Thursday, September 30, 2010

Evie on vacation!

I promise to post more pictures from our nice camera but thought I would stick a few on here that were cute candids of Evie and some taken by her as well... she is becoming quite the photographer and never misses an opportunity for a photo shoot. She did that both nights at our hotel and looking through the pictures I found she took some pretty good ones :)


This was at Ikea on the escalators. She loved them! And since she was not big enough to go in the play area while we shopped we let her do a few rounds on these when we left.This was after our long day at the Minnesota Zoo. We were there for 6 hours! And she didn't take a nap, even in the car on the 15 minute drive back to our apartment, but when we were driving to eat before heading to Ikea, she zonked out about 2 minutes from the restaurant and didn't wake up until we were halfway through the meal! She NEVER does that anymore!
Oh and we had quite the ordeal with that... D carried her in from the car still asleep and as we were shown to our table our hostess commented did we know Evie only had 1 shoe on? Um, no. So we figured it had come off in the car and we just didn't notice. It wasn't there, or in the restaurant that we could see or in the parking lot. Well, the only other place we had been was the hotel and so D drove the 2 minutes back there to check the parking lot and grab her other shoes while I sat next to her sleeping in the booth. We left our number with them and thought they might find it when they cleaned that night. No one called and so I called the next morning before they were open and checked with someone and they said nothing had been turned in and checked where we had sat and found nothing. They said they would call if they found anything and I let them know we would be leaving later to go back to Iowa. Its silly but I got in the car and cried. I was just so frustrated that somehow the shoe had vanished. And these were Evie's favorite shoes, her bright pink crocs. Cut to a couple hours later as we are shopping at IKEA, I get a call and its the restaurant, asking if I had gotten their message. They had found the shoe in a completely different area of the restaurant! Yay! So she nows has two shoes again!
Crazy hair after taking her ponytail out!

Stinky Baby close up portrait by Evie
her sofa bed at the hotel, by Evie
She came and told me at one point that she took a picture of "Weevies bed and mommy daddy's bed"
say cheese mommy!, by Evie
another one, by Evie

Monday, September 27, 2010

7 years!

Happy Anniversary to my husband of 7 whole years! Through good times and bad... and back to the good times :) D came home today with 7 white roses <3 My wedding bouquet was white roses and he has given me a white rose for every year we have been married... he got me a dozen this year because it was like a 3rd of the cost of 7 single ones. He knows me so well - I am very frugal for those that don't know me :)
We haven't gotten to celebrate yet because a company that we will call company "SW" decided about 6 weeks ago that they were going to have a super sale Friday the 24th to Sunday the 26th and require ALL employees, managers included to work open to close the whole weekend :(


Soooooo, we are going to plan a date night for one of the next few weekends AND... wait for it, Evie is going to have her first overnight sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa E! and hopefully we won't be driving in the middle of the night to go pick her up :) Since she was born we have started a tradition of going to eat at a Hibachi grill called Ohana's where I have these amazing
scallops with a secret lemon butter sauce... seriously, I could live on that stuff mmmmmmmm...

I am nervous and excited to have an entire evening and night with just my hubby and no little girl to take our attention away from each other for that little bit! I have strict orders for Grandpa and Grandma about what they are allowed to feed her. We don't give her dairy or things with sugar or artificial stuff in it and sometimes thats hard for them but we do try to have "special" things for her that are healthier but still super yummy! I love her sooooo much but she does consume a lot of my time and I am sure that D would like more attention but he really doesn't complain. I am so blessed!

While we are waiting for our anniversary celebration we are preparing to leave in the morning on a mini 3 day 2 night vacation in Minneapolis! All 3 of us are SOOOOOOOOO excited! We really need a break where things to be done around the house aren't staring us down and we can really get out and have some fun together and relax! We have a pool in our hotel and are planning on visiting the Mall of America to go to the aquarium and check out the amusement park, maybe go to the zoo and definitely are making our first trip to IKEA! Yay!

Okay, so I need to get packing so we are ready to go in the morning! Did I mention I was excited? Just checking :) Evie keeps telling me that "I want to go on vacation NOW!" its hard for her to understand waiting till after we sleep tonight :) I promise to take oodles of pictures to share with you after we are back!

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Tutu cute! (I know, so lame!)

So this morning after I took Evie's jammies and pull up off when she went potty (yes, she still wears them at night even though she has been 100% panties during the day since April - I'm just not ready to go there yet...) anyways, she was then "nakey" as it has been termed in our house. She then told me she was going to go downstairs, to which I replied "not nakey, you will be cold" since it was pretty chilly here last night. So she went in her room and I went to do something in our room and when I came out she was standing in the hallway dressed like this, see picture below:

I laughed to myself and sent her in to show off her outfit choice to D. This btw was the very first time she has ever dressed herself without fashion guidance or help with putting on the clothes. She got it all the way on and even had it right side out and facing the right way. Then, seemingly satisfied with her choice, she proceeded to go downstairs and play with her trains :)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Puzzles!

I don't know why these milestones keep suprising me and in turn making me mourn the loss of my little baby girl, who is growing into such an accomplished little girl. So this week my little Evie has decided she is VERY into the big kid "real" puzzles. We have been doing at least 1 every day this week. Well today we got out her Very Hungry Caterpillar 24 piece puzzle that Grandma Joyce got for her around the time she was born :) and Evie put together half of it while I was working in the kitchen... no help from me! She will be 3 in February and she is such a determined little thing that once she sets her mind to something she WILL do it!

Another thing we are hearing lately any time we see or talk about birds of any kind she will start saying "when I have wings, then I will fy (fly for non Evienese speakers) with the birdies!" said with gusto!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Gymnastics!

So at some point in time I looked and my little baby girl has decided to grow up and become her own little person. Okay, so I know it wasn't just all of a sudden but it seems that we reached a pinnacle where it has become very apparent how grown up she is now. She has been wearing panties full time during the day since April 20 of this year, she told me today that she wanted to go to school and wants to ride a school bus. She wears her leappad backpack around all the time saying she is going to school. She has started memorizing Bible verses... that girl has an incredible memory! It never ceases to amaze us at the things she remembers or puts together.

So you are probably wondering what this video has to do with the whole "growing up" business. Well, I was flipping through the paper after we got back from Labor Day weekend and came across an add for a local gymnastics place... well, then I saw that they also had preschool. Evie has been big into doing somersaults and jumping around for quite a while now which had got us thinking we should check into something to teach her how to be safe doing these things and give her a good outlet for her energy too. I had kind of checked into preschool but found that most started at 3 and she won't be 3 till February so she couldn't do this year. Well, this place does a "tot time" for an hour and a half 1 or 2 days a week as a younger preschool, learning a letter a week and of course other things, AND getting some time apart from parents (which is more for a break that anything because she is NOT clingy when it comes to going to hang out with other kids or learning even in new environments). Anyhow, I was too late for the preschool but we got put on a waiting list (she is super bummed about that) but there were still spots open in the 2-3 year old gymnastics class. So after talking it over with D, we took her tonight to go register... um, that was a BIG mistake. Not a mistake to enroll her, but I probably should have just gone in early on Monday before class because after I filled out the paperwork and we did a mini tour, we were let in the gym to get a close up look at where she would be at and she starts taking off her shoes (she was paying attention when the gal told us that the main thing about dress code is that she had to be barefoot) and when D told her no, not right now, she started SOBBING. Seriously, we had more than one person ask us as we were trying to discreetly leave if she had gotten scared being in the gym and they were a bit suprised when we told them that "no, she just didn't want to leave". So needless to say I think she will enjoy the classes :) I am a bit concerned about them having an end time though, and hope that she will be able to part more amiably after having done it and knowing she will be coming back. I hope to have some pictures soon of my little cutie - we don't have a leotard yet, I think we will wait to test the waters a bit more first, but it should be a fun time for both of us!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

I need a new hairstyle!

Soooooo, I think the last time I cut my hair was about a year ago and that was just a trim. My hair is now past my natural waist and is desperately in need of a trim and a style! I have been wanting to try some bangs again but was hesitant to take that step during the summer when I would be out in the heat a lot. I know a lot of people have bangs, and have them during the humid summer months but I didn't think it was a good time for me to be getting used to a new look. The other problem is that, well there are two more problems really... the first is that I want to have a picture of the hairstyle I will be trying to get and I don't generally buy magazines with the cute hairstyles in them and it seems like I can't find them online (I am trying this one again as we speak - or as I type) and the last and I think probably the most substantial issue is that the gal who had been my stylist since like 2004, got married and then moved to South Korea! Yeah, I KNOW! Back before I was a SAHM (stay at home mom) I at one point worked at a Salon and Day Spa as the Esthetician (or Aesthetician, same thing) and Nail Tech. So I really had a relationship with my stylist :) Anyhow, I had always had issues with getting bad cuts and so to me it is an anxiety inducing thought to be searching for a new stylist. I do know some other gals from my salon days but then I have almost an added anxiety about trying one of them in the case that I HATE how they do my hair that I can't just never talk to them again because I know them away from the salon :( soooooooo this is my drama right now. HELP PLEASE! I am happy to have recommendations for cuts, styles, etc. and if you happen to be in my area, you can recommend persons as well :)

Okay one more issue... I am always the one taking the pictures so I am having trouble finding a picture of me that you can see my hair... :( hmmmmmm so I had D take one quick for me.
Ugh! Putting pictures of beautiful made up celebrities next to my no make up pre-bedtime picture is not producing any warm fuzzies :( But here are some diff bang styles I found and am trying to decide between... help please!
Ps. This post only took me 2 days to get out in blog world! Seriously it was supposed to be quick and easy... then came an interruption right after getting the pics all selected, then couldn't get to it for a whole other day, then finally got back to it today to edit pic placement and post it - after the errors stopped.

Monday, September 6, 2010

My little photographer

Evie is becoming more and more interested in taking pictures. It is so cute, in fact as I am typing this she is doing a photoshoot on the table next to me with her bug cars and little tonka truck. She talks to them while showing them where they need to stand ("you go here and you go here, okay?") in this little high pitched voice. Then she sits the camera right in front of them and snaps a couple pics. I have attached some samples of her portfolio. I think she will have fun looking back at these some day.

Standing on the deck taking a picture of daddy cleaning off his mower.

taking my picture from right in front of me

"stinky baby" in the high chair

close up of the place setting for stinky baby

stinky baby and ittle baby

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Vintage Baby Toys


Just some fun stuff I found when we were at my parents last weekend... vintage baby toys from when I was little!