Caramel Popcorn

In an effort to keep things simple this Christmas, I decided to skip the Christmas cookie baking frenzy and go with something a little easier. I made a few batches of Mom's famous caramel popcorn. I don't remember a year that Mom didn't make batch after batch of this popcorn to give away (along with all of her traditional cookies of course). It was even easier than I expected. Just a little messy. I packed it in these popcorn boxes for Stephen to give to his coworkers. I'll probably do some more for our friends and neighbors, and maybe even to transport to Chicago for a taste of home at our Iles Christmas gathering.

Birthday Party

Super Nate!

Nate's cape

Nate, with Jack beside him, making their capes.

A couple of super heroes protecting Evie.

Nate went to his friend, Jack's, birthday party last Sunday. It was a Super Hero themed party, and the kids made capes, wore masks, played super hero games and ate super hero food. Nate had a great time and has been singing "Happy Birthday" to Jack ever since! Thanks for throwing such a fun party, Lynsi.

Art projects

Macaroni art Christmas tree

Another Christmas tree. Nate saw me throwing scraps in the trash, so he wadded up the Christmas tree and threw it in too. That's why it looks so rough. I salvaged what was left of it. I guess he was just trying to help.

Reindeer gingerbread cookies. They're supposed to have red noses,
but I just used what I had on hand.

Nate's chocolate mouth after eating a couple reindeer.

I've been trying some art projects with Nate lately. I have two things going against me: 1) he's a two-year-old and 2) I'm not very artsy. The combo makes for some pitiful artwork! But we'll probably keep trying new things to help his coloring, cutting, and pasting skills develop. He'll be a pro by the time kindergarten rolls around! :)

Stoic

"Stoic" is Stephen's favorite word to describe Evie. She's not a smiley, giggly baby, but she's a really happy baby. And oh so sweet! She doesn't cry or fuss much and seems mostly unfazed by her brother's attempts to make her cry.

I'm a little late with a 6 month old post, so Evie is now 6 1/2 months old. At her 6 month check-up she weighed 19.5 lbs and was almost 28 inches long. Her two bottom teeth are in and she's sitting up really well. She's added pears, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, yogurt and oatmeal to her diet. She obviously eats really well!

What she's not doing is rolling over. For some reason my children skip that milestone. Nate never rolled over, and it looks like Evie is following in his footsteps! I'm not sure what I do to my children to keep them from learning this skill, but Nate seems to have made it just fine without it, so I guess Evie will too.

Fruity Christmas

In the almost seven years that we've been married, Stephen and I have never put up a Christmas tree, and this definitely wasn't the year to begin putting one up. But, I saw the above idea on a Rachael Ray show and decided it looked like fun. I formed the letters by sticking whole cloves in apples and oranges and placed them around the house. Unfortunately the apples rotted within a couple of days, but the oranges, the hope, is still there.

It's ironic that of the three, hope, joy, and peace, hope is the one that remains. It's been a rough couple of months, and hope has seemed distant. But we want to claim that our hope isn't in people or things that will fail us, but our hope is in the Lord because with him there is unfailing love and with him there is full redemption.

So, without a tree or much ado about Christmas, hope is our theme this year, and HOPEfully will be for years to come ...

Thanksgiving 2009

This is what happens when you ask a stranger to take your picture.
Half the picture (the good half) was cut off.

Nate doesn't look very happy in this picture, but he really did okay
most of the time. Evie stayed warm and cozy with no complaints!

We decided not to travel this Thanksgiving. So, we ran a 5k in the Fort Worth Turkey Trot to give us something to look forward to on Thanksgiving day. It was fun, but it wasn't a good choice for my first 5k because it was so crowded that I couldn't run at a good pace. We were constantly dodging people, dogs, and other strollers. I think I'll stick to smaller races if I do it again.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with a good friend and her family/friends. It was nice to be with family, even if it was someone else's family.

Many days are difficult, but the holidays especially are difficult without Mom and a place to call home. There are no words to explain. They're difficult in a way that only someone who has experienced the same or a similar loss can understand. I've heard many times that the second year (and possibly the third) is the hardest. This is the second year. I'll be glad when the holidays are over.

Correction: There actually are words to explain. I'm just choosing not to write them here.

Family Portrait

We didn't plan on getting a family portrait, but I didn't like any of the pictures of Nate and Evie together, so we chose this one instead.

Finally, a picture of Evie's sweet smile, or partial smile at least! In Turkish they say to babies, "Seni yiyeceğim!" which means "I could just eat you!" It sounds a bit inhumane, but that's exactly how I feel about Evie. She's so sweet that I could take a big ol' bite out of her!

Nate's portrait looks a lot like his from a year ago, except he looks
like a little boy now instead of a baby. I still LOVE his gap teeth!

Pacifiers

Our little almost-6-month-old trying to sit up on her own.

Our kids love their pacifiers. And I personally think they were one of the greatest inventions ever! Nate only gets his to sleep with, and they often end up outside of the crib during nap time. This is how Stephen found Nate when he went to get him from his nap - reaching for his lost pacis with all his might.

Growing Boy

This is Nate's mischievous look. It's finally cold in the house, so we dressed Nate in some warm, zip-up, one-piece pajamas the other night. The problem is that he's able to undress himself now. I've found him naked in his bed a couple times. So as soon as we put these pajamas on him, he obviously didn't want to wear them (obvious from the "No, no, no, no ...") and started unzipping them and trying to take them off. In the picture above he's hiding next to the couch trying to unzip them without us seeing. Yes, we changed his pajamas and let him be a little less warm rather than sleep naked.

This is what happens when you eat cheerios with a runny nose.

He found the cheerio.

The Swell Season

Stephen and I finally got out without the kids last Saturday. We were months overdue for an evening away! We went with some friends to Dallas for dinner and a concert of one of our favorite groups, The Swell Season. As you can see from the picture above, we had a wonderful time! Dinner was great, the concert was really incredible, and the company was pretty good too. ;-) We really need to get out more often.

Joe

I've been watching Baby Joe, a friend's 9-month old little boy, the last couple of Thursdays. Here's a picture of the gang playing "together." I've really enjoyed having him here. It makes the day different and gives me something to look forward to during the week. Nate asks about Joe often now, and when we say his name he gets excited. Last night I put a blue sleeper on Evie that was one of Nate's old ones, and he called her Joe! :)

Brother and Sister

Nate climbed up in the chair with Evie again the other day, so I tried to get some good pictures of them. Unfortunately none of them were great, but these will have to do. Now that Evie can play with some baby toys, Nate suddenly wants to play with everything she has, which I'm sure prompted him to sit in the chair with her. The "Nate, share with your sister" days have begun!

Meanwhile, Nate is talking more and more. He's still not putting sentences together, but at least his vocabulary has really taken off. He's very interested in cooking lately, and he stands on a chair next to me while I chop, stir, mix, etc. so he can see everything. He'll probably start joining in soon, but I'm not sure I'm ready for those messes!

Evie is five and half months old. She started eating rice cereal a couple weeks ago and has added avocado and banana to her diet this week. She seems to be doing really well with the new foods. She's growing so fast!

Biker

I practiced drawing the tattoo on Stephen so Nate would
be more likely to let me draw one on him too.
Stephen's tattoo says "Sarah" instead of "Mommy." :)

We all got dew rags to wear, so Nate would be more likely to wear his.
He wore it well!

Our little biker dude.

Close-up of the tattoo. I think it looks better from a distance!

Since Nate LOVES his bike so much (and because it was the simplest costume idea I could come up with) we decided he should be a biker for Halloween. A "Mommy" tattoo and a dew rag completed the costume. We went trick-or-treating with some friends, but Nate didn't really care about the door-to-door. He was just excited to be riding his bike everywhere, and to be getting candy for it. What a treat! Unfortunately Evie didn't dress up ... maybe next year.

Daddy's sweaty hat

When Stephen got home from his long run this morning, Nate grabbed his sweaty, stinky hat and put it on. I didn't let him leave it on for long, but just long enough to get a cute picture!

Weekend visit

Matthew, Nate, and Elizabeth

Evie trying to stay warm. It turned out to be a chilly weekend.

Nate smelling the roses at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.

My sister, Elizabeth, came for a visit last weekend and brought her boyfriend, Matthew, for us to meet for the first time. He's appearing on the blog, so I guess he passed the test. :) I forgot to take my camera everywhere we went, so here are a few highlights from Elizabeth's camera.

4 Months

I still can't get Evie to smile for the camera!

Playing ...

Nate being silly and looking through a glass bowl.

Evie turned four months old last week! At her check-up we found out she weighs 17 lbs and is 26 inches long. I had noticed that her car seat was getting difficult to lug around, but I didn't realize she weighed so much. She's a big girl!

Explosion

This picture was actually taken a couple weeks ago, but I just realized I hadn't done anything with it. I was sitting on the couch with my arm around Evie, and my hand slightly under her, and all of a sudden she exploded! Poop was all over my hand and on the couch, and very little was in her diaper. Of course Stephen made me sit there until he got a picture! But please don't be afraid to sit on our couch again. It's clean. I promise!

I love her face in the picture too. So innocent!

Playing in the Pool

The motorcycle goes everywhere ... even in the pool!

Sweet profile picture.

Evie had fun watching Nate splash in the pool. She sat and giggled at him.

Dish Towel Bib

My sister made Nate some dish towel bibs when she was here for Evie's birth. She found a pattern for them on the internet. He didn't like wearing them at first, but now he prefers them most days. Here's a good picture for you, Aunt Liza!

School Days

Nate still loves to hold his little sister,

even though she's almost as big as he is!

Sitting in the Bumbo chair.

Too distracted by the camera to smile.

Stephen is back in school now, and I'm learning how to be at home with two kids, hence no blog updates. It's been a very long three weeks, and we're thankful for a long Labor Day weekend! Evie is growing fast. She's such a chunk! She holds her head up well, so I've been putting her in the Bumbo seat for short periods of time. She smiles and giggles a lot, but the second I put the camera in her face she gets distracted and turns serious. Hopefully we'll get some good pictures of smiles soon.

Two Little Monkeys

I've been propping Evie up in the chair lately, and Nate likes to climb up next to her. I think they look so sweet sitting there together. They're even holding hands in this picture!

Happy 2nd Birthday

Monkeys and cheerios.

Those are two of Nate's very favorite things,

so that's what was on his cake.

He needed some help blowing out the candles.

Opening a gift from his friend Jack.

Nate LOVES his motorcycle that Nana and Granddad sent him.

He woke up this morning asking to ride it!

Taking Jack for a stroll.

We celebrated Nate's birthday a little early last night. Two years have passed quickly, but it's really crazy how much our lives have changed since the day Nate was born. It seems like it should have been more like 10 or 20 years ago!

Anyway, Nate had a great time playing with his friend Jack and definitely didn't understand that we were gathered to celebrate his birthday. I tried to make a cake that fit him most -a monkey with cheerios. His snack of choice is still cheerios, and not only does he love monkeys (or any animal for that matter) but he acts like one too. Unfortunately we don't have his monkey imitation on video. Happy birthday baby (or not so baby) Nate!