What We've Been Up To

Attending an outdoor country music festival with Jesse, Tia, and Jessie Marie. Jesse is a Marine and got us the tickets. Thank you Jesse for the tickets and for serving our country! We had a blast seeing Rascal Flatts and were sorry we missed Carrie Underwood due to the rain. We also enjoyed watching Jesse ride the mechanical bull until they forced him off!
Eating very messy pizza - she loves red sauce! And, mastering the sippy cup.

Playing with our new giraffe tunnel we got on clearance! Climbing on anything and everything!

Driving the van while we were stuck in a thunderstorm at the park. We went there to attend an outdoor concert, but it started storming and it was cancelled. We enjoyed our picnic dinner in the van instead!
Celebrating Auntie Hannah's golden 14th birthday.
Watching Auntie Trinity and Auntie Summer in "Oklahoma!"
And, Grandma Dawn who did a phenomenal job as "Gertie" - great annoying laugh, Mom!

Splishin' and splashin'.
Having a cute bum! And, plain old being cute!

Warning

Do not let your 10-month old daughter play with one of your favorite eye shadow compacts while you hold her and get ready because she might play her new favorite game called "I throw everything" with it and shatter it into a billion pieces rendering it pretty much useless. Run-on sentence? Yes. Sad for Mommy? Yes. Mad at little Evelyn? Of course not! She's too darn cute!

One Earring

All over my house you'll find one earring. Where is the other one? Usually in my right ear.

You see, Miss Evelyn is an earring grabber. I often hold her on my left hip, and thus I am often missing my left earring.When I am out and about, said left earring gets put into my right jeans pocket. At home, I tend to set in on a counter, a desktop or a coffee table.

People have commented on my nice "quick release" I call them, earrings. I have two pairs of hoops that have a hinged clasp that flips up to secure a traditional straight post. I have found both pairs to be great for my little earring grabber. The problem comes on the occasional day when I don't wear one of these pairs!

Evelyn Around the House

Banging with her new Ikea pots and pans.
Helping me unpack the suitcase!

Grooming her to help with dishes! ;-) She's a great helper!
Yep, she learned how to climb quickly after learning how to crawl!
And pull herself up on anything!
Posing so pretty!
She likes ice!!!

Evelyn is also a great eater these days - she begs for strawberries, watermelon, and of all things, black beans! She loves to "draw" - any pen or other long object she puts onto a surface and doodles. She is doing this right now at my feet with the towel bar that we took off for painting. You can also see her tendency for drawing in the YouTube clip below. She has always LOVED that toy. She used to just eat the pen, but about 1-2 weeks ago, realized she can produce a drawing. She takes after Daddy!

Sketchin' It Up!!!

Happy Independence Day!!!

We spent our 4th at an amusement park with my dad, step-mom, and sis Hannah. I LOVE rides and wanted to sure and do some before I am preggers again! We had a great time and Evelyn was a trooper! E hanging out with Grandpa Bart while we all went on a ride.
Jason and Hannah.
Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Bart.
E's first ride on the merry-go-round! Don't worry - we were on a stationary horse!
Fireworks at the park. E really could care less about them - she was more interested in the potato chunks I was feeding her while we watched!

27 and Holding

I turned 27 on June 29th. I used to start saying I was or almost was a year older in about November of each year. I always wanted to seem older and more mature. But, I have decided that 27 is good enough and has become a milestone of when I will stay the age that I am until the next June 29th!

Last year I made a fuss that I did not blow out any candles. So, this year, I blew them out 3 separate times! Including in my special birthday chocolate chip pancakes that Jason made me. I did not make him spell out my name in batter like my mom always did. But, it was sweet that he still made me feel like the birthday princess!

My mom and sibs came by last week to celebrate - chinese food and my favorite - Dairy Queen cake!

Congrats to the Graduate!

My sister Brittany (top left above) graduated from high school and had a wonderful party to celebrate. I caught a nasty cold the day before the party which was a bummer since I was in charge of making 20 pounds of pasta salad. Brittany os worth it though - she is a wonderful young woman and we are very proud of her! A small sampling of party shots: Evelyn crawling on Auntie Moriah's bed.
Auntie Moriah (Auntie Ya-Ya I call her!)
Grandma Dawn (who was so busy with the food prep and entertaining that I had to force her to hold E and take their pic before we left!)
The sisters! Brit is the tallest (only by a bit over me - it looks like more since I was crouching...or at least that's what I tell myself!) I didn't get a pic of Brit alone...whoops!
E checking out her 3rd cousin Josh!

Frame by Frame Action of the Cousins

Movin' On Up

I wish I had pictures of our moving truck! My sister-in-law does - so I need to get some copies. As I mentioned before, the truck was quite the sight! Our camera was buried somewhere for most of the moving chaos, but here are a few shots!
Yeah, I look a little haggard here...I think this was day 2 of unpacking. We were all tired as you can see.
Jason's creativity while marking boxes. You see, I like every box labeled with contents. I guess he was tired of describing the many pots we own.
Evelyn was such a great helper!
Her reason to learn how to crawl on moving day - explore the contraband that was sprawled all over!!!!

Win Free Cloth Diapers!

Enter to win a free set of cloth diapers on this blog at Nature's Child! If you don't want them, enter and you can give them to me!!!!

Tree Limbs Crashing Down

Quick pre-moving story. Five days before closing, a wind storm came through our old 'hood and caused this tree limb to fall on our garage roof. Not good. Long story short, we took care of it and were REALLY glad to just get out of there before the whole house fell down!!!! :-
)