Daddy's Sugar Plum

Evelyn had SO much fun hanging out with her dad last week (he took the week off)! She just LOVES her daddy do much.. and he loves her. He has called her his "sugar plum" since she was born. She now says it, "daddy's sugar plum" in a very sweet voice. Here are some daddy/Evelyn moments from last week...

Helping Evelyn fill the pool (yes.. it was pool weather the beginning of last week...*sigh*!)

Daddy had just pointed out an airplane to Evelyn. (She LOVES airplanes!)

Time to work!! Evelyn LOVES going to "daddy's shop"!

Helping daddy pull off tape off the carpet (marking where lighting is going)

She's my climber!!!

And of course, they played a lot, too!!

Their relationship is so precious! We were a bit concerned about how she would do this week, particularly Monday when he went back to work. Thankfully, she did fine and got back into the swing of our usual routine. She sure is glad to see him when he comes home, tho!!

Looking forward to many more daddy/Evelyn moments!

Monday Monday

It's kind of a quiet and lonely Monday here. Both Evelyn and I are under the weather battling colds, and Doug is back to work after taking last week off. The time went by so quickly.. too quickly! We miss having him around already! We both are so thankful for him!! I will post more about our week later.. Evelyn will be up from her nap shortly and I want to at least post some pics from last week. These shots were taken on the Western Oregon Univ. campus, where we had lunch with Grand-dad last week (he works there). She was mostly looking at my mom-in-law's camera.. but these still turned out pretty good!





She is getting to be such a big girl. Doug and I can't believe how much she has changed over just the past month. She makes us laugh on a daily basis and melts our hearts with her "love you, mommy" and "love you, daddy". We think we will keep her!! :)

Speaking of... guess who is awake? Gotta run... I'm on!

Preying Mantis

So.. I'm not a bug person. I think they are interesting from afar, but that's about it. I think I played with those "potato bug" things as a kid, but I won't now. Ladybugs are cute, but I don't prefer to have one on me. Anyhoo...

This is a "Preying Mantis"

I have never seen one before. I googled and here is a bit of what I found.

"By any name, these fascinating insects are formidable predators. They have triangular heads poised on a long "neck," or elongated thorax. Mantids can turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings with two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them. (kinda cool, but a lot ewwwww!!)
Moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects are usually the unfortunate recipients of unwanted mantid attention. However, the insects will also eat others of their own kind. The most famous example of this is the notorious mating behavior of the adult female, who sometimes eats her mate just after—or even during—mating. (um... gross!!) Yet this behavior seems not to deter males from reproduction."

This is our beloved "firstborn" Sam
A psudo- "preying mantis".. he thinks he is all that.. and a bag of chips!
Again, I call him this, but I have never seen what a real "mantis" looks like.

UNTIL YESTERDAY......

Doug was excited... I guess they don't usually hang out it neighborhoods like ours! I, to be honest, thought I was cool, too (I am glad I googled about them after this occured.. it might not have been so cool!). I ran in and got my camera. Evelyn was excited about the "big bug", too!

Then Sam... my preying mantis, wanted to get a closer look. Below is a shot by shot view of what happened next! Click on the pics to enlarge.. it is actually quite interesting!

Hmmm... what is this? Very interesting....

Look at the PM.. his wings are getting into a defensive mode.
Wings are even bigger....

Sam getting a closer look...

Look at it go... Sam has no idea what is coming....

The PM got him right in the nose!

Sam was none to pleased about this and proceeded to knock the PM around a bit. Oh... at one point during this encounter, the PM hissed at Sam. No joke. Creepy. Eventually it just flew away.

My first encounter with a Preying Mantis. Interesting.

Anyway.... I just thought I would share our little bug adventure!