Check out Rose-Tu from the Oregon Zoo giving birth a few days ago.

well for graduation trista got an iPod touch and it rocks! The ceremony was lots of pomp and circumstance and a little long but very nice. And we’re all very proud of trista of course. She’s here for a couple of days for celebrating and potato salad. also I must thank Ashley and Jordan for the fathers day coup they staged which somehow resulted in us borrowing his wii and wii fit for a little while. Who’s pumped? F-bear!

Well, we have indeed booked a trip back to Iowa for July. We’re arriving early on June 30th and departing early on July 5. Our schedule when we’re back is predictably filling up fast, but it sounds like we’ll be able to make it to my Great Uhcle Dan’s memorial service later in the week. It should be a good opportunity to not only celebrate the man, but also for Ali to meet her huge extended family on my mom’s side.

So, tips for traveling with a 1 year old, on the red-eye, no less? I stayed up waaaaay too late last night reading everything I could online, and it sounds like pretty much all common sense measures apply. If you have any particular tips or tricks, however, leave a comment and spread the wealth. We’re traveling on Northwest (my airline of choice) if that matters.

And on another note, man its expensive to travel these days. We do so much complaining about the cost of gas and it seems like the most expensive option until you get online and start pricing plane tickets!

Something I’ve heard TWICE in the last week. It brings back so many memories. And, it’s funny, right after Ali was born I honestly wanted only boys born. If not everywhere, then at least close to us and her. But now she’s older, we are all more secure in who she is. Now I can handle new baby girls. Bring on the PINK!

In honor of the upcoming two girls in Cynthia’s household, a practice run with dear Shayla. Who, btw, is SO smart at two and a half. Just listen:

So, did you notice?

It goes without saying that we made some changes around here. You’ll be noticing new things wherever you look, so I wanted to put together a quick post to let you in on some of the finer points. But first, a massive thanks to one Karlin Johnson, our designer at Oregon Coast Design who did a fabulous job on not only this site, but on the OCD one as well. Karlin is a joy to work with and does an outstanding job. Also, of course, thanks to Ashley and Ali for their patience during all of our projects, including this one.

The design is cleaner and crisper, more contemporary, and more pleasing to the eye. I won’t say too much about the new look because it pretty much speaks for itself.

On the technical side, things should be much quicker. We’re using a newer version of the WordPress platform that has significant speed improvements, and we’ve pared down our plugins a bit. Also, there are less images to be preloaded, and we’ve begun caching local copies of the images, which means (in english) that those of you who couldn’t see the images before, should be able to now.

The navigation has been reworked to move some of our infrequently used features (links, archive) into the main menu. The archive has been significantly overhauled, and the links will be renovated in the coming weeks. The contact page is slicker now, and should be just as impervious to spammers.

Now for my two favorite new features. The first you may have already noticed. Right under the byline of each post is Ali’s exact age (to the minute) at the time the post was made. For pregnancy posts, the time to delivery is listed. Also, in the upper right corner of the page, you’ll see any posts which were made on this day in previous years. For now there’s only one previous year, but in the future it should get increasingly interesting. If there’s nothing there, it means we didn’t post on this day last year, so check back tomorrow.

Just a warning, in the future you may get some ads. They are a necessary evil, but we’re working hard to make them as minimally invasive as we can. Each ad will be handpicked by us, so there won’t be anything we don’t approve of and if you get the urge to click, please do, because it helps us to pay server costs.

Finally, a plug. We carried out this project exactly as we do each and every site we design, and it is indicative of the high-quality work we produce. If you are thinking about creating a web site, redesigning your web site, or just want to pick our brains, please contact us at Oregon Coast Design.

Thanks for reading and enjoy!

My great-grandma, Wilma Lewis, passed away at 9:50 this morning. Though no one can say she didn’t live a long life…she turned 107 in September. Rest in peace Grandma Lewis.

If you haven’t noticed the site got a little face lift this week. Check out the Pictures link on the right side of the page for albums…a new approach (via Facebook) that impact the number of pictures I post. Or, may not. The newest development was inspired by this blog, friend of a friend of a friend, that I happened upongst. Btw, if the pics have been slow to upload lately (like, the last three plus weeks) it’s because I’ve been using the high res ones and it seems to struggle everything. Sorry and we’re working on it!

Other news. BIG news. We officially have until October 17th to be out of our house. We’ll be headed down to Rockaway, Oregon where we’ll be living in my parents’ beach house for awhile. You know, saving money, paying off debt….lovely things like that. Though the move is going to be challenging and the small town a very drastic change of pace, we are super excited for so many reasons.

Miss Alizabeth has begun to bless us with her grins. Also, yesterday she weighed in at 9lbs. 14.5oz and measured 21.5 inches! In about an hour we will be picking Aunt Trista up at the train station. She’s staying with us until Friday, then we’re heading down to Oregon for the weekend! We hope to see you ALL and are very excited.

Sitting so sweetly on the counter…

Give mommy a smile?

Not quite.

There’s a lip.

And some feet.

Bless you!

She doesn’t let me out of her sight.

Pretty close….

…getting warmer…

What a little ham

I’m breaking that whole "sleep while your baby is sleeping rule." I’m finding that a hard one to follow at times. More on that at a later date. I also hope to write a bit about labor and Ali’s birth. I guess when I get a chance. Until then, stay tuned. Also, thank you so much, to everyone, for all your supprt, words of encouragment, congratulations, exclamations (she is the cutest!), and general contact. So many of you live far away and it helps us immensely to feel connected.

On a side note: we had our first doctor’s appointment yesterday. We’ve decided to use the family practitioner Tony began seeing this year. The appointment went well and was pretty routine. We hovered and attempted comforting like the nervous newbies we are. Ali’s doing great, she weighed in at 6lbs. 15oz. Only three ounces less than her birth weight, so not much ground to make up at this point. My milk has been coming in over the last few days, and has not been anywhere near as bad as anticipated. Mostly I just feel like I got a couple bean bags, or rocks, or something strapped to the front of me. Breastfeeding is another topic I hope to touch on more soon.

So without further adieu, here are some photos of Ali coming home from the hospital. The non-bobblehead editions.

Both Ali and Ashley have been thoroughly checked over by their respective doctors and given the go-ahead for discharge. There are a few shots left to give and one more form to be signed in the presence of the resident notary (saying I’m the daddy!) and then I believe we are ready for the longest drive of my life. I promise you’ll get more details once we get home and settled, but for now, here’s Ali’s first day of life in pictures (chronologically arranged).