Little Underwood, Big Harte

In case you haven't heard yet, we are super excited to announce we will be expanding our family! Stefan, Gavin and I will be welcoming a little one early April!  We found out about our news while in Canada actually. Then we had our grand European Adventure (couldn't drink the wine in Italy so only right I couldn't drink the beer in Germany! ;) ) followed by our stay in MI. It hasn't been all smooth sailing, which I know is quite common but man first trimesters aren't that fun! Around week 5/6, I started feeling  nauseous a lot of the day. I've been super sensitive to any strong smells, ugh! Those first two weeks seemed to be the worst, then it lighted up just slightly. I still get a little "blah" usually in the evenings, but am doing better in the day. I have been and still am super tired! Might be all that is going on with work, having Stefan traveling a lot and having a toddler, too, though, huh?  The only good thing about the Factor V blood di...

Thanks again to G&G Harte for watching Gavin while we were in Europe and for our visit. As you can see from the pictures below, they had tons of fun doing lots of new things. Gavin did awesome while we were gone (and only acted up once I was home, go figure!). We are excited to head back for Thanksgiving this year before we get to host an Underwood Christmas in Florida - busy end of the year ahead! Photos from the MI trip>>

Greetings everyone! We are all still alive and doing well. It has been way to long since I've updated and my only excuse is we have been running wild! Since our last post, Gavin and packed up and flew to MI while Stefan flew straight to Munich. The next day I left MI for Munich to meet Stefan where we stayed for a night. We liked Munich's old town section and market, but it is a big city so we were ready for some countryside and more culture! We ventured out to Salzburg (salt castle translated!), Austria in our rental car and Stefan was enjoying the Autoban's modern technology (and courteous drivers!). We were impressed by the German and Austrian countryside as even their small towns seem well kept up. Salzburg, we loved! Its castle towers over the city and its slightly smaller population really showed us some great culture. We then made our way to Prague (Praha!) and explored the whole city for four days. The best part of this city is it isn't just one old town...

A few weeks ago Gavin moved up in his gymnastics class! When Stefan and Gavin got home, Gav ran up to me and handed me this paper ... all proud and smiling!  He now goes in by himself with the other kids. There are about 8-10 of them with two teachers. It is pretty cute to watch. He still can't do the forward roll like the little girls (apparently the center of gravity is different), but he is so cute trying then flopping to the side. He will miss a month when we go to MI, but hopefully he will pick it right back up when we get back.  We also went picking muscadine grapes at our new fav fruit picking farm in AL by Libby and Shane's house. We picked like 12 oz in no time and then shared with everyone at Stefan's work. Pretty tasty!  Then we got to meet Henry Tyler Wilkins, Ashton and Tyler's baby! We threw them the Baby-Q in June so may remember the names. He's ever so tiny and precious.  Libby and Henry Gav, me, Libby, Henry and new mom ...

Its taken me awhile to get our Canadian travels documented on the blog - turns out after vacation there is always a lot to catch up on at work and in life! We had a fantastic trip! Not only did we get to see our immediate family (although short-lived with Michael and Katie), we visited with Great Grandpa Underwood, cousin John and met his wife and son Vanessa and Tyler, cousin David and met his wife Katie, cousin Patti and her family, Aunt Joey, cousins Liz and Ali, cousin Iain and Auntie Bette (who turns 98 this Nov!)! We did have some hard travel, mostly the flight to get there. Instead of arriving at a reasonable time with a toddler, we made it to our hotel at 10:30 p.m. and we were lucky to have gotten there then! Gavin was awake the whole time including the long wait at customs, the organization of our bags, terribly long wait at the rental car place, and the hour drive from the airport to the  hotel. I think he was just excited to see some of his people! Overall he did awes...

Gavin survived a work trip for me and Stefan at the same time. Only because of our amazing friend, Libby! Seriously, everyone should have a friend like her in their life. Thank you so much Libby for watching Gavin for two days/nights, while we both were gone, and using your float days off to be with him. So glad he was good for you and you both had fun. Enjoy some pics she shared of G while I was gone. My trip was for two nights in New Orleans and it was not only a great networking event but fun to see so many colleagues in person! (A big deal when you work remotely). I also got to spend lots of time catching up with a dear friend from Indy and my LLS office days. Mal and Elissa in NOLA at dinner on the last night overlooking Jackson Square in the French Quarter. Patti (from IN office, we had some connections by hadn't met yet), Cathy, me and Elissa Stefan is heading home now to arrive late tonight before our big Canada trip! We are so excited to see some fam...

Gavin is 2 1/2, and I wanted to document what his little world is like right now because it is mostly so stinkin' awesome! (You know, most of the time.) He is mostly fun to be around as he narrates everything he sees and thinks. His vocabulary is well developed so far and he speaks in full sentences. His conversations are sometimes quite impressive and his memory shocking! We love his nicknames for us:  Mommy, Mama and Mommy Bubby / Daddy, Dada and Daddy Stefan. I in return like to call him tons of little pet names but the most common being:  Bubby, Gav, Buddy. He will ask you to "Talk to me about ... X" and it is usually trucks, tractors, bulldozers or race cars. All boy here! Singing about these topics is often requested too. He is also into singing himself (loud and proud with his own words or babble) while "playing the drums" or the guitar. Hilarious!  The funniest words he says are Bob, Bamboo, Blue, together and library. Most of the time he is fun but...