Evelyn Singing :)

Evelyn has always loved music and singing, but lately it seems she is constantly singing songs she knows or making up her own. :) It is fun watching her develop. She now is able to sing along with someone/something as opposed to just repeating it after or her timing being off.  Here is a short video from lunch yesterday... She was taking it very seriously and you could tell was a little self-conscious about it. SO cute!

Jabbering & Singing (new videos!)

Here are some recent videos of my kid-eos :-)

This makes me laugh...the farther it goes the more expressive he gets and it really seems like he is trying to reason with me and tell me something...Probably that I am a cruel mommy for putting his snack just out of reach to try & motivate him to crawl :-) I know I need to learn to take videos on my iPod horizontally..lol bear with me!

Then we have my little singer, Evelyn. She loves music, loves to sing, loves any kind of instrument... And here I captured her sitting on a chair looking at this old kid's song book (that I took from my sister Amy when they were getting rid of stuff before their move!) that she loooves. She starts  off by sings "I've got the Joy" what she is saying is "down in my heart, where? down in my heart, where?" and then transitions to "Jesus Loves Me" which somehow leads into a line of two from "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".. Not sure if you'll be able to catch it all, but it is sooo cute and funny to me! And the last one is me trying to get her to sing....but she is prettty wound up! haha(P.S. I am really hoping she is not tone deaf and develop at least a mild sense of pitch ha!) Enjoy :-)

Spring Fever...

We got to get out and enjoy the lovely weather today! 

We are so excited for Spring!

 My pretty girl.

 Little Miss Attitude ;-)

She was very excited that our neighbor's basset hound 'Shernock" (Sherlock) was outside! 

(Poor girl still cannot say her "L"s haha)

When I told her to stay over by me....hahaha 

Too concerned about going to see Sherlock to sit for a picture with her brother :-)

 My sweet boy 

Can't wait for more sunny days!!!!

Evelyn's Birthday Photo Explosion!

Happy 2nd Birthday Evelyn!

Yesterday we celebrated 2 years with our Evelyn Joy...who is to us as her name-- a JOY!

I cannot believe how quickly these two years have gone as I still vividly remember the moment she was born and our lives were changed in an instant. 

She is so excitable and full of life and we were looking forward to spending the day celebrating her!

Especially since for the past week or so she has been asking if it was "feb-oo-ary FIF?!" and time for "PRINCESS CUPCAAAKES!"

She got a special breakfast of  "brown milk" and chocolate chip muffins I made that morning.

Then daddy said, "Evelyn do you want to take a birthday bath?!" And she totally made us laugh by responding with "Yeah! Sounds good!" (Which was funny because I have never heard he say that before) :-)

Love her little bouncy curls at the bottom after a bath...

Then she got to watch Tangled in her Princess Castle.

Then we opened some presents! Some new puzzles, some blocks, and some new arts & crafts supplies!

Playing with her new Ariel & Prince Eric for her castle...

Then we headed to Steak and Shake!

Waiting patiently for our cheeseburger...

Letting Snow White & Cinderella drive around while we wait...

She was REALLY excited about her first milkshake.... 

Yum!

Finally.....Chocolate milkshake time!!!!

The long awaited Princess Cupcakes...

She loved when we sang to her...She kept asking for us to sing the "Happy birthday to you" song to her.

She actually blew it out :-)

Overall it was a fun and sugar-filled day celebrating our blessing that is Evelyn! Thank You Lord, for your gracious blessings I don't deserve.

Monthly Kiddo Update

Evelyn is now 23 months!

(I cannot believe in a month my baby girl will be 2 years old! That is just unreal.)
-Evelyn has a handful of new toys from Christmas that are keeping her busy... She asks often to "play castle!" (her Little People Disney Princess Castle), and is often found sitting and drawing on her Magnadoodle, which she loves. She also has had fun feeding, caring for, and taking Joelle (her Cabbage Patch Doll) on walks around the house. ( You have to hear her say Joelle..it is so cute!)
- A new phrase heard very often around here is "May I have a cookie please?" or "May I have some milk please" And if you don't respond in a timely fashion she will reply to herself with "Yes, you may!".
-Another thing that is funny is ONE time I had a glass of chocolate milk and I let her have a sip... so sometimes she asks if she can please have some "brown milk". ha :-)
-Not a whole lot new with her besides the fact that it seem her language skills and understanding of things improve every single day!
Here is my sweet girl all prettied up for church!

And this is her natural smile...which I just LOVE!

Hunter is now 5 months!

-I feel like this boy changes and grows every single day!
-We have discovered that he prefers to sleep on his side- which is fine, I am a side sleeper, too- but lately he has been waking at night because he rolls over onto his back and cannot get back onto his side on his own (at least the way he wants!) so we need to go in there and roll him back and he will conk right back out... So easy enough fix--still kind of a pain ;-) Hoping he learns to get comfy on his own soon, or just learns to sleep on his back!
-He has started to eat solids and is finally getting the hang of eating off of a spoon. I am excited to start making baby food for him as I loved doing that with Evelyn!
-At about 4.5 months he had a doctor's appointment and weighed 15 1/2 pounds and is is 6-9 month clothes and a size 3 diaper at night.
-He is becoming more and more fun as he is awake for longer periods during the day and is getting good at grabbing (and biting and drooling all over) toys and is seeming enjoy being more active! He has also discovered what a fun and convenient toy his feet are!
-He is still the sweetest little thing and loves to be held and cuddled! Love my little boy!

 Haha! Goofball...

Monthly Kiddo Update!!

Evelyn is now 22 months!

What's new?

-We are entering the phase of a MILLION questions! She is constantly asking "What is that?" "What's this?" "What's over there?" "Who's that?" "Where'd Daddy go?" "Where'd Hunter go?".  Fun times :-)

-It has been fun to see her get excited about Christmas things this year. She loves our Christmas tree and is very quick to point out "Christmas Yights!" (Yup, still working on our L's--ha!) and her favorite ornaments which are Rapunzel and a Cinderella that sings a song when you push a button. We also watched Frosty the Snowman as a family when we decorated for Christmas and now every snowman is Frosty and she randomly says "Karen's crying". I ask her why. She says "Frosty melted!" haha

-She must be going through a growth spurt because she is constantly hungry these days & can eat a TON. Lately at breakfast she will eat a piece of toast, a banana, and a bowl of her new favorite thing "Cheerio's n milk!" And she is still asking for a snack an hour later.
-She loves her little brother! She loves to hug him and kiss him and lately goes up to him and says "Hi cutie!!  What a cutie!!" lol

(She is looking up at the Cinderella ornament...mean mommy put that one way out of her reach haha!)

Hunter is now 4 months!

What's new?

- He is continuing to grow and grow and now is stretching out of 6 months clothes and size 2 diapers.

-He is now very efficient at grabbing things and putting them quickly in his mouth. It is fun to see him concentrate so hard on something he is trying to grab.

-He spends a lot of time in the excersaucer, he loves playing with the toys, and loves to stand!

-He now sleeps anywhere from 10-12 hours at night. He was consistently doing 12 then he started  waking early so I just put him to bed a little later which works an extra feeding into his day.  I will often wake him at 7:30 a.m. that way I can get him fed and ready before Sis wakes up!
-He is still very happy & content! But if he does get worked up,which thankfully is rare, he screams like a little girl! It is actually kind of comical (after the fact ;P) because you have not heard shrill until you have heard him scream! Yikes!

New Camera!

We got a new camera! Woo hoo! It is technically a Christmas gift, but my husband allowed me to get it early because he knew how much I wanted to have it before Christmas-- we have someone's first Christmas to capture, after all! :-) I haven't had much time to play around with it, but of course had to test it out this morning... And this is how it went.

I told Evelyn, "Mommy got a new camera, now she can take all kinds of wonderful pictures of Evelyn!"

She responded with this look: 

Then I said "Okay, Ev why don't you look here and smile!"

She then responds with:

Me: Okay, nice smile- but look here!

Evelyn:

Me: Okay, a little less smile!
Evelyn:

Okay, this will do for now :-)

I then went over to Hunter and told him the exciting news.

This is how he responds:

A new camera?? Really?!

And he gracioiusly volunteered to be my model whenever I wanted.

The end :-)

Thankful

It is amazing how much your life changes (and YOU change!) after having kiddos. This past week Evelyn was sick and it seems life was pretty much on hold for me. It is very all consuming (time/energy/PATIENCE) taking care of a sick toddler along with a baby (who thankfully did not get sick as well)!  It is so sad seeing your kiddo miserable. She is feeling better minus a runny nose/cough so we are working pretty hard these few days to try & work out the habit of extreme whining we picked up while sick :-)

This week was pretty draining for me, Evelyn didn't sleep well because she was having a hard time breathing at night, so she was up several times for a few nights and had coughing fits at least every hour.  I also had moved Hunter back downstairs at night so Evelyn's night wakings wouldn't interfere with his sleep. So yesterday on Forest's day off I needed to go to the store and since he was home I got to go BY MYSELF. I was pretty excited to get a little break so I took my time and was amazed at how much more I can fit in a shopping cart without one or both kids in tow, ha! As I am driving down the road by myself listening to the Go Fish Guys (Evelyn's favorite), and walking through the aisles at the store where Evelyn usually points out EVERYTHING she sees (and asks for) on the shelves, I realized how much I am used to having the kids with me. And while it is not always the easiest or fastest...I love it! Now, don't get me wrong I very much enjoy and appreciate time alone and will not turn it down if offered it :-) But I guess it just reminded me to be thankful for them even in the times when it may seem stressful or inconvenient. I will try to savor the moments singing with Evelyn in the car as she dances as best as she can while strapped in her carseat, and just talking with her and explaining things to her as we push through the aisles of Wal Mart. Silence and solitude are welcome friends, trust me, and necessary for my sanity at times... But I think I prefer the crazy, chaos, and constant company of my children- runny noses, sleepless nights, and all. Thank You Lord, for allowing me to parent these little ones!

my sick girl

& happy boy!

Playing together

Just a normal morning :-)