evan, lindsay, nina, elena and esther

Can you believe this cheesy grin? It happens, a lot. Usually it's hard to catch in a picture though.

I originally wanted to honor Evan and his new website in this post, but now I think it is sort of a mush of a lot of things. BUT his website is so great! That's why Nina is so happy I think :) Plus I think "evanmade" is just so creative. Plus he had the ingenuity to hire a programmer in Mexico and they worked together to produce the website. Plus here it is. Voila. evanmade.com

We are really excited -- since he posted the website he's been contacted by and has set up four new freelance jobs.

Nina was such a great travel buddy to Kalispell this weekend, there and back 9 hours each way. We were there for three days for Grandpa Searle's funeral. The funeral was so beautiful. Now Grandma Searle is living with my parents in Kenmore!

AND more pictures of la Nina

Nina's First Laugh from Lindsay MacDonald on Vimeo.

We happened to catch the tail end of her adorable laughing session. I keep trying to get her to play peek-a-boo. This time she totally got into it! More to come, I am sure.

Labels: Evan, Nina, video, vlog

This week Evan and I learned a lot about parenting with a trip to the ER for Nina. She took a dangerous fall so we took her in to get checked out. I saw the fall out of the corner of my eye and it continues to replay through my mind. Luckily, everything is fine. Let me just say right here and now that God lives and loves Nina. It's a MIRACLE that nothing happened, she doesn't have a single bruise on her little body. Quote from one of the pediatricians at children's hospital - "babies are bouncy". That may be true but she is lucky and I think there are angels that helped her land just right.

Another difficult thing this week is that my Grandpa Searle is in the twilight of his life. After a serious surgery last Friday, he is slipping away from us, he could go any day or any minute. Christian and my Mom went to Kalispell got to go spend time with him in the hospital and we're hoping to go early next week. Our dear dear grandpa we love him so much and are so grateful for the legacy he's left for us. We're stoked for Grandma Searle to move in with us sometime soon. Then we'll have a couple of weeks with her before we leave for Rexburg.

Despite the heaviness of this week, we've had last's week fun to reminisce on. Friday we met up with Sarah & Evan and their friends Brandi and Ryan in Kirkland. We hit up Easy Street records downtown, the Old Spaghetti Factory, and then watched a movie at our place. We are already missing people here even though we haven't left yet!!

The next day, Saturday, I woke up earlier than I have since before Nina was born (minus nightly feedings) and we hit the road for Vancouver BC. I won't tell you how early that was, you probably won't be impressed haha :) IT WAS SO FUN I'd been dying to show Evan the city since we've before we were married, almost 3 years! It rained all day which was great because that's characteristic and we wanted the real thing. We visited the UBC campus including an art exhibit there, had crepes and european shopping on Robson street, perused the crafty shops of Granville Island and another art school, located right on the 1 square mile island, and got lucky with the best greek food imaginable. We didn't even GET to Stanley Park, or the Vancouver Museum of Art, or the Capilano Bridge, or the Hindu shops on Main St. Basically we're hoping to go back, but glad to be here in another fun area here in Kenmore. Nina did a really great job traveling. I did miss our play time at home, just her and me.


Doily framed whimsy on display at Emily Carr school of art on Granville Island


At Simpatico, the greek place on 4th Ave.

So Emily Carr offers sewing classes every Saturday for anyone who wants to come! They have a sewing corner set up in a of their student display area. Each month they rotate through the same 4 classes but I think you can repeat them to get skills. It's pretty neato. I wish BYU-I had something like that!

A student made piece made up of scraps of cloth


* thank you Photoshop Elements for making photo editing easy to learn

This correlates with two posts ago, we're finally putting it up!

Nina at the Pool from Lindsay MacDonald on Vimeo.

Labels: Nina, nina weekly, vlog

I did not know that dogs can sleepwalk/run like this!

Spring is coming! We can't believe how much snow landed in the Puget Sound area this winter, but... a couple of inches here and there really isn't much after experiencing Rexburg last winter. Really, it's just been green of course and some days have been so warm and beautiful. And things are starting to bloom like...

crocuses and

pussy willows and

babies!!

We went swimming with Nina yesterday for the second time and it was so much fun! She loves it! We've discovered that she's incredibly buoyant. You actually have to hold her in the water otherwise she'll float up and bob around. Evan is teaching her to have her head under water and she's pretty good at it for a couple of seconds. Mountlake Terrace has a nice little pool right up the road from here. 3-4 pm is "happy hour" for kids. Last time we went she didn't have a swimsuit so we just carried her around in a swim diaper and cover. It was adorable. And this little 4 year old girl followed Nina around everywhere in the pool. This time Nina is sporting her new swimsuit from Teresa.