Please Pass the Ketchup

I know a good many of you are still waiting for pictures of Evelyn. We have been taking them (that is until I broke our camera last week). So they are forthcoming. I've been somewhat MIA since Evelyn was born for several life-changing reasons. Well, for one, Evelyn was born. That by itself would be enough, but we're also in the process of buying a house, and had a wedding in the family. But never fear, as soon as life stops coming at me quite so fast, I'll get this blog updated. In the meantime, my letter to my little brother is a good representation of why I've been MIA for the past two months.

You need to know that Logan is a _big_ fan of Prarie Home Companion. If you are not familiar with the ketchup spot they do every week, it might not make sense, but that's ok because I've had my ketchup today.

Dear Logan,

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just got back from vacation and you had to start choir back up, but you didn't have music picked out and you didn't even have a pianist, and you're supposed to be singing a musical number the following week but don't have music or a pianist picked out for that yet either, and you have to start packing because you're moving into a house, but you've got an almost two year old who can unpack about as fast as you can pack, and after you've filled your house with boxes and chaos you find out that you're not going to close until a week later than planned, and you have to figure out how to get all the painting done, and your husband is starting to referee soccer games and is gone not only on weeknights but on Saturdays too, and you can't get a hold of a nurse to clarify your thyroid medication prescription which has changed but the reason why is unclear because what the first nurse said doesn't match up with what the test results say, and you're hot and sticky and sweaty because it's a record breaking 93 degrees in September in Oregon which is almost unheard of, and you tell your visiting teachee that you will play the piano at her son's baptism not because you want to or think you'll be good at it but because it's the only thing that she's ever asked you to do ever and you want to be there for her, and you can't leave your baby with anyone for more than three hours because she doesn't take a bottle, and you can't cook anything because it's so stinkin' hot, and you've got some weird ache in your muscles probably because you picked up some weird virus on the plane, and your almost two year old is making a habit out of taking off her diaper at night, but you can't potty train her because you're in the middle of a "transition" and all the books say that's a bad idea, and you just want to break down and cry on Friday afternoon because you're not in control of anything anymore, especially not dinner which is not ready when your husband gets home even though you're starving, but you just didn't have the mental or physical energy to make it?

That's when you have ketchup for dinner.

Because ketchup has natural mellowing agents.

It really does work wonders.

The house is still a chaotic mess, I played the piano terribly at my friend's son's baptism, I was late because Evelyn somehow peed on me even though she had on a diaper and she herself did not get wet in the least, I managed to pick music for both the choir and my musical number, get someone to play for the choir (still working on the musical number), it was cloudy and only 78 degrees today, and we're still not going to move for another week, but somehow it's not quite so overwhelming. I feel good. Ketchup is flowing, like poopy diapers from Evelyn's bum.

Ketchup. For the good times.

7/6/09 12:20am 8 lbs. 2 oz. 19.5 in. dark hair

Evelyn has arrived! Below are some of our favorite pictures and videos so far. Enjoy! We know we are!

A very happy first meeting!

She was a few ounces heavier and about 1/2 inch longer than her sister.

Lilian looked a lot like her dad. We think Evelyn looks more like her mom.

Both of us had the feeling that Evelyn was going to have dark hair. It appears that our intuition was correct.

Was that a smile?

Oh, so peaceful. (And she has been all day).

A content daddy.

She has had a lot of alert moments throughout the day.

Lilian has been staying with our friends, the King's. In the afternoon, they came to the hospital and Lilian met her sister for the first time. She enjoyed looking at her little sister's hands and feet and even held her on daddy's lap momentarily. As they left (she will be staying with them overnight again), she waved and said "bye-bye baby Evelyn" in her sweet little voice. It was darling! We are sure they will be great friends!

Yes, I'm *still* here...

Never ever, Ever, EVER say to a pregnant woman (especially one who is overdue), "You're *still* here??" Believe me, it's the last thing on earth she wants to hear. Unfortunately, there are many people in this world who were never told that you shouldn't say things like that, so I'm telling you right now. Just so you know.

"Ritchures"

So Lilian was in charge of the lesson for FHE and I asked her what she wanted to do and to my surprise she said, "Scriptures!" Only it was a cute Lilian version of the word which is hard to transcribe--the closest I can get to it is ritchures.

We have added reading scriptures with her as part of her bedtime routine. I got the idea to use our gospel art kit pictures and the related scripture on back as our Family Scripture Study with Lilian from several different sources in the last month or so. I figured it was a friendly prompting telling me that it's time to start reading scriptures with Lilian, so we started doing it a couple of weeks ago. To my surprise and joy, she loves it! It's her favorite part of bedtime now and she often asks over and over for it.

We tell her who the characters are in the pictures and have her point them out til she's familiar with them and then we have her point out any other features that are appropriate for her age like "Where are Moses' shoes?" or "Where is the birdy?" or "What sound does a lion make?" And then we summarize the story and read the related scripture. She loves it, and therefore so do I. So Lilian truly was in charge of the lesson and we read several scriptures using the Gospel Art Kit for our lesson. She actually got upset when we said it was time to stop. What a righteous little girl! :)

Hurt. Sad.

Lilian has been learning so many new words and signs lately--it is so awesome! I love that she can communicate. She has been cutting her four canines for about the last two months, but they finally started surfacing only in the last week or so. It has resulted in a lot of sticking her fingers in her mouth. She's never really been fussy about getting any of her teeth, so I've never really worried about the pain that might be involved.

But earlier this week she wouldn't really eat her food. All day I'd been having trouble with her actually following through with taking a bite off of her spoon, closing her mouth, chewing, and swallowing. She would open her mouth, but then just stick the spoon in and not close it. Then she would generally let the food fall off the spoon and out of her mouth. I wasn't sure if she didn't like what she had to eat, was just being silly, or what. At dinner I was explaining to Brad how frustrating her meals had been that day, and once again she was doing the same thing, when she suddenly looked at us both and, pointing to her teeth, said "Hurt. Sad." And she did the sign language for sad while she said it in a very sad voice.

It was amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. I was so glad she could say what was bothering her, but then I felt terrible that she'd obviously been in a lot of pain and I just didn't even know it. So we gave her tylenol and she seemed to perk up a bit before she went to bed. What an amazing little girl I have. I love her.

Memorial Day at the Coast

No one passes up a beautiful day at the beach, especially when your husband has the day off! I feel like we've finally been here long enough that we're getting to know some of the really cool nooks and crannies that it just takes time and connections to discover.

Regatta Park on Devil's Lake at Lincoln City is one of those places. It has the coolest "Sand Castle Playground" built entirely out of wood. It was very toddler friendly compared to most playgrounds I've taken Lilian to and also included a little beach front on the lake.




We've discovered that Lilian is a little water baby and she loved playing in the sand and water as much as Brad did (and that's saying something). She was quite destructive of his efforts to build a castle, so he had to wait until she tired out, but he finally got to build his masterpiece.








We also checked out Neskowin beach just north of Lincoln City. It's slightly tucked away and lesser known, which was ideal. But despite it's lack of a crowd, we actually ran into a couple of families that we know. They were gracious enough to let us roast hot dogs and s'mores on there sand-pit fire and the day was perfectly complete.

Too Cute

Believe it or not...

... we are lucky enough to live in the Iris Capitol of the World. That may be a self-proclaimed title, but that's ok by me. Keizer has its very own Iris Festival every May. I always look forward to the parade because it's nice to have a reason for a good old-fashioned hometown parade and it also marks the anniversary of our moving here to Oregon. The Iris Gardens are always a highlight during the entire month.

18 Months Already?!

While we were in Utah Brad's sister, Carolee, took Lilian's 18 month photos. At 18 months, Lilian was not the most cooperative subject, but Carolee is an amazing photographer and she was able to capture some super cute moments!

Family Family Family!

There really is nothing like a wedding or a funeral that gets a family together. Since both my parents are from Blackfoot, we got to spend time with my mom's side of the family too. Getting to see both sides of my family was quite a treat since we weren't planning a trip to Blackfoot this year (due to a certain little someone expected to arrive smack dab in the middle of summer).

My sister, Loranna, and her youngest, Samuel.

My mom and her mom.

My brother, Gardner (aka Uncle Daddy--Lilian kept calling him daddy while we were there).

The whole family (my parents and siblings at least), minus Logan, who's serving a mission in Ukraine. That makes Gardner, his wife Carrie, and their two boys Travis and Duston. Me and Lilian. My mom and dad. Loranna and her baby, Samuel. And Rhett. We have a running vote for who Rhett currently looks like most: Jesus or a Civil War General. What do you think?

Lilian wanted to play basketball with the cousins too, of course.