Today is about the seven millionth day that it's been over 100 degrees here. I mean, really, we haven't had temperatures below 30 degrees the entire time we have lived here. I know, I know...we live in south Texas, it's not supposed to be cold. But I MISS it, terribly. I miss the smell of fall - you know that, "there's a football game today" smell. The feel of leaves crunching under your feet. Having to wear hoodies and jeans. That chill in the air that makes you want a pumpkin spice latte (or pumpkin custard from Snowbear). Apple orchards with apple cider, apple pie, apple everything. Real pumpkin patches...not fake ones with wood pallets holding pumpkins for you to pick out (while it's still 800,000 degrees outside in October). Bonfires in the back yard. The smell of bonfires in the back yard. Having a need for a fireplace in your house (besides storing your daughter's toys on the hearth). The first SNOW of the year. Sigh.
Today I was especially missing "up north" so Evelyn and I did some fall crafts. We may or may not have been listening to Christmas music as well. :-)
Getting ready to paint - a blank canvas!
Our first project was a tree where her hand prints made the leaves
Then we had a free for all paint!
And...messy time!
It's days like this that make me really sad to have to go to work. And it's colors like these that make me miss fall like crazy. Can we get a real cold front here? Let's get into the teens!
Dan and Evelyn made our local news! As exciting as that is, the reality is that our friend, Cristina, is in the fight of her life against Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. Unfortunately her only sister is not a match for the marrow transplant that she needs, so Cristina is in a race against time to find a donor. Even before she knew her sister was not a match for her, Cristina started advocating for others to join the national registry to help others in need. She has partnered with the National Marrow Donor Program's Be the Match Registry to raise awareness of the need for donors across the country. Donors in the registry can be matched to any
patient in need, some as young as 1.
On Sunday, our church hosted a donor recruitment event to possibly help
Cristina, and potentially help others we don't even know. And so, one of the local TV stations showed up to cover the event - which was largely successful. There were 82 people who signed up on site to be someone's match! Praise God!
If you would like to register as a potential donor, you can do so online at Be the Match and use the promo code CristinaCC. It's free - all it takes is filling out some paperwork and a simple cheek swab. Dan and I are now both on the registry and hope that we can help someone in need!
I haven't been feeling well the last few days (no, Aug...I'm not preggo), so Dan and Evelyn have been taking care of me and helping out around the house. On Sunday morning, I got breakfast in bed from them - and Evelyn joined me to eat hers.
Dan made omelettes - Evelyn liked to pick off the cheese
She kept a hold of her spoon most of the meal - but never used it
Mmmmmm....cheese (one of her favorites)
I am not a fan of this picture because I look so awesome. Dan tells me I will be glad he took it later in life. He's probably right.
Thank you, Dan and Evelyn, for loving me well and taking care of me!!
We are entering into our last couple of weeks before I go back to work full time (boo!). It makes me sad because she is at such a fun age - I hate that I'm not going to be home with her for 4 days a week now. We don't watch TV often, but this day I let her watch some Pocoyo and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse because I wasn't feeling well. She stood like this for about 5 minutes - every once in a while, she would walk around in a circle and grab a drink of water - but for the most part, she just stood and watched.
She still doesn't show a lot of interest for long periods of time in TV, which is fine with me! We really try to limit our TV time to 20-30 minutes in the late afternoon, where we can watch with her and make things more educational.
I've said before that she is all about imitating behaviors lately. Besides purses, her favorite thing to do is put on our shoes and try to walk. Here, her plan of attack was to put both feet in Daddy's shoes. It did not work well for her, but it was cute.
She also loves corn - especially off the cob right now. This will keep her entertained for a good 10-15 minutes while Dan and I finish eating as well, so that's always helpful! And who doesn't love a cutie eating corn?!
I'm going to be so sad to go back to work in a couple of weeks...you'll probably hear me say that a few times between now and then. :-(
We have always read to Evelyn, but lately she has been really taking to it - reading to herself, choosing books to play with, getting excited when you pull a book out to read to her. I love this because I, myself, am a reader. I would love to read my days away if I could! Dan, not so much. So we are thankful that she got this gene from me! :-) Lately, this Easter book has been one of her favorites, and she always opens it to the page of Jesus with the little children. Warms my heart...I want her to know Him so deeply, and pray she always has this child-like approach to seeing Him!
Dan got a couple of videos of her reading to herself
Every night before bed, we give Evelyn a bath, a massage, read a book, and pray before bedtime.
Dan captured this tonight.
Don't worry about looking at my awesome hair and pajamas. :-)
We found an amazing pool for little ones in Corpus Christi this weekend. I just googled, "zero depth pool, Corpus Christi" and found it. I'm so sad that I didn't find it until now because it closes soon. We thought that it was closing this weekend, but found out today that they are actually open through Labor Day on the weekends. We're definitely going to get back a few times between now and then. It has a splash pad area with all sorts of fountains and splashy toys, as well as a zero depth entry pool with more fountains and toys. The deepest it gets is 4 feet, so it's perfect for kiddos. We went on Friday night for the first time - Dan met us there when he got off from work. Evelyn loved it, and got her first bona fide skinned toddler knee while we were there. It didn't even phase her.
She loved climbing out of the pool
Look, guys, I can walk in here!
She would shriek and laugh every time this would get into her face
A view of the pool area - small - but perfect for littles
This was the splash pad area - she loved it, too
She loved these little fountain-y things - she kept trying to grab the water
We originally thought that this pool was going to close today, so we planned to go back and invited our Life Group to go with us. We met 2 other families there and had a blast - and found out that they were still open on weekends until Labor Day. Evelyn again loved these little fountains in the splash park - except when they sprayed her in the face...watch it, it's worth it...Dan has watching this laughing about 20 times tonight and we've only been home for about 20 minutes. :-)
Time to get ready to go home - it was actually a little chilly with the wind outside today, so we had a cold girl!
We actually ended up eating with some friends in the park next to this pool, and enjoyed getting to know them a little better. We have been blessed to be surrounded by some great families with young kids in our church. It reminds me of our friends in Indiana (sigh...I miss you guys like crazy!) Thankful for friends! (there's one thing that makes South Texas bearable....but really, can we move back north, yet?!?)
Evelyn's little friend, Paisley, had her first birthday party this
weekend. They are about 3 months apart in age - both walking and full
of spunk. The two of them are known as the "dynamic duo" in the church
nursery (although, now that their friend Hannah is in there regularly -
we may need a "trio" name).
While we were eating, we had Evelyn set up at the kids table to eat her dinner. There were two older girls from our church sitting there as well, and as Evelyn sat down one of them said, "She's pretty." To which the other replied, "Yeah, she's kind of beautiful." It was precious.
As with any South Texas special occasion, there was a pinata. Evelyn got to take her turn after the birthday girl.
She wasn't sure what to do at first, but was laughing after Daddy helped her hit it.
She definitely wasn't sure what to do with the sprawled out candy.
Starting to get the hang of it
I had to post this picture because I think she looks like our nephew, Gunnar, in it. Gunnar is pretty much a little version of my Dad, so I guess it's Wisdom that you see in her (which means ornery).
Here's Gunnar at around the same age as Evelyn...
She made friends with this lady because she would hold her and let her practice jumping
We have figured out that if I take everything OUT of the cabinet, I can climb IN the cabinet...
On Monday night, we went to a Corpus Christi Hooks (minor league baseball) game with our Life Group. Evelyn has been to a few games this season, but we've always sat in the stands to stay out of the sun. Because we had a bigger group with lots of kiddos, we opted for the grass seating. Evelyn loved it - it took her a while, but she finally figured out walking up the hill.
Taking a little rest on Mommy
She loved Avalon's hat
Got the keys - I've got places to go!
Tuckered out...she loves this bear lately
(Daddy got it for her for Valentine's Day)
Somebody loves pickles just like her Mommy
We are also finally learning how to blow kisses (she's been giving the open-mouthed slobbery ones for a while, though)
Evelyn is into the helping stage - you know, the one where your 14 month old thinks you can't possibly survive without her help and her "help" actually makes tasks take at least twice as long to complete. I love it. It's so cute to watch her get so excited about helping and I love watching her little mind try to figure things out. Tonight, she was all about helping Dan...load the dishes, shut the dishwasher, take out the trash/recycling...here are some pictures/videos of her help.
this one's a little foggy because I didn't give the camera time to adjust from the air-conditioned house to the humid outside
