Sand, Waves & Sun

It's been a busy last few weeks but I wanted to get some new pictures up! Evie is getting so big and more and more fun every day. This morning she discovered that she could growl. She has enjoyed growling off and on all day. She has also giggled a few times. It's so fun to listen to her explore her voice and discover what she can do. :) Evelyn also enjoys rolling over more now (still just tummy to back) and does it pretty much every day. She loves exploring and discovering her world.

This past Saturday she had a VERY exciting day. She got to explore one of the most exciting things of all, the beach! She LOVED it. I wasn't sure what she would thing of the sand, waves and sun, but she loved it all.

With Mom...


In the waves with dad...


She kept trying to pick her feet up. She couldn't figure out what the new feeling was, but she liked it! It was really cute. :)


She wouldn't take her eyes off the waves (smart girl, as her mother learned :))


She looks ready to surf!


Poor little girl's had was too big and kept covering her eyes. :)


We went with Nathan's parents, grandparents and cousin Bryant. Here's Evie with her Grandma Mortier.

First family beach photos!


With the Neptune statue at Virginia Beach.
 

She couldn't get enough of the sand. :)


Nathan and I both left with slight sunburns. Thankfully Evie's floppy hat kept her safe! We had such a great time at the beach, playing in the waves, walking on the boardwalk and getting ice cream. Good idea, G&G Mortier! I love the beach so I'm glad that Evelyn does as well.

Baby Adeline

Our good friends, the Bickings, had their little girl, Adeline Ruth on February 14th! We love both the name and the birth date. ;) Evelyn and Adeline finally got to have a play date together last week. They were took cute in all their pink. Addie made Evie look huge! One of my friends said that they look like little Brent and little Nathan only in pink. :)

Addie and Sarah
 

Addie and I bonding (LOVE the hair!!)


Addie and Evie enjoying their first play time together. :) Doesn't Evie look round and big? :p They're almost the same length though, Adeline is a long one!

Thanks for letting us come and play, Adeline! We hope we can do it again soon!

My baby is getting so big!

Evelyn seems to grow and learn new things every day. She is getting more and more fun it seems. :) She has her 4 month appointment next week and I'll be curious to see what her percentiles are as far as height and weight. Right now her 0-3 month clothes still fit her much better than her 3-6 months ones so while she's getting bigger, my guess is that she is still probably on the smaller side. Besides getting bigger she is doing so much more too. She's been holding on to things that you give her for a while now, but she has really started grabbing at things on her own in the last couple weeks. She's getting better at the hand-mouth coordination as well. :)

She's really loving her tummy time mat/gym these days. She'll stare at the toys and grab them for a long time. It's so fun to watch her concentrate on a toy and then be able to grab it. :)

Our friends the Tennents loaned us their exersaucer and Evie is starting to get the hang of it! She's always preferred standing to sitting and is so please how she can stand all the time and still play with toys when she's in the exersaucer. It gives us a nice break from helping her stand all the time as well. :)

She wasn't quite so sure at first...


But then she became much more interested :)


Evelyn also enjoys music (although her face in this picture may suggest otherwise :)). This is how she and Nathan spend many evenings.


We're working on balance and sitting. She's still not so good at her tripod sitting, but she's getting better. ;)


She got some converse shoes for Christmas just like her Uncle Aaron's (only his aren't pink ;)). She enjoy wearing them on our walk the other day.


Here is an example of her 3-6 months clothes swimming on her. I got this outfit at Gymboree the other day, but I'm afraid she'll have to wait a bit longer to really wear it. By the end of the evening her pants had pretty much fallen off.

Parents of Five

Good friends of ours from church took their oldest daughter on a Disney caribbean cruise for her senior trip. They asked Nathan, Evie and I to stay with their other four children, ages 14, 10, 3 and 2. So, for nine days (Feb 18-26) Nathan and I were the proud, exhausted parents of five :) The Hutchisons are a great family and their kids are all very good, but cooking, cleaning up after and taking care of 5 kids (and 3 under 3) was an adventure. :)
Evelyn did so well with the whole experience. I think she was a little overwhelmed at times but also enjoyed all the action and attention. She spent a lot of time in her bumbo or on the couch watching the action....


and asleep in the chair, completely worn out... :)


Here are some pictures from the week:
Amy (3) and Kate (2) playing playdough, toys and having a picnic:
  
Amy was also very helpful with the poor cat, Holly. :p

Here are all the girls of the week hanging out on the porch watching the boys play in the yard. It was a beautiful week and we all enjoyed being outside.

With the Ben and Sam we enjoyed playing Catan orTicket to Ride, having wii tournaments and Fruit Ninja competitions (iphone app game :)).

I wish I could remember all the funny things that Kate and Amy did and said, but my favorite was when Amy out of the blue told me: "Mr. Nathan wear a tie to work... he is sooooooo handsome!" Lol... I of course agree, but it sounded so funny coming from little Amy. Her dad is an ER doctor so since he wears scrubs to work I think she was especially impressed with Nathan's suit and tie. :) We really did enjoy our week at the Hutchisons, but it also felt good to get back to our own little apartment with our one little baby. :)

Happy Birthday!!

It's been about three weeks now since Nathan's birthday, but I wanted to get his pictures up before it gets any later. We have been pretty busy since the 14th (as you'll see in future posts) which is why these pictures are so late.
As you know, Nathan's birthday is the Valentine's Day. This is the one day out of the year that in middle school I told my friend I could never date or marry a guy who had a birthday on this day. Very ironic. This is also the day that I became Nathan's fiancee 4 years ago. :) Nathan knew I wanted to be surprised when he proposed and this was pretty much the only day I wouldn't be at all suspicious. He was right. :) It was the best Valentine's Day/Birthday ever. :)


This year was another very great birhtday. It was so much fun to celebrate with Evelyn this year. She just makes everything better. :) This year it was beautiful for Nathan's birthday (and MUCH warmer than it was in the above picture). We decided to go for a CW walk. Evie was so excited to take her mug down for hot chocolate! This was her first CW mug experience with us. :) The blanket you see with her is one of her 20 favorite blankets. She loves holding on to whatever receiving blanket we're using and keeping it with her. :)

Nathan's parents came over on the Sunday before his birthday to celebrate with us. We had such a great time together. :) Nathan's mom made a lemon pie for dessert, it was to DIE for! Thanks, Mom!

This is our latest family picture taken that same day. Thanks to our photographer, Dad Mortier!

On Nathan's actual birthday he got two celebrations; one at work and one with me and Evelyn. This sideways picture (sorry I forgot to rotate it) is the AMAZING cake his office got for him. It was chocolate, fudge and coffee something - probably the richest and most delicious cake I've ever tried. :) I thoroughly enjoyed helping Nathan polish off what his office didn't eat. ;) Don't worry though, we didn't eat all of this between the two of us. We shared a large chunk with our neighbors Daniel and Laura. :)

When Nathan got home from work he got to open all the rest of his presents and cards. Evelyn loved helping.


Evelyn was enthralled with the book that she gave Nathan. :) The child in this book is totally going to be her in a few years. :)

After presents and story time Nathan and I went out to our favorite restaurant in Williamsburg, Blue Talon. It was a wonderful birthday for the most wonderful husband in the world. Happy 26th, Nathan!!