Happy Birthday Lily Lou

I remember when you looked like this...

And now you look like this...

Happy birthday to my beautiful Lily Louise. You have always been an awesome niece, but now you are an awesome cousin to Everett. Love you!

What a week!

So this happened...

 

Monday morning at about 5:15 am the giant tree in front of our house was struck by lightning. If you were in Johnson County you probably heard/felt it. 

Everett's window is on the second story in this picture. He had woken at 5 am, very unusual for him, so I was rocking him back to sleep in his room. (Insert Halleluiah Chorus here.) With no warning there was an alien-abduction-like bright flash and a sonic-boom-sounding, thunder clap. All the smoke detectors and car alarms went off.

I'm grateful and and believe it was a gift from God that I was holding Everett when the lightning struck. It is hard for me to think about the fear both of us would have experienced if he would have been alone upstairs.

It took Ryan and I about 5 minutes to actually determine what had happened. Brave Ryan went outside to check it out and quickly figured out the tree had been struck since it was missing about 75% of its bark. No people, pets or property was harmed. And the tree stayed standing.

However, the tree begin falling at 3 am on Thursday morning. First one giant branch, then the next followed about 4 am. My nerves were shot, but still nothing hit the house. 

We had all the branches cut down yesterday afternoon, so today we have a giant totem pole in our front yard. It will all be gone on Saturday. We will miss you 100-year-old tree. 

In awesome news...

Everett turns 9 months old today and has a tooth! I'll recap his 9 month milestones in my next post when my anxiety level returns to normal. 

Even though it has probably been the 2nd toughest week since Everett was born, Ryan and I have a lot to be thankful for this Friday. We are blessed.

 

Waking a Sleeping Baby

This morning Everett was extra sleepy. So sleepy I finally had to wake him up at 7 so I could get to work on time. Usually I'm rushing to get ready before his 6:30 wake up call. I recorded this sweet, sleeping baby so I can remember this when I'm dragging a 16 year old out of bed.

Picture of the sweet sleeping baby.



Video of baby boy waking up.

Fishing on a Sunday

Everett had his first family fishing trip on Sunday (May 20) at Shawnee Mission Park. He caught a little perch with Ryan's help. The pesky perch stole many a worm from our hooks, but all around it was a really great day.

Besides fishing, Everett spent the day playing on the picnic blanket, eating O's, and napping. He sure loved fishing with his Daddy while watching the baby geese and sailboats on the lake.

Everett had to get a nap out of the way early in the expedition.

Ryan's first fish was this big bass. Very impressive.

Everett enjoyed watching Daddy string the new fishing poles and put worms on the hooks.

Big E being super cute.

The worm company's slogan: Our worms catch fish or die trying.
I thought that was pretty clever.

Uh oh! Where'd the worm go?
This kid eats everything, but I'm pretty sure he didn't eat any worms this trip.

Everett was really interested in the fish we caught. I never did let him touch it though. Yucky.

Everett helping Daddy fish.

They actually caught a fish as I was taking these pictures.

The scenery was beautiful and my company was the best. Great day!

8 Months Old

Big E turns eight months old today. He is changing by the week. He now:

• sits unaided without falling over
• waves his hand (he hasn't put this together with waving to someone yet)
• rolls over both ways
• sleeps on his belly 50% of the time
• is crazy about his Daddy, his Daddy's picture and his Daddy's voice
• goes to the nursery during church
• is lunging forward to get toys
• can sit and play by himself for long stretches of time
• looks at books by himself
• giggles uncontrollably when Cousin Lily plays peek-a-boo
• eats the big kid food for lunch at daycare
• almost has Cheerios mastered

For Mother's Day Everett gave me a card, gift certificate and breakfast. He also made me a key chain and a gift box with his chubby hand print at daycare.

And now adorable pictures (Please excuse the quality.These are taken on my phone because it is always handy.)

Everett loves his puppies.

Almost ready for the big tub.

Everett has adopted Eli's way of looking at the world.

Everett explaining to the dogs that we don't chew on teddy bears.

First Art Project

Everett's class at La Petite created a flower-baby garden. The teachers dipped Everett's feet in finger paint to create the petals on his flower. As you can tell he is quite proud of his creation.

Everett sitting in the garden.

Notice his Digger outfit. He's quite the Nascar fan now.

First Royals Game

Everett attended his first Royals game on Sunday (April 22).

Despite the cold, the horrible Royals start and a few loud cheers that scared the crap out of him, I think Everett had a good time. He was also incredibly adorable in his Alex Gordon t-shirt and Royals ball cap.

Thanks to Victoria for these two awesome Royals pic.

Also, we signed Big E up for the Royal's Blue Crew. We got all this for $20!