So for mother's day Evie "made" me a picture with a little poem (with the help of her daycare teachers of course) and honestly it brought tears to my eyes, so I just thought I would share the poem:

Hand prints

Sometimes you get discouraged

because I am so small

And always leave my fingerprints

on furniture and walls.

But every day I'm growing-

I'll be grown some day.

And all those tiny hand prints

will surely fade away.

So here's a little hand print

Just so you can recall

exactly how my fingers looked

wen I was very small.

and at the bottom were her little purple hand prints

This poem touched me since just a few days before I found myself grumbling about her fingerprints all over the TV-but one day she will be grown and I will miss those tiny hand prints covering my home. Evie girl, I love you so much and am proud to be your mommy and next time I see your hand prints covering something, I will smile and cherish this time that you are small. Because, as everyone has told me since you were growing in my belly and I am now finding it to be true-babies grow up too fast!

Tomorrow

Often times I find myself saying a common phrase, one that many people use: "I will get to that tomorrow." For example, when I have spend all day cleaning, and not much time playing with my daughter I may rationalize it by saying "tomorrow I will spend more time with my girl". When the day is coming to an end and exhaustion is setting in, I reason "tomorrow I will read my devotions because I am just too tired tonight." After rushing out of the house in the morning with no more than a quick "bye" to my husband I reassure myself with the thought "tomorrow I will remember to kiss him and tell him that I love him." After a busy day at work I may think "tomorrow will be a better day to tell that hurting person about God's love." When I get too busy to call a friend or family member that I have not talked to in a while I tell myself "I will get to that call tomorrow."
But, we are not guaranteed a tomorrow. My tomorrow may never come. I do not know what tommorw will bring for me or for those I love. I may not get another opportunity to cuddle with my sweet baby. I may never get another day to spend playing and laughing with her. I may never have another chance to say " I love you" that one last time to my soul mate. I may not get another moment to share God's love with that hurting person. I may never be able to make that phone call to a loved one. My time on this earth is temporary for Heaven is my eternal home, but while I am here on this earth for a short time I pray that I can make each moment matter. God, help me keep my priorities in line, help me not to be distracted by the things of this world, but to keep focused on You first and foremost and secondly on those you have placed in my life while I am on this earth. Thank you God for my family and friends-I am truly blessed.

lions and tigers and bears-oh my!

OK, maybe my post title should read-penguins, goats and a carousel-oh my! We took Evie to the zoo for the first time on Saturday and it was fun! We went with our good friends the Clayton family. Once we got to the zoo, navigated a good parking spot and figured out what the heck a zoo-goer pass included we were ready to begin our adventure. We first headed to the carousel-why?-because it is free before 10 am of course! I envisioned an adorable photo-op of Evie with a grinning face sitting on top of a cute little monkey figurine as we gently glided up and down-instead I got a terrified baby that had a death grip on me, and and an out of focus picture of a poor scared, shaking baby-but at that point we could not get off so we just made the best of it and tried to comfort her all while thinking-"can't wait to share this story of her first carousel ride with her once she is a teenager"-I am sure we will all be able to laugh about it someday!Next stop the angry gorillas-they were playing some sort of hide and seek game with each other, and then one beat on it's chest which created a huge thud-we asked the guys if they could make that noise when banging on their chests-they could not. I think the gorillas were more entertaining for the adults. After that we headed towards the children's zoo-which was a hit! She loved "petting" (or grabbing and smacking) the goats! They had to have been a bit sedated as they just sat there as children grabbed,hugged and pulled their horns-oh wait that was my 29 year old husband that was grabbing the horns (he "just wanted to know what they would do") Evie even dropped her beloved paci to the ground in her excitement. She also pet the guinea pigs but wanted nothing to do with the snake. From there we had a picnic lunch-let me tell you trying to get a one year old to eat her food (her own food and not another person's food) while sitting on a blanket on the ground is no easy task-she really just wanted to crawl around and investigate what everyone else was eating ("but mom-I found it on the ground fair and square") After lunch we visited some more animals and my little actress had fun copying the birds "woo-hoos" causing a good laugh from our group. We walked around and saw various other animals but she was too tired to care and ended up dozing in the stroller. I wish I could have dozed in the stroller too! We ended our day at the penguin house which was cold-but she enjoyed watching the penguins-until they splashed her in the face with cold water which elicited a cry and another death grip on mommy. Poor girl-but all in all I think she had a good day! Can't wait to go again!

One year ago today....

(taken 2/23/10 at 12:49pm-exactly one year old!)

My Dear sweet Evie,

One year ago today I looked into your beautiful blue eyes for the first time and fell in love. In fact, one year ago today I learned what unconditional love was. I kissed your sweet soft cheek for the first time and have kissed your sweet face every day for a year. One year ago today I saw your daddy cry like he has never cried-tears rolling down his face-without shame but with pride as he held his little girl for the first time. One year ago today I became a mommy. One year ago today I proudly showed you off to our friends and family for the first time as they gathered to meet you. One year ago today I snuggled you and fed you for the first time. One year ago today I rocked you to sleep for the first time. One year ago today my life was thrown into a tailspin of dirty diapers, bottles, crying (both of us),teething, illnesses and no sleep-all completely worth it of course.

In one year you have learned so much-you eat on your own, crawl, pull up to a stand, clap, wave, say a few words (mama, dada, kitty, hi and bye) and you are an expert at harassing the animals. In one year you have developed your own unique personality-you are calm and content like your dada most of the time but when something does not sit well with you (like when I take away the tv remote or wipe your face after dinner) you have a bit of a temper like your mama. You are so funny and have developed quite a sense of humor-I love to hear you laugh! In one year you have grown-going from 7 lbs 9 oz to an impressive 21 lbs! In one year you have developed likes (animals, music, books, peas, applesauce,) and dislikes (getting your nose suctioned, taking Motrin and your blow-up penguin)

As I watched you shove cake into your mouth for the first time I thought about all the adventures we have had together over the past year and I look forward to all the new adventures we will experience together as you grow. I am sad to see my baby grow up but am happy that you are healthy, happy and thriving. As you enter toddler hood I would like to quote a part of a book that you got for your birthday-yes it may be a bit cheesy and when you are older you will probably roll your eyes at me, but here it goes: "I will love you forever, I will like you for always, as long as I am living my baby you will be." One year ago today my life completely changed, I received the best gift ever- God blessed me with you!

As I look back at 2009 I can't believe what a wonderful, exciting, crazy year it has been! And through it all God has been right there with us in every step! Dennis dealt with several layoffs throughout 2009 after his job with Huey's Honda ended when they sold the auto body shop only months after Evie's birth. But God was right there and He was never went longer than a month without a job and even in between jobs he always found some kind of a side job. He is such a hard worker and takes such good care of his girls! He is now working at a small shop that has only been in buisness for a year. Although the hours are long he is very happy there and enjoys working with the 2 other guys at the shop. The owner really seems to appreciate his hard work and is very happy with the job he is doing.
I also have been keeping busy, still working as a cardiology nurse. I enjoy working with the doctors and patients. Evie is at the daycare at the hospital that I work at and I love to go see her on my luchbreak! Evie has been busy learning all sorts of new things. She waves hi and bye and sometimes will say buh buh (bye bye) as she waves goodbye. She says mama, dada and baba (bottle) and has attempted to say puppy (comes out like "pu"). She loves to mimick us when we blow raspberries, click our tounges or stick out our tounges-we are teaching her such great things (can you sense my sarcasm?!) she claps her hands-especially if we cheer. She loves "dance" when we put on music. Dancing for her involves shaking her head around and waving her arms in the air like a mad woman-but it is very cute I must say! She finally decided to start crawling about a month ago and now she is everywhere-she has a weird half army half inch bug looking crawl but she can get across a room in seconds! She is just starting to pull up on things-mainly my pant leg as she tries to climb up me! She is starting to get the hang of table foods and finger foods but as of now wants nothing to do with a sippy cup! I even tried drinking from a sippy cup to show her how much fun it was to drink like a big girl but she just threw her sippy cup down in fury and screamed until I gave her a bottle! Guess we will have to keep working on that one! She sleeps all night and generally takes good naps, often she will sit up and talk to herself in her crib until she gets tired enough to fall asleep. Christmas was soo much fun and we enjoyed watching Evie open her presents-although I could have saved a lot of money and just wrapped up empty boxes since she had more fun playing with the wrapping paper and eating bows. We are now in the process of planning her first birthday party-I can't believe my baby is almost 1! Where has the time gone?!

So Evie has officially been alive for half of a year! Wow time flies!

She is getting so big she weighed 16.6 lbs and was 25 1/2" long at her 6 month well-baby check up. She has two teeth on the bottom and just today I noticed one tooth on her top gums getting ready to push through. Which makes me think maybe I should go to bed now instead of posting a blog because if that little tooth decides to make its entrance tonight-it is gonna be a long night. Oh well, I am learning to live with 6 hrs of sleep a night. ( I used to need 8 hrs of sleep/night. -ha!) But once she goes to bed I try to get everything done and then have a little me time. She sleeps from about 7:30/8pm until 5:30/6 am which is wonderful! Sometimes on the weekends she is a good baby and sleeps until 7 am so mommy can sleep in too. I never thought I would consider 7am as sleeping in! She goes to bed really easily at night but fights sleep at naptime-she just has to know what is going on ALL the time.

She loves to play in her exersaucer and daddy loves to walk by her and pull/push every single toy on the darn thing that makes noise causing chaos and stimulation overload- but I have to admit she loves it and it is hilarious to see her flip her little head around to try and watch all the toys at once. She babbles all the time and discovers new noises daily. Today she was making this low pitch growling noise and so daddy said "let the demons out!" and she smiled and then made a sweet cooing noise as if to say "I am all better now daddy!" She loves her daddy and gets a big grin on her face even when she just hears his voice. She loved listening to him on speakerphone the other day when he called and jokingly yelled "help Evie I am stuck in this little box!(the phone) let me out!" She has got him wrapped around her little finger! I feel sorry for the young men that will one day come to the house to take her out- I am sure daddy will kindly show them his gun collection!

She rolls all around now sometimes this can be a problem-like when she rolled into her exersaucer and smacked her face. Ooops! She loves the animals and trys to reach out and pet them when she is sitting in her little bumbo seat. She laughs at everything Arnie (the dog) does-scratching, sniffing-it's all hilarious to her. She still loves daycare and tommorow will be the "big kid" in class when the older babies move up to the next class. Her teacher told her she could be the class president! Ha ha! She eats solids 2 times a day along with her bottles and is doing great with it and loves every food she has tried-she was not so sure about squash at first though.

This weekend we spent time with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Dan, Aunt Lea and cousins Dylan and Hanna-who is 3 wks younger than Evie. The girls had a blast. Evie pulled Hanna's hair-I guess she was jealous because she does not have very much but Hanna got her back by chewing on Evie's ear. It will be soo much fun watching the girls grow up together- I hope they are close like I am with my girl cousins.

In July she got to attend her first wedding-Aunt Shannon and Uncle Randy's and enjoyed seeing her relatives that came into town for the occassion. Aunt Erica still takes her picture all the time but for now she does not seem to mind. Grandpa Ken and Grandma Jo Ann are trying to make her into a cardinals fan and love to sit on the couch and watch the game with her when we come over-they even bought her a cardinals onesie!

Dennis and I are also doing well-although I will not post our current height and weight! Lol! I am still working as a cardiology nurse and Evie attends the daycare at the hospital that I work at. Dennis is still an auto body painter although he has moved to different shops a few times since Huey's Honda sold the shop he had been working at for 8 years. But God has always provided income and has provided work for him when he needs it. I think we make a pretty good team raising Evie and running a home although it has taken some adjustments on both parts. We try to spend time with each other once she is in bed and sometimes Den will pick up a movie and dinner while I am putting Evelyn to bed and then once she is down we have the rest of the evening to enjoy time together-unless of course I fall asleep during the movie. Some things never change-I have always fallen asleep during movies! We love life and enjoy our little family- Life is good!

So Evie is now 4 months old and growing up soo fast! She now weighs 13.6 lbs and is 24 inches long. Her doctor says she is in the 50th percentile for both heigth and weight-so she is right on track! She learned to roll over although she prefers to just lay on her belly and scream until mommy rolls her over! She "talks" all the time! Her daycare teacher says she will get louder when the other babies start to "talk" as if she is trying to talk over them. This may become a problem once she starts school! :-) She loves to smile and blow raspberries and coo. She also has a deep belly laugh whenever daddy makes silly faces at her. They are hilarious to watch together! She has already started teething and has had two little baby teeth on her bottom gums poke thru to show for all of the pain. Poor baby! We just started feeding her rice cereal, although I am not sure how much she is actually getting in as most of it just comes right back out of her mouth and runs down her chin! She has had her first "pool pary" at school 2 weeks ago and got in the "big" pool with mommy and daddy for the first time last week. She loves the water and seems really relaxed in it! She is a joy to be around and it is so fun to see her little personality develop. I am glad she is growing big and healthy but it is a little sad to see my baby grow up, which is why I try to enjoy every little moment with her and soak each stage of her life in because I will never get it back!