All Dressed Up and Ready for Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! It's just around the corner and we are so excited! Last Christmas was fun with Evelyn, but this Christmas will be even better. Evelyn knows how to open presents now, so it will be a lot of fun.

My pregnancy is going very well. I'm about 30 weeks pregnant now (can you believe it?) and I'm due March 4th. I have a feeling it will sneak up on us just as fast as Christmas did. Why does time seem to fly by so much faster when you're a parent?

We hope everyone is having a wonderful season and we hope to see you soon.

Num Nums

Our day at the Cider Mill

Bathtime!

We had our Ultrasound and....

Happy Birthday, Evelyn!

Evelyn opening gifts at her party

Evelyn is a year old! Where did the time go?? Didn't I just give birth to her last week?

How Evelyn has grown...

She's now an actual toddler. She's walking all over the place and gets into anything she can get her little hands on. She crawls up stairs pretty well. She's really good at figuring out how stuff works. She says, "dog," but that's the only word she will use so far. She LOVES our dog, Addie...but poor Addie (we call her our cat-dog) wants absolutely nothing to do with Evelyn. She is growing and developing SO fast...I have to remember not to blink.

What she loves....

Her duckie stuffed animal, of course. She loves that darn thing. She also loves her book that plays music from Carrie. She loves three commercials on tv...Stanley Steamer, Hansons, and Empire Carpet. Don't ask me why. Whenever those commercials come on, she stops whatever she's doing and focuses on the tv. The only show she watches is Yo Gabba Gabba on Nick Jr. If you haven't seen that show, you MUST tune in. It is honestly the weirdest show I've ever seen, but when it comes on, she's glued to the tv for the entire time it's on. Thanks, Lindsey, for telling me about the show, " uh break it down!" LOL! When it comes to food, Evelyn loves yogurt...any flavor. She also loves any kind of bread or potato...a carboholic. If we give her our pizza crust, she's in heaven. Oh, and she absolutely LOVES to dance. Whenever one of her toys plays a song, she "dances" (well, it's more like head-banging, but whatever). It' really cute. And, the one thing she loves the most?? DADDY!! We have a full-blown daddy's girl on our hands.

What she DOESN'T love...

The vacuum! She is terrified of the vacuum. That's okay, mommy doesn't like cleaning anyway. She's not fond of the basement. I'm not sure why. That makes life kind of difficult since our laundry business is in the basement and I need to go down there several times a day. She doesn't like it when I leave the room, either. I'm hoping she'll grow out of that soon.

Well, it's been a WONDERFUL year with Evelyn. I'm looking forward to what's to come. THANK YOU to all of you who came to Evelyn's party. And Evelyn thanks you for all the great birthday gifts! She's been having sooo much fun playing with all of them (and mommy's been having fun dressing her in all her new cute outfits). :)

BIG NEWS!!!!

For those of you who who haven't heard.....

Evelyn is going to be a BIG SISTER!!!!!!

Jason and I are VERY excited to be expecting another little bundle around March 4th. So far, this pregnancy is a little different from my last pregnancy. I'm not as tired as I was with my first and I have "evening sickness." I wasn't queezy at all with my first pregnancy, which I am now realizing was a huge blessing. Hopefully it won't last the whole time.

I don't think reality has completely hit us yet. We know we're going to have two babies under a year and a half...but I don't think we really *know* what we're in for. It should be interesting!

Happy First Father's Day, Jason!

Pretty flower


Pretty girl


Father's Day - Mandy and George having a friendly grass race.....


Mandy WON the grass race!



Happy Birthday, James!! Evelyn LOVES her Uncle James!

Swinging at the park

First Time in the Pool

Memorial Day Weekend at our Family Cottage

Rondeau Park, Ontario

This was a great weekend....a ton of fun. It was Evelyn's first time at the cottage and she seemed to love it.



Mike grilling up the most awesome venisen I've ever had. Those tenderloins and brats where amazing!


Xavier smiling although he probably had a mouth-full of sand



Allison lounging on the porch eating some cheese....now THAT's the life.

Evelyn and Allison playing in their new playpen

Evelyn's first experience in the sandbox

Eric and Allison...cuddling at the cottage.

Grandma and Sister Mary Louise enjoying some lunch

Grandma and Evelyn hanging out near the grill

Evelyn getting ready to munch on a graham cracker (the boo boo on her face was from an unfortunate incident with a straw)

Ian and Evelyn playing

It was a wonderful weekend at the cottage. We all enjoyed ourselves regardless of the rain. I loved watching Evelyn look around at all the new things and just take it all in. I'm sure the fresh air did her some good.

Her 9 month update is coming soon....stay tuned...

~Mandy

8 months

MMMMmmmmm Pickle!


Standing up (with her tooshie out)



Munching on some Zwieback toast


Wow! Evelyn has had quite a week of "first times." The first day, she stood while holding on to her activity table. The next day, she pulled herself up to her activity table. The day after that, she held my hands and put one foot in front of the other to "walk" to daddy. And the day after that, she got up on her hands and knees (and was close to crawling). It's been crazy! It's almost like she just decided to develop at a rapid speed all of a sudden. I see the need for "baby proofing" is in our near future. She'll be on the move in no time.

Has it been SEVEN months already?

Where has the time gone? Over half a year has gone by since Evelyn's been born. Can you believe it? 'Cause I can't!!

As you can see, she's sitting up on her own. She also makes new sounds like "ga ga da da ba ba bfffffffffffffft" which translates to: "Daddy, please change my poopy diaper." (That's MY translation, anyway).

She continues to investigate the world around her. One interesting thing I've learned about her is that she doesn't like overly sweet stuff. I've given her a taste of ice cream a couple of times and she made an awful face. It was like she wanted to say, "Hey...skip that sweet stuff and bring on the peas." I would really like her to stay that way, but I'm sure that'll change. She loves her veggies. When I feed her peas, green beans, carrots..whatever, she makes "num num" sounds. I just love that.

She's laughing a lot more, too. Daddy gets her belly-laughing by rubbing his face into her ribs or nibbling on her feet. Watching her is hilarious...she can hardly catch her breath. She likes it when I hold a stuffed animal above her while she's laying in her crib. I hold it up, wiggle it, then drop it on her. It cracks her up almost every time.

She's just now learning how to hold her own bottle. Just like anything else, it's like one day, she just *knows* how to do it. It's astounding to watch her strengthen and grow her abilities day by day. It really blows our minds.

Anyway, I'm sorry it's been a MONTH since I've updated our blog. We've been pretty busy with work, family parties, etc. and our day-to-day lives. I'll certainly try to be more vigilant, since many of you have expressed your appreciation of the frequent updates.

As always, we will be using this entire blog as part of Evelyn's baby book, so please...comment away...and don't forget to *sign* it so we know who you are.

Love,
Mandy

New Six Month Photos with her Cousin Faith

Here are some pictures of Evelyn at almost six months and Faith (our adorable neice - Ryan and Tena's sweetie) at almost 2 months. Tena and I talk about how the girls will (one day) go to the mall together to pick up boys, while Jason and Ryan discuss how the girls will get together to go to church and reseach how to enter the convent.

Five Months!!

Has it been five months already? I promised myself I wouldn't blink, but I guess I did. So much has happened in five months...I can't even begin to imagine what could happen in five years!! People have warned me that time flies at light speed when you have children, and they weren't kidding.

The days of rocking my tiny little baby are over. I no longer need to hold her little head as I pass her off to Daddy. I no longer need to sanitize each pacifier each time it hits the floor (since she sticks everything in her mouth anyway), I no longer need to sneak into her room to see if the blankets go up and down with each breath. My little teeny newborn is graduating to true babyhood...and the fun is just beginning.

Some things we've learned about Evelyn:

She smiles easily...especially if we lift her over our heads or say "muh muh." She loves songs such as the "ABC's" and "I'm a Little Tea Pot." When Daddy walks in the room and says, "HELLOOOOOO miss EveLYNNN," she shrieks with delight. She sleeps from 7:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. (with exceptions, of course). She likes the book, "Where's Baby's Belly Button." She likes swinging side to side, not front to back. She likes most of her toys...only if she can jam them in her mouth, of course. She thinks it's hilarious when we raise our voices. She gets fussy if she doesn't get the sleep she needs. She doesn't like Dr. Suess books (yet). She smiles as soon as she wakes up. She hates tummy time. She loves laying on the back of the couch to watch the cars drive by. She laughs when something cold hits her lips. She doesn't care if her diaper is dirty or not (which should make potty training interesting). She's not much of a cuddler, but she loves to be held up high on my shoulder and watch what's going on.

It's been a lot of fun getting to know her. And, like I said, the fun is just beginning. Thanks for reading and please leave comments. I'll be using this blog as part of her baby book.

Love,
Mandy

Merry Chirstmas!!

Evelyn opens a gift from Grandma Roberts