Mid December

Here are a few pictures of Evelyn. She enjoyed looking at the snow but would not touch or stand in it. Last weekend we had a early Christmas with my family. Evie loved tearing open the gifts. This weekend we are driving to Tulsa to spend Christmas with Gabe's family. Maybe there will be some snow.

Gabe was recently on the local news. For those who missed it you can catch it here. It was a brief segment but I was proud of him.


Have a very Merry Christmas!

Our first and probably only snowfall.

Evelyn as The Ghost Child

No, no. I wasn't about to take this ornament off the tree.

Helping Mommy Sort Laundry

1. Smell the clothes to see if they are dirty.

2. Taste the clothes to see if they are dirty.

3. Throw on the floor. It's dirty.

December

Once again more than an month has past with no updates or pictures. This time I'm blaming it on the fact that I'm pregnant and have experienced more nausea with this one than the last. I spend most of my afternoons napping which leaves only a few hours in the evening to cook, tidy up a bit and relax before going to bed at 9 pm or earlier. We are a little over 10 weeks and everything is looking good so far.

Before Thanksgiving I did make it to a play group field trip at a local fire department. Evelyn loved being in the fire truck, especially the drivers seat. It was all I could do to keep her out of the seat after she already had a fourth and fifth turn sitting up there. She didn't go so much for the fireman wearing all his gear but the fire truck she liked.

For Thanksgiving this year we invited some of our Chinese and Korean friends over for a Thanksgiving meal. They loved it. The ham was a little overdone but no one seemed to mind. I tried something new this year. Stuffing in a bag. I was tired of cooking. 5 minutes on the stove top and the stuffing was finished. Not as good as grandma's recipe but not bad either.

Having fun at the park

October

It appears these posts will be more of a monthly event rather than weekly. I'm not much of a writer, so posting is more of a task than a creative outlet. For the Grandparents I'll try and post pictures on a regular basis.

Gabe and I recently returned from a 4 day cruise. It was a very relaxing trip. I actually got to read and finish a book, we watched several movies, ate whenever we wanted to, and slept in until 9:00am. We were able to experience all of this as my sweet parents were so kind to keep Evelyn for us. They of course had a blast and are ready for us to take another trip.

It seems like there is always some project that we are working on. In Aug and Sept it was our kitchen, now it is Gabe's office. No remodeling to be done, just decorating. They've moved into their new offices and have a lot of blank walls, so I'm getting to decorate most of it. It has been fun but a bit time consuming. I am determined not to pay full price for any thing at Hobby Lobby. So I have to wait a week or so until whatever it is I'm wanting to buy goes on sale.

Evelyn is finding more and more to get into as the days pass. The other day I went to her room to check on her as I realized that it had become just a little to quiet. I found her on the floor surrounded by a pile of paperback books and torn pages. I was not happy about that.

For Halloween we dressed her up in a strawberry costume and spent the evening with friends. Evie enjoyed trying to climb up the slid and her favorite Halloween treat was sand from our friends sandbox. I caught her putting fist-fulls into her mouth.

This was our evening activity while on the cruise. Watching the sun set.

The Afternoon Sky

Our Little Strawbery

Looking for a Treat

Playing with Friends


Climbing up the Slide

Wow! A month since our last post. I had good intentions of posting weekly...really I did.

What We've Been Up To

Evie turned 1 on Sept 19th. We were in Grapevine visiting family that weekend so her GiGi bought an ice cream cake to celebrate. Evelyn enjoyed the icing. She received a few presents and the one she loved to play most with was a bear that sang when the arm was squeezed. That was a fun 3 hour ride home. That song is burned into our brain now. She is now walking, still working on balancing but would rather walk than crawl most of the time.

The kitchen is finished, except a few touch-ups that need to be done. I'm so happy we were able to remodel it.

I finished my scuba certification. Yeah! Last weekend Gabe went with me to the Blue Lagoon in Huntsville and did my check out dive with me. We decided to plan a dive trip soon before it gets too cold or we get pregnant again. I have also starting teaching a Bible/English class to internationals through our church. Most are here because their husbands are either studying or working at A&M.

Gabe is getting ready to move into his new office. He and the staff are very excited. He has also been working so very hard on a paper for one of his Master's classes. (That's really why I haven't been able to blog....he's been busy on the computer every night. ) It hasn't been easy but I am so proud of the work he has done.

I think that about sums up the past month. Check out the pictures below of our cutie and kitchen.

Stacy and Gabe.

Evie spotted a dog at the park. She loves dogs.

1st Birthday Cake
She is never sure what to think when we put cake in front of her.

"Not bad, maybe I'll have another taste."

"Ok, so I got a little carried away."

Helping with the dishes at great-grandmother's house. She crawled up there herself.

Not sure what she was thinking here.

Discovering bark on a tree.

Very happy with her leaf

Our finished kitchen.

10 Year Reunion

This past weekend we loaded up the car and headed to Marshall for my 10 year high school reunion. I can't say that I was super excited about going but I wasn't dreading it either. I decided to keep my expectations low. In high school I was not part of the popular crowd. I was shy and quiet. (I know this is a shocker to those that know me now : ) I was in band (which some may consider nerdy) and most of my close friends were from band or my church. I always tried to do my best not to stand out but rather blend in. Well apparently I succeeded. Not only did Gabe (who didn't go to our school) get more waves and "hello's" from classmates but my one friend that I keep in touch with from high school (Chad) had to introduce me to several of our classmates. The funniest was when a classmate walked up to our table and started talking to Chad. To be polite, Chad turns to me and says, "And you remember Stacy." Implying of course you would remember Stacy. She gets this blank stare on her face and then a long pause followed by incomplete words as she tries to come up with a reason why she doesn't remember me. It was quite awkward for all sitting at the table. We couldn't help but to bust out laughing after she quickly walked away.

Another favorite comment, "She looks familiar. Do I know her?" Chad's reply, "She went to school with us."

It was as I expected. Few people I knew showed up and most people seemed to revert back to the way they acted in high school.

Our kitchen is finally coming together. Gabe and I stayed up until 1 am tiling last Thursday and got up the next morning and grouted. We finally have our new counter tops and are hoping to paint sometime this week.

Evelyn is changing rapidly before our eyes. On the way to Marshall she learned how to play peek-a-boo. She holds the blanket over her face, waits for me to say, "Where's Evie?" and then pulls the blanket down. Her top front tooth is coming in. She is standing for longer periods without holding onto something. And when she walks with her walker, she pulls it back and tries to turn around after running into something. My mom had a little birthday cake for her when we were staying with them. She wasn't sure what to think of the candle but had a great time eating cake and icing.

Evelyn and Neal Playing

View from the living room

The finished back splash

View from the entry way

"Where's Evie?"

"There she is!"

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

"If I play dumb, I might be able to eat it all before they notice."

"Is this some kind of trick? Why are you all staring at me?"

"Who cares, this is good. I'm eating it all anyways."

A funny thing...

So a funny thing happened today at Starbucks. I locked Evelyn in the car. Thankfully it had been raining so it was a little cooler than the usual crazy hot. I quickly ran into Starbucks, borrowed a friends phone and called pop-a-lock. (Which is free if a child is trapped inside.) Within minutes we had a fire truck and ambulance team working on the car. After what seemed like forever standing in the now pouring rain, the fireman was able to open the door. As if things were not already embarrassing enough, apparently the back door was almost closed but not quite so if I had only closed the door completely then it would have activated the never-lock-your-keys-in-the-car system and I would have been able to avoid the three ring circus. The fire man was kind enough not to make me feel even more like an idiot when he pointed out how I could have unlocked the doors. Oh well, now I know and we can all laugh at it. For those of you who already knew this handy info about the door, please don't write and tell me. You were not there standing in the rain watching your kid cry inside the car.

Our kitchen is looking better. The pipe was able to be moved. We are just waiting for our counter tops to be installed, hopefully tomorrow. This weekend we will put the knowledge gained from watching HGTV into practice as Gabe and I install the tile back splash.

Last week we took in a new housemate . My friend's younger sister, Haley, needed a place to live while going to Blinn, so she is living with us. We are getting a refresher course in the complexity (or lack thereof) of college life.

We just passed 11 months with Evelyn. I can't believe she will soon be a year old. She loves it when I chase her around the house, and she is enjoying the extra attention from Haley.

We are thinking of leaving the lights exposed. It gives the room that warehouse feel.

Evelyn's new favorite toy is a pair of lemons. She crawls around everywhere with them, or at least she did until I cooked with them.

She loves pushing the walker around. We are actually training her to mow the lawn.

Keep us posted,
Gabe and Stacy