A food dilemma

With every new year, comes the hope that the next year will be better, more productive, more exciting, more........everything. One thing I am always wanting to improve is my weight and eating habits.......I'm sure most women can relate. This year I have even more incentive. My daughter. I so want her to have a healthy self image and a good sense of moderation. I want her to enjoy food! I want her to love what she eats and to eat well. I find that so many women, myself included, view food in a negative light. I fight the urge to over indulge and to then fight the urge to starve myself when I do. It's an awful cycle and one I want to stop with my little girl.

For this reason, I've decided that from this point forward, I will refuse to diet. If Evalynn is going to learn healthy eating habits, I need to be setting the example. If I'm going to not allow her to snack on bread slathered in butter and chips and cookies, I can't either. So here's to the New Year and and all the delicious food it will hold.

Merry Christmas.....after a VERY long Hiatus!

So....I'm back. I know, I know.......you must be thinking, "Yeah right, we'll see how long this lasts......I give it a week!" But I promise you, I have very good motive to get back on the blogging train....that motive being my husband. I must admit, I lacked motivation this past year to blog for some reason. I don't know if it was due to all the changes in my life or just the fact that I did not want to take the time to write. Perhaps I was just being lazy. Whatever it was, I'm committed to writing at least once a week this coming year while Jonathan sits in the sandbox of Bahrain.

I thought that a Christmas posting would be a good time for my comeback:) Evalynn and I have been with my parents in Colorado this past month. We have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and my family has done a spectacular job of distracting us from the pain of Jon's absence. We are truly blessed. My Dad, brothers and sister, Hannah, came up to Collbran yesterday afternoon to spend the night at my Mom's. The only person we were missing was my Step-mom, Kathie who stayed home in Rifle to dutifully watch two dogs. We sorely missed her, but it was so great to have everyone else together. Coming from a split family, I can't tell you how nice it is to see my two families together. What an incredible, crazy, beautiful family I have. Unto the day....... Now I like warm weather as much as anyone, but I must admit, one of the reasons I wanted to be in Colorado this year, was because I wanted Evalynn to have a white Christmas, just like I did as a little girl. To my dismay, the Western Slope has been experiencing warmer than average temperatures this year and snow is hard to come by right now. Thankfully my Mom and Andy knew of where to get some, so yesterday we took the family up the road to get Eva in her snowsuit and on a sled. She LOVED it! It was a great little outing of sled riding and Argo driving (Argos are like big snowmobiles that don't go too fast). We followed it up with chili and hanging out and a game of Settlers of Catan.

This morning was a beautiful time of coffee drinking, making breakfast and opening presents. Evalynn was really getting the hang of tearing paper and had so much fun testing out all of her noise makers. She also chose today to start pulling herself up on her feet. thankfully we had about five cameras in constant rotation today, so we got lots of pictures showing off her new skill. It's very exciting stuff. We also got to chat with Jon very briefly via skype which was the best gift of all.........Well.....there is one gift that tops that, and that would be my awesome Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you God for the greatest gift of all, one that I could never return or equal.

I will post pictures tomorrow, but tonight, I will simply say, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

Our little Valentine

This Valentine's Day as made especially memorable by my church's outpour of love and gifts for little Evalynn. They threw her a Canadian Baby Shower(where Americans were welcome)...ha.....it was awesome and completely overwhlmed me. I'm so thankful to have these women in my life. Thank you lifebridge!

Passport Pease

Yesterday we had a family outing to get our passport pictures taken. Good times, good times. Jon and I have passports that are about to expire and our little Eva needs to get one if she ever wants to leave Canada with us :) We laughed a lot trying to get her to open her eyes properly for the photographer.....it's hilarious what they need babies to do for these things. We finally got one that we hope passes the test (as seen above) and soon we will have passports in hand, ready to see the world....or at go back to Colorado for my brother's wedding in April.

One Month Old!

Where did this month go??? I swear, it seams like we just got home from the hospital. Our little lady is one month old and we are loving her to death:)

The joys hiccups of being a newborn

The movie "Groundhog Day" has been running through my head the past few days. It's what life has felt like for the past few weeks since having Little Evalynn home. Eat, sleep, walk and bounce, eat, sleep, walk and bounce. Ha- you are never quite prepared for having a newborn in the house....as much as anyone might tell you to "enjoy your sleep while you can" and "life will never be the same", until you have your child in your arms, does the reality of it all truly sink in for a parent.

I don't know how to describe the love I have for this little person, but it's a powerful thing. Powerful enough for me to wake up multiple times in the night to check on her sleeping, strong enough to bring tears to my eyes when she lays her head on my chest, and big enough to know that I would rather bring hurt to myself than see her suffering in any way.

Evalynn has been such a source of joy these past few weeks, though we've had a difficulties as well. The poor thing wasn't getting enough from strictly nursing, so we've had to start supplementing and pumping. I'm praising God though, because as of yesterday, she's surpassed her birth weight (finally!) and is feeling more content now that her belly is getting more food. We're slowly getting used to sleeping in 2-3 hours stints, and I'm learning that every child truly is unique and it's OK if mine does not act exactly like the books tell me she should be acting.

Onto month two and whatever that may bring us! Until then, here are a few pictures from Evalynn's past month of life. Enjoy!

Meet Evalynn Grace

Taken the morning of the 31st, before heading in for the ultrasound

My due date was January 6th, but after an ultrasound on December 31st to check my amniotic fluid levels, my Doctor thought it best to get the labor process started so I was admitted then and there....ha....not exactly the way I saw my New Years going or labor for that matter. I was induced around 2pm and started getting regular contractions by evening. Jon and I spent New Years watching fireworks from our hospital room window and trying to get as much rest as possible. It was an unforgettable night! Labor continued nicely and the results are in the pictures above. Thankfully, after over 24 hours or stage one labor, I only had to go through 11 minutes of pushing to welcome my little girl. What an incredible process childbirth is!!!

Gosh, how time flies when you're taking care of a newborn. Our little Evalynn Grace arrived January 1st at 8:01pm. Coming in at 6lbs 11 ounces, she's a beauty and we are so thankful for her. We've spent the last few weeks getting to know one another, feeding, crying, snuggling, trying to sleep......it's been a life changing 20 days. She's awesome, even when she's crying uncontrollably at 3:00am, and I thank God for giving me such a amazing, humbling, beautiful gift to care for and love.


Happy New Year everyone:)