A slight delay

Well, in my continued efforts to carry the Hasenfuss name to FULL fruition and be the clumsiest one of all, I killed my camera this weekend. You, HB?! Yes, me, the one that NEVER goes anywhere without it. Yes, me, the one that will pack my camera and all of it’s innards before I even pack clean underwear (TMI?) for a trip. Yes, me, the one that can’t shoot worth a flip, yet is always EXPECTED to turn over the photos of family and other noteworthy events. Yep! YOURS TRULY! I rarely act two, but I cried like a young child when I accidentally launched it across my hardwoods on Saturday. A MERE two hours before Evie’s family party, mind you. ALL I’ve wanted was to photograph my junk food junkie digging into her cake with her [rather cute] party hat I made for her….oh, I could cry reliving the moment. ANYWAY! SO, I’m rolling somewhat camera-less these days. My kind, generous family rallied with multiple cameras for me to borrow and also got some good shots of the birthday gal. So, AS SOON as I have their chords to download and/or receive their copies, I WILL be sharing.

So, I looked through my pictures this morning and there are several events that haven’t been recorded. Let’s see where to begin…Thanksgiving? Christmas tree shopping? SU party at our house??

WAIT….This just in (I promise this wasn’t planned). My uncle is CLUTCH! As I’m typing, emails are popping into my box from EB’s party! YESSSSSS!! Bill, you are the BEST! My heart isn’t quite as burdened. Here he is with his tiniest love, JW! I want to eat that little face up. Stand by….

TA-DA! Here is our birthday girl……
She had such a special day and I'm so thankful to our family for coming to spend the day with us and celebrating EB’s first year of life. Yes, even YOU and your hair.

She loves her Papa Ron and when she REALLY wants to, she'll let out a labored Paaa-PA!

Again, how is she one?! I’m a little different and have been slightly hazed (kidding…kidding..kidding..KINDA) by folks for not throwing her a big ol’ bash. However, for me, it was a little more of an intimate thing and I just wanted family around. Again, despite the sad loss of my camera (….and my voice b/c I couldn’t talk at all) I was so thankful for all of us being under my roof and celebrating my sweet baby. EB missed her Grand Nan who was sick as a dog at home, but EB was kind enough to send some chocolate cake her way. I’m confident it made her feel better- IMMEDIATELY.

Anyway, forget thoughtful, nice gifts! Just give the child a balloon. That's right, EB, keep on lovin' the simple pleasures of life!So, that was a glimpse of our day, and a couple of members of the fam. I’ll be back with a chocolate coated EB as soon as I get them downloaded.
AND…. all of those other posts can wait.

OH..... UM.... ROLL TIDE!?!?!?!?!?!?! How 'bout that!!!

We’re 1

(she has to stare at it to make sure it's really real)

IN EVERY ASPECT, I suppose. I’m sure you’ve been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for a birthday update, right?! Sorry, things have been a tad crazy this week and I’ve gotten a little behind. (She is facing the world head on these days)

I felt like I was near death on Monday, so I sent EB to my mom’s. It was a small act of congress to get up and get going on Tuesday, but we had a big birthday girl to celebrate. So, we got ready and rushed over to my parent’s and picked up the babe-

I just didn’t want you to think I was “THAT” organized and rushed around on birthday mornings to get pics made with the family. HARDLY THE CASE! She was camped out there to escape the germs hanging on every inch of my house.

**commercial break** What would we do without parents that love us and take care of us even when we’re adults? Honest to goodness, if it weren’t for my parents (along with my aunt, uncle and grandparents on many occasions), I’m not real sure we could have made it through this year!!

She had a little party during snack time at school and thought she was ALL that. Any time someone would sing to her or show her the slightest bit of attention (as if she’s deprived every other day of the year) she’d start bebopping that little body and hammin’ it up. She traded her BOW for a BO-A! Who taught her how to put this around her neck? I can ASSURE you it was NOT her mom! I looked over and sure enough....she was sashaying around with this around her neck.

HA! Caught on camera-FINALLY!

We’re having a family party for her this weekend, so we just had a fun little evening at home... in the new wagon.

How is this child one? How has it been 365 whole days since I had her? I just cannot seem to make sense of time and how quickly it has slipped through my fingers. This year has been NOTHING short of a year filled with so many blessings. Selfishly, I kinda felt like the day was for Jason and me to celebrate the best gift we were ever given. She is just so fun and brings so much joy to our family. Evie, we love you, gal!

If you know me in my “real” life at all you’ll occasionally hear me throw out, in a sarcastic tone (keep in mind), “I’m just living the dream….” usually involving something at work that has gone slightly wrong. Well, in this case (without going overboard), I often do look at our little life and think we are living a dream we don’t deserve. However, as I’ve said before, we are humbled by it and praise our Lord for so many blessings- our birthday girl being the best of all!! He has done far more than we could have ever asked or imagined already in her short little life.

Happy *FIRST *Birthday, Evietron!! We’ll keep on partying through Saturday!

T'was the night before [and morning of] EB

T'was the night before EB and all was quiet at St. V's.

We were there for an early morning induction, and I was hooked up to IVs.

No one got any shut eye the entire night,

because of visions of labor, delivery and a baby girl that would come with dawn's light.

At 6 a.m. the doc came in and my water they broke.

Those contractions came fast and were indeed no joke.

However, with 12 little pushes,

we were out of the bushes....

Evelyn Virginia was born at 9:37 and healthy as a horse.

And at that moment, our new little family of 3 started on its course.

We had so much company, the nurses were a tad annoyed,

How could we care, we were simply overjoyed!

We are thankful for the gifts the Lord does bestow.

Now we must train her up in the way she should go.

Happy [almost] FIRST birthday, EB!!!! You are every bit of a sweet, precious treasure that we didn't deserve, but thank or sweet Lord that you are ours EVERY single day.

Talkin' turkey

So, did you know that 1. the largest [recorded] turkey ever grown was 86lbs. (REALLY? How many people can that feed?) 2. The average person consumes 4,500 calories on Thanksgiving Day. (I could eat that much in pecan pie ALONE!) 3. Americans feast on 535 million pounds of turkey on Thanksgiving? (thanks Google for the turkey facts)

Speaking of turkey….Here’s mine decked out in her turkey shirt for school. I’d eat 535 million pounds of her WHOLE!

It’s starting to look…

A lot like Christmas!! With a Christmas party at my house looming, it was in our best interest to start slowly pulling out the boxes. My curious crawler had NOTHING to do with getting things out early so she could get accustomed to the Christmas festival spread here, there and everywhere.
We’ll have some ‘splaining to do with this one…… It isn’t all about Santa, EB, but he does come down the chimney. It's a little early for that just yet...
These were a hand-me-down (I LOVE these types of hand-me-downs) that we’ve added to every year. I figured I’d display them this year…do you KNOW how long it took me to get this set up? I’ll refrain from disclosing that info. I really should go to “Domestication class 101.” I’m not even showing the big pic for fear I did it wrong and will get talked about- that’s how bad I am.
Maybe it's a tad too early for a Christmas post?!?! I have a feeling it will FLY by! I know some of YOU are laughing because this is so typical of me. Until next time...we'll keep perfecting our bruises walking! Geez!

Weeeeeee!

Something is brewing DEEP in my system that makes me hate Mondays more than I used to (now it’s Tuesday and they are MUCH better. ha). However, as EB and I sing EVERY morning on the way in, “this IS the day that the Lord has made…” over and over and over again. She laughs- maybe she understands the Lord’s sense of humor a little better than I do.

This gal LOVES her mamma and that is perfectly fine with me.

On another note, we are LOVING this weather we are having in the south these days. Some days I forget I have a 1 child + dog because she’ll sit with Gus by the door and just wait to be “let out.” So, when the weather is like this, we get to take FULL advantage of our outdoor activities.

Sheer exhilaration!!!

Yes, that would be her yummy tummy you see!

Puppy lovin'

Well, ol' Ida is here, JB has been conferencing on the west coast and the babe and I have been having lots of quality time exploring and re-exploring things like shutters, outlet plugs, door stops, door knobs (that she can now reach) remote controls, BlackBerries, stairs, Gus’s tail, bark, grass and all sorts of INTERESTING things.

Gus doesn’t get a lot of face time on here, but we do love him (a little too much because he’s ridiculously spoiled). He is a tad quirky due to his days pre-adoption, but he has slowly come into his own. He is so sweet and has always been great with the neighborhood kiddies- he’s served as a horse, snack eater, chaser, ball snatcher, running companion, wrestling partner and play pal . So, I wasn’t TOO terribly worried about how he would respond to a wee one in the house……. It’s all fun and games!

Let's discuss something... My dog is 75 lbs (he's on a diet). He is incredibly gentle and LOVES Evie. If she "comes up missing" (i.e. spending time with her grands) he goes nuts looking for her. SO, while it may appear that he is being rough with her, I was sitting 2 feet from her and can assure you they were INDEED playing. He isn't biting her, just nudging and rough housing. It's ok...they were closely monitored.