New house has broken ground!

It's finally official! Ourhouse has broken ground. The anticipated move-in date...which we're told is very accurate and we'll believe when we see it...is November 26th, right after Thanksgiving. Here are a few shots, one with our sign and new address, another with the forms for the foundation, and the other with our soon to be neighbor lamp post...

News on the old house front, it's now listed with my dad on the rmls. The number is 7061901 if any of you want to do a search and look it up! No offers yet, just put it on Monday and have had a handful of folks through. We're having an open house on Sunday so we'll see if we get any more interest after that.

Our girl is 3!

Happy Birthday, Evelyne!!! Our girl is now 3.."she's huge" as she describes it. She's loving crafts and especially loves to paint. I can't believe she's already 3 years old! She's a good big sister and has a very independent streak. She loves to dance and doesn't mind doing it in front of a crowd! A favorite hang out of hers is the Kennedy School where she regularly takes off her shoes and boogies the night away with the best of them!

Gilbert is moving!

Gilbert officially started crawling a couple of days ago. He is now 7 1/2 months old. I think his big motivation is keeping up with his sister and trying to get her toys! He is starting to babble a lot and "talks" over us sometimes it's funny. His upper tooth finally broke through about when he started crawling also, this kid does everything in pairs. Looks like it's time for me to move his mattress down in his crib as he's starting to pull himself up. Right now it's only to his knees but I have a feeling feet will soon follow.

baby sugar

Love the way kids morph names into other things. I've been giving Gilbert baths with baking soda for a myriad of reasons and since he and evelyne usually bathe together now they both get to use it. So the other night I forgot to put it in and big sister kindly reminded me..."mama where's the baby sugar?"

House for Sale!!

We did it! Finally our house is on the market. We're trying a for sale by owner first to see what happens. We've already had two groups come through to look at it and one that might call us with an offer this week. Wow. Here are some photos. Now if we can only keep it looking this nice. If you know of anyone looking....let us know!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day morning was spent at the Gibbs Cemetery in Sherwood. The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars honored Nathan's grandfather, "Tony" Knight. Virtually all the Knights turned out to pay their respects and visit family members who are also buried there. You can see from the group photo how extensive Nathan's family is, most are pictured but there are still others that weren't in the photo. Now you might get a grasp on just how LARGE our holiday gatherings are!!

It was a bit of a cold day but a very nice ceremony. The group shot below is Bruce (Nathan's dad) and all but one of his siblings. We all went out to breakfast afterwards; the kids had a great time running around and visiting with each other.

Nine Two Cans

Had to include this in the blog site. Evelyne has this simple little counting book where it has pictures of animals and a number attached to it. So, it shows the number 1 and has one lion head, shows the number 2 and has two snakes etc. She is really into numbers these days and loves to try to figure out what number is what (must get the number thing from her dad). Anyway, we can never get past number nine however. The photo shows toucans. Now, obviously whoever wrote the book wasn't thinking this all the way through. So we see nine and she's always confused by the "two cans." Yesterday, after getting to page 9 she said "nine five cans" and trying to explain it for the thousanth time I just laughed and she laughed and we read that page over and over again and just laughed, someday she'll get it.

Parties, parties

Summer is officially beginning, at least the summer schedule of outdoor parties and activities...love it and can't wait for more!




Dinner for my dad's birthday in Sherwood. We took a walk up the hill to get a great view of the surrounding area on such a nice evening.





Luke Hovde's Birthday, daddies were in charge of entertainment....looks like Doug was being properly hydrated for the task.














For nathan's birthday this year we had a tiki party barbeque outside and....yes it rained! These photos were taken before the deluge.





Happy Birthday Nathan!

Crazy Lives

So, for the past few days our house has become virtually unlivable. We're having the inside painted, most of the big rooms, living room, kitchen etc., and had to move out for a while so it can just get done! I have to say it's been tough without a kitchen with a baby and toddler, but we are managing and seems a bit like camping in the basement. Our laundry room is now a pseudo-cucina. Things are looking great and finally coming together. Our house should be ready to sell in a couple of weeks...so exciting.
We had a family "vacation" in newberg last week. We stayed with Bruce and Joni while work was being done on our house. Nathan and I even got to go out on a date! Evelyne had tons of fun playing with her cousins and we enjoyed seeing Nathan's new workplace and meeing some people. It was also nice being able to see him during the light of day!
Depending on how things go this week, we may be back on "vacation" in Newberg again.

A few more good photos...

Grandpa Bruce, Evelyne, and baby Camryn















Sweet Gilbert



















Evelyne and her new fan light toy

Easter Crafts

Had to include some photos of the easter egg coloring craft. We are deep into crafts these days. This year the eggs were decorated with princess stickers....sorry Gilbert, you can pick something next year.

Adventures of a Sushi girl

Sushi has become a new favorite for us...especially since i'm on a diet. Here's evelyne using her own chopsticks, of which she's very proud, and eating sushi with mom & dad.

Easter Eggs

My two little eggs...well at one time they were...
We had a great Easter starting with church in the morning, brunch with Grandpa Bruce and Nana Joni and family and dinner with Grandpa Larry and Grandma Gigi and family.
Easter has become a favorite holiday for Evelyne, not only does she get to get little gifts, color easter eggs, and visit with both sets of grandparents and cousins....she gets to dress up and wear something in her favorite color....blue. This year we had to find a blue dress and blue shoes to match. Luckily it wasn't too difficult. Gilbert is growing so quickly and almost sitting up by himself. He sports two bottom teeth and smiles a lot, especially at his big sister.

They do look alike!

Evelyne at 5 months




I pulled a photo from when Evelyne was 5 months old and you can see how much she and Gilbert look alike! Evelyne is the black & white photo and Gilbert is in color.

I can do it myself!

Independence; we both love it and at times struggle with it. Toddler independence is definitely a struggle, however, we've learned sometimes you just let it go...dressing and selecting clothing is something i've decided to just let go. As long as we're home, I don't care what she wears as long as it's appropriate for the weather. If we go out, I'm trying to keep the same mindset and let her just wear things she selects as long as it is not inside out and backwards. We've been strangely styled these days with one green and one blue sock here, dress over jeans and tennis shoes there, every once in a while a perfectly matched outfit comes through but usually inside out or backwards...here's a photo of one such outfit...oh and shoes on the wrong feet.

St. Patrick's Day

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with the Hovde's and Peppmeiers and all the kids at McMennamin's Kennedy School in NE Portland and what a great spot for a celebration! The kids got to run around the long hallways, and parents were able to chug a few drinks in between chasing and keeping the peace. Here they are on the bench (Evelyne, Jack P., Will P., and Luke H.) I'm holding Gilbert who's almost 5 months now. It was great fun for us all and is always bittersweet as we know we're losing our dear friends, the Peppmeiers, very soon to Montana! Here are some photos of all the kids and our little dancing queen, Evelyne, a blue blur, who after everyone left wanted to party on with the band....
Ironically, Sunday morning we awoke to Evelyne's face being incredibly swelled up. One eye was almost swollen shut and she had blisters on her nose and nostrils, and forehead. She was miserable and very scarry looking. We took her to urgent care and apparently she has a bad staff (sp.?) infection in the tissue on her face. The urgent care Dr. said we were almost to the point of hospitilization but wanted us to go ahead and try treatments at home first. So scarry. She is doing much better now and is on two mega doses of antibiotics and antibiotic creams. It was so strange because the night before she was fine, nothing out of the ordinary and we woke up to such a rapid change. It's common in kids who have eczema which she does so parents watch out!

Gilbert Happenings

So, despite all else that happenend during last week, Gilbert got two new teeth, had a bad bout of eczema on his head, and seemed to grow right out of all of his pants in the length. Here are some recent photos from playing with his favorite bunny toy, his favorite sister, and his first painting venture in the baby bjorn...as you can see evelyne helped out, too.

A new house

After a time of searching and trying to figure out where we want to live, we decided to have a new home built at Villebois in Wilsonville. Thanks to both of our parents for helping us narrow the search and sending us numerous home options. Our home won't be completed until September, so that gives us some extra time to get ours in shape and on the market. We spent the whole of Nathan's vacation last week house searching and redoing our bedroom; took out the old carpet shined up the wood floors, painted trim and walls, and got new bedding, rugs, and window coverings. Why is it that your bedroom is always nearly the last thing to get done? Anyway, it looks great. Next we tackle the kitchen and clean up the yard and we're about ready to sell. We're excited for the move coming soon and excited to have a home in the villebois community. There aren't any floorplans posted online, but if you're interested the website describing the community is www.villebois.net and if you go to site photos our house will be like the one in the center top with the courtyard in the front.