{Update in pictures from April}

Evette started a dance class this month. She loves it!

She's also been working on her letters/words

Sweet Friends.

Stake temple trip and pizza with friends afterwards

  

Evette got to participate in opening exercises for the first time a few weeks back. She (with my support) sang "I know that my Savior loves me" It was so sweet! I was so proud of her. She sang loud and beautifully and remembered all the words.

Matching dresses! I made this dress for Evette when she was little and now Miriam gets to wear it! So fun.

We literally went to the dr office 4 times in 4 weeks. It was totally awesome. NOT. 

Evette's sous chef skills are coming along beautifully!

{Daddy Daughters Date}

When Mommy has her all day choir practice these two little hooligans get to spend all day with daddy causing all sorts of mischief 

Picnic in the park

A few weeks ago some good friends from San Jose invited us down to their end of the peninsula for a picnic at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. Unfortunately, Heidi and Miriam were both sick, so just Evette and I went.

We loved it. Beautiful location, amazing flowers, fun friends, and lots of good food. I may or may not have gotten carried away with photographic the lush flowers... Oh well, Evette contented herself with a quest to find whole flowers that had fallen to the ground.

With Heidi's love for roses, we'll have to go back.

--Sean

Evette also enjoyed gathering up handfuls of pedals and then throwing them into the air like confetti.

{Happy 6 Years!!!}

Happy 6 years to us, well, tomorrow technically. Sean and I have now been married for 6 years. Nearly a quarter of my life. That's a long time. And how happy we've been.

We got married when we were young and dumb. 

Full of happiness and rainbows and sparkles. It was beautiful. We were barely adults and had little baggage and life going into the marriage, which had a lot of benefits to it. Our early marriage life was full of spontaneity and freedom. We were poor college kids. It was a slumber party with my best friend with benefits every night. We did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. It was a blast.

We lived in a little apartment complex and made some dear, dear friends in that complex and married student ward. Game nights, movie nights, dinner parties, late night dollar theater runs - all the time, any time.

We spent our first anniversary touring Europe during a study abroad. It was all kinds of magical.

 Around our second anniversary I graduated from BYU.

That summer we were pregnant and spending it in Chicago during an internship. The perfect babymoon. 

Then we came back in the fall and moved from our tiny apartment to a slightly less tiny apartment...


...to accommodate this tiny one. 

And life changed. We had this adorable little bundle to care for. Our needs came second. It was an adjustment, but a welcome and beautiful one.

Our third anniversary was spent touring the northwest after Sean's graduation. We drove from SLC up to Seattle, Orcas Islands, Port Angeles - all over.

Then directly after that we moved into our new home in Dallas, TX where we started our next great adventure.

Our life there was crazy but wonderful. Sean jumped on an airplane nearly every Monday and got back late Thursday nights. Evette was my little buddy and we did everything together. Park dates, zoo dates, painting, gardening, movie nights.

We made amazing friends in Dallas. A big piece of my heart is still there. Those people taught us so much and helped us to grow. I feel like in Dallas we started to become grownups, a little bit. A real job, a kid, a (rental) house to take care of. Grownups. 

Our 4th anniversary was spent up in Utah while we were there celebrating my brother's graduation.

And then this happened. Yahoo #2 was coming. 

This summer was an interesting one, but fun. Pregnant, a toddler, and a traveling husband. 

Then at the new year the new baby came. Beautiful.

And then all of a sudden we didn't like Sean traveling so much. So time to switch it up.

So in March, Sean, myself, a 2 month old, and a recently potty trained toddler traveled to Seattle and San Francisco to interview for some potential jobs.

Exactly 1 month later, right around our 5th anniversary, we moved to California.

And we moved back into a tiny apartment. We figured out a life there and it worked, and it was fun.

And California turned out to be a beautiful adventure.

And then life happened again. And an opportunity arose for us to move into a rental house. So 6 months after packing up all of our belongings and moving across the country, we packed it all up again, and hauled it a couple miles south into a new house.

And we've built a new home here.

And it's beautiful.

It's been quite a ride thus far, and who knows what's in store for us in the future.

We've come a long way from the rainbows and sparkles of the first year or so. We've grown, we've learned. 6 years isn't a whole lot of time, but we've got a lot of mileage out of those years.

Every day takes faith, trust, and pixie dust, as Tinkbell reminds us. But in all seriousness, we've learned so much.

We've learned about ourselves, each other, how to work, how to talk, how to be selfless, how to be vulnerable, and how to love.

And our lives our busier now then they were 6 years ago, more responsibilities, less free time, less sleep, more messes, and a whole heck of a lot more love. Everyday it grows. And it's a beautiful life.

Here's to the eternities.

{Happy 15 Months!!!}

It's been three long months since this little girl turned 1 and my how things have changed!

Huge development #1 - she sleeps through the night every night and has done so for the last 2.5 months. It's glorious!

Huge development #2 - she's walking all over this world. She's so mobile and is so happy about it, as am I!

She sleeps for about 11-12 hours at night - less if big sister, the early riser, decides she wants some company. She naps twice during the day usually. Big morning nap (2.5 hrs), and an afternoon nap (1.5-2 hrs). She has her "Mr. Lamb-y" that she loves to sleep with. so many cuddles for that little guy.

She's in size 12 months clothes, 3 shoe, and 3 diaper. She has a million and a half teeth. Not really, but at least 10 or so including a couple molars. Her checkup isn't until 18 months so I have no idea what she weighs, but she's still a pretty petite thing.

No pacifier during the day, only during naps and bedtime and at church as a last resort - I mean c'mon! Church is 3 hours long and right in the middle of her afternoon nap, so you gotta do what you gotta do.

She loves to eat. She eats everything we do. Not a fan of avocado still, unless you disguise it as guacamole and smother a chip with it. She loves chips. She likes eggs. She loves jam. Always more jam. She loves milk and insists on having milk on her cereal in the morning and frequently tries to pour milk onto whatever else she is eating. 

She uses "Mamama" and "Dadada" consistently now, but that's it for now as far as intelligible words. There is a lot of babbling going on, though. Also, a cute little twisty wave with happy squeals for hello. Melts my heart.

She is still a snuggler and lover and cuddler. Loves hugs and kisses and head bonks. Yup, head bonks. 

She loves her hair. She loves to play with it and to brush it. She thinks she likes ponytails, but takes those out occasionally. She likes to have me put in hair clips so she can pull them out and chew on them.

She likes to eat chalk. and crayons.

  

She's a social butterfly and loves to flit around from person to person to get smiles and laughs.

She loves to wear jackets. Loves them. Sometimes she goes and bangs on the closet until we put a jacket on her. She also loves shoes.

Evette and Miriam are great playmates now! Everyday their learning how to better play and engage with one another - which is really happy. They're the best of friends.

Pictures taken at around 14 months.