date at Pump-it-Up, at facility with inflatable bouncey activities! They had 2 jump houses, a slide, and an obstacle course. We had an absolute blast - both kids were great jumpers, and we sure got our workout also! The only drawback? Owen, usually a great napper, spent his nap time saying "one, two three - go!" and jumping in his crib! I was cracking-up as I watched him in the video-monitor, amazed that he hadn't crashed yet from exhaustion! Needless to say he slept well that night. :)

Sweet Madelyn - can she be any cuter?!

Oregon Coast

With Brian's family, instead of exchanging Christmas gifts as adults (of course we couldn't resist gifts for the little-one's!) we opted to pitch-in toward a beach house for a weekend at the Oregon Coast. What better "gift" to each other than quality time!

We enjoyed a beautiful weekend at the Coast - wonderful family time, and hopefully the beginning of a new tradition!

The house, overlooking the coast in Lincoln City

The whole clan!

(minus Uncle Rick, who stayed back at the beach house to "hold down the fort", and Jamey, Jenny's husband, who unfortunately had to head back early for work. Darn!)

Yay! We're often trying for a good family photo, and it's tough to get 3 of us (even harder once we're "4" no doubt!) to look the same direction and smile with eyes open! I'm delighted with this photo. : ) A fun memory of our special time together, pre-baby #2.

(LC = Lincoln City)

Hooray for a wonderful weekend!