Evelyn

She's here. And one week old already, believe it or not.  Free time is a little scarce right now, but I wanted to have at least one photo of our little lady up on the blog by the end of her first week.

This was from an impromptu little photo session we had while we were hanging out on the bed yesterday.  The light was pretty and she was awake, eyes wide open.  It was the perfect time to capture the first image for her blog debut. More on this little nugget later...

Evelyn Mae Straka

11.21.2012

8 lbs.  11 oz.

20 inches

Sam's New Room

Just a few quick snaps of Sam's new room...  This room has been several things in the last six years; our office, Brian's art studio, and my sewing room.  It's finally found its place as Sam's room and we think it's pretty cute.  Sam loves it, too.  It's bright and cheery and little-boyish.   It also looks out on the covered patio which is neat.  Sam asked me when we first started working on it if we could paint it purple, his favorite color.  Brian and I obviously nixed that idea, but as a compromise I planted some purple pansies on the patio so that he had at least a little purple in his view.  We cleaned his room yesterday and there was a slight break in the clouds this morning - I figured today was my last chance to get some photos before it gets messy again.  And it

will

get messy again!

Mama made:

houndstooth bunny

houndstooth pillow

fabric letters

photo gallery wall

Daddy did:

cornice - what a project!!

painted the room, the art table, the little shelf

Etsy finds:

USA and world maps

hedgehog print (from nursery)

Miscellaneous goodies:

bedding - Land of Nod

big-boy dresser and bookcase - Ikea

Stop by and visit anytime.  Sam

loves

to show off his room!

Practice

All of a sudden today, Sam told me Hop-Hop needed a diaper.  He grabbed one from the pack-n-play, swooped Hop-Hop up off his bed and went running.  I grabbed my camera...

Then, of course, she needed to be swaddled, so I ran and got a swaddling blanket from Evie's room.  He did a pretty good job on his own, but asked for help making it tighter.

Once she was settled, we took a few snaps from the window seat.

Happy Hop-Hop girl...

Under Construction

There have been a lot of things under construction around here:  the baby in my belly, her nursery and our family blog.  The nursery is finished, but much like the baby, the blog is not quite done.   I was bored with the look of our old blog and wanted something new, something a little cleaner and less cluttered.  I switched to a one-column template that will show off our children's smiling faces a little more than before.  I've had fun working on it, even learned a weensy-bit more about HTML, but there's still lots to do that I'm not sure I have the time or material for right now.

The header's better than before, but looks incomplete to me for some reason.  The quantity and quality of my images have been lacking lately, so the slideshow is in a "good-enough-for-now" state (a hot summer, cumbersome belly, and crabby three-year-old have made for less practice time than I'm used to).   It seemed weird to have only photos of Sam in there, too, so I added nursery photos, soon to be replaced by a few photos of Miss Evie herself.  Some image sizes (and fonts) are a little wonky right now.  I'm still working on the best method to size and upload our photos.  I need to find a way to complete my editing workflow in a reasonable amount of time, since time (and energy) are going to be lacking here soon.  It's a work-in-progress!

Having said that, I love our new look - crisp, clean and bright.  Hope you like visiting our new nest, too!

Evelyn's Nursery

How fun has it been decorating a nursery for a little girl?  So fun it's hard to stop!  When I was pregnant with Sam I didn't know how to sew and a little site called Pinterest hadn't yet taken the world by storm.  Having those two things this time around made working on Evelyn's nursery so easy.  I didn't start out with a bird theme in mind, it just kind of evolved.  I have to admit it fits us well!  I also didn't think I'd want to paint the nursery pink, but I found the perfect shade, made just for someone who doesn't really like pink!  

Here's what I've accomplished since finding out we were having a little girl.  

It's a lot, and I think I'm done.  Mostly.  For now.

Mama Bird's projects

:

hoops

crib skirt

birdhouses

bird mobile

giraffe, bird, elephant and bunny

letter E and felt flowers

birdcage

pillow covers

glider and ottoman covers

quilts

burp cloths

Etsy goodies

:

sunshine print (was Sam's)

Evelyn Bible verse print

nightlight (was Sam's)

dresser knobs

Family treasures

:

Gram's baby dress

my white baby shoes

quilted teddy bear - made by my Grandma Tresenriter using her old quilt

Mother's Day angel from Pops

heartbeat bear from Ms. Ellis

birdcage from Cousin Megan

My lamb, given to me by my Uncle Brad over thirty years ago 

Other lucky finds

:

blue valises from Basic French (were Sam's)

crib from Jenny Lind - new, but just like the one I had as a baby!

Now all we need is Baby Evelyn to make the nursery complete!

What's in a Name?

Who would have thought?

I mean really.

Who would have thought that naming our second baby would be made so difficult a process by our first baby?  What three year old has such strong opinions about something like this?  Well, apparently this one.

The details are a little fuzzy now as to how it all began, but it had something to do with Brian and I mentioning we would have to pick a name and Sam suggesting "Betsy".  Betsy was his first little love at mother's day out a couple of years ago.  According to his teacher, he was always trying to hold her hand while they played and pat her back during circle time.  We weren't surprised when he suggested Betsy as a name and at first everybody thought it was hilarious and sweet.  That didn't last long.

Eventually Brian and I narrowed down our name choices from a list of about ten to two:  Evelyn and Lillian.  We knew we wanted her middle name to be Mae (my Grandma T's middle name and one of our original first-name choices as well), but we weren't positive which way to go for her first name.  We wanted a classic name, normal and not trendy, common but not overused, one that would work well for her as an adult.  Brian and I would talk about it and Sam would always interject with Betsy.  Betsy.  Betsy.  Betsy.  And each time he would get angrier and angrier. We explained that Mommies and Daddies name babies but that he could call her what he wanted for now.  He decided he would call her "all three names:  Evelyn Lillian Betsy".  We said that was fine.

Big mistake.

At first only he referred to her using this weird little combo of names.  Then he started insisting that Brian and I, all grandparents, the cashier at Janie and Jack - even Joe Schmoe on the street - call her by all three names.  And when we wouldn't, he'd get ugly.  One of several Sam-quirks that made this a particularly difficult summer...

I'm not sure how it finally slowed down (notice I didn't say it had stopped).  I think some threats and time-outs were involved and possibly a heart-to-heart talk with Gram at a Chick-Fil-A, but we finally reached a loose compromise.  Daddy and I and all family and friends would call baby sister Evelyn or Evie and he could call her all three of her real names "Evelyn Mae Straka", which he is still doing faithfully to this day.  For example, if I ask him to put something in "Evie's room" for me, he will say, "Sure Mom, I will put that in Evelyn Mae Straka's room for you".

Whatever!

Not sure how long he can keep it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes on for a while.  He's known to possess a bit of a strong will...

**A couple of interesting links about the history and meanings of the name Evelyn:

Appellation Mountain

Nameberry