Merry Christmas!

The other night Steve was down in the basement staining our new mailbox post.  I decided to go down and start putting together the little house-thing that we were giving Evelyn for Christmas.  I'm sure you've heard this story before from other parents.  It's the age-old story of putting together the Christmas presents.  I figured we could work together once he was done the mailbox.

I opened the box and was met with about 50 pieces, all wrapped in plastic.  I started pulling stuff out of the box, piece by piece, as Steve watched.  It was when I pulled out a sheet of stickers that Steve told me I was on my own.

Fifteen minutes later, I had the window box, ball-catching device assembled.  The directions didn't say so, but apparently the placement of that little, purple plate at the bottom is crucial to the correct building of the rest of the window.  It was at that moment that I decided it was time to start photographing this endeavour for use in a blog.

After building the window, these were the pieces I had left to deal with:

Twenty more minutes later, and I had the door built and was ready to attack the slide.  Oh, and the mailbox post was finished being stained.

As I started to gather the pieces and scan the directions for building the slide I read that I would be using the six remaining piece X.  I flipped the directions back over to the handy-dandy diagram of all of the different components to this project to learn that piece X were the larger screw.  I began to dig through the bag of screws, sorting out the large ones.  After sorting, I discovered something that annoyed me even more than the nagging thought at the back of my head that Evelyn was going to like the very large box more than the toy I was building her.  What I found after pulling out all of the large screws was that there was a grand total of 5 piece X.  

So the question became do I deal with only having 5 screws and build the slide, knowing full well that every time she plays on that slide I would have a little panic attack that the whole thing was going to fall apart and she would fall the 2 inches the slide is off the ground (it definitely looked bigger in the pictures online!)?  Or, do I go to Lowe's or something and try to get a screw the same size?  Ultimately I made a compromise, the next day I went to my Dad and asked him for a screw that was comparable.  He found me two possible matches, one of which allowed me to complete the slide.  

From that point on, it was pretty smooth sailing.  All on my own I managed to build the whole play-set, and I only ripped one sticker when it came time to put them on.  The finished product looked great under the tree.  And the look on Evelyn's face when she walked in on Christmas morning and the fun she has had climbing through the window (not go through the door or down the slide) of her play-set is so fun to watch!

  

The obligatory Christmas morning, top of the stairs photo!

It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To...

Last week our sweet girl turned one.

I can't believe that she has turned from this...

to this...

Between the stress of having close to 50 people at our house for her birthday party, worrying about the snowstorm that was supposed to happen right in the middle of the day, and the emotion of her turning one, I spent the whole weekend on the verge of tears.  This was the moment when I almost completely lost it:

I am amazed at how fast, and slow, the past year has gone.  On one hand I can absolutely not believe that she has been around for a whole year.  When I look at how much she has accomplished in 365 days I am in absolute shock.  From just being able to cry, eat, sleep, and poop to now being able to walk, climb, point, say uh-oh, and more, it is just unbelievable.  It just seems impossible that she could learn to do all of those things in just one short year.  On the other hand, when I think about how exhausting the past year has been I wonder how it hasn't been five!

I don't really have any elaborate post planned, I just feel like I can't have a blog about being a parent without in some way acknowledging the birth of my child!  Someday, if she reads this, what I want her to know is that Mommy and Daddy love our little monkey, and she has made the last year the best year of our lives and we can't wait for each year to come!

PS-It's kind of fitting that this afternoon our neighbor stopped over to meet us for the "first" time.  Turns out she's the doctor who delivered Evelyn!

Christmas Card

I had two snow days this week.  And first thing Monday morning my fan club (ha!) gave me an assignment to post something.  I started brainstorming and crafting a post in my head.  Never got around to it because my almost one year old (OH MY GOSH!) has developed quite an independent streak in the past week.  A post on the snow days was just not happening.  Sorry fans.  But I did kind of like the idea that started floating around my head, and I hope I get at least partial credit for completing my assignment.

So, it's Christmas time.  I've always been that person who DOESN'T send out Christmas cards.  I think about it every year.  I look at cards every year after Christmas, when they are like 75% off.  I have bought great Christmas cards at these sales because "next year I will do Christmas cards."  I honestly can't tell you for how many years I have had these boxes of cards sitting in my bins of Christmas decorations.

This year I feel like we have no excuse to not send Christmas cards.  We have an adorable kid, and who doesn't love a photo card at Christmas?  PLUS I have endured basically 30 years worth of Christmas Card photo shoots, and it's time to continue the tradition with my own kid.

What's the best Christmas picture I've ever had to participate in, you ask?  I'm so glad you were wondering.  It would be this one, circa 1988.  The only problem with this picture is that my youngest brother, Charlie, wasn't around yet to be in it.  Please note the sweatshirts, turtlenecks, and ROARING fire directly behind me.  

Last weekend seemed the perfect time to take pictures.  Evelyn was in a great mood, my mom was requesting a picture of her in her Christmas onesie, and it was snowing so we couldn't really go anywhere.  This was going to be easy.  I practically take a picture of her everyday because she's so darn photogenic.  Let the photo shoot begin.

First I went for the religious tone and decided to set her up with the nativity set, which she loves.

That wasn't really going anywhere, so I decided to just go with the lovely snowy scene going on out the window.  

And while we're at it, Steve thought we should stick her hands outside in the snow so she can feel it for the first time!  Great idea!

I wasn't really digging any of those pictures, so I decided to give the popular baby-with-Christmas-lights a go.  

  

Well that wasn't working.  The lighting was off at first, so we decided to hold off until later in the afternoon.  At that point we couldn't use the flash, which caused blurry pictures.  What a mess.  Steve thought, hey, let's light a fire to add to the Christmas mood.    

  

When all was said and done, I had about 3 pictures that were in any way usable for a Christmas card.  So I logged onto my Shutterfly and started to play around with formats, phrasing, and the like.  Once I finally had something put together that I kind of liked, I started going through all of our lists of people we would want to send cards to and as the number started to increase, I started to realize how expensive it is to order these photo cards.  Then you throw in stamps and this turns into quite the expense.  For a card that I only kind of liked.  I said forget it and ditched the photo card.  Instead, I would like you all to consider this post The Lane Family Christmas card.  

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Steve, Betsy, and Evelyn