Testing...

This is a test.  This is only a test.  Comment if you'd like me to revive the blog.

The Name Game

At this moment we're still without a name for the baby who could be arriving at any moment. I thought I'd get the opinion of a true authority on the matter.

The Virus...

There's a good reason this post doesn't have pictures.

Last week was my spring break, which meant project week. I was able to get a surprisingly good amount of things done the first couple days - making our back yard rabbit-proof for our upcoming garden experiment, putting shelves in the garage, shampoo the carpets, and Audra got a good amount of "deep cleaning" done as well.

During this time, Eva had been terribly whiny, much more so than her normal whiny self. Monday afternoon I found out why when she threw up 18 gallons of stuff all over herself, her car seat, and my truck seats. Audra was working so I was left to handle it myself. I told her to calm down as I raced home. The poor little thing was just kind of gasping and holding perfectly still with her arms out in front of her. She was absolutely soaked from head to toe with a week's worth of meals. She threw up several more times the next couple days, usually in her bed in the middle of the night.

Just when we thought all was well, I awoke with that terrible feeling around 2 am early Thursday morning and decided that my body didn't need the dinner I had eaten several hours earlier. My 10+ year long streak of no vomiting had abruptly come to an end. I topped that off with several more episodes throughout the night and the next day.

But wait, there's more. Audra decided to get in on the action Sunday morning while we were visiting my folks in Fort Collins. Thankfully, hers was a bit more minor and she was good to go the next day.

Bottom line, being sick sucks. I would have taken pictures for your enjoyment, but I was busy blowing chunks.

Baby Belly

Here's the latest shot of Audra's belly. I originally thought of using the word "girth", but it didn't sound very attractive and she'd probably divorce me if I referred to her that way. So I came up with some other words like "spread", or "circumference", or "perimeter" but none of that sounds much better.

Anyway, the nameless baby is due exactly 32 days from today. I don't know how far along that makes Audra. I stink at math. The prognosticators and soothsayers (doctors) agree with my conclusion that we won't make it to the due date. Eva was 8 days early.

We're Back...

Due to overwhelming demand, our blog is back up and running. Actually, I haven't had a single request, but for the good of our little family I vow to keep it at least somewhat up-to-date. After all, what kind of young Mormon family would we be if we didn't have a blog?

So much has happened in our lives that it'd be too hard to post it all. So, I'll keep this post short and sweet; just mentioning the more significant happenings.

First, we are expecting our second child, boy (YES!), towards the middle of April. I can't believe how fast the pregnancy has gone by. I haven't even gained much weight and I've been pretty comfortable. Audra's doing pretty well too. Our predicament is this: we don't know what to name the little dude. Our initial thought was "Charlie" (Charles) after my grandpa. We still like that name, but Audra hasn't fallen in love with anything yet. It's totally up in the air at this point. She quickly shot down my request to name him Jimmer (I'm still gonna call him that), so any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Some other potential posts for the near future:

• Eva is in gymnastics. I may or may not post a short video of her work.
• We have a woodpecker in our attic that I'll be taking care of during my spring break. Could get interesting.
• I'm starting to see patients at school. Poor souls.
  

I'm pretty sure that no one reads this as we haven't had an update since August. No one read it then either. But if you happen to be reading this, leave a comment. Then I'll know that you're a faithful and true servant...I mean follower.

Until our next post, enjoy this family picture taken around Halloween of last year.

Summer

It's been much too long since my last post, so there's lots to catch up on. First, the biggest change that happend this summer so far is we moved from our apartment into a cute little house in a much better area of town. We love it here, and especially love having a backyard for Eva to play in and a garage. Oh, how nice it is to have a garage.

You'd think by the view from our backyard that we moved to Kansas.

Eva can also cruise easily on her bikes in the driveway as opposed to playing in a parking lot at our old complex.

The second big event this summer was Eva's 2nd birthday! We filled the whole day with fun activities and we all had a blast!

After Eva woke up in the morning, Jeff put together Eva's birthday present and surprised her with it. She loved it!

We then took her to the reservior that's only about 4 miles from our house and we all had fun swimming and playing at the park.

After she woke up from her nap, she went on a sugar high with the cupcakes that we got for her.

For dinner, we went to chick-fil-A where she got to eat her chicken and fries and play in the kids play area.

From there we went straight to the county fair where she pet the dirty farm animals....

rode a horse....

and got her face painted. I think she had a fun day.

Just riding my new scooter! ( a birthday present from our neighbor)

About a week later, we had another celebration for her birthday because my mom and brother were going to be in town.

She got a snazzy wagon from her Grandpa and Mimi.

My attempt at a monkey birthday cake.

Opening presents with Uncle Jason.

Museum

Here are just a few fun pictures of our day at the Museum of Nature and Science. It's a huge museum with lots to see and do. We didn't get to all of it, but here is a touch of what we did see. Next time we'll have to hit up the other half. Eva particularly like this man that was carrying a foam dinasaur on his back. Pretty cool.

Digging up fossils

Day trip to the Tropics

A few weeks ago the Denver Botanic Gardens had a free day, so we decided to take advantage and see what it was all about. It was cold outside with snow on the ground, and this was a wonderful escape. All the pictures are of us inside the huge conservatory located inside the gardens. They also have many gardens and paths outside of the conservatory but there is not much to see during the winter. After visiting the gardens, I have decided that when I grow up, I want to have a greenhouse of my own, so that I can escape from the cold to the tropics whenever I want. I can dream can't I?

Just a few random, cute pictures.

A diaper and boots. Love it.

Up next......a free day at the Museum of Nature and Science.

Silly girl

Ever since Eva started walking, she has loved to climb on anything and everything. A few months ago we bought a new DVD player and we set the old one aside on the floor while we set up the new one. Eva immediately became attached, constantly stepping up and down on it. We meant to take it to the thrift store but never got around to it. It has since become a permanent fixture in our living room. Most of the time when she is in there she is on her DVD player. She sits on it when she colors, snacks, and plays with toys. She also loves swiping things out of the fridge and taking them directly to her DVD player to play with. Thank goodness she has yet to learn how to open the syrup jar. I thought I'd take a picture. Silly girl.

Update

We've done some fun things since my last post, so I thought i'd do a quick run down of our latest adventures. First of all, Jeff and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary! Crazy how time flies by when you're having fun! Thanks to both of our parents, we were able to spend the weekend at the beautiful Estes Park. We stayed in my parents time share while Jeff's parents willingly cared for our little fiesty Eva. We were able to take in the fantastic scenery, shop, bowl, go to a movie, eat fantastic food, and best of all... hang out and relax. Here are a few pics of the trip.

Delicious BBQ

The pro bowler

A few weeks ago it was around 70 degrees outside, so Eva and I took full advantage of what would most likely be the last warm day of the year. Oh, how i'm tired of the cold weather already...please be spring soon. Our day at the park....

Man she is cute if I do say so myself!