Evie's Christmas/New Years Adventures and Milestones

Evie is nearly 8 months old now and time is going by way too fast for her Mommy and Daddy.  The past month has just been a whirlwind of travel, events and milestones.

On her 7 month birthday we took her to visit Santa Claus.  As you can see, she wasn't all that thrilled with him. But she didn't cry and I think she may have whispered her Christmas wishes to him while she tried to remove his beard.  She was much happier a little while later after a snack and much adoration down at the Mall Deli.

On Christmas Eve we traveled to Tulsa to visit Grammy. We made it there just as the rain was starting to freeze.  And a giant snow storm followed. Not only did we have a white Christmas, but Evie got to see her first snow as well.

Christmas Eve with Mommy and Daddy and her favorite Dolly.

 

Christmas Morning, playing with Dolly and showing off my two front teeth... it's all I wanted for Christmas. :)

 

Checking out this snow stuff with Mommy... Meh. Not sure what all the fuss is about.

 

Playing with my new toys.

After Christmas we came home for a few days. Evie got her second tooth just a few days before Christmas so we had a blissfully, teething free holiday. It was grand. She's growing like crazy and I spent much of the time we were home cleaning out her closet and sorting through the too small clothes.  The rest of my time was spent making hats.

 

My camera broke on Christmas day so I have been using our camcorder for stills... As you can see, the quality is not great. But Cozy Baby is going really well. I have yet to have a lull in orders so I can't complain. I really enjoy making the hats and it helps me feel like I'm doing something about our current situation.

Anyway, we spent New Years Eve at home with Evie. She must have known it was a special night because we couldn't get her to fall asleep until 11:55PM.  Then we cracked open a bottle of wine and watched the ball drop.  New Years Day we had our annual blackeyed peas and boardgames tradition with the Fosters. This year it was Scattergories and it fortunately it was uneventful.  No one passed out or did any risque charades this year! :) But as always we had a great time with our dear friends. Evie even behaved herself and joined in the fun, helping her God Father, Rick, as much as she could.

A few days after New Years it was time to pack up the whole house again and hit the road. We went to Little Rock this time for 2 more Christmases and a visit with some wonderful friends.

By her 3rd Christmas she'd finally gotten the hang of this tearing paper thing.

 

Modeling yet another hat for me.

 

Hanging out with Aunt Shelley and her friend Jon

We were busy bees in Little Rock. We spent Thursday shopping with my Nana, Aunt and cousins. We shopped 'till we dropped and had to spend Friday getting back on Schedule. But Mike and I were able to meet up with friends for dinner that night. I think that makes 5 date nights in nearly 8 months.  Saturday we met up with my dad and had Christmas, lunch and then went to the car show.  Our friends from Kansas City built an awesome car that was being shown.

'69 Dodge Charger built by Jason Rock of Rock's Rod and Customs

We were really excited to see the Charger in person after hearing about it for so many months. It's won awards all over the country and is one of the top 5 cars this year.  Mike spent Thursday helping set up the display. While the boys enjoyed the car show the girls went up to the hotel room to hang out for a little while and eventually do some shopping. Later that night we said good-bye to our friends and went over to Dad's to relax and watch movies.  And on Sunday we were on the go again. 

Dad picked us up around Noon Sunday and we went to visit my Grandmother in Texarkana. Then we stopped to visit with my Aunt and Uncle and Dad's cousins. It was really great to see them all again and introduce Evie to Dad's cousins.  We had dinner with Aunt Jean and Uncle Buddy but then had to head back.  Evie was just wonderful the whole time even though she spent over 4 hours in the car that day.

Sadly on Monday it was time to pack up and drive home.  We called the Rock's and even though they'd left much earlier than we had, we managed to catch up with them in Fayetteville, and we all stopped for lunch together. Evie slept almost the whole way home but when we got here she was so glad to be back.

Over our trip we had a rollercoaster of a time with Mike's job situation. We found out he did not get the job we were really holding out hope for. But the very next day two different recruiters called and one of them had set up an interview.  Fingers crossed! This one would mean we wouldn't have to move! So after we got home he had much preparing to do and I had much to do around the house.

We got the tree down yesterday out of pure necessity. See, Evie had been perfecting this whole crawling thing over our trip and when we got home she really started to boogie.

 

Are we in for it, or WHAT?!

She must have just been itching to get home so she could concentrate on growing up too fast.  This child has always liked to be on her feet and has been able to pull up for months now IF you put her in a seated position near something she could get her hands around. We preemptively lowered her crib mattress a few weeks ago just to be safe. And it's a good thing we did!  The day before we left she discovered that by getting up on all 4s she could sort of fall on to her bottom and sit up by herself. We knew this would not be good for us. If she could get herself in a seated position she can pull herself up.  So the day I knew was coming finally came yesterday.  When I went in after her morning nap I found her like this: 

She was so proud of herself. 

Of course she would start pulling up on the end of the bed, not where I placed the rail cover.  Wiley little thing!  We got home Monday evening.  It's now Wednesday morning. Since we've been home she has perfected crawling, sitting, pulling up on her own and has started cruising!  Can she please just slow down a little bit?!  Now you know why we had to get the tree down ASAP.  And we're frantically trying to remember where we put those cabinet locks we pulled off when we moved in to our house 2.5 years ago. And where, oh WHERE did I put those outlet covers?  And if anyone needs an idea for a Valentine's present, baby gates would be fantastic.  

 

Can you believe this was less than 8 months ago?