No Stinking Way It's Almost August

Where has our summer gone? I can't believe that today is July 27 ~ and I can't seem to keep up on the date... I just looked at the date on the computer thinking it was the 26th at the latest. Time is just flying by, whizzing away into the past. We've been keeping very busy, to the point that it feels like we haven't had any time to rest and relax, much less spend time writing on this blog!

Micah's growing fast - about to turn 1 in just a little over two weeks! He's starting to talk - saying dog and sometimes ma-ma or da-da - and he can bark like a professional dog impersonator. He's crawling all over the place, and starting to pull up and climb onto things. Last week he climbed up stairs for the first time. It's amazing how quickly he's changing and how much he's growing up!

Here are some pictures to keep you caught up on our lives - warning - there are a lot of them! Actually there are so many that I'm going to do multiple summer update posts... so, here are some of my pictures!


He loves food! And having it on his face...

He's also all about making faces right now, especially if it gets a laugh from someone.
He's a little comedian - not sure where he got that from...

He's standing up! Just after I took this picture, he pulled himself over this toy box
and crawled away into the hall - right to his Daddy.

This boy loves books! One of his favorite things to do is to crawl to his tubs of books and take out each one, looking at it as he pulls it out. He'll just sit and look at them for an hour!



Anna got to come to our house for the first time last week! She's already a month old,
which is difficult to believe. Micah seems to be liking her pretty well; he's a little curious about her
but he is pretty gentle if he gets close to her - soon they'll be running around together.



We borrowed some friends' tent (thanks Whitney!!) for a couple of weekends and took Micah on his first two camping trips!  Here he's helping me pack up our bags while the rain poured down in Lebanon. He wore his pajamas all day. I'm super impressed with Micah - he slept great, all night, on both of our camping trips! That was great for him AND for me and David!

After our tent was packed, Micah and I sat in the car while David (or Da-Da, which is his new name) packed up our tent in the downpour. Thank goodness I have such a kind and generous husband!

Micah got a snack to keep him happy while we waited.

Our little family while camping in Lebanon with our friends. This was during the two hours or so that it wasn't raining. Even though the weather didn't really cooperate for us, we had a great time with our college friends, and enjoyed every minute we had with them!

I warned you there were a lot of pictures! There are still more to come - probably tomorrow, but I won't promise - my days seem to fly by lately. Thanks for looking, hopefully soon I'll be able to be back on a regular blogging schedule, with more frequent pictures and updates on what we're doing and how Micah is growing.

Etsy Vacation

You may notice (or you may not) that I have removed the link on the right side of the page for my Etsy shop. If you go to Etsy and try to find it - you won't.

I'm taking a little vacation to re-vamp, re-boot, and re-design my shop. I hope to add some fun new products, remove some others that didn't sell well (and I didn't enjoy making as much as others), and keep some of my favorites around. My shop will return in the next month or so with a new look AND a new name!

The new name of my shop is...

Laughing Turtle Design

It's all because of this guy (the name, I mean):

He's really cute!

In the mean time, if you desperately need some coasters or a mini-wallet, you can email me at my new 'Laughing Turtle' email address: laughingturtledesign@gmail.com

I hope you're enjoying your summer, keeping cool in the hot weather - if you have it - and are spending lots of time in a pool - that's where I want to be right now!

Oregon Zoo in July

Last week David and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Portland. David's friend Omar, who really enjoys giving me a hard time, invited us to stay with him while he was house sitting in Newberg. Being the young, hip, spontaneous couple that we are (or used to be... not really hip though), we took him up on the deal and loaded up Micah's pack-and-play for the trip.
We spent a little time with Omar on Friday night, then Saturday morning we headed north to Portland for our yearly trip to the Oregon Zoo. Man, I love it there! It was a very warm day for Portland - around 80 degrees - which was perfect for us, and there it wasn't as busy as I expected.

Last year when we came to the zoo, in May, I was still pregnant with Micah. It's much more enjoyable with a baby on the outside of your body! Micah rode around in his stroller most of the day, watching people and ignoring the animals.

He had a good time, I think, and even took a nap after a quick visit with these lion statues:

I'm not sure what I'm doing here, but this is the best picture we got of the three of us. Thanks, Omar, for inviting us and for spending the day with us. I'm sorry we didn't get a picture with you too...

Anna Catherine

She's here! This beautiful little bundle of a girl, our first niece, was born last week - she's already over a week old. She's a happy little girl, who has her eyes open, looking around, all the time.

We've seen Anna nearly every day of her life so far, and I'm absolutely in love with her. I just want to hold her every chance I get and look at her little hands, with long fingers, and her stretched out little feet. Micah doesn't really understand who she is, of course, but it makes me happy to know that they're going to have a lot of fun together throughout the years.

Welcome to the world, Anna Catherine! We love you already, and can't wait to see you grow up.