A Happy Mother's Day

I love being a mommy.  I told Beau that this is my most favorite "job" I've ever had.

The day started out with Beau making me breakfast.  He let me choose the menu and I did a darn good job choosing and he did a darn good job cooking (fresh omelet with ebelskivers).  

We went to church and then Evie and Beau gave me a beautiful card and a much-wanted gift (a Bosch Blender plus an Amazon Gift Card).

We then had the chance to go visit and love on our own moms.  We visited Beau's mom who we adore and admire so much.

We also got the chance to visit my mom.  I gotta say, I've always been a weee-bit attached to my mom. While I'm a very independent person, I have always leaned on my mom when I needed someone (other than Beau).  I love her.  I just do!

I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day.  I know that it can be a hard day for some (trust me . . . I went through SEVERAL years of yearning to be a mother myself), but moms truly offer and teach us what true love is.  No matter who we are and what circumstances we come from, there can always be a reason to rejoice and honor women/motherhood.

I love this quote by President Gordon B. Hinkley.

"We must never lose sight of the strength of the women.  ... It is mothers who most directly affect the lives of their children.  ... It is mothers who nurture them and bring them up in the ways of the Lord.  Their influence is paramount. ...

"... They are the creators of life.  They are the nurturers of children.  They are the teachers of young women.  They are our indispensable companions.  They are our co-workers in building the kingdom of God.  How great is their role, how marvelous their contribution."

A One-Derful and Berry Sweet Birthday Party

Evie's first birthday party was quite the success.  I've been planning her party for about a month . . . just doing a little here and a little there.  This helped to make it fun, cute and memorable without any major stress.  (P.S.  Cute Jamie, the most talented graphic designer I know, covered the graphics for the party. She designed the cute strawberry logo above and also did the invitations.  She's pretty amazing and I highly recommend her for any of your graphic needs.  You can click on her name to see more of her awesome work.)

Because Evie loves strawberries, they became the theme and inspiration of the party.  I decorated in various shades of pinks and lime greens and was sure to have several pictures of Evie out on display.  

The refreshment table consisted mainly of a build-your-own Strawberry Shortcake bar.  I also added some cake pops and cupcakes to the mix, but the shortcake was definitely the sweet treat of choice.

Of course, to NO surprise, Evie was REALLY the sweet treat of choice.  She loved having so many of her loved ones around to play with, loved eating as many strawberries as she wanted, and she LOVED her cake (if you want to know what I made for her birthday cake you can find my recipe here).  She really doesn't love her hands and feet to be dirty, so she opted to put her face right down in her cake to take bites instead of doing so with her fingers.  It was SO much fun to watch.  She's a riot.  Plus, this allowed her to take a birthday bath right in the middle of the day and she couldn't have been more pleased with that.   

We were grateful that so many of our family members came to celebrate with her.  The way she is loved by so many cannot even be put into words.

Besides the fact that everyone came to celebrate Evie's birthday, they also left her such kind words that I will save for her and I hope she cherishes them forever.

Along with sweet words, Evie was also showered with lots of gifts.  Everyone was so ultra generous!

We ended the party with horsey (or mule) rides!  There's a picture of Evie up above on her horsey ride, but here are some of the other kids.  

Kaden

HaLee 

Katie Bug

Ethan

To no surprise, Beau and I relished the day with our precious Evie Doll.  We soaked up every minute and it was fun to reflect her growth over the past year.  We are so happy to have this sweet girl in our family.  

Our hearts are full and our happiness is overflowing.  We are so grateful for our baby girl and we are also SO thankful to all of those who help shower her with love.  It brings a lot of joy to our hearts to see our Evie loved by so many.  

Happy 1st Birthday to our "Berry" sweet Evie!

Evie at 12 Months . . . Is that One Year?

My, oh my!  One whole year.  This little doll face is certainly the happiest and sweetest baby we have EVER known.  Nearly every time we look at her we just say, "she's so cute."  She certainly has us mesmerized and she continues to capture our hearts over-and-over-and-over again!  She is SO MUCH fun.

What is Evie doing now?

• She's saying more words.  She tries to mimic what we say.  It's certainly not clear, but we can tell she's trying to make the words out.  She can say horsey, ruff-ruff, and much more.  And, she can still say "baby" like a champ.
• She loves carrying stuff in her mouth.  It makes us laugh every time she does it!  She's figured this is quite convenient as she can still crawl to her destination without having to put down toys or objects.  Smarty pants!
• She's getting a lot easier to dress because she knows how to put her arms through the right holes and her legs in her pants.  She's been pretty good at it before now, but she's really mastering it these days.
• She TOTALLY knows what we're saying and/or what we're telling her to do.  She's actually following instructions when we give them to her (like, "Don't eat that piece of paper, little Evie.").  It's amazing to me how fast these little babies learn.    
• She hardly ever grinds her teeth now.  I am doing a fist pump and cheering, "hooray!"  Ha, ha!
• She figured out how to run her ball popper on her own.  We don't have to start it for her, she's such a big girl and can do it herself now.  Although, we still find random things in the ball popper like pens, other toys (mostly her plastic cupcake), and a golf ball.  It makes sense.  If she can put the balls in that awesome contraption and the balls come out, why can't she put other things in there too?
• She can walk.  Well, almost.  She's taken 1-2 steps at a time and then crashes.  Her balance continues to get better every day.  She certainly LOVES to walk everywhere while holding our hands or clasping one of our fingers.  
• She's moved on to eating mostly table foods.  Every once in a while we'll give her baby food, but usually just out of convenience.  
• She is still a little social bug.  She gets so excited to be around others, particularly children.

So happy to have this Evie Doll in our family!

Happy Birth Mother's Day

Some of you may know, some of you may not, but either way . . . today is Birth Mother's Day.  It is always the Saturday before Mother's Day and it's meant to honor and respect all those women who had the courage to make a decision that was extremely difficult, but ultimately right for their babies, and place them for adoption.

Words cannot adequately describe the amount of love that fills my heart when I think of Evie's birth mother.  Not only did she choose life for Evie, but she chose to give her a better life than she could give her at the time when she was born.  That is true, true love!  She fought for what was best for Evie when she had her, and so Beau and I will fight for what is best for Evie every day for the rest of her life.  

We know that God's hand was HUGE throughout the journey of Evie's birth mom, Evie's placement in our home, and the growth of our family.  We know, with all our hearts, that Evie made it to the right home.  She could not have made it to our home without the courage, faith, and strength of an incredible birth mom.  She holds a special place in our hearts . . . forever and always!  Happy Birth Mother's day to our most favorite birth mom on the planet!  And, to Evie's birth mom as well as all other birth moms . . . we honor you for the sacrifice, the loss, the hard choices, and for the hope that you have for your children! It is impossible to to even imagine being in the position of a birth mother, but the level of respect we hold for this noble calling is HIGH.  We pray that God gives you all the extended grace and peace you crave.

St. George Fun (and Work)

Beau had some work business to do down in St. George.  We knew he would be gone for a couple of days and knew we would miss him while he was gone.  So, we checked with his schedule and since it wasn't SUPER busy, we figured we would tag along.  We were grateful for the little get-away.

We were fortunate enough to have dinner with Eve's birth family while we were there.  We were grateful that they took the time to meet up with us.  I totally forgot to snap a picture at dinner, but we had the chance to hook up for a few minutes the following day too and I got a beautiful picture of Evie with her birth mom and birth grandma.  I sure LOVE these two women.

While Beau was doing this . . .

. . . Evie and I took time to play.  We did a little shopping and we also played hard at the hotel.

We even had the chance to visit with my beautiful Aunt Jodie and my fun Uncle Kelly.  (Totally forgot to snap a picture while I was at their house, but found this lovely picture of the two of them.)  Evie loved being in their home and absolutely LOVED their dog, Buddy.  I thoroughly enjoyed visiting for hours and wish I lived closer to this wonderful lady.

I was sure to fit in a visit to my favorite breakfast joint, the Bear Paw Cafe.  Beau was quick to arrange his schedule so he could go there with me and Evie too.  I had my favorite dish, Real Swiss Muesli.  Yummmmmy!

We hung out for a little bit with Beau at his conference and then we headed home.  Evie needed a break at about the halfway mark, so we found a little spot where she could stretch and play.

We had a great time and enjoyed this fun, little time away from home.  It was even better that the weather was absolutely perfect!

MORE Tulips

Thanks to one of Beau's work friends, we were gifted some free tickets to the Tulip festival.  We invited Beau's family to walk through the gardens with us and we had a lovely time.  Evie was happy to be back there (she just loves it outside) and we loved having this extra time with the fam.

After riding in the stroller for a while, Evie wanted to get out and explore.  She LOVED "walking" all over the place.  She still needs our help to walk and, because she wanted to walk so much, Beau and I took turns walking her (our backs needed the break).  

We got lucky enough to see some baby geese while we were there.  

And, it was super fun to watch Evie and her cousin, HaLee, play together.  

Happy spring to all of you!

Livin' On Tulsa Time

Beau has been dying to go see Don Williams in concert.  I can honestly say that, of all the gifts I've given Beau, he has used his Don Williams CD the very most.  Don Williams travels with Beau in his truck wherever Beau goes . . . up the canyon, hunting, on scout trips, the grocery store.  You name it, and as long as Beau is in his truck, so is Don.

Don is getting old (we looked up his age and he's 70-something) so it's hard to say no to a Don Williams concert these days because who knows how much longer he'll continue to tour.  Beau and I planned our date night and we invited Chance and Jamie to go with us.  We had sushi for dinner and then headed to the concert.  All four of us can admit that it was a very good concert.  Don Williams has such a smooth, rich voice and he honestly sounded better live.  (For those of you who do not know who Don WIlliams is, you are NOT alone.  He's an old-time country singer from back in the same era as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, and the likes.)

Chance and Beau.
Chance is a good husband as you can see he's holding
his darling wife's purse.  Good man!
(I'm sure Beau would have done the same had I asked.)

Chance & Jamie

Me and Beau
I sure love spending one-on-one time with this handsome man.

Mr. Don Williams himself. 

Good news is that all of us had our favorite songs that we had hoped he would sing (well, Jamie didn't really know very many of his songs . . . so she didn't have one), and he sung them all.  Mine was, "Livin' on Tulsa Time."  Needless to say, we were very pleased when we left the concert.