Sunday, October 18, 2015

August

In August I was soaking up the last few weeks of summer with my girl.

The more visits we made to Hawaiian Falls, the more she loved it.

This tiny Elsa still loves to belt it out to Let It Go.  I can't handle her animation...cracks me up!

Her first big girl gown.  I was hesitant to put them on her for fear that she would get cold.  She never woke up while wearing it, so she must have been fine.  After this night she would ask to wear her gown to be. :)

Cute (and difficult to photograph!) cousins.

She loves to help her Daddy water the grass.


My two favorites!

Evin loved her pink sandals so much, I bought her some clear sparkly sandals that were very similar.  When they came in the mail, we immediately put them on and she admired them the rest of the day.

We finally convinced her that sprinkler running is fun!

Evin was excited to check the mailbox to discover that Lane had left a piece of mail in there for her.

Potty training boot camp took place in August.  We stayed home for three days straight and Evin either went bare-bottomed or wore panties.  Were we went, the potty went, too.

I tried various rewards for our potty training attempts, since she didn't really seem to care about the M&M rewards from the first time we tried.  We tried a sticker chart for awhile, but it didn't give the instant reward that she needed.  We ended up giving either Skittles or small Starburst bites for potty rewards and she got to choose from a "treasure box" of little toys when she pooped in the potty.
This was the first treasure box prize she selected and this face cracks.me.up.

She was so proud.

We braided her pony's mane and tail, and she decided that she had to have a braid, too.  This was the beginning of her hair braid love, and she wants me to fix it this way often.  Too bad her hair is so fine, because it won't hold a braid for very long!


She loves him, and he loves her when she lets him lay on her blanket.

Another Hawaiian Falls day!  E said, "Too bright!"

I was feeling brave and took Evin to school with me to get some things done in my classroom.  I have a little kitchen set in my room, so it provided some entertainment, but her favorite thing was dumping math manipulatives out all over the floor.  I gave up on accomplishing anything pretty quickly, and we left.

Evin wound up sick (again), which meant she was in bed with us for a couple of nights.

One of my favorite parts of August- taking Evin to the circus!


Big truck, little girl

Her first trip to the circus meant picking out a souvenir.  She chose a white tiger with a pink blanket and (with help), she named it Bailey (after Barnum & Bailey).

Her favorite part?  The elephants!  Lions/tigers were a close second.

We had a lot of fun and also made a lot of trips down the stairs to the bathroom.  Probably like 10 trips.  And she never once went to the bathroom.

We stopped by Petco to check out the animals.  She loves this black bunny!

I love ALL of these faces.

We woke up early one Saturday and headed to my mom's house to see the Mansfield High School band march through the neighborhood.  They do this every year to raise money through donations.  I forgot to snap a picture of her watching, but Evin loved it and wanted to see more after they were gone.  We settled on donuts followed by watering Mums' flowers instead.


One of her favs is playing in the bed of Daddy's truck.
...awkward smile....

...cheesy smile!


Evin loved having Miss Rae as her Little Gym teacher this spring/summer.  We have to switch classes because I am starting back to work, and Miss Rae will no longer be Evin's teacher.  We are so sad!

I started school towards the end of the month.  Lots of hours went into lesson planning, setting up my classroom, and decorating.  I worked hard on the bulletin board outside of my room! Each kid had their own hot air balloon with their name on it. :)

She LOVES to hang from the high bar.

Silly, silly girl.  
She still loves her crib.  We have yet to transition her to a big girl bed because she has never tried to climb out of her crib and she is a great sleeper, so we haven't rocked the boat!

Evin helped Pa blow out the candles for his birthday.  She loves Pa and running in to see him and grab a jellybean from him when she arrives at their house.


Evin and Mums go to the library about once a week to pick out new books.  I usually get a text message with a picture in this very same spot each time they visit.

We ventured over to Dallas one Saturday to visit the Coots, have lunch, and shop a little. All three kiddos were wearing coral and all three got a Ring Pop treat.  Yum!

One of Evin's favorite things to do is load up her little grocery cart with toys and push it around.  She added in a crossbody bag and a teddy bear for this shopping trip. ;)

 And later that day for a real shopping trip to Target, she scored a cake pop (complete with chocolately hand and a white shirt).  Eek!

She's not a baby anymore!

Helping around the house while holding Ashby (who is about to lose her pants!) and wearing her purse.  Such a little mommy!







Sunday, August 30, 2015

a wedding, a reunion, & a birthday

At the end of July we packed up and headed out on the long (and boring) drive to Amarillo, for Mitch's cousin, Haley's, wedding.

E had her road trip essentials and she was ready to go.

We encountered a lovely, West Texas dust storm along the way.  Fun stuff!

When we got to the hotel, Evin was a hot mess.  So emotional and filled with drama.  After a while of this...

...she started up with this.  And we were all much happier!

so.many.giggles.

We cleaned up and set out for Haley & Zack's rehearsal dinner.  
A quick selfie with my handsome hubs while we waited for everyone to arrive :)

Jeremy & Savannah's sweet Blair was the flower girl.  Evin thought she was pretty cool getting to hang out with older kids!  Blair was so cooperative to pose for a picture, and Evin didn't take her eyes off of her.  Ha!

Cheeeeese!

The rehearsal dinner venue was the same place where the wedding reception was.  It had some open grassy areas, which was perfect for kids to run around.  It's a good thing too, because that is exactly what this wild woman did.  Most of my picture attempts looked just like this one.

Evin with the pretty bride-to-be!

We woke up on Saturday and couldn't believe our eyes when this is what our phones said.  A glorious 70 degree morning on the 1st of August!

We had breakfast, got dressed, and headed to the zoo.

Now, the Amarillo Zoo is teeny tiny.  But, it was perfect for Evin to be able to run around because it is so small and it wasn't crowded at all.  Mitch's cousin, Jami, and her kids came along, too.

I couldn't believe how close you could get to the animals.  It was pretty cool!


We saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my!), horses, goats, buffalo, monkeys, and a few other animals.


Checking out the black bears.

There was a small play area inside and the kids enjoyed running around.


Man, oh, man, she loves suckers!

Hanging out with GiGi while waiting for the ceremony to begin.  Evin's expression?  It accurately represents how she felt about having to sit still.  She lasted about 7 minutes (if that!) into the ceremony, and I had to get up and take her out.

Cuties!


Haley & her dad danced alone for the father daughter dance for a short time, and then invited all the daddy/daughter duos to come join them on the dance floor.  I thought it was sweet!

Haley's dress reminded me a lot of mine! 

Maybe we have a future dancer on our hands?  Evin loved the dance floor.

She would dance for awhile with others...

...but really preferred to bust a move on her own. ;)


The next morning I had to wake Evin up at nearly 10:00.  She was exhausted!

We met up for brunch with the whole Small family crew for a family reunion.  Not everyone was able to make it, but still, a good turnout!

Evin enjoyed some dessert. :)

If this face doesn't say, "Mooooooom!" I don't know what does.

We went to Cadillac Ranch before we headed out.  It had rained a lot the night before, so it was extremely muddy.  There were limited places to stand, so we got in and out pretty quickly.

See Evin's graffiti?



We drove from Amarillo to Altus, OK, to celebrate Granny's 80th birthday at Howard & Elonda's house.

Evin got to help blow out the candles.

It was nice to be able to celebrate Granny with almost everyone!

We left Altus and made it home around 8:00 that night.  It was a LONG day of driving, and we were happy to be home!