Project 365 - Day 2 & 3

I love to take pictures, but it's really hard to remember to bring my camera with!!

Evalyn got a "new" car from cousin Ellie, she loves it!  We were getting ready to go have lunch with Daddy and she got in her car... she did NOT want to get out.

We have these weird things growing in our backyard... anyone seen one of these before??  I need to get rid of them... worried they may be poisonous or something.  Yuck!

Summer going by too fast!

I can't believe that it is mid July already! Summer has been lots of fun... heading to the cabin, playing in the water, going to see my sisters and their girls. We have started going to the library... Evalyn likes it, but right now she really likes to see all the people and touch as many books as possible!

Evalyn is getting so big! She is not a baby anymore... she is a full blown toddler with the personality to suit! She has definitely figured out how to throw diva size tantrums... mommy just ignores her. She is still very vocal, more words are mixing in to the babble every day!

Evalyn's words:
Mommy
Daddy
Gran Pa
Gran Ma
Outside
Shoe
Juice
Milk
No
Please
Hi
Bye bye
Chalk
Ta Da!
So Big

I am amazed at what she understands. I can ask her to do things and she knows what I am asking... so great! She loves to dance, so grooves every time music comes on. I will have to post a video of that. It's awesome! She continues to be very loving and sweet. She really loves mommy a lot, and explodes with joy when daddy comes home from work. Often standing at the top of the stairs waiting for Chris to walk in the door just so she can say "Hi" or "DADDY"!

Connor has been busy helping Uncle Jim build their new garage. Earning money to buy a car... because he turns 15!!!! this fall. A little scary that we are going to have a driving teenager in November. He's been hanging out with friends, playing his guitar and doing Par Kor (spell). You will need to ask him about the last part.

More Teeth and where has the year gone!!

So Evalyn has gotten her top two teeth!! She now has her 4 front teeth. I will post pictures when she actually lets us see them. I only get to see them when she is on her back getting her diaper changed. They are super cute!!

Just started planning Evalyn's 1st birthday party. I can't believe that she is going to be one! Time goes by way too fast!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa!

Now that we live out in Minnetonka, we have new places to go do things. We went out to Excelsior for thier open air market. We got to ride the trolly and Evalyn met Santa for the first time! It was so cute. She did pretty good, but was pretty tired by the time she saw Santa. She couldn't take her eyes off of him, it was really sweet.

Halloween

Our first Halloween in our new house!! We got a surprise visit from Aunt Mary, Uncle Patrick and Cousin Addie!! We were excited to meet some of our neighbors. We had a grand total of like 15 kids!! So different from going to the Monners where they get several HUNDRED!!

I love little kid costumes. They are so sweet. We had farm animals in our family this Halloween. Connor had fun picking out his costume at Ragstock. It was one of the costumes that he will be able to wear again. One of his favorite things to wear is his top hat that we got him for our wedding. He went trick-or-treating in downtown Hopkins with his friend Gilbert. They had a good time running around... oh, and getting candy :)

Here are some pics!!

Scary Connor:


Cool Connor:

Here are the little ones. Addie the chicken and Evalyn the cow.

Funny Addie!!

Hmm... is Addie's cheek soft??

The beautiful babies!

Here is Evalyn outside on the front step... with the pumpkins.

Evalyn's Dedication

We dedicated Evalyn on October 4th, 2009. We were blessed to have family and friends attend. She is very loved and has many people that are praying for her, and are excited to teach her about Jesus.

Connor, the Hasketts, and the Monners all came up and prayed for her and pledged to teach her about God.

It was such a wonderful event. I cried through most of it because it was so amazing and I felt so blessed to have so many people there that love our family and little Evalyn.

Did I mention that Connor is Evalyn's favorite person!!

Pumpkin Patch

We took Evalyn to her first pumpkin patch. We had lots of fun getting pictures of her. She usually wants to touch everything she can get her little hands on, but was not interested in touching anything at the pumpkin patch.

Connor was hanging out with Uncle Jim working on a retaining wall. He is very much in the teen years and wanted to earn money. He did well that day! Jim was very happy to have the help of a teenager too.

Daddy had a good time showing her all the different pumpkins and squash.

She wasn't real sure she liked sitting on the pumpkins. It was a little strange, but so cute!



Mommy and Evalyn posing for Daddy.

Amazing

I have had the wonderful opportunity to stay home with Evalyn. Granted it was not by choice, YF made it for me, by laying me off and giving my job to the person I helped hire to take over while I was on maternity leave. Crappy thing to do, but I am looking for the positive in it.

Evalyn is 3 months old now and amazing! She changes so much everyday. Just today she figured out that she has hands. She would look at them and then put them in her mouth. So cute! She is close to 12.5 pounds now. We are working on getting her on a schedule, that's a lot of fun. Working out nap times and bed time. She likes getting a bath now at least. It probably helps that we have a heater in the ceiling of the basement bathroom. It's like her own personal dryer. She LOVES it. Chris holds her under it and she just smiles!

She is starting to recognize people other than Chris, myself and Connor. She knows her Aunt Sarah, she gives her lots of smiles! She loves her Aunt Jen too. She likes it when Cora sings to her. It seems to calm her down.

We were lucky enough to have Uncle Peter home for Easter this year. Evalyn loved him. I think because he has a deep voice like her daddy. Peter changed his first diaper while he was home. It was a fun learning experience! Peter took some pictures to mark the occasion. I will have to post those when I get them! Here's a pic of the two of them!

Great Grandma Emily was home from Arizona for Easter. She got to see Evalyn for the first time. It was so great to have her finally meet her. All Evalyn wanted to do was stretch, but let Grandma hold her anyway.




We are also trying to do tummy time. She is NOT a big fan of that. I do try, but I am a wimp, and we she gets upset I move her back to her back. I got some advice from some people at church to try using the boppy to do it. That has worked better. Here are some cute pictures.





She is also so in love with her daddy. Chris came home from work yesterday, she was nursing and stopped so that she could look at her daddy and smile. She always stops and looks at Chris when he comes into the room. She also knows his voice really well and constantly looks for him if she can hear him, but he's not in the room. It's so sweet. We also think she is starting to look more like him.

She went through a weird phase of not wanting to nurse any where except at home, and if I did manage to get her to nurse somewhere else, it had to be laying down. I got the cutest picture of her at her Granpa's house! She was so conked out!


Over spring break we went and took pictures with Cora, Sophie, Madeline, Elizabeth, Connor and Evalyn. They are so sweet. Big Connor in the middle of all the girls that love him so! If we get digital images of those photos I will put one on. I just love how they turned out.

Will write more soon!

1 Month Old

What a great 1 month birthday, Valentine's Day! It has been an awesome month. We love having Evalyn. She continues to grow, over 8 lbs now. She stared smiling, so cute! She is sleeping at night now, but only as long as she can sleep on mommy. I like getting the sleep, but miss being able to sleep on my side. She loves to lay on the floor and stretch. She's still so long! She is an amazing blessing and watching her grow and change is so wonderful. I could stare at her all day long... wait, that's what I mostly do all day ;)

Evalyn Karin Pitkin

Welcome Evalyn Karin Pitkin!!

We went into the hospital on Monday, January 12th to be induced. My blood pressure was really high still, so the dr. decided it would be best to induce me. We got started on the drugs to help my body get ready to have her. We hung out on Tuesday, not much happened. Wednesday early morning I started having contractions without the pitocin even in yet. So they got me going on that. I started having really painful back labor, and we discovered that she was facing up, instead of down. After nearly 4 hours of pushing, with my awesome helpers cheering me on (Chris, Sarah and Jen) my Dr. decided, after several checks and not progression, that it would be best to induce me. So they moved very quickly, and in less than an hour I was in the OR having her. Chris came in and stayed with me during the surgery, and then was able to go out with her after. He was with her the whole time they were finishing with me. Turns out that she was coming into the birth canal face up and at an angle. She was wedged in inside the birth canal in a bad way. So the cesarean was the best way to go for her and me.

We had our beautiful baby girl at 4:16 pm on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009. She was 6 lbs 10 oz. and 21.5 inches long.

We love her so much!! It's really hard to understand how much you can love someone before you have them. She's amazing!!