Weekend Wrap-up!



Video monitors are the best because I knew to have my camera ready when I walked in on Saturday.



Playing memory with Daddy is a lot different than playing it with Mommy.

Where's the pink beads? That's the only color that really matters to Evie.

Our weekend was very low-key. Carl has been exhausted and a bit under the weather so we just hung out at home a lot.  We went to a birthday party on Saturday morning. It was fun to get out for a bit and Carl loves to see Evie interact with other kids. She was so excited that Aly had a tent too. Aly has a brother so she has lots of trains, tents and every kind of ball you can imagine. Evie was thrilled to have some cake but only wanted to eat the pink bites.

   Evie crashed at naptime after a morning of playing so hard. We enjoyed dinner at home and put Evie to bed after working on her colors and playing Bird Memory. Carl and I both were in bed by 8:00 ready to catch up on some sleep.

Evie singing Jesus Loves Me!

Evie's favorite part is to point to "me."

She is really impressed with herself these days!

   We woke up early and headed to 8:30 church. That makes such a difference in your day when you get going a little earlier and it's a lot easier when you go to bed super early the night before.. Evie was talking to us about the "mean teachers" on the way to church. She was fine after a few minutes and came in to church with us for communion.

   We stopped at Bruegger's for breakfast and had some delicious bagels. Evie loves going out to eat and does a pretty good job most of the time. Our definition of going out to eat has changed drastically if Bruegger's is counted as going out to eat.

  We came home to change clothes. Evie obviously picked out her own dress since it's a little early in the season for sleeveless. We had some playtime with Evie. She loves to "write" with her pen and play with her new beach ball that she got at the party. Evie also decided to role-play communion with us at home. She had it down pat! Carl decided to go get checked out since he was feeling pretty badly. I stayed home with Evie and we had fun cutting out coupons and playing in the kitchen.

   She was not so interested in naptime until I told her that she was indeed going to take a nap in my Mommy voice reserved for special occasions. I was relieved when she fell asleep because I knew Carl needed to rest and I had a few errands to run.

   Nothing like waiting until the last minute but I needed to get Evie a Valentine. I found her a few cute things and got us a special breakfast for in the morning.



Evie pretending to walk like the ladies that were pumping their arms. She thought that was HYSTERICAL!



Running like the wind!

The wind was really impacting her hair-do and she needed her bow fixed after this shot!

     It was a gorgeous day so Evie and I headed to the park after her nap. Carl took a nap and joined us when we got back. Evie loves to look at pictures of herself from when she was a baby so we looked at baby pictures and ate all the yummy food that our chef prepared for us in her kitchen.

   Nothing too exciting but it was a nice weekend! We are looking forward to seeing our baby again tomorrow at our gender ultrasound! Do you think it's still a boy?

ARTPark!

Evie and I ventured out this morning for a Valentine party at ARTPark. Evie was so excited to see her boys. They had smocks on which motivated Evie to wear a smock. She does not like bibs and thought smocks seemed quite similar to bibs.


We had a good time but it was exhausting trying to keep Evie happy and to keep me from ending up with paint on my clothes. I needed my own smock! Evie likes to be within inches of me at all times. Sometimes this can feel a bit suffocating. I have a new perspective on this after watching some of the other Moms trying to keep up with their kids. Evie does not get too far away and when she has a Velcro like relationship with me it'd be pretty difficult to lose her. I LOVE holding Evie and hearing her say, "Hold me, Mommy." One day, I will miss my sweet little Velcro daughter when she wants nothing to do with me.


Our MOMS group treated us to pizza for lunch. After lunch, we decorated heart cookies. It was so funny watching the kids decorate their cookies. Evie's favorite decoration were the chocolate chips. It was a fun morning but I was ready for a nap after that adventure. Try out ARTPark if you live in the area - the mess stays there but the kids get an opportunity to be creative while exploring different mediums. They had lots to offer and we will definitely go back soon!


We are beginning to work on the big room switch. Evie is moving into our office and her room will become the new nursery. There is a lot to get done in the next few months so I decided to consign the couch. That meant, we did not have to move the couch downstairs which helped seal the deal on using the consignment store. They moved it right out in about 2 minutes flat! Let's hope it sells quickly.


Evie and I had a great afternoon. She is such a doll and has such a big personality. Carl came home and we had a little dance party with Evie. She loves it and keeps saying "again" so we will keep dancing with her. Warmer temperatures are headed our way and we cannot wait.

PINK!

Another cold, snowy day in Nashville has us dreaming of swingsets and sunny days in our backyard. I am so excited about doing a review for CSN Stores. Check out this fabulous website to see some of the cool things that are offered. You are sure to find something that appeals to you or maybe even your Valentine!

Evie is requiring everything in pink these days. I have brought this upon myself since her wardrobe is  90% pink and I often choose pink when buying new things.  However, I had no clue that HER fascination with pink would begin so early in life. At least, we are working on learning her colors. She names several colors but mostly notices if it is NOT pink.


I started an online course to renew my teaching license for 5 years. It's the last step to keep my North Carolina license current.  I think it will be pretty simple but I have forgotten most every thing that I ever knew about teaching. Hope it comes back because I will need it for the next month. It seems that I can only think of my very favorite student. She's has blond curly hair, LOVES pink and teaches me new things every day.  Any guesses on who  my favorite stuent might be?


The highlight of our day was when Carl came home from his business trip. He has been in warm sunny Tampa which actually had a tiny cold snap while he was there. We sure missed him and Evie has hardly let go of him since he walked in the door. They have read books, camped out in the tent and played ball! We are so glad he is home with us!

Snow . . . again!

Evie is on a roll with waking up late! I am loving these 8:00 wake up calls especially with her sweet little voice calling for mommy. We barely had time for breakfast and getting dressed before heading out to a moms group.

  Evie's school has a fabulous moms group that is very similar to MOPS. I finally got there this morning had such a good time. Evie was excited to see her same teacher and be in the same class as she is on Thursdays. She went right in the classroom without shedding a tear. I headed down to the group and was served a fantastic breakfast of homemade quiche and the best coffee cake that I have ever had in my life. I am NOT kidding. It was amazing so I asked for the recipe. Can't wait to see it. Anyway, in case you have not noticed the way to my heart is through food. We had a wonderful speaker and I met some really nice girls. I knew several people there from some of my other activities in the area but it was good to meet some new ones. I strongly believe that all moms need several good friends that are in the same place in life to discuss, ponder and bounce ideas off each other. I am so fortunate to have lots of "mom friends"  to share the joys and challenges of motherhood with which makes even the hard days seem more normal. Not to mention a fantastic husband that loves to talk about his beautiful daughter too!

     School was closed early due to the impending snowstorm so we just headed home after Moms Together. Evie impressed me with the motions to "Jesus Loves Me." I heard her singing it last week when she woke up from her nap but thought I was imagining it. Well, it's pretty hard to imagine your toddler singing and making the motions with a BIG smile on her face. Evie was so proud and we have been singing all afternoon. I think it's time to learn a new song and she loves "This Little Light of Mine" probably because the word "NO" is used a lot!

  We had a nice lazy afternoon reading books, drinking hot chocolate while watching the snow fall and playing in her tent. It was warm and cozy to be in our house with my sweet little Evie. We made pancakes for dinner and took a bubble bath together. Evie was very impressed with the bubbles since she usually showers with Carl. She even pointed out that "baby" was taking a bath too. Smart girl! He certainly does everything we do and it looks like she may be starting to notice.

   I love this age with her! She laughs constantly and makes me laugh too. We laugh about the silliest things but they are funny to her so we just laugh. Everything is so amazing to her and she finds joy in the simplest things. She took every single dish towel out of the drawer today and layed her babies down for a nap. Of course, they needed covers too so we were all set for nap time. She brushes her teeth each and every time that I go the bathroom which is a lot these days. It's so cute to see her on the stool asking for "paste."  I am pretty sure that she is developing some pretty good oral hygiene habits. Evie does not like to be dirty or wet so when her toothbrushing turned into water play - it was a bit of problem. We had to clean up the water and get dry clothes on immediately. Then, she was fine again! Evie loves our iPad and has figured out how to scroll with her finger and make the pictures larger. She thinks it's so cool to see pictures of people that she knows on the screen.

   Snow is still falling and school has been canceled for tomorrow! Hope we can keep busy inside for yet another snow day.

Play!

Evie and I stayed home all day. We had fun playing, reading, cleaning and doing some things around the house. She is so much fun and so helpful. I love how she mimics my every move from putting on lipstick to mopping the kitchen floor.

   We worked on stringing beads this morning and made a Valentine project. I bought the beads at a consignment sale and put them in the closet. We needed something fun today so I pulled them out. Evie had a blast with my close supervision workking on the beads. She only got mad once which is amazing considering that stringing beads is a difficult concept for many kiddos.

   We went to The C's house for dinner. It was delicious as usual and so much fun! I am so thankful to have such wonderful, sweet neighbobors in the same stage of life as us. They understand crazy dinners and busy schedules! Being around their little boys makes me so excited for longalls, cars and trucks and lots of adventure. Courtney was so sweet to give me some maternity clothes and a baby carrier. I LOVE knowing so many people that are done having kids because I am getting the good end of the deal!

     Evie was so excited to see her boys. She had been talking about them all day even passing out paper to them at the table this morning. They were not there but she was pretending! Evie ran all over their house trying to keep up with two boys. Evie decided that she was ready to go "night- night" while we were still there. She went to the bottom of the stairs and was waiting for me to take her upstairs. She repeated herself several times trying to persusade me. It was so cute! She must feel quite comfortable there. I have never seen her do that before. She keeps me entertained!

Snow is Falling All Around

Evie slept late again. That gets the day off to such a great start. Evie was really happy this morning and talking up a storm. I asked Evie if she wanted to go to a play place and she said,"no, park." The park was not really an option since it was cold and rainy.


I should have listened to Evie because she was not overly excited about the play place. We had fun for a little bit but then she was "scared" of the large monkey's and tunnels. She did perk up for a few minutes when her friend got there but she was over it by that point. Our days of jumpy places are probably over until the fall.

We went to the toy store to get two birthday presents for Evie's friends. I really need to start a gift closet to keep us supplied for all of the birthday parties that Evie attends.


We passed the cows and Evie announced, "cows, they are cute." I just love her little expressions. She takes little pieces of things that we say and works them into her vocabulary. Evie fell asleep for a minute or two in the car. The rain must have made her sleepy because she napped for a long time after lunch.


It started snowing while she slept. Evie loves snowflakes and was so content to sit in the office on the couch gazing out the window with me. I was pretty content too holding my sweet baby girl. We had a nice afternoon reading books and playing with dolls. Two is a terrific age. She is full of wonder and excitement which makes me so happy.

Weekend Wrap-up!

We had a fantastic weekend full of nothing! It was our most relaxing weekend in months and was just what we needed. Evie woke us up bright and early on Saturday morning. Carl brought her in our bed and she played "night night" and kept us entertained for a few minutes before breakfast.

  Evie and her Daddy went for a snowy jog. Not my idea of fun but they seemed to enjoy it. We tried Muffin Tin Meals with Evie for lunch. I was a bit skeptical and felt for sure that she'd just fling the whole thing on the floor. Carl and I were shocked when she ate more than she had in months. The idea is simple - take the same food you'd give your toddler but place it in a muffin tin. Try to make it look more appealing and give appropriate portion sizes. Some mommies are super creative with this and must have a lot more time on their hands than I do. Check out this:

Here's a picture of one of the ones that I made for Evie this weekend.

It might be beginner's luck but it's working so far. We are just so glad that she is eating since she has been existing on basically nothing for several weeks. I know that she will eat when she is hungry. She has always been a big eater so it was a drastic change for Evie to suddenly eat nothing. Maybe it helps to have your dolls eat with you.

Evie took a nap and we hung out around the house. Our neighbors came over for dinner and we had such a good time. Carl likes Christian even more now that he found out that they both share a fondness for the same barbecue restaurant in North Carolina. Imagine our surprise when Christian was telling us right where it was and we knew that it was Keaton's barbecue! Courtney made the most delicious lemon cupcakes for dessert and they were so pretty too. Evie had so much fun playing with her boys. They really liked her new tent. It was the perfect way to spend our Saturday night with our neighbors!

  Evie slept late this morning and we took a long walk to the park. It was a gorgeous day! Evie had a blast exploring the playground with Carl. It sure is different taking her now than it was in the fall. She has words for everything and is so much fun.

  Evie napped and Carl had Evie duty while I went to the mall. Of course, she slept the entire time that I was gone. Playtime at the park wore her out.

   She woke up in the best mood so we headed outside again. Carl grilled some wings for dinner. We had a little picnic in the den while watching the Super Bowl.

Evie thought it was so cool to eat in the den and loved having so many dips. Not to mention toothpicks. She loves to eat things with a toothpick. It was my best Super Bowl ever! I had so much fun watching Evie run around doing her touchdown, dancing to the halftime show and eating her dessert. We made ice-cream sundaes for dessert. Evie's favorite part were the M&M's. She takes after me because I love M&M's too.