March and Some of April

Evelyn and I recently took a trip to visit my family while Gabe went to Chicago for course work on his masters. We had a very productive weekend helping my mom repaint her kitchen and working on some other projects around the house. Evelyn enjoyed playing with my parents dog and watching way too much TV. I don't often resort to entertaining her with hours of television watching, but it was either that or have her help paint. Below are a few pictures of Evie from our trip.

On Friday night our church had an Easter Egg hunt. I wasn't sure how Evelyn would respond but she quickly figured out that you should collect as many eggs as you could in your basket. She also enjoyed opening the eggs and dumping the contents onto the ground. I forgot my camera but Gabe took a few pictures with his phone and we may have some more to post later from a friend of ours.

Looking for more eggs

Sharing the loot with friends

Enjoying some of the candy for herself.

We were talking with friends and looked over to find her enjoying a nice piece of chocolate.

Only 2 1/2 more months until our little girl arrives. Lately I have been busy redecorating Evelyn's current room so that it will be ready for the both of them to share. I realize that having them share a room could be a big mistake. I'm hoping it works out, but we'll see. The biggest change to the room is the addition of Evelyn's new toddler bed. We've spent the past weekend having her sleep in it. The first night I think Gabe got up three times with her and after the third time I put her back in her crib. The second night Gabe only got up twice. (He's such a nice husband to get up and let me sleep.) She can't open the door yet so she stands at her door knocking and trying to turn the handle while crying of course. I'm hopeful that tonight will be better.

Lately I've had the urge to clean drawers and closets out and then reorganize them. With everything I've collected maybe I'll have a garage sell in June before the baby arrives. We'll see what my energy level is like then.

So right now my evenings are spent with me organizing the house and Gabe working on a paper for his class. We are an exciting couple. Who knows what we'll be doing the next time I find the time to post.

A Busy Weekend

I think most people already know but we are having a girl. I'm 24 weeks so not too much longer to go. We are all doing well besides me staying tired most of the time.

This past weekend was very busy. Friday morning I had a cooking class with several friends. I've got some great new quick and easy recipes now. That evening Gabe and I joined our neighbors for a performance by Andrea Marcovicci. None of us knew who she was but Gabe was sure she was some famous opera singer. Turns out she is the Queen of Cabaret and her performance this night was love songs from WWII. We were not familiar with any of the songs and were by far the youngest people in the audience. She had a nice voice and thankfully gave the history of the songs as she went along which made it enjoyable.

Saturday morning we had some college kids from our church come over and help us plant some flowers and dig up some things that we were tired of looking at.

After that we were off to an Aggie basketball game thanks to my friend Sharon who had extra tickets. I was so excited to take Evelyn. I was convinced she would have a blast. Well she wasn't excited as I was but at least she didn't cry. Most of time time she sat on our laps chewing on a straw from Gabe's drink. She seemed ambivalent about being there. We got a few claps and smiles out of her.

Next on our list after a short nap was a birthday party for one of Evelyn's friends. I think there was a little more excitement for her at the party. After playing for a while in the backyard she was getting restless, so I suggested to Gabe that he take her over to look at a near by pond. Several kids and parents were previously checking it out so I thought it would be a nice distraction for Evelyn. I got distracted talking to some of the other parents when the next thing I hear is Evelyn crying and someone saying, "I think she fell in!" I look over and here comes Gabe carrying a crying, wet, and muddy Evelyn. She's in shock after slipping into the water up to her neck. Thankfully she was fine, just shocked and dirty, so I had to strip her down right there in the middle of the party. This was her first birthday party that she got to take a bath at, and thankfully our friends had some clothes she could borrow.

Not much else has been going on and that can be a good thing at times.

I promise I will get some more pics out in the next few days. I haven't taken any recent ones and she is not in a picture taking mood this morning.

Relaxing in front of the TV. She likes it way too much now.

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