Goodbye, Susie!

Our good friend doctor Susie has headed to New Mexico (Alamogordo to be exact) for a short term job assignment. Since we'll miss her so much, we designated the week before she left, "Susie Week". Evelyn and I went over for lunch and the afternoon on Thursday, we all went for her Mexican party on Saturday night and then Monday she came to our place for dinner and games.
Lunch at her place right on the James River is always wonderful. It was a great afternoon minus the entertainment next door. We were sitting in her sun room enjoying the river and looked over to see her neighbor's yard full of police! Apparently her neighbor's front door was knocked in and a lot of valuables stolen while we were sitting just next door! :( Scary!!! We called and got Susie's alarm system set up that day!
In preparation for her time near the border, Susie had an amazing Mexican party on Saturday (with heavy Laura Caywood Barker influences. ;)).

Costumes were highly encouraged so Nathan found some nice mustaches and I was a seniorita with a big flower in my hair and mexican fan.

Evie was jealous of the mustache, so Nathan shared. (I hope poor little Evie never has to see these pictures!!!)
(This is our favorite!)

Susie's place is gorgeous and we arrived in time to watch the sunset. It was a clear day so the sunset was gorgeous over the docks.

Susie's party was complete with a pinata (filled with th pop-its fire crackers, Ghirardelli and Lindt chocolate and other great things), tons of great food, fancy cascarones, and great company. :)

These cascarones are fancy things with a hollow egg filled with confetti at the top. Apparently the point is to hit people over the head with them until they break and the confetti goes everywhere. I think this batch of eggs, however, had particularly hard shells as many people had sore heads by the end.

Here's everyone. Thanks for the fun party, Susie and Laura! Come back soon, Susie!!

Candle Baby

The other day Evie was sitting in her bumbo while we made dinner. A candle was also on the table ( don't worry, it was well out of reach :)). Evelyn was oblivious of the candle for a while just sitting forward in her bumbo like this:

  

All of a sudden, however, it caught her eye. She started turning towards it

And then she started reaching for it!

And gaping at it...

And trying to crawl towards it!

And then Daddy blew it out and she was very sad. :(

So going forward, even if it is well out of her reach, I think we will keep Evelyn and candles off of the same surface. :)

Evelyn Ruth

We really can't help taking tons and tons of pictures of Evelyn. This post is simply a collection of some of those we've taken recently. :)

Hanging out with dad - this is Evelyn's new preferred means of transportation:

At Sarah and Addie's shower! We can't wait for Addie's arrival any day now!

Happy Baby!

Family Cribbage night (it's a close game!). Sadly for me, Evelyn played on dad's team. She was really into looking at the cards.

Chillin'...

Double chin!

New jammies:

Evie in her new nightgown that came with matching socks, hand mits (not pictured - not a favorite) and a hat. She likes the nightgown best without all the accessories, but we had to try them all on anyway. :)

Ikea, again! She loved all the stuffed animals and the furniture that was closer to her size. :)

Modeling her new super cute hat from our friend, Kris, at church.

Riding in Grandma and Grandpa's van - she was so excited to have daddy sitting *behind* her!

Frisbee & Friends

Last week Evelyn and I had a play date with Kjerstin and Baby Bridget who is more of a toddler than a baby now!! Since it was freezing cold, we wanted to meet somewhere inside. We decided on Ikea so Bridget could run around, we could get cheap lunch, and both girls could be as loud as they wanted. :) It was the first time Evie got to meet Aunt Kjerstin and Bridget and she of course loved them both. She was quite in awe of all Bridget's abilities. :)

Here are some pictures from the day (not the greatest of Evie, but it's important to document the fun day!). Sadly we didn't get any of all four of us!

Bridget pointing out Evie's mouth. :) She was very into pointing out all of Evie's features - we made sure to stay away from the eyes. ;)


Bridget with some of the findings from her diaper bag:

We can't wait until our next play date!!

The other week before Aaron headed back to Hillsdale he spent the day with us. It was gorgeous so we headed out to the frisbee golf course.

Notice the frisbee landing in the basket. He's quite good. ;)
Poor Aaron had one roll all the way down this hill into the ravine! Aaron is good too, this shot was definitely an exception rather than the rule. :)
Evie and I just watched.

Aaron, we can't wait for your next visit!! :)