first fathers day

 I was SO excited for Cody's first father day, maybe little too excited. I love celebrating the man he is everyday but I was ready for a dedicated day of mushiness. And I'm trying to up my gift-giving-game to his standards (he's really so good at gifts!). I finally thought of the perfect combo of gifts and could barely wait to give it to him. I literally asked him everyday for a week if he wanted it and he said no, I'm the worst! ha!

So finally saturday night we "celebrated" since we knew we would be leaving directly after church on fathers day for church. 

I got him a picture of him and Evynn from our spring photo session, a "card" with evynn's footprint on it, a shoulder gun holster that he mentioned he's been wanting, and a packet of family car decals.

The car decals are a complete joke but he loved it! It's from the office when Dwight believes he's the father of Angela's baby so immediately he puts a sticker of a dad and son on his car. Cody dies laughing at this scene overtime so I couldn't pass on the opportunity.

Cody really is the best dad! He just melts when he's around Evynn and is so sacrificing to his time and sleep, ha! He has always volunteered to get up and give her a bottle and allow me to sleep and never complains when he's on "play duty" while i make dinner or whatever. He is so sweet to her and I know he has big plans for how to disciple her and teach her the ways of the Lord as she grows older. 

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We were lucky enough to be traveling home to see my parents on actual fathers day! Once we pulled in the driveway we had tons of family over celebrating the holiday as well. I couldn't wait to get my dad his gift. My parents aren't big on receiving gifts but I couldn't pass on the perfect shirt for him! I saw this shirt on pinterest awhile ago and knew it would be great. My brother has always called my dad "pops" and raves about how our dad can do anything, build anything, and has overcome just about everything. Although it has mainly come from my brothers mouth, I couldn't agree more. I think he was excited about the shirt ;) 

i hate that his eyes are closed in the 2nd picture but I had to show what it said!

reunion weekend

College girls or "818" (our sophomore year apartment number) reunion weekend was overdue and very much appreciated. Claire and Morgan decided to both come in town one weekend and so did Kate and Lindsey, so most of our group was back in the good ole LBK! We unfortunately were still missing some of our girls, it's just near impossible to get everyone together these days. 

I was scheduled to work on Friday but luckily was able to be on call which meant I could enjoy the day with Claire and Morgan. We went to breakfast with Ashley and baby hudson after getting morgan from the airport. Then we sat on the bed and caught up for hours. Everything from our jobs to me having a baby to friendships and more. We went to a ice cream sandwich food truck Friday afternoon which was delicious and much needed since it was 102 degrees!

We picked up Alyssa from work and went to dinner at la Diosa. This car selfie is one we took many many times so of course we had to reenact!

After dinner morgan and I went to my house where she met evynn for the first time! Then we stayed up way too late (10:30, lol) catching up. 

on Saturday morning, we woke up and went to the lubbock farmers market, we walked around for a short little bit then went to Ashley's where we met up with the other girls.It was so fun having us all together and with THREE babies added to the gang!

We all went to lunch then to Kiva's apartment for an afternoon of swimming. I was enjoying spending time with just the girls and Cody took Evynn for an afternoon running around so I could do so. But i missed them and everyone wanted to see Ev, so they joined us at the pool. I think Evynn had fun and enjoyed our blackberries from the farmers market as an after swim snack ;)

We absolutely CANNOT let that much time pass before we're all together again.

These friendships are truly priceless. These girls pushed me to the Lord and continued to do so for years. We stood by each other through school, dating, engagements, first jobs, held bouquets in each others weddings and now holding each others babies. I hate that not everyone I know has such a group of "college best friends", so I encourage all college girls I know to make those girlfriends. 

evynn claire | eleven months

How many months old? 11 months

Weight?  21 pounds (per our scale at home)

Dr apt? no appointment this month

Any teeth?  yes! 6! four top and two bottom.

Sleep? She takes a morning nap roughly 9:30-11:00 and then afternoon nap 1:30-3:00ish give or take 30 min. Often times I know she’s tired, and its her normal nap time, so I nurse her and then take her to her crib. She may cry as I shut the door then plays in her crib for a few minutes and then lays down on her own. I hate seeing her cry but I really don’t want her depending on us to go to sleep, so this works for us so far! Most nights she sleeps 7:30/8-7am with the occasional 5-6am wakeup call. She absolutely will not sleep on us if we’re out to eat or at a public place which makes things tough.

Feeding?  Her favorite foods are: bananas, yogurt, broccoli, sweet potaotes, watermelon, spinach bites, chicken (or really any meat). She still nurses 4 times a day/takes a bottle. I did have to supplement with formula for the first time this month due to my supply just not being enough to make 4 full bottles/day anymore. So far we have divided the milk I do have among 4 bottles and add formula to make it 6oz. She doesn’t seem to have an issue with it! However, last week on vacation she would not take formula in a bottle or sippy cup and depended entirely on me and solely nursing. It was utterly exhausting and now I’m interesting in weaning, haha! I really have no where to start from here? Do I only pump and give breastmilk/formula bottles? Do I shorten the length of my nursing sessions? Any advice is welcomed!

Developmental milestones?

·      Still loves pointing at everything! We’ll be at the table eating and she’ll point outside and laugh

·      Loves to stand up while holding something, then realizes she has no where to go so she sits back down with her toys/basket/sippy cup

·      She will take up to 6 steps on her own but then sits down

·      We tried getting her to walk between cody and I, she really thought it was a funny game. She doesn’t understand to keep her upper body straight above her feet

·      She eats most of the time using her left hand, so we’ll have to see if shes left handed later in life!

Favorite toy? 

·      We have a small froggy pool that we keep inside (without water, obviously) and she loves to drag all her toys into it

·      Loves anything she can carry around-phones, tv remote, calculator, shoes, toys, cups, etc.

Speech and language? 

·      Lots of jabber with occasional words-“dada”, “mama” when she’s really upset, “bye bye”, “hey”, “hot”, “jake” (my parents cat), just about said thank you. Still big on shaking her head no (even when I’m telling her about her nose, ha!) <<all words are only her timing, none on our command

Loves? 

·      To run (in her walker) up to the open refrigerator door to examine the condiments in the door, haha!

·      To use the snapchat filters, ha! After seeing the puppy filter that licks the phone when you open your mouth, she constantly sticks her tongue out when she sees herself on the phone now

·      If someone is on their computer, she loves to come up to them, pull up next to the computer, and aggressively type on the keyboard hahaha

·      She loves having her teeth brushed! She sits there with her mouth open and lets us do it!

·      Loves facetiming family! While it’s ringing she smiles soo big in excitement!

·      Standing up/cruising with her sippy cup in one hand

·      To empty all of my craft bins out

·      Kortney and Emma (her babysitters!)

Dislikes? ,

·      Definitely hates being on her back for any reason-diaper changes, getting dressed, and if we lay her on her back in her crib she immediately rolls over

·      When we shut the refrigerator door before she’s finished examining inside

·      Does not like to have her face wiped after eating, at all.

·      Strongly dislikes being in her carseat these days

·      Mike Robles (cody’s idea hahahaha)

Firsts:

·      Roadtrip/beach trip you can read about here

 11 month photo dump:

lol excuse the hot mess we call a living room, we literally live out of boxes of toys and let her roam around. no cuteness here!

GULF SHORES VACATION

we embarked on the biggest adventure with the little one, a 12 hour roadtrip/beach family vacation! I wish I could say it was smooth and easy but I'll save that for another post ;)

I booked a beach house back in December. I found a 3 bed/3 bath duplex right on the beach which was perfect for us. There was 6.5 of us going so I didn't want to waste money on a bigger house. The house I choose was actually on a HGTV remodel show last year, which I thought was too neat. 

We left west texas after church on fathers day and went straight to my parents where they were having quite the fathers day party. we munched on food, caught up with family, and then packed our things. I had ordered us t-shirts from Uber Prints a few weeks ago and loved how they turned out and how comfy they were!

Monday morning we woke up at 4:30 and loaded up the van we rented so we can all ride together. It was fun but I bet some of our family would beg to differ ;) We stopped in Monroe, LA because it's not a trip through the town unless you stop at Duck Commander.. right?!

we finally arrived at our beach house at at about 6:30pm and got out to stretch our legs! Cody ran around and let Ev touch sand for the first time while my dad and brother went through the chaos to get pizza. Us girls got settled in to the house. 

the next few days were a constant flow of 

6:30 wake up/coffee

unfortunately the sun was up and shiny at 6:30 everyday so most of us were up! that made for long days + a fussy babe!

8:00-9:00 breakfast at the house

10:00-1:00 beach

1:00 lunch at the house

2:00-4:00 beach

4:00-either beach, make dinner, get dressed and run into town/out to dinner/ etc.

then back home to watch the moon rise

Evynn tried a whole slice of watermelon this trip! it took her some time to realize she could hold it herself but then she was a pro ;) and called for a bath afterwards ;)

sandy blonde hairs :)

we at the hangout one night. It was a lot of fun but more of an experience than for the food-overpriced and not a lot of sea food options. But they had a great live band and a huge foam pit that the kids loved playing in. 

note that her outfit is a beach scene ;)

sharing a homemade popsicle in our matching swimsuits

dad, cody, and steph caught a jelly fish! ahh!

we had her in cute swimsuits all week then day 3 she fought us and we settled on a backwards swim diaper and hats that she kept on for 5 minutes

on the morning we left, we ate at brick and spoon in orange beach, al and oh my word was it delicious?! Each couple shared a breakfast appetizer (because, vacation) either beneigts or these banana foster egg rolls. Yum. I got the gulf shrimp omelette and cody got the crab cake eggs benedict. I definitely recommend this place!!

Uncle Cody entertaining Ev... with pictures of reveille hahahahaha

We were approaching dinnertime as we entered the Texas border so we decided to stop at Cody's sisters house and eat there and let Ev see her cousins/run off some energy. It was the best idea! It was little whirlwind for about 30 minutes but then back on the road to the final leg of the trip!

Back at my parents house on Saturday morning we had to indulge in Momo's donuts-maple bacon, turtle cheesecake, fruity pebbles, and more. Evynn also LOVES my parents cat Jake and followed him around saying his name and petting him. As silly as it sounds I'm glad she got to see him in person since sweet boy has a tumor and won't be around much longer :(

All in all it was a great trip! We left with little to no sunburns and a whole new appreciation for our house/our routine/people traveling with kids. I am very thankful for our family who graciously dealt with us this week and helped out in any way (like walking around at 3am).