I can guarantee that you're gonna have a ball, learning how to do the watermelon crawl

Well this first pic is, as you can see, of Evelyn in a big tub! We'd been using Grammy's pantry sink in Missouri so now she gets to use a big tub and loves it! I just love this pic so I had to put it on here. :)


And on to the real reason for this post! No, Evelyn is not crawling yet, but she's getting on her knees now and is also scooting backwards on her tummy, which I've heard is another step towards crawling....so SOON I should be putting up a post that she's crawling! I'm not sure if I'm too excited about this or not but luckily we're in a little tiny place so she can't go too far or get into too much (like at Grammy's house! :)

"A mother's heart is a special place where children always have a home."

I know Mother's Day was Sunday but I've been a tad busy these past couple days getting things settled and figured out so here's my post now! Since we just got into Cali Saturday night, we just chilled Sunday...we were so worn out from driving and traveling all week! Plus I had a nasty sore throat and Mark was starting to get a bit sick too. So we just spent all day Sunday together since after that Mark would be busy busy busy with his CECOS training (he's doing civil engineering training down here if I haven't mentioned that yet...).

I was sad to miss Mother's Day with the fam though! The first Sunday I miss and it's Mother's Day :( I did talk to my Momma of course and gave her a card I made before I left MO. I was pretty proud of it! This is my first real attempt at making cards and with the Cricut I had no excuse not to do something fun! Although I didn't really use the Cricut with my mom's but....whatever! I loved hers! And I love her! You're the best Momma ever!!!

I made four other cards but can't post pics cuz I haven't given them out yet :) I'm handing them out in person so I'm not a complete slacker! :)

Sunday was also special because it was my and Mark's Second Anniversary!!! I can't believe it's been two years already! So much has happened and all of it wonderful! We have the best baby girl in the whole world and I have the best husband in the whole world! I'm so grateful and happy to have them in my life!!! We didn't really do much to celebrate this either but we did go out on the beach during our drive (Evelyn was asleep so we jumped out for a minute). We were the only ones on the beach so it was quite romantic and cute :) It was EXTREMELY windy though so this was the best picture we could get!

Anywho, Happy belated Mother's Day to everyone out there!

Are we there yet?!?!?!

Yes! We're FINALLY here in California!!!!!!! It was a long week but luckily it didn't go that bad! We made pretty good time and Evelyn was really great with only a few instances where we just had to stop and comfort her/let her out of her seat. She's such a wonderful baby! It was very sad to leave my fam in MO but I'm so glad that Evelyn and I got to spend time with them for a while! I love you all! Luckily we'll be back a couple times this year so she doesn't forget them :)Here's some pics of Evelyn on the drive.

She loves to sit up in the driver's set and "drive!"

The cutest smile in the world!

Evie with her blankie.

I just like the pouty lip with this one.

It's hard to tell but this is a very tear stained face...so sad!!!

Evelyn had fun meeting/seeing everyone in Utah when we stopped there Wednesday night/Thursday. We stayed with our friends the Alder's, who are just the best people ever! Then we went and spent the day in Salt Lake City with Amy, Calvin, and then met up with Maria and Whit and Richie later on. This was my first time seeing Maria since she left for her mission August 2008. I was SOOO Excited!!! It was wonderful to have the three of us together again. We had a great time talking and catching up a bit.

Friday we spent the morning finding a few things in our storage unit and then left and drove down to St. George where we stayed the night at Calvin's parents home along with Amy and Calvin. We all went over to Grandma and Grandpa Erwin, who live in St. George, for dinner and they got to meet Evelyn for the first time as well. It was a yummy dinner and so nice to see them! I've only met them once at Amy's wedding so I didn't really get to chat much.

Saturday we left and drove to CA with yet another stop at my birth dad's house so that they (him and Terrie) could also meet Evelyn for the first time. Which it was great to see them too and actually meet two of Terrie's kids and also her sister. Poor little Evelyn just has a ton of family members to meet this summer! It's funny cuz she's starting to get a bit shy with meeting new people, she'll look at them and then bury her head in my shoulder and peek out. So cute!

So after passing through there we got to drive through LA, which luckily we hit only a little traffic. The drive along the coast was so awesome! It's so beautiful out here!!! I'm so excited to live here for this little while. There's so much to do and see! I don't think I'll have a hard time keeping busy. I can just head over to the beach if I get too bored...how sad is that? :) The weather is so beautiful as well and the plants and everything are so pretty! This climate is just perfect for me!!! The only sad thing is there's no way I'm going to avoid a sunburn....let's just see how well I do!

"We do not remember days, we remember moments."

Here's another accomplishment of my dear little Evelyn!!! She is now sitting up all by herself, unsupported (Well except in these pics she's sitting up with the help of a Boppy pillow but that's because I wasn't sitting right next to her and didn't want her to fall and bonk her head too hard). She's learned how to balance herself so she doesn't fall over right away and can sit there for a good while before she does lean over or fall. She loves to sit up and play now, she'd rather sit than be on her tummy, although she is getting better with that too. She rolls and rolls and rolls now, the other day I found her under the couch. I just can't believe how big she's getting to be though!!! She's learning so many things now and it's so much fun to watch her! She's so freaking cute!!!

(I absolutely LOVE waking up to this smiling face every morning!!! She is the sweetest, happiest thing and I love her soooo much!!!)

Another BIG accomplishment is with her "talking". She is QUITE the babbler and talks and talks and talks. She totally is trying to talk to us for real too, you can tell by the way she talks and the sounds she makes. :) Yesterday though she just up and started "dadadadadadadad"ing away! She's been make the "d" for a bit and is now saying 'dada' :) She even repeats it when I start saying it to her. She's so smart! :) I can't help but brag but she's my baby so I'm gonna do it!

Mark heard her doing it on the phone but is excited to come home and hear it in person. Which he's coming home Saturday morning and I"m SOOO excited!!! It was wonderful to get him back after OCS but then they had to up and take him away again so it'll be wonderful to get him back again! Then next week it's traveling time!!! We're certainly putting our new car to good use!