evanisms.

this sweet boy cracks us up all the time! he is a sponge and a parrot and we love, love, love the stage he is in – tantrums, stubbornness, and all :)

what our little man is up to…

• i always call e my baby boy but he is very quick to say “no mommy, i not baby boy, i big boy!”
• when he wakes up in the morning, he loves to snuggle and watch cartoons. i could do this forever!
• he melts my heart when he says “mommy, i happy”
• he will remember just about anything you tell him. many times, before nap, i will tell him what we’re doing after nap and invariably, he wakes up and the first words out of his mouth are what i told him we would do {“mommy, make brownies?”}
• if you tell him “i love you,” he has started saying “i love you” back. sometimes he will say, “no, i love you!”
• he will tell you to “stay right there. i be right back.”  yes bossy britches.
• he hates wearing a jacket and will throw a fit when you put it on him but when you get outside, he’ll say “mommy, i not cold. i have my jacket!” goober!
• he was singing the war hymn the other day and busted out “sounds like hell!” haha!! he can get away with that :)
• he loves making his sister laugh and once they’re going, you can’t stop them – goofy kiddos!!
• “no mommy, i do it” is a common phrase in our house.
• he has recently discovered what being tired means so we hear “daddy/mommy, i tired” all the time!
• evan is constantly putting together bigger and bigger sentences and amazes us with what he knows!

i know there is a lot more that i am forgetting! we love this kid more than we could ever have imagined and can’t wait to see what he comes up with next!!

thanksgiving.

was crazy!!! actually, it wasn’t that bad but we ended up having 2 thanksgivings – one on thursday and one on saturday. add the aTm/tu football game to the mix and that makes for one busy couple of days! thursday, we ended up having thanksgiving at our house and had such a great time! i cooked my first turkey {breast:)} and it wasn’t half bad. we all brought side dishes and it was so yummy!! we had quite the crowd too which meant the munchkins were having a ball with all of the attention!

before dinner…

food time…

post dinner…

we headed out after thanksgiving dinner to the aggie game where came up a little short – ugh!

on saturday, we had another thanksgiving when kelcie got in town {but aunt ashley was still out of town getting engaged to uncle mike:)}. it was another yummy meal and the kiddos had a blast running around like crazies!! unfortunately the camera never left the bag – dang it!  we had a great thanksgiving break and can’t wait to catch up with the rest of our family soon!!!!

11 months.

height & weight: we’ll find out at her 1 year appt

this month has been much better than the last! avery has turned into our little “drama mama” and wants to do everything her brother is doing {he’s not such a fan of this new development!}. i can tell she is absorbing so much and has been a blast to be around! she is finally sleeping through the night again like a pro! this mommy & daddy are beyond excited about this! here’s a little more of what our princess is up to…

avery is:

• now using a paci. she discovered them shortly after she turned 10 months old and is a bit obsessed. i also think they are helping her sleep through the night so whatever! she will crawl in her room to get them out of her crib but we try to limit them to sleeping times and when she is really tired.
• crawling everywhere! i forgot how hard this stage is because when we’re out, she wants to be down but i’m not necessarily a fan of her crawling on all of the icky floors. c’mon walking!
• pulling up and cruising around everywhere. she walks behind her cars quite easily and is pretty fast! she’ll also walk with you holding her hands but will fall to the ground as soon as you drop either hand she wants to hold. i think she just needs to realize she can do it but we’ll see.
• standing by herself occasionally but will fall to the floor as soon as she realizes she is doing it.
• still wearing a size 4 diaper.
• wearing 18 to 24 month clothes for the most part although she can still fit in some of her 9 month shirts and dresses and occasionally sports a 2T.
• eating all table food and is a complete mess!! she loves it though so whatever.
• getting formula twice a day {she was only doing once a day but her dr wanted her to get more so we added back the morning}. shortly after she turned 10 months, i got worried that she was taking too many bottles and basically eating all day and that would be a problem when we went to drop bottles at 1. we started by dropping a bottle at a time and it didn’t seem to phase her. before we knew it, she was just taking a bottle at night before bed {8oz}. we added the morning one back {6oz} when she wakes up but put it in a sippy cup.
• napping once a day for about 1.5-2.5 hours. she usually goes down around 12 or 1. occasionally she will take 2 naps but that is very rare.
• saying “dadadada” and “mamamama” as well as “uh uh oh” {uh oh}, “didi” and will blow you kisses but instead of the normal kissing noise, she clucks her tongue when she puts her hand to her mouth.
• actually getting in her front 4 teeth. we thought it was only 2 but on closer inspection {you know, when you have her turned upside down playing:)}, there are 4 that are coming in. they are all the way through, just pushing out a bit more.
• still a mommy’s girl in every sense! she’s fine as long as i am not in the room.
• also a daddy’s girl! if she hears his voice or sees him walk in a room, she gets a huge grin on her face and goes crazy!
• thinks her brother hung the moon! she wants to do what he’s doing always! it’s very sweet and we hope that one day, evan will think so too :)
• all about her brother’s trains and he is not a fan!
• a climber! i think she will try to escape her crib long before evan does. she climbs up on evan’s chair to then climb up on the couch. you have to watch her or she will be on the back of the couch before you know it.
• in love with her dogs. she thinks they are hilarious! rylea puts up with more from her than she did with evan – grumpy puppy!
• STUBBORN! her way or the highway!
• a complete stinker – plain and simple!

we are loving this little girl so much! she keeps us laughing every day and is a complete mess!! we can’t wait to see what she’ll do next!

& the outtakes as always…

aTm v ku.

because it was a gorgeous day and the game time was perfect, we decided to take e to another aggie football game. last time, he slept through the entire second half but this time, he made the entire game!! he only went below the stands twice – once to get something to eat and once to get his diaper changed! pretty impressive!

he was so excited for the game and didn’t stop talking about it from the minute we told him he was going {wednesday night – it was a long few days:)}. he really got into the war hymn, loved sawing varsity’s horns off, the aggie band, and singing “aggies” {aka spirit}.

aunt ashley & uncle mike also came along making it that much more fun! luckily, the aggies dominated so we were happy campers once the game was over.

watching cars…

the entire corps forming the block t…

e fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the car and slept through most of “lupper” – the kid was tired!!! it’s so fun getting to see him experience and understand so much more!

avery jo had a blast being the sole recipient of attention from her nanny & vanpa! she was so busy she had to take 2 naps to keep up!

dewberry farm.

we finally made it out to dewberry farm this year and i have to say, i don’t think we’ll be heading out there any earlier again!  the weather was GORGEOUS and there wasn’t a ridiculous number of people there. dewberry added a few “rides” this year – one of which was evan’s favorite!!

pre-dewberry nap… 
 
& some dewberry fun…
     
    



 

the aftermath…at 530 in the afternoon…unheard of…
 

we had a blast!! thanks for coming with us nanny & vanpa!! can’t wait to go again next year!

fun at the zoo.

bri had the day off of work for veteran’s day and played stay at home dad for the day – jealous!! when i got off of work, we decided to head to the zoo for a quick trip before dark. to get evan moving, we told him he had to hurry or the animals would be asleep. his answer to this was “eban wake the animals up mommy.” duh!! :) we heard about the sleeping animals all night!

fortunately, we didn’t run into too many sleeping animals! we hit the major exhibits before it got too dark – tigers, lions, elephants, giraffes, cheetahs, monkeys, and the komodo dragon. so fun!

after going to see the animals, we had worked up quite the appetite. there was a little cafe just o

outside the zoo on the edge of the water. they had a little outside seating area that had trees strung with lights. it was such a fun little place!! their food was pretty good too – custom grilled cheese – yes, please!!!

the view…

the crew…