Happy New Year!

Well, it has been some time since we last updated.  I suppose that is due to the busyness that surrounds us all in late November and December. We had quite a fun time with both sides of the family, getting to spend Christmas at the farm and New Year's in Ellensburg.  Evelyn turned one and we celebrated three times, with each family and my sister, husband and nieces, so I think she's getting used to us singing happy birthday to her:). She's a very dainty eater and had her first experience with cupcakes and cake but didn't gobble them up--we'll see what happens when she celebrates with Emma in February!

She's still working on walking but has mastered crawling downstairs feet first and is getting faster at it--she likes to throw down toys, watch them roll to the bottom, then crawl back up to get them. We did that several times today:)

Below are some fun videos, and be sure to check out the latest additions to the album HERE.

We Have A Crawler!

Well, Evelyn's officially a crawler as of Saturday--she took off after a dryer sheet and is now freely exploring where she wants (unless mama or dada stops her from going where she shouldn't!). We're going to have to get a gate up for the stairs soon! Another first is a real word: Dada! She was squealing at a picture of him in her room on Monday and I asked "Who is that, Evelyn?" She said "Dada, Dada." It was quite fun. She likes to use her little pointer finger to show us what she's looking at.

This week seems to be a momentous one as she also obeyed us with the 'no touch' comment for the first time--3 times in one day! Now we know she understands that! But she still struggles with it as the next day wasn't so good:) She used a fork today to feed herself, with some help getting the peach bits onto it and was quite proud of herself as she started clapping after each bite, causing her fork to fly which confused her a little.

This picture is when we visited a family pumpkin farm in Enumclaw two weekends ago. She had a fun time helping daddy pick out the perfect pumpkins, petting the animals, blowing some big bubbles, playing with her friend Caleb and watching mommy do the apple sling shot.

Summer is Over?

Not quite. It has actually been the warmest weather of the year so far. We've got the fans going right now to try and cool the house down (right now about 80 degrees). I've uploaded a few photos you can view HERE. Here are a few new videos too:





That last one was pretty recent. It's my new favorite noise she is making!

It's Heeerrree!

We couldn't capture a picture of it, but Evelyn's first tooth broke through yesterday! It arrived after a day of mbaa-mbaa-mbaa-mbaa-mbaa's (we'll post a video). What a trooper--she hasn't been too fussy yet, but there are still many more teeth to come.

Some other new happenings with her over the last month: lots of laughs and giggles, she's a sitter and quite the roller, waving sometimes with one hand (we're not sure if it means 'all finished' like the sign we're teaching her, or 'hello/byebye'), her new sounds are blowing and 'tsss' and her favorite toy of the last month and a half are straps and tags.

When we were down at Black Butte Ranch with Jill's family, Evelyn also had her first experience in a pool. She wasn't so sure about it at first, but by the end she liked it and was splashing herself and others:)

Last weekend we took a short trip on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad and had a neat little ride on a steam train to a lake. It was a fun ride, but not as scenic as we'd hoped. This weekend we're headed to the farm for Evelyn's first harvest experience!

 

Here's a good Daddy/Daughter pic I wanted to share:

Evelyn Videos

Here are two videos of Evelyn that we did several weeks ago.  They are already kind of outdated, but they are still entertaining.  I'll try to get some more videos and photos up soon!