"Dat!"

Tomorrow: FIRST day of school!!

Sounds odd to say that since it'll be September 30, but sometimes that's just how these things happen :)

The above is what I wish the first day would look like... but in reality, I'm much more like this:

It's okay. I am comfortable with myself and the chaos that follows me :)

What I am struggling with is leaving Clara ALL DAY LONG tomorrow! Dropping her off at 7:45 and not getting her until 3:30. The only time I've been away from her that long was when we went to the Aggie game, and she was with family. If you would please pray for my sweet baby that she also has a wonderful first day of school, and that my mind can focus on my classes even if my heart is missing my girl.

Aw, Mom

It's so sad when it's time to go inside. 

So droopy :)

Maverick is always willing to go where Mama and Sissy go though!

Back at it!

It's been an ... Interesting few weeks lately. I have lots of updates, but some of those are going to have to wait just a little longer.

For now, I go back to work on Monday! I'll be working MWF at Legacy, teaching English 9th Honors, English 10, English 11, and English 12. That's 4 preps, and quite a bit of grading, so I'm feeling a little intimidated. 

When I was first asked to consider the position, my thought was, "no way!" But after praying about it for several days, talking through the options with my parents, Bryan, MOPS table, and Bible Study, and of course, Becky (my supervisor), I ultimately decided that it was time. 

The middle & high schools are now on the new campus in portables, while construction continues on all of the buildings. The elementary and nursery are still at the old campus. 

When I arrived at the portable I shall be calling my own yesterday, it was bland!! I spruced up what I could, but I have big plans for this classroom :)

Turn in, pass out, handout table and teacher desk

just enough chairs for my largest class

semi-panic, semi-excitement :)

a look at the layout of the new campus (the portables will be permanent buildings eventually)

construction on the gym in progress

Yesterday after checking out my new classroom and getting acquainted with the campus, I made a splurge purchase. I have been teaching 3 years, and I should have invested in one of these dudes the first week! It's a rolling bag/cart thing. It can fit all 4 textbooks, 4 novels, my laptop, and papers to be graded. I'm so happy about it! 

I think one of the reasons my hips hurt so bad when I was pregnant with Clara is because I was always lugging around huge bags FULL of books on my shoulders. Not this year!! :)

:) makes me happy!

Once we got home, Clara was a huge help as I got organized, of course.

This makes a fun sound, Mom! crinkle, crinkle

Wait, they aren't for playing? Say, what?

Love this baby girl

Lounging around

It was just one of those days around here!

Newest favorite family photo :)

Baby Evans 2.0

CB will be a big sister late March!

And I am soo relieved to be in the 2nd trimester now!

Hey look! It's my foot!

catch up videos

It's been a crazy few days lately. Clara turned 15 months, we went to the A&M/Alabama game, and have been looking into a couple of changes that I will update you all on soon. 

Since I don't want to deprive of you Clara Craziness for too long though, I leave you with this video of Clara and Lulu at dinner. She's trying to imitate what we do when we plug the straw on one end to dunk water or whatever we're drinking into her mouth. Imitation is the name of the game!!

AND one last photo of Clara learning to "Jump" at bouncing bears! Toward the end of our time there she really was catching some air! such a cool milestone!

Happy Monday!

More helping!

She likes to throw away her own trash. And sometimes things that don't belong in the garbage :-/

She likes to put on her own shoes when we get ready to go. No help desired. Except she can't quite do it, so she has to have help, which results in this:

Loves to help mommy make dinner. 

And put her shoes away when mommy puts away the dishes:

How did I manage to do any of this before Clara?!/

"Helper"

Don't worry about the chores, Mom. I've got them taken care of. 

I don't wanna wake up yet!

Mommy, don't wake me up!!

Believe me, my love, I don't want to! :)

But it's time for school!

A friendly reminder: Please do not leave extra toys and blankets in the crib with an infant. The risk of suffocation and SIDS is high when you do so. 

We have made the choice to leave blankets and toys with CB because she's old enough to move when uncomfortable and she sleeps so much better with them. That didn't happen until a few months ago, however. Just be careful!

Happy Birthday, Paw!

Night night

Sometimes after Mommy reads 2 (or 10) bedtime stories, Clara likes to "read" a bedtime story to the puppies. 

Then we usually say, "it's night night time Clara" and (now) she usually waves and says, "nigh' nigh' - dada?" And walks to her room! (She likes being tucked in by Daddy better.)

It is seriously amazing. 

If she's not quite ready yet she'll shake her head "no" and get another book to read. In a few minutes we'll ask again and then she'll be ready. For now it's working really well for us. And we never go past 7:30 even if she does say no. 

Night, night everyone! 

Thank you God for Clara, Mommy, Daddy and the puppies. 

Thank you for the sunshine. 

Thank you for the rain. 

Thank you for music and books. 

Thank you for family, friends and love. 

Amen. 

Gymboree Gym Trial

For 3 weeks we did Mommy'and'Me Gym trials at the 3 different places offering those types of classes near us: The Little Gym, My Gym, and lastly this past week we tried Gymboree (not the clothing store).

I think this may be my favorite one of the 3! Unfortunately it's the furthest from us, and starts latest in the day, but even with those drawbacks I may choose it anyway.

This was by far Clara's favorite thing to do there!! It's essentially a see-saw. She climbed in and out of it on her own, and even rocked it by herself. I think I may need to get Dada to build her one :) She came back to it over and over and over between all the other activities.

Checking out the rest of the room:

Climbing, of course.

Rolling in the tunnel-ball thingy:

Is it a slide - or a secret hide-away?

Look - it's OUTSIDE, Mom!! Let's go there!

Up on top of the bridge-walkway thing. Little daredevil.

More tunnels!!

This picture cracks me up. She's got the lamb skin in her mouth that they use for making sliding more fun, but it looks like the cone in the background is on her head too :)

Bubbles, bubbles, BUBBLES!!

As you can see, Clara wasn't shy about chasing them!

Dancing with her new friends:

Yay! clapping along:

One new friend decided to try to take off Clara's nametag.

Now what, nice Gymboree lady? Where did the bubbles go?

Parachute time! Chase the big parachute bubbles

Again, not shy at all to play in the parachute:

just rolling along:

bye bye!