Pretender

I was just doing dishes and Evelyn came up and grabbed the drawstrings on my lounge pants. She was happy and seemed to be dancing to the music from the kitchen radio while holding onto the strings. I looked down to get a better glimpse and saw she had the ends of each draw string in her ears and was singing and dancing. My girl was pretending she had an iPod! She knows what an iPod is from her daddy and her auntie who let her listen to their iPods. Proud mama to a good pretender!

Randomosity

Whoops, I haven't blogged for 3 weeks! Jason did the last post with the videos - some goodies for the grandmas! So, here I am, full of randomosity to throw your way!

I have been keeping nice and busy with a myriad of things; thus, I have neglected both blogging and reading blogs. I have been attempting over the weekend to catch up on y'all's archives, but I have been naughty and have not commented to anyone! Sorry - still love all of you! Part of it was that Jason has the Google account and he changed the password and I didn't feel like looking for it...so, I didn't log in and didn't comment!

A random assortment of information that is either swirling in my head or something we've done lately that I want to share!:

-I could cry at how big Evelyn is getting! What a joy it is to watch her grow and learn! She is working on shaking her head correctly to "yes" and "no" this weekend and she has mastered pretty much every body part including cheeks, knees, and elbows (which apparently my little brother didn't know his elbows until preschool...hmmm :-) I was looking at pictures on our computer and she just looks SO big in them. My baby is growing up too fast!

-Jason painted the living room while I was in MN. It turned out great and I am so appreciative for the hard work that he put in every night while we were gone. I have been working on finding curtains for the past two weeks and finally settled on some. The bonus is that they were on clearance! Woo hoo! I intended on getting these to kind of throw a funky twist in the room, but they were sold out because they had gone on clearance too. I think it is odd that online they are still full price. Oh well, the swirls of polka dots are felt-y and give a nice texture and some modern appeal (and can I say it again - clearance). After I have pictures printed for two frames and hang them, the room will be officially done and maybe we'll even post some pics!

-Speaking of curtains and painting, I found some curtains on clearance for our room too. I have always wanted silver curtains for our room to go with the silver hardware on our furniture and the shades on our lamps. I found some silver-ish gray ones that will work. I know I have complained about Target, but 50% clearances make up for their horrid return policy! :-) We hung them this weekend and I must say, curtains really make a room and complete it. We are going to paint at least two of the walls a rich orange color. Can't wait! Next weekend Jason is painting the entry way a mocha color and our room is up after that. Painting each room just makes the house "ours" even more. I love that feeling.

-I just got a good laugh going through our pics - without realizing it, I wore the same shirt every time I had my picture taken in November and December! Thanksgiving, Advent reading at church followed by an attempt to take a family picture, and Christmas. It is kind of hilarious as you go through the pic archives. I must really like that shirt! I have found myself with a closet full of work attire that is collecting dust, a bunch of zip-up sweatshirts and fleeces for everyday, and about 3 shirts that I wear to get more dressed up. That will just have to do for now! Good thing I was with different people at all three of those occasions, right? :-)

-I am really cold right now. The utility company estimated our bill WAY too low last month. So, we should've known something was up and budgeted accordingly, but instead are stuck with a bill 4 times the amount of last month because they read our meter finally and realized they undercharged us. Jason turned the heat down to 65 starting at 10:30 now instead of 12:30 a.m. Late night blogging and emailing will be cold events! I am not sure if I can feel my feet anymore...hopefully my fingers won't freeze to the keyboard. My hands, toes, and nose are always cold already.

-Punkerdoops Diapers is getting some awesome free promotion in a week! I contacted the local paper again a couple of weeks ago and this time they were takers for a story on cloth diapering! A reporter and photographer were out last week for a good hour interviewing me and getting some great shots. The story is going to be the cover of the Lifestyles section in next Sunday's paper. I am thrilled and hope this will be the start of a bunch of new business! I also wrote an article on Modern Cloth Diapering 101 that will be in another local publication and a local woman's paper/magazine is doing a story on me/Punkerdoops in their April "green" issue. I am so thrilled that the word is going to get out there! Thanks again to all of you for your support and prayers as I try to get this business going!

-Tax time...I am trying to decide what to do about taxes this year. I did my own Excel spreadsheet accounting thing for Punkerdoops this year and so I sure hope it will work for filing taxes. Between starting a business where expenses grossly outweighed revenues, selling a house and buying another, and Jason commuting for 5 months (which I hear is a tax deduction...), I am not sure how to go about taxes. We can't afford an accountant and I am trying to decide if going with a tax prep service like H&R is any better than what I have been doing the last several years at taxact.com. Any feedback? I am kind of avoiding this but know I need to make decisions soon. I also should look into QuickBooks too probably. Just another expense I don't want to incur.

-We bought a potty chair today! I am not getting it out for another month or so. Myself and several of my sisters were potty-trained around 18 months and Evelyn will be 17 months in a few days. I plan to take the next month to research the whole thing a bit before we jump into things. I know I need to be home all week the week I do it and that's about it as far as my knowledge goes!

I think I will leave you with that! Happy Monday, all!

Yep, she already can walk in heels!

One of my favorite recent pics!

Look at those curls! She is eating frozen peas - cutting tooth #8!

We play a lot of dress-up! Jason thinks she looks like a gnome in her cone princess hat.

I find she is in pj's when I take a lot of photos...anywho, notice the shoes again! My little girlie girl!

Evelyn is our little dancer!

Since Evelyn has a mommy who loves dance as well as 2 grandmas who teach it...it only makes sense that she starts learning at such a young age!

We bought Evelyn a new toy and she loves it! Hopefully this doesn't mean she'll want a real one eventually...(Sorry for the poor video quality)

To Evelyn's Grandmother's House We Go

Opening a gift at Gma and Gpa B's house Christmas morning. She loved her cousins!

Family pic after the Christmas Eve service. None of them turned out. Evelyn looks like she is about to fall asleep!

Before we saw Santa the week before Christmas. Evelyn was not a fan of his!

About the best pic I have of her lately...she is so hard to photograph as she is constantly on the go!

Evelyn and I are leaving for the week to stay at my mom and step-dad's house while they are in Aruba. I will be helping my next eldest sister (I am the oldest of 8 kids if you didn't know) cook, clean, shuttle to school, dance, scouts, etc, and generally keep the peace in the house. This task is overwhelming and even though there are two of us, we have some big shoes to fill. I am kind of an orderly gal who likes her peace and quiet and hour of TV at night...needless to say, I will be thrust out of my comfortable home environment.

But, I will try to check in on y'all through the week.

On another note, we are all feeling quite well - praise the Lord! I really do think it was all of your prayers for health that finally did it! And, all of the lounging that we did over the past week helped too I am sure! I am second-guessing my diagnosis of Thrush for Evelyn. I am still treating both of us with acidopholus, but I think that she maybe just has a nasty buildup of milk on her tongue. She had some cheddar Chex mix the other day and the patch of white at the back of her tongue turned orange...that, combined with the fact that no new spots have appeared, leads me to believe that we might just have some gross old milk on our hands. Nice, huh? She will not let me brush it either that little stinker!

I wish that we had a plethora of great photos to share from Christmas. I will leave you with just a few. We shared our Christmas Eve and Day with Jason's family. We then celebrated last Sunday with a day trip to my mom's house. Both were very nice time and Evelyn was blessed with an abundance of new toys. When I upload more pictures off of our camera I can share a few. My dad and step-mom gave us our gifts at Thanksgiving and we opened them at home as my step-mom and sister were dancing in the Outback Bowl and were not around! They had a nice time!

Enough of the rambling - I am off to bed! Take care, all!