Showing posts with label Amy and Calvin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amy and Calvin. Show all posts

Friday, January 6, 2012

"In the eyes of children we find the joy of Christmas. In their hearts we find its meaning."

SO I figured it was about time I blogged about Christmas. :) Mark and I didn't do much for Christmas (gift wise anyway...) because we got a couple big things after he got home so we went out on a nice date a few days before Christmas. We went and saw Sherlock Holmes (SOOOOO GOOD!!!) and then went to a nice Italian restaurant on the coast for dinner which was so yummy! We also opened up our presents from our stockings that day with Evelyn...she was SO funny! She kept straining to rip them open and would make these funny faces....silly girl. :)

Evelyn and her stocking

Trying hard to open her present :)

She's at such a copy cat stage right now, we would say, what else is in there Evelyn? So she'd go,  hmm...what else is in there? and stick her head in :)


Time for daddy's stocking!

Being Silly :)

The next day we packed up the car and drove up to Alabama for Christmas with the Erwin fam! Amy and Calvin flew in the day before and Dennis and JoAnn arrived after us so it was a fun Erwin-filled weekend! The best part of it was seeing the kiddos play together. They got along SO well and played the entire time! I barely saw Evelyn sometimes...it was great :) It was fun too cuz we adults got to play a lot too...every night we played games, Mario Kart Wii, Pictionary, and a new fun game called Funglish, which we all really enjoyed! The rest of the time we just enjoyed each other's company and ate lots of yummy food :)

Evelyn joining in on the Wii action

Oh and the first night we were there, we went to Michael and Jessica's ward Christmas party, which was pretty fun! They had stuff for "graham cracker" gingerbread houses on the table and each table built something. This is what Calvin and I came up with, with a little help from the kids :)

I took a better picture later but don't know where it is, but it's supposed to be the SLC Temple

Isabella helping with the decorating

All the Primary kids went up on the stage so Evelyn went right along with and had lots of fun! You can't really tell here but they are shaking little bells. She loved it!


Evelyn and the kids watching the ward's slide show. 

Setting out cookies for Santa!

Christmas PJ's!

Tracking Santa on the internet

Pretty Christmas tree!

Christmas Eve we let the kiddos open a present, which was a pair of pj bottoms for each of them that I made and luckily they ALL fit! :) Isabella's was a bit close but they went on so all was good :) Christmas morning we were gonna get up with the kids to open presents from Santa but we TOTALLY slept in! Evelyn woke up at 6:15 and I checked to see if anyone else was up and they weren't so I got her back to sleep and then didn't wake up til almost 8, I was so bummed! We let Evelyn open a gift from Santa then rushed to get ready for church, which was a really great, musical Sacrament meeting.

Evelyn's gift from Santa!

princess dolls!

these are just some oober cute pics I took of Charlotte! 

She was adorable!

Cutey cuteness!

Amy and Calvin!

Us! Forgive my uncuteness...I had just washed my hair. :)
The Erwin's! 
Grandparents and the kiddos...Evelyn and Jacob wouldn't smile nice...kept making silly faces!
But I snatched a cute one of just her! 

And another cute one of Charlotte in her Christmas dress!

After church we all came back home, took some pics (some shown above), and then opened the rest of our presents! And boy was that tree full! It was so fun to watch the kids open their gifts. Evelyn was once again her funny self but this time had to take off every single piece of wrapping paper, looked at the present, then went on to the next one :) She was so cute! Isabella and Jacob were fun to watch too. Jacob had a lot of fun with his superhero gifts and Isabella got lots of girly stuff! :) The adults got to open stuff too, we just waited til after the kiddos.

Evelyn and all her loot

Jacob tearing it up

Isabella, taking her time :)

One of Evelyn's favorites, a Rapunzel dress! She wore this for two day straight when we got home, I had to hide it on the third :)

More princess gear! 


Big rip!

Checking the other side to make sure she's getting all the paper

Evelyn and Jacob playing with Evelyn's cool Disney figurines!

then she noticed the adults were opening presents so she "helped" Uncle Calvin and Aunt Amy

Charlotte tried to get in on the action too :)
So that pretty much sums up our time with the Erwins! It was so great to get together. We haven't all been together since Amy and Calvin's wedding, which was before Evelyn was born! We really miss Amy and Calvin now that we aren't in Utah so it was great to be with them again for awhile. I did miss being with my fam, but once again Skype saves the day and I was able to Skype during their "Christmas Program" which was so great! I love my fam!

 Unfortunately on Monday we had to head home :( We had a couple presents at home for Evelyn from family and such so here's a couple pics from that! Santa also dropped off a present that she asked him for, a bike! She also got a motorized little Princess bike from Grandpa Michael and Grandma Terrie so she switches back and forth between the two when she plays, she loves them!

Yay more presents!

She got a lot of puzzles for Christmas, which she loves! Just like her Momma :)

Princess time! She got a crown and wand too :)

the Princess in her tower, helping with dinner :)

Driving her new princess car! I can't find a pic of her bike...

So that pretty much sums up our holiday! I hope you all had a wonderful one and a happy New Year too! 2012 is gonna be a great year! :)



Thursday, May 19, 2011

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved." --Victor Hugo, Les Miserables--

The next phase of our trip was a quick little plane ride away to Utah. We were able to spend a lot of time with Amy and Calvin, who graciously let us stay with them half the time, and with Whit the other half. :) This time Evelyn was nice to Auntie Amy but didn’t quite warm up to Uncle Calvin as much (although it wasn’t just him, she was a tad off on most of the guys we met, which is probably due to the fact that her daddy is gone but oh well).

Anyway, we spent the first couple days with Amy, hit up some fabric stores, spent some time at the park, and just enjoyed being with them. Then we spent a couple days in Provo with Whitney and her hubby. One day we had lunch with Maria, which was absolutely wonderful. Not only did we get the wonderful opportunity of all three of us being together, we also got to enjoy the absolutely yummy food of Tucano's! It was supremely fabulous. The next day Whit and I had lunch and visited our good friend Emma. We’ve known her since freshman year. She married another freshman friend of ours and they are expecting a little boy at the end of the summer. We are so excited for her!!!! Part of the time with her we spent at the duck pond at BYU, mostly to entertain Evelyn while we gabbed away, but it was fun. Evelyn enjoyed it very much; she kept throwing the bread at the ducks and saying, eat! It was cute. I’m very glad we got to see Emma though! I haven’t seen her in a long time and am not a very good friend in keeping up like I should.

Maria and Whit at Tucano's eating the MOST DELICOUS Chocolate cake ever...Holy cow it was amazing!!!!!!!!


Evelyn at the duck pond.

The rest of the time with Whit was spent doing a little shopping (mostly more fabric :), and putting together/preparing the flowers for Maria’s wedding. I mostly helped with preparation and getting the boutonnieres and corsages together, which turned out great. We finished the rest of the flowers on the day of the wedding. I gotta say though, Whit did an amazing job! The bouquet was especially gorgeous and the arrangements for the tables turned out amazing as well. She’s certainly got an eye for that! I can do the corsages and such ok but am not good with the arrangements. She had a lot of fun (although slightly stressed) time doing it though and Maria saved a bunch of $$ having her do it! Flowers are expensive!!! Anyway…I loved spending time with Whit as well. We actually spent a lot of time together the week I was in Utah and I loved it!!! I miss her and Maria so much!!!! They are two of the bestest best friends I’ve ever had and I wish we could be closer to each other L. Darn that growing up and being responsible stuff. Blech. :)

One of Whit's amazing arrangements!!! They were so pretty!


Maria eating her bouquet...classic Maria...but aren't the flowers beautiful??? It weighed a TON though! :)

So anyway…..Thursday I went back to Amy’s and spent Friday hanging out and chilling before the chaos of the weekend commenced. Friday night Evelyn had some quality bonding time with Auntie Amy while I went up to Layton with Whit to see Maria, help out, and had some fun getting some goodies for Maria at Target when we didn’t have anything to do at the house. :) We had a lot of fun, felt like the fun ol’ times we used to have together. Man do I miss them!!! I am SOO happy that I was able to go to Utah for the wedding and be there for Maria. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! She is so amazing, her husband seems pretty awesome (Whit and I met him for the first time the day before the wedding so we don’t know him all that well yet but he seems awesome, he would have to be to marry Maria right? :),and her family is so incredible, I love the Pack’s! They are just the coolest family and so super nice to me and Whit.

The three of us the night before...not the most flattering pic of us but it had to be done :)

Anyways again…on with the wedding! Saturday I got up early, got all prettified and headed off to the temple with Whit! Her husband had a family graduation to go to so he didn’t get to go to the ceremony but in a way I was kinda glad. Since Mark wasn’t there and Rich wasn’t there, me and Whit had some more bonding time and it just felt right for Maria’s wedding. Might sound weird to you but we had an awesome experience there and it was just right for us :). Corny but true :) Whit knows what I mean. Anywho…the ceremony was wonderful; Whit and I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. It’s just such a happy, joyful time and, once again, I’m SOOOO glad I was there! Maria was utterly gorgeous, Gordon (her new hubby) looked very handsome, the weather was perfect, and it was overall a fantastic day!

We took lots of pictures after the ceremony, then picked up Evelyn and headed up to the wedding luncheon (which they had Famous Dave's cater, yum!!!) and then on to the Pack’s house to help prepare for the reception. Unfortunately Evelyn was a bit cranky and clingy so I wasn’t as much help to Whit as I was originally planning but everything go done in time and it all looked fabulous! The Pack’s live on a hill so their backyard is sloped but they kinda have it open/connected in a subtle way to their neighbors (they are really good friends) so there was plenty of room for all their guests and it was a pretty perfect spot for a reception! Whit, Rich (he came for the reception), Evelyn and I kinda just chilled, ate cake and enjoyed ourselves. The bride and groom were pretty much stuck in the receiving line the whole time so we kept to ourselves and had fun til we left.

SO there you go! That’s pretty much the end of my fabulous vacation. Evelyn and I had an uneventful (thank goodness again!) trip home, she slept most of the time which was wonderful. We got home in time for Mother’s Day dinner and enjoyed a nice night with the MO fam. Kinda the calm before the storm though cuz the whole next week Evelyn was teething with molars and this time she wasn’t too easy about it! But luckily that’s over and she’s fine now :). So, again, our trip was wonderful. I loved seeing all you family and friends and we miss you all! Hopefully I’ll get to go on a trip again next summer. I hate going for so long without seeing people! I’m very glad for email, texting, skype and all that but it’s just not the same as seeing them in person. That’s all for now though…so enjoy the pics! I have tons more on facebook and even more on my computer but blogger only lets me do so much. :) I'll just end with this quote, which the two quotes today are, of course, in honor of Maria :)

"Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another." --Victor Hugo, Les Miserables--

P.S.---sorry there is such a lack of pictures in this post, again...for some reason my first upload of pictures works fine and then anything I do after that doesn't work. So I'll just have to do another post with pictures later, from CA and UT. Sorry once again!

Monday, May 2, 2011

O Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out Along the trail to fame and glory.

I know it's not football season and I'm not actually in Provo but it's the first quote I could think of for Utah so there you go :) But I am in Utah now...my fun adventures to Cali are over and now I'm off to visit more friends and fam! I got in yesterday and am staying with Amy and Calvin for part of my trip and Whit down in Provo area for a couple days. I'm so excited to see her and Maria!!!!!!!!!!!! I looooved being in Cali and seeing the fam, don't get me wrong but now I'm here and excited for here! :)

I won't be posting on anything specific til I get home though so sorry no pics or anything. I'm just posting a quick update here while we're having a quiet minute here at Amy's. Tomorrow we're going to see Maria and Whit and go down to Provo for a couple days, see friends, shop a bit, and help get ready for the main event on Saturday! It's gonna be great!

Anywho, Evelyn is doing great, getting much more used to meeting/remeeting people and has been having fun getting lots of attention from everybody. My suitcases definitely are gonna be more full, mostly cuz of presents she's gotten from people! We're having a grand ol' time though and will be sad when it's over...although a little glad too, I'll be back to sewing (I've got another handful to stuff piled up from blogs from the past couple weeks on top of the stuff I already have! And some new fabric to use too!) and hopefully I'll get back into a scrapbook vibe cuz I've got lots to scrapbook from this trip! Love you all and miss all of you!!

Monday, February 21, 2011

And that's the wonderful thing about family travel: it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.

(This is a re-post of yesterday's post but with pictures!)

Boy did this weekend go by quick! Seems like we were just getting ready for everybody to get here and now they are all gone! Luckily we had a great weekend, got loooots of pics (of course), and had a ton of fun!

Ok so after hanging out with Amy for most of Friday, the Michael Erwin fam showed up prevening (that's a new word courtesy of my new favorite show, The Big Bang Theory :) We had a YUMMY dinner at one of our favorite local spots, Tony's Brick Oven Pizzeria...Seriously SO Good! Saturday we hung out, went to the outlets for some seriously good deals on baby clothes for Jessica (I got some summer dresses for Evelyn too), then headed over to the church, which was conveniently located on the parade route that day!

Jacob was trying to give Evelyn a kiss, too cute!

For once Evelyn is the only one looking at the camera! :)

Playin' around waitin' for the parade

Michael got Isabella and Jacob these delightful horns

The kids loved them though!

We sat in the shade and chilled til it started and had a good ol' time when it did! Mardi Gras Parades (family oriented ones that is....) are the ones to go to! Every single float is throwing out beads, candy, coupons, toys, etc....SO much more fun than regular parades. The kids had SO much fun and we got SOOOOOO many strings of Mardi Gras beads!!! I counted them when we got home and we got TWO HUNDRED strings! SO crazy!

Mardi Gras beads...woot woot! :)

Me and my Ebers!

Gettin' more beads!

Dance to the music!

Goofy girl!

All our beads!

After the parade, we took a potty break and then headed down to the beach! Isabella and Jacob were asking alllll day long to go to the beach and were SOOOO excited when we got there! They had SUCH a blast, Evelyn too! She loved playing with her big cousins and LOVED playing in the water! She hasn't tried to go in the water the other times we've gone but seeing the big kids go, she just had to follow and wouldn't come out! Isabella was so ecstatic to be at the beach and was just thrilled to be there and play. She was looking forward to it the most out of everything this weekend!

Family pic!

These two are SO cute!

Amy tryin' to look all cool in the sunset :)

Play time!

She was SO happy!

This is my all-time favorite picture..probably ever!!! I Just LOVE IT! So perfect!

Evelyn bein' nice to Auntie Amy!

You can't go to the beach without playin in the sand

Evelyn thought Isabella was SO funny!

So usually Evelyn doesn't go in the water but since the big kids were, off she went! Of course her diaper got soaking wet so I couldn't help but take this pic when we took it off :)

That night we had another deliciously yummy dinner from a place called Darwell's Cafe which has delicious BBQ and other things. They've been featured on Food Network's Diner's, Drive-in's, and Dives and totally deserved it! They are a great little joint, very quaint and quirky and delicious! Then we played games and that was the end of Saturday.

Sunday we went to church, ate lunch, and pretty much just hung out at our house/area for the rest of the day. The kids/dads played at the park for awhile while we girls hung out, then a bit of quiet/movie time, then dinner (enchiladas, which are always yummy and always a hit), followed by a quick little try at making beignets (I wanted to take them to a local place that makes them but unfortunately they only make them on weekdays :( ), and THEN had some DQ ice cream cake for my b-day! Overall pretty great day. Michael and Jessica had to leave Sunday night cuz of some stuff that came up that they had to do Monday but we were REALLY glad they came even just for a couple days! It was so great to have everyone together. The three siblings, and the rest of us, haven't all been together since Amy's wedding! Long time ago. :)


Delicioso!

haha....Amy looks pretty short next to these two :)

Brotherly love! ;)

Anywho....the Michael Erwin's left Sunday and then Amy left prevening on Monday so we got to spend most of the day with her again which was great. A stop at the fabric store and lunch at Chick-Fil-A made for a pretty decent day! :) We pretty much didn't do anything after everybody was gone, and today is gonna be the same since it's my b-day :) but tomorrow it's time to get workin'! I only have around 20 days til Mark leaves and then I leave!!!!!! I can't believe it and don't really want to think about it just yet but I have so much to do to prepare so I can't help but think of it...I just hope these next 9 months with him gone will go by as quick as these past 9 ones have! Anywho....really not gonna think about it today...time to chill on the couch with my baby and watch Dora and then maybe go on a walk in this people Mississippi weather we've been having!!! Have a great day!