Evan's First Halloween

Evan started Halloween early today by dressing up in his costume before I left for work.  He has P.T. once a week so his therapist came dressed up as well.  She was a cave woman & Evan wore his itsy bitsy spider costume. He also posed with his favorite day care workers (Vince's parents).

 After Vince got home, we dressed Evan back up in his costume, grabbed his pumpkin, and went to the neighbors right around our house that had their light on.  Evan rode in his stroller.

 After about 6 houses, Evan was asleep.  It was cold outside, but his costume kept him warm enough to not care about sleeping in cold weather.

 Here's the loot he got from our neighbors.  Vince had most of it eaten by 9pm.

 All tuckered out.

Happy Halloween!

Cabinets

This past weekend I decided to try and refinish the bathroom cabinets in the guest bathroom. I saw a kit at Lowe's that looked very promising.  It had 4 steps to it and although there was a lot of waiting time in between, the steps themselves were fairly simple.  My house had the builder's grade natural oak cabinets installed with gold accents knobs. I forgot to snap a before picture of them, but here's one of my master bathroom cabinets that look just the same.

The first step was to clean the surface, then the second step was to apply a base coat.  This is where the color doesn't exactly match with what's on the box. Next time I will go much darker.  I wanted closer to a dark cherry color, but this is kind of a medium brown color.

 The third step was applying the glaze to give it the grainy wood look and to darken it up some.  It looked good, but not as dark as I was hoping.

And the result is not too bad.  I added new hardware to give them an updated look. 

I'm not sure I would do this to all my kitchen cabinets, but I may get the base color tinted darker and try it out on my master bathroom cabinets.

Working Weekend

The weekends just tend to fly by these days.  I need about 3 or 4 more days each weekend to accomplish all the tasks on my to do list.  I decided to try out my new jam/jelly maker & let me tell you, it works great!  I am so impressed with this product.  I only wish it would cut the fruit & clean itself afterwards.  It did everything for me.  I made strawberry jam, seedless blackberry jam, raspberry jam, and peach jam.  All I had to do was cut up the fruit and put it in jars. LOVE IT!

I also started a new task of repainting/restaining my bathroom cabinets in the guest bathroom.  I'm going to do a post on this after I take the after pictures. 

I got the grass mowed for the final time this year.  And I did about 4 loads of laundry.  We took Evan over to Vince's parents' house on Sunday morning so he could spend the night with them.  Vince & I then had a nice brunch at the Marriott, followed by housework, then we got dressed for the March of Dimes party.  We enjoyed the Chef's Auction that benefitted the March of Dimes.  There were 8 restaurants that had samples of their food to eat and there was a large silent auction, followed by the live auction. We had a great time (as usual). 

 And here is Evan just being cute this weekend.  He smiles all the time.  What a happy baby!

Birthday Weekend

Mom and Billy were here for my birthday weekend.   Kim, Dad & Elise tried to come but they were caught in bad traffic and went back home.  Vince went to the races with Uncle Alan & Brock.  Mom, Billy, Evan, & I visited mom & dad's new house to see the progress made on it. We also shopped around a little bit and visited the Beacon and Wade's for required meals.  It was a really great weekend. I just wish it lasted longer (as I wish for all weekends).

Uncle Billy & Evan had matching wardrobes

 Evan gave Grandmama hugs all week long

 Vince came home on Sunday and changed the baby.  He couldn't figure out why the baby wasn't going in the jump-a-roo well until we examined Evan's legs more closely.

 I let Evan take his first (supervised) nap on his tummy.  We're having a hard time keeping him off the back of his head so we're trying lots of things so his head doesn't stay flat. This is quite a challenge for a baby who likes to roll as soon as you put him on his tummy.  I use the Tumzee, hold him in place on his tummy, use the jump-a-roo, and more.  He is getting so big!

Dodi is 40

I had a great birthday this year.  I really don't feel 40 years old, so it's kind of surreal.  Mom & Dad got me a new double oven the night before my birthday. I was surprised as they had it delivered while I was at work. I immediately made 6 dozen cookies in the ovens.  It cut my time down in half!

I worked all day on my birthday.  In the morning, Kaye made me a pumpkin streusel cheesecake that was amazing.  She and LaDonna gave me a card with lottery tickets in it. 

For lunch, I ate at Wade's with my co-workers.  It's hard to beat turkey & dressing day, as well as free peanut butter pie.  Yum!

For dinner, Vince arranged with my friends to surprise me with a nice gathering of family & friends at City Range.  I had a great steak for dinner, followed by a pineapple upside down cake that Kaye made me and free creme brulee from City Range.  Yum!

Vince & Evan gave me new tires & wheels for my car, a jam/jelly maker machine, and a tower of chocolates & candy, and 2 dozen roses. Kaye & LaDonna gave me lots of nice baking items that I've been wanting including a chocolate warmer and fondant/pasta roller, and some beautiful flowers with a balloon. Jerry & Barbara gave me a nice Tervis Tumbler that said "I'm not 40. I'm 18 with 22 years experience" and some lovely Pandora earrings. Peggy gave me beautiful a jewelry set. It was a fabulous birthday! I'm so blessed to have such great family & friends.

Roses from Vince & Evan

 Flowers from Kaye & LaDonna

 The group

 LaDonna serving the cake

Pumpkin Streusel Cheesecake

 Signs at my work

 My desk

 My new oven

 Kaye, LaDonna & I

 Peggy, Evan, and Vince

 Jerry, Barbara, and Evan

 LaDonna & Evan

 LaDonna, Mike, Evan, & Kaye

 Me with Evan & Vince

 Evan likes Kaye's jewelry

 All dressed up for dinner

 Evan & Grandmama

 Happy baby

 My tower of chocolate & jelly maker

Billy, Eddie, Kim, John, Pat & Rachel all pitched in and got me a Coach purse and money to do either a vacation or some type of "me" activity like a massage or spa treatment.  I can't wait to use it!

High Chair

Evan is getting better and better at sitting up.  He still launches himself backwards so he needs support/supervision when propping him up to sit, but he's sitting up longer each time.  He is also doing great with eating, so we decided to let him sit in the big boy high chair for the first time today.  He did great!

We are still working on getting him to roll all the way over from his back to his stomach.  He can roll 1/2 way, but then rolls back to his back.  And we are working on crawling.  He can scoot some, but isn't there yet.  He is now in a size 2 diaper! We just moved him up to this new size.  He weighs 13 lbs 10oz and is about 25 1/2" long.  He will be walking before we know it! 

Buddy Walk

We attended our first ever Buddy Walk this weekend.  What a nice event!  I have to say that Family Connections did a great job arranging this event.  Here are just a few of the activities they had planned:

• Ronald McDonald
• Chick-Fil-A Cow
• Clowns
• Beauty Queens
• Bouncy House
• Corn Hole
• Silent Auction with loads of great items
• Dance Troupe
• Face Painting
• Tattoos (temporary sticker ones)
• Arts & Crafts
• Fire Truck & Ambulance
• Sheriff's Department with fingerprinting kits to take home
• D.J. (he had great dancing & walking music)
• Helicopter that took off before the walk
• Awards 

There were so many kids at the event.  They all had a great time. The weather was hot so we borrowed some shade from the tattoo tent folks.  I'm glad we brought our fold up chairs, but wish we had brought our own shade tent and our wagon to cart all of our stuff.  The School for the Deaf and Blind has a beautiful campus.  We were so glad to be a part of this day!

Evan is 7 Months Old

I can't believe my baby is already 7 months old.  The time is just flying on by.  He is getting bigger every day.  Some days it looks like he's taller and other days he looks heavier.  I think he's well over 13 pounds now.  I need to weigh & measure him this week.

Evan now likes to make all kinds of noises including letter sounds, raspberries, lip smacking, piggy sounds, whispering "e" and "a" sounds, and more.  His usual sound is la la la la, unless he's eating, and then after every single bite it's mmmmmmmm.

He can sit up with support, but still hurls his body backwards head first so someone has to sit right behind him when he launches himself.  I counted up to 20 seconds one day that he sat upright & balanced on his hands with his legs spread out before he flung himself backwards. He's great at being on his tummy for a while.  He still rolls over a lot, but is doing better at staying on his tummy & trying to scoot to get toys.  He scoots with his head and legs.  If he can just get his arms going, he'll be crawling soon.

He loves his jumperoo bouncer and can get it swinging pretty good these days. But his favorite thing of all time is music.  He likes music a lot. He enjoys books and toys, but they're nothing compared to his little music box.

I think he'll be cutting teeth soon as he seems irritated lately & chews on hands, toes, and everything else he can get in his mouth.

 Happy 7 months Evan Vincent Williams!