Yup -- it's a BOY!! I had my "big" ultrasound today and we found out the news. Here is the picture that the ultrasound technician printed out for us... she said it doesn't get much more obvious than that!
The picture cracks me up -- hopefully our little guy doesn't get embarrassed someday that I posted this on the internet.. ha ha ha
Evelyn is going to have a little brother next April :)
Well -- Thanksgiving is almost done. It was a pretty relaxing day. We watched most of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade... Evelyn took a long morning nap (I might have taken a little nap, too)... then we went for a nice long nature hike/walk. There is a great trail by where we live that is very hilly and woodsy -- it takes about 30 minutes to get to the end of the trail -- so we got a full hour of exercise and fresh air today :) Here are a couple of pictures from our hike:
We went to our friends Boris and Sarah's house for dinner -- it was great! I didn't get home in time to watch Grey's Anatomy though -- I will have to watch it online tomorrow.
Hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving!
Well -- I accomplished most of the tasks that I had hoped to do while Travis was out of town. One of the main things I did not do was clean my closet and make a big trip to the Salvation Army. I plan on doing that this weekend still. Maybe that way Travis will be motivated to go through his things, too.
On the other hand, I also accomplished a few things that I didn't originally intend on doing (I did a bunch of Christmas shopping, I purchased fireplace fans, and I cleaned some other areas of the house not on the list)
Here are some new pictures of Evelyn:
I bought her a new hat today, and put it on her after I picked her up from daycare. As soon as Travis saw her, he said "who's the skater?". Apparently he thought her outfit made her look like a little skater... I guess I have to agree with him. Especially with the hat on!!
Travis missed his little girl when he was out of town. She missed him, too!
Here is Travis trying to steal a few kisses from Evelyn:
Here are some photos of my growing belly. I didn't get any head shots -- I had just gotten out of the shower... I am definitely bigger than I was last time at this point... but still not "showing" a ton in normal clothing. For people that know me, they can tell that I am pregnant... but for strangers, I just look like a normal girl that carries some extra weight in her belly :)
Here is Evelyn doing her new favorite thing --- standing up :) All she wants to do all day long is pull herself up on things - she loves it!
Off to do more cleaning/organizing/de-cluttering/purging!
Well -- it is Monday night and I just finished up task #1 and part of #2... I cleaned the junk drawers and now there is only one full of the essentials (batteries, tape, scissors, matches, pens, pencils). I also cleaned one of the front closets (the game closet).
I definitely am in a purging mood! I read a few articles online today from Peter Walsh -- I guess he has been on Oprah a few times -- but I just know him from MSN. He gives pretty good advice on how to de-clutter your house. He motivated me to throw things out instead of just moving everything around.
Now I am watching the Hills. Definitely a guilty pleasure. The show is pretty dumb --- and the character's lives seem so unreal -- but I still watch it when I can. Travis refuses to watch it, so tonight was the perfect night to catch up on two episodes after my organizing was done :) Seriously though -- does anyone else watch it? I can't stand J*stin-B*bby... and Sp*nc*r isn't much better. I can't believe that H*idi spent her 21st b-day alone with him. Her life is so sad now...! The newest episode is starting... time to go :)
Travis will be gone for work all next week. He leaves Monday and gets home late Friday night. I have decided that while he is away I will get some jobs around the house done. Here is what my list looks like:
1. Clean "junk" drawers in kitchen (we have like 4 of them) -- only need one junk drawer for basics (scissors, tape, pens, etc)
2. Organize hallway game closet and bonus room closet (both are being used for storage and are just a mess)
3. Clean my closet and do a clothing drop-off at Goodwill (I try to do this at least twice a year) -- but this time I am ready to purge more -- I have so much clothing I never wear!
4. Clean/Organize spare bedroom closet and the "empty bedroom" closet (these have random things in them -- and we will need to turn the "empty bedroom" into another nursery soon, so I better get going!
5. Donate books to library (I already have a box started, just need to go through books one more time to get rid of the non-classics, non-favorites, etc.
I think that is all for now. I am going to pick one big thing a night and hopefully my list will be complete by the time Travis gets home! Evelyn goes to sleep usually around 7PM, and I usually go to bed around 10 or so --- so that gives me 3 hours every night to work on everything. I am much more motivated when Travis is gone. He typically sits on the couch with Cocoa from 7PM until bedtime every night ---- I find myself getting sucked in to the tv time with them more often than not. AND -- since I posted these items on my blog, I am more likely to get them completed, too!
So -- Evelyn started the new daycare last week. Everything seems to be going okay so far. I stayed with her for an hour or so the first morning so that she was comfortable with the new place, kids, etc. She immediately started crawling around and playing with the new toys. Jim and Gay (the daycare providers) said that she is doing great --- taking good naps, only fussing when she is tired, she is eating normally, etc. I am happy so far with the new location and Evelyn seems to be adapting okay.
Here is where things start to go wrong... On Friday Travis picks her up (which I had been doing all week). When he got there, Evelyn had a new bruise on her forehead, she was missing a sock, and her eyes were red and watery like she had just been crying. The sock isn't a big deal (Gay found the missing sock over the weekend and gave it to me on Monday morning). The bruise isn't too big of a deal -- Evelyn had given herself a bruise a few weeks earlier in the same exact spot. She waves her arms like crazy with a toy in her hand, and bonks herself on the head once in a while. I realize she is going to have many more bumps and bruises in the future -- some of them we will witness, and some of them will happen at daycare.
The red eyes was a tiny bit of a concern though... Travis didn't ask them if she had been crying, so we don't know if she was crying or just rubbing her eyes. I always ask them at the end of the day how she did. Especially the first few days, I wanted to know if she was crying at all -- because crying and fussing is really out of character for her unless she is extremely tired (we are lucky, I know). I just want to be sure that Gay and Jim are being open about her behavior during the day -- if Evelyn isn't happy, I want to know.
To top that all off, she came home from daycare on Monday with a runny nose. She then proceeded to vomit up her dinner (all over herself and her high chair -- that was fun to clean up after she went to bed). She slept okay last night -- but when I got her up in the morning, she had a ton of dried snot under her nose and she was extremely congested. It is that time of year --- so I can't really complain... But still -- Evelyn hasn't really been sick or had a cold yet -- and now one week into the new daycare she has a pretty bad cold.
I am not giving up yet --- Evelyn does seem happy in the mornings when we go there, and she is always playing with the other kids in the afternoon when I pick her up --- I guess we just had a short series of unfortunate events that are starting to put a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully these events will stop soon!
Here are the 10 month photos. They were taken a few days late this month since we were in Michigan on the 26th. The Halloween hat ones are funny --- the hat makes her cheeks look extra-chubby!!
And here is my little butterfly! She hated to stay still for the photos. Now that she is crawling, it is almost impossible to get her to sit still long enough to get a picture :) Evelyn did go trick-or-treating on Halloween --- but just to a few of the neighbor's houses before it was bath and bedtime. 
Hope everyone had a great Halloween!
Here is a random picture of Evelyn in a winter hat. I don't remember why it got put on her in the first place -- but she seemed to like it. Also, my parent's house is always a little cold -- so I think it kept her head warm, too!
Here is a picture from the "photo shoot" that my mom and I did of Evelyn. We took her around the front yard and tried to get pictures of her in front of trees, some pumpkins, etc.
Lastly, here is a picture of Evelyn with her Uncle Gary and his girlfriend Emily. They actually did a little bit of baby-sitting for me one night. When I walked in the door, Emily was just finishing up changing a really dirty diaper. It was perfect timing!! :)
