Bad Blogger

I realized it had been quite a while since I had put any thoughts out into cyberspace! I feel like the world is whirling around me and I'm just trying my best to keep up! I guess the biggest change in our lives is that Shaun left for a specialty school at Nellis AFB for 6 months. The good news is that he's still in the U.S. as opposed to being deployed overseas. We will actually be going out to visit him for a weekend in February. The bad news is he is going to be gone longer than if he HAD deployed! It's been 2 weeks since he left and Evelyn and I are still surviving! We are strong, independent women! :)

Evelyn amazes me daily! She has such a sweet personality (most of the time!) She now has a love of reading books. We go through her entire library at least three times a day! She loves being tickled and has discovered a love of bubble baths. It is hard not to hold her 24 hours a day since it's just the two of us, but I am trying to remind myself to help her become more independent so it won't be too shocking when mommy's arms are taken by another baby.

Baby #2 is well on it's way. I am 19 1/2 weeks, so almost half-way baked! :) I have been feeling the kicks and movements lately, which is my favorite part of pregnancy! We should be finding out the gender in another 2 weeks. If family history has any part of this, I am pretty sure we'll be welcoming another girl!

My two jobs are keeping me very busy. I still have my original job at Jones Eyecare three days a week, but now I also work for a pediatric ophthalmologist one day a week as well! I admit, Thursday has become my favorite day! I love seeing all the kids and it is allowing me to gain some invaluable experience.

Well, no pictures for today. Just putting my random thoughts out there! :)

Bathtubs are overrated!!

The other day Evelyn got so much of her dinner ON her rather than IN her, I decided to just go ahead and clean her up right there in the kitchen!! It was such a change from the normal bathtub that she LOVED every minute of it! :)

Birthday Party

Opening gifts with cousins and friends!
Nothing like running icing through your hair!!
Mmmmmmm.....cake!
Evelyn's pumpkin cake!
THE BIG ONE!!!

It's hard to believe 12 months have gone by since our little girl was born! We celebrated Evelyn's first birthday with family and friends at our house. We have been so blessed with this sweet little girl! At the party, Evelyn had a big announcement for everyone: She is going to be a BIG SISTER!! That's right! There's another sweet little baby on the way!! :)

No title!

11 months old-----already??!!
At home with the flu. :( But luckily she continued to smile!
My Bible Study group had a Halloween get-together for all our kids! Since Evelyn was still recovering from the flu on actual Halloween day, this was her only chance to wear her costume. What a cute ladybug!! :)

Nothing much.....

How many pacifiers can she have? One in the mouth and one for each hand!!


Not too much to write, but had some cute pics to put up! :) Today is Shaun's birthday--31 years old! (even though he's claiming he's 27-again!) My friend Amy came over to surprise Shaun by putting up some balloons and streamers in our house--it was very cute! Then Shaun had the brilliant idea to put Evelyn in a big suitcase with all the balloons---she LOVED it! It provided entertainment for at least 30 minutes, which is a long time to a 10 month old! She now has her two top teeth with the two side teeth coming in quickly. Pretty soon she'll be looking like a little toddler instead of my little baby!

Haircut!

I put it off as long as I could, but it finally became apparent that Evelyn needed a haircut. Her bangs were constantly getting in her eyes, and she still had a duck-tail in the back. Since she was born with a full head of hair, but then managed to rub the sides off, she had very long darker hair on top with short blond hair in the sides!! The duck-tail was just a few remaining long hairs on the back of her head that somehow didn't get rubbed off! We went to a kids haircut place for the event. I think the part she disliked the most was the bomb that the stylist used---perhaps this means she's going to be a little tender-headed like her mommy! But, she survived and has a very cute and symmetrical hairdo! :) She also looks even more blond since we cut most of the dark tips!


Before
Animal crackers make happy customers...
well, sometimes!

All done with a pink bow to top it off!!

Our Family Stay-cation!

After Shaun was away for 3 weeks for work, we decided to take a few days off work and have some family time! Unfortunately, for the first few days we were all sick with a stomach bug Evelyn brought home from daycare! :( But, after we recovered we decided to explore some of the local features of Oklahoma!


GW Exotic Animal Park:
Just south of the city, this is a safe-haven for exotic animals. All the animals in their possession have been rescued. They mainly have large cats (tigers, lions, cougars, etc) but also have some reptiles, monkeys, wolfs and birds. We went on a behind-the-scenes tour which allowed us to get even closer to the animals, including playing with a baby tiger cub!!

Evelyn had a chance to pet the baby tiger cub!

This Lion, named Elvis, was completely preoccupied with Evelyn's stroller!
They warned us that the cats could "spray" through the fence. We found out the hard way that it was true! A female tiger decided to aim towards us, but only got the roof of our stroller! Yuk!
Tigers are the only felines that enjoy water! This large cat was just soaking in his water bucket!
This lion was laying on his back just staring at us! Every once in a while he'd lick his chops---maybe we looked tasty!


Arbuckle Wilderness: Also south of the city, this park lets you drive through and feed the animals from your car! We learned very quickly that the animals have no fear of our 4-wheeled vehicles and that they will steal entire cups of animal food!!
isn't he cute?
The giraffes were our favorites! They had to lean WAY down to get the food! :)
Exhibit A: Zebra stealing the entire cup of food! I guess he has stripes for a reason--he's a criminal!
Evelyn learning pointers from the monkeys!!


Our little girl is growing up so fast!! 10 months old!
The view from the front seat---our little girl is tuckered out from all the fun!



Oklahoma City Science Museum: This is really designed for older children, but Shaun and I had a blast playing with all the displays! Evelyn was able to get in on a little bit of the action! We also took in a movie in the Dome theater! It made us all feel like we were in the ocean with the fish! :)