a side effect should be: long naps

I thought with both kids getting poked by multiple needles this morning that it would give me a golden ticket for some quiet time this afternoon courtesy of recooperating long naps, but they both bounced back and are just as perky as ever. Um, superhuman babes, are we? Proud of you kiddos for taking it like champs!

a birthday weekend fit for a two year old!

 

We blew out candles at breakfast. We blew out candles in the afternoon for fun. We blew out candles at dinner. We blew out candles at cake time. The girl could not get enough of candle blowing!

Evelyn hadn't the faintest idea of what a birthday entailed, but she knew the day was gonna be a good one when she saw 48 cupcakes and a mini-cake on the counter. "up-kay, up-kay" (translation - cupcake) was chanted all day long until finally the torture ended when friends joined us for a small gathering. Uh, and I am so mad that I didn't get pictures of all our wonderful friends who came to celebrate with us. Too busy playing hostess, I guess :) And I think everyone was surprised when Ev decided to ditch the fork and face plant it into the cake. That was so last year at your first birthday, Ev. Show some decorum, little lady ;) I kid, I loved that she did that. Presents were kept simple. Grammy & Papa gave her a fab retro little kitchen. Ev already whipped up her first batch of eggs on it this morning. I jumped on the teepee fad and threw together a quick little tent for her, modeled after this one.

** sidenote. I decided a couple weeks ago to jump on topbabyblogs. Would you mind voting in our favor here? Like, voting daily? A link will always be up on the right sidebar ;) Much obliged!

Happy Birthday, Evelyn Rae!

My Dear Evelyn,

Two years ago at this very moment I had been in labor with you for 14 hours, still with 3 hours left to go until I met your beautiful face for the first time. Although I had felt of your presence for sometime before your teeny life was placed in my arms, there was an instant zing, a jolt, that surged through me when you made your arrival at 1:47 pm on January 27, 2011. Like I had been waiting for this extra power force to be with me my whole life and now that you were here I felt unsinkable. Like everything was complete. Like I was superhuman for having grown you inside the womb and now given you life. Like God knew you were meant for me and your Dad and we were meant for you.

You have been my sidekick the past two years. You have refined me {and your father} in so many ways. You are such a strong yet delicate little gal. You are already forming in to such a lovely young lady. I am so proud of everything you are and all that you are becoming. It has been such a hoot to see you come into your own. I love all of your evelyn-isms. Happy birthday, Evelyn Rae! Let's not make the terrible two's so terrible. Deal? ;)

** photo by Gwen Hawkins Photography

the anatomy of a snowy morning

Jared might or might not have gotten up in the middle of the night to pull back the curtains to see if it was snowing. I don't know what it is about the snow, but there something calming about it. I felt like it gave me a free pass this morning to just take things slow, relax, and cozy up. Evelyn spent a good majority of the morning with her face pressed against the window, then turning to me and yelling at the top of her lungs "SNNNOOOOWWW!!" It's funny how even though she had never seen snow before, we as her parents could influence her opinion on the fluffy stuff just because of the exaggerated excited fluctuation in our voices when we told her what snow was. "Ev! It's snooowww. OOoooooo. Snow!" And from that point on she thought snow was pretty cool in her book.

After the face-pressing was done, we moved on to puzzles, practicing our zipping skills {Evelyn loves zipping things these days}, Warner attempted again and again to roll over, and then we read lots of books which ended in a tickle fight. And that was the make-up of our snowy morning.

all moved in.

I am so distracted right now and incredibly tired that I'm keeping this short and sweet. We moved! We've spent the last 3 days unpacking and transforming this place into our new little home. Evelyn is enjoying her new favorite toy, the broom. She sweeps all day long. Warner is enjoying his new place of rest, tucked away in our closet ;) Actually, brilliant me - I decided it would be good to start sleep training him (for a 2nd time!) on the same weekend we moved into our new place. Yeeeaaahhhh, not so smart. As if unpacking wasn't labor enough, sleep training is so incredibly draining. But it's for the best! Hurrah! You can do it, bud!!

I do have to say that I love change. This move was just the perfect mix-up that I was looking for in life. And it certainly helps that I have the most darling family to help transform this house condo into a home! More to write later on these growing babes of mine, but gotta spend some quality time with Jared laughing (yet oddly intrigued) at the bachelor. My bet is on Desiree or Lesley.

wishful thinking

I wish my brain would let my body take a nap every once in a while.
I need it bad. I have been waking up so extremely tired the past week that I began considering the thought that I might possibly be pregnant. I was convinced I was, even took a test, but alas, I am not. Atleast that would have explained why I am so tired. Oh wait, BING! Light turn on, you haven't gotten 5 consecutive hours of sleep the last 6 months due to a big belly and now chunky babe. Both kids are down right now, just finished my workout, and my body is telling me sleep woman, for the love! But then as soon as I cuddle up on the couch and hug a pillow, it's like my brain starts thrashing all these ideas around in my head, and I get all anxious thinking of things I could be doing, things I wish I had, things I wish I was, treats I wish I could devour on this blustery day. It's a lot of wishful thinking and it we all know wishful thinking never brings bright rainbows and sunny skies.

I'll tell you one thing I am justified in wishing for. Spring. I've got a bad case of the winter blues. This past week the weather has just been downright awful. The kids have been great considering we've been indoors all 12 hours of every day. Evelyn has even napped every day this week, which she quit doing about 2 months ago. She's probably so bored of me that napping seems like the more fun option when 1pm rolls around. Don't blame her. If only my body would let me do the same thing.

I was at Trader Joe's the other day and this begonia was calling my name. So I happily placed her in my cart and now on the mantle she sits. Reminding me that brighter days are ahead.

SNEAK!!

Evelyn is a sneak. A lovely, cute sneak. She loves to turn Warner's swing on and I am always having to put her in "timeout" for repeatedly doing so. Lately, when she's going to do something that she knows she shouldn't, she comes and finds me and says "bye! bye!" which she thinks is warding me off but in actuality it is the most perfect warning that she is about to get in to some trouble. The other day she came and found me and said "bye!" and ran into my bedroom. I grabbed my camera to record what kind of mischief she was up to...

*** no children or swings were harmed in the making of this video ;)

Monday Giveaway!

I think it would be safe to say that Jared and I have been in a dating desert the past couple of months. I think the combo of having a newborn, him being in grad school, our budget, and the fact that babysitters in these parts start at $3 over minimum wage has really put a damper on our one-on-one time out of the home. Our quality time together has gotten really creative lately with things like playing mad gab, a couple rounds of egyptian war, and build your own pazookies. However, I recently found a way to bring a bit more pizzazz by creating one of these dating books from datevitation!

Datevitation is a creative platform designed to help you build a custom love coupon book. This isn't a pre-packaged deal, folks. You get to pick the dates and customize the text to your liking. Having trouble thinking of unique and fun date ideas? Datevitation's library provides over 200 romantic date ideas, allowing you ample ways to get create new memories with your significant other. I had such fun scrolling through the variety of themed dates presented to me when I made my custom book for Jared. I loved that I was able to find a spectrum of adventures that fit our interests and that I was able to even tailor them by inputting my own text with inside jokes and making it more personal.

Once you are done customizing the text in your book, Datevitation will print it out and ship it to you in a ready-to-gift box. Books normally start at $20, but for the month of January, Datevitation is offering Little Almanac readers $10 off your purchase! That means you can get your sweetheart a custom love coupon book for Valentine's Day starting at just $10! Just use the code "ALMANAC" at check out!

Today Datevitation is offering one lucky reader a $20 voucher to begin creating his/her own free coupon book with 5 customizable dating pages**! Again, with Valentines Day around the corner, I can't recommend this more if you are looking for a fun way to surprise your better half!

To enter, leave a separate comment for each of the following:

1. Like Datevitation on facebook
2. Follow Datevitation on Twitter
3. Visit Datevitation's library and leave a comment saying which date you like best

** Winner will be chosen at random using random.org.  Winner will receive a promo code for a free Datevitation gift book with 5 custom pages.  Additional pages are $1 each.  Winner to pay $3.50 for shipping and handling.  Tax will be applied to books shipped to California.  Books ship to U.S. only.

excuse me while I ramble

follow along @koakden 

↑↑↑ Up there is my life in photos. ↓↓↓ Down there is life in my brain. Just ramblings.

I still refer to my best friend as "my best friend" in conversation. Is that allowed when I'm 26? To use that terminology, I mean. Do you still have a best friend after being married and having two kids?

Jared and I decided that we would be master thieves if we were such people. Looking for a bob stroller or kid's carseat? Just head over to your closest airport and you will find a selection in the oversized luggage area. Just wheel one out FOR FREE. No security personnel is there to stop such a thing from happening.

I'm on day 4 of Jillian Michaels' 30 day shred. Just thought I'd let you know...

Since the beginning of the year, we decided to only eat sweets on the weekends. I think we've started every year off like this but then by February I'm like "oh, it's valentine's day so we should eat dessert all week in celebration of love!" and then I decide every day should be a celebration of love and we always eat dessert. So I'm determined to maybe make it to St. Patricks Day this year and then break my resolution and hope I stay skinny with the luck of the Irish! Anyway, this week fast from sugar means on the weekends we go big. I thought it would be fun to try out a new dessert from pinterest every weekend and then blog my "review." But it just so happens that as I was walking the aisles of wal-mart I spied Marie Callender's frozen razzleberry pie which was a) cheaper b) easier and c) sounding most delicious. Maybe sometime I will have the energy to try out these pins I lust after.

 I just ordered this print and I'm stoked about it.

And here's a thing. Like, a really big thing that just made my heart skip a mile a minute in anticipation after I watched this. Is JT making a comeback!?!? Holy shnikies! Bam, that would be awwwwesssommmme!

Wishing you the happiest friday!

*linking up with Lindsay today.

undivided.

Last night Warner took a later nap than usually (4-6pm), which left Evelyn and I with some alone time before dinner prep needed to get started and Jared got home. After 45 minutes of undivided attention with the little gal, I had this feeling wash over me of "ohhhh yesssss, there's that Evy Rae I know and love. And there's our loving relationship that's been rather strained the past 4 months." It was so odd, realizing that I was out of touch with her even though I'm with her 12 hours every day.

Quantity vs quality - isn't that always the struggle? Since the big Warnster has come along, I feel like a good majority of my days are spent disciplining Evelyn. Don't touch that, No don't hit, That's not yours, Not right now, Please wait. It is getting to the point of emotional exhaustion. I was feeling so confused as to why our relationship was taking this turn. Well duh, someone stole her thunder! And while I realized that and tried my best to compensate, I wasn't 100% at peace with my offering to her until the other night. when it was just she and I. Inseparable and giggly for 45 min. Oh, it felt so good to just be with her and know I was giving her my all. I was reminded of what a beautiful soul she is.

some leftovers that need to be put out there

I feel like since we're in a new year, posting about Christmas of 2012 is soooo last year. Which it is...but as I was going through my photos of the 5 jubilant days we spent back with family, I realized I didn't give them enough representation. Or maybe they told me they wanted to see more representation ;) Although we are miles, thousands even, away from our family, Evelyn and Warner are so blessed to gave Papa's and Grammy's, Aunts and Uncles who skype with them several times a week. It softens the blow of being so far away. Gotta love technology. However, both kids appreciated being cuddled and doted on all week. And I know we already have some grandparents itching for them to return and the feelings are reciprocated on our end:)

Some momentous events that happened. Evelyn fell on Christmas Eve and sliced her right eyelid open, hence her looking all puffy in the Christmas photos. Luckily it wasn't any worse - scary! Jared gave Warner his baby blessing, which was lovely to have family around for. Grandpa Hammer got to take Evelyn to the fish hatchery, which is one of his favorite pastimes. He sent me a picture the other day of some kid waders, so I guess Evelyn better start practicing casting a line because Grandpa is excited to get her fishing!

Oh, one last thing. I debated on sharing this or not, but then realized, hey what do I have to lose? Ever since I was about 8 years old, I've led my siblings in directing and producing a christmas video. The plot is always varying. One Santa got arrested, another the sleigh broke, another the sleigh was too small - you get the picture. Well, I'm 26 years old and we still collaborated together this Christmas to do a Christmas video. In lieu of a skit this year, we all got in touch with our inner gangsta and did a rap. Oh, and how gangsta we were. Ev was the highest roller of us all. You'll see what I mean ;) If you want to watch the ridiculous video, click here. Cheers to family!

*linking up with Kimberly, Carissa, and Sam today.