Guess who's in town?

My best friend, Kasie Fry, is in town this week. I am so excited to spend the week with her and to have a friend around. I'm not ashamed to admit that I have been incredibly lonely since we've been here, so I couldn't be more excited. I didn't sleep much last night because I was so anxious about her being here this morning. But, here she is and we are going to tear it up. You should be jealous.

right now

we are up in Evelyn's room playing. She is in her crib having a grand old time with her toys and I am sitting in the rocker typing on the computer. Every once in a while she looks over at me and laughs and I say, "Yep. I'm still here."
My house is a complete mess. Especially my bedroom. It is so messy! Clothes everywhere. We desperately need a dresser folks.
I am thinking about what I can make as a treat for family home evening. I was thinking something to do with pumpkins. I got this recipe from my cousin that looks delicious, so I think I'll try it.
I am showered, dressed, and have make-up on. Personal victory.
there are clothes in the washer that need to be put in the dryer and dirty dishes in the sink
it is beautiful outside and the trees are turning colors


I am so happy.

good morning

sometimes I think I live my life in pink and green

 In case you were wondering, the color scheme for my house in not pink and green. Not at all. But Evie seems to take up so much of the living room space that it kind of looks that way. We start our day with baby einstein in the bumbo while I take a shower and eat breakfast. Then there's some play/ funny faces time followed by a nap. After the nap she eats her rice cereal and loves it; making a huge mess in the process. Sometimes we go for a walk, but more often than not we play on the floor together or I put her in her entertainer. Depending on the day, she'll watch me do the dishes in the kitchen sitting in her bouncer, all the while listening to music and dancing. Sometimes I even cook a little something. This is followed by another nap and another round of rice cereal, followed by an attempt at a vegetable or fruit of some kind. At this point she hates all non-milk, non-cereal items. Sigh. And that is how most of our days go.

But, not lately. Because lately little miss has had a really stuffy nose. Which means she has a really hard time sleeping or nursing. So, most days it's just crying all day long until she wears herself out. I feel really bad for her and I wish there was something I could do, but more than that I just feel frustrated and exhausted. Dan didn't get home until 9 last night, so I didn't get to get out of the house and go anywhere.  I'm just exhausted. Any words of encouragement?

So this is what my life looks like. Pink and green, baby. 

Loves her baby einstein. Is she cute or what?

talk

So, Dan and I have to give talks in church on the 23rd.

Eek! 

I HATE hate talking in front of people

I can write papers and make things sound okay, but actually getting up in front of hundreds of people and reading it?

No thank you. 

Because of my debilitating fear, I am having a hard time getting started.

Any thoughts from my friends out there as to how to make a great talk?

How do you start when preparing a talk?

What kinds of things do you look for?

In case you're interested, the topic is humility and gratitude.

Also, in case you were wondering, Dan is great at giving talks.

Seriously exceptional. 

So I have to get up there and blunder around for a couple of minutes

and then he takes up the rest of the time with something super spiritual and profound

which makes everyone wonder, "what does he see in her?". 

I know I'm just being dramatic, but seriously.

I hate giving talks.

4 day weekend

Dan had Friday and Monday off this weekend and we tried to make the most of it. On Friday we went to old time country market and corn maze, pictured below, on Saturday we mostly just hung around the house watching movies and relaxing. Saturday was also sort of a comedy of errors when it came to making dinner.I was trying this new recipe I found and it was really labor intensive, so I was thinking it was going to be really yummy. BUT, while I was frying the chicken the oil splashed me in the face and I now have several small burns on my face around my eyes, and then the oven caught on fire, and the pasta almost burned, and the meal didn't even taste that great. Sigh. So, on Sunday Dan helped me cook dinner (tacos) by making tortillas. Have you ever had homemade tortillas? Yum. He used to make them all the time on his mission in Russia, so he made them for me and it was a lot of fun.

is he not the most handsome man you've ever seen?

On Monday we went to a pumpkin patch and got ourselves some pumpkins! We've always been really bad about decorating and celebrating holidays, but now that we have Evie we're trying to make more of an effort. Dan picked the biggest pumpkin he could find, Evie was indifferent as usual, and we all had fun. 

Excuse the no make up please

just missed the smile

this is her new thing; sucking on her lower lip

Corn Maze

 On Friday we went to the corn maze here in Chesapeake and it was a lot of fun. It was quite a bit different from other corn mazes I've been to in other places. Basically, they gave you a "map" of the maze and you were supposed to just go through the whole maze and find the five stamp stations. When you found a stamp you stamped on your map where you thought you were. Dan took this very seriously. He immediately switched into eagle scout mode and I thought it was pretty darn funny. We thought at the end of the maze we would get some sort of prize for finding all five stamps. But, sadly we did not. We did, however, get a ride on the wagon afterwards and two free shots on the corn gun. It was a lot of fun.

Brumby's Breadbasket. The best homemade cinnamon rolls and ice cream. Yum

first stamp

playing with the corn

second stamp

Where's Dan?

third stamp

fourth stamp?

all tuckered out

hayride

corn gun

6 months

Guess who's eating rice cereal now!? Yay! She loved it too, after she got over the initial shock of it not being milk that is. She is still just as cute as ever and loves to laugh and smile at everyone. Her new favorite thing to do is squealing in a seriously high pitched voice.

Something needs to change

I went to bed at 9pm last night. Yeah.... Does that make me old and boring? Probably. But Evie Lou and I went on a walk yesterday and in order to get the stroller up and down the stairs outside I had to carry the whole thing with her in it. Needless to say, my back was hurting A LOT by the time Evie went to bed last night, so I took a tylenol PM and hit the hay. She has been waking up around 3 or 4 every night. What is that about? Should I feed her? Let her cry it out? I don't know what to do. She wakes up completely upset with real tears and everything. Last night I let her cry for like half an hour and she still didn't go back to sleep so I just fed her. Good thing I went to bed so early or I wouldn't have gotten any sleep last night. Oy vei.

Also, I'm thinking something needs to be done about all of Evie's things. I would like to take our living room back and not have it constantly overrun with Evelyn's toys and things. Any ideas? I would have it all in her room, but she won't play without someone in the room with her and being in her room all day everyday doesn't sound like fun to me. Thoughts? I just need a change. I'm trying to decorate our home and make it feel like a house instead of a college dorm, but having a baby makes that a tad difficult. So, if you have any organizational ideas I would really appreciate it.

giggles

 

I'm so glad when daddy comes home...

This weekend was general conference (yay!) so we got to be at home all weekend. Can I just say how much I love having Dan home? I got to take a long, hot shower, sleep in until 9am, and cuddle on the couch watching conference. It's so nice having someone else around to take Evie when I need to shower or eat something. Did I mention that I got to eat lunch the last two days? Yes! Anyways, here is some pictures that I took today.

Watching conference together

too dark