Our Last Few Days

Have been so fun. And thankfully, I've had the camera close at hand to share some of these fun moments with you!

We have been letting Evan feed himself his yogurt at night now. A brave task, I know. He's done fairly well since his first night (pictured) and now is just messy around the mouth.


The weather has been turning slightly cool lately. The leaves are starting to change on the trees around the house, and our wardrobes are changing, too! Thankfully, I was able to go through a huge tub of 9-12 month clothes and pull out quite a few fuzzy sleepers for his to sleep in. He loves them!


One of my favorite finds from Craigslist so far! This guy was selling vintage (50's and 60's) Fisher Price wooden pull toys for 10 bucks a toy - a little more than I wanted to pay, but I really wanted a pull toy for Evan for Christmas. The short story is that when we got to the guys house to decide between the Queen Bee and the Puppy, the guy took pity on the tough decision and graciously let us have both for only 10 bucks! So we let Evan have the dog now and saved the bee for Christmas.


My happy boy!


All my craigslist finds, and also, all of Evan Christmas presents, all for only 20 bucks (minus the Queen Bee)! My mom is going to take the Little People farm and give it to him, but it was great finding all this stuff, so gently used, for such a great deal! It let us actually gets things for Evan that we wanted to without going above the budget we've set for Christmas gifts!


We had my friend, Carianne, and her daughter Bella over today to play and have lunch. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast together!


I just loved this picture of the two of them - they honestly adore each other, it's too cute.

I have my first ultrasound tomorrow - hopefully I'll be able to scan the image and post to, or even just take a picture and post it. They're just measuring size and getting more accurate dates.

Prenatal Update

We just got back from the doctors this morning with a great report - we heard the heart beat!! This is the most nerve wracking appointment for me since I don't have (and didn't have with Evan) many pregnancy symptoms. But after a very long minute of searching, the doctor found a very strong heart beat - 138 beats per minute!

Other status update is that I've only gained a hair over 3 lbs in the first trimester, which is good, because I thought it was going to be a lot more for as much as my stomach sticks out in the evenings....but then again, I was weighed in the morning. And let it be known that this is the one and only time I'll tell ya'll how much weight I've gained!

Evan and Scot were both able to be there for the appointment, which was nice. We're calling shots over here as to the sex of the baby. Scot's saying girl, but only because I'm calling boy. We both have a 50/50 chance at being right, so we'll see. I just think it'll be a boy since everything is so similar to Evan's pregnancy. Either way, we're beyond excited to have heard the little heart beat of this new little person - it makes it so real.

Praise the Lord.

Oh yeah, I'll have a picture posted of the belly this weekend after we take it. :)

Big Boy

Evan now faces forward in the car -- and he loves it! (This is the Britax Regent I was telling you all about a while ago that I got practically brand new off craigs list for a mere fraction of the price. Again, thank the Lord for people who can afford high-end car seats for Grama's car and then only use it a handful of times!)


Last night, my parents and Jared came up for dinner before Jared left town to go back to VA. Mom brought dinner up (it was so yummy) and we all had fun sitting and laughing at Jared's jokes and Evan's faces. When we got Evan ready for bed, he wanted Uncle Jared to read him his bed-time story. It was pretty cute. Jared did a great job.


Evan now reads to himself. He knows he's not allowed to just pull books off the shelf anymore, but one or two is fine, especially when I catch him babbling to himself looking at pictures and turning the pages.

They grow up too fast, don't they?

It's Officially Autumn!

I love Autumn - it is by far by favorite season of them all. And I really love living in a place where Autumn is a real season. Although, with the weather we've been having (low 50s for a high, rain/snow combos, and foretasted winter storm warning for tomorrow) it doesn't feel much like early Autumn, but late! All that said, I celebrated the opening of my favorite season today with tea accompanying my breakfast. I dressed in a cute sweater. I pulled out my slippers. I had tea in the afternoon and read a bit of a chapter in the book I'm going through.

I also cleaned the floors, ran a couple errands (despite my desire to just stay indoors), did 3 loads of laundry, went to the market, and took a ton of pictures of my cute little son who is doing all sorts of little things. As in, he folded his hands for prayer time at lunch by himself and without being asked! He helped me put the wet clothes into the dryer. He also helped me make the cornbread for dinner. Ok. So maybe not really helped, but he tried.

And my husband is a sweetie beyond sweeties. While I was taking a nap (the plan was just a short snooze while Evan took his normally short nap this afternoon. We went down at 3. Scot woke me up at 5. Evan didn't wake for another 20 minutes Yeah. I'm not going to bed anytime soon.) Scot went out and bought one of my favorite sodas as well as some sweet tea as well as flowers. Like I said - sweetie. I made chili and cornbread in honor of the first day of Autumn and we had Uncle Dave over for dinner. All in all, a wonderful day.

Enjoy the pictures!

Making dinner and cornbread together. We had both just gotten up from 2 hour naps, so please excuse my flat hair, sleepy face, and house clothes. I almost didn't post this picture, but Evan was too cute to let my pride get in the way.


Evan being the wonderful helper he is! He tried 'stirring' the corn bread mix, and it got all over him and the counter...

He then proceeded to taste it...


Yeah. Not so yummy.


Getting ready to pray with a full mouth. We're just working on the hand part right now, we'll get to the whole 'don't eat before we pray' part later.


With his Uncle Dave who loves him dearly!

Dreaming...

...of this double stroller. Oh yeah, how cool is that?

one down, two to go

I'm talkin' trimesters here, people!

Yup, you got it! Baby E number two will, Lord willing, be making an appearance around Easter next year. My due date is April 5th, so we'll see. I have an almost firecracker baby, so it's fitting I guess.

This first trimester has flown by and been a breeze - much like my first tri with Evan. Very little fatigue and even less nausea. The Lord is good. Just wanted to let all you faithful blogging buddies know!

Me all dolled up for my friend's wedding

The whole family

Update and Photo Dump

Ok, so the last 2 weeks have been a true whirlwind. It has also been a very relaxing and enjoyable time, too.

I went down to CO Springs right before Labor Day to spend time with my folks and brother - we had friends in from out of town and we hung out with them quite a bit for the weekend. On Tuesday, my dad's mother came into town and so the last 10 days have been spent with her. There were so many games played, newspapers read, crosswords done, and tea consumed. We all just had a blast. Evan warmed up to her after a couple days and would even put his arms up for her to hold him. She loved that. :) Grammy is officially his favorite person after me - at least I think I come in first... Evan will go to her when he won't go to anyone else, and sometimes, he even goes to her when I'm holding him! Yeah. Thankfully, he loves it at my folks and my folks don't get tired of having us there. :)

While there, though, he learned to climb down the stairs really well. Granted, I was ok with that since they were all carpet and there were only 7 and then a landing and then 7 more. Now that we're home with 18 continuous stairs ending in tile...not so confident. He learned to eat sandwiches with the crust. He learned that dinosaurs make a very rough 'rrrr' sound. He learned that when someone says they're going to get him, his job is to squeal and run the other direction. Usually he was running from Jared. He seemed to advance leaps and bounds while at my folks, it's inedible! When Scot gets home tomorrow (I know, can you believe it's been 2 months already that he's been gone?) he's not going to know what to do with this little bundle of energy!

There is so much more I could share, but for now, pictures will have to do. I'll post a slide show at the end of the Annual C/S Balloon Festival that we went to on Labor Day - it was so much fun and I got some really neat pictures. There's are quite a few of them, hence the slid show...so be prepared!

Enjoy!

Getting some love from his Bobe (Yiddish of Prussian for Grandmother pronounced Bob-A)

Sleepy time for the little and giving Uncle Jared (or just J as Evan calls him) a hug

Having fun and flying high...

VMI's youngest

Helping Grammy sweep up all his crumbs

Playing with his newest favorite toys and making his 'rrr' sound

With his Bobe

Bethany and me at her bachelorette party/dinner this past weekend. The wedding is on Friday and then my crazy life takes a break until the holidays...

The Balloon Festival

Our Hats Are Off to You, Grammy!

I think this has to be my favorite picture right now. I just love his smile - it's so Evan!

Truly, Grammy, our hats are off. For you!

My mother has always been amazing. She home schooled Jared and I. She was many times mother, father, teacher, cab driver, chef, referee, homemaker and wife all at once. My dad was gone a lot, so she ran the house completely. I don't know how she did it. But in all this, she always managed to do her art work, something else she is wonderful at. She picked up calligraphy in college, I think, and for a while even hand lettered the graduate certificates for the med school my dad graduated from. It was a sad day when the class size grew to be too many and the school opted to go with computerized certificates. She even learned what is considered to be the hardest hand and addressed all the envelopes for my wedding in it. It was beautiful. Over the years she has belonged to different guilds to hone her skills and learn new hands. I love going home and seeing the new pieces she's done. I'm very fortunate to have a few of her pieces in my own house...

Her "Marriage Takes Three" piece with original quilling (a lost art if you ask me)
A wedding gift

Her typical nameplate that she does for new babies. Although, I have to admit, mine is a little on the larger side than the norm. Wonder why that is?

Mom and I love William Blake's poetry. We love old British literature. She gave me this piece right after I got married. It was in our living room for a while, but it's now in Evan's room. This is one of my favorite Blake poems - she has a beautiful piece of "The Tyger" that I want, but I don't think I'm getting it anytime soon! haha

And this is my current favorite piece I have of hers. It's an original piece that she did for Evan's first birthday and that I just today hung on his wall. Hence the picture and then the post on all this. I just love the colors in this and the richness of the guashes (the stuff that makes the color.) Sorry for the glare, guys. Hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of the artist in my mother. A gene that got passed down to Jared and not me, by the way.

Some Thoughts

Today the Bible study I help lead ended. We had been going through Linda Dillow's Creative Counterpart. It was good overall, but there were 2 points that really hit me through the whole study.

1 -- Linda Dillow talks about "Inheriting a Blessing". And while that sounds strange, once she really unpacked that thought process, it made perfect sense. And in just a few sentences, I'm going to try to unpack it for you. In essence, she was saying that instead of returning an insult for an insult, we need to return an insult with a blessing. "Like you say something nice to your husband when he's being a grouch to you?" I asked myself. And no, that's not exactly what she's saying, although, if you can do that - GREAT! What she was really saying was just to keep your mouth shut, pray, or say something nice back instead of coming back with a cutting remark like our sinful nature wants us to. It's really hard. Really. But I thought it was something I could put into practice. Maybe you can, too.

2-- At the end of the study, in the concluding chapter, Linda Dillow challenged her readers to take out their calendars and write at the top of the month something that they were going to work on that month to improve their marriage. Whether that be submission, apologizing quicker, being slow to anger, accepting your husband fully(not nit-picking), accepting your situation, returning a blessing, not complaining...whatever it is, just work towards it. And I thought it was a great idea. I thought it was so great, that I went to my calendar and wrote down "Slow to Blow" at the top of this month.

When Scot and I are long distance and my 'time tank' is low/empty, my normally long fuse becomes short. You add in a teething baby and a cold/headache and the fuse becomes almost non-existent. I would have never labeled myself as short-tempered. Ever. But the last few weeks, I've been rethinking that. Hopefully when Scot gets back, things will be better and go back to normal. We won't be dealing with spotty phone connections and silly misunderstandings anymore, that's for sure. It's kind of frustrating when you have a mini-argument and then find out at the end that it was all because the phone broke up when you said the word 'didn't' and all this time your husband thinks you that you 'did'. Yeah...it's getting old. Fast.


So I challenge you, my readers, to work on your marriage and your relationship with your spouse and put a goal on your calendar each month and work towards that goal and hopefully form some good habits. If the next 4 months go well, I think I'll use it as my New Years resolution!

As encouragement, my next 4 month goals are: "Slow to Blow", "Return a Blessing", "Don't Nit-Pick", and "Submit". You know why I did the first one. I did the blessing one because I just really like the idea and need a reason and an umph to put it into practice. I did not nit-picking because November is the month to be thankful, and how on earth will Scot feel like I'm thankful for him if I'm nitpicking?! It's always hardest for me to submit during the holidays, that's why that one's there for December. Holidays right now are packed with the stresses of who do we see when and for how long, and when your in-laws don't really like you, it's can be an act of submission to go over...even when you know it's the right thing to do. I'm learning, and will continue to learn, that the right thing is not always, and probably is not usually, the easy thing to do.

There are so many ways to better our relationships. Don't let them be stagnate. So go, make your list, and start bettering. Is that a word? Talk to your spouse and see what they think you should be working on. It may be humbling, but humbling can be good. :)

Big Uncle J

Monday, my mom, Evan, and I picked Jared up from the airport for his 3 week vacation here in CO before he 'officially' starts in the Army as a recruiter for a college in VA. All that, before he starts Flight School down in AL in March. It's going to be so fun to have him home for such a long period of time before he starts real life in the real world. He loves playing with Evan and vice versa. He couldn't get over the fact the Evan could walk/run - it was pretty funny.

Evan and I will be heading down to the springs on Saturday to spend some time with Jared and the family over the holiday weekend. My grandmother (dad's mom) will be arriving that Tuesday, so I'll actually be down there for about 10 days. Should be fun!

Today, Evan is 14 months old and I can't believe it. Where has the time gone? My little baby is now a little boy! Bu we're having fun. New words to add to the word list from the last 2 weeks: please, yes, cheese, banana, go, and hi/bye.