LOTS of Valentine Love

Our little family celebrates the Valentine holiday on both the 13th and the 14th!  Now, that's a lot of love.  :)

Beau and I went on our first date on February 13th.  So, instead of going out and "officially" celebrating on Valentine's Day, we celebrate Valentine's Day on the 13th . . . in honor of the day we first met.

I surprised Beau with a "Love Jar" that was filled with 50 paper hearts.  Each heart had something I loved about him as well as a favorite memory of mine over the past 10 years.  Beau surprised me with a beautiful and vibrant bouquet of flowers, a sweet love note, a delicious cupcake, and an overnight stay at the Blue Boar Inn in Midway.

We still don't love leaving our little Evie girl for very long, so we decided to go out to dinner . . . just the two of us, and then pick up our little love bug and head up to Midway for some hotel fun.

Here's to 10 years of dating.  Our first date was 10 years ago.
Still today, I love dating my handsome Beau.

As soon as we got to the Blue Boar, Evie was so excited.  She was given a cookie upon entering, and then she went right for the bed as soon as we got in our room.  That girl could run, jump, and fall in the pillows for hours!

We stayed up and played, laughed, tickled, and snuggled until 10:30ish when I found myself waking up to the three of us who had all fallen asleep together on the bed.  I gave my little Evie a kiss and tucked her into her GoCrib, and then I snuggled right back into bed with Beau.  We all slept soundly and then awoke for a yummy Blue Boar Breakfast.

After breakfast it was time to take Evie home and spoil her rotten.  Ha, ha!  How can we not when she's so stinkin' cute?!

We gave her two new Dr. Seuss books (she LOVES books), a stuffed animal that goes with one of the books, and a balloon (she LOVES balloons too).  We had to get to reading one of those books right away.

She then started getting spoiled by others!  The Valentine's Man made it to our door.  (He's always been good to my family since I was a child and he bring goodies filled with love to the door.  They mysterious thing is that he rings the doorbell and vanishes.)  Evie got a cute Valentine's book and a darling jar filled with candy . . . otherwise known as num-nums.  Beau and I got a bag full of Dove Chocolates.  Yum!

Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Kay stopped by to spread some love.  Crazy thing is that they happened to stop by RIGHT after the Valentine's Man.  Hmmmmmmm…….

A few hours later we got a visit from Grandpa George.  He brought Evie a cute little Minnie Mouse Valentine filled with more num-nums.

After that it was time to go night-night.

The crazy thing is that the Valentine Love didn't end there!  Two days later, after checking our mailbox, we found more love!

Auntie Amber mailed us all some Love goodies!  Evie got spoiled with lots of Hello Kitty stuff.  Beau and I got a Kneaders Gift Card for all of our "Kneads."  It was so creative and we're so thankful!

There was also a fun card in the mail that day from Evie's birth family!  Yay!  It was filled with a sweet love note.  We love and appreciate them so much!

Aunt Traci (CiCi), Uncle Brodie, Carter and Mollie sent Evie a fun Valentine too!  They sent Evie some bubbles (Valentine, you "blow" me away).  We took those outside and had a lot of fun.

Nanna and Papa had also called to wish us all a happy Valentine's Day and said they had a special Valentine for Evie too.  We'll collect it from them the next time we see them.

So, needless to say, we definitely felt the LOVE this Valentine's Day holiday!  I'm so grateful to be loved by so many, and even MORE grateful that my little Evie Doll is loved and adored by so many too.  It sure makes life much more meaningful.

Pretty Little Cheetos Face

This girl might take after her mom a little.  I love Cheetos . . .  just as much as Evie's face and hands shows that she loves Cheetos.  LOL!  She asks for this "snack" daily.  All I know is she has the cutest Cheetos face I've ever seen.  Wouldn't you agree?

Snow Fun

One of Evie's most favorite things to do is play outside.  She has been having a lot of fun in the snow lately!  We know when she wants to go outside because she'll tell us so, grab her boots, her hats, and her gloves and beg for us to put all of that cold-weather gear on her.  Most days, it's practically impossible to tell this cute face, "no."  So, outside we go!

More than playing in the snow, she loves to eat the snow.  She also LOVES playing with Codee any chance she can get.

2013 Holiday Wrap-Up

It's been a fun holiday season for the Hunters!  We've thoroughly enjoyed the past month (except for the 2 weeks Evie and I were super sick), and we're looking forward to some downtime in January.

Thanksgiving was a treat!  We were able to have Thanksgiving dinner with Beau's side of the family on the Saturday before the actual day.  This is an annual tradition and it is so nice because we get to be with everyone, regardless if some of us will be with in-laws on the actual day.  I don't have a photo yet because I need to go get copies from my sister-in-law, but we had a great time!

We spent the actual Thanksgiving Day with my family this year.  However, before we went down to my mom and dad's house we snuck a couple of other things in.  Beau went to look at deer.  He goes with good friend of ours every year.  They wake up early and head into the hills and look for deer.  This is all done from the comfort of the heated car, mind you.  Evie and I joined up with my little brother and ran a Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot.  It was just a 5k, but it was super fun.  I'm hoping Tyler might want to make this a new tradition.

Evie, Me, & Ty at the finish line.

Me and Ty.

Me and my little running buddy, Evie.

We soon made our way down to mom and dad's house.  We had the entire family with us this year.  Even Traci and Brodie surprised us by coming home for the holiday.  YAY!  Following tradition in our family, we ended the day with a movie.  We all went to see the new Disney movie, "Frozen."  This was Evie's first in-theatre movie and she loved it . . . until about 15 minutes from the end.  She had sat long enough and needed to get down and run.

Our family Thanksgiving picture.  No, we didn't get a new dog.
Evie is in this I-Won't-Smile-For-The-Camera phase.  And, the
only way we could get her to sit still on our laps for a picture
was to invite this cute little doggie.  :)

We went back to the house for pie and Evie and Carter got some quality time together.  Grandma let them hang out on her bed and watch a movie.

I had the pleasure of waking up early the next morning to hit some Black Friday sales with my mom, sister, and one of my sisters-in-law.

We do this every year.  It's fun to be with the girls.
We finish our shopping  excursion with lunch.

Now it's time to roll in the Christmas holiday with one of our favorite traditions.  We go up the canyon and cut us a fresh tree each year.  It's way fun and we love having the fresh tree in our home.  This was Evie's first adventure in the snow and she loved it (except when she got snow in her boot).

After we cut our tree down and got it loaded in the truck, Beau went pheasant hunting with some great friends of ours.  Evie and I went too, but we stayed back at the truck and played while Beau was off hunting.

Evie tried to follow daddy into the field, but she
eventually came back to play with mommy.

Here we are in the field playing.  We were playing a game where she would have to chase me to catch me.  She obviously thought it was super fun.

Another fun tradition I do every year is go to the Festival of Trees.  Traci was here this year so she joined me and my mom for the fun.

While we were at the Festival, we let the kids sit with Santa.  Evie pretty much thought Santa was horribly scary and cried when I left her with this strange man.  I really can't blame her, can you?

The big days came and we embraced them.  Christmas Eve was great fun.  We spend it with Beau's family every year.  Evie loves running around with her cousin, HaLee.  They are so cute together.

Here's our little Evie doll in her PJ's.  She is so stinkin' flexible.

We followed all the yearly traditions.  We ate well, read Christmas stories, sang carols, played the chimes, opened gifts, and played our family-favorite game, Tess.

Reading Christmas Stories

Playing the Chimes

The whole family playing the chimes.

A dice game we played while opening and trading white elephant gifts.
We were ALL completely spoiled with gifts.  Especially Evie!

Fun was had by all and Evie fell asleep on the way home so she could wait to see if Santa came the next day.

And, guess what!?  He did.  But Evie seriously could have cared less.  She's only 19 months old, so she really has no concept of the whole Christmas thing.  She didn't even like ripping the paper and opening the gifts.

The very first thing she opened was her Cozy Coupe (little red and yellow car) and she was happy with that.  We couldn't get her to get out of it to open any more presents, so we had to take her gifts to her.  She would open most of her remaining gifts from her new car, and that usually took some prodding and LOTS of help.

When opening gifts was no more fun, we had to take a break to eat.  Evie cared more about breakfast than more toys, so while she ate, Beau and I opened our gifts.  When we returned to finishing up her gifts we found that her next favorite gift was her potty and the accessories that came with it (panties and a potty book).  Man, this girl is a riot.  Who knew that the new car and the potty was all this girl needed/wanted?!  Oh . . . she did like the new ornament we gave her in her stocking of Buzz and Woody from "Toy Story."  And, to be completely honest . . . Beau and I didn't really even get her that much.  Between Santa and us, she only had 5 gifts and a stocking to open.  Of course she was spoiled by others too.  However, we're learning very quickly that less is more around here.

Here's a collage of Evie's morning fun.

After we had our own little family time, we headed down to see my family at my mom and dad's house.  We eat a traditional Christmas breakfast, open [more] gifts, and play games.  We were a little late to breakfast this year because it took so long for Evie to get through her gifts, but we still were able to see everyone.

Evie ran right for baby Mollie.  She LOVES babies . . . especially real ones.
She also loves playing with Carter.  It's going to be sad when he goes home.

Me and Beau.  We're about to open gifts and then eat our breakfast.

I had to squeeze in some baby loves from this cutie pie.

And, so did Evie.  She gave Mollie a big hug and kiss.

She was quick to find Carter and they played on the iPad for a while.

Evie was given a jogging stroller with a giant stuffed animal.  I included it in the collage above.  She was more than excited to be pushing that thing around the house!

We were then privileged to have Christmas dinner with Beau's dad and stepmom.  They fed us well, spoiled us with more gifts, and we enjoyed hanging out.

Evie and HaLee

Evie really didn't love opening gifts.  Grandma handed this to her
and she just leaned on it like that's what it was for.  We loved it!
When we finally unwrapped it, we found a WAY fun leaning table
that plays music and all sorts of cool things.

Grandma even broke out the ukulele and sang "Jingle Bells" with us.

 To say the least, we had a grand time, but were also completely exhausted from the festivities.  It took us a day or two to get back to normal.

Sunday came and I was thrilled to dress Evie in her new Christmas dress.  I also made the headband to match.  She looked so beautiful.

I must admit that having this little doll face in my life has definitely increased my love for Christmas.  I've always loved it, but I REALLY love it now.  And yes.  The gift-giving and such is fun with a little one.  But, I can honestly say that my appreciation and meaning of Christ's birth has grown with Evie in our home.  As I contemplate the massive amount of love I have for Evie as her mother, I can somewhat put myself in Mary's shoes and think about how precious and special the gift of the baby Jesus was at the time of His birth.  And, to know that he would be the Savior for all mankind makes it hard to fully comprehend the significance of such an event.  My heart was truly full of love for Christ this season and my desire to be more like him and to be even more obedient has grown.  We are all so blessed!

We wrapped up the year by having dinner with Beau's family and then playing some games with friends.

We wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Evie at 18 Months

It's hard to believe, but Evie is truly 18 months old!  This cute little doll face continues to bring so much happiness to our home.  She lights up our lives and it's a delight to watch her learn and grow.

I'll give you a little taste of our Evie girl.  What is she doing now?

• She's talking really well.  Just this past week she said a full sentence ("I see a moon.") and she's constantly picking up new phrases.  I stopped recording her new words because she'll pretty much attempt any word you ask her to try.  (She says phrases like, "Where is she/he/it?" and "There she/he/it is." and "Ready, Set, Go!" and more.)  
• Along with talking, she's starting to "read" her own books now.  She'll sit down with a book all by herself and flip the pages while she "reads."  She's usually saying gibberish phrases, but it's cute and very entertaining.  If there's a page where she can count objects, she'll stop to truly count them.
• With help, she can count to ten.  Without help, she'll say, "1, 2, 1, 2, 8, 9, 10."  We constantly count things at our house (blocks, toys, crackers, balls, etc.).
• She knows her A, B, C's.  For further clarification, she knows the A, B, C song and will fill in the holes as we sing it together.  She's particularly strong at saying the G, P, V, Z.  She'll also try to sing in the other letters, but the song still goes a little fast for her to catch it all.
• Along with the counting and A, B, C's, I should note that she knows the differences between numbers and letters when she sees them in written form.  I figured this out when she looked at her bottle one morning, saw the numbers on it, and then started counting while pointing at the numbers.  She also brings me grown-up books (books without pictures) and points to the pages filled with words and says, "A, B, C's."  
• She's starting to sing along to songs.  Most move too fast for her to sing every word, but she'll sing the last word in a phrase or a word that might be prominent in the song.  
• She says, "Num, Num" for anything that smells good or tastes good.  She'll also say it if she wants something to eat.
• She loves to say, "Ready, Set, Go!" And take off running.  While she is running she will say, "run, run, run."  (Needless to say, she wears us out in the process.)
• She jumps by only raising one leg off the ground (more like a front leg kick).  If I ask her to jump, this is what she'll do and she'll also say, "jump" while she does it.  
• She's mastered the stairs!  Yay!  Her mommy and daddy still get a little nervous while she plays on them, but she seems to have them down.  She absolutely loves going up and down any set of stairs.
• She loves to dip stuff.  She'll dip fries, bread, or anything that can possibly be dipped into ketchup, fry sauce, salad dressing, etc.  Usually when she dips stuff she'll lick the dip off of her item and then re-dip.  So, if you ever eat with this kid and have dip-like stuff around, you better be okay with double/triple dipping or give her her own dip.  :)
• She started going to nursery at church and loves it.  She loves playing with other children and having new toys to explore seems to be pretty exciting.
• She LOVES Shrek!  My, oh my!  She asks to watch "Shrek" daily!  I don't know what it is about that big, green, ogre, but Evie is completely smitten by him.  Her second favorite movie is, "Toy Story."  She also loves Elmo.  
• She still loves to play outside, play with Codee, be with the animals, and collect eggs.
• She's becoming more and more independent and WANTS to be independent.  She likes to try to do things herself.  
• She loves to climb.  She'll try to climb just about anything.  And, I must admit that she's rather good at it too!
• She just started throwing tantrums.  When she doesn't get what she wants, she'll lay right down on the floor and cry.  These tantrums can be brought on from us not letting her watch Shrek, not wanting her diaper changed, or just not being able to find the book she wants to read right at that moment.  This being said, her tantrums are few-and-far between and happen most when she's tired.  She's a fun, sweet girlie 90% of the time.  We only have our 10% moments from time-to-time, and luckily she bounces back fast.
• She's starting to hate being in the car.  She hates getting buckled in her car seat and doesn't seem to last long in the car anymore.  Thus, I know my limit with her is about two stops and then I'm just pushing my luck.  I really have to plan my errands out effectively now so that I can avoid a disgruntled toddler in my back seat.  I'm hoping this gets better when she reaches her second birthday and we can turn her car seat around and she can be forward facing.  Until then, we try to be super effective and super entertaining while going anywhere in the car. 
• She gives the best hugs and kisses.  (All of these hugs and kisses make up for all of those tantrums . . . and then some!)
• "Oh No!" is one of our favorite sayings of hers.  

While sometimes I wish she would just stay little forever and I have my moments when I look at her and wonder where  my chubby, round-faced baby went . . . I am still soooo happy with the here-and-now and look forward to every stinkin' day with this beautiful girlie.  I love being a stay-at-home mommy. Winnie the Pooh said, "Any day spent with you is my favorite day.  So, today is my new favorite day!"  This is how I feel every. single. day as I get to be with my Evie doll.