Mounds of Clothes

I've realized that we have a massive amount of baby clothing and random baby things. Yesterday I set out to remedy this situation. I came away with a massive trash bag full of clothes going to the Goodwill and still managed to retain 2 boxes full of Isabelle's clothing from newborn-18 months. I'm telling you, no infant/toddler needs that many clothes. Not so long ago, I might have saved all of these clothes just in case. Then the traveling started and I realized that we could live without a majority of our "stuff" and do just fine. This led me to believe that my pack rat tendencies of the past might not have been all that I chalked it up to be. In fact, I might say that I'd prefer to live the way we did while traveling so much. I suppose there has to be some sort of balance between the two lives, and now that we have a place to call home, it's a constant battle to keep the clutter down. My next project......getting rid of the large quantity of suitcases we have. I think our closet alone has 6 and I know for a fact there are at least 3-4 more scattered around the house. Anyway, I did accomplish what I set out to do and now everything is neatly organized(albeit in cardboard boxes) and ready for the day when Evangeline needs them. I found myself not quite ready to throw out all the newborn stuff yet though. Who knows, maybe we will go for 3 in a few years? Although, the possibility of 3 (teenage) girls absolutely terrifies me and will probably be enough to stop me from even going down that road.

As I was writing in Evangeline's memory book the other day, I noticed something odd. In both Isabelle and Evangeline's books, there is a place where you are supposed to gush over how you put time and effort into a "nursery". In both books, these pages are left empty. I have to say, I feel a little jilted about the fact that I never got to design and carry out plans on a nursery. Three months before I had Isabelle we found out we were going to move to Ohio and live in India for awhile. This obviously meant that the house in Lincoln would have to be sold or rented out and hence, I could not very well paint and decorate a nursery. Of course, with Evangeline the same kind of circumstances were involved. Painting a rental isn't worth it and we intend on moving again when our lease is up anyway. The poor kids will just have to skip over those few pages in their books, when they get older. I don't think they will mind terribly. Maybe someday when my sister has babies I will get to help her paint the nursery.

She's still a Nebraska girl!  I'm not positive about this, but I think this outfit was my sister's when she was little. I'll have to ask my mom.

Do you think she is happy?

Here is the lone picture of Evangeline. I got her to laugh earlier this week! I need to record it just so you can hear it!

"Helping" with the dishes while carrying her duck purse.