Birthday Boy

We had a great day yesterday, starting with music class followed by swimming in the pool. He got pancakes in the morning, shaped like the letter "E" followed by mac and cheese (with peas snuck in) for dinner. A meal fit for a king!! Here are some pictures taken at the pool. I sware he does smile, but I couldn't catch any good ones yesterday.

We are looking forward to two birthday parties coming up. One with ten one year olds tomorrow, and their mommies, and one with friends and family next weekend!!! Its a two week long celebration!!!

Happy Birthday Evan

One year ago today at 8:12 pm, I became a Mom. Thank you Evan for making me a Mom and making our lives complete. What a wonderful year it has been.

Also, thank you Jenn for helping me edit some of these pictures, they look great!!

A boy's boy... like a man's man, only younger.

Here are a few more pictures of Evan after he played with his new sand and water activity center yesterday. I try to time it right before bath time, because when he is done, there is water and sand EVERYWHERE!!! Here you can see the water dripping off of his little face. His little outfit was drenched!!! It's worth it because he loves getting dirty. He is a boy's boy!!

Funny Faces I LOVE!!

Evan loves making crazy noises (blows bubbles, imitates coughing, screams, babbles) with his mouth. Here are a couple of pictures of him and his silly antics.

Evan's New Girlfriend

We had a couple over and their one year old daughter yesterday for a cook-out. Their daughter is such a dream baby. Never fusses, always content. Hmmm, what's that like?? He loves playing with Mackenzie. Here are a few pictures of Evan and Kenzie playing with his first Birthday present from Mommy and Daddy, a sand and water activity center!!

What is even harder than getting a picture of Evan these days? Getting a picture of two babies at the same time!!!!

I do exist!!

Out of the ten thousand or so pictures I have of Evan's first year, there are only a handful with me in them, and even fewer where I look half-way decent (none where I look good). Here is a picture Paul took of us this morning. Mind you, I don't look good. But atleast I have my hair brushed!!!

Enough about the new Camera!!

I took these pictures of Evan today on the way to the neighborhood pool. I found the cutest oak trees that sort of had a little seat in the middle made out of roots. I thought it made the neatest backdrop for what else... more pictures of Evan!! Unfortunatly I didn't have the new camera with me (too nervous to take it around water!), so I guess we will just have to go back!! The pictures are fuzzy, but you still see how cute my little ham is. Paul is afraid I am going to crash our computer with all the pictures. I have probably taken 10,000 since last September. No really, I have.

Labor of Love

We had a couple over for dinner over the weekend, and the girl (who is 21 years old and the fiance of Paul's friend) said... "I can't wait to have kids. I want to have like 8 of them so I never have to work again." Oh, if she only knew how much work they can be!!! Then she said, "It must be nice not to work, you probably always have the house clean and dinner on the table when Paul gets home." I tried to explain, its not that easy with a little one, let alone the eight that you desire. But I figured it would be much more fun to watch her discover that on her own.

Here are a few pictures of Evan and his silly antics. He took everything out of a cabinet for me, the one where I keep like 800 Publix bags. This is why my house isn't clean... because as soon as I clean it, Evan messes it up!!

Disclaimer: Evan was under close supervision while playing with the plastic bags, as they are a suffocation and choking hazard. ( I had to put that, otherwise GRAMMY would be emailing or calling, making sure I knew that.... You know you would be guilty of that GRAMMY!!)

The best thing about being a stay at home mom is: Staying at home with my son every day and seeing all the new things he does, and teaching him new things... I could name a million things really. The bad thing about being a stay at home Mom: Sometimes ya go stir crazy!! 95% of the time we find lots of things to do, but there's that 5% of days (days like today)... where ya just get plain stir crazy. There's only so many times you can play with the same toys!!! Today we played outside in the backyard and watch the dogs play. Ho Hum... Evan's all dressed and no place to go.

It's Official... He's a BIG Boy!!!

This weekend we turned around Evan's car seat. He is officially a big boy!! We are really livin on the edge, we turned it around 8 days early (he has to be 20lbs and 1 yr). But he absolutely loves being front-facing. He just giggles at the fact that he can see me and his DVD player. And I just love that I can see his smiling face at all the stop lights, and reach back and tickle his foot!! Here he is with his thumb in his mouth, twirling his hair and watching Baby Einstein. Does it get any better than this?

Is farming in Evan's future?

Evan says Mama and Dada, but I am not convinced he knows what it means or says it in a deliberate manner yet. Its more mixed in with a stream of babbles. But there is one word (or link of vowels) he says VERY clearly. That's E-I-E-I-O. Every time I sing or play Old MacDonald, he starts saying E-I-E-I-O. Not what I expected his first word to be. But it's cute nonetheless.

Or maybe he will be a gymnast in the olympics. He can't walk yet, but actually climbed up a slide at the park the other day. I was pretty impressed!!!

Yuck, took these pictures with my old camera. See Paul, the new camera is so much better and crisper!!! Thanks for letting me spend way too much money on a camera, best purchase EVER!!

Birthday Suit II

Just a couple more pictures to share.

Birthday Suit

I got Evan a new outfit for his big day coming up. His party is going to be a fishy theme, so I got him a cute little outfit with anchors. And of course that called for more pictures at the park. This time I got smart, I had Paul come along and make funny noises behind me to draw a few smiles out of my little guy. Good thing we don't care what people think anymore, because there were plenty of people at the park looking at us like we were a little weird. But I got a couple great shots, so totally worth it!!!

Jeepers Creepers...Where'd Ya Get Those Peepers?

All he is gonna have to do is bat those eyelashes and he's gonna get anything he wants in this world!!! I am so glad he got Daddy's eyes, not that my eyes are bad. But Daddy's got the best blue eyes in town, well, now the second best!!

Teething Bites

Evan has been cranky for the last four days in a row. So I am assuming that he is teething. Nothing is breaking through the gums, but my little boy is sweet as sugar, so it must be for a reason!!! Anyway, I am looking back at sweeter times, like in this video when he is dancing with his Easter Duck from Grandma Starstrom. It was only a few days ago, but it seems like months... Teething BITES!!

Help.... Being a Mom doesn't automatically make you a good baker??

What's the number for Publix Bakery again? I had huge visions of making the cutest fish cake ever for Evan's Birthday Playgroup. So I had a trial run tonight. I made two because I am planning on making one small one for him and another one (or two) for his friends. But they didn't turn out how I envisioned them. They didn't even really taste that good either, which is the really important part. I figured once you became a Mom you automatically know how to sew, cook, bake, etc. Not so much.... Oh well. Evan will understand, and he can go to Grandma's if he wants homemade cake!!!

Waiting for Daddy

I think I am usually more excited to see Paul every night, than Evan is. I don't even let Paul put down his car keys before doing the hand-off. I usually take advantage of another set of hands right away, by making dinner, going to the bathroom alone (ahhhh, what a novelty), etc. Anyway, today we played dress-up while waiting for Daddy. The dogs are glad to have Evan in their lives, because they used to be the unlucky ones to get dressed up all the time!!! I know, I'm weird.

I am getting more sentimental in my old age!!!

Today Evan and I attended our first Music class at a local church. As soon as we started singing and the teacher went around the room and sang each of our child's name, I felt like I was going to cry?!? I got a lump in my throat, and I had no idea why at first. I am a fairly sensitive person, and once you get to know me, I wear my heart on my sleeve. But for goodness sakes, I was in music class with 15 other mom's and their babies, whom I had never met!!! I thought about it a lot today, and I think the reason was, that I started picturing Evan in school one day, and I pictured the teacher calling on him, and him getting nervous. And I also really enjoyed watching him dance, and smile and watch the teacher's every move. I felt very proud of him. And all of those feelings wrapped into one, made me a little emotional, I must say!!! It's pretty cool being Evan's Mom, every day I learn more and more about myself. And today I learned how much fun I have just watching him learn and experience new things, more so then I ever have in the past!!! Here is a picture of Evan dancing, he LOVES dancing and LOVES music!!!

Talk about a Moving Target!!!

I can't believe I have yet to mention anything about our sweet girls on my blog!! Before there was Evan, Corky and Farly were my little girls. I treated them like my babies, well I still sort of do. They are a very important part of our family. Corky is so good with Evan, she lets him climb all over her. And she actually (sometimes) poses for pictures with him. Farly (not pictured except for her tail in the back ground of the first picture) is equally sweet.... but a little shy shall we say. It was Corky's idea to participate in the photo session today, but she got distracted by a lizard. The older Evan gets, the harder it is to get him to sit still... and the dogs, well that's why they haven't been on the blog yet!!! They are just happy some of my attention is diverted towards Evan because before Evan, I was dressing up the girls in all sorts of crazy get-ups!!!

Higher Daddy, Higher!!!

Just wanted to post a few pictures of my two favorite guys. Paul is enjoying fatherhood more and more each day. When Evan was first born, Paul didn't know what to think. Evan sure was alot of work, and he sure did keep us up alot at night!!! But now, I can't pull him away from Evan. They are becoming best buds, and I absolutely love watching them grow closer. I am so proud of Paul, he's a great Dad.