a boy at the beach

Here's Salem very much enjoying himself at the beach at Capitola yesterday, one day after he turned 4 months and also our 2nd wedding anniversary. We had a great little family get-away & I'll share more pics later, but just wanted to put this one up....we are so blessed!

The month of visitors

Well, the month of June is here in full swing! It will be a busy month of visiting friends and family. We already got to visit with some old friends last Saturday and had a fun afternoon hangin' in Sonoma, and my sister and her husband get in later today and I can't wait!!! They are expecting a baby in December, so it will be so fun for them to get to know Salem. And we're really excited that he'll have a little cousin so close in age!

Seems like just yesterday I was at their wedding, and saying goodbye before they left for Korea, and now they're almost home and have a little bun in the oven. Seems like just yesterday that Joe and I got married and it will be 2 years already on the 9th....wow! More to come later about all our visitors and some fun museum visits we made this week!

Long time, no blog

Well I totally love this whole motherhood experience, but this little guy keeps me really BUSY! I can remember my mom telling stories of how she used to say that when I was a baby, and this older mother from her church with 5 or 6 kids just kind of knowingly smiled, and was like "you think you're busy now!"

I feel like I'm finally resurfacing and starting not to feel quite so behind. I was talking about this with my friend, Stacy the other day and we were remarking on how it's weird that some days are too busy to squeeze in a walk! I wonder how I did everything before when I worked 40 hours a week?? Oh well, with Mother's Day recently I heard on the news that if a full-time mom was paid a salary for all her work it would be well over a 6 digit figure....

Anyway, I really liked the idea that Shannon posted as a challenge on her blog- a photo a week of me and my baby. I totally didn't take the challenge, because I think I'd be doing pretty good if I remembered to post 1 a month! But, I had already been thinking about wanting to get more pics of me and Salem together even before she posted the challenge, so I've been trying to take more. Here are some from the past few weeks...and a few cute ones with Daddy too!

He is always so happy in the mornings! This was the week after Easter

when I came down with a terrible stomach bug....

Here we are on a picnic after church in mid-April

Making dolmas (rolled grape leaves) last Friday!

Salem loves listening to me practice! Sometimes I can't tell if he's watching my fingers or intently staring at the scroll on my instrument, but he really seems to enjoy the music. He intermittently laughs and coos along!

My 2 favorite guys in the world!

Salem and daddy in their Sunday best.

Happy Friday and....

Happy First Day of Spring!

Some good reads...

So yesterday while I was holding Salem and trying to put him down for a nap I came across some interesting blogs, that I thought I'd share. Yesterday the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards' winners were announced and it's pretty cool- the best blogs and runner ups in a bunch of categories. And then of course if you go to some of these you could spend countless hours checking out other blogs in their blog lists...so let me know if you come across something amazing. I've only had time to check out a few of them, but here are a few interesting reads I found-

http://goodamericanwife.blogspot.com/ - check out the post from March 6th, and please tell me if I ever act like her "aquaintafriend"... very funny, but I can already see the dangers in comparing your kids with other people's kids :)

http://camelsandchocolate.com/ - a travel blog with great photographs and really good post about SF, if you need ideas for giving tours to out of town friends or fun things to do yourself!

http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/- some totally delicious looking goodies and I liked her posts about wine country (March 9 & 10)... we still haven't been to check out Napa and Sonoma, so now I can't wait to go!

Chai Spiced Pancakes... interesting and yummy!

See the resemblance?

Salem at our 20 week ultrasound....


Salem at 4 and 1/2 weeks....

Our son, Salem

Wow...the past 4 and 1/2 weeks have flown by and are somewhat of a blur, but it is amazing to say that- "our son"! Joe and I (while missing good nights of sleep) are so loving being parents and are sooo thankful to God for our beautiful, healthy, precious baby boy. And he is 100% BOY- you should hear the way he grunts and burps! Since I haven't blogged at all since Salem was born, I'll try to catch up here with a few pictures and thoughts...maybe in a few posts as I think of things!

Salem Joseph Evans
born 5:45 am, 2/8/09
8 lb 1 oz, 20.5''

While it seems hard to believe Salem is almost 5 weeks old, on the other hand when I think that just a month and a half ago I was still working full-time at my old job in Sausalito, that kind of seems like a life time ago- being a mother has become my new identity.

Well first a little about his name. Salem means "peace" and is from the same Hebrew root as "shalom". It is found in the Bible in Genesis and Hebrews- Melchizedek the King of Salem who Abraham meets with and is a type of Christ in the OT, a priest without beginning or end of days. When it says he was the king of Salem (peace) it is referring to a city- probably the name for Jerusalem (the city of peace) before it was called by that name. Any way we both really liked this name from the beginning and although we considered a lot of names, this was the one we always kept coming back to and finally decided on. Besides the personal meaning the name has for us which I'll share below, I think that peace is such a huge part of the meaning of the gospel- Rom. 5:1, Eph. 2:14-15& 17, Col. 1:20.The name Joseph (besides being daddy's namesake and great biblical characters) means "He shall add" and God has blessed us with (added) peace in so many ways throughout the last year leading up to Salem's birth. About this time last year we had a miscarriage, and although the pregnancy was a surprise to us, it was a very difficult time to walk through. God, however, was with us and brought healing, strengthened our faith, taught us a lot, and gave us the desire to start a family. And now, less than a year later we have a sweet 1- month old baby boy in our arms. I was blessed with a great pregnancy (kinda crazy, but sometimes I miss being pregnant!) and although the labor was not how we prayed it would be (short and easy) God showed his grace in other ways (great doctor and hospital staff, healthy baby, good recovery for me, etc.) in denying that request. I labored at the hospital for over 20 hours and pushed for 4 hours, then in the end had a C-section. Not what we had planned, but God gave us peace and we had complete confidence in my doctor's decision (he said using forceps to pull him out was an option, but advised against it) and skill. Although I was disappointed, I realized that God was in control and he knew (even before time) the exact moment and manner that Salem would enter this world. Praise God! We are in awe of how he works and his grace in our lives and can't wait to see the plans he has in store for our son and our family.

Well here are a few more pictures (from the first few weeks...I need to keep snapping them and upload some new ones soon- he's really growing fast- weighed in at 10 lb. 13 oz. at his 1-month appointment on Tuesday!)... more thoughts on mothering in the days to come!

He has long, skinny feet like his daddy!

BIG YAWN...
You can tell they're going to be best buddies already :)
Playing around...
"I love my sleep!"
Salem and Dr. Wilner
It's time to SLEEP, sweet pea!
"I sure can't wait to play some football!"
I love this one (thanks, Shannon)... our thoughtful little boy!