Dear, Evelyn.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our precious daughter, Evelyn.

Evelyn, 

This morning as I washed your blond curls during your bath I was taken back to the day you were born. The first thing that struck me the first time I laid eyes on you was your blond hair. When your cousin Grant saw the first picture of you he said you had golden hair...and you did. You were beautiful on that day and your beauty remains. 

Evelyn, you don't know it yet, but we prayed for you for many, many months before you joined our family. Mara Kate prayed every night for another baby and Mommy and Daddy did too...for almost 2 years we prayed before God answered our prayer. When we found out you were on the way we were 'over-the-moon' excited. Our prayers had been answered and we were beyond thankful. 

A little while later we found out that Mara Kate was having a little sister...another girl! We were all surprised and thrilled. In the final months while we waited on you we finished preparations for your arrival. It was June and we were ready. Your name was on your bedroom wall and on your diaper bag as well (such a Southern girl!). Your closet was filled with summery pink, girly outfits and your cradle was ready with clean sheets and soft blankets.

You arrived before 9am on your birthday and you were perfect. You quietly laid on my chest and we had 45 minutes of bliss...then...the nurse came to give you your first bath. About 15 minutes later a whirlwind began that lasted for the next 9 days. Something was wrong. Your heart and lungs were not working properly. Something wasn't connecting and functioning as it should. Oxygen wasn't going into your blood like your organs so desperately needed it to. Twelve hours after birth you were transported quickly to the children's hospital in Atlanta--in an effort to save your life. Your heart was so weak....and truthfully, you were barely hanging on. 

Evie, angels surrounded the ambulance as it took you to the hospital that could help you. Your life was being sustained by God Almighty Himself and it still is. The doctors and nurses in Atlanta took excellent care of you (and of Daddy and me too). They gave you the best care they could give and we were thankful. We cried out for God for Him to heal you, to help strengthen your heart and your lungs. We pleaded with Him to allow the treatment they gave you to work and for you to recover...fully. 

Evie, you need to know that God answered all our prayers--completely. After 9 days in the NICU you came home. You were healthy and whole and your heart was healthy and strong. Only because of God, baby girl. Only God.

Now 2 years later we are still reminded of the little fighter you were when you were brand new...because you are still full of fight! You are a strong, feisty, energetic little girl. You are talking like crazy and adding new words daily to your vocabulary. Although, you have no problem getting your point across even without words. You are a little fireball and we LOVE it! We praise God for your spunk, drive and energy. You are the picture of health and we are amazed at God's mercy and grace He has shown us through your life. You are a gift.

The past 24 months have flown by and have been so full because of your presence in our family and our home. We pray the Lord will bless you and us with many, many more years together. 

You are loved, baby girl....and always will be. By us and by your heavenly Father. 

Love always,

Mommy

Evie-isms

Evelyn Nadine, 16 months

Yesterday marked 16 months since Evelyn was born! She is officially a toddler and walking all over the place!

It amazes me how well she can communicate even though she can't actually talk or speak words clearly.

Below are the "words" in her 16 month old vocabulary:

Mama

Na-Na (I want it! whatever "it" is at the moment!) She says this A  LOT! :)

Dada (she used to say this all the time, it was her first word in fact, but she has started calling Kane and I both mama recently. Although, sometimes she still calls Kane Dada.)

Dye-dye- (Bye-Bye, she usually says this in the mornings before Kane leaves for work---when she thinks it is time for him to leave. She'll go over to the door, point and wave at Kane and say, "dye-dye!") So cute. Kane always feels like she is rushing him out the door. ha!

Baby (she says this whenever she sees a picture of a baby or if she sees herself in the mirror, she'll point and say, "Baby").

BeBe (This sounds very similar to Baby, but she will say it when we point to the picture of Kane's sister's picture on our fridge. When we were in Knoxville recently Elizabeth taught her to say BeBe and when we got home she saw her picture and said it!)

Tuh-Tuh (Tucker, she says this when she sees her friend Tucker's picture.)

Glah (clock, I think she thinks this word is fun to say because she usually laughs whenever she says it.)

Lie (light, this was one of her very first words).

Nack (snack)

Ahh-duh (all done, she raises her arms above her head and says this whenever she is finished eating)


Ahhh! Ahhh! (off, she usually shouts this while pulling at the sleeve of her shirt or pjs. She knows when she wants to get undressed.)

There are so many other words and phrases she understands even though she can't say them. She can follow simple instructions. It is amazing how smart they are at such a young age!

A few phrases she understands:

Go to your chair (runs to her chair)

Do you want to take a bath? (she'll go running to the tub)

Go get your paci (she'll do just that)

Get a diaper (she will pick one out of her basket when it's time for a diaper change)

Where are your shoes? (She'll go find her shoes and bring them to me so I can put them on her feet).

Do you want to go outside or Do you want to go bye-bye? (She runs to the door or runs to get her shoes so she can go outside).

Sometimes she points to the front door or hits it while she says, "na-na"...like she is saying, "I want to go outside!

Go to Mara Kate's room (she'll go right to her door).

Do you want breakfast/lunch?  She stops whatever she is doing and runs to her chair.

Last night it was bath night and Evelyn was already in the tub, but I hadn't started washing her yet. She picked up the little washcloth I had put in the water and started wiping her stomach....she was trying to wash herself! It was so cute. I love to see her "mimic" actions she has seen us do. She remembers what certain things are for.

If she gets her hands on a hairbrush, she will take it immediately to her hair and try to brush it.

I am sure there are other cute things she is doing right now that I just can't remember, but as you can see, she adds so much spunk, joy and fun to our life!

We are so thankful for you sweet, Evie Nadine! Praising God for 16 months of life and look forward to many, many more!! 

Girls in Overalls

Below are some pictures of Mara Kate at 15 months of age and below her are some pictures of Evelyn now, also at 15 months of age. They are both wearing the same cute overalls, so I thought it would be fun to post some contrasting pictures of the girls in the same outfit at the same age. The pictures of Mara Kate were taken in mid-March and the ones of Evelyn, mid-September (now).

It is so fun for me to look back at pictures of Mara Kate at the age Evelyn is now and of course it always surprises me how quickly we've gone from this young pudgy toddler to almost 6 years old! Time is flying!

Mara Kate

Mara Kate, 15 months

 

 

Happy Evelyn---the first thing she did was pick up a stick!

Such a big girl!

Sitting Pretty

                                

Mara Kate now, just 2 months away from turning 6 and Evelyn at 15 months. 

They sure love each other.

Evie's Activities

So while we are busy doing school or just living life, Evelyn is right there in the mix of everything. She is taking more steps daily, but still prefers her power crawl over walking because at this point it's still faster.


Here are a few photos I've taken of Evelyn over the past few weeks...she's at that age....you know, the age where she is getting into EVERYTHING!

She loves this screen door. She can stand there and just see out the window. She loves being able to see what's going on outside. Here she is watching Daddy change the oil.

Supper---not sure but you might be able to see her one tiny tooth in this pic, if you double click to zoom in. She loves meal times and even though she is becoming pickier about what she'll eat, she is still a better eater than her big sister has ever dreamed of being. :)

Does this picture even need a caption? 1) I'm not used to having a climber. MK never ever even tried to climb onto the dishwasher like this. 2) This isn't the only place I've found her on top of something...she has climbed multiple times onto child-sized chairs and stood completely up and yesterday she tried to climb the step ladder that Kane had out, but thankfully her little leg wasn't quite long enough to hoist herself up onto the first step....but, she sure gave it everything she had trying! 3) Love the way she has her arms...it's like, "What, Mom? Isn't this where I'm supposed to be sitting?! Love it!

Bringing the laundry down the hall to take it to the laundry room and Evelyn bummed a ride. She also rode it back to my closet once it was empty. I have to be careful not to wash shoes as one of her favorite activities is to crawl into my closet and take my shoes and throw them into the laundry basket one at a time! 

 

 She is a NUT and we are loving having her in our family, but as Kane and I have both said more than once, "We are in deep trouble!"

First Steps...

Some of Evelyn's first steps...

Summer Fun

OK, before you go and get all excited....let me mention that this post and the next might be a fluke. I may or may not continue to blog of a regular basis. I love blogging and I love keeping my blog updated fairly often, but life has sped up and been busier since the addition of baby #2, so I'm making no promises about the state of this blog. I am hoping that now that Evelyn is past her 1st b-day I might find a bit more time to blog, but we'll all just have to wait and see about that.

But, today I have a bit of time and some pictures to share so I decided to write a post! Shocking, I know. :)

Today we officially started back to school with Mara Kate. Last year we did some pre-K stuff as well as a bit of Kindergarten stuff....so this year we are doing more Kindergarten and whatever else we can add in. We'll just take it at our own pace and have fun along the way.

But, since yesterday was sort of our "last official day of Summer" I was planning to take the girls to the pool one last time...but I called (am glad I did) and found out that they have already closed the pool on weekdays and are only open on Saturdays from now until Labor Day. (So, we are hoping to hit the pool on Saturday instead). But, since the girls were already in their swimsuits I decided to let them play in the hose. During our recent anniversary getaway trip to Destin, my mother in law was here taking care of the girls and she came up with this set up with the hose and sprinkler attachment...so I just set it all up again and let the girls splash around for awhile. They had a lot of fun!!!

Evie in her "tub" of water.

MK the model. Ha!

Such a happy girl---she loves the water!

Wow---look at that spray!

I think I'll touch it. :)

Now for a new trick...I'll stand up in the tub of water all on my own! 

Look Mom!!

Soaking wet!

Ready to sit after standing.

On the Move

For family and friends far away...who haven't seen Evie since she's been on the move!

9 Months

Our sweet little girl is 9 months old today. It is hard for me to believe that she has been a part of our eveyday life now for as long as it took for her to grow to full term in utero!  I'll say these past 9 months seem to have passed more quickly than the 9 when she was growing and developing in the womb. 

Here are some of the things Evelyn is doing right now...she will go for her 9 month check up next week, so I'm anxious to see what she weighs and how much she has grown since her 6 month check up. So check back for those stats later!

Very Social: She truly is a sweet heart through and through. She loves her mommy, daddy and big sister so much and shows great excitement and affection for all of us every day.  When she is excited she waves both arms and kicks her feet wildly...I think she might run marathons when she is older as she is constantly kicking her legs at rapid speed! She is in the separation anxiety stage and sometimes misses her mommy when I'm not around and she also gets her feelings deeply hurt if she sees me walk past her without stopping to pick her up or at least give her some attention. She also knows what the word "hug" means and when you ask her to give you a hug she'll lean into your shoulder and bury her head into your chest....one of the sweetest things ever!

Sitting & Nursing: She is sitting up well and plays happily with toys when they are placed near her. She also loves to be near Mara Kate and play with her. She laughs, giggles, blows bubbles and smiles whenever she is with Mara Kate. It is difficult for me to nurse her when Mara Kate is in the same room as she is always so interested in what her sister is doing that she won't concentrate on nursing. If Mara Kate is anywhere to be found she would much rather watch her than eat, so I sometimes have to ask Mara Kate to go play in her own room when I am nursing Evelyn because it is a lost cause otherwise! When she does nurse it is a very quick thing---maybe under 10 minutes. She eats quickly and is done--a very efficient nurser for sure!

Moving: She isn't crawling yet, but is up on all 4's...she likes to balance on her tip toes and the top of her head and will go from that position back to sitting up. Even though she isn't crawling she is moving by rolling and scooting. I will sit her down in one spot and come back to find that she has moved across the room in the time I was gone. I think she will be crawling soon because when she is up on her hands and knees she is starting to pull forward with her hands and rock back and forth. She just needs to coordinate the use of her legs and hands, but once she figures it out I know she will be everywhere and into everything!

Talking: Evelyn is getting more verbal and likes to whisper "da-da". She says loudly "ma-ma" when she is hungry or wants something! She also says ba-ba too. So far those are her three main sounds. 

Eating: Evelyn could teach her big sister a thing or two about eating...especially when it comes to vegetables. Evelyn loves her baby food and downs anything and everything we put in her mouth. She eats all veggies and all fruits we have offered her and hasn't once turned her nose up at anything. She normally eats a fruit mixed with rice cereal for breakfast and a fruit and veggie for lunch and supper. As my previous post showed, she is starting to be able to feed herself cheerios. This is a wonderful stage to be in as I am able to spoon feed her her supper in the evening, then throw some cheerios on her tray and she'll be happy as can be eating them on her own while the rest of us sit and eat supper together. She still nurses several times a day as well...so all in all, a great eater!

Sleeping: She is also a better sleeper than her sister was at this age. She has slept through the night a few times (from 7:30pm-7:00am), but most nights she wakes up to eat once. It's getting to the point that is she wakes up I'm not surprised and if she doesn't wake up I'm not surprised. When she wakes up I nurse her and she goes right back to sleep. This nursing time is one of my favorites (other than the fact that I have to get out of bed in the middle of the night) because she is usually sleeping and very, very cuddly during this feeding....unlike the daytime when she is more interested in everything else going on around her than cuddling with mommy. :)

Nicknames: Evie, Evelyn-Smevelyn, Evinator, Poopsy McQueen (she has lots and lots of b.m.'s!), Sweet Girl. We call her Evelyn and Evie mostly....and probably each about 50% of the time. I love the shortened version of her name (Evie, with a short e sound), but also like using her full name too (Evelyn) so I'm glad we have naturally fallen into using both interchangeably.

Here she is...

 Our smiley, 

Happy,

curious & blue eyed,

sweetie pie!

I am amazed that Evie is big enough already to just "hang out" with Mara Kate. On Thursday mornings while I'm getting ready for Bible study I usually get the girls all ready and after breakfast they sit and Evelyn plays while Mara Kate watches a short show---this past Thursday I checked on them and noticed Evelyn was paying attention to the tv too (for a few minutes), so I snapped this photo...just thought it looked so sweet. :)

Sisters! Love spending time together.

Pincer Grasp

Enjoy this video of Evelyn (8 months)...she is working on her pincer grasp and learning how to pick up Cheerios all by herself!

6 months...

1/2 a year...

How is it possible that it has already been that long since Evelyn was born? It's sort of hard to believe that Evelyn joined our family 6 months ago today. The first 9 days were quite a whirlwind. Full of lots of scary moments as well as much rejoicing as we watched our tiny girl recover from such a rough start. Since Thanksgiving was just a few weeks ago, it was a good time to stop and revisit all we were thankful for surrounding the first week of Evelyn's life.
As is our normal tradition, we all made our "Thanksgiving lists" of all the things we've been thankful for over the past year. A lot of lines on mine were taken up remembering all the details of the situation God brought us through during the first week of Evelyn's life. From the safe transport in the neo-natal ICU ambulance from Rome to Atlanta, to the Nitric Oxide that finally helped open her lungs, to the free meals at the Children's Hospital for nursing mothers and of course for ALL of the prayers that were prayed by many on her and our behalf while she was in such critical condition (and those are just a few of the items that were on my list). Every detail worked out and God was with us and sustained us each step of the way. 

Every month that she is home, healthy, growing and changing the vivid memories of that week fade just a little more. Sometimes in the middle of the night when I'm laying awake nursing Evelyn in the dark, quiet hours I seem to be even more aware of the gift that she is. I often find myself pressing my lips to the top of her sweet little head, closing my eyes and breathing a silent prayer of thanksgiving to God that she is here and that she is well It's in those moments that it's a bit easier to be thankful even for sleep deprivation because it means I have a growing girl that needs to eat in my arms. What a blessing she is every single day!

Here are a few pictures of our girl from the first 6 months of her life...

Happy 6 months, Evelyn Nadine!

We love you so much!

 At birth.

 Clean girl after bath....1 month old

 In her baptism gown...2 months old.

 Learning to sit in the Bumbo seat...2.5 months.

 3 months old.

 4 months old at the Pumpkin Patch.

4 months old.

Tummy time...building those strong neck muscles...4.5 months old.

Happy girl...5 Months.

Evie's First Thanksgiving...5.5 months old.
Her shirt says, Thankful for Mommy. :)

Evelyn's first Christmas season....only in Georgia could you be sitting
looking at the Christmas tree in only a diaper and socks. Almost 6 months old.

Learning to sit up and finally getting a bit of hair...6 months old

First Attempts

Evelyn is making her first attempts at sitting and as you can see from the pictures she's quite happy being upright. She still has quite a ways to go and definitely cannot keep her balance on her own yet, but I can tell that her little torso is getting stronger by the day.

When I went back to look at pictures of Mara Kate to figure out how old she was when she started sitting I was surprised to find that at this age she was sitting so well on her own that she could be set down with nothing around her to pad her fall if she toppled.I think Evelyn won't be far behind...we just need to practice!

All smiles.

Hi there!

Picture Post & Update

Here are a few random pictures from the past couple weeks...enjoy!

 Pirate Evie...already being dressed up by her big sister. :)

 Snuggled in their PJ's watching Blue's Clues together Saturday morning.

 Before church Sunday morning.

 Aunt Jane, do you remember the dress Evelyn is wearing? 

This dress was my first attempt at smocking after my talented Aunt Jane gave me a tutorial on how to do it.

Aunt Jane, I remember sitting in a chair at your house for several hours (while I was there visiting) and working on it while you and Mara Kate took a long nap together in your bed, remember?! 

Evelyn in her most recent napping position. 

Since she was born she has slept only on her back and has not enjoyed being on her tummy at all...but the past 2 days she has been flipping onto her tummy before falling asleep during her naps. Sometimes she gets mad because once she flips she hasn't really figured out how to flip back to her back yet, but I know she'll figure it out soon enough. She has also started sleeping with the little green "lovie" under her arm. I usually lay her down on her back and hand it to her. She grabs it, sticks as much of it as she can into her mouth and then rolls onto her tummy with it. It's so sweet to see her "cuddling" it already.