Summer Haps

I'm incredibly bored, and lack energy to do anything productive, so I thought I'd post about our lives since MARCH. Woah.

Evie just turned TWO! She is such a sweetie. She is able to communicate her feelings very well for a two year old, so we are not having as many tantrums as we used to have. She makes us laugh every day and Keith and I are always quoting her when we are together. "Noo wike it." for when she doesn't like something, and "Wook at me" when she's disciplining her toys. Today Keith and I were being lovey dovey in the kitchen, and out of nowhere she says "EEEEWW!" lol I don't know where she gets it, but we love her and her little personality.

We started potty training her a couple months ago! She got the hang of it pretty quick, but she's still having accidents here and there. I kinda got lazy with it for a while and she still wears diapers when we are out and about, and when she sleeps. Still, we are saving a ton on diapers!

Keith has started a new position at work. So far he is liking it okay. It's not as great as we thought it would be, but it's a step in the right direction at least. He used to have the night shift, and now he has the swing shift. So we have to get used to a whole new schedule at home, too. Before, I had to keep a toddler quiet until 5 or 6 in the evening while Keith slept, but now it's just til about noon. And Keith used to leave for work after Evie had gone to bed, but now he leaves right after she wakes up from her nap. Now we have to say goodbye for 30 minutes so she doesn't flip out. We have big lunches as a family now instead of big dinners, and playdates with friends are scheduled in the evenings. It's kinda crazy, but we're getting used to it! One great thing is that now on his days off, we can actually go places and do fun things because he isn't sleeping ALL day.

We've added a new member to the family, but I'm still not sure if we're keeping her or not. She still doesn't have a name.  We've had her for like 2 months now. It's a hard decision for me, okay?!
We found her abandoned by her mother and starving to death in Keith's parents' backyard. I caught her and we tried to take her to the humane society but they were all either closed or not accepting cats that day. We couldn't just put her back under the shed she was dying under, so we took her to the animal hospital and got her all cleaned up and fixed up. We took her home and nursed her back to health that's where she has stayed. Nooni doesn't like her, but Evie LOVES her, and she loves Evie, so how can I get rid of her now? Life is full of tough choices, innn'it?

  Here she is two weeks later!

The name "Lunchmeat" is on her records. Evie calls her "Baby Kitty" but when we ask her what the kitty's name is she says "Ag-e-wah." - No idea where that came from. 

Vacation

Keith has been working so hard at his job. He put in a time off request a while back for a couple of weeks in February, and we had been going back and forth on what we should do for that time. At first we were thinking a quick trip to Disneyland! Or Disney World! And we even looked at cruises. We started to price and compare everything and it was not looking awesome. I am so used to getting into Disney for free, so I had a little bit of sticker shock. I was feeling really nervous about spending so much money, so we talked about it, and decided to just have a stay-cation. It made us both feel a lot better, plus, we could spend more time with Evie and take her to the zoo and whatnot. We were a little bummed, but still excited to just relax.

Two weeks before Keith's vacation he went to an awards ceremony at work. He came home with some big news! He had won supervisor of the YEAR! I am so proud of him. He brought home a giant poster of himself and a plaque with his name on it. He then showed me what he won - a bunch of gift cards and travel vouchers. It was enough to get us to Disney! I was in tears! I just felt so blessed.

We decided to do a Disney Cruise! We booked it that night and we would be leaving in 2 weeks! YEEEE!

It was a REALLY tough decision, but we decided to leave Evie at home with Keith's parents. I wanted to take her, and I was afraid of being apart from her so long. I was really emotional about it. I think I did really well though. I missed her a lot, but overall, I think I needed a break. She is a handful, I tell ya!

The cruise was really magical. I miss it so much. I miss being able to eat whatever I wanted, and then not have to clean or worry about anything! We had a great time and met some awesome people. I just wish we could have brought Evie and stayed forever!

Here are some highlights.

Our beautiful ship - The Disney Magic.

Night 1, after dinner. We liked to just walk around after dinner and explore.

I wanted SO BAD to do a Titanic thing, but Keith wouldn't do it. So here's me. I'm king of the world... or something.

On a ferry boat to Paradise Island.

All dolled up for dress-up night.

At Serenity Bay at Castaway Cay

Pirate Night! We were by far the most dressed up there. We came prepared. Here we are with our good friend, Jack.

BYE! This made me cry. I didn't want to leave!!

It was okay, though, because as soon as we left the cruise ship, we headed straight to Disney World. And we were there for 13 hours. The next day we went home and reunited with Evie. The end.

Year and a half!

Hi there! It's time for Evie's 18 month update!

Evie now weighs 25 pounds, and is 29 inches long. So she's grown 19 pounds and 10 inches since she was born. Crazy.
She currently wears size 18-24/2T clothes, which she has been able to fit into for a whole year now. She's stretched out! A part of me misses my chunky little rolly pollie, but it's fun to see her grow out of the baby stage into a little girl.
She says so many words now. I lost count at 80 words a couple months ago. My favorite word is "Swoggy" which of course means "Froggy" because she can't say her F's or R's. It's so cute. I ask her to say it everyday.
Evie loves to play with her books.
She loves to watch Blues Clues and Daniel Tiger (I actually love Daniel Tiger too. I bought the soundtrack and sing along in the car).
She is able to eat with her utensils pretty well.
She loves to do somersaults and spin around.
She can jump and hop all over the place.
She can almost dress herself (and sometimes refuses help).

Here's a photo update.

 Around Thanksgiving it was finally possible to put her hair in pigtails. I was obsessed.

For Christmas, she got a little red wagon! She loves it...

 She loves playing dress up with the set of shoes and jewelry Aunt Bev gave us. It's so fun for me too!

And here she is with her favorite thing ever: My phone.

 She's not a baby anymore...

Before and After

I've been doing a lot of transformations lately. Here's some photos of what I've been up to:

BEFORE: Nasty green walls, built in desk with no holes to put cords so the computer has to be on top, no storage space.

AFTER!: New wall color! New desk and filing cabinet (Craigslist!), new wall decorations! YAY!

I love it, and most importantly, Keith loves it. It's his space, after all...

Clock: Home Goods $12

Frame: Ikea $10

Chinese Artwork: A friend from Disney made it. It says "Happy Disney" in Chinese.

Canvas Art: $1 at garage sale

Desk and filing cabinet: $130 on craigslist

(desk originally came from Ikea)

I'm pretty proud of it.

I don't have a before picture, but imagine this space's before picture with the same ugly green walls, and different posters arranged awkwardly. 

Trust me, it's so much better than before.

Here are some more transformations I've done recently:

I got some silver platters at the Goodwill that were tarnished. I got the tarnish off.

 Here is a frame I got at a garage sale for $3. I turned it into a chalkboard. I wanted to make it into a dry erase sheet metal thing, but this was cheaper. :)

And then I tried out a tarnish remover recipe I found on Pinterest to get the tarnish off of these old silver spoons from my dad's collection. It worked!

I love bringing life back into things.

Busy Busy!

Hi there. Quite a bit has happened in the past 2 months! I know, I should probably update more often. I just feel like I'm talking to myself here sometimes.

Let's see...
Since the last time I posted, I've watched the entire series of Breaking Bad. I watched like 4 episodes a day while Evie slept. I didn't get much else done in that time. It's a great show! Keith started watching a couple weeks ago and he's almost caught up, too.






I've become addicted to thrifting. Keith's job doesn't pay great, and since I'm a stay at home mom, I can't do as much retail therapy as I used to. When I go thrifting though, I feel like I get even more of a rush when shopping, and it doesn't break the bank! Here are some of my favorite recent purchases within the past couple months:

 

And then here's my favorite purchase:

I LOVE IT.

Evie is growing so much. She now says over 40 words (I have made a list). She doesn't say them all clearly, but we know what she's saying at least. Our favorite word she says is "Bird" because it sounds like she's saying "B****". LOL Recently it sounds more like "Beets" so it's not as alarming when she says it.

A month ago, Evie chipped her tooth in the bath tub. SAD DAY. Let me tell you - I was more upset than she was. She got to go to her first dentist appointment which she HATED. The dentist said that it looks fine and that if we want to get it filled in later that we could, but it's not really necessary. I have a feeling that if we were to get it fixed, that she would just knock the filling out, or knock another tooth. So we will wait a while. :) She definitely takes after her daddy though. Most of his teeth are fake because he was so reckless as a child. 

Top right tooth. See, it's not even that bad.

In the past couple of weeks, my mom and I have been busy with redecorating! My mom has lived in our house in San Antonio for 9 years and it has been long overdue. We've had the same color on the walls, the same decorations, and everything for a while. There were also rooms that used to have lots of character that have become hodge podge decor rooms. So I fixed that. We're still in the process, but I'm done painting! 

I don't have any before photos for the rooms, so I'll show you the during and after.

 Crappy Panoramic of the media room. I didn't paint it, but I made it my own by adding my own decor. My old high school friends should remember this one. The Hollywood sign is the only reminder of it's previous days.

Here's the kitchen. GOODBYE YELLOW!!

I had to paint in stages. I did the trim one night after Evie went to bed, and then the next morning I only painted the top half of the room so baby fingers couldn't reach. During her next nap I got to finish. 

 After:

I've also redone the upstairs game room and computer nook, but I'll post on that later. We need a few more finishing touches up there.

ANYWAY, so that's what I've been up to. Thanks for stopping by.

Ketchup.

Since Evie turned one, I've stopped with the monthly updates. It's been a while!
Here's a little update on what we've been up to.

It's been so hot this summer that we don't leave the house much after noon. We spend a lot of time at home and at second home: Keith's parent's house. I've been helping Keith's mom redecorate her home. It's been a ton of fun! We shopped for things on craigslist and get ideas from Pinterest. We have painted furniture and have hung up new photos and curtains. It looks 10 times better now.

I made this from a photo I took at the San Antonio Temple. I love it!

This month Evie and I took a trip by ourselves to California! Keith had to work, so I was brave and flew 4 hours with a squirmy toddler. It was no small feat. She did way better than I thought she would have though. I had plenty of toys and things to keep her occupied. 

We went to California for my mom's 70th birthday/Family reunion. The last time all my brothers and sisters were together was in 2008, so it was about time. We went rafting down the American River in Sacramento together which was a lot of fun. It was great to see everyone again and introduce Evie to most of my family!

I also reunited with my nephew/BFF, David. He has glorious long hair now. 

After the reunion in Sacramento, I went to see my brother Don and his family. It's always nice to see them. I feel so at home with them. They let me stay with them for a couple of days and it was a lot of fun! Evie loved playing with baby Aadison and loved playing outside when we were there. The grass is super soft in California compared to our grass in Texas. 

So happy!

I got home on the 7th, and then the 8th was Keith and my 5th anniversary! Keith surprised me with a trip to Houston. We left Evie with my inlaws and left! It was awesome to get away for a while. I've missed that freedom! We had a great time. We went to the aquarium first, and I got to touch a sting ray for the first time. Then we ate at Hard Rock Cafe (Our usual). It was very nice.

In general Evangeline news: She is repeating a lot of words we say. Her new favorites are "BASS" for bath and "BOU-C" for "bouncy". It's so cute to hear her talk. She does "Woo-woo" for dog noises and "WOWW" for cat. She's communicates pretty well for being only 13 and a half months.

I'm having to baby proof more than ever now. She is no longer interested in her toys anymore. She plays with anything she possibly can. She's pretty good at minding though! I just have to look at her sternly and say "Nooo..." and she gets a pouty lip and stops the bad thing she's doing... sometimes. haha 

We're learning all kinds of new things and it's so much fun! I love that girly.