This is the Place

 A few Saturdays ago we attended a (big) family reunion at a Pioneer Park.  We got to go free, which was really nice.  There were pony rides:

 Jared got a shave at the barber shop:

 The kids loved playing on a boat modeled after a boat (The Brooklyn) pioneers took all the way around the tip of South America to California:

Panning for "gold"

 We rode a mini train, too, although we had to stop and wait for a family of geese to cross the tracks.

Jared and Maggie loved the waterfall that was part of the landscape

 We look forward to the reunion next summer so we can go again!

Water Fun

In addition to have a pass to the local waterslide park, we've been having lots of fun in swimsuits close to home.  Alan's aunt and uncle gave us a fun hose-hookup that the kids have loved running around in in the backyard.

We also have two splash pads close to our house.  If we get there right when it opens, sometimes we get the place to ourselves!

I love this smile!  It is usually quite hard to get her to smile and look at the camera at the same time!

Evy's Baby Blessing

Thanks for teaching Jared to photo bomb, Shawna and Laura. :) 

Alan gave Evelyn her baby blessing at the beginning of June.  She was wearing the same blessing dress that Maggie wore.  The dress was crocheted by my good friend Jennie, who also taught me to crochet about 7 years ago. The baby booties were made by my great-grandma (I think), and my siblings and I all wore them at our baby blessings, and all three of my children have now worn them.

Evelyn's blessing was beautiful, and she was our first baby to sleep through the whole thing.  Yea!  I'm so grateful Alan has the priesthood.

We love this angel!

Donut Falls

Halfway up the hike

Over Memorial Day weekend we took our little family and hiked to a small waterfall called Donut Falls.  It was only about a mile each way, perfect for beginning hikers like Maggie (and for out-of-shape me with Evelyn only a few weeks old).

The top of Donut Falls is just to the right of Alan's hat.  We couldn't get super close because  the water level was still too high.

Here are some other random pictures from my camera:

Maggie giving her dollies a bath

This picture was taken on actual  Memorial Day

Sisters

More attempts at capturing Evelyn's smiles on camera:

Jared's Kindergarten Program

A couple weeks before school ended we got to go to Jared's Kindergarten end-of-year program.  It was so cute, and the kids were hilarious (unintentionally).  I was so proud to be his mommy.

Jared before the program started

Jared pointing to us!

Jared and his teacher, Mrs. R., on *almost* the last day of school.  She was amazing!  She won "Teacher of the Year"  Award at his elementary school.

This was the card Jared made me for Mother's Day at Kindergarten (he also made me a darling hot pad!).  It says, "I love you because 1. You are so nice. 2. You cook good diners. 3. You gave me my snake. Love, Jared"  Yes, he loves his stuffed snake.  He asked me a few weeks ago if I thought he could ask Santa for a real pet snake.  I told him that Santa only brings toys, not pets.  :)

Happy Birthday to Maggie!

We now have Evelyn's, Alan's, and Maggie's birthdays all pretty close together.  I tried to be completely ready for Alan's birthday and Maggie's birthday before Evelyn was born!  It was hard, but I think we were mostly successful.  

For dinner we had ravioli, corn, and fruit.

Maggie just opened up a picture of her and my dad together.  This was a present from Grandma C. 

She LOVES getting new clothes!  Such a girl thing.  Jared has never cared.

Maggie got a lot of new books

I gave Maggie one of my old cabbage patch dolls with about 7 outfits to go along with it.  She LOVES it and has me help her change the dolly's clothes at least once a day. 

It took about 20 tries to get her to finally smile for this picture!  Maggie with most of her presents.  

Maggie told me several times each week for MONTHS before her birthday that she wanted a pink cake with pink frosting and pink ice cream.  It wasn't a fancy cake, but she loved it!

 Happy Birthday, Maggie Moo!  We love you!!

All About Evelyn

I've still got more catching up to do with this blog!  I've been sorting through all the pictures from Evelyn's first few weeks, and I'm amazed at how big she is already!  

Here is some info about Evelyn's birth day.  I was induced with her, and I had an AWESOME experience!  I cleaned my house the day before, left food in my fridge for my babysitter (Grandma S.), and was all packed and ready to go.  I couldn't sleep that night, however.  Alan didn't get home from work until 11:45 pm (trying to get stuff done before his paternity leave) and we were due to be at the hospital at 7 am.  Well, about 4:00 am I was STILL awake and couldn't sleep because I  was just feeling excited and a little bit nervous, so I woke up Alan and we watched Bill Cosby's comedy routine about having a baby on YouTube.  (It is super funny.  You should look it up if you haven't seen it.)  Then we got out of bed at 6:15 to get ready to leave for the hospital.  When I got to the hospital they gave me Pitocin and my epidural, and I delivered by 10:40 am!  It was sweet and almost too easy!  

The doctor told me that there was an issue with her umbilical cord called "marginal insertion" and said she was a lucky baby.  Basically, her umbilical cord was LOOSELY attached to the placenta and was also attached in an unusual place, so there was a real possibility that she could have kicked it loose there at the end of my pregnancy, which would have resulted in her being stillborn.  Kind of scary.  We didn't know she had this issue; if doctors catch it, they usually have the baby be born at 35 weeks with a C-section.  Anyway, I guess she was a miracle baby.  We love her so much!

Here are a few glimpses. I have a TON of pictures that I'm not posting.

First time in her new car seat before we left the hospital 

Grandma C

Grandma S

Grandpa S

Jared and Maggie put these toys by Evelyn because they thought she'd like to "play" with them.  :)

First real bath after umbilical cord fell off

Looking so pretty in a dress Aunt Amanda gave Maggie 3 years ago

Aunt Lisi made this cute hat

Jared loves Evelyn!  He comes right up to her face and says in his LOUD baby voice, "Hi, Baby Evelyn!"

When Evelyn is crying and I can't pick her up, Maggie quotes me by saying, "Mommy, sometimes babies cry." Although one time when Evelyn had been crying for several minutes, Maggie started crying, too, and said, "Mommy, Evelyn's crying!!"  She was being so sensitive.

This is Evelyn at exactly 4 weeks old.  This is just a few seconds after she gave me her first REAL smile!  She is starting to smile more and more, but it's usually only once a day or so if she's in the right mood.