"The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosum of my family." --Thomas Jefferson--

Well Evelyn and I have been home from our Missouri trip for two weeks now so I guess it's about time that I do some blogs! Although it just might end up being one looooooong one so there's your warning. :) Anyway, we got to MO without any troubles, Evelyn was a good little traveler and was very excited to see her Grandpa at the airport. For those of you who don't know, my dad has called Evelyn "Dora" since last year when we lived there cuz she watched Dora so much....so anyway, when I told her Grandpa was picking us up at the airport she looked at me and said, "I'm not Dora, I'm Evelyn." She has been particular about being called Evelyn for awhile and I guess wanted to make sure that Grandpa didn't call her Dora anymore. :) anyway...I thought that was funny and so did he. :) She pretty much talked the whoooole way home from the airport, which my dad had a laugh over...she just kept going til she nodded off! Silly girl.....

The first day there we actually had a baby shower for me. I wanted to have it with my family this time so we had it right away because Sierra was visiting from Alaska and was gonna leave in a couple days. So part of my going for so long was to see her! I missed my Cici! :) Anyway...the shower was pretty low-key...Grammy put up some cute decorations and made some good food....and the fam came and then three of my very best high school friends, Rori, Jeanie, and Cheryl, and on of my very good church friends, Shauna, with her fiance (the other reason for my visit, I went to her wedding...more on that later though!). So it wasn't a huge turn out but the people I really wanted to see were there and the others I knew I'd see later so it all worked out. We pretty much just sat around talking and eating and such, which was fine with me! I'm not such a fan of the baby shower games/awkwardness. So yeah! I got quite a few clothing items for baby boy and then a few other things....like an Alabama hat from Auntie Monie and a cute Navy baby blanket from Grammy! So that was a fun evening!

My Momma's cute decor for the shower...she hung up a "laundry line" of old baby clothes...so cute!

and then added little things around like this old baby doll and carriage and booties...

And this is the super cute accordion album Auntie Annie made for me! I wanted it for the shower to have people write down advice/etc on but it never happened and all my friends that came anyway didn't have kids...sooo I'm just gonna use it for a mini-album of the baby after he's born. I love it though Annie! Thanks again!

After that things were fairly chill....we didn't really do a whole lot while we were there! Just hung out with the fam, ran errands for Grammy, played a lot with the cousins...Evelyn LOVED having a playmate pretty much all the time. She loved seeing Kady, Jeremiah, and Tani especially, and everyday had a different "best friend" depending on who was there to play :) Some fun things we did with them were playing at the park quite a few times (she got to sit in a real firetruck at one of the parks one day), playing at Auntie Emily's, and going to the pool a couple times! Evelyn really enjoyed that, although I got burnt pretty nice the first time....luckily she didn't! The fam also did a bonfire one night with hot dogs and s'mores...yum! So pretty much just some nice family time all around :)

Evelyn got to spend a lot of quality time with Grammy during the trip though because I was able to take some pictures while I was there! It had been a loooong while since I'd taken any than ones for me so I was actually kinda nervous but all around I was pretty happy with how they all turned out! The first ones I did were engagements for my friend Jeanie. She was a good person to start back with because she just has a natural/good smile and was relaxed and just kinda went with whatever so I was able to focus on getting back in the groove of things again. Her fiance wasn't too excited about taking pics but that tends to be the case a lot I think :) I still need to blog all the sessions I did on my other blog but I'll put one or two on here of what I did as well....so here's the happy couple!

a little haze action....

they brought their dogs for the end shots :)

The next session I did was for my sister Emily's good friend Hillary and her family. Emily met her through foster care (they both have foster babies right now and things are looking good for Hillary to adopt her little chubby boy...he's pretty darn cute! I can't post any of him online yet though so the ones I've posted are just Hillary, her husband, and their little boy...who is ADORABLE!). They live out in the country so they had some nice areas to take some pics in. I looved the wheat field, such a pretty golden color! My favorite though was the ones I took of their little boy...toooo cute!

I think this is my favorite shot...of the session and one of my favs ever! adore it! :)

The other family session I did was for Asa and Aubree McMains...my first repeat customer! That was also a little nerve-wracking to do but luckily they chose a very different location this time and were a little more "relaxed" (clothes-wise and with the kiddos) so it was a different shoot/feeling to it. We went to Powell Gardens (a place in MO) and pretty much just followed the kids around the trails until we saw a spot they liked or the kids liked :) It definitely was a challenging session though, besides it being a repeat customer, it was just difficult getting good group shots! With four young kids who just wanna play and two adults trying to keep everyone together...it can get kinda hectic! :) Luckily last time she was really happy with the individuals and wanted good ones of each of the kids, which I got definitely (her one little boy was such a cutie all by himself but almost refused to smile/look when it was a group shot), and I did get some good group ones so I was happy with how that all turned out too :) I'm glad it worked out to do some pics while I was home though! I've wanted to do more but with moving twice since November and to a brand new area where I know like one person....well that tends to slow things down :) I am gonna do another engagement session for a couple we met here....the guy works with Mark and I've become friends with the gal (Evelyn adoooores her!) so I'm excited for that soon.

Other than those three all's I did was pics for the family. Emily. of course, had me take some but mainly of just Jeremiah and her little foster girl, who's SO cute! But can't post any of her yet either :( Then I tried to take some of Monie's kiddos...I got some of Kellen (he was following me around like a puppy trying to get my camera), but Kady wasn't being too cooperative and then we didn't get around to trying again. Then I did do some of Mellisa's kids for her the last night I was there, which turned out pretty cute! We tried some pics inside, which didn't go so well, then we went outside and I went out with the kiddos by myself and then it went better. I've read a lot to get good pics of the kids you gotta just tell the parents to go away for a bit and it's totally true! :) It also helps that there's only one person telling them what to do rather than multiple. But anywho...here's some of those pics!

Other than all those I really didn't take many pictures while I was home! I did get some pics of Evelyn with her cousins, which I printed yesterday and hung in her room, she was excited about that!

Love this one of Kady and Evelyn! 

Miah calls Evelyn Dora too :)

So on with the trip! The last weekend I was there was my friends wedding. On Friday I went up to KC with my dad to the temple, he did a session and I went to the sealing ceremony for Shauna and her fiance/now hubby Jeremy! I was excited to go to her wedding cuz, well she's my friend and it's always exciting to see a friend get married, and another cuz I got to see/go inside the KC Temple! It's so pretty and I wish I could have done a session to see more of it since I didn't get to go to the Open House but another time I guess! I'm so glad it's done though, and I know my parents are too! They used to have to drive to St. Louis to the temple there, which is a good 3 1/2 hours one way and now they can get to one in almost 2! Much better drive :) Anyway, I'm excited it's there and am so excited to have been able to go to Shauna/Jeremy's sealing! I've been to quite a few of my friend's sealings and probably won't have anymore to go to for a long while! But they are always amazing and wonderful and I'm always so happy to witness it :)

The Kansas City Temple!

And the new couple!

I'll include a pic of myself with the couple just as proof that I do show up in pics once and awhile... :)

The next day I went back to KC (I took the McMains pics that morning and then spent the day by myself in the city shopping, had lunch with Emily, enjoyed some time off....so nice!). Then that night I went to Shauna's reception, which was very nice, got to talk to Shauna a bit more, visit with another friend, ate some good wedding cake...and then went home! It was a long day, enjoyable but long.

They really went for it...and then went back and smooshed some more! they're such a fun couple. 

So yeah! That's pretty much the sum up of my trip! Not extremely, horribly exciting, but I'm glad I got to go home and see everyone and I know Evelyn loved it. She sure does miss everybody and so do I! I got my family fix in, plus a Chipotle/Hobby Lobby/Panera/Good BBQ fix (totally not a fan of Carolina BBQ...so disappointing!)...so overall great trip home! :)

My little farm girl! :)

"Think of stretch marks as pregnancy service stripes."

I had my next appointment today...an ultrasound/quick visit with the dr. since Friday they said I was measuring "small". So I went, sonogram looked good, got some pics, talked to the dr. This one (I don't get to see the same one every time, which I understand some of their reasons for doing that but it's also pretty annoying! I'd like some consistency....) said I was measuring right on track and that according to the ultrasound measurements, the baby is measuring 29-30 weeks (I'm almost 28) with his weight- which they measured to be 2 lbs 12 oz. So he's pretty much doubled weight since the last ultrasound...a month ago...where he was 1 lb 5 oz. Anyway, so kind of a pointless visit in a way but they did give me a 3D pic this time so that was kinda cool! He wasn't cooperating very well by the time she took them though and had turned around/pushed his face up against the backside so she couldn't get a very good image. this was the best she got. Still pretty cute!  So yeah! That's the update there....super exciting right? :) 

And now for some other pics of my rambunctious, crazy little 2 year old....too lazy to make a separate post for it :) I've had a frustrating day with her (no nap didn't help! :( and I've still gotta finish packing for our trip but here's some pics from this weekend before I forget about them. She and Mark played outside for a long while on the slip'n'slide, which she LOVES! It was pretty funny. She won't run and slide like you're supposed to and instead just runs down it, slowly, or has Mark launch her down it. Very cute and super funny. I had fun taking pics of her doing it :)

Love this one!

and this one :) Such joy! :)

And this one is just cute :)

they ended the afternoon with a pool tea party

cheers!

she likes to poor the nice cooooollldddd water down Mark's back...he doesn't like it as much :)

And there's that! So lucky you get an extra post before I go to MO! We're so excited about it! Evelyn's been talking and talking and wanting to go for DAAYS!! She's so excited to go on a plane and see her Grammy and her Miah! Hopefully this cranky day doesn't lead into tomorrow......anywho....til the next time I post! Can't make any promises of when...MO is gonna be busy! :)

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." --George Bernard Shaw--

Well I figured I'd better do a post since it's been awhile and also I'm going to MO in FIVE days so I know I won't post while I'm there (maybe) but I'll have stuff to post when I'm back! So let's see...what have we been up too....there's actually not a whole lot...things have been kinda slow here lately. A lot of my projects are done or are in progress/at a stopping point cuz I need Mark to help and he's been busy lately. We did finally stain our table we bought in November, just need to finish it off/buff it and find some chairs for it....but I really love it!   Another project I had for the kitchen was to find an island for the HUGE empty space we have and I found one on craigslist for cheap and re-did it....well painted the bottom black and re-finished the top a bit...sanded it up and put butcher block on it. I really love that too, nice to have some actual prep space! I'm eventually gonna have Mark add some height to it though cuz it's a bit low but for now it works!

Well this is actually a before shot but just imagine the legs/shelves/drawer black and a finished up top :)  pretty basic little island but it works! 

Another project we finally did was build our garden box! We've started a lot of seeds in small pots and knew we were eventually gonna need a box so we got that done a couple weekends ago. Mark's so proud of it! :) He's more into it than I am. Evelyn enjoys going to check the plants with him everyday/watering them when it hasn't rained (although it's rained EVERY DAY this week!!!! getting sick of it.....).

Evelyn helping daddy plant some of our things in the new box. 

and our full garden! Our tomato plant and onions are doing the best so far, oh and two things of garlic popped up too.  we'll see how it all goes/tastes though! :) 

I did do this project one night when it was storming....I had randomly picked up a can of chalkboard spray paint to do something for Evelyn (still will since there's some left) and I saw something similar to this on Pinterest so I decided to do it! I have a fairly good sized wall space by the kitchen where I had a calendar hanging but there was a lot of space so I decided just to fill it with a big chalkboard calendar! I really love it, super cute and fun! :) Unfortunately regular chalk doesn't work very well with textured walls-super hard to read- so I found some chalkboard markers at Michaels which work GREAT! So that was a fun quick project to do.

As for Miss Evelyn...she's been keeping busy playing with her babies, coloring/painting, and forever wanting to play with her "best friend" across the street. She gets along really well with our neighbor kids and loooves Maddie especially. They play princess and dress up and it's so cute! She wants to play over there all the time though which her begging definitely gets old! Maddie is five though and goes to kindergarten half the day and Evelyn wants to go too! Gotta enroll her in some classes or something soon :) Anyway, we go to the park a lot with them (my neighbor has three kids, two girls and a boy, she's super nice and I enjoy spending time with her while the kids play, so nice to have a good neighbor!). Evelyn is still doing really well with her potty training. We've started going out without a pull-up on and she's done really well! She's also gone quite a few days without wearing them during nap time so next up is bedtime without one! She almost always wakes up with a dry pull up so I'm thinking I could probably do it now without a problem. So soon :)

Evelyn LOVES finger painting :) although she's getting messier and messier with it :)

Evelyn and her best friend, maddie! they're so funny together

cute little momma! She seriously takes her baby everywhere now...wraps it up nice and cute with her little blanket I made her, puts it in the backpack or stroller or car seat..puts it in bed...gives it a "bath"...does laundry for when it "poops" in it's blanket.... So cute and so funny!!

One project I've done for Evelyn this past week was a new Sunday dress! She's outgrown a few of hers...well they fit but are too short :)...so I've been keeping my eye out for some at the stores but then just decided to actually make one of the HUNDREDS I've saved on pinterest or blogger :) So I went through them and decided on the Junebug Dress from craftinessisnotoptional.com, my favorite place to get pattern tutorials for Evelyn! I love how cute her patterns are and they're pretty simple to do too, and most importantly, easy to understand :) Evelyn wanted a purple dress so I found one of the only purple prints I had and luckily had JUST enough to do this dress....but then I messed up on the sleeves anyway and decided to just leave them out and put the bias tape trim on it to make a slight cap type sleeve and it turned out really cute! This was my first time ever doing button holes too, which weren't as bad as I thought, even doing them without a button hole foot, so that was nice to finally learn how to do! Anywho...here's pics of the dress!

She was in a "posey" mood when I took these :)

So cute! :)

with a sneaky little streak....

and a bratty streak...

but always cute :) I adore this dress on her! Definitely making another one :)

I did make another little outfit for Evelyn today that I actually cut out/started in MS and finally finished today but didn't take any pictures and I'm not quite sure how happy with it I am. I'll have to try it on her again tomorrow and see if I want to alter it to make it better or what....kinda sad though cuz the pattern looked cute and I LOVE the fabric I used! Sad I wasted it on something I don't really like :(

Other than that one of the big things that happened this month was that Mark and I celebrate our 4th anniversary! Hard to imagine it's only been four years! We didn't really do much to celebrate since it was on a Wednesday but we made a nice dinner to celebrate and Mark sent me some beautiful flowers. :) Then the Saturday before we went on a lunch date and to see a movie. Our super nice neighbor watched Evelyn so we could go out, I couldn't even remember when the last time we had gone out so it was really nice! We didn't really do anything much as far as presents go....we've been doing a lot for around the house since we moved and getting some things we've been wanting for awhile, like our grill (I looove to grill!), so we considered those as gifts for each other instead :) Although I did get Mark this awesome clothes folder. I was gonna give it to him for Father's day but had it done already so I gave it to him. :) We both LOVE "The Big Bang Theory" and one of the characters on it uses this in every scene they show him folding laundry and Mark said he'd actually like to have on (he has a looooot of shirts to fold with his uniforms) so I got it! I added my own special something on it though and on the side you flip up at the end painted "Bazinga" which is a catch phrase from the character on the show. Pretty funny if you watch the show :)

 

mmm! Love roses! smell so good

Bazinga!!!

And last but not least, a little baby update! I had an appointment today...which I got to do the every so fun glucose test, but I passed thank goodness! I didn't with Evelyn and had to do the three hour one...ugh! No thanks! Anyway...the dr. said the baby's heartbeat is good but I'm measuring a little small to my date so I'm going in for an ultrasound next week to check the baby's measurements/weight. I'm just tall and have a long torso though so I'm chocking it up to that and so is the dr. but I guess better to double check! I've been doing pretty good though...the baby is moving a lot more now and I can tell a lot more when he shifts/changes positions him than I did with Evelyn, well that I remember anyway. :) One day I'll be fine, the next I'll have back pressure/pains....then he shifts and I feel him majorly on the right...few days later I don't feel him as much cuz he's further back...so that's interesting I guess :) not much else to tell really! I'm 27 weeks as of yesterday...only 13 to go! Which sounds like a long time but it's really not! I'm getting really excited to have a little baby around though and can't wait to meet him! Evelyn is a lot more aware now that my tummy is getting bigger. She goes around the house sticking her tummy out, making it bigger since mine is :) She was also very interested in the dr. checking my tummy cuz she remembered from the last visit that the dr. listened to the baby.  She also talks about the baby more, although she still INSISTS it's a girl... :)

sorry for the ridiculously poor quality pic but this was taken at 25 weeks :) I hate doing these pics...

 SO there you go! That's pretty much all there is to catch up on! Hopefully we'll have some more exciting things to share from our trip to MO :) So til then! Love you all!

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~Ruth Stout

A couple weekends ago we got out of the house and drove to a nearby town and went to a strawberry farm! North Carolina is surprisingly full of them but I'm not gonna complain cuz fresh strawberries are sooo yummy! :) Anyway, a lot of the farms have it where you can pick your own so we decided to do that and it was pretty fun! Evelyn really enjoyed it anyway, which was the main point of it, next to getting fresh strawberries :) Anywho...here's some cute pics from our outing!

how oober cute is she??? Love her in purple :)

I love this pic!

she was very selective of the strawberries she picked :)

of course we had to test one out too :)

eating some homemade strawberry ice cream at the farm! So good!

We spent a little more time in the area, having lunch and going to the beach of course! Evelyn just loooves the beach so much! Her and Mark just play and play and I sit and relax and it's just wonderful. I got a lot of reading done that day :)

Cutey patootey :)

Mark buried her feet in the sand

and saw if she could get out by herself :)

she did it! :)

Evelyn is afraid of the water so this is her "swimming" at the beach

Evelyn's been LOVING her baby dolls lately and will put them in different places throughout the day...usually it's wrapped up in a blanket for naptime but this day it had potty time! :) 

Mark and Evelyn playing "monsters" in the backyard....they run at each other, yelling, and mark jumps over her....yeah....no clue how they came up with that or why it's called monsters but whatever! :)

Evelyn is FINALLY potty trained!!! It's been so frustrating and then she finally started to get better and little by little decided it wasn't as horrible as she thought! :) So everytime she went she'd get a pom pom to put in a jar and when she filled it up we got her a big treat...she chose to get baby doll stuff! So we got a little set at Target with playard, backpack,  etc. and a stroller and she's been playing with them so much! This is her with her stroller but it's covered up by the baby doll blanket, I made her a couple so she could put her babies to bed easier :) So cute! Today she took her baby in it's car seat and carried it with her in the stores we went too, super cute too! :) But yeah! SO glad she's finally going! Now just gotta work on training her when we go out and at bed time.... 

enjoying a nice Sonic drink on a HOT day! :)

me and my girl!

helping daddy wash the car

Anywho! So that's all for today...I'm sure I have more I could blog/write about but it's been a long day and I'm not thinking well enough to put one together so today is mostly just pictures! :) Enjoy!