House Hunting

We've gone to Sheridan to hunt for housing. Unsure of what we'll find, but fairly certain rentals are hard to come by, we're thinking we'll take the plunge into home ownership. Scary, but fun!

Our trip to Sheridan was good... we stayed at our friend Amanda's house, but she and Kayli were gone - visiting family in Spokane. Although we missed them a lot, I think it was good for all of us that the trip worked out as it did. We ended up spending an entire week in Sheridan, mostly looking at houses, and were stressed out and overwhelmed. It was awesome to have a home to come back to instead of a hotel room! It was also awesome to have lots of space to be grumpy and talk solely about our housing decisions.

Eleanor did wonderfully while we looked at houses, chilling in her car seat or hanging out in the sling! Thank goodness for a happy, contented little lady!

Now that we've bought a house, we'll soon be in Sheridan and soon get to spend lots and lots of time with Amanda and Kayli!

Grandpa's First Visit (with Grandma, too)

My parents made the long journey by automobile to our abode here in SLC from the Seattle area for an extended weekend. It was great to see them and especially great to have my dad meet Ellie. Smiles abounded during their visit and Grandma helped Ellie learn to like tummy time just a wee bit more.


Thanks for the cute diaper covers, Mom!

Daddy's a Doctor

Seth has completed his internship with the Salt Lake City VA Medical Center. This finalizes his graduation from George Fox University as a Doctor of Clinical Psychology. Woohoo! So, after 23 years of schooling, he is finally finished. I think he will probably go fishing.

HOORAY!

We have a job!

Seth was offered (and accepted) a job at the Sheridan, WY VA this morning. He will be working as a full time psychologist in Primary Care/Behavioral Health.

This is the job we were hoping and praying for, so it feels wonderful to have secured it. Seth's expected start date is September 2nd.

So, now we'll ramp into high gear as we plan to pack, move and find housing over the next month and a half.


And on a totally different note...

Here are two "pictures of the day" from last Friday:

The Spittle Bug: Ellie is fascinated with her new found talent. We sometimes call her Aphid. I now know why someone invented the "drool bib." Sometimes I pick her up, when she's only wearing a diaper, and she has drool down to her belly button!

The Pouty Face: Eleanor has started to understand when she's crying because she really needs something and when she's just upset or sad. The lip comes out these days, just before the whining cries of "hey, pay attention to me, I don't like this position any more!" Doesn't it just melt your heart?

2 Month Check Up

Ellie is already 2 months old! Time really flies when you're having fun. :)

She had her 2 month check up with the doctor today and here are her monster-sized stats:
11 lbs 14 oz (75th percentile)
24 inches long (96th percentile)
? sized head (50th percentile)


We are happy she continues to grow just as a strong, big girl should. Of course, we continue to chuckle at the fact that she is quite so big and strong. It's her length that gets us the most - neither of us are very tall. :)

These days she loves to practice standing in our laps, with lots of support of course. She still hates tummy time, but I've been encouraged once again by her pediatrician to keep trying it often. Ellie still sleeps swaddled, although we've definitely had to move her into the large sized swaddle-me, and she is adorable in the mornings when we open up the swaddle and she starts to stretch. She is a very pleasant girl in the mornings and always offers wonderful smiles along with big, bright eyes.

A Lot to Catch Up On

Hello All -

Seth, Ellie and I have had many adventures over the last few weeks. We've kept up here poorly due to bad internet connections and an infant's schedule. Ellie and I are hanging out at the library today, however, to see if the internet here will upload our pictures more quickly. So, I will try to post a whole bunch, but will also back date them, so check back here often... and scroll down 'cuz the first post you see may not be the last one we've put up.

Eleanor is 2 months old today! And she's growing like crazy. Today we went to the thrift store for 3-6 month clothes because when I tried to get her dressed this morning we didn't have any onesies or t-shirts that fit! She's still pretty small across the shoulders, but she's long. Most days it's hot enough here for her to just wear a diaper (and this is why I didn't realize our clothing problem a bit earlier), but I like to dress her when we have to go out. Anyway, she'll get weighed again on Friday at her 2-month check up. I'm interested to see really how much she's grown.

2 Months!

Sorry, my computer won't publish this right side up! But, I love Eleanor in brown, so I was trying to take a bunch of pictures... and she wasn't really having it. Why is it that crying pictures are so cute!?



This is what her hair has decided to do this week... We're wondering if it will get curly.

4th of July in Sheridan

For the 4th, we traveled up to Sheridan, WY to visit our friends, Amanda and Kayli, as well as to check out the town. Seth has applied for a job at the Sheridan VA and we wanted to make sure we had a good opinion of the town before potentially moving ourselves there for a few years. We know Amanda and Kayli have really liked Sheridan, so we're encouraged by that, but it is definitely a different sort of place than Salt Lake City or Portland!

The trip up was good and Eleanor did a wonderful job in the car. We then spent Friday evening on our own, recovering from the 8 hour drive and getting some sense of Sheridan and it's neighborhoods. I know that's not very patriotic, but it was good.

Saturday we spent with Amanda and Kayli, hanging out and exploring the town and bit more. In the evening, Amanda went out to a big concert at the fairgrounds and the rest of us went for a fun walk to the park. Sheridan has a great park right downtown and a fabulous walking path that goes straight from Amanda's house to the park. We had fun throwing frisbees, playing on the slides and eating ice cream. Ellie continues to love her BOB!


Sunday we packed ourselves up and headed back to the big city. It was a good trip, all in all, but fast. We are impressed with many parts of Sheridan. The VA campus is beautiful, the parks are lovely and accessible, downtown - Main Street - is quaint and interesting, and many small neighborhoods look cozy and comfortable. Now we'll just have to wait and see whether or not Seth likes (and/or gets) the job... and just how comfortable we are with moving to such a small place.

Thanks Amanda and Kayli for letting us stay with you and for hanging out. We had a great time!

More Bathing

Thanks for the suggestion, Carrie, about taking the baby into the tub with you. Ellie enjoys her baths WAY better now.