"Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel."

Happy late Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday and that you are having a good recovery day! I know we aren't doing much today, too tired and too lazy really! But we had an awesome Thanksgiving and are now just enjoying the rest of the weekend together. We had Amy and Calvin over yesterday and all made dinner together and had a great time! The weather was beautiful, the company was wonderful, and the food was amazing! This was my first time being "in charge" of the meal and I must say we did a pretty darn good job! Mark and I did the turkey first off, I had him help take all the delightful innards cuz I didn't really want to do it.



Then we put some stuff inside to keep it nice and moist, stuck it in the oven and let it do its thing!



I didn't really take many other pics of the prep or anything cuz I was busy making it, but I did get this one of Mark and Amy peeling potatoes. Such good helpers! ;) (Calvin helped too, he was cutting them up after they were peeled, most of the time though they played our new toy, a Wii! We got it as an early Christmas present/Mark's graduation present and it is SOOO much fun! We got Mario Kart for it which is the BEST game ever!)



The Finished product! Isn't it pretty? Me and Mark were pretty darn proud of ourselves. It was darn good tastin' too! Nice and juicy and perfect!



And the ENTIRE finished product. Very pretty as well. I pulled out our "good" dishes and a nice table cloth and it all turned out great! I wanted it to look nice even though it was just us four.



Amy and Calvin, so cute! :)



I took this pic per Calvin's request...



And this one without Amy's permission! :) haha...



And here is the best part of the whole meal! My beautiful double layer pumpkin cheesecake which turned out PERFECT! I was kinda worried cuz cheesecakes can be so tricky but mine didn't crack or fall in or anything and it was SOOOO good! totally worth it. Even Calvin loved it and he doesn't like pumpkin stuff! So I guess I did good.



And of course I can't do a blog without a pic of my baby! She did pretty good yesterday, took a lot of naps and spent some time in the kitchen with us while we cooked (she likes to sit in there and watch me or she likes to stare at the fridge too...I don't know why but she likes it so whatever!). Unfortunately her good day didn't last too long and after Amy and Calvin left she proceeded to take little mini naps when she should have been down for the night and wouldn't stay asleep unless we were holding her or right next to her, usually she does so good going to sleep at night! Then she stayed up til 11:30...ugh! So I didn't get much sleep last night, especially since I got up to go to Target at 5am to get some awesome tv shows on DVD that were on sale for amazing prices...totally worth it although I am extremely TIRED today! She's taking a nap right now though so now that I'm done with this it's naptime for me! I'll just end with a great note of thanks to all our friends and family for everything! We love you all so much and are so thankful to have you in our lives. And of course we are especially grateful this year for our beautiful baby girl and for the happiness she brings to us! We have been truly blessed this year and are very thankful for each and every blessing we have received!

Everyday, you make me smile. Everyday, you make me glad to be a mother."

Here's a few pictures from the past week just to show you that I haven't disappeared or anything. It's just been a chill week, just been taking care of Evelyn, going through stuff/throwing away stuff, and starting to pack! Just 2 weeks of classes left, then finals and Mark will be DONE with college (well with his bachelor's anyway)! And only 23 days til we leave Utah!!!

(who wouldn't LOVE to wake up to this sweet, smiling face every morning? I'm so lucky! :)

(already practicing some boxing skills to keep the boys away or so her daddy hopes and wishes... :)

(After bath time, she's liking her baths now thank goodness!)

(She's also been liking the love sac lately, takes some good naps in it!)

(Chillin' with daddy)

"Daughters are flowers that are forever in bloom."

Having a baby girl is so much fun! There are just so many cute things out there to dress her up in and make her cute and adorable. Unfortunately a lot of that cute stuff is expensive!!! So that's when DIY comes into play. I love the cute little tutu skirts out there, I see little girls all the time at the mall wearing them and they are just adorable! They are pretty expensive though, which is so dumb for something so simple and easy! So I went and made one myself! I went and bought some tulle and elastic and wa-la! Presto chango- I have a cute skirt! :) (My friend Whit made the cute little flower thing to match it and I put it on the skirt).




I mainly wanted to have it because we're going to be getting some pics done at the beginning of the month (we're doing a fam pic so I got a cute little holiday pic and then I wanted to have something ultra cutesy for her to get some individual ones of her). So I thought this was cutesy enough for it! I'm having my awesome little sister Monie crochet some Mary Jane booties for the holiday pic and then some ballet slippers/hat for the cutesy outfit. It's going to be so freaking adorable and I can't wait to get them done!

'Wherever your feet lead you, may they always help you find the way home.'

This is why my stomach felt like it was a soccer ball in the world cup at 10pm every night...



She did this for almost 15 minutes straight last night, it was SO cute and SO funny! Most of the time she just gets going with her right leg and some little moves with her right, then sometimes she alternates them and other times they are sychronized...it's pretty funny! She's such a wiggly little thing though!!! But so cute and so happy and smiley! Too adorable I tell ya...we just love watching her, it's so entertaining!

(I just thought this was a funny pic...she is very expressive with her hands though).

(she's been crossing her feet more lately, which is funny cuz at our second ultrasound she was crossing her feet like that then too!

(so cute!)

(I finally got her hands wrapped up but now her feet get free...I'm never gonna win. But they look so cute!)

(a closer up pic, they're so big!)

"Crunching, crinkling autumn leaves. Spiraling, swirling in the breeze." --Julie Perkins Cantrell--

Happy November everyone! We've had a beautiful first week here in Utah and I've been lovin' it! It's pretty much been in the upper 60's and sunny, perfect weather right there! We've been going on walks whenever we can and it's been great. Evelyn usually likes the walks until she gets the hiccups and then she gets upset...she does not like hiccups!

(out for a walk!)

Other than that not much has gone on this week. Just chillin' and doing some stuff around the house. We're starting to get things planned/worked out for when we move next month (how wonderful that sounds!!!). I'm starting to go through my stuff and am getting rid of the stuff I don't need/want anymore. The great thing is if we have the Navy do all our moving stuff, they are going to come to our house, take inventory, PACK everything, and then store it! Which means I pack nothing! Sweet! Packing sucks...we're still working on how to get them to do it but it should work out.

Let's see what else...Evelyn is a month old today! She is getting so big and is cuter and cuter! She is such a wiggly little thing and still just loves to look around her. She loves to kick her legs like crazy, especially just after she wakes up, it's really funny. She is so long too! Which shouldn't be surprising but she really is, just about everything on her is long, her arms, legs, fingers, toes...very cute. She's much more vocal too...she coos and sighs and grunts and makes all sorts of little noises (I tried to put a video on here but it wasn't working so I'll try to put it on facebook). I especially love her smiles...I LOVE it when I'm talking to her and she just breaks out into a big grin, it's utterly adorable and sooo sweet! She's just too precious :)

(I got her a play mat thing but she hasn't really gotten to much into it yet)

(She holds her head up so well! strong little thing)

(Daddy's home)

(No matter how well I try to wrap her up, she always gets her arms free, but when she has her arms free she flails them around and wakes herself up)

As for Mark this week, he's just been busy with school and such as usual. He's only got a month left of classes though! It's getting closer and closer...This semester is going pretty good though. He's been doing good in getting his homework done so he can spend time with me and Evie in the evenings when he comes home. Although yesterday a majority of his time was spent watching the Alabama football game...not much we could do to distract him from that! :) haha...It was a good game though, Alabama won (they were playing LSU) and are still undefeated and are now the Western SEC champs. Mark's very excited about that, as I'm sure his bro Michael is too. I am as well cuz I'm a Bama fan now (according to Michael :). I don't mind football but it ain't my favorite thing to do/watch. I'd rather watch basketball which is now possible since the NBA season has already started.

Anywho...enough sports. I guess the only thing left is to tell you all of my experience yesterday in cutting Mark's hair for the first time! :) He wanted to get a clipper set and try doing it on our own instead of having him go get his haircut at a salon. So I got a set and cut it yesterday. I was pretty nervous and scared I was gonna mess up, and I'll say it sure isn't perfect but I think I did a fairly decent job! It doesn't look any worse than it did the last time he went to the salon (it wasn't finished off very well). He's happy with it so I guess that's all that matters!

(He was a little nervous too...)

(I just thought this looked funny, his hair was sooo long)

(The finished product!)

"There Is Magic In The Night, When Pumpkins Glow With Candlelight."

We didn't really do much for Halloween since Evelyn's still just a wee thing. I dressed her in a onesie that my niece Carmen got for her that said, "I love my Mummy" which was pretty cute. Mark had to do some surveying in the morning so me and Evelyn took a walk around the mall til he got back. Then we just chilled when Mark was done until Amy and Calvin got to our house in the afternoon. We had them over and did pumpkins like last year. Luckily Evelyn slept nearly the whole time we were carving, at least long enough for me to finish mine. :) So that's pretty much all we did this year! It was pretty fun though!

(This is the onesie cousin Carmen got for Evelyn)

(I love that smile!)

(She had a little mess though so we had to change from her pants to this CUTE denim overall dress!)

(I love babies in overalls)

(Intense carving!)

(Auntie Amy and Evelyn!)

(Me and Mark's pumpkins)

(Amy and Calvin's pumpkins)

(I was trying to do leaves, like the name tag the nurses made for Evelyn but it didn't turn out as well as I hoped)

(Mark used a pattern from the book and it turned out so good!)

(Calvin did a silhouette of somebody but I can't remember who it was for the life of me...he had some trouble though and had to pin it together with toothpicks so it would stay, very sad)

(Amy did one out of the book too and hers turned out awesome too! I guess next year I'm just gonna stick to a book pattern)

(This is her cute outfit yesterday, toooo cute!)