Happy Birthday, Mike!

We had such a fun time celebrating Mike's birthday this year. His totally awesome and amazing boss let him have half of the day off to spend with his family. So while Mason was still in school, Mike, Eva and I went out for a quick lunch. It was so fun for us to spend a meal with just Eva. We have rarely had any two on one time with that precious girl. It was neat to focus only on her and dote on her constantly. So sweet!
Then we picked Mason up from school and came home to open cards and the birthday gift. We also sang Happy Birthday and let Mike blow out the candles on his cake before we ate some! After that we decided to try out the new double jogging stroller I got at the consignment sale and went for a walk to the park in our neighborhood.
We decided to eat dinner at a local restaurant that used to be a Cotton Gin. The food is so authentic and homemade tasting. We had so much fun! After that we walked down to the river and listened to a band who was putting on a show out there. The weather was perfect, the food delicious and the company unbeatable!
Finally, we went over to the new TCBY and got some YOGURT! I love TCBY and there aren't many of them left! We just had the most wonderful family time celebrating Mike's life.
Happy Birthday, Mike! You are the love of my life and my best friend. Thanks for the memories!

10 Terrific Months!

Eva is double digits! Wow, it seems like 12 months is closing in fast. I can't believe we are about to have a one year old in the house! It has sure gone fast. Eva is finally starting to cut a couple of teeth - at once! She has been pretty cranky about that and just wants Mama to hold her all the time. So Mama hasn't been getting much done. She is into everything and developing quite an opinion. We love seeing her little personality continue to develop!
At 10 months, some of Eva's favorite things are: opening cabinets in the kitchen, taking toys away from her brother, eating veggies - this girl loves her greens! (Just like her Daddy). She is still madly in love with Barney, Jake, and Mason. She smiles every time I look at her - which is opposite of Mason - who usually shoots me an angry look when I look at him...Ah, life with a 2 year old. She also loves taking baths and playing in the water.
Some of the things she doesn't like are: getting her diaper changed/getting dressed (it's like wrestling an alligator!), having things taken away from her, and sitting still!
She has kind of started cruising around the furniture, but is still not as adventurous with that as her big brother was. One of his favorite things to do at 10 months was to push the laundry basket around as a walker!
We are just so blessed by you, Eva. You truly are a beautiful angel!

New Year's at Sea World

Since Mike had several days off for New Year's, we decided to pack up and head to Sea World. We drove in that morning and stayed until they closed! We spent the night in a hotel nearby and then drove on home on New Year's Day.
We had SUCH a wonderful time. We made some amazing memories and the day could not have gone better. The kids had so much fun and we had so much fun watching them have so much fun! (That was a mouthful)!
Here are some pictures from our day!

They still had the Christmas decorations up and they were beautiful! Especially that night when they lit up all the lights around the park.
Daddy and Mason climbed all the way to the top of the cargo net at the Bay of Play!! He did great climbing up but kind of freaked out on the way down. He ended up riding on Mike's back all the way down. Strong Daddy!
Mason loves fish. In fact, any time we go to Wal-Mart or Petsmart we have to go by the fish and check them out. He loved getting to see the many different kinds at Sea World.
He also loved the penguins!! Mom and Mason rode the Penguin Conveyor Belt that takes you past the Penguin Enclosure. He was so excited when they jumped off of the rocks into the water. It's so neat to see children experience new things. It's almost like you can see their little brains expanding with all the knowledge!

Mason got to have his picture taken with all the Sesame Street characters! We happened to walk up just as they were coming out for a photo opportunity - so we didn't have to wait in much of a line! I really thought he would be scared and start screaming the minute Mike put him down next to Elmo, but he did great!!
We also got to see several shows, one of them being Sesame Street Live. We ended up leaving half way through because Mason wanted to play with the Bubble Gun we bought him and Eva had a diaper blowout. That kid LOVED the Bubble Gun!
Mom and Eva watching Sesame Street Live
The BUBBLE GUN!Sweet Girl enjoying the day! (This was pre-diaper blowout...)

Twilight at the Park - all the lights start to come on! It was truly amazing. Each area of the park had different themed lights up. We had so much fun exploring all over again once it got dark.
This was my favorite light display - A Candy Cane Forest. So pretty!! They had it set up so you could walk all around in there with the lights. I felt like I landed in the game Candy Land!
Daddy hanging Mason upside down. Crazy kids.Laughing together. I wish this picture hadn't come out so blurry, but it was dark outside and the stroller was moving when I took it. It is just so sweet though.
Eva took a nap in the Baby Bjorn Carrier. I had her all snuggled up in her blankie. She is not much of a snuggler because she is so active, so I was soaking it up! (Despite the fact that my back felt like it was on fire...so heavy!)
We found an area of the park full of carnival-type games. Mike picked out one to play and won the kids a giant stuffed shark! He had three tries to get it and ended up with one left over - so he let Mason play his last turn. Mason thought that was pretty cool. And he loved getting to ride around with his giant shark!

I have intentionally left out any memories made at the hotel that night. To say it was a miserable night would be the understatement of the century. Eva wouldn't sleep in the crib and Mason kept waking up crying. SO, no one slept. We hit the road EARLY the next morning.

On the drive back we passed Judson Road! That's my nephew's name for those of you who don't know. So I took a picture. So Cool!It was such a great trip (despite the no sleeping at the hotel). What a Happy New Years!

Christmas in March?

Well, I know it is almost too late to be blogging about Christmas, but I figure better late than never. Years from now I will want to read about Eva's first Christmas - I won't care whether it was blogged about in December or March! One of the reasons it has taken me so long to blog about Christmas is that it takes forever to upload pictures to the blog with out internet connection. It takes about 4 minutes per picture! Ugh. So blogging takes forever. Enough excuses! Here is Christmas 2011!

The picture is not that clear, but here is our house all lit up for Christmas!

Our extremely small Christmas Tree! We don't have much space so we went with a tall skinny tree!

Stockings! I bought these last year when I was pregnant with Eva. I bought a pink one for her because I was THAT confident I was having a girl - even though we hadn't had our ultrasound yet.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is turning off all the lights in the house and just relaxing in the glow of the Christmas tree. It is so peaceful and serene. It is wonderful!
Our Girl's First Christmas!! Happy Times!
I waited until Christmas Eve to put the presents out - because this is what I was expecting Eva to do...eat the bows. And she didn't disappoint!
Mason in his Christmas jammies and Santa hat - putting out cookies for Santa!
Christmas morning!! Bright eyed and bushy tailed. Sweet, sweet Eva.
Here is what Santa brought Mason and Eva. A kitchen!! They play with it every day!
The first thing Mason wanted to do was make us some coffee. He sees his Daddy make coffee every morning and always wants to help. He was so excited to see his very own coffee maker in his kitchen!
Opening Presents!
So fun!
Mommy and her girl
Mason enjoying his new Micky Mouse DVD and playing with all the new toys!
Playing his violin. He loves this thing. I actually had to take it away and hide it because he was playing so rough with it! Maybe we will get it back out when he gets a little older...
Washing his car. His car is his pride and joy. He and his koala, Baby, go cruising in it EVERY day.
Cheerio face. It was just too cute not to include!
Christmas with the Bedicheks at my parent's house!
Eva and her cousin Judson opened their presents a little later than the rest of us - they were napping during the gift exchange!
Memaw and Dedaw gave Mason a baseball set for Chistmas! He LOVED it. I think his uncles had as much fun playing with it as he did!
While we were at my parent's house, we decided to leave Eva with Memaw and Dedaw and take Mason to his very first movie - the Chipmunks! He had sooooo much fun. He still asks me when we can go see the Chipmunks again. Such fun memories. Merry Christmas!