"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." --Franklin P Jones--

Evelyn has sure been trying my patience lately. I don't know what the deal is but she has just been extra stubborn and extra cranky and clingy lately! I've been thinking it's teething but nothing is happening tooth-wise but maybe it's just taking it's sweet time. Anyway...she's not so bad that I can't handle her but it's definitely trying what little patience I have :)

On Saturday morning, Mark and I took Evelyn down to the beach to take a few one-year old pics. I'm trying to learn to take better pictures on my own so taking pics of Evelyn is a great learning experience and then I don't have to pay someone to take them! Win win!

We took quite a few pics, so we could have more options to pick from and so that we would be sure that we got a few great ones! She was also being a bit difficult because she was excited to be at the beach and couldn't sit still or stop looking or going in different directions. So it was a little hard to get very many where she was actually looking at me or smiling. But it was a beautiful day and the scenery was gorgeous and Evelyn was ADORABLE so we got some great ones!

So here's some of my favorites, which haven't been touched up or tweaked at all (some of them do need it), but I'm waiting til I can finally get Adobe Photoshop before I touch them. That program is so amazing! But hopefully I can get it soon, I don't know though, we'll have to see. Money is always a problem isn't it!?

How pretty is the beach here? The grass was a perfect backdrop for these pics, some really pretty colors came out in them that I didn't expect and I just love it!

Lately Evelyn's been very proud of herself at everything she does and loves to clap and applaud herself, it's so funny!

She also points at EVERYTHING and is even starting to sound like she's saying, "what's that", when she points. Such a curious little thing, like I've said before!

Auntie Annie gave me the idea of writing Evelyn's name in the sand but Evelyn wasn't cooperating and this was the best close pic I could get of her by it. But it's still cute!

Finally, one where she's looking at me!

Pretty coloring! Evelyn just wanted to walk around though but that was fine cuz she's such a cute walker!

Daddy and his girl!

Pretty each!

This is one of my absolute favs! The scenery is great and they are just adorable together! She's loves to hold his hand while she's walking even though she's gotten very good at walking on her own. So sweet!

I only had Mark take a couple of us so I don't have a fabulous one but this one turned out cute!

So there's my adorable one year old! I might go back and take some more of Evelyn at the beach in a frilly tutu so stay tuned! :)

It's been a whole year of learning and fun, I can hardly believe that Evelyn is One!!!

Yesterday my little baby turned one! I still can't believe it...this year has just flown by and SO much has happened! We've moved three times, had lots of adventures, and have enjoyed every minute watching Evelyn learn and grow. It's been so much fun seeing her little personality come out and seeing her excitement for life. It's amazing how a child can change your life and your outlook on life. She is the most amazing thing to happen to us and I am so utterly grateful to have her!

So here's a little run down on the girl Evelyn. First of all, she fits the fiesty red head stereotype to a T...she's SUCH a determined little thing and already gets mad/upset when we try to distract her from what she wants to do or we aren't getting what she wants fast enough. She's also quite the little dare devil. She doesn't care what she's crawling/walking/climbing on, doesn't really look where she's going-if she's got a target she wants she just goes! She LOVES trying to figure things out and put things together. She's a very curious little soul and SO observant, much more than I realized at first! She copies things I swear she's only seen me do once but she remembers. I've seen her take a screwdriver and "try" to fix her toys cuz she's seen me tighten screws, etc.

This is an example of her fiesty-ness :) She throws little tantrums when she's tired and mad and I'm not getting her bottle fast enough...first she gets on her knees...

Then throws herself onto the ground.....

And sprawls out on the floor, usually with her head down, crying or whining...it's pretty ridiculous really but at the same time really funny! I just don't know where the heck she learned it though!!!

Anywho....she's always loved kids and she still does. She absolutely LOVES our neighbors kids, L and V, and gets So excited when we're headed to their house. She wants to play with the big kids so much and now that she's walking she thinks she can keep up with them, but she's still a little uncoordinated and can't quite keep it yet. She's still a very talkative little thing and is getting really good at getting the right amount of syllables and rise and fall of words when she tries to copy what we're saying. She's such a smart little cookie! She loves fruit and would eat that all day long if I let her. She's also a BIG moocher. No matter how much she's eaten on her own, she comes over to our plate and mooches off of us til we're done and then if it's something she really wants she goes to other people and mooches off them til they're done, which includes our neighbors, both kids and adults :) She's such a fascinating little girl and I just love her to pieces!

As for her actual birthday...we celebrated by going out to lunch, going to a "pumpkin patch", and having a little party! The pumpkin patch was pretty cute. I took a few pics of her there and then we picked out pumpkins for Mark and I to carve later this week. But the main reason I wanted to go was to take pics and it was worth it cuz I got some way cute ones!!!

My super cute lil' one year old!

Picking a pumpkin!

I love these little head bands and flowers but she will only keep them in for a few minutes :(

We didn't really get a good one of us all together, Evelyn wouldn't pay attention to the camera....

She was too worried about the scarecrows, she was kinda scared of them!

For her party we had a Strawberry Shortcake theme, since both Evelyn and Strawberry Shortcake have red hair and strawberries are probably Evelyn's most favorite food. And I liked the green and pink/red colors that the SS party stuff had :) We had a little BBQ and had our friends/neighbors the Korpi's, the Over's, and our friend Susan so it was just a small little gathering but it was a lot of fun! Evelyn had fun playing with L and V, opening presents, playing with presents, and eating cake and us adults had fun eating and talking and playing with presents :) Morgan got Evelyn some cool blocks so the guys, two engineers and one architect, had fun playing with those, which was pretty funny. I knew Mark would enjoy them :)

She of course of was more interested in playing with her presents than opening them....she loves toys like this though where she has to sort them and such. She's getting pretty good too!

Trying to get her to open one by herself...didn't work.

L was very helpful though! He was very excited to help Evelyn open her presents :)

I'm one!

The big flower didn't turn out as well as I wanted but it still looks cute!

Cute mini cake!

Waitin' and wonderin' what the heck is goin' on :)

Oooo!!! What's this?

She doesn't use plates much, just dumps everything off

So off it came!

And straight into the mouth! She just picked the whole thing up and took a big bite!

Then she made a nice mess mooshing it up and eating it....

Luckily she kept her face clean pretty clean!

And the best part, running around in a diaper afterwards!

So it was pretty much a wonderful day and we had a lot of fun! I'll be excited next year though when she actually knows more of what's going on but it was still fun seeing her this year!

Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked...

Evelyn has been advancing in her walking skills quite a bit lately. She's been pulling herself up and walking along furniture forever and right after we got to Mississippi she started walking while holding our hand or pushing something. I got her this nifty little toy to push that she can also ride and use as a wagon, I love it! So with the help of this toy especially she's gotten really steady in walking with help. Then a couple weeks ago she started standing on her own and after that she learned how to stand up without any help. So we've been waiting and waiting for her to up and walk cuz she's been soooo close for soooo long.

She loves when Mark flips the seat over and uses it as a seat to push her in.

Walking with Daddy!

Walking with her new toy.

Standing all by herself!

Riding her new toy...she's learned to push herself if she sits down...she started off just using one foot to push which was sooo funny but is now doing both. She's such a quick learner! SOOO observant too. She sees me do something just once and she'll try to copy. Smart girl!

This weekend is the LDS semi-annual General Conference so this morning we were sitting and listening to the talks and music. Evelyn looooves the music by the way. She likes to direct it whenever she sees the conductor waving his hand...so cute! Reminds me of her Grammy :) Anywho, so she's been enjoying the musical part but so far either sleeps or plays during the talks. During one talk she was standing there and I had something she wanted to she almost took a step so I tried it again and bam! Baby walking! Luckily I had my camera right by Mark so he grabbed it and did a little video, which UNFORTUNATELY I still am unable to put video on my blog!!!! ARGH! I've tried more than one computer, more than one browser and nothing. So frustrating. And Facebook isn't letting me load it either so you'll all just have to wait :)

"Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at the people who belong to us we see the past, the present, and the future"

Pretty much every time I go home I take my sisters cameras and download all their pics onto my computer. They are notorious for losing cameras so I'm kind of a back up for when they do lose their pics. I also like to do this so I can go through the pics they've taken from the time I've been gone and see all the cute and funny pics of my nieces and nephews. My sisters are also notorious for never sending me pics so this is one of the only ways I can see these pics :)

Anywho, Mark and I just got a lovely, awesome new desktop computer and I put a good portion of my pics onto it so I can use the new computer for blogging, etc. because it has a ton more room than my laptop. Some of these pics included ones I've taken from my sisters so I went through them to check them out and miss on my fam. I just thought I'd share some of the funnier pics I've found that I hadn't seen before. A majority of these are of the Rivas pics but that's who most of the pics are from so sorry other sisters if you think I'm leaving any of your kids out :)

This one is just cute and funny, such a big yawn!

Rub a dub dub, three Rivas kids in a tub!

Guess Tani felt left out in using the urinal

I just like this one cuz Evelyn still does this and it makes me laugh everytime.

This is my favorite of the whole group and pretty much the whole reason behind this post. How freaking funny is this? Such a funny kid!

Don't I have such a pretty nephew? :)

Wow Annie, what's up with your boy?? I found a third pic of him in a dress too that I didn't put up....seriously something wrong here :)

I of course miss my fam while I'm away but I sure do enjoy going through their pics to see what they've been up to. Which is partly why I do this blog for all of you so hope you enjoy!