{Dying Easter Eggs}

I love love love dying Easter eggs. Unfortunately, we haven't done it for the last two years because last Easter we were busy getting Sean ready for graduation and packing up our apartment to move across the country. The year before we were getting me ready for graduation, I was pregnant, and we were packing up our itty bitty apartment to move to a slightly bigger apartment to make room for our little hooligan.

This year I was very very adamant that we were going to dye eggs. 3 years in a row would just be torture.

It was awesome! Evette was a huge fan of it. She was very curious at first....

 ...but got into it pretty quick.

 Hands stained by dye.... I figured out the best way to clean your hands afterwards - baking soda and water. Make a paste and scrub scrub scrub. It works like magic!!!

She wasn't always the most gentle placing the eggs in the cups....

...and sometimes she was just a little eager....

  But it was awesome.

{Family Easter Pictures / 18 mo pictures}

I was going to go to the arboretum to take some pictures of the Babbs for some cute Easter photos slash her 18 mo pictures, and then the husband suggested that I wait until he could go, too, and then we could dress up and get pictures of all of us. Fabulous idea! The only thing was that I got my haircut later that afternoon [5 inches off] and I wish we had taken pictures after that, but the schedule didn't work out that way, sooooo oops.

Here we are!

Look at those eyebrows!

Charge!

Running on a hill is tricky.....

Look at this quirky little firecracker!

This is us last Easter - look how we've changed!

Daddy-daughter date

On Friday night I took Evette out for our first daddy-daughter date. It was kind of spur of the moment but she didn't seem to mind my lack of planning.

We went out to our neighborhood pizza place (Tony's) and had a great time. On the walk there, Evette rode on my shoulders most of the way which meant lots of fingers going into my ears - she finds this hilarious, I don't particularly like it but I enjoy making her laugh! I got her to stop by holding her hands and then leaning side-to-side and front-to-back precariously. She found that hilarious, too, so no more finger jabs to my brain.

Dinner itself was pretty good. The only problem was the bread stick appetizers were so good (and plentiful) that Evette ate her fill on those before pizza even arrived.

Oh, and raisins, too. Which she dipped in her pizza sauce. Naturally. 

She ate about two bites of pizza so I only had time to eat one slice myself.  It was a pretty quiet dinner - most of her attention was devoted to watching and waving at everyone around us - but it was still nice to be with her.

Then she showed off some of her animal noises to the girls in the table next to ours and we took off. We walked home up the ally and she had a great time playing with rocks while I carried the nearly full box of pizza home.

After Evette went to bed Heidi and I had our own date (double win for me!) and ate a bunch of pizza.

It was a simple night but it was really good for me. I'm starting to view Evette as a dear friend, an aspect to our relationship I've been excited for forever but one I was not honestly expecting to come so soon. She's wonderful! I have half a mind to write some gushy notes here on how much I love her and how her hugs make my heart melt and how her kisses are the bright spots of my day and how every time she says "Dadda" my heart skips a beat and how her smile throws the rest of the world out the window and narrows my attention on her little frame - but I can't do those feelings justice.

I'm a dad and I love it.

{Friday Five}

1. Hanging out with friends at the children's aquarium. So great to have awesome friends who have awesome kids who are awesome friends with my awesome child. It's awesome.

2.Got these puppies in the mail this week. There have been some pretty crazy things happening in my neighborhood so I decided to get down to business. I bought two pepper sprays and two stun guns. Just because they're pink doesn't mean I'm not serious - Don't mess with me. I will get you.

3. Sean and I finished our BANG! game tournament. We played through all of the characters and turns out that John Pain is the best. 

4. Baby has learned the art and hilarity of making faces at the camera. Super entertaining.

5. Got 2 new maps in the mail this week. This one is in Babb's room. She loves finding the animals all over the map. She gets really excited about the moose, elephant, airplanes, and big ben. Love that she loves this.

{Happy 18 months!!!}

Holy cow. In these last 3 months our little girl has grown up so so so much.

[These pictures are from the doctor's office and our visit to get froyo afterwards. We'll get some great 18 mo and Eater pictures this weekend - get excited!]

We went to the doctor today and she is 33.25 inches tall [85%], weighs 26.2 lbs [75%], and has a head circumference of 47.5 cm [70%]. She got 1 shot and a prescription for some cream to help with her eczema which has flared up in the last couple months. 

As far as life goes, she sleeps between 12-14 hrs at night. She goes to bed somewhere between 7-8 every night and wakes up between 8-9 every morning. She has pretty much switched to 1 nap a day, right after lunch, which has been a little bit hard on everyone, but we're getting used to it.

She drinks whole milk and uses her 16 teeth to eat everything we eat. She's mastered a spoon and almost a fork and loves to eat pretty much anything. Spinach or lettuce is hard for her to cut through and she still doesn't like tomatoes very much, but we're working on it. She loves fruit snacks, raisins, pizza, spaghetti, noodles, peas, mexican food, chili, bananas..... everything. She eats a lot. When I make scrambled eggs for the two of us in the morning I need to make 5 eggs. 5!!! She has 2.5 eggs and half a piece of toast and jam in the morning. Seriously, this girl can down it.

Her communication skills are incredible. She doesn't say very many words, but you can pretty much always figure out what she wants. Some of her consistent words that she can say of her own accord are Daddy, Momma, yes, please, cheese, snack, leche, oh no, poops.

Some more signs that she made up to help us communicate with her are - snack, car, bug, brush teeth, chapstick, lotions, bath, ball, elephant, water, pacifier, paint nails, sleep, more, blues clues, airplane, poop, sit down, lay down. If she doesn't have a specific word she wants to get across it will turn into a game of charades until you get it right. Then she usually applauds, which makes me feel a little dumb - ha! "Good job, Mom.... you finally figured out what I was trying to say!"

Her animal sounds are incredible. We've got 20ish or so down - never mind the lion, tiger, bear, shark, and dinosaur all make the same sound. Her favorite animal noises are the elephant and octopus. You'll just have to ask her in person what an octopus sounds like - it's great.

She understands everything. Seriously. She's brilliant.

She's also learned about puzzles! She loves them! She can match up the puzzle piece to it's picture on the board 100% correct every time. We're just now working on "twisting" the piece until it fits right.

One of her favorite things nowadays is to go bug hunting. We have a pretty awesome side yard full of weeds that are the perfect breeding grounds for lady bugs/rolly pollys/etc. She could go bug hunting all day if I let her. Her sign for bug is to use her right pointer finger to scratch the top of her left hand to emulate a bug crawling on her hand. She doesn't like to touch bugs, but will watch them forever. It's kind of nice because if it's not a good time to go bug hunting I can say, "No, Babysita, the bugs are taking a nap! Why don't you take a nap?" then she agrees that that's probably a good idea. I use it for meal times, sleep times, if it's too cold outside, whatever. it's great.

Another favorite thing is getting her nails painted. She knows where the polish is kept in the bathroom so she'll go up to the cupboard, point to the box, and then gingerly tap her finger nails and look up at me all concerned. She would let me paint her nails 10 times a day...I don't, but she would let me.

Another favorite thing is cars. She loves loves loves loves loves to drive. She begs to drive our car and to push all the buttons. I let her do that a few times, but then I realized that letting her think that the car is a toy is probably not a good idea. But she loves her little play car. She plays with it all the time. She even has her own little set of keys.

She's a good little Momma, as well, to her babies. She loves to carry her babies around, feed them, give them baths, tuck them into bed...it's seriously adorable.

She's also turned into quite the social baby. She loves to play with other kids and has a couple close friends that she just adores. It fun to see her interact and share her books, toys, and treats with her friends.

Evette also loves tickles. She loves to get them and she loves to give them - mostly to and from Daddy. They are growing quite the special little bond and it's freaking adorable.

As always, she is continuing to develop that quirky little sense of humor that she has and that big ol' bright personality. She's quite the character. Now that's she's getting older and we can communicate more, most days are just downright fun! [don't get me wrong, there are horrible days as well... but they are usually few and far between.] I mean we just get to hang out all the time! We play and read books and visit friends and go to fun places. 

She's a sweetheart and she is the light of our lives.

{Life}

Sometimes I go and find these great blogs of beautiful people - some I know, some I don't.

I don't want to be a Debbie Downer but reading these can put me in a destructive cycle.

Because....
I don't cook 3 healthy balanced meals each day with food from the local farm.

I am not a great seamstress who can make her own clothes.

I am not a thrifter that finds crazy awesome things and then alters them to fit.

I am not a great photographer.

I am not a super crafty  person.

I don't own a popular blog that hosts giveaways from everyone's favorite stores.

I am not an eloquent writer.

I don't have perfect hair and skin or do my own tutorials.

I am not a fashion icon.

I don't work out everyday.


On some blogs it seems like people do all of these things on a daily basis. Seriously.


I'm lucky if I get a shower in - added bonuses for hair and makeup done and wearing something other than yoga pants.

I feel fancy if I take any sort of photos with a real camera rather than my phone.

I'm lucky if I make one meal a day that has a veggie AND a main dish.

I can't seem to have more than 1 room clean at a time.


But that's real life - and I love it.



I have a wonderful husband who chose me and is my best friend. He is a hard working, kind man who is also smoking hot. Nice bonus.

I have a sweet bright daughter who is the light of my life and teaches me things on a daily basis. Her curiosity, perseverance, and kindness are examples to all.

I am blessed with a healthy strong body and a few talents that the Lord saw fit for me to posses.

We love in a great home and are blessed more than we deserve for we are in want of nothing.

We have great friends who surround us on every side. I know dozens of people who would [and have] dropped everything to help us with anything.

We have the gospel in our life that is the greatest source of peace, comfort, and guidance.

And a picture of the Babbs just because.