14 months!

Ok, well, 14 months was a few days ago, but here's a little video to show you what our little lady has been up to. Exclusively walking everywhere now... and really enjoying "throwing" the ball for herself. Throw, walk, pick-up. Throw, walk, [cheer for herself], pick-up. Hours (ok, about 15 minutes) of enjoyment.

She's growing up. Nearly everyday we look at each other and wonder where the little baby we moved here with went!

First tornado season in Tennessee...

We pride ourselves in the fact that we don't use umbrellas and only Gortex. Hey, we're Oregonians, right?
Today we were humbled and shown just exactly what real rain is. (Not to say that we could have done much about this with either an umbrella or our Gortex.)
B shot this video today while he was working downtown. It looked the same from the 10th floor of my building at Vandy, with the exception of the fact that I could see much of the city blanketed in this craziness.

Visit from friends!

Last weekend, our friends Tom and Victoria visited us from Baltimore. I went to grad school with Tom in Portland and Victoria was my running partner. They moved to Baltimore about a year and half ago and we've been lucky enough to go up to see them a couple of times. (Of particular note is our trip we took last Sept. up to DC.)
Anyways, we were excited to have Tom and Victoria for 3.5 whole days, as they arrived last Thursday night and flew out of town Sunday evening. Here are some highlights from the trip:

T and V brought along some awesome gifts with them- amongst them was a 6-er of Natty Boh and this adorable stuffed crab that Ev loves. T and V loved playing the put-crabby-on-your-head game with her.

On Friday, Brendon had to work, but I took us down to Lynchburg to tour the Jack Daniels Distillery. Here's a pic of V with our Tour Guide- such a great (and free!) thing to do when you come to town!

Post JD tour- Ev and Uncle Tom sport the cowboy hats!

Pic of the ladies at McCreary's in Franklin, Tn! 2-for-1 draught Guinness!

That very fine Guinness I just mentioned... garnished with a Shamrock!

We hired a babysitter for Saturday night and headed out on the town- had to snap a pic to document!

Enjoying a beer here at Corsair Artisan Distillery, as sadly, we weren't allowed to taste their spirits!

Cool outside area that we're hoping to check out as the weather warms.

Dinner at Southern Bred (our favorite meat and three restaurant) in East Nashville. Looks like a church hall inside, and the food is amazing as well as amazingly cheap- doesn't get much better.

You're downtown. It's 11pm. You must take a pic with the Elvis statue.

Yet another reason we love this guy.

Beer goggles, Elton John glasses... whatever you want to call them, they were awesome.

After this pic, we headed here to hear these guys. They were amazing. So much fun.

We had SUCH a good time with our friends. We miss them so, but are thankful for the kind of friendship that just picks up where it left off. We can't wait to see them again soon!

Well, it finally hit.

Evelyn had her first full blown head cold. We headed to the doctor yesterday after a weekend of snotty noses, goopey eyes and higher fevers than mama was comfortable with. The verdict? Doc thinks it was likely a viral infection that gave way to a double ear infection. Little Miss Ma'am is feeling much better after the antibiotics and the tylenol. We feel lucky to have made it 13.5 months without an unscheduled trip to the doc, but it still is no fun when it hits. What did we learn about our little one when she was sick?

1. She's a trooper. Temps were 101-103 for 36h before we went to the doc and she was generally pretty ok with it, it seemed. At least she wasn't giving us much attitude. (Which is a change for us, of course!)

2. She's much more cuddly than normal. She never wants to sit on our lap, generally preferring to walk around or chase the dog. Sick Evelyn = lots of lap time.

3. This girl is 100% all about the whole milk. Nurse suggested clear liquids and avoid the milk as it coats her throat makes her cough a little tougher on her. So. We tried pedialyte. We tried cold apple juice. We tried warm apple juice. We tried ice chips. Mama broke down and bought popsicles. We tried those. (Finally she did eat 1/2 of a popsicle.) We tried sippy cup. We tried glass and straw. We tried the bottle. We tried a big-girl cup. She wasn't having much of any of it. Whole milk? No prob. 24 ounces per day, without a fuss. Okie dokie.

4. Ever seen those shirts that say "I'd rather be in/doing/seeing _____?" For Miss Ev, she'd rather be in her wagon. Despite a a snotty nose and a fever, Ev was never happier than when she was riding in her wagon. So we rode. And rode. And rode. Up the driveway, round the house, down the driveway, up the street and back again. Thank goodness its been 75-80 degrees here, or we'd we wagoning in our house. No where near as fun!!

5. She continues to tolerate her rookie parents. We spent the weekend asking: Do you think she's any better? Should we give her some tylenol? Are her diapers drier than normal? How do you use this suction thingy? Where'd you put the syringe? Should we give her apple juice- what if she never wants water again? How bad do you think this sugary apple juice is for her? Should I call the doctor? What if we're just over-reacting? How high of a temp is too high? Lordy. We. were. a. train. wreck.

Thankfully, Ev was a trooper and the next time we'll hopefully have things a tad more sorted out. Quite sure we'll never have it figured out, but more sorted sounds possible. Maybe.

PS- The weighed Ev when we took her in. We were really hoping Ev would have busted into the 20lb range, having been so close at her 1 year appt about a month ago. Alas, 19lbs, 15oz. With her clothes and diaper on.

Sigh. Oh, well.

Happy Anniversary!

Here's to 9 years of marriage, today!!

Evelyn Anne: one year stats

A little late with this post, but at long last,

here we have a post to celebrate Evelyn's first 365 days on the planet!

First, let's remember where we started:
Born: ~6:30am, Feb. 8th 2010 in Portland, Oregon (8 days overdue!)
Weight: 8lbs, 11oz (85%)
Height: 21.5 inches (90%)

Here's one of the first pics:

1 year check up on Feb. 21, 2011 in Nashville, Tennessee
Weight: 19lbs, 9oz (22%)
Height: 28.5 inches (22%)

Here's a pic taken exactly at 1 year and about 6 hours:

Other fun facts about Ev:
-Screamed for the first 10 weeks straight... and only slept when being bounced on the pilates ball. (What doesn't kill you... right?)
-Consistently slept ALL night -every night- in her own crib, starting at 5 months... and we've never looked back!
-Took her first plane ride at exactly 4 months (to the day!)
-Has spent time in Oregon, California, Montana, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington DC
-Started crawling everywhere by 8 months
-Was standing consistently on her own by 10.5 months and took her first steps at 11.5 months
-"Walked" 14 steps in a row at 1 year, 12 days
-Took her first ride in the jogging stroller at 8 weeks and currently runs more with daddy than with mommy, but has definitely logged a few hundred miles since then. (We wish we had been keeping an exact tally)
-Pretty much eats anything, but favorite foods are: whole milk, carrots, sweet potatoes and cheerios
-Has "read" a story before bedtime every night since she was 5 months old.
-Knows some sign language but hasn't really shared with us any of "her" words for things (read: she babbles all day long but no "real" words yet from what we can tell. That's not to say she isn't an expert at communicating what she wants!)

Evelyn Anne Powell, you are an absolute joy and the best little girl we could've ever hoped for!

Mama bakes too.

So, Brendon is really the baker in the house but occasionally I get the bug to bake something.
Today, I felt like a sweet snack and opted for finally doing something with those frozen, overripe bananas I've had in the freezer for, well, longer than one should.
But of course -and this is where Brendon and I sometimes differ on baking philosophies- I refuse to waste all of my calories burned all week, so I wanted a lowfat banana bread that didn't compromise on flavor. (What can I say? I love tasting something sweet and knowing it's not going to stick around until next week.)

I found an already lowfat recipe (not low enough for me!) to modify from allrecipes.com and I really ended up liking it.

Here's the original:

2/3 cup white sugar
1/4 cup margarine, softened
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup water
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
-Mix everything. Bake at 350 for about 50 mins. Makes 1 loaf banana bread, which I cut into 12 slices

Here's the info per slice:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 59 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 162 Calories from Fat 42

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 4.7g 7%

Saturated Fat 0.9g 4%

Cholesterol 31mg 10%

Sodium 256mg 11%

Total Carbohydrates 27.4g 9%

Dietary Fiber 0.8g 3%

Sugars 12.7g

Protein 2.9g

Vitamin A 4% • Vitamin C 2% Calcium 1% • Iron 5%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

Here's my version:
1/6 cup white sugar
1/6 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce
2 egg whites
1 cup mashed bananas
1/4 cup water
0.83 cups all-purpose flour
0.83 cups white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

-Mix everything. Bake at 350 for about 50 mins. Makes 1 loaf banana bread, which I cut into 12 slices

Here's the info per slice:

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 51 g

Amount Per Serving

Calories 96 Calories from Fat 2

% Daily Value*

Total Fat 0.3g 0%

Trans Fat 0.0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 213mg 9%

Total Carbohydrates 21.0g 7%

Dietary Fiber 1.5g 6%

Sugars 7.4g

Protein 2.9g

Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 2% Calcium 2% • Iron 4%

* Based on a 2000 calorie diet

All in all, I made some of the basic substitutions (applesauce for butter, egg whites for eggs, subbed in 1/2 white whole wheat flour), but I also used only half of the sugar it calls for and added some vanilla and cinnamon. I also subbed skim milk for the water. It's about 60 calories less and 4.4(!)g of fat less per slice and is higher in fiber and has less sodium and carbs. And can we get 3 cheers for NO cholesterol?!? Also, I like that the protein per slice stays the same, even without the butter and entire egg.

Here's a pic:

All in all, it turned out really well and tasted great. FYI, if you have a sweet tooth, it might be a little low on the sweetness for you, so if you make it, you may want to use the full portion of sugar.

Bon appetit!

Fun with our new dump truck.

Ev turns one! (And we can't believe it we made it a whole year.)

Well, she did on the 8th of February and we had a party in Nashville to celebrate.
Here's the video montage of the party! Thanks to those who came and celebrated with us!


PS- 1 year stats to come after our Dr's appt on Monday!

B's been up to it again...

Homemade English muffins.

Yum.

I love this man!