Monday, December 31, 2012

3 months!

Our sweet Evie is now 3 months old! (or was last Thursday...)
Hard to believe she is already 3 months.  So here are some things about our little girl at this stage...

*She is not the best sleeper...well--I take that back.  She is a great sleeper when she gets held.  When she is put down, not so much.  She will occasionally take a good nap during the day in her swing or even her bed, but most days she cat naps or mommy snuggles on the couch with her to get a good nap in.
And at night...oh my.  She likes to snack we shall say.  We still get up multiple times during the night, with an occasionally night she sleeps well (meaning she wakes maybe just 1 time or so), but most nights she is up more.  She will sleep eventually...right??? :)

*She is starting to bat at toys. It is super cute.   She stares at the toys hanging above her on her little play mat and has started to bat her hands at them.

*We won't go to the doc for a check up this month, but according to our scale she is about 10 pounds or so.  Woohoo for double digits! :)

*Evie loves her big sister.  She smiles so much at her and will just sit and watch her play.  It so fun to see them loving each other so much!

We love our little one so much and are soaking up this precious time with her!


Saturday, December 29, 2012

Pictures...

I am getting around to uploading pictures from the last few weeks!  Here is a sampling:

 SK dressing herself for church on her own...ain't she cute :)
 Making salt dough ornaments with Molly!
 She got a nerf gun for Christmas :)
 Gingerbread houses with friends
 Sitting with Uncle Michael and Ali at Haven's school program in Alabama
 Me and my hubby!
 Cousin Kenzie with "her baby"
 Mimi with her 4 granddaughters!
 Crafting it up at Mimi's!
 Evie's baptism
 Cheese! with Nana and Papa!
 Baking gingerbread cookies with Nana!
 Gosh she sure is a beautiful baby :)
 Family photo on Christmas Eve
 Christmas Eve with Nana and Papa
 Snuggles with Uncle Jeremiah!
Painting in Nana's studio!

So there ya go!  An overload of pictures! 

Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas in Alabama!

We got back to St. Louis yesterday after a whirlwind trip to Alabama.  We were able to spend a week in Alabama seeing family and friends and it was so nice!  I wish it could have been longer, but we enjoyed what we got :)
We were very thankful that we were able to fly instead of driving to Alabama.  The girls did great on the airplane!  It is a bit more stressful to fly with little ones, but at least it is quick (only a 1 hour flight!). The flight going down was a bit rough with wind and took off late (they had to de-ice the plane before we took off).  SK said her tummy felt "Flipsy flopsy!" but she did great.  Evie nursed more most of the flight so no one barely knew she was even on the plane :)  The flight back was about the same but no winds. so much more smooth of a flight.  It was a bit early though...we had to get the girls up at 4:30 a.m. to make it to the airport, and even then we were close to missing our flight!
Back to the time in Alabama...
We started out the first part of the trip at my mom's house.  It was fun to get to introduce Evelyn to the family that hadn't met her yet.  I think one of the cutest things was how my niece, MacKenzie, was so fascinated with her.  She kept calling Evie, "my baby".  She would say "I wanna hold my baby!"  She would sit there and hold Evie for a long time while the other girls ran around and played.  She chose to hold Evie as long as we would let her instead of playing.  And she asked me, "Can I pet her?".  It was precious!  We loved seeing our girls loved on so much!
Then on Sunday we went to our home church and Evie was baptized.  I love that we were able to have her baptized while we were in town.  It was so very special to us.  Evie wore the same dress that SK wore, which was my gown when I was a baby.  Evie slept through most of the baptism.
It was great to see our friends at church and we got to spend a little more time at lunch afterwards too, but we wish we would have had more time to see them more.
We then spend the second half of our time seeing MIchael's family.  It was fun to see Lauren and Jeremiah and introduce them to Evie as well!  SK had fun making a birthday cake for Jesus (though the cake did end up falling apart and we had to remake one...) and gingerbread cookies!
We went to our church's Christmas Eve service.  What an awesome time it was to spend celebrating Jesus coming to this earth to save his children.
We had so much fun in Alabama and miss everyone there greatly...
I haven't uploaded pics, so they will come later today or tomorrow!

Monday, December 17, 2012

10...

1--We leave in T-minus 3 days for Alabama!  Have I started to pack yet??? nope.  I shall blog instead and make lists of things to do before leaving and things that I need to pack...

2--We are now officially cloth diapering Evie!  Woop whoop :)

3--We have been up to some fun pinterest projects.  I would show you, but then Grandparents would see what they were getting for Christmas before we get there...

4--I am making "refried" beans in my crockpot today.  I will let you know how they turn out, but I am crossing my fingers that they are good, cause there are tons of them in there!

5--SK is such the little actress.  As I type, she is back in my room pretending that she is the momma with her animals.  Always playing a role around here.

6--Michael and I recently got into Downton Abby.  We got season 1 from the library and watched it in 2 days.  Now we are waiting to get season 2 (we are on the waiting list at the library for it...) and I am dying to see it!

7--I have recently discovered Trader Joe's salted caramel Chai Latte.  Amazing.  Truly Amazing.

8--It's rainy and wet outside today.  And cold.  Makes me want to drink a warm drink (#7) and watch something on the tube (#6)...

9--I am running my dishwasher for the second time today.  And we haven't even made it to dinner time yet.

10--DId I mention that we go to Alabama in 3 days!!  Must. Go. Pack....

right after that warm drink and cuddles with the napping baby :)

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Ballet Christmas Party

Haven't blogged any this week...sorry.  We have been too busy being sick I guess to do anything else :(
Last week it was the coughs and sniffles, now we are getting past a stomach bug.
Let's see if I can catch up a little now.

Tuesday was SK's last ballet class for the semester so they had a little Christmas party and showed us a cute dance too!  She was a cutie of course!  Evie was a good little sister too and watched very sweetly :)

On to the pics...



SK's outfit is cute right?!?  It was actually mine from when I was about her age!  Isn't that fun :)  She wears it all the time these days dressing up around the house and I love it!
Evie is looking like a "polar bear" according to SK in her warm outfit.  That outfit we have found is also so cozy for Evie that it puts her right to sleep.

Alright...hopefully more blogging to come soon!

Monday, December 3, 2012

1 more thing...

I promise I won't keep rambling about this subject, really...
But, Michael is currently taking a CS Lewis class here at Covenant.  Last week in class his professor talked about a couple essays that Lewis had done regarding Christmas.  Michael got the book today and we just read them.  They are short little essays, but say much :)
If you have a few minutes read them.  I found them quite interesting and thought provoking...
I would love to hear what you think too!
Here are the 2 essays:
XMas and Chrismas

and

What Christmas means to me

okay...maybe I will move on to something else for the next blog...:)

Fighting a battle...

I feel as though this year we are fighting an uphill battle.  Every year seems this way to a degree, but for some reason, it feels even more this year.   This year, I am just fed up with how we have mutilated what Christmas is supposed to be.  We have warped Christ's birthday (not that his birthday is even on Dec. 25th...) into this crazy frenzy of buying the perfect present for so in so and running around like crazy doing so many things.  It honestly has just really ticked me this year.
It's a fight to try to go against the norm.  Some days I truly feel like it is a battle we will never win.  If I am being honest.
I just have to keep trying though, because I know the truth.  I know that what we as a nation and as the world have turned Christmas into is completely jacked up and wrong.
Christmas isn't about the gifts or the festivities.  It's supposed to be about Christ and Christ alone.
Does that mean we don't do fun things...no.  We do.  We choose though to make it about Christ.  The fact that HE came down from heaven to save a wretched sinner like me is something to celebrate and be thankful for.
I am not meaning to get on a soap box, and I know that there are those of you who might disagree with me.  And that's ok.  We are just doing what we feel is important for our family to be able to focus on Christ and not ourselves.  Are we doing it perfectly...nope, far from it actually.  We are failing daily, but we keep on striving for Christ to be the center of our home.
We want SK and EJ to know that Christmas is about Christ and not about us.  It isn't about presents or Santa or the lights or the movies...
I wish I could write more eloquently about my heart behind this.  I hope I don't come across as arrogant and a know it all or a goody-two-shoes.  That isn't my heart.  I know we aren't perfect and are jacked up people.
I do love what a friend recently posted on facebook regarding her family's thoughts on Christmas (esp. talking about Santa).  I wanted to post it here, not only to share, but also to have it to look back on for myself.  She writes so beautifully as I wish I could :)  and I am so glad she shared.

There is a secret to Christmas. And, dare I say it, the secret doesn’t involve Santa. The secret takes you to a place deeper, supremely magical and delightful. It is midnight blue, it is glorious, it is still and quiet; and it profoundly changes you. Are Evan and I the scrooges of Christ
mas? Our children know that Santa isn’t real! But, you know what? So did I. And it was beautiful. The beauty lasted until...today. It didn’t end when I became a certain age. The intimacy of a baby Savior born, the beauty of angels, the quiet of the deep starlit night never seemed so poignant - so mysterious and magical - as Christmas. As a little girl I put on play clothes and imagined angels appearing to Mary and the shepherds; I imagined a baby in a manger; I imagined what it was like to be wrapped in the lowing of cattle in the still, night air. I also pretended to BE Mary and an angel. I adored the melodies. And now I see it. Was it not a child’s meditation on the birth of our Savior?
Our mythological Santa Claus has warped Christmas into some kind of horrible orgy of presents, and traffic jams and harried mothers. He has stolen away the deep, deep magic of Aslan, (excuse me), God. So don’t lament my children their absence of belief in Santa. They’ll take their childhood play, music and imagination with them into adolescence and adulthood. They’ll learn that it is not pretend, but that it is True. It will remain after they put aside childish things. It will remain after doubting and testing. They’ll come full circle into the wonder of Christmas. They’ll look back to their childhood and reflect that their play was deeper, the arts deeper and the traditions deeper than cultural whims; that it is steeped in something solid and beyond the imagination. It will whisper to them in the wintry sky as they wonder as they wander out under the sky. Because it does to me. And it did to my dad. And it has done that to generations.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that we have a tendency to idealize Christ’s birth. I understand that Mary was probably shunned, the animals probably stunk and the Magi weren’t present on Christmas day. But what is all of that from Heaven’s perspective? I bet Mary considers all of that nothing compared to the unimaginable goings-on in Heaven at that time. So I figure, we will learn just how profound and beautiful and tantamount that event really was. And it will blow anything I imagined as a child out of the water.




Well said, my friend, well said.  

Saturday, December 1, 2012

EJ's 2 month stats

Our sweet Evie Joy is 2 months old and I can hardly believe it!  I love this precious newborn stage (though the lack of sleep is not necessarily fun...).  I am so thankful for these precious moments with her and am trying to soak in every moment with her.
I remember this time last year....unsure that we would ever be able to have any more biological children.  That was hard.  It was a time that the Lord definitely used to grow my faith and push me to put my faith in him more than ever before.
This time last year we were on our second round of clomid and it hadn't worked.  I was devastated.  Truly devastated.  Yet I knew in my heart that God was and is still good and loved me.  I knew that HE had good plans for me and for our family.  We prayed so long and hard to be able to have more children and here I sit...holding this precious life.
I am so thankful to our heavenly father that He would give us so a beautiful precious little girl.

Moving on to her stats...
We went to the doctor yesterday for her 2 month check up and we are at a whopping 8 lb. 6 oz!!!  I know for many, that still is very small, but she is growing so well :)  She might be in the 3rd or less percentile for her weight, but she is growing at a good pace and is doing great!  I am so thankful that we were able to figure out this whole nursing thing and get to a place where she is able to just nurse and not need supplements any longer :)
She was 22.5 inches long putting her in the 35%!  What can I say...I guess Michael and I produce tall skinny kiddos ;)
She is really starting to smile lots and cooing.  She especially loves when her sister lays with her and they get to "talking".  She is such a happy baby :)
She, like her sister, spits up plenty...boo.  We were hoping she wouldn't, but oh well.  She doesn't do it enough to be a problem and it doesn't bother her which is nice, but man...we can go through so many outfits each day.  Not just hers, but mommy's too.  It's like she knows how to aim over a burp cloth and get it all over my clothes instead.
She loves to be held...and we don't mind that right now at all.  I am sure one day we will want to be to able to take a nap in her bed, but for now it is alright.  She sleeps best during the day if I put on my moby wrap and let her sleep in there.  We call it her "happy place".  Guaranteed sleep when she goes in it :)
For fun, let's compare the girls:


First pic is SK at about 2 months and second pic is EJ at 2 months :)  What do you think?  Not the best pics to compare, but it will have to do...
For fun...here is one more smiling picture I captured recently!

Off to snuggle with EJ for a little Sat. afternoon nap before the SEC championship game later!


Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Thanksgiving Weekend!

I am finally getting around to uploading pics from our weekend...
So here ya go:

Thanksgiving dinner with our Seminary Family!


We found our tree!!  First time to go and cut one down as a family!


SK helping Daddy cut down the tree!



Riding back after cutting down our tree! 

SK is all about sitting like a "lady" these days :) 

The tree is decorated!  

There ya go!  EJ goes to the doc on Friday for her 2 month checkup so I will hopefully update yall then about her :)

Sunday, November 25, 2012

10 randoms...

How about a good ole random post to entertain me during a middle of the night feeding :)


1--Evie Joy is a good sleeper for the most part.  She isn't a rockstar sleeper like Sarah Kate was, but she does pretty good and I think more like what most babies do.  She wakes up 2 times a night, sometimes only 1 time :)  I like those nights for sure!  The girl love to cuddle though...she would probably sleep through the night if I let her sleep laying on me!

2--I like calling her "Evie Joy" more lately...not sure what will stick.  Everyone asks and I am still not sure.  Sarah Kate says no to "Evie Joy" and says she just likes to call her "Evie", and that would be with a soft "E" not a hard "E"...does that make sense???  I guess to each their own for now as far as what she is going to go by :)

3--She is starting to find her hands.  When she is laid on her back and in a good mood, you will see her raise her hands and stare at them with such wonder.  It is so cute :)

4--There are 2 weeks (then finals week...) of school left for Michael!  Woohoo.  Really.  I am pumped for Christmas break!  I am excited to get some down time (at least as far as MIchael's classes go...) and I am excited to go to Alabama and introduce everyone down there to our newest little one!

5--I went last week to order my passport.  I can't believe our trip to England is coming up in about 3.5 months.  Crazy!  We still have to get Evie's birth certificate before ordering her a passport too.  

6--I love the smell of real Christmas trees.  We went Friday to cut down a real tree for the first time.  MIchael and I have always used a fake pre-lit tree since we got married, but decided this was a good year to take SK to cut one down.  I remember loving doing that when I was a kid :)  She had a blast doing it!

7--I like dates with my hubby.  We got to sneak away on Friday too for a little lunch date.  I like him.  I like to sit and chat just the 2 of us without a cute little 4 year old jumping in the conversation and interrupting every 10 seconds...she sure is cute though :)  

8--I like hot drinks this time of year so much :)  Trader Joe's spicy chai latte is amazing.  So is their peppermint hot chocolate.  Yum.

9--I wish we had a fireplace.  I like fire :)

10--I was to do some crafts with SK soon.  Pinterest gives me so many ideas...I just need the energy to do them...oh, and the supplies.  I really don't like going to the stores this time of year.  Not at all.  Not even the grocery store really.  

Alright...good timing.  Here's to hoping to go back to sleep for a bit now...night, night :)

Monday, November 19, 2012

Cuddles and Fun

First off...how cute are these 2 girlys :)

Ok...moving on.
We had a fun weekend here last weekend, including going with some friends to Kirkwood to a little holiday event they were having.  SK loves being with friends and had a blast playing with her buds!  They were giving out hot chocolate and hot dogs (yep...at 9 in the morning, my child scarfed a hot dog!)
After playing for a bit, the crowd settled down and we waited in line to see Santa and get a pic :)
For those of you who have followed my blog, in years past I have talked about how we have chosen for our family to not do the Santa thing, but we aren't going to pretend that he doesnt exist at all...does that make sense?  We are trying to show that he is similar to other fun characters like Tangled or Snow White.  We are planning and have tried to show Sarah Kate (and Evelyn as she gets older) how St. Nicholas was really a cool dude back in his day.  Our hope for our children is to make Christmas about what it is actually supposed to be about, CHRIST!  It really makes us sick how we have really massacred Christ's birthday.  We have made it a time where we celebrate everything but Christ.  We worry and stress over get togethers, events, gifts, ect.  The gift thing has really bugged us this year.  We have realized this year that SK was beginning to get really excited about the gifts this year and not about celebrating Christ.  Our hope this year is to make the time we spend celebrating "Christmas" is spent focussing on our Savior.
So ways we are trying to do this:
--We will again do our Jesse Tree like we have in years past (You can check out my blog from 2 years ago and see how we do it if you are interested)
--We don't do Santa.  We don't want to talk about everything Sk sees at the store is a good "idea for her Christmas list".
--We have really slimmed down the decorations over the last few years.  The year before we moved, we didn't have a tree or any decoration in our house.  Do we sound Bahhumbug ish?  It was a lovely Christmas really.  We loved it in a lot of ways.  We did our Jesse Tree and that was it.  That year we decided to get rid of many of our decorations for many reasons.  We want to simplify.  It works for our family and helps us to focus on Christ.

Now don't take this wrong.  We know every family finds things that work for them.  We are not here to judge or think that our way is the best or only way things should be done.  We just find these things have helped us.
We do see the importance to step back sometimes and look at why we do the things we do.  I encourage you to do that.  I think it is good to take a step back and say, "Why do we give gifts at Christmas?" or "Why do we decorate Christmas trees?" or there are a multitude of questions you could ask.
I think for us we realized that there might not be a good reason sometimes.  Even getting off the subject of Christmas, we have done the same stepping back and regrouping at how we are approaching our parenting.  One big thing we have looked at this week is looking at rules we were enforcing in our household that weren't there for any other reason except for our selfishness.  We have learned that if we can't give a good reason for having a particular rule in our home then we don't need to have it.  For instance...A rule to obey us is important, but a rule to not play in ways that just might annoy us or get in our way of doing what we want to be doing is not good.  We must always ask ourselves why we are doing what we're doing rather than just doing what everyone else does or what we think is convenient.  We can be selfish people sometimes, if I am completely honest.

Anyways, that is enough rambling.  It might be a bit scattered, so sorry.  That is what you get when you are still waking in the middle of the night and holding a baby while blogging too :)
I will end with some cute pics of our fun last Sat. that I started out talking about before going off rambling...


 good friends hold hands right :)  Young and old...

Monday, November 12, 2012

By Hand Boutique!

If you are in the Birmingham area, you should make plans now to go this Saturday to the By Hand Boutique in Moody!  I wish I could be there to do some Christmas shopping...sad sad.
I did get a chance to make some baby doll carriers to try to sell there....so if you are looking for the perfect gift for your little girl (or niece, or friends little girl...), go get one!  They would make the perfect Christmas gift!  And while you are there, I know there will be lots of other awesome stuff for sell too!
And if you are wanting to have a baby doll carrier and won't be able to make it to the Boutique, let me know!  I can make one for ya!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was both a vey special and a very messed up day.  We got to celebrate a little boys 5th birthday.  That was special.  The part that was messed up about it was that sweet little boy wasn't at the celebration.  You see...he is in heaven.  That isn't the way that it is supposed to be.  He should have been here celebrating and blowing out his own birthday candle.  He should have been the one opening presents and playing with buddies.  But he wasn't and that is screwed up.
Let me tell you about some dear friends of ours.
After moving on campus last year, I started a pilates class with some ladies here on campus.  I met Elizabeth via that and before we really ever met in person I found her blog.  And I stalked it for many hours reading her story.  Sobbing while I read it and amazed at it.  When we finally talked, we realized we had both read each other's blog and found that we had similar stories of having lost little ones way too early.  We immediately connected and became good friends.  It has been so awesome for our families to become so close over the last year.
Elizabeth and Chris were waiting for Owen's arrival 5 years ago.  Then one day when she was about 36 weeks she didn't feel him moving in her tummy.  She went in for an ultrasound and he was gone.  A couple days later they would deliver him at the hospital and hold his lifeless body and instead of bringing home their precious son they had to say goodbye to him.  That is jacked up.  That isn't the way it should have been.
Elizabeth is very honest in her blog and I love that about her.  She writes beautifully also.  It is amazing to see her struggles with the loss of her son and see how the Lord has worked in and through her.
I can see marks of how their story has shaped who they are.  God has and is using their story to bring glory to himself.
One day, not soon enough, we will all get to meet sweet Owen.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.  That day will be awesome.  I long for the day when all things will be made perfect again.  When there won't be separation and pain like this.
So yesterday was not how it should be, but it was a beautiful time that I could see God's love through.  We started out the party with a balloon release (which they have done every year).  Then we headed in for mexican food and cupcakes.  It was also a special time to get to talk to Sarah Kate about sweet Owen and how he was in Heaven and how we would get to meet him one day.
Happy Birthday, Owen!  I can't wait to get to meet you :)



Here is Elizabeth's blog if you wanna go check her out!  Hope you don't mind me talking all about you, Elizabeth :)  Love you friend!

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Mimi's VIsit

Mimi came last weekend for a visit and we had so much fun!  Mimi got lots of cuddle times with Sarah Kate and Evie :)  It was a good weekend and went by too fast!  Now we are counting down the days till we get to Alabama for Christmas!
So here's a few pictures from our weekend!  We didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked...I guess we were too busy just enjoying the moments and soaking in our time together!
Love you Mimi and can't wait to see you again!




Mimi did come at a great time, since EJ decided to start smiling and cooing the day she came.  Michael was holding Evie that morning (she was exactly 5 weeks) and she started to smile at him and continued doing it at times throughout the weekend :)  She is learning her voice too, cooing at us!  It is precious and we are soaking it up right now!  And we are glad Mimi got to see it while she was here!


Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Sister love!


SK loves her sister :)  I love that she loves her sister so much.  A couple things I don't want to forget:
--SK does such a sweet job of consoling her sister when she is upset.  She will rock her if she is in her carseat (like if we are getting ready to go out somewhere), or in the car she will give her the paci and soothe her by going "shhh....shhhh.....shhhh"
--She also loves to sing to her.  My favorite is when she sings "Jesus loves you" but instead of saying "you" she changed it to "Jesus loves Evelyn", so anytime in the song it says "You" normally, she sings "Evelyn" instead.  It is pretty precious to hear her sing that to her sister.
--At bedtime she likes to hold her sister when we do bedtime prayers.  Then she asks if Evie can lay in her bed with her for a minute before she goes to sleep.  Most of the time, Evie loves it and just stares at her sister :)


Trick or Treating fun!

Last week we had a fun night with friends on Halloween.  We started out the day with all of our friends in our building watching Charlie Brown and decorating sugar cookies.  Sarah Kate could hardly wait all day to get dressed up in her costume.  This year she had quite an opinion on what she wanted to dress up as.  It started about a month ago when she said she wanted to dress up as Batman, then it progressed to other characters including: Robin (Batman's friend), Ariel, Tangled (yet again), and then we finally landed on Snow White.
After having some fun with our neighbors upstairs we headed to our place to eat a quick bowl of chili, then outside to the annual Parade of Costumes.  There as so many kids living on campus and it is really fun to see all of the cute costumes!  The kids parade around the playground, then go trick or treating to all of the apartments on campus.  After all of that fun, we headed out with friends to a neighborhood for some more trick or treating!
Sarah Kate really got into it this year and we had to tell her to slow down after each house since she was literally sprinting to the next house as quick as she could.  It was fun to see her get so into it this year, but now I have a bowl full of candy that causes "issues" everyday.  She just doesn't understand why the candy can't be eaten throughout the day all day...
So now the pictures..







On a side note...notice how SK makes goofy faces with Mommy and Daddy pictures.  Yep, that is all she will do lately.  Goofy kid.