Thanksgiving

We were doing some last minute shopping at Trader Joe's for our feast and the clerk asked what we were doing for the holiday, we told him that family was coming into town and we were cooking the meal at home. He proceeded to say we looked too young to be cooking the turkey....shoot, I think he was younger than me! Well, what we don't have for experience we make up for in boldness and it paid off. The meal was amazing! Annie put together a delicious feast that could not have been any better. Thanksgiving was a great day and Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all the same. The weather was beautiful, we had family around for most of it, had opportunity to get some Christmas decorations out and up, spent lots of time as a family and most of all had time to realize how much we have to be thankful for.

Evelyn was at no loss for attention over the weekend with grandparents in town and it was a joy for Annie and I to see her interact with them. Val and Paula drove down from Minnesota to arrive here Wednesday night. It was a great stay and we were able to do a number of things and still find plenty of time to relax.

Gotta love Thanksgiving!

Fear

We are understanding the ramifications of 'fear' in the Powell household lately. As in, if I get upset because I don't want to go to bed at 8 and stand up in my crib in protest, then I'll just wail harder- not because I'm mad about going to bed- but because I don't know how to sit down. Good Lord.  
Insult to injury: I laid her down, left, she fell asleep. Awoke screaming 10 mins later. We left her to cry a bit, only to find (once we checked on her, suspecting the standing up thing again) that she'd gotten her leg stuck in the bars.
We unstuck the leg. 
She fell asleep to awake at 7a, like normal. 
What a night.
Insight into the toddler years??

B's been busy...

I'm lucky enough to have a husband who stays home to take care of our lovely daughter.  As if that weren't enough... I thought I'd give you a little peek into the other things he finds the time to accomplish.  Thanks, B!

Project 1: Matting and framing my commemorative marathon poster/bib/picture. We cut the matte and bought the frame in '07.  It sat partially finished for 3 years. (Something about owning a small business, remodeling a house and finishing a PhD that got in the way). We hauled it to Nashville. Today, he finished it. I am so psyched.

Project 2: Framing my Ph.D. diploma. He was in the framing mood today!

Project 3: Custom rocking chair. It's GORGEOUS. Made of black walnut. Made literally from boards of wood with his hands. This being-married-to-a-woodworker thing just keeps paying off. ;-)

(Zoom-in view of the grain. The other arm has a dark stripe down the middle to match. Amazing.)

Project 4: Chopping up a huge hickory tree we had taken down and stacking it.  He cut and stacked all of the wood you see by hand. Pretty much alone, as well. 

Did I mention he's also found the time to volunteer here once a week? What a guy.
Thank you for all you do, B!  You're amazing!

Traveling 'round Home Depot with dad

(PS- Excellent use of the pink Vans shoes, dad.)

9 months!

We can't believe it! Evelyn Anne was 9 months old yesterday!
We had her 9 month check-up yesterday morning.  Here are her stats:

17lbs, 12 oz (born at 8lbs, 11oz. and up nearly 3 lbs from 2 months ago!)
27 inches (born at 21 inches and up 1.5 inches from 2 months ago!)

We also have 1 tooth coming in and she's liking to try and pull herself up to a standing position. She crawls EVERYWHERE and very fast. We've learned not to turn our backs for more than 30 seconds or she's out of the room and off exploring. She eats 1 meal of solid foods per day right now (usually whatever vegetable looks good at Whole Foods) and we have been told to try and increase that to 3 meals as she approaches 1 year. We are also supposed to try using a sippy-cup now (we have SUCH a cute crab-themed one, thanks to our good friends in Baltimore!)  Also, her infant car seat only goes to 30inches, so we have to start looking at buying a big-girl carseat in the next couple of months!  All these new things! Makes us realize how grown up she is getting.

All in all, the doctor thinks she's doing great.


Here's a couple of pics from last week when she was "helping" with the laundry at the laundromat.

Halloween!

Ok, we know we owe everyone a post detailing our trips to Portland and to Maine... and I am working on it, but we HAD to post pictures of of Halloween adventure yesterday. We headed out to a pumpkin patch, Gentry's Farm, early in the day and in the evening Ev got dressed up as Ladybug Ev and we went out trick-or-treating with our friends Phil, Kim and Avery and had a splendid time! Here are some pics!

Also- Ev is nine months old in 1 week from today! New with her this week: trying to pull herself up to stand and waving 'bye-bye!'