just a little somethin', somethin'

So, I have this grand ol' plan for my second trimester which officially starts tomorrow (15 weeks along, yea!). We are hoping (& praying!) that Everly will jump right into potty training.... not going so well yet--any advice from some moms out there? I've been reading the books and we got some essentials today so I'm excited to really plug away at this. Everly seems excited about her step stool and the toilet seat, but she wants to flush the toilet when she doesn't really go, and wash her hands forever when she doesn't need to. How do you teach a 2 year old not to waste water?! oh my....

My other hope for the second part of this trimester is to re-arrange the bedrooms. Everly is going to get the top of the bunk beds we got from some friends while the baby is going to share the guest room-- he or she won't need that much room, right? :) And we're going to paint Everly's room. It's been a pretty light blue since she was a baby and I'm just ready for a little more girly! I'm pretty excited about setting up the crib again and pulling out our bedding- I never got to do this with Everly because we didn't move into our house until we came home from the hospital, so friends did it for us while we were there. I'm excited to have it ready waaaaaay before then! ...even if my plan to have this all done before third trimester doesn't work out! ;)

some pictures...

Here's some recent pictures of Everly

Her 2nd Birthday Party--all Elmo :)

Enjoying marshmallows on her first camping trip

Aaron's parents are here visiting right now and building a swing set for Everly, and our kids to follow! Everly says the slide is "too fast"--we decided to go bigger than smaller for growing room. hopefully she will play on it when it's done!

We have our 2nd appointment with our OBGYN this Friday- excited about that! we're 12 weeks along now. And on Sunday we take off for FL- We are going to a church planting conference in Orlando with the staff. Our friends in Gainesville are going to watch Everly while we're there, and then hopefully we'll get some time to play, too! yea for semi-vacations :)

Everly's first camping trip

So, I thought I would make a list of the lessons we learned from taking Everly camping for the first time. Some have to do with her, others don't.

Top Ten Lessons (In order that they were learned)

1. Don't take the Causeway bridge at rush hour, unless you want to jump off it! 

2. Do have your dinner ready when you arrive, get the fire started and get cooking fast! That way you can feed your toddler while you set up the tent.

3. Do use your truck lights to see as you set your tent up in the dark (grr.... traffic!).

4. Don't forget the pack-n-play!!! Then you'll have a toddler sharing the air mattress with you.

5. Two year-olds don't know how to sleep in sleeping bags, no matter how cute it is (or is it just our child??).

6. 50's in the evenings means long pants.

7. Do bring a bag of sticks and some newspaper to get the fire started; Don't forget some logs to keep it going!

8. When you're pregnant, try to sleep as close to the bathroom as you can. 

9. Warning: When you camp right next to the playground, your toddler will not understand the need to set-up, cook, tear-down--they will just want to go play, all the time!

10. Camping with kids is a lot more work, but it's worth it to see them experience what you love. 

We have tons of pictures on our camera that I need to download--from before Everly's birthday! I'll try to do that soon. Thanks for reading :)

I thought this was cute...

I wasn't feeling very good so I told Everly that I wanted to lay down and that she could either play or rub my back. I showed her how and she did it, but then went running to the back of the house I thought to play in her room. She came back quickly with our back massager knuckles that she found once and we showed her what they were, and continued to rub my back. Ahhhh, what a nice little girl, and sooooo smart!

Childhood

I love these recent pictures of Everly. They tell so much about her life and I decided to label them what I thought they said about her. enjoy! :)

sweet.

serious.

tender.

innocence.

joy.

exciting.

contemplative.

Everly's little bedroom makeover

Hi! This is Everly- welcome to my newly decorated room. Let me show you around.

My door has a new sign on it to replace the piggy one.

We also replaced "Oink" with my name, the pig picture with this one my mom's had since she was little, and put up a pretty piggy bank- I have so many to choose from! :)

Here's my new bed- I just love it! Today I got in it all by myself at 11:30 for a nap!

Daddy is silly!

This is my new table that I love to sit and color at. Mommy put these pretty "flies" (as she calls butterflies!) up on my wall.

Daddy showed me how to get in my bookshelf- it was lots of fun!

Mommy and I watched the TV all morning yesterday about the new President...

And here's my mommy's new herb garden that she got for Christmas- she is very excited how fast they are growing!


Thanks for looking at my room with me!

First haircut & big girl bed!

Finally, this Saturday we went to get Everly's first haircut! The lady did it soooo quickly which I'm guessing is best for squirmy toddlers, but I was sad that it didn't last longer! Everly did pretty well too- she had to keep looking down at a toy so the lady could cut it and she is just the best little girl!
Before...

hehehe... during!

Trying to keep her looking down at the toy...

And, after! Ain't she cute? :)



We also found a used and free toddler bed for Everly and set that up last weekend. Every one warned me about this process, but Everly hasn't been difficult going to bed at all! She even crawls into her bed all by herself and sometimes during the day pretends to go "Night night!" :) She loves it, and we had a Disney Princess blanket and table/chair to match it already. Our baby is growing up!!! (I'll get some pics soon!)

...I know it's been months since we've posted--now that life is getting back to normal after Christmas I will try to keep up a little better! thanks to all of you who post and share your lives with us! :)