We have realized the joy of stickers...check out her feet!
Cheese!
Her new favorite thing to do in the mornings is put on my socks...
Daddy and Evelyn building forts with tunnels and castles.
Fun at the park!
Amber has been teaching Evelyn about Holy Week this week and they have had a craft that they did each day (have I mentioned how much we love Amber?!?). On Monday, they started with Sunday and Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem. Amber took Evelyn outside about cut off a branch from our palm tree to show her how the people waved the palm branches and shouted "Hosanna!".
She got some cute videos, too...
This one definitely stuck. If you ask Evelyn what to say when you wave a palm branch - she shouts, "Hosanna!"
Bringing March Madness into bath time...
I love this outfit of hers, and she's almost outgrown it.
In late January, we decided to head to Kansas City this weekend to see my family. Every year, my Mom and Dad go there once in the fall and once in the spring for market. They own a lumber and hardware store, and this market is for one of their major suppliers on the hardware side of things. My brother-in-law works closely with my Dad (and is part-owner), so he usually goes as well. This year, my older sister now lives in Columbia, Missouri so being only 2 hours from KC they were going. Which then prompted my younger sister to go with her husband, and us to fly up for the weekend for some family fun.
Evelyn getting ready to get on the airplane
Drinking some of Daddy's water and playing on the iPad on the short flight to Houston
The day we flew up was the first day of the tournament, one of Dan's favorite things in the world. He had told me earlier in the week that he loved going to Buffalo Wild Wings in West Lafayette during the first and second rounds so he could eat wings and watch all of the games at once.
We found one in the Houston airport - probably not quite the same.
After dinner we killed some time (and energy!) playing on the moving walkway
They would walk/run down on the walkway, then stroll back to go again
Run run!
We watched Toy Story on the longer flight to Kansas City...and fell asleep for the last 45 minutes of the flight
When we landed in Kansas City, it was COLD! It was also late and way past Evelyn's bed time. We hit meltdown status when we were trying to get the car seat in the car, in the cold. But other than that (and who could blame her, it was 10:30pm by then!), she did awesome flying!
We got to see Grammie & Grandad and a few cousins, aunts, and uncles on Thursday night, but mostly just got a little girl in bed to get some sleep.
Friday morning, we got up and had breakfast, then got ready to head over to the market. My Dad had registered all of us - so we all got to go in and look around at all of the new products. The kids mostly enjoyed the free popcorn, candy, and pop! We found this room/hallway connecting the hotel and the convention center and named it the Wisdom room. It was perfect for those times over the weekend when we needed some space to let the kids run around and burn off some energy (it was in the 20s outside, so that wasn't much of an option).
At market, my younger sister convinced this vendor to give her one of his t-shirts that said "Fill Your Crack" on the back (they sell a product that fills cracks in concrete). Somehow we all three ended up with one and (naturally) had to document it on Facebook. (Em, here's another baby bump picture for you!).
That afternoon half of the crew went birthday shopping (this trip happened during 'birthday week' - where in the course of about 2 weeks we celebrate 7 birthdays), the other half stayed back at the hotel to take naps, have some quiet time, or watch basketball. After Evelyn's nap ended early because the hotel maid couldn't read the "do not disturb" door hanger, we headed into the quiet time/basketball adjoining rooms to hang out with cousins. Evelyn and Katie were the only two girls up at this point, so they watched some movies and played leapster on the bed while we watched basketball.
Friday night, we had dinner at the hotel so we could take all of the kids swimming. Unfortunately Evelyn came down with a fever and ended up missing half of dinner and all of swimming. Poor girl. We never did have a reason for her fever, so we're thinking it's teething. It would randomly go up and come down over the course of the weekend - but she acted normal for the most part. I'm glad it didn't ruin her whole weekend!
Watching some Sofia while Mommy and Daddy get ready on Saturday morning
We went to a place called Kaleidoscope in downtown Kansas City (Dan almost didn't make it because we had to drive by the Sprint Center, where they were hosting first and second round games for the tournament). If you have kids (probably 12 and under) and are ever in Kansas City, go check this place out. We had kids from 6 months to 13 and pretty much everyone liked it. It's owned by Hallmark, and they let you just go free with a zillion art supplies, make whatever you want, and take it with you - all for FREE. It was really cool.
Daddy and Evelyn doing some drawing
Making some cards with ribbons
Can't. Get. This. Top. Off.
Moving onto water colors
This girl loves to paint!
Drawing with Mommy
She and Heidi found this little room that had lights and buttons that when you pushed them would make music...they had fun dancing in here!
They also had a place where you could paint with melted crayons in a room lit with a black light, a station where you could color a slab of cardboard and then cut it into a puzzle with a machine they had, as well as several little cubbies with books and mirrors and other kid-friendly things to play with/do. It was really cool - I highly recommend it if you have kiddos! It is part of the Crown Center downtown, which is also where the aquarium and Legoland are, as well as a mall. We hit up the Crayola store in the mall.
Daddy/Uncle Dan helping monitor the coloring area while the Mom's shopped.
After the mall, we headed back to the hotel for naps. I was wide awake, and only about 10 minutes from IHOP (the International House of Prayer), so I went over there while Evelyn napped and Dan napped/watched basketball.
Such sweet time in the Presence of my Jesus...we need to move to Kansas City. For real.
We went to a place called Jack Stack Barbeque for dinner. It was my sister, Lisa's, and nephew, Gavin's, birthdays on Saturday, so this was their birthday dinner celebration. It's also my Dad's favorite place to eat in Kansas City. We had to wait a little while, but it was worth it.
Evelyn had some interesting dinner art out of french fries and bread...
That night, my Mom had planned an Easter egg hunt for all of the grandkids. She had given them all small flashlights in their Easter baskets from her and we were going to find a dark room to let them hunt for eggs in. The hotel wasn't too helpful in letting us use a meeting room, so we ended up just using an open space on the lower level.
The crew heading down the escalator for the egg hunt
A video Dan got of Evelyn hunting for her eggs!
She slept in my sister's pack-and-play for the weekend. She enjoyed listing off all of the animals on Noah's ark instead of sleeping the first night we were there.
The last morning, I found her snuggled into the corner like this.
We weren't sure we were going to be flying out that morning as Kansas City was under a blanket of blissful, beautiful snow and under a winter storm warning. As Dan was trying to get out of the parking lot in the hotel, our rental car got stuck. Thankfully Lisa & Nate were still at the hotel and Nate was able to help dig him out. Dan got to return the favor when they got stuck as well. The trip to the airport took about 35 minutes coming down on Thursday night, but it took up almost an hour and a half to get back up on Sunday morning. The roads were pretty icy and snow-packed, so we didn't get over about 40 mph for most of the trip.
So pretty, though.
We did get out, and didn't have any troubles with our flights back. We actually had a row of three for us on all of our flights back. Evelyn was still a lap child on this flight, but it was definitely nice to have the extra space to let her climb and sit while we flew.
It was definitely a quick trip and it went by too fast - but I am thankful that we got to spend some time with my family!
As I said in my previous post, one of my Spring Break projects was to repaint the girls' bathroom to make it more kid-friendly. I fell in love with an owl shower curtain at Kohls only to find out it was backordered, then no longer produced. But I liked all of the accessories I had already purchased (and opened) too much to just take it all back. Fortunately I found one that is close. It's still not nearly as cute as the original was (or girly - the original was more pink/purple/teal) - but it works. Here are some before and afters for you!
Before
After
(there's a big space above this towel rack that I'm going to get adventurous and paint a couple of these owls on...hopefully it looks as cool as it does in my head!)
I was on Spring Break this week, and I loved every single minute of being home with Evelyn full time. I pretty much left all of my work that I "should" have done over break at the office and only responded to a few "need it now" requests during nap time this week. It was heavenly. She and I had such a fun week - I'm looking forward to mid-May when we'll have a month or two together before the baby comes. Here are some pictures from Mommy and Evelyn's Week of Fun!
Helping Daddy highlight his Bible on Sunday morning
Lunch on Sunday after springing forward for Daylight Savings
Breakfast on Monday before we started running errands!
First stop - Home Depot.
Monday afternoon it was h.o.t. (already - I'm never going to make it to mid-July being pregnant!). We decided to have some backyard swimming fun. She loved it!
I love this picture!
Sprinkler fun!
Having a snack
On Tuesday, we went to story time at the library (another thing I loved because I usually don't get to do it with her!), then went to have lunch with Daddy at work. Tuesday night after we put her down, the nesting craze hit me and I decided to start tackling my list of things to do around the house over break to start getting ready for the baby. Why do those spurts always hit me at like 9pm? The good news is, over the course of the week I got the guest room completely cleaned out (which will become Evelyn's room with space for guests to still come visit!), all of the baby stuff down out of the attic, 7 bags of crap for a garage sale up in the attic (for whenever we decide to have said garage sale), our wine rack converted to a craft corner for Evelyn, and a bathroom painted and set up for littles instead of a guest bathroom. Needless to say, I didn't get MY naps this week like I had planned! :-)
On Friday, Dan only has to work until 3pm, so I redeemed the first half of my Christmas gift from Evelyn...a prenatal massage. It was awesome. I'm so glad that I have one more (and a hubby who is letting me get one a month after that until the baby comes!). This was also the day that I decided to paint the girls' bathroom. :-) So by the time I got done with that, and got my massage, it was dinner time and I had nothing started. We decided to go out for dinner, and Evelyn (finally) ate ice cream for the first time. Don't get me wrong - we have tried to give it to her numerous times - but she's never liked it.
This night, it was good...
On Saturday, we tried to go to the Aquarium splash park so Daddy could come with us. It was a little windy off the bay, so Evelyn didn't last too long. Poor baby was shivering!
But she sure is cute...
Instead, Daddy and Evelyn raked for fossils...
And watched the dolphins...
On Sunday, it was Selection Sunday - a national holiday in our house. I asked Dan what he wanted for Selection Sunday dinner and he requested pizza.
I had a little helper to keep Daddy free to watch the brackets unfold.
Her tactic was to eat one, put one on (sometimes a half eaten one...)
I can't remember what we were doing these days, or which days they were taken...so I'm just sticking them at the end because they are cute. :-)
So that completely online faculty position in sport psych can come along any day now. Any. Day.
