Big Changes for Evelyn

Evelyn and her favorite kitty, Snowy

 It's about time we had a post about big things in Evy's life.  About a month ago we tried unsuccessfully to move Evelyn from her crib into a "big girl bed," and also to her new, bigger bedroom.  Well, then we decided to paint that room before attempting to move her again.  It had been chocolate brown.  Here is a before picture from 5 or 6 years ago, when it was Jared's room.

Here are the "after" pictures.  I also bought a couple of new decorations.  Thanks to Alan who did like 95% of the work.  I helped with prep work, corners, and touch ups.

We also put in some regular blinds instead of the mini blinds that had been in there before.  It looks so much better to me!

There is just something so cute about seeing a little girl sleeping in a big bed for the first time.  Evelyn had a hard time in her bed for about two nights, and then she was good to go.  She also loves the new yellow paint and now thinks that yellow is her favorite color (she always wants yellow shirts, yellow socks, yellow bowls, etc.)

While we were on a painting roll, we used General Conference weekend to paint the nursery, too, now that Evelyn was officially moved out.  I guess I finally felt more committed to do some repainting now that I knew we were going to be having so many little girls in our family.

Here is the before picture:

Here is an "after" picture:  We did mint green on top of the molding and a light coral underneath.  (I didn't want it to be TOO girly.)  :)  I still need to hang up some things on the walls.

Now, this week (after all our camping trips are over) we are finally getting Evelyn potty trained!  I was going to start later this week, but yesterday morning she woke up and asked, "Mommy, can I wear big girl underwear today?"  What a request!  I cancelled all my plans yesterday so I could stay home with her and work on it.  She has been ready for a while but I was feeling so crummy with morning sickness and we also had some camping trips planned, so I put it off.  Now she has been doing so well so far.

I'm so proud of my big girl!

Here is just a random photo of piggy tails.  I can't get over how cute she is!  

Easter 2016

We had a very fun Easter. We were having an egg hunt with the Curtis cousins in the evening, so Alan and I didn't bother planning our own little hunt.  However, I did give the kids their hollow milk chocolate bunny--a tradition from my childhood.  

Evelyn's yellow Easter dress was mine when I was a girl--it already is too short for her.  Maggie wore it three years ago, too.


All of the rest of the pictures are from the egg hunt in Grandma Curtis' backyard.  We also had a lovely ham and potato dinner with some of the aunts and uncles and cousins, but I forgot to take pictures.

Jared's favorite face to make for pictures lately

Fun with cousins!  

6. Out of the Mouth of Babes

• Jared had to write a persuasive essay, and he chose the topic of "Why Harry Potter is the best book series." Please enjoy this short excerpt from his essay: "Some people say they don't have time to read Harry Potter because they're too busy playing video games. I say just make time to read. I mean seriously people, video games may be fun, but they're not good for you. Every once in a while, turn off the devices and go do something else." I think it's an awesome, though rather self-congratulatory, essay. The thing that makes it hilarious is that he himself plays video games! I mean seriously people.
• Maggie and Evy are obsessed with their stuffed kitties. Evy has two: Snowy and Stripes. Maggie likewise has two, and she has named them Snowy and Stripes -- to avoid confusion and ambiguity. I have caught them in the act of changing said kitties' diapers -- using real diapers, though, not real cat poop. 
• One night, when Rachel and Justin were babysitting our kids, Evy misplaced her favorite kitty, Snowy, right before bed -- a deal breaker. Rachel asked a nearly inconsolable Evelyn what was wrong: "I don't have Snowy!!!" "Do you know where she is?" "Yeah!" "Where is she?" "Gone!" Snowy was not, in fact, gone. Rather, she was safely in bed right where Evy had left her.
• Does the leprechaun visit your house on St. Patrick's Day? Well, it visits ours. I'm not really sure why, but Jenny somehow set the precedent one year when she invited the leprechaun to leave a trail of chocolate coins from each child's bedroom door. Our kids have gotten creative in their methods for attracting the leprechaun to our house every March the 17th: they gather every green object (apparently, leprechauns like green) that they can lay hands on and make a pile right in the middle of the living room. The leprechaun is then lured to our home, at which point he leaves a trail of treats for the kids. This year there was a twist: A friend at school informed Maggie that the leprechaun often needs to use the bathroom during his visit, but that he is unable to flush the toilet because he's too small. As a result, he leaves green urine in the toilet bowl. So Jenny and I set another wonderful precedent this year by placing a few drops of green food coloring in the toilet. Yep.
• In a moment of overzealous generosity, Maggie shared with a neighbor friend half of the eight chocolate coins that she had gotten from the leprechaun that morning. Not only did she give one to the friend, but her generosity knew no bounds, and she also gave the friend one for each of her siblings. She inevitably experienced donor's remorse later that day and told Jenny that "I kind of miss those chocolate coins!"
• When we ask Evy what she wants for breakfast, she will often reply "cat food." Sometimes she mixes it up and replies "fish food." I'm not sure whether there's really a difference. She really just wants cereal.
• Jared got a "splat ball" about a year ago. This is a ball, vaguely resembling a water balloon, that you can throw really hard on the ground so that it will splat and then resume its original shape. Jared's first splat ball, a special thing for a boy of tender years, looked like a giant bloodshot eyeball. The splat ball inevitably splatted its last splat and did not resume its original shape. Jared was so broken up over this, that he actually wrote an epitaph for his splat ball! He drew a picture and wrote the date on which his eyeball met its untimely end. Well Santa Claus gave Jared two new splat balls for Christmas: one of them a smiley face and the other --  you guessed it -- an eyeball. The funny thing is that he will not, under any circumstances, play with the eyeball one. Instead, he has kept it in mint condition in the package so that it will not meet a tragic end like the first version. 
• Jared's teacher was giving away a poster or some such prize to the kid who could guess the number that she was thinking of between one and 20. Jared chose the rather strange number 17. That actually was the number that she had picked, so he won the prize. He promptly told her that he had read in a trivia book that the most common number that people choose when thinking of a number between one and 20 is ... 17.
• While staying in a yurt in Goblin Valley State Park this past week, Jenny and I commented on how big his appetite was during one of our meals. He commented that he was "going to eat you out of house and yurt."

Train Tracks

We had to cross some railroad tracks on the Corona Arch hike, so I took a couple of photos of the kids.  It would be fun someday to take photos on train tracks when we are not wearing hiking clothes for a chilly day and where our hair is not all windblown.  :)

I asked Maggie if she was pretending to be a ballerina, and she said no, she was an arch.  Ha ha.

Of course, she is not looking at the camera.  

Arches Trip

The kids had a random Monday off school in March, so we planned a last-minute (for us, only 3 weeks in advance) trip to Arches National Park.  We stayed in a hotel in Moab (with free breakfast!) since it was too chilly to camp.  Alan's sister Angela was on spring break at college that week, so we told her she should tag along with us!  She was super fun to have around.  In addition, she was our designated photographer and also took turns carrying Evelyn in the hiking backpack.  We kept joking that those were the REAL reasons we invited her.  :)

You can't really tell it's us, but here we are under Delicate Arch!

 One of the main hikes we wanted to go on was the Delicate Arch hike!  It is uphill one way and kind of hard for little kids.  Alan and I hadn't been on this hike since we were first married, so it was fun to see it again.

Maggie is such a good hiker!

Jared LOVES going to Arches

Evy and Aunt Angela

Me and my cutie

Ute petroglyphs on the Delicate Arch hike

Picnic lunch at Devil's Garden picnic grounds.   

 We picnicked at the same spot where my family always ate when I was little.  I had Alan take the kids up to see the infamous pot hole.

The Pot Hole

 As if the Delicate Arch hike wasn't long enough, we took the kids on another long hike the same day (Saturday) in Devil's Garden.  We saw Landscape Arch, Navajo Arch, and Partition Arch.  My pedometer said we went about 8.5 miles that day.  That's a lot of hiking for 5-year-old Maggie!

Landscape Arch

We named this baby arch "Evy Arch."  My dad used to name arches after me when I was little.  

Evy in front of "Evy Arch"

Jared coming down a "secret" way from Navajo Arch

We are standing under Partition Arch, though you can't really tell

That same day, we visited Sand Dune Arch, which is always a fun (but messy) favorite of the kids'. It was kind of blustery by this point in the day.

On Sunday we went to sacrament meeting in Moab.  Then we headed back into Arches to do some light sight-seeing from the car.  No big hikes this day, which was good because it was actually pretty windy and chilly all afternoon.

Turret Arch in the Windows section

North Window

The "spectacles" or Windows

Hiking around Turret Arch

We went on the "hike" to Skyline Arch

Evy hiked this one, rather than staying in the backpack.  She kept saying, "I'm such a good hiker."

Alan and Angela and Jared and Maggie played around up high by Skyline Arch.  

Evelyn and I stayed where it was safer.  :)

On Monday morning we rushed out the door to do one last hike before we had to drive back home for my OB-GYN appt. and swimming lessons.  We did the fabulous hike to Corona Arch (not actually in Arches National Park, but way beautiful!)  Last time we were here we saw some crazy people swinging off the top of the arch, which I think is illegal now.

Bowtie Arch, right next to Corona Arch

Alan took several more pictures from his phone right up underneath Corona Arch.  I will have to upload those later.

It is so funny, we go to Arches so much as a family (well, it has been two years since our last visit), but all the arches always look the same.  Sometimes I wonder why I take so many pictures, but it is really fun to see the age progression of our kids.  They really love these little trips we take.

Baby News!

We are excited to announce that this July we will be adding another little GIRL to our family!  I am super excited because I feel like I am totally in "girl mode" right now and don't have to dig up all my baby boy stuff (although I would have been delighted to if I needed to.)  :)

The kids are all excited.  The day we found out it was a girl Jared gave me a big hug before bed and said he was so excited to have another little sister.  What a cute kid!  Maggie is already busy choosing names for the baby.  Ha ha.  Evelyn doesn't really know what's going on, but Maggie has mentioned to her that she will have to move to her "big girl bed" soon because the new baby will need the crib.  (Evelyn has been reluctant to move to her new bed and bedroom.  She cries and says, "I want to sleep in my crib!" She can climb in and out of her crib as much as she likes.  My other kids never learned to do that.)

The doctor told us during the ultrasound that the umbilical cord only has one artery and one vein, instead of the usual two arteries and one vein (it's called either a two-vessel cord or SUA--Single Umbilical Artery. It happens in about 1% of babies, and they do not know what causes it.)  Since all of the other baby's organs looked normal, he said that chances are good that everything will go smoothly for the rest of the pregnancy.  However, I will have some extra ultrasounds done to make sure that she is growing like she is supposed to.  I am trying not to worry too much since there really is nothing I can do about this, but it is still hard not to think about.  We will hope and pray for the best.