Family Life

Our every-day-life is pretty sweet.  While we follow a basic routine, spending time together is always what matters most.  I really try hard to enjoy all the little moments.

For instance, I find myself constantly looking behind me at Evie while I'm in the kitchen cooking and she's on the floor playing.  I often find myself thinking, "I'm really going to miss having this little person [once she grows bigger] at my heels while I make dinner."

Another example:  I love it when I'm in the front seat of the car and I can glance back and see Evie's little feet in her carseat.  I'm going to miss those little feet one day.

I know that we'll have lots of other fun moments as she grows and ages, but I don't want to look back and regret not taking the time to soak up every minute I can.

Here's dinner time at our house.  It's pretty typical, although it's not uncommon for Beau and I to battle it out for who gets to feed Evie.  Really . . . we don't "battle" it out, but if we could each have it our way, we wouldn't ever give the other person a chance.  Ha, ha!

We love being together as a family and

we love our every-day-life! 

Mommy's Helper

Evie is so busy now and she wants to be in everything.  It's seriously so fun because I love to watch how she learns.  She'll usually play happily on the floor while I do my hair and makeup, unless she is tired.  When she's tired she needs to be right by my side or in my arms.  So, this is one of my tricks to keep her contained and busy for a few minutes while I finish my makeup.  She can be right there with me and she loves to play with all my stuff.  She's my favorite little helper!

Going Mobile

Little Evie has been pretty good at getting where she wants to go by rolling and scooting.  She's now moving on to other methods.  She hasn't really mastered the crawl yet, but she's soooooo close.  She'll get up on all fours and rock.  She also has other tricks like getting up on one foot, and she'll get up on both feet while keeping her hands on the floor creating a v-shape . . . or in other words, doing her yoga in the downward dog pose.  Ha, ha!  She's my little flexible baby so yoga is right up her alley!

Here is a glimpse of her fun poses.  These were all taken during a typical play time.

Matching Pals

Evie got this adorable Cabbage Patch Doll for Christmas.  She has pretty much deemed it as one of her best friends.  One day she was struggling to take her nap, so I put the CPK in her crib with her and she was grateful for the company.  It didn't take long and she was fast asleep.

I love how these two match.  When Evie was wearing similar PJ's, I had to snap a picture of her with her doll because their PJ's are practically the same.  Beyond that, they both have blue eyes and two bottom teeth.  Evie loves her and I think it's ADORABLE!

Evie at 8 Months is Great, Great, Great!

I know I say this every time, but Evie is STILL the cutest ever and she continues to be so. much. fun!  Her personality continues to emerge and she is a delight to be around.  I want to focus this 8-month post more on her darling personality rather than on the tasks she's accomplishing (although I'll give a quick summary of those too . . . we don't want to forget ANYTHING).

It's kind of funny how several of her personality traits existed when she was a newborn, but it hard to decipher if that trait would stick or if it was just something I was imagining.  When babies are newborns sometimes it's hard to know if that's really their personality trait, or if the baby is just in a newborn coma or whatever.  That being said, one personality trait that Evie has had since she was newborn is patience.  I might even go as far as calling this a special virtue because I think we all wish we had more of it!  She'll always let me know when she needs/wants something, but if I'm right in the middle of something, she usually does a fantastic job of letting me finish before she gets super upset.  It's amazing!  When she was a newborn she would cry when she was hungry, but if I couldn't get to it right away, she didn't go into a complete crying attack.  (Although if I waited too long and took too much advantage of her patient ways, then we did find ourselves in the middle of a crying attack.  Lesson learned for all of us!)  I had friends comment on this all of the time.  She still carries the same demeanor as she gets a little older and wants/needs other things.

She's sensitive.  She seriously exhibits sensitivity towards others.  If she sees another child/baby crying, she gets concerned.  If she sees someone fall down, she gets concerned.  She has even put on a big, huge frown at times when she sees others suffering in some way or another.

She's friendly.  She'll usually throw a smile to just about anyone.  She especially loves little children and wants to be friends with all of them.  Now that she's more vocal, she'll even try to "talk" with them and it's so adorable!  She interacts fantastically with her little cousins, HaLee and Carter who are of similar age.

She's happy.  Man, is she happy!  She is the happiest baby I have ever known, and I'm not just saying that because she's mine!  She is full of smiles and laughter and she continues to brighten our lives every. single. day.  She pulls some of the most fun faces (I included one below) and she keeps us smiling at every moment.

She's eager to learn.  She seems so much more attentive and alert than other babies of her age.  She's constantly focusing on things, trying to mimic sounds/behaviors, and has a LOVE for books.  There are two things that will calm this girl down if she gets fussy.  1) A bath.  2) Reading Books.  Beau and I always say she's the smartest baby ever.  Of course we don't have hard proof of this, and I can admit to being a little biased here, but she definitely is smart!

She is SO sweet!  This has been a personality trait that has been apparent since her newborn stage.  Everyone would tell me she would grow out of the sweet and cuddly stage, but guess what!?  She hasn't, and I hope she NEVER does.  She is sweet and tender (which goes along with her sensitivity) and I think this is going to stick, folks!  She is affectionate and still loves to cuddle.  Some of my most cherished times are cuddling with her in the rocker and singing songs to her.  She is my most sweetest angel.

Of course she has several other traits (like we all do), but these seem to be the most prominent at the moment.  I know you're dying to hear what she's up to so . . . .

• She started eating fruits early in the month and now she's starting to eat those little puff-cereal snacks.  We've just barely started introducing her to other "whole" foods.  She's still a GREAT eater.
• She got her 2 front, bottom teeth.  She was a good little teether.  She was hardly fussy and never broke out in fever or runny nose (or other teething symptoms).  She just wanted to be held a little more during the 1-2 days that the teeth broke through (which I wasn't complaining about), and she didn't really want to eat with a spoon (because the spoon would sometimes hit the sore gums and that was no good).
• She can clap.  Yay!
• She can wave hello and goodbye.  This is still a little spontaneous, but she definitely knows what she's doing and will often times wave to herself in the mirror.  I love it!
• She can sit up by herself.  This JUST happened.  She's been able to sit by herself on a soft surface (bed or couch) for a couple of weeks, but she would continue to fall over when on the floor.  We finally mastered this within the last couple of days . . . which means crawling is right around the corner.
• Speaking of crawling, she has been able to scoot herself about anywhere she pleases.  She can now get up on all fours and it's only a matter of days (or hours) when she figures out how to actually crawl.  
• She started this fake little laugh.  It's a riot.  
• And, she has a fake cough too.  Silly girl!

As always, I'll leave you with a glimpse of this adorable and sweet baby girl.  This was taken today.  This is her adorable outfit she got for Christmas.  Have you ever seen a cuter baby in all your life (well, other than your very own . . . because I know we're all biased towards our own babies . . . as we should be!)!?!?!

2012 Holiday Fun

Well, the holidays came and went (in a blink of an eye!) and we can't adequately tell you how fun it was to share them with our little Evie.  Oh my!  She was so stinkin' fun and she made this holiday season so special!  Here's a brief summary of our going-ons (well, it's kind of brief considering I'm lumping all the events in one post).

Christmas Eve With Beau's Mom & Family
It's our tradition to spend every Christmas Eve down at Beau's mom's house.  The whole family comes and we eat delicious food (of course), sing Christmas carols (I played the piano and Jamie played the violin . . . sad we didn't get pics of this), we play Christmas songs with chimes (so fun!), read Christmas stories, open gifts, and play a family game called, "Tess."  The family declared this party a pajama party, so most of us were able to enjoy the night in complete comfort.  The night was a blast, and we loved having our "little candy cane" with us.  Our 98-year old grandma even came and she wore footie/onsie pajamas!  How fun is that!?  We all got completely spoiled . . . not only in gifts, but in good fun and loving company.  Sadly, we didn't get a chance to stay for the traditional "Tess" game this year because we needed to get Evie home to bed.  Here's a small sampling of photos from the night.

Christmas Morning at Home
Oh, what a special little morning!  Because Evie went to bed late, she slept in a little longer than her momma could hardly stand!  I was dying for her to wake up to see what Santa brought for all of us!  She woke up just before 9am and she was starving.  So, she ate her breakfast and then we made our way to the tree.  Sure enough, Santa came!  We must have been good this year (I'm sure Evie made up enough goodness for all three of us!).

As you can imagine, she enjoyed the paper, ribbons, and bows the most.  We didn't get her a lot of gifts because we knew she would be spoiled to the 9's by lots of others as well.  We got her some doggy hand puppets, some board books (she LOVES reading books), Disney movies, and other miscellaneous things that she needed.  She also helped me and Beau open our gifts and Beau put one of the packaging bows on her head and she left it there the entire time (she must be used to wearing headbands and such!).  Beau's big gift this year was a new Dewalt Drill with all the bits and screws.  Mine was a bike!  Whoohoo!  Beau also spoiled both me and Evie with jewelry from Tiffany's.  Fancy!  It took us nearly an hour to open the gifts (because we wanted to soak up every minute of the morning) and Evie did really well, but ran out of steam right at the end.  We hurried to take a picture with her and her stocking and that was pushing it.  :)

Christmas Day with My Family
My family does a traditional Christmas breakfast every year.  We have Monte Cristo Sandwiches (French Toast sandwiches filled with ham and Swiss cheese).  We look forward to it EVERY year.  So, as soon as we were done opening presents at home we hurried down for some breakfast.  It was SOOO tasty, as usual.  We were then spoiled again with gifts (Evie got a stick horse and a Cabbage Patch Baby), love, and good company.  Beau and I like to stay and hang around for a few hours and we usually play games.  Evie had SO much fun watching all of the kids and action (she loved watching everyone open presents) that she would NOT fall asleep for her morning nap.  I eventually (at like 12:30pm) snuck her into a quiet room and the instant she laid down she fell asleep.  Beau joined her for a Christmas nap.  I should have taken a picture, but didn't.

Christmas Night with Beau's Dad & Family

The festivities continued as we made our way to Beau's dad's house for a traditional Christmas dinner.  Well, it was mostly traditional with the ham and beans, but Dad totally forgot to make his peach Jell-O with bananas!  We were all completely shocked since that's his favorite and he makes it EVERY year!  Beyond that, everything went as usual.  Well, other than we had the two little girls to entertain us.  HaLee is currently in love with anything that has to do with Elmo.  Grandma and Grandpa gave her a musical Elmo and HaLee was all smiles!  When she tore open the paper and saw Elmo I think she grinned one of the biggest smiles I've ever seen on her.  Then, when Elmo started singing, dancing, and playing the drums our little HaLee danced right along with him.  Grandma was just as excited as HaLee was!  HaLee and Elmo were the highlight of the night.  Of course, the rest of us were spoiled too (Evie got some new Camo gear and a fun board book) and we played Bananagrams . . . a family favorite game.

  

New Year's Eve at Beau's Mom's House
We also had a fun New Year's Eve bash at Beau's Mom's House.  Everyone was there except for Bronco, Jody, and HaLee.

Happy New Year from the three of us!!

We ate good food and enjoyed everyone's company.

Evie LOVES her uncle Chance.  He has a way with her - not even kidding!

Jamie & Chance

We also played games.  We played the family "Tess" game since we didn't really get to play it in full force on Christmas Eve.  And, guess what!?  I won!  And, not only did I win 1 round, I actually won TWO rounds!  I've been in the family for 8 Christmas/New Year seasons and NEVER have won.  Seriously!  So, I must document this event because it is most likely going to be another 8 years before it happens again.

This was my winning team.  We are #1!!  Even Evie thinks so!

We also had a fun Fireworks show - you know, the kind that go high in the sky like you see at the county fair - thanks to Don.  He also made homemade ice cream that was killer!

Don, Amber, James

It was fun to be with everyone and, in case any of you are wondering, we didn't make it all the way until Midnight.  We ran out of steam by 11pm and still had to drive home.  But, that doesn't mean that we aren't excited to bring on 2013.  We're sure it will offer more adventure and as long as we have each other to share the journey with, we'll be happy!