Introducing Abigail Elisabeth "Abbie"

Abigail Elisabeth Holck "Abbie" was born on Saturday, May 23rd at 10:30pm.

The first time Evan met Abbie. He was so excited to see her. I am not sure if you can see the expression well on his face, but he was thrilled when she held his finger.

Grandaddy and Lela meet Abbie for the first time.

Getting ready to go home.

Evan picked out and gave Abbie this pink blanket for her birthday.

First family photo.

Arriving home.

Abbie gave Evan a drum and percussion set for his birthday.

Grandaddy taught him to play the harmonica...here he is actually playing both at the same time...quite well I might add.

Giving Abbie a kiss

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Blogger is doing something funny with my formatting...hope to fix that later...

We celebrated Jeff by going to a cajun restaurant to eat crawfish...well, he ate crawfish. Happy Birthday Jeff!! We love you!!

The Fire Truck comes to school

The Fire Station across the street from Evan's school came to visit and talk about Fire Safety. In true Evan fasion - he asked the Firemen if he could come to their house (he asks this of everyone!). Their response? "Can you cook?" He said yes. :)

Climbing a Tree on Mother's Day

This was from Mother's Day...after lunch we had Baskin Robbins and Evan learned to climb his first tree...it's small but it's a start.

AA Baseball Game

Today our church stopped and took the time to honor all of our amazing volunteers that make things happen. We took over 600 people to the AA baseball park to watch a game, have good food and great fellowship. Evan did awesome and had a lot of fun. At the end of the game the kids got to run the bases and he ran the whole way. I had a great close-up shot of him touching first base but just at the right moment, someone stepped in front of me - so frustrating! Anyway, he did great and loved every minute of it. Here are a few shots of our family from the day. Thanks to all the amazing people that make things happen.

He's rounded second and on his way to third

Missed Home Plate by a little, but great form!

Debut Performance

Yesterday was Evan's debut performance singing for an audience. It was also spontaneous so I sadly have no pictures. Evan is a true music lover and is especially a fan of our worship leader and band. Every Sunday Evan and I go listen to the worship music together after I pick him up from class because he just "has to" listen. He is so into the instruments and singing and watches everything intently.

Yesterday was the monthly staff lunch at church and families can attend so we went to eat with Jeff. Evan and Travis (our Minister of Worship) were hanging out and singing together and Travis decided to take him upfront and they sang "Mighty To Save" together for everyone. After a little bit everyone joined in but Evan was most likely the loudest, just belting it out. I have to admit that I was quite proud as I did not know how he would do with an audience - he loved it. He sings and drums all day long around our house, but that's just for us. Who knows what he will do with his life one day, but I don't want to forget yesterday. Listening to my little boy belting out a song about the power of God. I pray he knows that power someday in his heart and not just the words.

34 Weeks and counting!

Okay, yes, I know the camera is infront of my face. It was really the best way to take the picture and honestly, my face is not what family has asked for, it's baby girl that they are wanting to "see," so here you go. If we still had a scanner then I could post her 4D pictures they gave us at the doctor's office on Tuesday. When we told them it was Evan's first time to be at a sonogram they switched something and all of a sudden we were in 4D on her face. So they gave us 2 pictures of that before going forward with the normal sonogram. I'll see what I can do on that.

An Afternoon Made For a Child

First an update on Evan post his fall. I tried to get a good picture of his face but the lighting outside wasn't great. His bottom lip is basically healed, the top lip is no longer swollen but is still purple on the inside and his nose is much better. The swelling is way down (compare with the earlier post below) and the bridge of his nose is starting to turn more green than purple - yea, it's healing!

Evan found a slug on his baseball and became quite interested in this new creature. He studied it for a long time and watched it move and wiggle.

Cheering the slug onto the leaf so he could pick it back up. "Come on slug, you can do it, I know you can."

Success!!

Letting it crawl on his finger, he was so excited

Then onto bubbles, mostly it's the fashion I am posting. I am thinking this boy will wear footed pjs (cozys as he calls them) forever. He'd wear them all day if I let him, no matter the temperature. However, in order to go outside he still needed shoes...so here's his choice.

It had rained almost all day and there is a lower area at the top of our driveway - it made a perfect area to jump and play.

We've had some parenting challenges this week. Is it that we are 6 weeks from being 3? or 6 weeks from a new baby? or that he fell so hard on Tuesday? A combination of all I believe. I am so grateful for evenings like this one. I love times like this evening, just watching the wonder and joy of being young. We had so much fun exploring and playing and could leave the rest of the week behind. So grateful.

And the Face Takes the Fall...

Evan took a fall from a chair today with his face being the only thing that broke his fall, his hands did not get down in time because he was trying to keep from falling. His bottom lip has a small bump, his top lip is very swollen and purple inside and his nose is all swollen and at this point red. We'll see what color show up in the next few days. It's hard to tell in the pictures how swollen he is. He's doing really well with it all and even gave me a smile for a picture.

Swim Lessons

Evan has the opportunity to take swim lessons from an incredible swim school here, Dolfin Swim School. Ms. Linda and her staff do a great job teaching kids. As a former swimmer and coach - I am a huge fan. Evan ended up being the only one who came to class today so I got some good pictures with just him. He has such a great time - just don't ask him to jump in the pool unassisted. He will do anything else, but just not that - he is very adament about that.

Singing the beginning song.

Picking up the "big torpedo" (this week's toy) from the 3 yr old step.

Motorboat and rollover the length of the pool (with some assistance of course). He has improved so much this year it's amazing.

Kicking the dolfin kick. He has learned the flutter kick, backstroke kick, and is learning elementary backstroke and the whip kick (breaststroke).

Floating.