I begin this blog sad, looking at what I have done and with a slight smile as well. My little Eva has some beautiful curls. Don't really know who she gets them from but they sure are cute. However, last night after hearing quite a bit that I needed to cut her hair in the back I took the scissors to her hair. She was so good in the shower, that not only did I trim the back, but as you can see the front too. If you really know me you know that I don't exactly have the knack for cutting hair, but I thought I was doing such a good job. I laughed and cried as Matthew disapproved of what I did with Eva's little hair. But I do have a consalation of knowing that this is just hair, and it will grow back. After I put a little water and a clip, it doesn't look too bad but I will have to deal with this mistake for a while. I have included a before and after. I guess she has more of the Powell forehead than I initially thought. Don't judge me everyone. Maybe Eva will forgive me when she is older.

It is true...my baby is know longer my baby. The reason she is in her undies is because she is offically potty trained! I am so proud of her. She just had her second birthday and has mananged to complete this phase of her life with flying colors. I thought for sure after the first day that we weren't going to be very successfully. She was tinkling in her undies at very unpredictable rates. Sometimes every 15 minutes, or sometimes every 7. I could never guess. In fact I sent Matthew to the store that night to buy me 20 pairs of undies and he said he felt like a pedifile(sp?) but that is beside the point, I thought that was funny. But by day two we were looking much better. Less accidents for sure. And now, at the end of the week, she is doing awesome. So, here I am proud of what I have accomplished in my few weeks that I have to be with her before I go back to work full time. I love being at home with Eva and spending every little moment with her. I treasure this time so much. She is growing faster than I ever imagined possible and every day I love her that much more. Being a mommy is definately a wonderful blessing. However, I do have to remind myself, like Matthew reminds me, to enjoy this little time that I have and forget about the cleaning. There is always time for cleaning but it seems like never enough time to enjoy these little ones!

We had the Powell Family Reunion this past weekend and had fun doing it. Powells: this blog update is really for you this time. I have teased you with some of the pictures that I took this past weekend. Out of all the family pictures we took, this first one was the only one that was decent. Sorry about that. I have included just some of my favorites, on here so don't be offended if your child is not included on my favorites. It doesn't mean they were my favorite but since I take pictures at such high mega pixels, I can't post more than four pictures at a time. You will just have to visit my picasa page found on my blog to check out the other pictures. I put them ALL on there. Let me know if you want something specific that you can't take offline or something edited and I can do that too. Thanks for letting me photograph your families. They are all adorable!

A week ago on Saturday we had Eva's Second Birthday party. Like usual we were joined by our favorite people (not all of our favorite people of course because many of you weren't there). It's always fun to have all her little friends over at once to play. I know what you are thinking, a 2 year old with friends, but it happens, I tell you. However, the fourth of July must have left her traumatized because she was afraid of lit candles on her froggie cupcakes. In fact, we had to blow out the candles in order for her to be content in front of the cupcake. I am starting to think I have a big wimp on my hands. The last couple pictures are the berries that we have picked( not all of them, believe me). Rasberries and blueberries are one of my favorite things about summer and every year now we go and pick some. This year Eva was especially cute but for two years running I fail to bring a camera. There is always next year I suppose. Next up? Peaches!!

Since the weather has been so great we have spent many days watching Eva bask in the sun in her pool. Here she is receiving a bucketful of freezing water, but I guess on a hot day anything feels good.

We spent the fourth like many from Hillsboro watching the parade. She's so cute in her glasses.

And lastly, we went to Salem in the afternoon to visit Natan (this is how Eva says it) and her baby Owen. They are so cute!

We made yet another trip to Urgent Care today. I think we must travel to the doctor for emergencies than most people. Here's what happened. This morning Eva was playing with my wedding bands. I didn't want her to lose them, so I had to pry them out of her hands. Well, then I felt bad because I know she just wanted to wear what mama wears, so I went into my jewelry box and found her an old ring that she could wear. Matthew warned me not to give it to her but I didn't listen. Can you guess where this story is going? The next thing I knew she is choking on something and it was the ring. Matthew pounded her on the back but nothing came out. She had managed to swallow it without any problems. However, this was a tramautizing experience for Matthew because I guess Nathan swallowed a penny? You will have to explain to me later, Nathan. Anyway, we took her to urgent care and this is the bummer with having Kaiser, we didn't get to keep the x-ray, with a nice round ring in her tummy. They told us it wasn't a big deal. She will pass it in her poop. But for now we think it is funny that when you ask her where the ring went, she just opens her mouth wide for you to see that it went in her mouth. Kids do the craziest things sometimes; especially mine! Still working in aperature mode. This is where I can't stand the lighting in my house!

My brother got a super duper nice camera and now is interested in taking pictures. So, lucky for me, I have someone who is now going to help me get better at something that I don't have the time to learn on my own. Together, he says, we are going to learn how to take better pictures. My first assignment was to put my camera in aperature mode and to learn to play with the f stop and the ISO. I have been doing it for awhile now, a couple weeks at least, and I don't know if I am getting better or not. It is really challenging to get the right lighting. Nonetheless here are some of my attempts. I love these pictures because it shows Eva with her babies. Especially, her Dion. Dion was a gift from her Pap her first Christmas and she loves him to death. Some kids have their blankies or a teddy, but mine has this funny lucking Asian cabbage patch doll with crazy hair. The reason why it sticks up is because everynight she has to stroke the hair until she falls asleep. Crazy I know but it works for her. Well, here you have my pictures, unedited. There is something about them that I like, even though the shadows are bad. And if you look closely you can see the beginnings of our fence in the background!