The Nursery

The last gift I opened at the shower was the door to my Nursery. Bridgette worked all summer getting it ready for me to see on this visit. She did such a great job! I had no idea what she was doing to our spare room but I trusted her completely and I was right to do so because she did not dissapoint! She incorporated two of my favorite things...travel and France. She had old French posters over the crib, suitcases, 3 airplanes hanging from the ceiling and a French map of SE Asia. You can't really beat that!

Nice work Bridge!

Boise Sept-October

We had a wonderful time in Boise! It is true that I fall off the face of the blogging, emailing, and facebook world when we make it back to the States! It is just so much fun there and there is so much to do and people to see, I hardly have time to breathe! I have yet to post the pictures from my baby shower but will do that soon. I'm still recovering from jet lag, this has been the worst yet and I'm sure it is because of this growing belly, which I'm lucky I was even able to sort through these pictures with a 7pm bed time!


One of the first things we did in Boise was go to the BSU game! We like to fit one of these in if possible when we visit in the fall. This is the hardest time of year for Travis to be living in Asia due to American football so we like to get a good dose of it while we are there.

BSU colors! So I wore it to the game.

Actually, the very first thing I did was attend Mandalyn's baby shower. Does it matter that the baby was there too? Evie decided she wanted to join the party and came 5 weeks early!

Leroy finished his camero shortly after we left after our last visit so Travis and I were anxious to take a ride this time around. It is a great car and Travis managed to talk his dad into letting him drive! Now Travis can't wait to rebuild his own...we will see!

Crazy Kids!

Mandalyn was so good to me while I was in town. She had me go to her doctor's appointments with her and Evie a couple of times and she even let Nan and I babysit Evie all by ourselves one morning! Evie is so sweet and while I was in town she went from 4lbs 14oz to 6lbs 9oz! Way to go Evie! Keep up the good work so your mommy and daddy can relax a bit!

One time of year we all look forward to is Aunt June's ribs at the end of summer! Thank you for waiting until we came back to town to do them this year!

It was so great to see all our family and friends (maybe not all!) at Travis' bday party. We crammed 30 adults and 10 kids in our little house! It was tight but well worth it.

This is what Elliott opted to do during Travis' party! He was a crack up!

The next weekend Chad and Bridgette had a birthday party for their two, Emme (4) and Levi (2). I don't think you will be able to top that gift next year!

Nancy and Bill went to a youth retreat (as leaders!) over the weekend so Mom and Jeff had the boys. Since Travis was out of town at the same time I spent the weekend with them! We had a great time. These are pictures from Nathanael's 8:30am game on the coldest day durning our stay. I think it was about 29 degrees that morning! It even snowed the night before...that had to break some Boise weather records!

Owen's 2nd birthday

Kelly did an awesome job on Owen's cake! It was all from scratch!

Yes, the BSU game was on during Owen's birthday party!

At the airport ready to start the 24 hour journey back to S'pore!

New nest with our stuff!

We have been in our house for just over a week now so I wanted to give you a tour with our things inside. It is a work in progress for decorating and organizing but you will at least get an idea of where we live. I'm so happy here and my maternal instinct tells me we are in the right place!

Long, large entry hall

Dinning room and living room

Living room

Old 70's kitchen but I love it!

Master Bedroom

Nursery (Still in the works. I will post pictures when I finish)

Guest room

Funny stuff!

The joys of a new to us but very old apartment! I was so excited about this Maytag, American size washer and dryer before we moved in. As some of you know, we had a small, stacked washer and dryer that would take about 2.5 hours to do one load in the old apartment. It was efficient and conserved water but it was so slow and small! So this new washer was such a welcome addition and I was excited to try it out. I put my load in and decided I better check on it occasionally just to avoid any disasters. Well I am very glad I did because about 20 minutes into the wash I found the washer had walked all the way to the end of it's leash just on the verge of busting the hoses from the wall! That would have been a mess. I can't imagine what the spin cycle would have done! Oh la la...

We got The Claymore!

Sorry I didn't tell you this sooner (thanks for the remeinder Steve!) but we are proud new tenants of The Claymore! We were so excited when everything worked out but since then everything has moved entirely too fast! Travis is in a car right now driving from Mumbai to Ranjangoon, meaning that he is in India, and I am sitting on my bed listening to the glorious sound of tape guns! Glorious only because it means I am in the middle of the move! The packers are here and when I say packers I mean 3 in the kitchen 3 in the living room and one in each bedroom! It is crazy right now and all I have to do is stay out of the way. And did you catch that Travis is in India! He always manages to be out of town when we are buying, selling or moving and I am 7 months pregnant! Ok, I will give him a little credit. He is taking the red eye tonight so he will be here when they move us into The Claymore tomorrow. What a good guy!

A little Angel

Sweet Everleigh!

Well Done Mandalyn!

It is hard to believe she is so little and from the reports I hear she is doing great. I can't wait to meet her in a few weeks! What a doll!

She has come!!!!!

Don and Mandalyn gave birth to a beautiful, healthy Little girl yesterday! Baby Everly is 4 lbs 6oz and 16 inches long. She was born 5 weeks early but Mom and baby are doing great! Mandalyn was happily working away when her water broke. She took herself to the hospital but never went into active, or any, labor and sweet little Everly was bum down so the doctor felt it necessary to do an emergency c-section. I don't have a picture of Everly yet but I will post one as soon as I get it. I wish you three the best and know that I am praying for you. I can't wait to meet her at the end of September!

(Don and Mandalyn correct me if I'm wrong on any of my stats, I heard it all through the grape vine of worried family members!)

Home Search...again!

I am not sure what our addiction to moving and spending countless hours with a realtor is but it seems we do this a lot! We just got finished buying a house in Boise, which now we hope to be done there for awhile, and now we are back in Singapore going through a move again! So far I looked at about 15 different condos and town houses on Thursday and then took Travis to my favorites of those (only one!) and to about 4 new ones on Saturday. It is much harder this time around because I am not so awestruck. It was fun the first time because I had no idea what I wanted, now that I know exactly what I want nothing seems to fit...see the pictures and descriptions of our top 3 below.


The Paterson

This one is great. It is on the 17th floor (not so great for Dad), 4 split bedrooms with the master and one small room (nursery) on one side and the other two far away on the other side. Great for guests, so pack your bags people! Awesome terrace, great kitchen, only a few years old, location is central but they all are, and the facilities are immaculate. Not so good parts: it is only about 1700 sq feet, not too bad but small compared to others, not quite as functional for a baby and that is pretty much all I can think of. Not so bad!