Sunset Beach 2008

At the end of May, my family and I took a vacation to Sunset Beach, NC. We all had such a blast resting and relaxing on the beach. Here are some of my pics. Enjoy!

The view from our back porch

The following are pictures of Evie playing in the sand and water. At first she was a little timid, but it didn't take long for her to warm up to the sand and waves. She even tried to eat the wet sand. I guess that day she wanted a little extra fiber in her diet.

My Dad loves to build sand castles. This was the only one he built, though, on our trip. With Evie it was a fruitless effort to build anything because it didn't take her long to notice your masterpiece and then come and demolish it. She had so much fun in the sand.

Here are our family pics on the last day before leaving.

Chris and Kelli Starke (brother-in-law and sister)


Merle and Cheryl Blow (Dad and Mom)

Evie, Josh, and myself

The whole family

Discipline Methods That Back Fire

Last week, Evie was very funny. There was one specific occassion that made me feel like she was my sarcastic mini-me. While fixing dinner, Evie became very interested in an air freshner that plugs into the wall. I said, "No touch." That didn't work. I gave her something else to play with. That worked for half a second. Then I tried counting to three. This definitely didn't work because she decided to repeat the numbers after me, but instead of her sweet voice she mimicked me in a louder more firm tone of voice. I thought it was funny and made a mental note not to count as a form of discipline. Right now, she doesn't understand its significance. No big deal. Evie became interested in something else and moved on from the air freshner. So, I continued preparing dinner. Now, fast forward to our actual dinner time.

Evie was almost finished with her dinner and was playing with her sippy cup. Her usual routine is to take a drink and then act like she's going to drop her cup over the edge of her high chair. Josh and I are working on ending this. So, when she hung her cup over the edge, I told her to put it back on her plate and pointed to her high chair tray. This worked one time, but then she decided to test Mommy. The second time I wasn't thinking, and I said "one" in a very stern voice. She placed her cup back on the tray, but then quickly took it over the edge again. Using a stern tone, I said, "Evelyn." Then Evie looked at me, raised her index finger in the air, and with her best "Mommy" impersonation said, "one." It was all I could do not to bust out laughing.

So, last week I learned two things. My daughter is going to be just like me and her Daddy-funny, ornery, and occasionally sarcastic. Also, the whole counting thing just won't work right now.

Happy Birthday Adam

Our nephew Adam turned 5 years old this past month. The whole family went to Celebration Station for his birthday. Everyone had a blast. It was hard to tell, though, who had more fun - the boys or the "big"boys. It was definitely a toss up. Here are some pics of our fun times. Happy Birthday, Adam!

Small Spaces

Evie has been providing us with lots of laughs lately. Her most recent escapade involves small spaces. I've noticed that the more mobile Evie becomes the more she likes to climb into diaper boxes, book boxes, TV boxes, and even the dog crate. All perfectly harmless places to discover even with the extra germs provided by our dog Christmas in his crate. That is until she found her newest hiding place.

On Monday, I had given Evie a bath and was cleaning up her toys and towels from the bathroom. From the living room, I heard a clanging sound. I knew I had shut all the doors to the bedrooms and the laundry room. The only place left for Evie to roam was the living room. Quickly, I racked my brain for the source of the sound, but I couldn't think of anything that would clang. Then I thought of it - the doors to the fireplace. I raced from the bathroom into the living room to discover my climber on her hands and knees in our fireplace. It was not long before Evie realized in no uncertain terms that the fireplace was not a good place to explore. At that moment all I could think about was getting Evie quickly out of the fireplace. I didn't want her to think it was okay to play there. Afterwards, though, I secretly wished I would have had my camera handy. It would have made a most hilarous picture.

Not a day goes by that Evie doesn't provide us with some kind of laughs.

Birthday Fun

Evie had a great time this afternoon at a birthday party for her friend. He's turning 3 this month. She loved seeing all her friends that were there and eating macaroni and cheese and cupcakes. Her favorite part was playing with the birthday boy. He was so adorable with her. He would walk around with Evie and show Evie his new farm animals. He would even stoop down to look Evie in the eyes. It was precious. Thanks for a great time. Evie had a blast.

Our Big Girl

Evie is now 15 months old and growing up so fast. I had her pictures taken and thought I would share a few. She is becoming quite the "ham" whenever we're out in public. I think she thinks that everyone is everywhere just for her. People are at restaurants so she can say hi and wave. They're at the grocery store so she can tell them what fruit we're buying. It is funny to watch people's reaction to our very "unshy" little girl. Most will smile or wave. There are the occasional few who ignore her. Evie doesn't seem to understand why they do that. She'll look at me almost as if she wants to say, "Why did they ignore me?" Between her growing vocabulary and her improved walking, she makes every day fun. Not always easy, but fun.

Just Another Manic Monday

I'm not typically someone who dreads Mondays. Since I don't work anymore, every day is about the same, but this past Monday was extra "special." So at my own expense, I have to share my silly adventure. As a teaser, let's just say I was literally barefoot and pregnant and running.

Evie had a well-baby examine Monday morning. Since we've moved, it takes about 30 minutes to get from our house to the doctor's office. No big deal. I made sure we were walking out the door with almost 30 minutes before her visit. I put Evie in her car seat, and then we set off. Nothing out of the ordinary, or so I thought. I pulled out on S.W. 134th and accelerated quickly to 50 mph. Usually I like the fact that the speed limit is a little higher on this street, but not this day.

After accererlating, I noticed that something had flown off the top of the car. What on earth was it? I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what toy or sippy cup I had placed on the top of the Yukon when it suddenly dawned on me. It was not a toy or a sippy cup, but my shoes that had flown off and were now in the middle of the street behind me. And these weren't just any shoes. They were my new New Balance shoes that Josh had bought me for my birthday. At first, I thought I'd just count them as a loss and keep going. But then I realized that I had no shoes on, and I couldn't very well go to the doctor barefoot. So I turned around.

Thankfully I spotted my shoes as I drove past, and they were both in the same lane of traffic. With my hazards on, I quickly bolted from the car, and ran to get my shoes. So here I was barefoot, pregnant (28 weeks), and running down 134th to pick up my shoes. Amazingly they looked fine, and my socks were still stuck inside one of the shoes. I learned my lesson on Monday. From now on, no more shoes on top of the car.