birthday month

We knew once we had Evynn last year that July would forever by the birthday month, with all 3 of our birthdays. This was the first year to see it play out and so far, its been a blast!

My birthday was last week, July 17th. I woke up that Sunday morning and Cody had made this set up for me-balloons, chocolate truffles that had candles in them, a shirt i'd been wanting, and a gift card to take a friend out for a pedicure. it was so sweet! We went to church, then had a meeting, I squeezed in a nap, then went to saltgrass just us three for my birthday. 

Last weekend was not only the average of Cody and I's birthdays but also the weekend of Ev's birthday so it only made sense to have our families all be present. 

My parents + my best friend Claire came in on Friday and we joined them for lunch then ran a few errands for the weekend then back to our house to play and Cody's parents plus sister were there shortly.

I had also spoken to Cody's parents and my parents months ago about wanting to get Cody an apple watch and I was so thrilled that we made it happen and completely surprised him :) I could hardly wait to give it to him at dinner on Friday!

after we ate dinner and Evynn went to bed, Codys parents and Cody set up Evynn's gift-a play cottage! 

While they were busy doing that, the rest of us went to work on baking cookies! I baked them and cut them into ice cream shapes the night before so all that was left to do was make the icing and get creative. Mitzi, my mom, and even my dad stepped in to help!

on Saturday morning, Evynn woke up and with some help unwrapped her new present! She was first interested in the doors but throughout the day she became more and more interested and ended up spending the entire present-opening-part of her party in the house!

Saturday afternoon we were in full party prep! Cody and the dads spent all morning fixing things around the house, cleaning up the backyard, washing cars, etc. while the girls were hard at work decorating. THANK GOODNESS we had so much help! We keep saying there's no way we could've done it without everyone. SO much thanks to the ladies who listened to my vision and patiently stuck with me ;)

now onto party details:

the idea here was balloon ice cream cones but between hard soil and the wind, the hardly made it haha. But it was worth a shot!

I had made probably 100 feet in this raspberry, light pink, mint, and light yellow banner so we dropped it everywhere! This is the drink table-we had water, pink lemonade, and some cookies here

remember our cookies from the night before?!

"the party room"

the adult cake was made by a friend at church then claire and I (and my mom who calmed my meltdown) helped make the "melted ice cream" look possible! I got Ev's smash cake at United for free with a coupon, yes!

The ice cream banner was made from the honeycomb banner from target, and then I made and glued on paper i rolled into "cones"

It was SUCH  fun weekend and we're still cleaning up toys, confetti, and eating our weight in cake and ice cream ;) I cannot wait to see the pictures Monica took throughout the party!

evynn claire | 12 months

How many months old? 12 months

Weight? 22 pounds 4 oz (75th%) 

Length? 30 1/4 inches! (90th%)

Dr apt? All looks good! Dr. encouraged focusing on the sippy cup with 16oz cows milk now that she's a year old so thats what we'll be doing! She also has a large fontanel...still... but Dr. didn't seem worried!

Any teeth?  still 6 teeth, love that teethy smile!

Sleep?  We have the best last few weeks! I'm hoping it's a permanent thing! We lay her down at 7:30-8:00pm...she either falls asleep nursing on me and I lay her down or we put her in her crib at that time after she's nursed and she puts herself down. And she sleeps till 7:30am. She still takes 2 1.5 hour naps at about 9:30am and 1:30pm. 

Feeding?  I stopped pumping at the start of July which caused discomfort and hesitation on if this is what I wanted to do. I still nurse Evynn when I’m home with her a few times a day and morning/nighttime but she’s taking bottles of formula while I'm at work. I feel better not having to worry about my supply and if I have enough for the next day. I know we’ll be moving onto cows milk at a year so we’ll see how all these changes go!

As far as food, she is willing to try anything but overall lately has seemed to eat smaller portions. It has me a little worried but maybe shes too busy to eat. We did learn she loves watermelon and loves being able to hold it. Very hesitant about tomatoes and not a huge fan of avocados these days but girl LOVES her blueberries!

Developmental milestones?

• ·      She WALKS! She was taking up to 6 steps during our vacation a few weeks ago but officially took off on her own on June 30^th. Now, she has her moments where she prefers to crawl but everyday we notice her walking more and more. She gets excited and stiffens her arms and laughs as she runs away from us ;)
• she loves to use a spoon. I'm pretty hesitant about "practicing" the use of it because it means a BIG mess for mom to clean up ;) but i'll get out a bowl go yogurt, hand her a spoon and she'll dip it in the yogurt-to her mouth-then back for more ;)
• ·      Loves brushing her own teeth (obviously we help her to brush effectively but then let her “brush” her own teeth after that)
• ·      She can blow kisses and recently starting giving us real kisses. She’ll come up to us with her mouth wide open and just touch our face, she usually has her eyes looking somewhere else like “let me just get this over with” ;) it is so so sweet!
• ·      Loves climbing in and out of the chair and rocking chair in her room and rocking herself. Up she goes, toys and all!
• ·      We can tell that her feelings get hurt if we mock her
• ·      She uses baby sign language to say “more”, that’s really all we use BSL for..
• ·      She has learned when we are having her eat something that is different than our food… and she grabs for ours
• little girl is SO daring! (see picture below) but she has now started climbing on her toys. yikes. time to put those away!
• we don't dance (not because we're baptist hahaha we  I just can't dance) but she's picked it up somehow and dances along to her toys making noise
• if i'm sitting on the floor, girl will grab her sippy cup and back her little booty up until she's about as far into my lap as she could go. happy as a clam in my lap. 
• if she finds something small she hands it to us! I don't know how we got so lucky but we're pleased with this reaction ;)

·       

Favorite toy? 

·      Loves this panda bear that wears a Asian kimono (hah!) that mimi and pop pop got her from the Smithsonian museam. She carries that thing around

·      She is starting to be able to sit still and read a book with us so that is something she’s enjoying more
loves her chairs in her room/play room. She grabs an animal or book and sits in her chair so content :)

Speech and language?   “dada”, “mama”, “bye bye”, “hi”, “hot” (uses appropriately for candles, stove, oven, summer heat….and anytime she wants to say it haha), “thank you”, and “target” (<<hahaha!). she is definitely more chatty these days. she is so animated with facial expressions, pointing, hands in the air, and yelling-if only we knew what she was saying!

Loves?  Walking around! Exploring anything and everything, walking around splash pads, waking up early in the morning, LOVES when we call or FaceTime anyone-when she hears the phone ring her face lights up, 

Dislikes? ,

·      Falling asleep anywhere except her crib/moving carseat… so she doesn’t. Dislikes wearing shoes. Absolutely will not sit down in the bath, just stands!

Firsts: STEPS! Splash pad visit! and BIRTHDAY!

(^excuse the blur, someone had to get out of the picture ;))

THE FOURTH

We celebrated our first 4th of july with our little firecracker! This time last year I remember being oh so pregnant and wishing/hoping she would come anyway. She still had a few weeks inside but whew, pregnancy in July is no joke.

I LOVE the fourth of July. However, every year my mind wanders to imagining cookouts and swimming and firecrackers... this year was a bit different. Having a baby means we're not able to stay out till the firework show that starts at 10pm. And having other friends with babies means it's too hot to be outside all day. in all honesty, i'm in-between loving the baby stage and also very ready for big kids running around while friends get together. 

Anyways, this year Cody and I woke up early at our normal 7am and headed into town for the lubbock "4th on broadway" parade. we finally found some shade, which meant we were behind a good crowd, but that was okay. 

these shoes y'all. <3

 We took about 8 pictures like above and her face was the.exact.same in every one, haha! nap time, much?!

 After the parade we ran around and shopped some and then went to see cousins! Evynn and Rylee had matching dresses so of course we had to take pictures. Carter was asleep in the stroller so we tried to get him to join our family pic haha

that afternoon we came home and got little stir crazy so I thought ev would want to swim. she's also incredibly clingy lately so would only be in the water if she had one hand on me... so I squeezed in with her. We swam and played in the water then enjoyed popsicles and watermelon :)

and for dinner, messy spaghetti :)

backtracking a day to July 3rd...we had Ev dressed patriotically for church but she would not take a good picture, here's the best we could get ;)

that night Cody and I left Ev with Kortney and went on a date (our first in like...forever!). Last week I looked up top rated restaurants that we never go to and a few things to do after and had cody draw a restaurant and an activity from the stack. He drew Jazz to eat and the movies for the activity. However, we I am very picky about movies and NOTHING looked good to me so I suggested the next "Activity"... Trapped:Escape Room. I'd always wanted to try this place out and why not on a date where you can see how well you work together?!

What is Trapped? There are 3 rooms to choose from. Once in the room, you're basically looking for the key to get out. There are clues hidden all over the room that you have to piece together, keys hidden but you have to figure out where they go, etc. all in all we did not make it "out" but still had a blast. 

We went to jazz for dinner and it was perfect. We shared stuffed zucchini for an app. I got chicken over rice covered in crab/crawfish sauce for dinner and we shared beignets for dessert. Yum, fun, and much needed ;)