Evelyn's Second Birthday

I cannot believe that my baby girl is two! You guys, how did she grow up so fast??? And yes, I still refer to her as my baby girl...I catch myself saying that to her and then try to say "big girl" instead. Because there's another baby girl in our life. Crazy to think she will be here so soon too!

This year has been fantastic. Evie has learned so much, developed such a sweet, fun personality, and truly is the light in our lives. We are excited to see her develop into a big sister this coming year. It's crazy to think that at this time last year, so was only doing a couple of signs (all about food) could say "Mama" and "Dada," and only take a couple of steps on her own. Now she is running all over the place, putting together full thoughts/sentences when she speaks, and has a fantastic memory! Seeing her learn and grow is incredible. Starting fun traditions with her, especially surrounding Christmas, has been a blast as well.

Her 2 year stats from her doctor's appointment: She weighs 28.8 lbs (85 percentile) and is 2'9.75" tall (43 percentile). She did great at her appointment and didn't cry one bit (not even when she got her shots). I'd say that going to the doctor with me all the time (and her great book from Usborne, Going To The Doctor) has really helped!

Today to celebrate we had a special breakfast (orange rolls) and she opened her present from us (alphabet puzzle). We went down to my in-laws house for the afternoon and had a fun time with them. Evie has been joking for days about being 5, not 2, and this morning she looked up at me and said, "Evie five?" to which I replied "no, sweetie, Evie's two!" and she said "oh, yeah!"

Here's a walk down memory lane from the past year. First three photos are from December 2015. After that I narrowed it down to only ONE measly photo per month.

     

We had a birthday party for her on December 17th (her birthday is December 20th). We invited a few of her friends to our apartment and kept it very low key. She loves monkeys right now so we did a monkey theme. And by "theme" I mean I put out all of her books about monkeys, we had bananas and garlic cheese monkey bread** (and cupcakes...that were not monkeys, but did have monkey cupcake toppers), and I put out her ball bit for the kids to go crazy in, like the little monkeys they all are. We ended up with 6 kids and 12 adults in our apartment, so we were full to the brim! It was so much fun to see Evie playing with her friends though. She had a blast!

**For anyone interested, here's the recipe I used for the monkey bread. It was a big hit! The only thing I did differently was that I used jumbo flaky biscuits and cut each one into 6 pieces, instead of 4.

Some of Evie's favorites, at age 2:
Food: applesauce, tomato soup, waffles, cheese, oranges, broccoli, venison (she especially loves jerky), mashed potatoes, spaghetti, pizza, "egg milk" (eggnog), sour cream, fruit snacks, graham crackers, raisins, and I'm sure I could keep going, but those are the top of the list I'd say.
Places: Camp David (the property my in-laws have that we go to when Graham goes hunting), library (especially for story time), park, Amazeum (Children's Museum), and church.
Activities: reading books (with us or by herself), playing "night night," helping me with chores (dishes, laundry, sweeping), coloring, and helping Nana in the garden (she is very disappointed that there is nothing left to pick now).
Words/Phrases: okay, thank-you, no, Evie do it, Mommy cover toesies? (with blanket).
Songs: Cecilia and the Satellite, I Am a Child of God, I Love To See the Temple, Away in a Manger, and Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam
Toys/Books: Bee-boo (her special bear), her scriptures (we got a pocket-sized Book of Mormon for her that she loves and flips through while we read from the scriptures each night), her sticker books at Nana and Papa's house, That's Not My Monkey (book), Touchy-Feely The Nativity (book), Peek Inside Cinderella (book), golf balls (that we collect outside and bring back to the athletic club), ball pit, cars, balloons, bubbles, and her birthday presents (shopping cart and food/dishes, baby Cinderella, and bike)

Life has a way of moving quickly (time stops for no one, right?) and I'm so grateful for all of the precious moments we get to experience as we raise our beautiful Evie girl. She is the sweetest girl I could ever imagine. I'm blessed to have her call me Mom (rather, "Mommy").

Have a fantastic rest of your week and a very Merry Christmas!

xoxo, Marissa

Daily Life Update #6

Eek! Another month has come and gone. Time is seriously flying by you guys! I know December will pass in a whirlwind as well. We are trying to be intentional about our calendar this year and making sure we don't over-schedule ourselves with all of the Christmas parties/get-togethers. Evie also has several friends with birthdays at this time as well (and her birthday is coming up too!), so we could easily find ourselves overbooked.

I thought I would pop in with this quick little post to give a brief update on how we are doing! I'm planning on doing a pregnancy post in the near future as well (so...January...hah!), so keep your eyes open for that if you're interested.

Evie:

This girl is growing up so fast on me! She is seriously the sweetest though. Last night before she got into bed she wanted to "feel baby sister moving," and then she gave my belly a hug and a kiss, completely unprompted. Made my heart melt. I'm excited to get to see her as a big sister :)

She loves books, food, climbing, walks in the stroller (especially if we find golf balls), and exercising with Mommy. We bought her a pocket-sized Book of Mormon while we were in San Antonio and she loves reading her scriptures. When we sit on the couch to read scriptures with her before bed, she grabs her book and snuggles up close, turning through the pages. It's adorable!

Some other favorites include jackets (as long as they meet three criteria: hood, zipper, pockets), "no," and helping me with anything and everything (dishes, cooking, folding laundry, starting the washing machine, starting the dishwasher).

We just put up our Christmas tree and Evie loves it. She asks "Mommy, plug in Christmas lights, please?" (Which comes out "Mommy, pug in kiss-mas ights pease?" in case you're curious.)

Marissa:

I'm pregnant! Hah. Some days I forget until I bend over to pick something up or I'm trying to stand up from sitting on the floor with Evie. Little baby girl is super active (especially when I lay down at night) and is growing well. I'm to the point where I have check-ups every two weeks. I just know that she will be here before I know it!

I'm working on being "better" about sweets...again... This is a common issue I deal with, hah. Right now I am doing treats every other day. My goal is to get down to just twice a week, but it's December. So many tasty treats to be made, parties to attend, and pounds to gain ;) hahahah.

I'm still reading in The Wheel of Time series. I'm about to finish up book 6. Before I start #7 I am going to read The Best Yes for the book club I'm hosting at my place in January. I'm really liking this series, but it is very much a big time commitment which is why I hadn't read them before now (I first heard about the series when I was finishing up high school).

Graham: 

He has been a hunting fiend this deer season! ;) So far he has 3 deer to his name: one doe, one button buck, and one buck. He has been enjoying every weekend down at his parents property since the season opened in order to put away some great meat for this next year!

Graham is almost done with this semester of Nursing School (finals are the week of December 12th), and then he only has one semester left! So close! On his time off from school he has dance parties with Evie, plays on the computer, and excitedly awaits for new episodes of The Grand Tour each week (I finally remembered the name and didn't just refer to it as "the new Top Gear show.")

Family: 

We recently returned from a trip to San Antonio for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see Graham's extended family (on both of his parents' sides) and to be in San Antonio again! We took Evie to see the San Antonio temple one day, but we mostly stayed in and enjoyed time catching up with extended family. Evie had a blast with her "cousins" (Graham's cousins that are younger) and did great on the trip both ways.

One thing we are doing to celebrate Christmas this year is the LIGHTtheWORLD advent calendar. Each day focuses on something Jesus did, and provides ways that we can be like Jesus in that way. You can go to https://www.mormon.org/ to watch the video that introduces the idea, and download the calendar here.

Love you all and hope you have a Merry Christmas!

xoxo, Marissa