What's a blog without Halloween pictures? I know it's passed already but I just have to have you check out our little giraffe with her dad as a zookeeper following her around picking up the giraffe droppings. If you ask me, Matthew just wanted nice coveralls to work in, but he turned it into his "costume." Clever Matthew!

I wish I could say that life has been totally exciting around here but the truth is things have just been busy. My little Eva has turned into a T.V. junkie. All she wants to do now is watch Shrek and the Incredibles. The good thing is we watch them in Spanish but the bad thing is she doesn't get enough of them. I try to get her to play with her toys and sometimes she will play but most of the time she would rather watch her movies. I think I am going to have to start getting real mean with her and hide the movies. Any suggestions? Toddlers develop some strange obsessions! We have done some fun things. We haven't had too much rain lately so earlier in October we went to the zoo where she got stung by a bee (hence the picture of the bee at the bottom) although she is positive the tree got her. It happened while waiting in line to see the new baby elephant. Can you believe some people were waiting for over an hour to see that elephant? Well, after she met her encounter with the bee we got out of line. And this past weekend we went to the pumpkin patch, which is where those cute pictures from above were taken. Overall life seems to be going well for now so I will take it!

We have been trying to teach Eva the alphabet in Spanish.  She doesn't know it all the way but we are getting pretty close.

I could not contain myself and I have to upload this video.  I know it's not the greatest video and I am laughing hysterically in the background, but I can't believe how well this child moves her booty.  She must get that from her dad!

It's official, the school year has started and our little family is back to the routine of life. It was fun doing nothing while it lasted. On our final weekend of my freedom, we spent it at Cannon beach with some of the Powell clan. Like always, we have fun during the day but once "nigh, nigh" hits our child has some serious issues. But we made it. Sorry to everyone who was there for having to put up with my child and for my grumpy attitude (note, this only happens when Eva drives me bonkers). I have included some of my favorite pictures. There were more but since I take them with such high mega pixels, I can never get more than four on one blog. You can check the rest on our picasa page if you would like.

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!