"C is for cookie, that's good enough for me!" --Cookie Monster--

So the other day I was wanting something yummy and decided to try something new. I've been trying not to eat too much chocolate so I don't upset the wee one so I found a new recipe for peanut butter cookies to try and they were SOOOO GOOD! I have to make a few at a time so I don't eat a ton at once. Next time I make them I am definitely going to try them with some chocolate chips, that can only improve them! I do have to say that I am gathering up quite a collection of delicious cookie recipes! (although that's probably not a good thing... :) Anyway, I just thought I would share the recipe with all of you in case you are looking for something new and delicious!

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients

* 1/2 cup shortening
* 1/2 cup margarine, softened
* 1 cup packed brown sugar
* 3/4 cup white sugar
* 1 to 1 1/2 cups peanut butter (depending on how peanut buttery you want it, I like more :)
* 2 eggs
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together shortening, margarine, brown sugar, white sugar, and peanut butter until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until well blended and the vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture. Mix in the oats until just combined. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until just light brown. Don't over-bake. Cool and store in an airtight container.

Rubber Ducky you're the one, you make bathtime lots of fun, rubber duckie I'm awfully fond of you!

Today my little one is three weeks old! I can't believe its only been three weeks...another one of those things that's flown by and yet feels like so long ago! A lot of things in life feel like that...before you know it she's gonna be in school and then off to college! So I'm trying to enjoy every moment before they fly by. :)

The many faces of Evelyn!







Anywho...not much has happened since Monday except Evelyn had her first "real" bath (her umbilical cord FINALLY fell of Monday). She hasn't liked her sponge baths so I figured she wasn't going to enjoy a real bath and I was right!




(being consoled by Daddy and the binky after such a "traumatic" event :)

And here's some random pics from other days this week...I know, I know, I take a lot of pics! You all knew this would happen... :) But when you have such an adorable baby and oodles of time at home with her, it just happens!

(Me trying to be artistic in photographing her...having a pro do it is EXPENSIVE!)



(Me and my girl!)

(Daddy trying to dress her...so cute)

"Every child born into the world is a new thought of God, an ever-fresh and radiant possibility." --Kate Douglas Wiggin--

Today Evelyn had her two week check up. She now weighs 8 lbs 7 oz and is 21 1/2 inches long (we've decided they messed up at delivery, which they said happens a lot. So she was probably around 21 in. when she was born instead of 19.5). They said she's in the 50th percentile for weight and 80th for height. She's pretty much perfect!

She's doing so great and is utterly adorable. She's still as smiley as ever and has even laughed a little in her sleep a couple times...tooooo cute! Her dark, dark eyes are starting to lighten up a bit and I can't wait to see what blue they end up being! I love my color of blue and I love Mark's too so hers outta be gorgeous :)

(Grammy bought her some headbands when she was here so people would know she's a girl :)



(It was pretty darn cold out today so I put this hat on her when we went to the doc...it's a little big but so cute!)

As for me and Mark, well I'm pretty much just wrapped up in watching the wee one and Mark has been super busy with school. Last week was midterms and his big FE Exam (which is an engineering exam), but this week is a bit more relaxed for him, thank goodness! He's been gone way too much. :) Now he can spend a bit more time with Evelyn and here's some pics to prove it! :)



(Her first bottle! Just testing the waters so Mark can hold her a bit more :)


(She makes the cutest noises! Babies are so fun.)

"Art is the color and texture of the imagination!"

Well first of all here's a little something Mark and I did the week before Evelyn was born. There's a place in Provo called Color Me Mine where you go and pick out a ceramic piece and then paint it and they fire it in their kiln. It's pretty cool and lots of fun although Mark is pretty meticulous and took a looong time finishing his. We've gone there once before and so I knew he would take awhile so I did something that would definitely take me time to finish. We both planned out our designs beforehand so we knew what we wanted to do cuz last time we didn't and it's just easier to know what you're doing.

Anyway, so here's some pics from our little outing (which took place on Friday- we were there for a few hours and didn't quite finish so we had to come back on Saturday to finish :).

(The first stroke...so intense! haha...)

(So meticulous...his last one he did here didn't get covered as well so he made sure to get the whole thing covered really well with paint this time.)

(He was ReAlLy ready to be done with it, he got tired of it taking so long :)

(My layout)

(All done painting!)

And the finished products!



And now here's some new pics of Evelyn from the past couple days at home. She's been doing pretty darn good, hasn't been too fussy (only when she's hungry and not getting anything fast enough). She's been sleeping pretty decent and is so fun to have around! She's so cute and so smiley and just so darn cute! Grammy had a lot of fun with her and was very sad to leave yesterday morning. I was so glad she came for the "big event" though and that she didn't have to wait long for Evelyn to arrive! We were all thinking I'd be a little later than one day off my due date but thank goodness we didn't. (If I didn't mention before, October 8th is my best friend Sarah's b-day so she was pretty excited I had Evelyn on that day).

Anyway, I loved having my Momma here, it's been so long since I've gotten to see her! We talk a lot on the phone (she talks A LOT on the phone btw, she's super close with all her girls!) but it's so much better to be with her in person. I can't wait to go home in December to see ALL the fam and have them meet little Evie!

(Such a big mouth! She likes to try to stuff her hands in there sometimes, just like her aunt Emily! :) :) :)

(I love the faces babies make!)

(Daddy's first diaper change and the second of his life! he'll get used to it...)

(Daddy/daughter time!)

"You can’t imagine your life with kids, until you have them, then you can’t imagine your life without them."

Eveyln is home! That's the best news for today. :) The doc had to see her this morning, then she had to have her hearing checked, and then we were free! No more NICU! We got home at noon and have had a pretty relaxed day. Mark had an appointment for his varicose vein (he went in two weeks ago to have it taken care of). Today was a follow up to make sure everything was taken care of, he had to have a couple veins fixed but all should be better now. He's so excited to finally have it gone! So today has been a pretty great day for all of us! Now it's time for bed for me, Evelyn will be up soon and she'll be hungry!

(So happy to be in her own clothes and to be on her way home!)

(First time in a car seat!)

(First car ride!)

(She's such a smiley little thing! Soooo cute!)

(Chillin' at home in the Boppy)

(Sponge bath with Grammy! She didn't really like this, but she was also hungry.)

“Hospital rooms seem to have vastly more ceiling than any rooms people live in.” --Bertha Damon--

Today was much the same as yesterday. I spent most of it going back and forth between the hospital so I could nurse Evelyn...super duper exciting stuff right there! The good thing is she's doing great and now has all IV's and tubes gone, yay! (that is, they were taken out after I took the below pics).

Here's a few pics of Evelyn being held by Grammy although you can't really see Grammy in the pics, she wasn't too happy about the ones I put up before on here and on Facebook...oops :) She's quite thrilled with Evelyn and thinks she's quite the character which she is! She's been awfully smiley and cute today and is so fun to watch! She makes the funniest faces. She seems to be a very curious little thing and loves to look around and loves to listen to people talk. She's adorable!

"Babies are always more trouble than you thought -- and more wonderful." --Charles Osgood--

Evelyn had a significantly better night and day today, now that she is getting regular feedings, she's much happier! :) She slept a LOT better today and even started nursing without any troubles! So that's how we spent most of our day, not much else to say except she's freaking adorable!



(she's so funny to watch fall asleep!)

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. --Leo J. Burke--

So Evelyn had sort of a rough day, mainly due to the fact that she would not sleep! The nurses from the night crew said she was awake most of the night and then when I got there in the morning she was awake and very very cranky! This was partly also because she was huuunnnngggrry! She was acting like she was starving, poor little thing. She was fighting off sleep so hard though, which my mom said I used to do when I was a baby...I have a feeling we're in for some looong sleepless nights soon (which I expected anyway) so we're definitely taking advantage of these nights she's gone!

The good part of the day was that we spent a lot of time bonding "skin to skin" which she seemed to enjoy, I kept her calm most of the time I was holding her and got her to sleep a little at least. She was so overtired though that it was even harder to for her to fall asleep. Tonight I went with Mark though and she slept nearly the entire time I held her so hopefully she does a bit better tonight! Mark got to hold her again and spent awhile humming to her which she really enjoyed...it was SOOOOOO cute! She was making some funny faces at him too and even smiled at him once...sweet little thing. :)

(He almost got her to sleep here)

(Funny face...)

(Finally calm!)

Having a baby is like falling in love again, both with your husband and your child. --Tina Brown--

So I went into the hospital this morning and this is what I saw...




...Evelyn completely off the CPAP and off her blood pressure medicine and doing fabulously great! They took her off at 4am and all her levels were staying stable and she was doing so great! I was pretty excited. I came back later on with my mom and she was wide awake so we did a lot of talking to her and she loooved it. She was so attentive and watched and followed us so well! She focuses really well and seems to like to look around a lot. She seems very observant.

(My mom took this pic...she's obsessed with how big Evelyn's feet are.

Also while we were there they took out the arterial line from her umbilical cord and said that after a couple of hours after taking that out we could hold her! SO Mark and I came back tonight and got to hold her! I was SOOOO Excited! I haven't gotten to hold her since her first hour of life :)


(Our first family pic!)

(Once again the Proud Papa! I love seeing him with her, it's so sweet!)

(she was awake the whole hour and a half that we held her and was just watching us and staring at us...and making funny faces like this one, she's SO funny to watch!)

(Too cute!)

(Look how well she's focusing in on us! We filmed a little bit of her and she was following the camera when Mark moved it.)

SO she is doing fantastically well...she's pretty much just chillin' there being monitored and getting antibiotics for her infection. Next step, learning how to eat! Fun fun....