These Are a Few of Her Favorite Things

Kids go through phases about what they like and dislike and in the past several weeks I've noticed some things this Evelyn really likes.

1. Sweeping. She loved my broom but I got tired of her trying to carry it around the house and knocking it into things. I found a broom at the store for $1 and cut half the handle off. Now it is the perfect size and she enjoys trying to sweep up her toys.

That's it. Sweep it all under the rug.

2. Dancing. Her favorite thing to watch is a DVD of Jana Alayra. If you are looking for songs with eternal meaning and not sung by cartoon characters in a high pitched voice then check out the music by Jana. Sign language and motions are also included which makes any song better. :)



3. Climbing on mommy. She loves to jump on my back and climb over me when I'm sitting on the floor.
4. Jelly beans. I realize here that it looks like she is crying but she's not. She is somewhat upset that she can't get one out despite the fact that I opened the bag. And the flash made her close her eyes. Thankfully she is not pouring them out on the floor.


5. Reading and taking a bath. These can be separate or combined activities. She loves put plop a book on our lap and the hold her arms up in the air wanting to be picked up. She gets this really excited look on her face. The same look occurs when she sees the bathtub. She points to it and says "baa" for bath. (Sorry, no photo of her reading or bathing at the time of this post.)

6. Praying. I think one of the sweetest things I've seen her do is fold her hands before we pray. (Which I'm not sure where she learned this because Gabe and I have always held each others hand while praying.) To conclude the prayer she says, "maymen" and then begins to clap. This happens about 5 seconds into the prayer. She must be very hungry.

Hopefully she'll enjoy these things for longer than a few weeks. The jelly beans we could do with out...but it could be worse. Besides, we are almost finished with the bag.

January 2009

Not a lot going on since the start of the new year. Right now we are all fighting off colds as the weather changes from 40 to 70 every other day. Does the drastic change in temperature make it easier to "catch cold?" I'll have to ask Gabe about that.

We had a wonderful early Christmas with my family and then it was off to Tulsa where we spent some time with Gabe's family. Evelyn enjoyed seeing some of her cousins close to her age and playing with Grandpa and GiGi's dogs. She also got to the experience the comfort of a new toddler bed. Boy was it fun waking up several times in the middle of the night to "hunt" for your child who was crying and had fallen out of bed yet again.

Evie now has mastered quite a collection of animal sounds. She has also picked up another word in sign language. "Please," gets used often when she wants the candy off the coffee table. At least she is being polite. It has been so much fun to watch her grow and I am always amazed at how much she has learned.

Hopefully the next time I post something we'll be able to tell you all if we are having a boy or girl. Gabe thinks it's a boy. We'll see.

Trying to reach for a present.

My family at Christmas

Showing off for the camera

Opening presents...she enjoyed tearing the paper off.

Evelyn opening presents with Gigi and Grandpa. She got a lot of practice!


Evelyn is wondering why she didn't get a Michael Crichton book. Maybe because you can't read.

Cleaning up. She enjoyed pushing the broom around. We should have given her a broom . It would have been cheaper and less work for me around the house.

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.