Barker Family Blog

World of Pinterest

2012-01-17T09:43:00.000-05:00

A while back I got an invitation to join the website Pinterest. Pinterest is basically a site where you can have your own virtual "pin boards" to keep track of online ideas you see or other items that you like or that inspire you.

I went ahead and joined, but my boards sat empty for months. I didn't really understand the point and didn't really want to take the time to get too involved with it. After some prompting from friends I decided to log in again and just browse. There was a idea/project I had in mind that I wanted to do and I pretty much knew what I wanted it to look like, but I did want some help with inspiration and direction. I didn't know at first that you can search Pinterest for specific ideas--not only see the popular pins among your friends. This was cool.

I wanted to make some sort of small, pretty wreath, so I searched for that and many fun and pretty ideas popped up. Many of them were actual tutorials on how to make the wreaths myself (even better). I pinned a few to remember what I saw and which ones I liked. This was fun!

Once I decided on which tutorial I wanted to follow, I bought the supplies and got to work....

1 yard of fabric (the tutorial said you needed on yard. I should have bought a little more, but it worked out in the end).

Foam wreath form wrapped with strips of fabric and secured with a bit of hot glue.

The beginnings of my flowerets...made simply from strips of fabric I cut, folded and pinned directly onto the wreath, one right next to the other (to cover the pins).

Finished wreath.

Awhile ago a friend gave me an old window pane that was just sitting in her garage and it's been sitting in our shed for months...probably over a year actually and I had just never decided what to do with it. Kane helped me by tacking the ribbon to the back of the window before hanging it on the wall.

My dear husband always makes sure everything he hangs is perfectly centered and leveled. This is one of the many reasons I love him. His accuracy in math helps to make our home beautiful! Thanks, Babe!

Finished result---it's simple, but I'm very pleased with how it turned out.

And now that empty spot on the wall is no longer empty....thank you Pinterest!

(If anyone would like an invitation to Pinterest, I'm happy to send you one. Just let me know!)

Tuie's Asian Green Beans

2012-01-17T09:17:00.002-05:00

I made these Asian style green beans last night for the first time and they turned out great. They were really easy to make and very tasty. I plan to make them frequently in the future so I decided to share the recipe.

This is my mother in law's "recipe".

Tuie, they were delicious!

I used 1 bag of whole frozen green beans (I bought the Steamers bag, which allowed me to steam them in the microwave before finishing them on the stove).

1) Steam your beans, either on the stove top or in the microwave.

2) In a skillet heat 2 tsp. sesame oil with about 2 Tbls sesame seeds. (no beans in the skillet at this point).

3) Once oil and seeds are heated and sort of sizzling, add your (already steamed and drained) beans, 2 Tbls soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and about a 1/2 tsp minced garlic (more if you like garlic) and saute in the skillet for about 5 minutes. The soy sauce should soak into the beans so they aren't "swimming" and as you toss the beans the sesame seeds will sort of coat the beans.

Easy. Simple. Yummy. Enjoy!

Art Party---for our 6 Year Old!!!

2011-12-03T19:35:00.001-05:00

Today we celebrated Mara Kate's 6th birthday even though her actual birthday was this past Sunday. She is completely and totally into all things creative these days, especially drawing with pencils, crayons, markers, paint and cutting and pasting with felt or fabric to make pictures, so we decided the most appropriate kind of party would be an "art party' or an "artist party". She has been waiting over a month for the day to arrive and this morning she got to hang out with some friends and a some family she got to paint and she got to share and eat her cake---it was a fun morning for her! And, thanks to the help of Crissy Ward at Created By You, everything on my end was pretty stress free as well!

So before further ado...here are pictures...

Yes, it was a bit tedious to make 6 different colors of icing for such a little amount used, but it was totally worth it for my girl!

The artist with her cake. :)

Example painting Crissy painted for the kids to use as their example. Mara Kate was able to design what she wanted to paint and this is what she came up with!

Kane with Papa Dog

Mara Kate with sweet cousins Grant & Olivia.

Mara Kate with Tuie

Little sister, Evelyn hung with Papa Dog for most of the party...they even did a little shopping in the mall together. :)

Ready to PAINT!

The beginnings of their hot air balloon painting---they sort of resembled Mickey Mouse at this point. ha!

Sky done, working on her pastures.

Kids hard at work on their artwork.

Olivia with her "zebra" hot air balloon!

Other paintings---each one so unique and original!

Present time!

Evelyn snarfing down some cake with our dear neighbor and friend.

More cake!

Finished products! I loved them all!

Girls' artwork

Boys' artwork.


Mara Kate's finished painting already hung on the wall!

It was a great day!

November

2011-11-30T09:19:00.001-05:00

Life seems to remain in fast forward as we stay quite busy with home life, school, my part time job, Kane's job, travels and everything else in between.

So, here is my attempt to post about all our past month through pictures...I'm sure I've missed some of the happenings, but here are some November highlights.


We packed 2 boxes for Operation Christmas Child---something we try to do every year!

Finished our first soccer season with Mara Kate...she loved every minute of it!

Team Picture---Go Strikers!

MK with her friend MK (or MK squared as Kane calls them)...celebrating the end of soccer season with supper at Steak N Shake.

Beautiful tree in our front yard...loved the shadows on the ground this particular day.

Christmas wreath with added lime green berries to coordinate with our lime green front door. :)

GA Aquarium field trip with one of Kane's classes from Shorter.

With Deepo the aquarium mascot.

Attempt at a decent family shot...this is the best we got.

Evie loved seeing everything...even these colorful tropical fish.

Over Thanksgiving weekend in Knoxville I got to spend a little time with a dear childhood friend---it was great having a chance to catch up!

Kane's mom (Tuie) with her 3 grandchildren...snuggled together.

Nephew Brendan--3 months old. He is growing so fast!

MK creating a masterpiece while wearing her new artist's beret I made her for her b-day.

Mara Kate all bundled up after watching the Christmas parade in downtown Rome.

Evelyn warm and toasty too in her cute coat and hat. :)

Posing in front of the tree. I asked her to stand still and smile---was completely surprised she actually did it! :)

Checking out the ornaments.

MK's first felt art....she did this completely on her own...she sure does love doing anything creative!

Mom & Me Painting Class

2011-10-22T14:00:00.000-05:00

There is this really cool gal here in Rome has her own art/painting business. She holds classes all over North Georgia. She hosts private parties for children, adults---really anything you want to do, if it involves painting on a canvas, she's probably open to it!

Well, for several months I've been wanting to sign up for her "Mom and Me Painting Class". We finally found a date that would work and we were excited about the picture she would be painting so Mara Kate and I signed up to go.

In the meantime we have also decided that this is what we wanted to do for Mara Kate's 6th b-day party and after our painting experience with Crissy, I'm even more excited now. Here are some pictures of our morning together. It turned out that we were the only participants signed up for this particular class, so we sort of got to have a private lesson, which was really fun!

As part of the "package" the painter gets their own free drink from the coffee shop the classes are held in. Mara Kate chose a cherry frappe. :)

Getting started on our pumpkins. Mara Kate was really excited to be painting with a "real artist" since she wants to be an artist herself when she grows up.

We were both really happy with how our picture turned out.

In action!

Almost finished.

Already has a prominent place on our wall...if you look closely you can see our initials in the bottom right hand corner.

This was definitely a great way for me to get some one on one time with Mara Kate. She had a blast and came came home with a really nice piece of art too. We hope to do it again sometime and Mara Kate can't wait to paint along with a few of her friends to celebrate her 6th b-day too!

Evie-isms

2011-10-05T09:04:00.002-05:00

Evelyn Nadine, 16 months

Yesterday marked 16 months since Evelyn was born! She is officially a toddler and walking all over the place!

It amazes me how well she can communicate even though she can't actually talk or speak words clearly.

Below are the "words" in her 16 month old vocabulary:

Mama

Na-Na (I want it! whatever "it" is at the moment!) She says this A LOT! :)

Dada (she used to say this all the time, it was her first word in fact, but she has started calling Kane and I both mama recently. Although, sometimes she still calls Kane Dada.)

Dye-dye- (Bye-Bye, she usually says this in the mornings before Kane leaves for work---when she thinks it is time for him to leave. She'll go over to the door, point and wave at Kane and say, "dye-dye!") So cute. Kane always feels like she is rushing him out the door. ha!

Baby (she says this whenever she sees a picture of a baby or if she sees herself in the mirror, she'll point and say, "Baby").

BeBe (This sounds very similar to Baby, but she will say it when we point to the picture of Kane's sister's picture on our fridge. When we were in Knoxville recently Elizabeth taught her to say BeBe and when we got home she saw her picture and said it!)

Tuh-Tuh (Tucker, she says this when she sees her friend Tucker's picture.)

Glah (clock, I think she thinks this word is fun to say because she usually laughs whenever she says it.)

Lie (light, this was one of her very first words).

Nack (snack)

Ahh-duh (all done, she raises her arms above her head and says this whenever she is finished eating)

Ahhh! Ahhh! (off, she usually shouts this while pulling at the sleeve of her shirt or pjs. She knows when she wants to get undressed.)

There are so many other words and phrases she understands even though she can't say them. She can follow simple instructions. It is amazing how smart they are at such a young age!

A few phrases she understands:

Go to your chair (runs to her chair)

Do you want to take a bath? (she'll go running to the tub)

Go get your paci (she'll do just that)

Get a diaper (she will pick one out of her basket when it's time for a diaper change)

Where are your shoes? (She'll go find her shoes and bring them to me so I can put them on her feet).

Do you want to go outside or Do you want to go bye-bye? (She runs to the door or runs to get her shoes so she can go outside).

Sometimes she points to the front door or hits it while she says, "na-na"...like she is saying, "I want to go outside!

Go to Mara Kate's room (she'll go right to her door).

Do you want breakfast/lunch? She stops whatever she is doing and runs to her chair.

Last night it was bath night and Evelyn was already in the tub, but I hadn't started washing her yet. She picked up the little washcloth I had put in the water and started wiping her stomach....she was trying to wash herself! It was so cute. I love to see her "mimic" actions she has seen us do. She remembers what certain things are for.

If she gets her hands on a hairbrush, she will take it immediately to her hair and try to brush it.

I am sure there are other cute things she is doing right now that I just can't remember, but as you can see, she adds so much spunk, joy and fun to our life!

We are so thankful for you sweet, Evie Nadine! Praising God for 16 months of life and look forward to many, many more!!

Update Through Pictures

2011-10-04T12:47:00.001-05:00

Here are a few pictures from my last camera upload---just putting them on the blog to serve as an update of what we've been up to lately...

Evie with her cousin Lily during our last trip to Birmingham. Even though they are cousins they don't resemble one another in the slightest. ha! I pray these two will be best friends since they are only 4 months apart in age.

Hanging out in our awesome front yard a few weeks ago. Took a blanket, toys and books and just had a blast. Check out the amazing shade trees in our yard behind the girls.

All set for a walk in the neighborhood. She loves to honk her little horn on her car whenever we are strolling.

Recent Day trip to Atlanta. Mara Kate and I headed out early this past Saturday morning to spend the day in Atlanta....seeing friends, shopping and eating!

We spent the morning with my friend Katie and her daughter Ella Ann. The girls hadn't seen one another in too long, but they picked up right where they left off and played for almost 3 solid hours!

Next stop was Trader Joe's. Mara Kate had fun pushing around one of the child-sized carts! The small pumpkin in her cart was a treat I bought her for being so good all day while we ran lots of errands.

After Trader Joe's we met a friend at Pappasitos for a late lunch. I love this place and cannot go to Atlanta and not eat there. They brought MK a ball of tortilla dough to play with at the table...she made a person and the waiter even complimented her on her creativity!

The temps are dropping and we are ready for Fall! Love the crispness in the air. Evelyn got to try out some fleece pjs that belonged to Mara Kate. She loved them!

Almost time for bed!

Had to take a picture of her in this outfit. It was one I got at a consignment sale and it was one of my favorite finds for her. Leggings that match the onesie, a corduroy skirt.

...and we put a little purple butterfly clip in her hair to coordinate! She's growing fast! Also, if you look closely you can see 2 little scabs on her face...one on her nose and one on her forehead. She got these from taking a tumble the other day in our carport---poor girl!

Walking Pro

2011-09-27T18:52:00.000-05:00

Here is a video of Evie....as a pro walker! She is all over the place and she improves her balance everyday! Enjoy this glimpse into our family after dinner routine! (Bath time)!

Girls in Overalls

2011-09-23T13:08:00.000-05:00

Below are some pictures of Mara Kate at 15 months of age and below her are some pictures of Evelyn now, also at 15 months of age. They are both wearing the same cute overalls, so I thought it would be fun to post some contrasting pictures of the girls in the same outfit at the same age. The pictures of Mara Kate were taken in mid-March and the ones of Evelyn, mid-September (now).

It is so fun for me to look back at pictures of Mara Kate at the age Evelyn is now and of course it always surprises me how quickly we've gone from this young pudgy toddler to almost 6 years old! Time is flying!

Mara Kate


Mara Kate, 15 months

Happy Evelyn---the first thing she did was pick up a stick!

Such a big girl!

Sitting Pretty


Mara Kate now, just 2 months away from turning 6 and Evelyn at 15 months.	They sure love each other.

Soccer!

2011-09-14T07:47:00.000-05:00

Last year while Mara Kate was taking ballet a friend from church told her that he was playing soccer and that she could come watch him sometime. She said she wanted to do that, so they picked her up and she sat on the sidelines with his mom and little sister while he was on the field. At the end of practice the coach (who happened to be her friend's dad) invited her onto the field to "run" with the other team members. After she went to watch she was determined that she would play this year. So, when it was time to register for ballet again I asked her to think really hard about what she wanted to do because she couldn't change her mind later. She never wavered. Soccer was it! Her other friend from church and ballet also decided to play soccer and I know part of what swayed Mara Kate is that she wanted to be with her friends. So, yesterday was the first practice. We had bought the shin guards and socks and cleats for her to wear---she was all set! Practice wasn't until 5:30pm, but she wanted to put her cleats on right after lunch, she was so excited! :) I have to say I was a bit surprised at how well she did and how much fun she had! She looked like a natural out there and loved kicking, running, sweating, etc. It was great to see her getting exercise all while having fun with her friends.

Decked out in her soccer gear (several hours before practice time)

showing off her hot pink "swoosh" on her cleats!

Kick!

Thank you Mara Kate for stopping long enough

to pose for a picture for your dear old mom. :)

Kane came straight from work to watch her first practice.

Younger siblings played with toys on a blanket during practice.

Water break!

With her friend Mary Kate---they were in the same ballet class last year

and are now on the same soccer team this year! What fun!

Evie's Activities

2011-09-01T16:01:00.000-05:00

So while we are busy doing school or just living life, Evelyn is right there in the mix of everything. She is taking more steps daily, but still prefers her power crawl over walking because at this point it's still faster.

Here are a few photos I've taken of Evelyn over the past few weeks...she's at that age....you know, the age where she is getting into EVERYTHING!

She loves this screen door. She can stand there and just see out the window. She loves being able to see what's going on outside. Here she is watching Daddy change the oil.

Supper---not sure but you might be able to see her one tiny tooth in this pic, if you double click to zoom in. She loves meal times and even though she is becoming pickier about what she'll eat, she is still a better eater than her big sister has ever dreamed of being. :)

Does this picture even need a caption? 1) I'm not used to having a climber. MK never ever even tried to climb onto the dishwasher like this. 2) This isn't the only place I've found her on top of something...she has climbed multiple times onto child-sized chairs and stood completely up and yesterday she tried to climb the step ladder that Kane had out, but thankfully her little leg wasn't quite long enough to hoist herself up onto the first step....but, she sure gave it everything she had trying! 3) Love the way she has her arms...it's like, "What, Mom? Isn't this where I'm supposed to be sitting?! Love it!


Bringing the laundry down the hall to take it to the laundry room and Evelyn bummed a ride. She also rode it back to my closet once it was empty. I have to be careful not to wash shoes as one of her favorite activities is to crawl into my closet and take my shoes and throw them into the laundry basket one at a time!

She is a NUT and we are loving having her in our family, but as Kane and I have both said more than once, "We are in deep trouble!"

School Days

2011-09-01T15:30:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of Mara Kate during "school". We have been having so much fun together learning lots of things in very fun ways. I am so happy with the curriculum we chose for this year and if anyone is interested in it, I'd be happy to share more with you about it.

Our school year is off to a great start and we even went to a school showing of Charlotte's Web yesterday put on by Rome Little Theater. Kane was able to come home long enough to watch Evie so Mara Kate and I could go on that little field trip together. It was a special morning together.

Learning about blubber on whales, dolphins, etc. We slathered Crisco on one hand and compared which hand stayed warmer in the cold water....so just like blubber is an insulator to keep those animals warm, Crisco did the same thing on her right hand.

Art project---making a shield and "etching" symbols on it to remind us that God is our rock & our shield.


Math time-- learning addition sentences by adding up the pieces of fruit on each tree. And yes, she got to eat the fruit pieces once we were finished. Math is her favorite subject right now and maybe it has a little to do with getting fruit snacks before 10 am! :)

Science- learning about animals that live in other climates. Making her own model giraffe out of play dough.

This wasn't during school, but MK was "playing school" and she was writing addition sentences like she had been learning about in math.

More math---this time making addition sentences with "fireflies" on the pond or on the fence.

First Steps...

2011-08-23T12:49:00.001-05:00

Some of Evelyn's first steps...

Back to School

2011-08-11T11:26:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, today was Mara Kate's first day of Kindergarten...at home! We are excited about homeschooling again this year and we've already had lots of fun and it's only the first day!

This morning, before Kane left for work we gave Mara Kate a new back-pack with several new school supplies inside to help make today, her first day of official school a little more special and fun. Even though she is doing her school work at home we wanted her to have a new back pack to put her current school books and work in.

Here are some pictures of some of our morning school activities.

With Daddy before he left for work

Excited about her first day.

Looking to see what was in her new back-pack...she loved the princess notebook we'll be using for spelling words.

My BIG girl....growing up entirely too quickly!

All ready to begin. :)

During story time we are reading a biography together (About Benjamin West, an American artist), so today we learned what a biography was by having Mara Kate gather 5 items that would tell something about HER, just like the book we are reading tells true things about Benjamin West. Her 5 items were: A book, because she LOVES to look at books, A bag of yellow rice, because it's one of her favorite foods, a sheet of paper, because she loves to draw pictures, an ice cream cone (cut out of paper), because she loves ice cream and a game because she loves to play games!

Math time...matching numbers to the corresponding number word.

Writing her spelling words for this week. She did great!


Hard at work...practicing her handwriting.

We also did an activity to learn a bit about geography (and the 7 continents), phonics--reviewed in the book we began last year, history and the first pilgrims to come to America, poetry--we read a poem and talked about it and the Bible verse this week is Psalm 4:6 so we are working on memorizing that as well.

It was a wonderful first day of school and at lunch we talked a little bit about what she learned, what she had fun doing and what was a challenge for her....loving spending this focused time with my girl. :)

Oh, and little sister Evelyn went down for her morning nap about 15 minutes after we started school and slept until 11am, which worked out perfectly. I'm sure naps won't always go that smoothly, but I'm thankful on our first day we had lots of time to work together uninterrupted.

Thank you Lord for the opportunity to teach Mara Kate and watch her discover and learn many new things this year!

Summer Fun

2011-08-11T10:35:00.001-05:00

OK, before you go and get all excited....let me mention that this post and the next might be a fluke. I may or may not continue to blog of a regular basis. I love blogging and I love keeping my blog updated fairly often, but life has sped up and been busier since the addition of baby #2, so I'm making no promises about the state of this blog. I am hoping that now that Evelyn is past her 1st b-day I might find a bit more time to blog, but we'll all just have to wait and see about that.

But, today I have a bit of time and some pictures to share so I decided to write a post! Shocking, I know. :)

Today we officially started back to school with Mara Kate. Last year we did some pre-K stuff as well as a bit of Kindergarten stuff....so this year we are doing more Kindergarten and whatever else we can add in. We'll just take it at our own pace and have fun along the way.

But, since yesterday was sort of our "last official day of Summer" I was planning to take the girls to the pool one last time...but I called (am glad I did) and found out that they have already closed the pool on weekdays and are only open on Saturdays from now until Labor Day. (So, we are hoping to hit the pool on Saturday instead). But, since the girls were already in their swimsuits I decided to let them play in the hose. During our recent anniversary getaway trip to Destin, my mother in law was here taking care of the girls and she came up with this set up with the hose and sprinkler attachment...so I just set it all up again and let the girls splash around for awhile. They had a lot of fun!!!

Evie in her "tub" of water.

MK the model. Ha!

Such a happy girl---she loves the water!

Wow---look at that spray!

I think I'll touch it. :)


Now for a new trick...I'll stand up in the tub of water all on my own!	Look Mom!!

Soaking wet!

Ready to sit after standing.

Mother's Day

2011-05-08T13:34:00.000-05:00

Happy, Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother in law, my sisters and friends. I'm so thankful to have each one of you in my life!

I've had a wonderful day so far...it began with coffee and a cinnamon roll in bed followed immediately by cards from my girls and hubby as well as a little gift. We went to church and then walked down the street to a restaurant downtown...Johnny's Pizza. Yumm.

My gift---Ree Drummond's book. I love reading The Pioneer Woman's blog, so I'm excited about reading her book too. I plan on packing it in my beach bag and reading it in a couple weeks while looking out at the ocean!

Fresh flowers. :)

Me with my precious girls!

Love them so much and am so thankful I get to be their mommy.

29!

2011-05-07T08:40:00.000-05:00

Sign Mara Kate colored for Kane's birthday!

This past Tuesday was a special day at our house. It was Kane's birthday and our little family had a fun time celebrating together.

Mara Kate and I made one of Kane's favorite cakes (Creme de Menthe). We met him for supper after work, then came home for cake and presents. The girls each gave him a gift and I gave him a "coupon" to get some athletic shoes he has been wanting.

You can't see the individual candles in the top photos, but there were 29 of them and yes, some of them were pink (sorry, Babe, I'll try to plan a little better next time). I guess pink candles is what happens when you are the only man in a house of 3 girls. ha!

Thankfully it didn't phase him at all!

Kane, you better live it up this year, the last year in your 20's! Take my advice---your older and wiser wife. :)


Evie was very curious about the fire on the cake! :)

On the Move

2011-04-20T21:12:00.000-05:00

For family and friends far away...who haven't seen Evie since she's been on the move!

Special Delivery

2011-03-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

Awhile ago Mara Kate and I had a conversation about Fancy Nancy and just how much she loved being fancy just like Fancy Nancy is in all of her books. While we were talking I suggested that she could write the author of the Fancy Nancy books and let her know just how much she enjoyed all of her books and other Fancy Nancy things (pencils, stickers, books, dress up clothes, dolls, etc). I even mentioned that the author might enjoy hearing about the Fancy Nancy birthday party she had as well. Mara Kate thought I was crazy for thinking she could actually send a letter to to "someone we didn't even know"! But, I told her I thought we could as long as we could find an address to send it to!

So, we looked online and we did indeed find an address where you could send fan mail to the publishing company so we decided we'd give it a try.

At first Mara Kate was hoping that I would actually write the letter and she could just tell me what to say and I did consider doing it this way, but then I decided this would be a great way for her to get in some handwriting practice. So, she decided what she would want to say, I wrote it and then she copied it. It took her about 4 days of working on it during her usual hand-writing time and she was so proud of herself when she was finished. I was proud of her too that I decided to make a copy of her letter before mailing it so we'd have a record of all that hard work:

page 1

page 2

After she was finished composing her letter we enclosed a picture of her all dressed up as fancy as can be at her birthday party with her tiered cake and we sent it off to New York City!

I wasn't sure if we'd here anything back, but last week Kane got the mail and came inside and showed me an envelope addressed to Mara Kate that was stamped New York, NY!

Mara Kate asks everyday, "Did I get any mail?".

Today the answer was, "Yes, you did!" :)

from New York, NY!

What is it?!


So excited to have her own letter from the lady who created Fancy Nancy!

The letter!

We'll be saving this one for a long time.

Spring Break

2011-03-28T20:15:00.001-05:00

Kane recently had a week off during Shorter's Spring Break and we really wanted to do something memorable and fun....so we invited ourselves to go to Kane's family's cabin in North Carolina along with his parents and sister and brother in law. They already had plans to go in celebration of Elizabeth's birthday, but since it worked out that Kane had some time off the week prior to the cabin trip we asked if we could tag along.

We headed to Knoxville early in the week and hung out there for a couple of days. On Thursday Kane, Evelyn and I headed to the mountains and spent one night at the cabin on our own. Evelyn went to bed fairly early and Kane and I enjoyed some relaxing time in the hot tub and then spent the rest of the evening watching a movie. It was a very nice evening spent together.

On Friday the rest of the crew drove in from Knoxville and we spent the rest of the weekend all hanging out together. We relaxed at the cabin, on the front porch and in the hot tub and we also went out and about just enough to not catch cabin fever. One afternoon we drove to a nearby mountain top where Mara Kate, Kane and Choonghwan did a steep hike up to the very top of the mountain where there is a large cross. Evelyn, PapaDog and I stayed in the grassy field and enjoyed the scenery all around us.

We also went out to eat one evening to celebrate Eliz's birthday and the table had a paper table cloth so kids could color on the table cloth while waiting on the food. Mara Kate enjoyed drawing and playing tick-tack-toe, but by the time it was over Kane, Elizabeth and I had all decorated the spaces surrounding us too! It was a fun evening, especially because the grandparents set Evelyn's high chair in between them and took care of feeding and entertaining her the entire time we were there.

Evelyn and Tuie on the back porch swing

Evelyn laying on the fur throw....

(we also have a picture of Mara Kate in this post laying on the same

throw when she was about 4 months old!)

Evie and Mommy on the front porch.

Family Photo

Tuie & Papa Dog with Evie before her first dip in the hot tub.

She l.o.v.e.d it!

Evie with her Uncle Choonghwan. Our girls love him so much.

The hot tub was full...

and MK and Evie were having a ball with Eliz and Choonghwan.

Sweet Evie...sweet and cute even with a snotty nose!

On the mountain top, enjoying the view.

Some of the surrounding trees and the mountains behind.

What's up girl?!!?

9 Months

2011-03-04T17:09:00.003-05:00

Our sweet little girl is 9 months old today. It is hard for me to believe that she has been a part of our eveyday life now for as long as it took for her to grow to full term in utero! I'll say these past 9 months seem to have passed more quickly than the 9 when she was growing and developing in the womb.

Here are some of the things Evelyn is doing right now...she will go for her 9 month check up next week, so I'm anxious to see what she weighs and how much she has grown since her 6 month check up. So check back for those stats later!

Very Social: She truly is a sweet heart through and through. She loves her mommy, daddy and big sister so much and shows great excitement and affection for all of us every day. When she is excited she waves both arms and kicks her feet wildly...I think she might run marathons when she is older as she is constantly kicking her legs at rapid speed! She is in the separation anxiety stage and sometimes misses her mommy when I'm not around and she also gets her feelings deeply hurt if she sees me walk past her without stopping to pick her up or at least give her some attention. She also knows what the word "hug" means and when you ask her to give you a hug she'll lean into your shoulder and bury her head into your chest....one of the sweetest things ever!

Sitting & Nursing: She is sitting up well and plays happily with toys when they are placed near her. She also loves to be near Mara Kate and play with her. She laughs, giggles, blows bubbles and smiles whenever she is with Mara Kate. It is difficult for me to nurse her when Mara Kate is in the same room as she is always so interested in what her sister is doing that she won't concentrate on nursing. If Mara Kate is anywhere to be found she would much rather watch her than eat, so I sometimes have to ask Mara Kate to go play in her own room when I am nursing Evelyn because it is a lost cause otherwise! When she does nurse it is a very quick thing---maybe under 10 minutes. She eats quickly and is done--a very efficient nurser for sure!

Moving: She isn't crawling yet, but is up on all 4's...she likes to balance on her tip toes and the top of her head and will go from that position back to sitting up. Even though she isn't crawling she is moving by rolling and scooting. I will sit her down in one spot and come back to find that she has moved across the room in the time I was gone. I think she will be crawling soon because when she is up on her hands and knees she is starting to pull forward with her hands and rock back and forth. She just needs to coordinate the use of her legs and hands, but once she figures it out I know she will be everywhere and into everything!

Talking: Evelyn is getting more verbal and likes to whisper "da-da". She says loudly "ma-ma" when she is hungry or wants something! She also says ba-ba too. So far those are her three main sounds.

Eating: Evelyn could teach her big sister a thing or two about eating...especially when it comes to vegetables. Evelyn loves her baby food and downs anything and everything we put in her mouth. She eats all veggies and all fruits we have offered her and hasn't once turned her nose up at anything. She normally eats a fruit mixed with rice cereal for breakfast and a fruit and veggie for lunch and supper. As my previous post showed, she is starting to be able to feed herself cheerios. This is a wonderful stage to be in as I am able to spoon feed her her supper in the evening, then throw some cheerios on her tray and she'll be happy as can be eating them on her own while the rest of us sit and eat supper together. She still nurses several times a day as well...so all in all, a great eater!

Sleeping: She is also a better sleeper than her sister was at this age. She has slept through the night a few times (from 7:30pm-7:00am), but most nights she wakes up to eat once. It's getting to the point that is she wakes up I'm not surprised and if she doesn't wake up I'm not surprised. When she wakes up I nurse her and she goes right back to sleep. This nursing time is one of my favorites (other than the fact that I have to get out of bed in the middle of the night) because she is usually sleeping and very, very cuddly during this feeding....unlike the daytime when she is more interested in everything else going on around her than cuddling with mommy. :)

Nicknames: Evie, Evelyn-Smevelyn, Evinator, Poopsy McQueen (she has lots and lots of b.m.'s!), Sweet Girl. We call her Evelyn and Evie mostly....and probably each about 50% of the time. I love the shortened version of her name (Evie, with a short e sound), but also like using her full name too (Evelyn) so I'm glad we have naturally fallen into using both interchangeably.

Here she is...

Our smiley,

Happy,

curious & blue eyed,


sweetie pie!

I am amazed that Evie is big enough already to just "hang out" with Mara Kate. On Thursday mornings while I'm getting ready for Bible study I usually get the girls all ready and after breakfast they sit and Evelyn plays while Mara Kate watches a short show---this past Thursday I checked on them and noticed Evelyn was paying attention to the tv too (for a few minutes), so I snapped this photo...just thought it looked so sweet. :)

Sisters! Love spending time together.

Pincer Grasp

2011-02-28T22:03:00.000-05:00

Enjoy this video of Evelyn (8 months)...she is working on her pincer grasp and learning how to pick up Cheerios all by herself!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T13:18:00.000-05:00

Just popping in to say, Happy Valentine's Day!

Life is busy....so please forgive the lack of posts. But until next time, enjoy these sweet pictures of our little Valentines!

Such a sweet and cute Valentine!

What is this thing on my head?!!

(Don't worry baby, you will eventually get used to it!)

...Well, whatever it is, I'm yanking it off!

Time for a picture with big sis.

Evelyn was apparently over having her picture taken....until...

...you put my bib on, then I know it's time for lunch and I cheer right back up! :)

Happy Valentine's Day to my dear sweet husband!

Thank you for the beautiful roses Babe, for me and the ones you gave to the girls too!

I'm so thankful to have you as my Valentine!

Georgia Snow Day

2011-01-10T16:36:00.000-05:00

A snow day in Georgia is RARE, so when we get one we have to make the most of it!

It has been fun having Kane home from work today...an unexpected treat! He and Mara Kate had lots of fun playing out in the snow, building an awesome snow man and just enjoying the 5+ inches of snow on the ground.

Our snow baby!

Evelyn got to experience snow for the first time, although she was only out it in for about 5 minutes.

Cold sistas!

Hershey kiss eyes, carrot nose, leaf for a mouth, branches for hair and arms as well as chocolate animal crackers for buttons...not too shabby!

Proud of their snowlady!

Warmed up with some "snowman soup" (i.e. hot chocolate) after coming back inside!

Playing with some Lego sets while drinking some hot chocolate.

Delicious!

And we will be finishing off the day with a big pot of Brunswick Stew----YUMMY!!!

A post---finally!

2011-01-06T09:41:00.000-05:00

It's been over a month since I last posted, which means my baby is no longer 6 months old, but now a whopping 7 months! Time is just flying by over here! The busyness of the holiday season made the past month pass in a flash.

I wish I had the time to post about all the individual things we've been doing, but it seems in this season I will just have to settle for "catch up" posts---at least for now!

We spent the month of December enjoying Kane's time off from work and we did several fun holiday activities like decorating cookies with Kane's family as well as constructing and decorating our own gingerbread house----both are annual traditions and both lots of fun!

Last Christmas was our first since we have been married that we spent Christmas morning here at home. Mara Kate was 4 and we decided it was time to start our own family traditions with her for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We did the same this year and we love that special time to spend together as a family. Since we were planning to travel for the holidays we decided to simplify and go out to supper on Christmas Eve, rather than cook a big meal that would create leftovers we wouldn't be home to eat. It turned out to be really nice going out and we all got dressed up. It was so festive and we got some cute pictures as well that evening. After supper the girls got to open two gifts---new pjs and an ornament. Kane read the Christmas story and we put the girls in bed. Christmas morning was so fun with 2 girls! MK really enjoyed all of her presents and gifts and it was so fun having a new baby in the mix that morning....Evelyn's first Christmas and I think she had fun too.

After we were finished with all our Christmas morning activities we finished packing and headed out for our long trek to see both sides of our families. Our first stop was in Knoxville where we visited Kane's family and had a great time. It snowed and Mara Kate was thrilled that she got to go sledding.

After a few days we packed it up again and headed west to my parents house in Kansas City. It's a very long drive, so after 13 hours in the car we were very happy to arrive! We were in town for a week and enjoyed visiting with lots of different family members. Mom and Dad hosted a New Year's Eve party and we ate snacks and played gamed until time to ring in the new year. My aunts and uncles came and it was great to have an evening to visit with them. Mara Kate always enjoys time with her Kansas City cousins and we barely heard a word from her as she was too busy playing! Evelyn got lots of hugs, kisses and cuddles from everyone on her first visit to Kansas City!

We finally made it home yesterday afternoon after a one night stop over in Nashville to sleep (and to pick up Mara Kate's frog who was being babysat by her Aunt Bebe & Uncle Choonghwan). Thank you Choi's for giving us a place to crash on our way home!

Now the holidays are behind us and I'm feeling ready for a fresh start to a new year. I'm ready to get back into our normal groove, normal school routine with Mara Kate and just life in general. There's just something about a new year and a new calendar with little marked in it! A clean slate---I love that!

Maybe I'll post again in less than a month....so hang in there readers! I want to post more about Evelyn and all she is doing these days (like eating solids, sitting up, trying to get up on her knees and hands---so crawling may be just around the corner). But, for now, there is a recap of our last month or so. And for those who like pictures I'm going to post links to several different photo albums to recap our December in picture form:

Pre-Christmas Holiday Festivities can be found here.

Pictures of our Christmas Eve & Christmas morning at home can be found here.

Pictures of our post Christmas travels here.

6 months...

2010-12-04T14:50:00.002-05:00

1/2 a year...

How is it possible that it has already been that long since Evelyn was born? It's sort of hard to believe that Evelyn joined our family 6 months ago today. The first 9 days were quite a whirlwind. Full of lots of scary moments as well as much rejoicing as we watched our tiny girl recover from such a rough start. Since Thanksgiving was just a few weeks ago, it was a good time to stop and revisit all we were thankful for surrounding the first week of Evelyn's life.
As is our normal tradition, we all made our "Thanksgiving lists" of all the things we've been thankful for over the past year. A lot of lines on mine were taken up remembering all the details of the situation God brought us through during the first week of Evelyn's life. From the safe transport in the neo-natal ICU ambulance from Rome to Atlanta, to the Nitric Oxide that finally helped open her lungs, to the free meals at the Children's Hospital for nursing mothers and of course for ALL of the prayers that were prayed by many on her and our behalf while she was in such critical condition (and those are just a few of the items that were on my list). Every detail worked out and God was with us and sustained us each step of the way.

Every month that she is home, healthy, growing and changing the vivid memories of that week fade just a little more. Sometimes in the middle of the night when I'm laying awake nursing Evelyn in the dark, quiet hours I seem to be even more aware of the gift that she is. I often find myself pressing my lips to the top of her sweet little head, closing my eyes and breathing a silent prayer of thanksgiving to God that she is here and that she is well It's in those moments that it's a bit easier to be thankful even for sleep deprivation because it means I have a growing girl that needs to eat in my arms. What a blessing she is every single day!

Here are a few pictures of our girl from the first 6 months of her life...

Happy 6 months, Evelyn Nadine!

We love you so much!

At birth.

Clean girl after bath....1 month old

In her baptism gown...2 months old.

Learning to sit in the Bumbo seat...2.5 months.

3 months old.

4 months old at the Pumpkin Patch.

4 months old.

Tummy time...building those strong neck muscles...4.5 months old.

Happy girl...5 Months.

Evie's First Thanksgiving...5.5 months old.
Her shirt says, Thankful for Mommy. :)

Evelyn's first Christmas season....only in Georgia could you be sitting
looking at the Christmas tree in only a diaper and socks. Almost 6 months old.

Learning to sit up and finally getting a bit of hair...6 months old

Too Busy to Blog

2010-11-30T09:42:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy month---with trying to keep caught up with life in general, starting to do some Christmas shopping, traveling for Thanksgiving, having my parents here to help us decorate our home for the holidays and celebrating my Dad's birthday with him...I've just been too busy to blog. Oh well!

To see pictures of what we've been up to click here.

Happy Holidays!

First Attempts

2010-11-20T11:23:00.000-05:00

Evelyn is making her first attempts at sitting and as you can see from the pictures she's quite happy being upright. She still has quite a ways to go and definitely cannot keep her balance on her own yet, but I can tell that her little torso is getting stronger by the day.

When I went back to look at pictures of Mara Kate to figure out how old she was when she started sitting I was surprised to find that at this age she was sitting so well on her own that she could be set down with nothing around her to pad her fall if she toppled.I think Evelyn won't be far behind...we just need to practice!

All smiles.

Hi there!

Fancy Nancy Party

2010-11-18T19:50:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we celebrated Mara Kate's fast approaching 5th birthday with a Fancy Nancy themed birthday party. If you haven't read any of the Fancy Nancy books, you are missing out! They are about a little girl who wants everything in her life and world to be as fancy as possible, especially when it comes to the words she uses. She'll use a fancy word for something that might otherwise be considered ordinary. She also laments the fact that she is the only fancy person in her family because her parents are just plain, simple and boring. :) Mara Kate has a lot of the books and loves them.

Once Mara Kate decided on her theme, I got to work thinking up ways to make each part of the party as fancy and girly as possible. I also quickly took my mother in law up on her offer to make the cake. Mara Kate told me she wanted a layered (tiered) cake like she had seen in a picture and I told her I wasn't sure I could do that...but Tuie is a pro and offered to do it and it turned out completely fancy, beautiful and delicious!

Here are some pictures--and as you can see, we all had a blast!!

The cake...
complete with edible flowers, butterflies, bows and sunglasses!

Fancy Mara Kate and her Daddy....
he dressed in a tuxedo for the occasion!

Sadly, my Mom and Dad weren't able to be here for the party,
but we will be seeing them soon over Thanksgiving.
Here is a picture of Kane's Mom & Dad...
as you can see, they also dressed for the occasion.
Everyone looked so sharp!

Mara Kate only invited 2 little friends from Rome as well as her babysitter, but thankfully her cousins were able to come too all the way from Birmingham. Olivia of course got into the theme and had fun dressing up for the party. And Grant did a great job hanging out and entertaining himself while all the little girls went to the "spa" for mini-makeovers!

Speaking of the spa...

The "Ooh La La Beauty Spa" was set up in our room!

I set up a netted area in my bedroom and made a little makeup, fingernail and toenail station.
Each girl got to rotate through each station to get their makeup and nails done. It was so fun and girly!!

After their makeovers the girls got to go shopping at the

"Fantastique Boutique" for some fancy party favors.

And we ate some fancy kinds of food....

Glittery kabobs of cheese---

made with Fancy Nancy's two favorite colors-hot pink and "fusia".

Savory Sandwiches

Fabulous Fruit Kabobs

And one more picture of the cake...surrounded at the bottom with a boa!

One of Mara Kate's birthday cards...

from Aunt Heidi. :)

We took many more pictures too...if you want to see them all check out the entire photo album here.

Happy 5th Birthday, Mara Kate! I cannot believe you are almost FIVE!! I remember the day you were born like it was yesterday. Love you baby girl!

Picture Post & Update

2010-11-08T17:07:00.000-05:00

Here are a few random pictures from the past couple weeks...enjoy!

Pirate Evie...already being dressed up by her big sister. :)

Snuggled in their PJ's watching Blue's Clues together Saturday morning.

Before church Sunday morning.

Aunt Jane, do you remember the dress Evelyn is wearing?

This dress was my first attempt at smocking after my talented Aunt Jane gave me a tutorial on how to do it.

Aunt Jane, I remember sitting in a chair at your house for several hours (while I was there visiting) and working on it while you and Mara Kate took a long nap together in your bed, remember?!

Evelyn in her most recent napping position.

Since she was born she has slept only on her back and has not enjoyed being on her tummy at all...but the past 2 days she has been flipping onto her tummy before falling asleep during her naps. Sometimes she gets mad because once she flips she hasn't really figured out how to flip back to her back yet, but I know she'll figure it out soon enough. She has also started sleeping with the little green "lovie" under her arm. I usually lay her down on her back and hand it to her. She grabs it, sticks as much of it as she can into her mouth and then rolls onto her tummy with it. It's so sweet to see her "cuddling" it already.

Backyard Schooling

2010-11-08T16:43:00.005-05:00

One of the things I love about homeschooling is how often learning happens along the way as we are just living life.

In History we recently learned a little about the city of Pompeii and how fast flowing hot lava from a nearby volcano burned and buried the city so quickly that it preserved a lot of the city's artifacts as it flowed---which apparently is rare when it comes to erupting volcanoes.

Of course Mara Kate wanted to know more about volcanoes so Kane told her they could build a pretend volcano outside in the backyard so she could better understand the way the lava flowed down the mountain and into the city of Pompeii back in 79 AD.

Building their mountain.
As I was taking this picture I reminded her that God is the one who builds REAL volcanoes!

They used a small glass vase in the center of their mountain

to hold the chemicals needed to cause the eruption.

Flowing "lava"

The mountain was build at a bit of an angle so the lava ended up only flowing down one side. Oh well.

Poor Mara Kate wasn't fully satisfied though, as she was wanting to build a city at the base,

but we didn't take the illustration quite that far.

Praying for Missionaries

2010-11-03T08:53:00.001-05:00

As part of our daily school routine Mara Kate and I have been praying through the list of Mission to the World missionaries, which is online at mtw.org.

We usually find the country where they live on the globe and then pray specifically for each family member. Mara Kate always wants to pray for the kids if there are any and the wife if it's a husband and wife team. :) We also look to see if they have an email address and if so we always send a short email letting them know that we prayed for them that day. Sometimes the email addresses listed are not up to date, but we've also gotten several responses from missionaries and have learned some interesting things about the places where they live. One lady sent Mara Kate a copy of the Bulgarian alphabet to compare with our alphabet. One lady told us that she doesn't have a car in the city where she is lives and that she rides her bike pretty much everywhere she goes---and she really enjoys her life there!

It's been great having interaction with some of the missionaries we have prayed for and to show Mara Kate that they sent us an email back all the way from across the ocean or from a different continent.

This week we prayed for a family that previously served in Mexico but are actually living in the US currently to raise support to go to Columbia soon.

We emailed them and I mentioned that Mara Kate prayed specifically for their 2 children. Their prayer card said they homeschool as well so I let them know that's what we were doing as well and that Mara Kate thought it was neat that they do it too.

Just a little while later we received an email with the following picture:

So cool, right?! Mara Kate is learning to read so she figured out what this said (with a little help) and definitely thought it was cool to see them holding a sign with HER name on it! :) I love this age of email and technology and I love the fellowship in God's kingdom!

Treasure from England

2010-11-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

Recently I was entered into a contest on a friend's blog. This friend and her husband recently relocated to England from Atlanta. When we lived in Atlanta Nathan was the youth guy at our church and Nicole is his sweet wife who moved to Atlanta all the way from California when they got married a few years ago.

Now they have packed it up and moved across the pond! I started reading their blog while they were still in the process of tying up loose ends in Atlanta in preparation for their big move!

I left a comment on Nicole's blog and was entered into a contest. The winner was going to receive a "treasure from England". Well, I was surprised to find that my name was drawn as one of two winners and I told Mara Kate that we would be getting a treasure from England! This was really great because in school we have been learning about European countries and features so when I mentioned England she knew exactly what I was talking about as we hand recently looked it up on our globe! A couple weeks later we got a package marked "Royal Mail"! It was cool to see that the postage stamp had a picture of England's Queen on it!

Mara Kate was a little disappointed though when we opened the package because she was expecting there to be a literal "treasure" (you now, an actual treasure chest filled with gold coins, jewels, etc.) from England. She said, "It's tea and cookies, so it's not a real treasure is it?!" (We then had a little lesson about how words can have several different meanings and that the word "treasure" could also mean "small gift".)

I however wasn't dissapointed in the least! The tea smelled SO good the minute I took the box out of the envelope and the little cookies are very yummy too! Nicole included a sweet note as well, which I really appreciate.

Before my grandmother passed away last Summer she and I used to exchange handwritten letters about twice a month and I really miss that...so, it was really nice to receive such a nicely written letter all the way from England! Thanks Nicole!!

Another Comparison

2010-10-27T15:48:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure why I like doing this...but I just do! I love going back to look at old pictures of Mara Kate when she was around the age that Evelyn is now. I think it's fun to go back and remember what Mara Kate looked like then, see similarities and differences in my two girls and marvel at how grown up Mara Kate actually is now! How is she already almost 5?

So, here is another set of pictures....to compare. :)

Evelyn at 4.5 months, tummy time.

Mara Kate having tummy time as well....at 5 months old.

Yes, we are using the same toys again....the red and white zebra is a hit. And that cow and monkey are currently out and about. One lives in the bouncy seat right now and the other in the car seat. :)

Playmates

2010-10-26T14:06:00.001-05:00

Mara Kate was playing on the guest bed and had quite a little set up with lots of pillows and stuffed animals and blankets, her imagination in full force. She was "playing house" and she was getting ready to put all her animals to bed.

I propped Evelyn up on the bed in her boppy and she was so happy and content to just watch Mara Kate play and talk. I know they can't really play together yet, but Mara Kate was so sweet to let Evelyn watch and she talked to her just like she was part of that little world. So sweet. I love seeing my girls interact and love each other. Mara Kate can make Evelyn laugh harder and faster than anyone. I know she already has a special love for her.

Sisters. Siblings.Sweetness...Something I prayed for for a long time while waiting on God to give our family a second baby. Thank you God for giving each of my girls the other one as a sister and a playmate!

Hi there!

My Well Baby

2010-10-25T16:39:00.000-05:00

Sweet Evelyn on the day of her check up

I'm so thankful for my "well baby". She got a perfect report at her 4 month well baby visit this afternoon. She also got a few shots and she cried, poor thing. But, she's such a trooper as her tears stopped pretty soon after I picked her up off the table.

So for the grandparents (and anyone else who cares to know), Evelyn's 4 month stats are:

Weight: 13 lbs., 5 oz. (20th percentile)

Height: 25.5 inches (69th percentile)

Head Cercumference: 39.2 cm (1st percentile)

So I guess she's on the taller end of things, the smaller end of things as far as her weight goes (but still a chunk compared to her big sister who wasn't even on the percentile chart at 4 months of age) and has a teensy tiny head?!! ha!

As far as developmentally, she is right on target doing all that she is supposed to be doing. We are so thankful for her health and her good report! Thank you God for our sweet Evie blessing!

Blog Stuff and a Countdown

2010-10-22T08:51:00.005-05:00

Blog stuff:
So, I changed the design of the blog recently. Even though I haven't been posting as much I felt like it needed a bit of a face lift. I love the colors in the template I chose. Sort of Fall-ish, but not just leaves, acorns and pumpkins.

I also decided that I needed to change my header photo as it was of us with only Mara Kate without Evelyn....yeah, it was a bit outdated. However, can you believe we have yet to get a good family photo of all 4 of us? I'm hoping to get one to use for a Christmas card and maybe it will double as a new blog header picture as well.

In the mean time, I've added my current favorite picture of the girls. :) But, I'm having difficulty figuring out how to change the size, font and color of the blog title at the top. Any other bloggers out there know how to adjust this? (edit: finally figured this out!)

Also, after seeing it on Nicole's blog, I've added the Feedjit feature to the right side of the blog (near the bottom) which now tells me where (not who you are, just where you are logging in from---the location, i.e. city, state, country) people are visiting the blog from....it has been so interesting to see even over the past 2 days who has been to the blog. So, if you want to tell me who you are, feel free to comment!

On another note:
Kane and I are doing a countdown. We have 31 days to go. It's a count down until Thanksgiving break---which begins November 22. This semester has required many long hours from him, which means the tasks at home require many long solo hours for me. Three days a week he works "late" which means we normally don't see him before 7pm and 1 day a week he works "even later" meaning he's not home until closer to 8pm. Friday is supposed to be his early day, but I've learned not to hold my breathe. It seems something always comes up to delay his home coming.

The bottom line is this: By the end of the week we are both exhausted & have very little energy left for one another or anything else. He works and I take care of the kids and do as many other things I can manage. We try to recharge over the weekend as best as we can and then do it all again the following week. But, on November 22 the grind of this semester will end, his hours will be less and we hope it will relieve some of the overall stress we are both feeling right now. And so we count.

Fall & the Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-21T14:16:00.009-05:00

It's finally Fall and the leaves here in Georgia are changing colors. I love this time of year (who doesn't--it's just so glorious!) in spite of the fact that the temperature still feels like Summer most afternoons. The 30 degree temperature shifts are a bit crazy and we literally have to change clothes part way through the day so we don't roast!

Yesterday we went for a walk and I wore shorts, a tank top and flip flops!! It is late October and it was warm enough to wear a tank top! That's just wrong.

Last weekend we went to a nearby pumpkin patch and had a great time. Mara Kate got a small pumpkin, we rode on a hayride, Mara Kate ran through a kid's sized "hay maze", went in the petting zoo area and thought that was great. I ate some boiled peanuts while Kane and MK shared some cotton candy and I got some cute pictures of the girls. Mara Kate also got her face painted. It was a lovely outing all the way around!

Below are some of my favorite photos from our time. To see the rest of the pictures I took check out my Facebook album here.

Sweet Evelyn

Mara Kate

Daddy and his girls

Sistas!

All the girls

My pumpkin.
I stole this decorating idea from a friend.
I love initials and this was SO easy...yes, it's a sharpie marker!

Tuie's visit

2010-10-07T10:32:00.006-05:00

Our week began differently than usual----and it was a welcomed change from our normal Monday routine.

Sunday evening Kane's mom arrived for a little visit. A few weeks ago Kane's Dad came down, but his mom was not able to come then, due to other things on her schedule---so she made the trip down on her own as soon as she could!

That evening the weather was wonderful, so we decided to sit out on the back patio and visit and eat. I made homemade salsa and guacamole and on Sunday evenings we normally don't eat a big meal, so this snack with chips was just the perfect thing.

Monday we had a relaxing morning at home and even though Kane had to go into work as usual the girls and I enjoyed a slower paced morning with Tuie here. She read books and played games with Mara Kate, had some snuggle time with Evelyn and she brainstormed with me about Mara Kate's upcoming birthday party & theme (Fancy Nancy!). She also helped Mara Kate draw and design the perfect "Fancy Nancy" birthday cake! If it turns out half as good as the design it'll still be perfect for a fancy 5 year old birthday party!

Tuie told me that she would watch the girls some that day if I wanted to work or run errands, so it was extra nice having an extra pair of helping hands and the gift of running errands kid-free. Definitely a treat!

I was able to go several places and browse---mostly gathering ideas and getting started buying a few supplies for the birthday party while Mara Kate wasn't with me.

After a couple errands I met the girls and Tuie downtown at Harvest Moon Cafe for lunch, which was really fun. Evelyn got lots of attention---especially from one mom who brought her 2 year old over to "see the baby" at least 5+ times. Tuie & I both agreed that the mom clearly had baby fever as she seemed the most interested in Evelyn while the little girl barely paid her any attention. ha!

After lunch I attempted to feed Evelyn in the car (although she doesn't like to nurse in weird places and didn't cooperate at all) and handed her back to Tuie so she could take the girls out to Berry College's mountain campus and enjoy the pretty weather while I ran a couple more errands. We eventually met back at home and had a low key afternoon together.

That evening she babysat once again so Kane and I could go out on a real date! We went to eat supper and then went out for coffee. It was so nice not having to lug a carseat, deal with a possible fussy baby or deal with kids meals and making sure everyone ate their supper the way they should. Uninterrupted. Conversation.--that's all I've got to say! An extra bonus was that both girls were bathed and clean when we got home. So nice!

Tuie headed home Tuesday mid-morning after another morning of visiting and play time. The girls had a blast with their Tuie here and didn't want to see her go!

Thanks Tuie for coming and for helping out so much. Even just a little more than 24 hours of help makes such a difference in my week! :)

The only picture I managed to take during her visit. I tried to take one at lunch, but could not find my camera in the abyss that my diaper bag has become.

Tuie also brought me some bittersweet branches and I made the above arrangement with them. I made a couple other smaller arrangements as well.
I think these branches just scream Fall to me. I love having them help bring the feel of Fall inside the walls of our home.

Tuie, how do you think the arrangement turned out?!

Comparison

2010-09-27T08:44:00.004-05:00

Just for fun I've posted 2 pictures below for comparison.

The first picture is of Mara Kate at 6 months of age. And, because Evelyn is growing at a faster rate than Mara Kate did, the second picture is of Evie wearing the same dress at almost 4 months of age.

I just thought it would be fun to post comparing pictures, since the girls were both wearing the same dress and being held by Daddy in the same way!

Some people really think the girls look alike, but I definitely see differences. It'll be interesting to see Evelyn in 2 more months when she is the same age as Mara Kate was in the top picture---as I know by then she'll have much more facial expression!

Kane & Mara Kate at the beach in Garden City...Summer 2006

Kane & Evelyn at home...Summer (well, almost Fall) 2010

School Stuff

2010-09-26T16:20:00.002-05:00

One of the things we have been doing with Mara Kate as part of her weekly school routine is memorization.

Each week we work with her on memorizing different bits of information or facts in several different subjects. The idea behind memorizing at this young age (when her brain is very much like a little sponge, ready to soak up lots of stuff) is that it will hopefully give her intellectual "pegs" to hang other related information on later on as she continues to learn. It should also help her to retain what she learns when she is a bit older and is studying on a deeper level, as some of it will already be vaguely familiar to her due to being exposed to the information at a young age.

Here is a video of her reciting some of her memory from our first week of school. :)

Alright, already--Pictures galore!

2010-09-21T12:59:00.014-05:00

Kane's sister Elizabeth recently said that we needed to post some more updated pictures of our 2nd born daughter and since Kane and I both are second born children ourselves we don't want Evie to be slighted in any way!!

So, here she is, in all her glory! A whole slew of pictures of our sweet Evelyn!

I just started snapping this morning and got a whole bunch of sweet ones---enjoy!

Evelyn Nadine at 3 months of age!

Doesn't she look big in this picture?!

Happy because she just finished filling her belly!

Open mouth grin.

I love her facial expression in this one....it's like she's saying,
"Uh--what's that thing?" when I held up the camera. ha!

Sisters!!

I think it's so sweet how she is holding onto Mara Kate's arm...
she might be thinking, "Whoa, there--don't let me tip over!"

A bit fuzzy, but I included it anyway because her smile was so sweet...
this is right after she woke up from a nap...so rested and happy!

sweet happy girl,

stretching and...

smiling. :)

Her shirt says, "love me".
We sure do!!!

Them Bones, them bones, them dry bones...

2010-09-20T20:45:00.004-05:00

In school for science Mara Kate has been learning about the different parts of her body. Kane's mom knew that this was one of the things we were working on and found these fun pj's to save and give to her when we got to the part of the book that talks about her bones and skeleton.

Well, today was the day! She learned about bones and we cut out leg, foot & toe bones to paste on her body outline. Then this evening we gave her the little package of new pj's and she thought they were the coolest thing!!

Here she is in her new bone pj's. Even though it's still feels like Summer here in Georgia she insisted on wearing them to bed tonight. Another cool thing about them is---the bones glow in the dark!! Ha!

P.S. I've been told that I haven't been posted nearly enough pictures of Evelyn lately----I'll try to remedy that soon---so stay tuned!!

Ballet Class

2010-09-10T09:40:00.004-05:00

Mara Kate has been waiting all Summer for her Ballet classes to start. Finally, yesterday was her first class and she was SO excited! She asked to put on her leotard right after lunch but I made her wait until just 1 hour before class time! ha! She was really chomping at the bit to get to class!

All dressed and ready to go!!

Kane & I gave her this book about Angelina Ballerina yesterday before her first class. I had gotten it awhile back and was saving it for this special occasion. :) After she got dressed we sat together and read it then she took it in the car on the ride to class and looked at it again on our way.

Here she is with her ballet shoes on. She is in class with her friend Mary Kate from church. I'm thankful she knows one other person in her class---it'll fun to see Mary Kate's family each week and also watch them together in their recitals! I hope it's a fun year of learning for both of these girls.

After class I asked her what she learned and of course she said, "I don't remember anything!" ha!
Well, after supper she finally showed us 1st &2nd positions for ballet....so, she did learn something, thankfully!! :)

First Day of School

2010-09-07T12:23:00.007-05:00

Kane and I have worked hard over the past couple of months looking at and researching different school curriculum and we've finally gotten everything we want to use for this year together. We took Labor Day off and officially started "school" today with Mara Kate.

She was so excited and I was too! I think it will be so fun watching her learn new things this Fall and into the months to follow.

Here is our little "school corner" where we'll be doing school
(and also where I do my work from home part-time job).

Mara Kate's little table with all her school supplies.

For those who love stories about great deals....I found this little caddy in teh as-is section of IKEA probably about 2 years ago. It was super cute and I had no idea what I would do with it, but I knew it might come in handy at some day, so I just bought it. It has been in our attic for awhile and when I was thinking about a way to keep her books on her desk, but organized Kane reminded me of this little caddy. I ended up painting it white (it was regular wood) to match our other furniture. Kane may eventually hang it on the wall right above her table so her work space would be a little bigger. Either way, it's working great!

For part of Science this year we are going through a book called My Body. You trace an outline of your child then they color (like a coloring book) all the different organs in their body. You learn about each organ, what it's job is in your body and where it resides! The first organ we learned about this morning was our BRAIN!

Mara Kate did really well this morning during our school time and Evelyn napped while we studied...but I don't want to leave Evelyn out completely...

We'll just say she was busy learning home economics.
She was sitting here happily learning how to grate cheese! ha!

Smiles from Evie

2010-09-02T19:52:00.002-05:00

Part of the Family

2010-08-18T08:06:00.003-05:00

Evelyn, 10.5 weeks

Evelyn is almost 3 months old---how is that possible?! I think it is true that time goes by much more quickly with #2.

Although Evelyn has of course been "part of the family" since the minute she arrived (and actually before as we talked about her often during my pregnancy) it seems that just in the last week or so I've felt like she really is becoming just part of the mix.

After going 4.5 years with just one child it has taken a little time to get used to the ebb & flow of adding another. I feel like after 10 weeks (9 at home) that Evelyn has done a wonderful job carving out her place among us. I feel more settled having her here and I think she is starting to feel a bit more settled being outside the womb. The Happiest Baby on the Block book/DVD says that the first 3 months of a baby's life is sort of like the 4th trimester---I think this is true! They do act more like a fetus than a baby at first and it does seem to take about 3 months for them to calm down and adjust to life in general. (At least this has been my experience).

Anyway, we are just so thankful she IS part of our family and we are enjoying each and every day with her! She is becoming more verbal, talking to us and is just so interested in looking at all the things around her.

Quiet

2010-08-16T11:14:00.003-05:00

I know the blog has been eerily quiet lately...and might continue to be for a little while longer.

Here are some reasons why:

1) I've found that I have significantly less time to blog right now because I am spending more time taking care of my girls. I think this is the only reason I need as it's a darn good one! ha! But, once Evelyn settles into a groove of regular and consistent naps I hope to find more time here and there to update the blog again on a more regular basis.

2) I'm getting ready to start home-schooling with Mara Kate this Fall and I've been busy looking at and ordering her school books.

3) I've started working part time (from home) as the administrative assistant for our church, so I'm needing to carve out time to add those tasks into my daily routine as well.

4) I got a new laptop and you know how change is....so since my computer is different I feel like it takes a bit more effort to get my pictures uploaded. It's probably not actually harder, but it sort of feels that way because it's just different. So once I get over the learning curve I may get better at quickly uploading photos to the blog more often.

Please don't leave just yet....I will be back soon! I just need to get settled and back on my feet after a pretty whirl-wind-ish Summer! Thanks for reading!

Room Overhaul and Tennessee Trip

2010-08-02T08:36:00.019-05:00

Almost two weeks ago I drove Mara Kate to Chattanooga to meet up with Kane's sister, Elizabeth. We had a nice lunch together, then Mara Kate and Elizabeth headed back to Nashville and I headed back home with Evelyn.

Mara Kate was in Nashville for a few days staying with her Aunt BeBe and Uncle Choonghwan and had a blast with them. Then Elizabeth drove Mara Kate half way to Knoxville to meet up with Kane's dad and hand Mara Kate off to him for the weekend.

Finally after the weekend the plan was for us to meet Kane's parents back near Chattanooga to retrieve our daughter after almost a week away. But, the day before we did that I threw out the idea of just driving all the way to Knoxville myself with Evelyn to give some of Kane's extended family the chance to meet Evelyn before she got too much bigger. After some talk about the logistics of it all, we decided this would be a good option. So, Sunday afternoon Kane helped me get packed up and we headed out. I wasn't sure how Evie would do in the car for almost 3 hours without me being able to calm/soothe her, but thankfully she didn't make a peep the entire trip and slept most of it.

It was great to see Mara Kate again after her being gone---and we had a great time visiting with family and introducing Evelyn to great-grandfathers and great aunts and uncles. Kane's mom even ended up hosting a litle ice-cream social on Monday evening so all could come to meet Evelyn.

Also, while Mara Kate was gone I did an overhaul of her room. I hadn't touched it since about week 35 of my pregnancy so it was in dire need of some cleaning/weeding out of trash.

Here are some before/after pics of her room. I didn't take any before pics until I was already part way through the process, so they don't accurately show just how BAD her room was when I first walked through the door.

Junk in closet, on top of dresser, up on closet shelf--just a general, disorganized mess.

Pile-o-stuff on bed I needed to go through and find homes for.

Doll house with everything in disarray---
plus extra items thrown in that did not belong in doll house.

Toy cubbies completely unorganized

And now after...

Bookshelf organized, necklaces from jewelry box now untangled and hung neatly above bookcase.

Closet nice and neat---all games up on shelf, where little hands can't reach unless given permission. NOTHING on top of dresser!! Bonus--drawers are also organized as well as jewelry box which lives in the top drawer also cleaned out and organized! Yes!!

And these new bins we picked up from IKEA that are made to fit...only $4.99 each and hides all the toys so well and also increased each cubbies capacity as things can be stacked so now each cubby holds more while still staying neat and organized! I love these!!

Also...

Here are some pics of our time in Knoxville!!

...and now we are all finally back home as a family and Mara Kate is enjoying her freshly organized room (and she doesn't even remember all the stuff I tossed while she was away!!)

Kane and I both bought her something for her to get when she got home---partly for being such a good girl while she was away and also...just because we love her. She learned to play the game SORRY while in Nashville, so Kane decided to get it to add to her game collection at home. They have already played several times together. I got her a kids sized Camelbak water bottle as she loves taking sips from mine. I'm happy that it has helped her drink more water because now she has a cool bottle to drink it from!! :)

Look Alike??

2010-08-01T20:16:00.006-05:00

I've gotten differing opinions on whether my girls look alike--I think they have some similarities, but of course their own unique features as well. So, I thought it would be fun to post a couple pics of Mara Kate as a baby to compare with baby Evelyn.

What do you think?!! Do they look alike? What's your opinion?...

baby Mara Kate, awake

baby Evelyn, awake.

baby Mara Kate, asleep.

baby Evelyn, asleep

Both so sweet and beautiful in my opinion, but there's no question I am biased. :)

The "Cousin Picture"

2010-08-01T19:33:00.010-05:00

Yesterday we made a quick day trip over to Birmingham to celebrate my niece, Olivia's 3rd birthday and my nephew Liam's 9th birthday. We were only all together for a few hours, but it was a fun day for sure.

One of the other things we did while we were at my sister's house was take the most recent "cousin picture". This picture is always something we take whenever all the cousins are together, especially if a new baby has been born since the last picture was taken. Well, since Evelyn is only 8 weeks old this was the first time all the cousins had been together since she was born.

So, below you will see the MOST up to date Burton Cousin pic, but I've also included the last few, so you can see the progression of growth over the past 4 years! ha!

Christmas, 2005---Mara Kate was 1 month old.
Alley, Liam, Dresden, Grant & Mara Kate.
We refer to Grant, Dresden and Mara Kate as the "2005 babies"
as they all three were born in 2005.

...then little miss Olivia was added in 2007.

...then sweet Megan was added in 2008.

...then cute Lily was added at the very beginning of this year---January 2010.

...and now our Evie was born mid-year 2010---June 4th.
What a couch full of blessings---and look at all those cute little toes--90 in all!! :)

Many Faces

2010-07-23T10:08:00.012-05:00

Here are some recent shots I've taken of Evelyn. Forgive the amount I've posted, but I know family who don't get to see her often will appreciate them ALL! :) Plus, in the early days they can change so much in the course of just a week, that I want to try and capture her in each stage of change! :)

Serious about bath time! She has never cried in the bath, so maybe she likes the water?!

Slightly happy after bath time.

Love her beautiful, intensely focused eyes. :)

Action shot---slightly blurry, but trying to catch a bit of that half-grin.

Big yawn.

...concentrate.

...and now a slight smile for her mommy. :)

Aww--yes! I caught one on camera! Isn't that little smile the most precious thing ever?!

Favorites

2010-07-17T14:08:00.005-05:00

These are a few of my favorite things...

...the smell of a clean (and lotioned) baby right after a bath.

...my baby girl SO content and relaxed her her Daddy's arms...so much so that her arm is completely flopped back. :)

...tiny feet and tiny toes. Perfect and sweet in every way possible.
A reflection of God's great attention to detail.

VBS

2010-07-17T14:01:00.009-05:00

Last week Mara Kate attended VBS at a local church here in Rome. Our small church doesn't do VBS, so we enrolled her in a program at larger church in town. It was called SonQuest Rain Forest and she had a blast!!

It worked out really nicely for me as well because Kane would drop her off each morning on his way to work and I'd just pick her up at noon each day. It gave Evelyn and I the mornings together and when she was napping I was able to enjoy some peace and quiet.

Also, on Thursday I got some bonus time as a friend from church/Bible study (whose kids were also doing VBS) offered to let Mara Kate come play at their house in the afternoon one day. So, on Thursday Kane took Mara Kate to the church at 9am and I didn't see her again until after 6pm. She had a blast going to play dress up and Wii at the friend's house, then going to the pool and then out to supper at Moe's too! I took advantage of having just Evelyn and went to browse at a few stores and also spent some time at home too. I needed a few "transition" items, so it was good to have the chance to look/shop a bit.

Here's Mara Kate on her final day of VBS. Everyone wore their t-shirts that day!

The closing ceremony. Performing songs with hand motions for all the parents.

She spotted me in the crowd of parents---so I quickly snapped this picture!

Back at home modeling her explorer hat.
All their crafts were related to exploring a rain forest.

More Sweet Visitors :)

2010-07-17T13:54:00.006-05:00

Earlier this week we had some more visitors come to see us and to meet Evelyn. My sweet, sweet friend Christy came up from Atlanta and brought her 4 month old Jack with her. She brought stuff for lunch, dessert and even left a meal for us to eat whenever we needed something. So sweet and thoughtful you always are, Christy!

We had a wonderful visit with one another and it was great to really catch up in person. I got so excited about what we have to look forward to with Evelyn in the next few months by looking at Jack and all his cooing and smiling. He is SUCH a cutie and the facial expressions he has makes him look like a little man, rather than a baby!

Mara Kate enjoyed Jack a lot too! She loved playing with a baby who really interacts well and Jack smiled and "talked" to Mara Kate constantly. So fun to see our kids playing together.

Of course, our visit wasn't nearly long enough---but much needed! Thanks so much for making the drive Christy!!

Christy & Me with Jack & Evelyn.
They are both swaddled in Miracle blankets as it was nap time for both of them! :)

All 3 kiddos!

Sweet Visitors

2010-07-12T18:17:00.002-05:00

Last week my dear friend Katie drove up to visit us in Rome. It had been awhile since she had been here, but we picked up right where we left off the last time we saw one another and made the most of our time together. Katie actually met Evelyn (very briefly) while she was in the NICU in Atlanta, but it wasn't under the best circumstances, so she was looking forward to seeing her again and actually getting to hold and cuddle her this time.

Mara Kate was SO anxious to have them here. She was excited about showing off her baby sister, but I think she was actually more excited about having Ella Ann here to play for several hours. When Ella Ann walked in the house, the girls gave one another a big hug and off they went to play! They always play SO WELL together and literally NEVER fight---I know Mara Kate is really blessed to have such a sweet, close-knit friend at such a young age. :)

I really enjoyed just hanging with Katie and catching up on life. Katie's little boy Rane was here too and just kind of explored on his own. The girls would NOT let him in to play, but he was a good sport and just kind of hung out. He really is a tender, sweet boy and gave me several hugs and smiles while they were here. He was also really sweet to Evelyn and was very curious about her and liked patting her tummy when she was in her bouncy seat. So sweet.

The girls---Ella Ann LOVES babies and was so excited to hold Mara Kate's little sister!

Silly, silly. Always how they act when they are together--it never fails!

Eat Mor Chikin

2010-07-09T15:32:00.011-05:00

We recently participated in the 5th annual (I think) Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. When you dress up as a cow you get free food!

I love doing this, but it was a challenge to get it all together with a newborn and being extra tired too. I had my post-partum appointment that morning and had to be up and ready a bit earlier than normal. Of course Evelyn screamed during my entire doctor's appointment (she's taking after her big sister who did the exact same thing!!)

After the appointment we rushed home and got our cow outfits ready and we headed out the door again to meet Kane for lunch. We decided we'd try to beat the normal lunch rush and that worked out well. Kane had a class to teach that started at 1pm, so an early lunch worked in our favor all the way around.

So without further ado...here are my two sweet bovines. ;)

Sister cows

baby cow who's a little hungry?!

love the little tails!

cow family

Happy 4th of July!!!

2010-07-05T12:26:00.006-05:00

We didn't do much of anything festive yesterday. With a newborn we are just busy with other activities these days---like trying to sleep and nursing. :)

But, a sweet friend from church brought us a meal on Saturday and included a few packs of sparklers with what she brought. So, Mara Kate wore her red, white and blue dress and had fun staying up past her bedtime in order to play with them.

It was a great day for us, even though it was extremely low key. Maybe next year we'll plan further ahead to spend the holiday with family or friends, but this year it was nice to just lay low!

cautious, but having fun.

So silly!

Snoozing & Outings

2010-06-29T11:44:00.011-05:00

I'm combining a few things into one blog post. Gotta be super efficient these days if I want to get anything done! :)

Snoozing Baby...

Evelyn snoozing one afternoon!

Sitting pretty in pink! Another snooze in the Boppy!
I love sweet, peaceful, sleeping babies!

I don't mind her snoozing during the day---as long as it doesn't make her wide awake at night. No pattern yet though---we've had some good nights with decent sleep and some not so good night's too! She's still a wonderful blessing even when we are too tired to think!

Family Outing...

Last night we went out for ice cream as a family (at Bruster's) to finish out the time Kane has had off from work this month. I am SOO very thankful that he has had an entire month off to help out surrounding the time of Evelyn's arrival. Of course the first week when she was in two NICU's I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't been off work. He was there with me every step of the way and I'm so thankful to God that He knew before we did just how important it would be for Kane to be off work that first week. It's also been nice to have him around to help with errands, grocery shopping, taking care of Mara Kate & Evelyn, etc. the first couple weeks she was home. We are sad to send him back to work, but we are very thankful for his job and his desire to work hard to provide for us. But, we will definitely miss him around here during the days!

We really enjoyed our little family outing last night!

Evie chilling in her car seat at Bruster's

Mara Kate with her kid sundae---gummy worms and all!

MK & Daddy

Girls!

First Outing On My Own...

This morning I decided I needed to attempt taking both girls somewhere on my own. I've been nervous about flying solo (feels pretty overwhelming still at this point), but I knew I just needed to try it out to see how we did. Thankfully I feel somewhat rested today as Evelyn went to bed on the earlier side last night so I felt I had enough energy to attempt an outing. I took Mara Kate to the Summer story hour at the library. I used my new double stroller for the first time and we actually made it on time! I even gave Evelyn a bath before we went, so that was an extra bonus of productivity for my day!

Mara Kate enjoyed story hour and thankfully Evelyn slept the entire time (she's actually STILL asleep in her car seat, which is why I have a few minutes to update the blog) so today's outing was fairly easy and a success!

Evelyn napping in her car seat while on the go.
She's already borrowing things from her big sister---Mara Kate let her borrow her butterfly clip because it matched the butterfly on her outfit. :)

In the double stroller. I got everyone loaded up just fine, then had to push that contraption (probably weighing over 75 pounds total) up a big hill to the library entrance. When I got to the top I was extra sad that I had forgotten my water bottle!

Then, after story time I got the girls loaded back into the car and then realized I didn't know how to fold that stroller back up! Ha! It took me several minutes of pushing and pulling different levers on the stroller until it collapsed! Once it was back in the trunk I also collapsed into the front seat of the car before driving us all back home.
:)

Blessed Indeed

2010-06-23T14:30:00.003-05:00

I read the excerpt below on my friend Janelle's blog today and decided I'd re-post it here as a little reminder of the blessings which have been poured out on our family over the past weeks....blessed. So truly and wonderfully blessed!!

Our Sweet Evie---2 weeks old.

"I shall now have one mouth the more to fill, and two feet the more to shoe;
more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure for visiting, reading, music, and drawing.

Well! this is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other.

Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery.

Here is a soul to train for God, and the body in which it dwells is worthy all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant.

I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Chist’s name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other darlings had left me.

Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to your mother’s heart, welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her life-long prayers!

Oh, how rich I am, how truly, how wondrously blest!"

- Elizabeth Prentiss-

(from Stepping Heavenward)

Road to Recovery & Life at Home

2010-06-18T15:19:00.019-05:00

Sorry it's been awhile since we've updated the blog. As you can imagine, life with a new little baby has been quite busy.

Here's an update on Evelyn and how she has improved since Kane's last post.

Evelyn improved so much while in Atlanta that she was too well to stay at Egleston after only 3 days in their care. Because Children's only take and keep the sickest babies we were told she would need to be back-transported to the Rome hospital where she was born.

In Atlanta---waiting on the transport team to pick her up and take her back to Rome.

Last Monday evening a transport team came and picked her up and she arrived back at the NICU in Rome late Monday evening. Kane went and made sure she was settled in that evening and the next day we began a busy week of visiting her multiple times a day while she focused on regaining strength and learning how to eat. I had worked diligently to make sure she had enough pumped milk for each feeding (every 3 hours). I also worked with her 2-3 times a day in the NICU to learn how to nurse, but always offered her a bottle of pumped milk afterward to make sure she was eating enough. I wanted to breastfeed her more often, but we had to find a balance between pushing her to learn to nurse, without wearing her out. She wasn't strong enough while in the NICU to nurse at every feeding. But, thankfully I was able to attempt breastfeeding with her a couple feedings a day during that week. I was so glad that she took to it well and was well on her way to understanding the concept before she even came home.

The time she spent in the Rome NICU was very draining to us all. Although we were "at home" and able to sleep in our own beds, we were making multiple trips to the hospital each day, working hard with her while we were there and trying to find time to rest, pump, eat and sleep in between. Emotionally is was very difficult for me as well----going to "visit" your baby for an hour or so then just leave. I fought some feelings of guilt and had to pray through each moment of discouragement. I also prayed many, many times for patience through those days. I so badly just wanted to bring her home and having to wait until the proper time was very wearing.

During her time in the NICU my parents were here (my dad arriving the day after she was brought back to Rome) so my dad was able to come up to the hospital one time to meet Evelyn and so did my niece Alley who was visiting with my parents and helping take care of Mara Kate. Mara Kate also got to come twice during that week to visit her little sister. The first time she just got to look at her and rub her head and the second time she got to hold her, which were both very special family moments for us. I was so thankful for my mom who held down the fort at home with household things that needed to be done, cooking and taking care of Mara Kate so Kane and I could be freed up to go back and forth to the hospital. I felt like those trips and feedings each day were my full-time job for that week.

At the Rome NICU---Mara Kate meeting her new little sister for the first time.

The blankets surrounding her were ones Kane & I slept with, so she would be able to smell us even while in the NICU. Hard to see your baby attached to so many tubes, but oh so thankful there wasn't one stuck down her throat anymore, breathing for her. She was doing much, much better at this point.

Mara Kate holding Evelyn for the first time. She was very loving.

Working on a bottle of mommy's milk---getting stronger by the day!

We were SO thankful when doctor in Rome told us she could come home on Saturday (June 12, only 1 week and 1 day after birth), once her round of antibiotics was finished. It was wonderful waking up that morning knowing that I'd get to go pick up my baby and bring her home to STAY! We did exactly that and it was fun to finally see all the wires, iv port and electrodes removed from her chest and arms and be able to dress her up in the "coming home outfit" I had bought. It is hard to believe it was only 8 days since she was in such critical condition until the time that she was perfectly healthy and ready to come home. When we were getting her ready to come home the doctor told us, "You should care for her as if she is a normal, healthy newborn---because that's what she is." All I can say is---ONLY GOD!!

Getting her dressed to come home!

All dressed up---with a bow! As someone said,
"She's a gift from God and came home wrapped in a bow!"

Finally home

Mara Kate (and my parents and niece) were waiting
and ready to greet her when we arrived.

We have had such a wonderful time having Evelyn at home. Life actually feels much calmer now that we aren't having to think about when to be at the hospital next or when I should pump. She is rapidly becoming a nursing champ and I've already put away all the bottles and the breast pump. We've spent a lot of time cuddling together and just learning more each day about who this new little family member is!

So far she has been a pretty easy baby. She only cries when she has a good reason to and she sleeps fairly well too (as well as can be expected from a 2 week old). I feel much calmer and more confident in the mothering realm this time around, which is nice and Mara Kate is learning how to be gentle yet still loving. It been a wonderful week all the way around!

My parents have gone now and Kane's mom Tuie is here and is also enjoying lots of Evie cuddles. Evelyn will meet some more family this weekend too! We are simply enjoying our baby, enjoying time with family and enjoying the help they've all been to us as well!

Life at Home...

Awake and happy---swaddled in her cradle.

Snoozing in the bouncy seat

Getting lots of attention

First bath at home

Squeaky clean :)

Sporting their matching Big Sister & Little Sister t-shirts
As a friend on facebook said,
"SO big, SO little... SO awake, SO asleep!"
:)

We are just extremely thankful to God for giving her back to us after we thought we might be losing her! We are humbled at the gift she is and are praising God for her life and for the love He has given us for her. My heart is much bigger today than it was even just a few weeks ago---simply amazing!

Thank you to EACH and EVERY friend and person who said a prayer for us and for our sweet little Evelyn. We truly needed and felt your prayers and love!!!

We are so very blessed!

Sweet Evelyn

2010-06-06T11:07:00.020-05:00

This is going to be long, but it needs to be chronicled

The Birth Story

Jana and I headed to Floyd Medical Center around 8:00 in the evening on June 3rd. She was going in to receive Cytotec the night before being induced in the morning. Induction wasn't ever needed. Around 5:00 in the morning, Jana began active labor on her own. She progressed fairly rapidly. Jana's OB/GYN came by around 8:30am to check Jana's progress. She was pleased that Jana was progressing quickly, and decided to break Jana's water. While breaking her water, she checked Jana. After talking with the nurse who had checked Jana just 10 minutes previous, the OB/GYN realized that Jana was progressing very rapidly. Upon arrival, the OB/GYN had said that she was going to check Jana and then head to her office for an hour. After checking, she said, "I gonna' go put my boots on." Jana pushed for about 10 minutes, and Evelyn Nadine Barker was born at 8:54am on June 4th, 2010.

Jana got to hold Evelyn for a few minutes before the nurses took her to wipe her down and perform an initial exam. Evelyn received initial Apgar scores of 9 and 9, which were very good. The nurses then attached hospital bracelets, a security monitor and swaddled her and handed her to Jana and I. Evelyn lay in Jana's arms and let out a loud, contented sigh with every breath.

Taking Her Away

Jana got to hold Evelyn for about 30 minutes before she was taken back to the nursery for full metrics and exams. I followed, hoping to get as much information (and pictures) as I could. Evelyn weighed 6 lbs 15.1 oz. and was 19 inches long. Throughout all of this Evelyn had remained calm, with little to no crying. The nurse picked up on this and said, "She needs to start crying because her color needs to improve so I can keep her." I perceived this as an offhand comment, but it was the first indication that something might not be normal. I got kicked out of the nursery while they ran the next set of tests, but they promised to call me back before they bathed her so I could capture her first bath. I returned to Jana and reported what I had learned, downplaying the offhand comment.

About 10 minutes later a nurse burst into our room and, with little warning, cut off the security monitor that was attached to Jana. The only information that we got was that they needed to admit Evelyn to the NICU, and the security monitor was hindering them. This experience was very traumatic for all of us, because of the abrupt loss of safety and security. Jana's nurse followed a few minutes later with a little more information: Evelyn's pulse oxygen levels were dangerously low, so they took her to the NICU to fix her.

In the NICU
We had to wait almost an hour before receiving any more information. The NICU doctor came in and gave us the news: Evelyn was breathing, but her heart was still acting like she was in the womb. Although her lungs were working, all of her blood was bypassing the lungs. This caused her blood to be very low in oxygen. They had hooked Evelyn up to a ventilator and were supplying her with oxygen. The doctor laid out the facts: this was a common disorder (what we later learned as PPHN) in otherwise perfectly healthy babies; that things could easily get worse before they get better; and that the full range of outcomes was possible. Jana was slowly moved to a postpartum recovery room, and the information from the NICU trickled in. Evelyn was still not getting all the oxygen she needed, prompting the doctors to crank up the ventilator to its highest settings for supplying oxygen and forcing a fast breathing rate. Additionally, an echocardiogram revealed that Evelyn's heart was performing poorly. Not only was the heart still bypassing the lungs, but the heart was not pumping very strongly. At this point we learned that Evelyn was fighting two battles: low oxygen and a weak heart. Jana's nurse had served as a NICU nurse for eight years prior to coming to Rome. She was our liaison, and also fed us enough information to be specific in our prayers. I was also able to use this information to help me research and interpret more information. The nurse also helped prepare us for the road ahead.

Throughout this time family members with us at the hospital and I were contacting friends and family members to provide information and seek prayers. God's mercy and grace are a power that cannot be matched. The Holy Spirit poured over us and sustained us while waiting for news of any kind. The phrase the doctors and nurses kept using to describe Evelyn's condition was "very scary." After visiting her in the NICU, Jana and I got the impression that "very scary" wasn't sufficient. Without the comfort from the Holy Spirit, we would have been laid low to the depths of despair. At this point it was incredibly difficult for us to fear God more than our circumstances. We are so thankful that God's grace is wonderfully stronger than our weakness. More important than us, the Great Physician was keeping our little girl alive. One nurse later commented that the NICU nurses were certain that Evelyn must have had many people praying for her because that was the only explanation for her remaining with us. I am so thankful that God is glorified even in the worst situations.

The Road to Atlanta
One of the things that we had been warned of was the possibility of transporting Evelyn to a hospital that had more options and expertise to help Evelyn. Floyd's NICU was limited to one treatment option for her lungs and one for her heart. By late afternoon, she was receiving the maximum support that Rome could offer. Floyd's NICU staff made the best decision for Evelyn, and looked to transport Evelyn to Children's Hospital at Egleston in Atlanta. The transport team arrived around 8:00pm, and took Evelyn. Around this time, the neo-cardiologist came in to update us. He brought news that Evelyn's lungs were starting to open up. We were also informed that it appeared that her heart and lungs was structurally normal, which was comforting. He also told us that her heart was very weak, to the point that he described it as heart failure, which was not comforting.

I followed Evelyn as soon as I could, while Jana rested and recovered overnight in Rome. My parents drove me because I wasn't in a position to drive. We arrived at Egleston around 11:30pm. After waiting for few minutes, Evelyn's neo-natalogist came to speak with us. He was wonderfully positive. The news was good: Evelyn was responding to treatment in the two hours she'd been under their care. Her lungs had indeed opened up, and they had already started dialing the ventilator settings down. Also, her heart was not failing as first thought, but dysfunctional. That's not what every parent wants to hear, but dysfunctional is better than nonfunctional. I called to let Jana and her mother know that things weren't as grim as we once thought.

Life at Egleston

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
"The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." Lamentations 3:22-24

The next morning I arrived at the hospital to find Evelyn slowly progressing. Overnight, the support from the ventilator had been reduced, and was further reduced throughout the day. Also, the dose for one of the medicines for her heart was slightly reduced. This too would continue throughout the day. Even through all the good news, Evelyn was still very critical. Her heart was still weak, but it was strengthening. Jana arrived in the afternoon and we've both been on an emotional roller coaster as we look on in sadness at our baby girl who is hooked up to several wires and tubes and then watch in joy as the nurses slowly wean her from the artificial support. Jana left the hospital around 8:00pm because she needed to rest and recover from giving birth just 36 hours ago. I stayed to keep an eye on my precious baby girl. Even as I was leaving, the nurse was preparing to reduce her heart medicine and the ventilator was only serving as backup.

God's faithfulness exceeds our expectations, and his mercy refreshes us better than the morning dew. We awoke this morning and called to check on Evelyn. We were told that they had tried to completely take her off one of the heart medicines. Evelyn didn't take to the change too well, so they put it back at the lowest possible dose. By the time we arrived at the hospital and hour later, they had succefully removed that heart medicine and halved the dosage of the other! Additionally, they let us know that they would be removing the ventilator! How merciful is our Lord! We also got to talk with the neo-natalogist about her current condition and future prospects. We were wanting answers to the hard questions. In response to our line of questions, he handed me his business card, turned to Jana and said, "You probably won't remember to do this, but I want you to send me a picture of her when she is a year old. I'd also like one of her high school graduation." Praise God that our little girl has such a favorable outlook!

As the day wore on, Evelyn continued to improve. I've been trying to write this post while also paying attention to her. Since I started, they have completely removed all drugs that were steadily going into her system. She is only receiving nutritional fluids on a regular basis. Evelyn has started kicking her feet and grabbing onto our hands (and the IV lines). Jana even got hold her for a little while (My turn is coming soon!). While Jana was holding her, Evelyn made very faint little sighs just like she did the first time Jana held her. That was the first noise we've heard out of her since they took her to the nursery at Floyd. Praise God for the contented sighs of a precious little girl! And yes, we'll still be praising God when we hear the wails of a unhappy little girl too.

Jana and I continued to be surrounded with love and prayers. I think I've cried more tears of joy from the comfort that I've received from God's Kingdom as tears of sadness from despair about my little girl. In light of all the good that is happening, we still need your prayers:

Jana hasn't really had the time or desire to rest and recover from the birth, so pray that she is able to do that even while being with Evelyn in the NICU.
Please pray that Evelyn can be transferred to the "lower" side of the NICU. She's been in the more intensive NICU, and we hope she can move to the less intensive in the next day or so. This is one of the big steps towards her discharge.
Please pray that we can start feeding her the milk that Jana has been freezing since her birth. Everyone agrees that this will help speed her recovery, but the doctors aren't sure her digestive system is quite ready.
Please pray that Evelyn takes to breast feeding. According to the doctor, this is the next big hurdle. The ventilator tube was very invasive at a point in time when she should have been learning to nurse. Her muscles and mind will have to make some serious adjustments to overcome the trauma and nurse properly.
Please pray for continued recovery. Although her progress has been excellent, Evelyn is still "critical." The day she isn't is the day we get to go home.
Please pray that God will provide. With Jana recovering, we've been staying at a hotel only a block away. We have had offers to stay elsewhere, but the distance is prohibitive for Jana right now. We're waiting on a spot to open up at the Ronald McDonald House nearby, but may have to wait another couple of days.
Please pray for all the little babies in this NICU and others. We are not alone in our fears and despair, and our hearts go out to those whose little ones are also suffering.
Please praise God. He has moved mountains to help Evelyn recover so quickly. His timing of events has been perfect. His Kingdom has rallied alongside us. He has comforted us even in the dark hours in Rome. He has encouraged us with nurses and doctors who have said the right things at the right times. He has supported us with the love of friends and family. He has given us His Word to heal our brokenness. He has not given us anything more than we are capable of handling. He has provided for MK in that she is happily entertained with cousins while Jana and I have been focused on Evelyn.
God is doing more than I can even fathom, and my biggest prayer is that He will be glorified in all of this.

Be well and strong,

Kane

38 Weeks

2010-05-30T13:55:00.003-05:00

Only two weeks left until the due date. Who knows how long it'll be until we meet Evelyn, but we do know it won't be much longer!

At my last doctor appointment I had an ultrasound and they did confirm that Evelyn IS in fact head down, so we are thankful for that. Also, they also estimated Evelyn's weight that day at 6lb.s 3 oz. Wonder how much more she'll weigh when she actually makes her arrival?

Baby bump at 38 weeks along.

Mara Kate is getting really excited about meeting her little sister soon!

Ponderings

2010-05-25T09:42:00.003-05:00

We are getting closer and closer to Evelyn's arrival and in some ways it still doesn't seem real that she'll be here soon.

Maybe it hasn't hit me yet because when you wait 9 months for something to happen, by the time it finally arrives it kind of takes you by surprise. I know our life is about to change forever, by welcoming another member into our family.

I've been thinking about the dynamic of our family and how it has been around here for the past 4 and 1/2 years with just Kane, Mara Kate and I and how in just a few short weeks it'll be changing forever and will never go back to the way it was.

I'm very excited, a little anxious/nervous and also a little concerned about the adjustment it will be for us all. I am ready to see how Mara Kate does with another child in the house. A sibling. I know the concept is completely foreign to her and that she is old enough to really remember this change as it happens. We have had babies come visit. She loves it when her younger cousins come visit for a few days, but then they always go home and it always has gone back to being just the three of us. I wonder how long it will take for her to really "get" the fact that this baby is just as much a part of our family as she is and isn't leaving. Maybe it won't be hard at all and I hope the adjustment is easy and wonderful---but still--I wonder how she'll take it all in. I want to help her adjust, but at the same time, I know some of it will just happen--by just living life.

I'm starting to remember the sleepless nights and all the little needs that come with having a new baby in your home. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself to go back to those days of having a newborn after so long of not having to think about it. I haven't had to worry about naps, nursing, diapers, etc. for quite awhile. We pretty much have a routine down with Mara Kate. And the routine we have is very easy & mostly predictable. We know at bedtime that she will go to bed easily and sleep for close to 11 hours (unless she is sick or something unusual is going on). We have gotten into a groove and I know we are getting ready to be bumped out of it and I'm trying to brace myself for the ride that's coming!

I have thought since Mara Kate has been able to communicate how nice it is when something is wrong, she can just tell us what it is...where she hurts, etc. With a baby it's always a guessing game---why are they crying, what is wrong? This is something I'm also trying to prepare myself for.

I have had several people tell me that having #2 isn't as overwhelming emotionally because (even though it's been a while) I have done this all before! I'm hoping that is all comes back to me, like riding a bike, but I guess there is a little part of me that knows that right now I'm in the calm before the storm. :)

I really am looking forward to meeting this baby and can't wait to just see what she looks like. When I picture her, all I can see is Mara Kate's newborn face. I don't have any other point of reference and it'll be so interesting to see if there are similarities or not in my girls. When I think about labor and delivery all I can think about is how it was with Mara Kate. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I'll have different memories surrounding Evelyn's arrival and will need to try to keep them straight in my mind (and write them in the baby book so I don't forget).

I've also had people tell me that before #2 arrives it's sometimes hard to imagine loving another child the way you love the one you already have, but that your heart grows instantaneously once the second one arrives. I'm so looking forward to falling in love with Evelyn in that way once she is in our arms.

I am officially considered "full-term" now that I've reached 37 weeks. It feels good to get to the point of knowing that if she came today, although she'd still be early, she wouldn't be considered a premature. That's a comforting place to be.

I have an ultra-sound scheduled for tomorrow so they can confirm if she is head-down the way she is supposed to be. It'll be good to have that knowledge as we continue to wait and prepare for her arrival.