Happy Harvest!!

Yes, I'm one of "those people" who hates Halloween...but I do enjoy dressing my kid up to look cute! Here's our little chick!



It's hard to keep your balance when you're a chick!

The Most Annoying Sound in the World

Last night while feeding Evelyn (nope...still not sleeping through the night!), I heard a chirping sound. After a minute, I realized it was one of our smoke detectors. Ev was having a hard time getting back to sleep, so I stood in her doorway trying to figure out which one it was. It sounded muffled, so I figured it was the one in our attic. Instead of crawling up there at 1am, I texted Dan so that we would remember to change it in the morning.

I woke up this morning to this sight...


Apparently it woke Dan up (I was easily back to sleep), so he had gotten up to figure it out. He stood beneath every smoke detector waiting for the chirp...nothing. So he took them all down and changed all of their batteries, but could still hear the chirping...muffled...and not coming from any of these. After searching the garage, the attic, and considering crawling into the air ducts Jack Bauer style...he figured out it was in the utility room cabinet. Sorry honey, I put that in there when we changed the one in Ev's room to the voice kind...and apparently forgot to remove the battery. Maybe I'll get you your weapons drawer for Christmas for being such a good sport!

5 Years Ago Today...

I said yes!

Dan had coordinated everything with my sisters - making shirts for my nephews to wear while we were taking family pictures - and then he popped the question.  Here's the little pudgies with their shirts on...

Ben (Will), Gage (You), Grant (Marry), and Gavin (Dan)

2006

They've all gotten so big...and we've added a few!

Gavin (holding Evelyn), Heidi, Katie, and Grant

Gunnar, Ben, and Gage

I love you, Dan...thank you for making that day so special and perfect for me!  

Hi-Ho Hi-Ho

It's off to get a new car battery we go!


Hooray for O O O O'Reilley's...buy a battery, they install it on the spot!

Sweet Blissful Snow

I am insanely jealous of these numbers and pictures in Colorado today...







I miss snow so much. I miss seasons and changing weather. My alma mater is closed for a snow day today...in the 7 years I was there, we never had a snow day. This tells me that Greeley is covered in a blissful blanket of snow. I can only hope it stays cold enough that we can at least see it this weekend. And that this is the beginning of a white Christmas. I miss snow.

I shall now commence with drinking coffee and listening to Christmas music all day...

(be safe everyone!)

Our Little Pumpkin

We took Evelyn to our local pumpkin patch last night.  She wasn't a huge fan, as you can see below...she was either not looking at the camera, or crying!  Now that I think about it, I think the straw was probably poking through her tights and hacking her off.  Fortunately there were some cute shots!

At the beginning...still not sure what all this is about

 Woah guys - I need some help here!

 Hey - this one's my size!

 I don't mind this so much when I get to be big and stand up

 This looks like something I want to put in my mouth

 Are we done yet, guys?

 I really really don't like this!

 No...I don't even like the wagon!

 Ahhh...this is better...Daddy's soft lap!

After the Pumpkin Patch we went back with our Life Group to carve pumpkins, eat lots of yummy fall food, roast pumpkin seeds, and enjoy a fire with some s'mores.  It was actually a gorgeous night here (could have used that cooler weather on Friday night when we were AC-less!).

Evelyn liked sitting with Daddy by the fire

When we got home, we tried to get some pictures of Evelyn in our pumpkin.  She actually wasn't too upset with this one!

Until she leaned over too far and hurt her tummy

HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!!

It Hurts to be Hot

Well our HVAC unit finally bit the dust. We've had troubles on and off with it since we moved in (causing fires in the attic, clogging lines, just plain not working). This week the external unit/compressor fan thing started making a LOUD humming noise, so we called our trusty HVAC service tech and had him come take a look. Apparently we had a freon leak that had created a block of ice leading into the external unit. He said it has probably been leaking for a while, but it's been so hot here it has melted itself before causing trouble. This week we finally got down into the low 50s overnight, which was the night the humming started. So he replaced a part that would work as a patch buying us anywhere from a day to a year's time before we had to replace the whole thing. It bought us about 5 hours before it started humming again. When he came this morning, the entire inside of the external unit was a block of ice. Apparently this is problematic. Of course today we're back into the high 80s for daytime temperatures and will barely break 69 for a nighttime low. We've got the windows open and every fan on...it's been around 83 degrees in the house all day (loads of fun). It's finally cooling off outside, so we just worked our way down to 79 indoors. Still hot. Ugh.

But at least she's still cute!

No need for clothes today!

Wenches...yet another example of how it hurts to be hot...

I Like My Toes

God makes the coolest toys!!

Sitting Around

It's fun to sit up!!

A Tale of Two Cousins

Dan and I were looking at pictures of our new nephew and commenting on how tiny he is (and how stinkin' cute he is!). We remembered thinking Evelyn was tiny, so we pulled out some pictures of her first day of life to compare.


Evelyn on the left...Micah on the right


Evelyn was 8 pounds, 8 ounces, and 18.75 inches long...Micah was 5 pounds, 15.5 ounces, and 19.5 inches long. It's amazing how much difference 2 1/2 pounds makes!!

Can't wait to get my hands on this little guy!

5 Months Old

Little Miss Evelyn is 5 months old today, and I can't believe it!  My friend Nicole always blogs about what milestones her kids reach/fun things that they do for each month/year of their lives...so I'm shamelessly going to copy her. :-)

Evelyn, you are such a joy to us.  Every day is a new adventure, a new smile, and a new laugh.  You went swimming for the first time this month.  I always thought that you would love it because you love your bath time every night.  When I got into the pool, the water was really cold, so I was nervous that you would hate it...but you LOVED it!  You chattered with us the entire time!  Your personality is really starting to take shape.  You are opinionated (Daddy thinks you get this from Mommy) and you aren't afraid to share with us what you are thinking.  We like to call you "0 to 60" because when something doesn't go the way you want it you, you are screaming in .35 seconds.  But you calm down just as quickly!  You really have an adorable "I'm mad" face - it's probably good that your cry is loud and shrill so that we will attend to your need instead of watching how cute you are when you get mad! :-)  You have been rolling over front to back for a while now, but a lot of times you'll need help getting started.  You are doing it all on your own...over and over and over again...now.  You are just days away from getting yourself from back to front as well.  You still hate tummy time - you will dig your head into the floor and stick your bottom up in the air, but you rarely lift your head.  When you do figure out to get your arms underneath you, you'll stay for a little while, but then it's back to face digging!  You found your feet this month, and they are your most fascinating toys to date.  You'll sit back and grab them and coo and talk with us for hours.  You have also started sleeping on your side.  When we lay you down in the crib, you curl up on your side and stay there for a while (at least until you shift onto your back or lose your pluggie).  You have started sitting up on your own.  You usually need a little help when you get excited about something so you don't face plant or fall backwards, but you love playing with your blocks while you sit.  You also just figured out if you lean over while you are sitting, you can get to those fun feet again!  Everything is going in your mouth these days....which means you are drooling like crazy.  I think your tactile sense is also developing because you love to touch everything.  When you are sitting on our laps, you'll rub our arms (and pull Daddy's arm hair!) and you want to touch everything that is within arms reach of you.  You love being outside, so we are glad that "fall" is finally coming to South Texas so that you can be outside more.  You also LOVE football.  I mean, love it.  Daddy knew that Mommy's family enjoyed watching games, but he had no idea it was genetic! :-)  When we are watching the Broncos, you will fuss when the commercials come on, but be completely content (and watching) when the game is happening.  We took you to a Javelina football game this month, and you loved watching everything.  We think you are going to have a love for sports like your Mommy and Daddy!  This month has flown by, as every month since you were born has.  You make our days sweeter (and let's be honest...our nights longer, you still aren't sleeping through the night!).  We love you so much!!

Happy 5th month birthday, our sweet Princess!

Welcome Cousin Micah!

Michael Terry Gaines III - Micah




Evelyn welcoming her little cousin to the world

Congratulations Mike and Kendra!! We can't wait to meet him in a few weeks!

It's Sonic Good

Somebody likes Daddy's Strawberry Limeade!

Crocheting Fun!

One of the ladies at our church has started a fun new activity called Sit 'N Stitch.  The idea is to get women together to just hang out, drink coffee, and stitch (knit, crochet, sew...).  Some of the women are seasoned pros, while others of us (ah hem, Leah and I) are newbies who thought it would be fun to make fools out of ourselves and learn to crochet.  Little did we know that we'd actually enjoy it!

A few days before our first lesson, Evelyn and I headed to Hobby Lobby to get some yarn and crochet hooks.  Who knew there were 3 AISLES of yarn and about 20 different crochet hooks to choose from. I wish Leah would have been with me, because the two of us would have had some good laughs.  I enjoyed watching Evelyn, though.  She was mesmerized by all of the colors of yarn!

Here's Leah making her first stitch!

While we were crocheting at the coffee shop, I learned that I crochet very tightly.  Apparently that's my Type A personality showing through.  I had taken crochet with 4-H when I was little, but hated it.  I remember making a pot holder (I think my Mom still has it!).  I was pretty darn impressed with myself though.  However, the tight stitching apparently makes it difficult for a baby blanket to lay flat on the ground.  It was more so that I loosened up when I realized how hard it was to double crochet into a tight stitch!  So instead of getting 29 inches through a blanket that won't lay flat, I tied the first attempt off and started fresh.  But now Evelyn has a little scarf! :-)

Here's the current product - I doubled the length so that the blanket would be longer.  I've been averaging about a row a night after Evelyn goes down!

Hodge Podge of Pictures

It's been a little bit crazy the last few weeks in the Gaines household, so I have been neglecting blogging.  Here's a collection of pictures over the last couple of weeks to catch you up on us!

This picture was taken a on a morning when Evelyn woke up - wide awake to the world - at 6am.  She usually gets up for good between 8-9am.  I had to get ready for work, so I put her in her bouncy seat in our bathroom and turned on the closet light.  I was hoping that the darker room would help her to go back to sleep.  Instead, she just glared at the closet light.  Stinker!

 Dan took this at church.  She went through this phase where she always wanted an arm behind her head.  I was holding her during worship, and this is how she was hanging out.  She stayed this way through the entire worship set (about 20 minutes).

 "Hi, I'm Evelyn.  I'm cute!"

 Sleepy girl

 Another sleepy girl...only this time she had a hold of my finger and wouldn't let go!

 Somebody found their feet!  These are the coolest toys in the world!

 You can't see it, but she's watching football in this picture.  Just chillin'!

 Gearing up for some Purdue football!  Go Boilers!

 More fun with my feet!  Dan was trying to get her dressed in her jammies, but she didn't want to let go of her feet!

 Lazy Sunday nap with Daddy...

Go Hogs Go!

We took Evelyn out to A&M-Kingsville for her first live football game.  Although now that I'm writing this, I'm realizing she watched her cousin Ben's game live a couple of week's back! (Go Ben!)  We were trying to get a picture of the 3 of us at the game, but she wouldn't look at the camera!  She was completely engrossed with the game.

This girl loves her football! :-)  Here's a video we took, she was doing this for most of the game!

Visiting Grandma Uni

We took a quick trip to Colorado last weekend and were able to visit with my Grandma Uni.  She is my Dad's mother.  Her health has slowly been deteriorating, so I am incredibly thankful that we were able to spend this time with her.  Here are some pictures we took while we were visiting with her.

Me, Evelyn, and Grandma Uni 

 Our little family

 All of the Tim Wisdom grandkids and great-grandkids

Nathan, Grandma Uni, Stacey, Evelyn, Dan, Gavin, Heidi, Mike, Angie, Katie

Grant, Lisa, Gage, Ben

 All of the great-grandkids with Grandma Uni

 Grandma Uni with her granddaughters

 Granddaughters and spouses with Grandma Uni