Smart & Gifted?

So, I know I'm Evie's mom and I might be a little biased, but now I have pictures to prove my point.  My baby girl is smart and gifted for sure!

She's already crunching numbers, typing documents, and practicing the piano.  Case closed.  She is brilliant!

We've Got Eggs . . . And Chickens

One of the first things we wanted to add to our household after buying our new house was chickens!  And, we've done it, folks!  We have 6 chickens and between them all, they lay an average of 4 eggs a day.

Beau and I are both excited about the chickens, but Beau is REALLY excited about them.   When he gets home from work he'll grab Evie and they'll both go out and look for eggs.  Beau even lets Evie carry one into the house.  Farm fresh eggs are now a regular household item around here.

Beau's first collection.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We don't typically make a huge deal over St. Patrick's Day.  But, with a child in the house now, it can be a lot of fun!  My sister sent me and Evie a special little package to ensure that we wouldn't get pinched on the famous green day.

It was a SUPER cute idea so we used this as our "green" for the day.  Both Evie and I looked extra festive with our pretty fingernails and we got a bazillion compliments.  And, sure enough, we avoided any unnecessary pinches.  Thanks Traci!

St. Patty's Day was on Sunday this year and we had the opportunity to go to a farewell (a client of mine) and a homecoming.  My cousin Kevin just returned home from serving a mission in South Africa (cool, right!?), so we visited his ward to hear him speak and then had the chance to hang out with family for the afternoon.

My cousin's (Jamie's) girl, Eden loves to hold and feed Evie.
Here's Edie and Evie.  How cute!

My cousin Jamie is more like a sister to me.  We didn't really grow up together, but we clicked at a very young age, saw each other nearly every summer, and wrote letters back and forth our entire lives.  I love her dearly and am SO thrilled whenever she comes to visit.  We've had fun since she's been in town.

Jamie & Me

We hope you all had a fun St. Patrick's Day like we did!  Hopefully you wore green so you didn't get pinched!

Fun at the Living Planet Aquarium

Beau had put in a long week at work and when Friday came, he was able to hang with me and Evie for the afternoon.  We tried to think of something that Evie would love and, since she loves animals, we thought going to the Living Planet Aquarium was a great idea!

We started out by looking at a lot of fish.  As predicted, she found it very fascinating.  She kept doing her "oooooh" face while she said that too.  Super cute!

Daddy and his baby girl looking at the fish.

They  have more than just fish there!  There where snakes and several other reptiles (glad they were in cages behind glass!), spiders, frogs, and lots of sea creatures (like jelly fish, sea horses, sharks, turtles, sting rays, etc.).

They currently have two special exhibits.  One is otters, and the other is penguins.  By far, Evie's favorite was the Otter exhibit.  I'm sure it's because they moved so much and were so active.  They would swim, run down the waterfall, and move all around their little habitat.  They were fun to watch.

By the time we got to the Penguins, Evie was kind of done.  We had already been in there for over an hour and she was running out of steam (and dinner time was at hand).  So, we went quickly through that exhibit.

It was way fun showing Evie all the fun creatures.  I mostly love the fact that we were all together as a little family and had the chance to spend this extra time together.

I love my Evie Doll!

Evie at 10 Months

10 Months?  Seriously?  It's crazy how fast time goes with a little one around.  I'm sure you didn't doubt the fact that she is still a delight and keeping us smiling every day!  We love this little doll face.

She's become even busier in the last month.  It almost seems like she's doing all the same things she was doing a month ago, but with more accuracy and more agility.  She's a smart cookie and it doesn't take her long to figure stuff out.

One of her favorite play areas.  I designed it for her.
She loves pulling out those DVD's several times a day.

What she's doing now:

• She started eating baby foods with meats in them.  She loves them.  
• She is getting stronger and faster at pulling herself up on stuff.  She can even let go for a second and stand without falling.  Walking is coming soon.
• This improvement in mobility has allowed her to get into everything (as you can see by the picture above).  So fun!
• She can whistle.  Serious!  
• She caught her first, real cold.  We had only been in our house one week when it hit.  I think all the craziness in moving, the new germs of a different house, and the big change may have contributed to it.  It was NOT fun.  It was so hard/sad to watch her struggle through it.  We did all we could to get her better quickly and snuggled her lots!  It lasted about one week and then she was back to her normal, happy self.  Whew!
• Remember those 5 teeth she was getting at the first of this month (end of 9 months)?  Well, most of them have made their full appearance.  Although, one of them is breaking through right now and she's not loving it.  
• All this teething has led to some teeth grinding (bruxism).  While this is completely normal for babies (it helps alleviate some of the teething pain and it's part of how they explore their new teeth), it is hard for me to endure (although I do).  It's like nails on the chalkboard for me.  
• She continues to be more and more social.  She loves other little people and seriously squeals in delight when she sees them.  
• When there aren't other little people to play with, she plays with her babies.  That little Cabbage Patch Doll is still her favorite and best friend.  I'll go pick her up from her naps and she'll be talking and laughing with that little baby.  So cute!

We had the fun opportunity to babysit Chance & Jamie's puppy for a couple of days.  We thought Evie would absolutely LOVE that sweet, little thing.  Turns out, she loved the bigger dogs more because they moved around and played a little bit more.  But, she did dedicate some love and attention to the puppy and we snapped some cute pictures.  

Beau took Evie to his priesthood meeting at church yesterday (we usually trade off every-ther-Sunday).  He sat by a nice man and, of course, Evie was spreading the sunshine like she usually does.  She was flashing smiles and grins and throwing in infectious laughs.  That man turned to Beau and said, "She's going to change the world."  I don't know how serious he was, but I seriously  think she just might!  She's one special little girl and we've known that from before she was born (and that sense of how special she is continues to grow and grow).  There's no doubt she has a special purpose for being here.  In fact, I think she's already starting to "change the world" just by spreading sunshine and cheer wherever she goes!  This face is gonna make a difference.  

Pack 'em Up and Move 'em Out

As mentioned in previous posts, we bought a new house.  Moving day quickly approached and we moved like champs.

I had spent about 2 weeks packing the house up (it takes a while when I have a little 9-month-old helper).  I did most of the packing during Evie's nap times and occasionally she would offer a little bit of help (or fun) when she was awake!  My mom was also a huge help in this arena.  She came to the house and would help me pack or play with Evie.  Moms are so wonderful!

Beau took some time to load several boxes into the trailer before moving day.  He figured it would be easier and faster if he had a load ready to take to the new house right away.  He's smart like that!  Beau then organized some manly help to move our big items.

We weren't sure how far along we would get on the first day (we planned to take a Friday and Saturday to get us all moved), but we moved A LOT of stuff on Friday and we ended up sleeping at our new house that night.  Beau and I were both amazed.

We wrapped things up on Saturday.  We have such nice family members and friends who made things SO much easier.  We couldn't have made the progress we did without them.  Their muscles and cleaning help were blessings in so many ways!  Besides, hard work is ALWAYS more fun when it's done in the company of those you love.  So, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of you who were available and willing to help us.

We were TOTALLY worn out, we both had sore backs, and we were completely exhausted.  Moving is hard work!  While most of it went smoothly, the biggest hang up with this move has been the appliances.  Between the oven, microwave, washer, and refrigerator . . . we've had our challenges.  But, all seem to be working now and we hope they stay that way!

Look at me, mom!  I can help unpack too!
Oh, and I can stand up with just one hand.  Fancy! 

Would you like a tour of the new house?  Here's what we have so far.

The Front view of the house.  You can see the barn from the backyard
peaking out on the right-hand side of the photo.

That's the front door and the little seating area is located to the left of it.
This is where I put my piano (I'm THRILLED to have a piano now!), a
chair, and the bookcase.

And this is the other side of that room.  It's our little living/family area.

This is our dining room. 

This is the kitchen.

This is our office/exercise room. 

This is the bathroom.  I decided to go with a bold
color combination of orange and plum/purple.  I'm loving it.

The Master Bedroom

The Master Bathroom.

Evie's Room

We have a basement too.  It's about 1/3 finished with a family room, bedroom, and bathroom.  Nothing special though and it'll need to be re-done (at least new texture on the walls and paint) before we ever use it.  For now, it's just extra.

This is a HUGE bonus to the house and REALLY why we bought it.  The house sits on .87 of an acre.  It includes a custom-made barn with sliding stall doors and other cool features.  It's seriously a top-of-the-line barn for it's size and we are thrilled.  Beau absolutely LOVES it and has enjoyed going out there to feed and such.

View from the back door. 

We're happy to be here.  We've been here nearly three weeks now and we're starting to feel settled in.  Our old house is currently under contract and should close later this month. We feel blessed to have everything work out the way that it has.

Home Sweet Home

In the Saddle For the First Time

Well, Evie took her first ride with her daddy on Tiny, the Mule.  Besides looking absolutely adorable, she loved every minute of it.  We thought she would be full of "oooh's and aaaah's" but she acted like a complete natural and as if she's been on a horse/mule a hundred times.  

While riding around, she loved keeping track of Codee (our dog) and she also loved watching the birds fly overhead.  

And, most of all, she loved being on that mule with her daddy.  I seriously cannot tell you how much Evie loves her dad!  And, without any doubts in the world, her daddy loves her and this has gone down as one of the highlights of his life.  He's yearned to take his baby girl for a ride for YEARS and this dream of his came true.  He was on cloud 9 (well, maybe cloud 900).  

Evie Looks up at her Daddy!  I love this picture so much!
There is so much love demonstrated by both Evie and Beau.  

And, if you REALLY want to watch her first ride you can with this clip.  I apologize for my poor camera skills.  

It's kind of hard to hear, but towards the beginning Beau says, "she's a natural."  And, my personal favorite part is when she wraps back around and sees me holding the camera.  That grin and the excitement of her seeing me and knowing that I'm watching her is, well, priceless.  Oh, she melts our hearts every minute of every day!