Father's Day

Even though John is the father to 3 adult children and grandfather to 3 little girls, admittedly this Father's Day is different, special. We have our own little girl. After being a family of 2 for the last 7 1/2 years, we are now a family of 3. I know how John is about receiving gifts from his children and I wanted to make sure that this first Father's Day with Eva was very special and memorable for him. About 2 weeks ago, I had some portraits done of Eva. They came out amazing and I purchased some frames to put them in.

As usual, Sunday is a long work day for John and Father's Day was no exception. He was up and out the door while Eva and I were still asleep and I knew he wouldn't be home until after she had gone to bed for the night. I already had an idea of what I wanted to do for John that would involve Eva's participation. So after breakfast, we got to work. Here is the artist at work:

We made 3 separate art projects.

Her cute little hands.

Fingerpainting 

Brush painting

They took the majority of the day to dry and this is what it looked like when I finished putting it all together:

After Eva's nap and an early dinner, we packed some dinner and Eva's gift for John and went to surprise him at his special duty job. Boy, was he surprised!! He was so excited to see his baby girl come walking in carrying his gift and handing it to him. That was it for him, just seeing her toddle over to him made his day...he didn't even have to open his gift at that point! But he did....

He was so happy and so uplifted that he said he could actually BLOG!! He also got a special visit from his oldest son which really put him over the top. Later that night, when he got home, I gave him the gifts from me.

As you can see he was so totally excited & loved his gifts. Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband. Love you Baby 

Park of Roses - Part 2

The very next day we went back to the Park of Roses to see the roses that we didn't get a chance to see the day before. There are so many different colors of roses and they're all beautiful. I wish there was a way to capture the aroma in the air. It was heavenly.

I just loved looking at this tree.....enormous!!

I think Eva was secretly wishing that she could jump into the fountain 

I asked Eva if she wanted to sniff it and then showed her how to do it. She decided that she would rather taste it...Haha...and quickly realized that it wasn't for consumption 

I just love these two something fierce!

And we wrapped up our afternoon with snuggles, love and some kisses!

And this was just our afternoon....that evening we went to the zoo and checked out the turtles, the animals from Africa and the penguins!! What a blessing to be able to spend the WHOLE day with my family 

Park of Roses

A couple of weeks ago we took Eva to the Park of Roses.

It is absolutely gorgeous. All the years I've been in Ohio and I've only been to this park a couple of times.....and for sure I had never seen the roses in bloom. We got there in the afternoon. Absolutely beautiful. Eva loves touching flowers, plants, greenery.

What's a day in the park without a few kisses?

Halfway into this park was a huge beautiful tree that looked hollow. The hollow hole was just big enough for Eva to fit inside -- that is if she would stand still, which we knew she wouldn't. So we settled for these cute pics!

I have no idea what kind of flowers these are but they caught my eye from several feet away. I LOVE the colors. I'd like to have some in our landscape at home someday.

We got caught in a light sprinkle of rain at the beginning of our start in the park. It passed quickly and we kept on going deeper into the park. We were about halfway into the park when the rumbling of thunder started. It was very loud and there were a couple of flashes of lightning. The thunder startled Eva just a bit and so we decided to make our way back to the car. As it turned out, we miscalculated when the rain would come because.....

We got caught in it! We had to make a run for this gazebo and wait out the storm. At one point it even started hailing. WOW! We were there for about 30 minutes before the storm got back down to a light sprinkle again. Then we made a run/jog for it back to the car.

All nice and warm and cozy in the car, it didn't take long for Eva to settle in....and fall asleep!

We had a great time!

Back to the Zoo

Just a week after our first visit, we went back to the Zoo, this time, to check out some flamingos, reptiles, and kangaroos.

Flamingos are very verbal and communicate a lot with each other. They were very noisy and Eva loved every second of it! After the flamingos, we went to see the reptiles..snakes, frogs, lizards, iguanas, turtles galore. Eva and I actually petted a VERY SMALL snake. It was surprisingly soft. I wish we had a picture of it! Next time.

After looking at the reptiles, we made our way over to see the kangaroos. Along the way though we decided to take a little ride.

At first I was more excited than Eva. A part of me thought that even though she LOVES movement, that she might be freaked out a little on the carousel or that she might not want to sit on the horse and have a fit because I couldn't hold her in my arms. But she did her I-see-an-animal-happy-excited-squeal as soon as we made our way onto the ride. As soon as the carousel started moving, Eva starting smiling and laughing and jumping up and down. John took tons of pictures but these were the only ones that came out....of course 'cause our camera sucks at taking pics of movement shots!

After the carousel ride, we made our way to our final stop...Australia, to check out the kangaroos.

After the zoo, we went and had an early dinner. What a great day. It is so awesome to see Eva excited and learning and happy. To hear her laugh and squeal at seeing all the animals just melts my heart!

Going to the Zoo!

We recently purchased a family membership to our zoo - The Columbus Zoo. It was one of the things that John said he wanted for Father's Day. I decided to surprise him by getting it WAY before Father's Day (the week before Memorial Day). Since we've gotten it, we've been able to visit the zoo every week since then.


This week we decided to visit North America - we saw alligators, crocodiles, black bears, brown bears. We saw animals that I've only seen on TV before. Some of those animals were truly awesome to see up close...so much so that I forgot to take pictures! I think I enjoyed it more than Eva.

It wasn't until we got to the aviary section that I remembered to take some snaps. We were supposed to be quiet so as not to frazzle the birds. Eva had a different agenda.


Eva loves touching plants and greenery:

And then just outside the aviary on the opposite end we saw these incredible creatures:

I don't know how many of you have actually seen a bald eagle this close up before. There were 2 of them and they were only about 50 feet away. Their nest was massive. I found myself holding my breath as I was looking at them, watching them. I tried studying every part of them that I could while they allowed us to see them. All I kept thinking of was "This is the bird that God talks about in the Bible. We are to soar like eagles." What a majestic bird!!

Shortly after, we headed for the exit. There is music piped all throughout the zoo on speakers. Eva decided she wanted to dance her way to the parking lot. Great 1st trip to the zoo!

Afternoon at the Park

Our weather here in Ohio just broke for the better a couple of weeks ago. I have been so excited to see the sun out, hear the birds singing and the breeze whistling through the trees. We have a park that is just a hop, skip, and a jump from our front door and I mean to take advantage of it!! Here are some pics of Eva, finally able to wear her summer clothes, at the park.

16 months old & 3 months home!!

Today our little girl turned 16 months old.
And she has officially been home with us now for 3 months.

The time has gone by so quickly and yet I can remember when we first came home with our little Eva. She was sleeping in our room in her crib, waking up every 3-4 hours wanting a bottle. She wasn't even tall enough to see what was on our night stands or end tables. She walked gingerly and could only take a few steps before she fell on her bottom. And she only had 4 teeth, 2 on the top and 2 on the bottom. There was also lots and lots of babbling going on.

Fast forward 3 months: Eva is now in her own room, sleeping wonderfully through the night and has been doing so for 11 weeks. She now sleeps 10-12 hours a night. She's tall enough now to just be able to reach whatever is on our night stand or end tables so we are having to move some things to higher ground! Eva now motors around the house at a fast pace, but is not quite running yet. I know that day is coming soon though. We have added 2 more teeth (on the top) and I think she's cutting 2 more teeth but I can't be for sure. And while there is still a lot of babbling, she is definitely throwing some real words into the mix.

Of course, everything for the most part is still "da-da" but here's her vocabulary so far:
"bubba" = bubbles
"dawh" = dog
"ba-ba" = bottle
"hey-yo" = hello
"tee" = teeth
"noo" = nose"
"beh" = belly
"bay-bay" = baby

She waves hello and goodbye, blows kisses, gives kisses and squeezes (hugs), complete with a little grunt as she's hugging. There are so many words and phrases that she understands and responds to, it's so amazing! I feel so blessed to be able to witness all of this!

We've also had a sort of graduation of our own. Eva's has graduated from this:

to this:

She loves her big girl car seat and even more she loves the fact that she can actually see where Mama and Daddy are driving.

It's so awesome to see and experience how much she's grown and progressed since she's been home with us. The eating experience is still wonderful. We feel so blessed that she's not a picky eater because, as most of you know, we love to eat and love to try new food. Every day with Eva is such a blessing. Of course there are those days, moments when I want to have a meltdown or get tired of saying the same thing for the 50th time, but those times are by far outweighed by the joy I have when I see Eva smile and hear her laugh, that deep belly laugh. All I can do is thank and praise God for all that He's done.