Christmas 2013

How much fun is Christmas with a 15 month old??? SO MUCH FUN. She was thrilled to death when she came out of her room and saw the tree with all the presents under it. She said "AHHHHH"!!!! Because we were constantly telling her "No" when she tried to touch the tree, we decided it would be best to put all presents under it when she went to bed on Christmas Eve. 

So our BIG present to her was a trampoline. We aren't going to do Santa (cue the "WHAT?!?!?!" from everyone...), so this was from us. And she likes it, but doesn't love it yet. I just knew she would be thrilled and would jump like crazy, but her most favorite present is this pack of bottles I got her for her baby dolls. What can I say, she loves those babies!

 

Some other items she received (mainly from the grandparents)...

A stroller and pack and play for her babies, which she preceded to try to get in. She has already torn the pack and play lining because she sits in it.

A Minnie ball pit, which she loves to get in and kick all the balls around.

A grocery cart and groceries.

A cash register where she can put "Mon-Nah" [money].

Jarrod and I decided we would do stocking stuffers and buy a video camera as our big present. However; he also bought me an iPad mini (SCORE!). 

Sweet girl really racked up at Christmas. She had such a fun time opening up each present, but got bored after 2 or 3 of them. I look forward to the joy that Christmas brings every year, and its so much better with a child. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Blessed.

Hey!

This blogging hiatus is brought to you by FINALS WEEK!! Be back soon!

Blessed.

Insta-Sunday

Here's a glimpse into our week, hope you had a good Thanksgiving! I woke up with a sore throat and body aches on Thursday but it didn't slow me down :) As of today I am almost 100%!

Graceyn's aunt Leah babysat on Tuesday and by the looks of this picture they had a great time :) She came home at 7pm dead asleep and didn't wake up until 8 the next morning. I would guess they had a busy day!

Jarrod ran The Great Turkey Trot 5K in BG on Thanksgiving morning. It was his 2nd 5K. He said "take a picture of me in my gear" LOL!

The other 2 pics from this week were in my last post; Graceyn on Thanksgiving this year and last year. My how time flies...

Blessed.

Whew!!

Alright my semester is done and I finished all 3 classes with all A's!!! Now maybe I can blog a little and catch back up. 

We had a snow day a few weeks ago.. This girl loved wearing her mittens. And today it's currently 73 degrees outside. Kentucky how I love you :)

We are finishing up our Christmas shopping and prep. My birthday is December 7th, and I refuse to put a tree up until afterwards, add in being very busy with school/work/life and my tree didn't get put up until the 15th! But we absolutely love it, it's the prettiest tree we've ever had. The deco mesh really makes it beautiful.

And lastly a few Graceyn updates...

At her 15 month appointment she weighed 25 pounds and was 32 inches long. She received 3 shots and has handled them very well. As soon as Dr. Chris came in the room and moved towards her she lost her mind, which is all normal behavior. 

Some of my favorite things she is doing right now..

- We have ladybugs EVERYWHERE. She is scared of them and calls them "ick-a-bees". Not sure where she got that name from, but it's hilarious.

- When its bedtime she lays in bed and says "Mamaw, Papaw, Dada, Eee, Unk, Mama, Nana, etc." She talks to herself until she falls to sleep and we say she is saying her prayers :)

- She is like a parrot - she repeats everything. So you better watch out what you say around her!

Blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving from the Evans family and our little turkey!

2012

2013

Insta-Sunday

It's 1 am and I've been working on my final paper for the semester (WOOHOO!!). I've only put 2 pics on IG this week, I've just been busy!

Here's my pre-teen 14month old. How grown up does she look?? Loved her little UGG knock offs so much! She even has the pre teen look like "really mom?"

Sweet girl was beat today after church. Fell asleep on Mammaws shoulder.

That's all for now. Just a few more weeks in the semester, say a prayer for me if ya can!

Blessed.

Insta-Sunday

2 posts in one day? Wow! Prepare to not see me for weeks hahaha. Here's what we've been up to this week on IG!

I made pumpkin chocolate chip (yummy!!) muffins one night and tried to teach Graceyn how to lick the spoon. She can't lick but that doesn't stop her from tasting!!

Goofing around at work one night testing out some new goggles AKA ski goggles! Just a shameless selfie on my part.

I loved this and all the responses! I was Tinker Twinkle Toes and Graceyn is Stampy Pickles Pants. Jarrod is Pudding Pointy Ears.. Too fun!

Super Graceyn!! My sister Jamie got this for her birthday and I love to put it on her!

As always, hacked by my loves..

Blessed.

Weekend Getaway!

Yesterday I had class in Lexington so Jarrod and I decided it was the perfect time to have an overnight trip without Graceyn! Jarrod's mom came over so that we wouldn't have to wake G up and we left out around 4:30am. I was in class from 8-12, while Jarrod napped in the parking garage and killed time in LEX. After class we had lunch in a rough part of town, at the best Chinese restaurant ever! It's literally a hole in the wall - the lobby has 2 tables. It was interesting BC I thought we were gonna get robbed lol! Some crazy, sketchy acting dude came in and it felt all wrong! Thankfully nothing happened :)

Then we did what I have been looking forward to for 14 months - we napped for as long as we wanted to LOL!! 3 HOURS!! At least I did, Jarrod stayed up watching TV.

That night we met some friends from Louisville and ate dinner downtown at deSha's. We had a 2nd story window seat so we had the best view overlooking downtime Lexington! After dinner (which was delish!) we enjoyed some Starbucks time and talking. Although the weather was nice the wind was chilly so we walked around for just a few minutes looking at everything. They have a beautiful fountain in the middle of downtown so we took some pics. These are the only ones of the whole trip!

We returned to the hotel and stayed up past 1am! So much for catching up on sleep, we were up at 8:30 for breakfast (couldn't miss out on continental buffet lol)

Now we are journeying home. We have misses our girl, doubt she has missed us! We facetimed her a few times and she would kiss us and go on about her business!

We are thankful for technology and grandparents allowing us a getaway this weekend!

Blessed.

Insta-Sunday

(On Monday) whoops. And not published until Tuesday (double whoops). 

Graceyn in her made my mom and Mammaw WKU outfit. Cute girl.

Eating breakfast with Daddy before he went to work.

Jarrod got him a big ol' buck on the first day of gun season! A 200lb 10-pointer.. He also got a doe a few minutes later. There's gonna be lots of meat in the freezer! And now I have to find some way to incorporate his head into my decor. Lol!

And lastly, this silly girl. What I would have given for her to take a pacifier when she was a baby... Thankful though that was one less thing to break her from. But she found this and enjoyed playing with it!

Blessed.

Wedding Weekend

A few weeks ago we celebrated the marriage of my brother in law and my new sister in law! The wedding was on October 19 in IL close to St. Louis. I already blogged about what a terrible sleeper G was, and that was the excitement of the trip, aside from the wedding!

Jarrod married Jordan and Leah. He didn't even have to get online certified lol! The county they filed their marriage license in said as long as the couple saw him as a minister then he was a minister to them. He was so nervous, but he did a wonderful job! We got them the Bible above with their names engraved and gave it to them after the wedding. It was the Bible Jarrod used to preach the wedding. How sentimental!

They had a small(ish) wedding, family only! It was in a barn and it was just beautiful, Leah did a great job thinking it up! The picture above is all the guests forming a heart around the newlyweds. The parents and grandparents formed the peak of the heart. I was skeptical how this would turn out, but I was blown away when I saw it!!

And lastly the (beaming) bride and groom.

We are so excited to add a new Evans to the family - Welcome Leah!!

All pictures are copyright Monica Wolff Photography.

Blessed.

Insta-Sunday

Since this is all I can ever remember to blog about...

This girl was into everything one day this week! She climbed in the drawers and the dryer all by herself. She was so proud.

In honor of National Best Friends day this is Graceyn and her BFF Aubree. Aubree is 6 months older than Graceyn, and half giant ;)

My little strawberry on Halloween. She was "berry" cute!

Jarrod hacked my IG one night and posted this jewel.

We had some good friends get married on Saturday in Wichita. Unfortunately I had to work so we couldn't make the trip. I posted this picture of our dialysis machine with a congratulations message.. I told them I had to save some lives that day... ;)

What a week! Graceyn turned 14 months on Friday and she just amazes me every day. Today she was hiding behind the couch and she looked out at us and said "peek-a-boo" just as serious as she could be. Jarrod and I laughed forever over that!

Blessed.

I'm so domestic!

Ha. At least I'm trying to be.

Anyways, when I found out I was pregnant I knew immediately I wanted to breastfeed for as long as I could. I wanted to do whatever I could to benefit my daughter. I watched several women struggle with this during my pregnancy and I wondered if I even could?!? 

So I turned to research. I wanted to educate myself the best I could on breast feeding, and I feel like I did. I knew a natural delivery would allow oxytocin to be released which would greatly benefit my breastfeeding journey.

Thankfully we had no issues with latch, milk production, nipple confusion, etc. and she nursed for over 9 months! However she refused a pacifier, which I'm thankful for, but it would have been a nice option ;)

Anyways, I also knew that I would try to feed her as much whole and organic foods as we could. So I set my mind on making her baby food. I didn't have a fancy schmancy baby brezza (or whatever!).. I had ice cube trays and a one cup food processor. And you know what? IT WORKED FINE! I made everything for her to eat and froze it for future feedings. She loved it! She even ate it partially frozen, poor deprived child... 

Once we started branching out to different things to snack on (fruit snacks, cereal bars, crackers) I realized I could probably make them too.. So today I took the fruit snack plunge head first!! And it was a SUCCESS! 

See? The 2 empty ones are from Jarrods taste testing.

Simple and easy.. Here's the recipe!

2/3 cup juice concentrate (I added a little more after I measured, so maybe 3/4 cup)

1 box (4 packets) unflavored gelatin

Both ingredients were a little over $1.00. So I would say I spent $2.50 max on these.

Pour the juice in first and then the gelatin. Let sit for 5 mins.

Simmer over medium heat until gelatin is dissolved. Pour into molds (or if you don't have any like me - a mini muffin pan! 

Simple, delicious and 100% fruit juice with no added sugars or preservatives!

Graceyn says YUM.

Blessed.

Insta-Sunday

I'm attempting to make this a weekly post, since I obviously struggle with posting!!

I worked up 2 large pumpkins this week. I yielded about 26 cups of pumpkin between the 2.. It's a lot of work; pumpkins are slimy and slippery and I used a LARGE knife. Thankfully (and just barely) I still have all my fingers ;) I'm looking forward to pumpkin pie, pumpkin butter, and pumpkin muffins! 

This is "my pretty" at uncle Jordan's wedding. I die with the cuteness. That cheesy grin warms my heart!

Haha. Tonight Pappaw came out carrying Graceyn in her old infant seat! It was a flashback for sure!

This is how Graceyn helps me organize her clothes. I'm not sure how I ever did anything without her help!

This was a repost from a friend at church. This is the youth of the BOC (Body of Christ) singing at a camp meeting. Every year in June and October our churches from all over come together for this meeting. Amazing.

Until next week... Or sooner, hopefully!

Blessed.

Insta-Sunday

Since I have nothing to post about here lately I've decided to post some pics from my Instagram! My brother in law got married this weekend so I'll post about that sometime in the near future!

Jarrod and Graceyn napping this morning before church. She hasn't slept

well away from home this trip, so this was a nice break for all of us ;)

Texting my friend Jessica about our not so great sleeper....

I visited the restroom at UK's College of Nursing and I was so delighted to see this sign! They even had a private area with a curtain, some chairs and tables, and access to an outlet! Having breastfed Graceyn for over 9 months, I've had my fair share of scouring for places to feed in private!

Jarrod hacked my phone and IG and posted this pic of me studying before my test at UK. Yuck.

A #tbt (throwback Thursday) picture of my baby girl. One of my favorites of her, back talking me I'm sure.

This was a repost from a friend at church. Silly girl!

My bracelet for Ryman Little. Ryman has had 2 liver transplants and she is only 6 months old. Her mother and Jarrod went to school together. Follow her at:

.

http://rymanalilittle.wordpress.com/

Blessed.

Stay at home mom?

So I had the pleasure of taking this past week off from work and spending time with my girl. We had the absolute BEST time! We slept in until 9 every day (woohoo!) and just played all day long.

Before she was born I said I would never want to be a stay at home mom. I love to work and I couldn't imagine being home day in and day out. After she was born I took 12 weeks off to stay home with her, and I was more than ready to go back to work! She wasn't a good sleeper and she was generally fussy, so I always needed a break :)

Now that she has become so independent and a great sleeper (and napper!) I kind of wish I could stay home with her. I know that this feeling wouldn't last forever, and eventually I would want to to back to work. But for now I wish I could hang out with her whenever I wanted to and go to work whenever I wanted to. I can wish, right??

So for now I will wish... And one of these days I'll work LindseyPRN (aka when I want to, not when I'm needed!)

Blessed.