Happy Valentine's Day/Birthday!

February 14th is always a big day in our family. Not only is it Valentine's Day, but it is also Nathan's birthday!! This year both celebrations were even more fun with Evie a part of them!She was so pleased to wake up on Monday to find these beautiful yellow tulips from her daddy waiting for her. She was very intrigued with them as you can see. She spent a long time in her bumbo just staring at them.

She loved tasting them...

Holding them...

and smiling at them...

The beautiful flowers you can see in the background are mine from Nathan. :) :)

Evelyn also got many Valentine's Day presents. Here she is with her Valentine's Day bucket from Grandma an Grandpa. It had a very exciting doll inside with a crinkly skirt and lots of exciting things to chew on. Her name is Princess Sophie. I realized that we didn't get any pictures of Evie and Sophie on Valentine's day, but she is a new favorite so I'm sure you'll see her in future pictures.

Nana and Grandpa also sent a Valentine's package or Evie. She was so excited about it when I showed it to her when she woke up from her nap. She just smiled and smiled at it.

And inside was this adorable Love Bug shirt, matching socks, and a very exciting Curious George Valentine's book. The book is already a favorite and the outfit may have been washed every night for a few day so she could keep wearing it for the Valentine's holiday. ;) Here's Evie holding up the shirt (you will notice too that she is wearing it in the flower pictures above :)).

Here last present was this little pink package from Nathan and I.

And inside was one of the best kids books ever: Harold and the Purple Crayon! Evelyn was thrilled.

Besides her Love Bug outfit, Evie also had these cool heart pants that she got to wear several times this past week.

Since this post is long enough already, we'll do a separate one with birthday pictures. :) We had so much fun celebrating Valentine's day with little Evelyn. AND, not only is it Nathan's birthday, it is now also our good friend, Adeline Ruth Bicking's birthday! Addie is the new daughter of our friend's Brent and Sarah. Picture of Evie Ruth and Addie Ruth will be coming soon I am sure. :)

My Life

Today I am 3 months old. My Mommy and Daddy have some great 1 month and 2 month pictures of me, but they just haven't gotten around to posting them. Hopefully they will soon. Since today is an important milestone in my life, I wanted to share a few of my current favorite things with you.

1. Going on field trips to cool places like the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier in Petersburg, VA. I even got to see my first cannon and walk around on my first real battle field. This was a really great museum. Very balanced in its perspective on the war and the brave men who fought. When I'm older and don't have to sleep through half of our visit, I think I would like to go back again.




2. I love sneezing. I do it an awful lot and rarely just one sneeze at a time - usually I sneeze in sets of 3 or 4.


3. Toys! I'm am getting much more excited about toys lately. Here I am with my favorite rattle - thanks Alana!


Here I am trying out my Johnny Jump Up. I didn't quite get it...


4. I love reading these days. I definitely have my favorite books too like Brown Bear Brown Bear, Goodnight Moon, Where's Baby's Belly Button, Poems for the Very Young, and Spot. Mommy is still working with me on longer books like Cactus Hotel and Madeline. We read lots of books every day.


5. Daddy! Daddy is just the greatest. I get so excited whenever he comes home. He plays with me lots and never gets tired of holding me so I can stand up.



6. I have so many good friends that I love to hang out with. Here I am with my friend David. He is only 2 months older than me but much much bigger as you can see. Most of my little friends are boys right now - David, James, Calvin, Jackson, Connor, Joshua... I can't wait for Addie to be born soon (maybe even today!! :)) so I can have another little girl to play with!


I have some big friends too. Here are my big friends Amy and Kate Hutchison. I can't wait until I can eat cupcake after cupcake like Amy did at the Super Bowl party... ;)



7. I don't exactly *love* tummy time as you can see, I usually pout...


...but Daddy and Mommy are working with me so I can get better at it.



Today I actually even enjoyed it for a little while!


8. Ever since I was little (since I'm so big now at 3 months) I have loved my bath time. It is the highlight of my day on the days that I get to have one! I'm even learning how to splash a bit on my own! Mommy always snuggles me afterwards so I stay nice and warm.



9. Grandma bought me these cute lamb slippers when they were in France with Mom and Dad a few years ago. She says she has been waiting for me to arrive so I can wear them. I sure do love how soft and cute they are (even though I refused to smile for the picture).


10. I also like bright, flashing things called TVs. I don't get to see them often, but when I do I'm mesmerized. I loved watching the Super Bowl with Daddy. Go Packers!!


Even when Daddy's not watching, I still love to watch all the flashing colors and shapes!


11. The best thing that happened this week was Mommy officially quitting her job. I got to go in with her on Monday to hang out with all her work friends and help her clear out her cubicle. She says she'll miss her friends, but she'd miss me even more if she went back! I'm glad she's staying home with me. :) (and so is she!!!!!!!) Here is a picture of Mommy's old office.


I'm still getting used to life, sometimes I am a little bit in shock...

...but I'm learning more and more every day and love exploring new things!

Couch Shopping

This year with our Christmas money we decided to look for a new couch. We love our little brown one that we have now, but we got if off Craigslist, it is close to 40 years old and the cushions are getting a little misshapen. So, it's time for a new one. :) We visited just about every furniture store in Newport News to find the perfect couch. Evie was a wonderful baby and very good for the whole process. She liked helping try out different options. (Thankfully she didn't spit up on any of them either! :))


And the winner is...


I didn't realize that this is the only picture we got of our final purchase. I'm sad it's not the greatest. We ordered different pillows to come with ours... pictures of our actual couch in our family room with our pillows will be coming in 2-6 more weeks! We can't wait!