Evelinne Rose turns 1

In the blink of an eye, Evie is 1. I don't know if I have even gotten used to the idea that we have a baby again in the family! :) Wow....that first year just flew by. What a joy it has been to have another little girl, to welcome a new little life, and to experience all the 'firsts' again.....smiling, sitting up, crawling, walking, eating new foods, learning how to wave hello and goodbye, and seeing her adorable personality start to show....Evie is a gift.
Kaitlyn and Lily adore her, and Phil and I love her a ton....she brings lots of giggles and smiles to our family.
Evie has been a fairly easy baby....she has always slept well, fed well, and is content most of the time....she really only fusses if she is sleepy, hungry or wanting to go outside and can't!
Even though at the age of 1, Evie is just beginning to show who she is, it has been fun to see. Here are some of the things that we want to remember about her:

Taking a break from exploring

- Evie's two big front teeth are A-dorable! She loves to grin with her top and bottom teeth together...so cute.

- When Evie finds a bucket/bowl/cup....she pretends to stir with a spoon or fork or whatever she can find that will do the job. She does the same thing when she eats her yogurt by herself....what a smart girl!

- Evie has her cupboard....she knows how to open it, and then proceeds to empty if out completely, all over the kitchen floor....literally throwing things behind her and reaching for the next....hence....the plastic dishes! Lately, Evie prefers to take a plate or bowl in 1 hand and a utensil in the other hand and walk around the house....so we find plastic dishes and cutlery scattered throughout the house at the end of the day.

Daddy's girl

- Evie loves to be wherever the girls are playing and most times the girls love her with them....but every so often I hear screams of "E-VIEEEEEEE" when she has entered their room and started dismantling their playmobil set up or whatever else they are playing in their room. We are in the process of teaching Kaitlyn and Lily to distract Evie with a toy, or to gently take her out of their room, give her a toy to play with, and then close the door if they really don't want anything to be disturbed. The girls are pretty good about doing that.....but it's still a work in progress. Can't wait for the day til Evie can play right alongside of Kaitlyn and Lily without destroying everything! :)

Peek-a-boo....and a great artsy shot by Phil!

- Evie can wave Hi and Goodbye, and she gives open-mouthed kisses (slobbery but we don't care....it is so precious!)

-She knows how to sign 'all done', 'bath' and 'kitty' but we are working on getting her to sign consistently.....once she gets that one, we will introduce more signs. Sooo adorable to watch her communicate and be so pleased with herself!

- Evie understands the words 'food, sleep, water, outside, birdie, daddy, mommy, Kaitlyn, Lily, hi, bye, help, hot, no, don't touch, dirty'.....and maybe more? Hard to tell at this age just how much she understands but for those words, we have seen her respond appropriately, so we assume she knows what they mean.

- Evie took her first long walk (20 steps) while we were in Morocco and has now left crawling behind,  preferring to walk everywhere! We welcomed this accomplishment as it meant getting her up off of the 'hard to keep clean' sandy floors in our house.

Soooo wanting to touch the candle....

- When the girls dig holes in the sand, Evie always crawls over and backs up towards them with her leg out, trying to fit into the hole....haha.

- Evie eats alot! She loves eggs (hard boiled or scrambled), toast, any fruit, and she usually eats what we eat.....

- Evie LOVES cats, and always wants to pet them and kiss them, much to her annoyance, they never let her! :)

- When Evie is falling asleep, she loves to feel the tag on her blankie (whatever muslin blanket we have for that day....she isn't attached to one specific one), and when she's sleepy, she likes to suck on the tag. Just her little thing she does before bed.

Big smiles after tasting her cupcake....love those teeth!

- Putting Evie to sleep is the ONLY time that girl stays still! I cherish those snuggly moments.

- Evie loves to swing (it's in her genes!)

-Evie loves being outside and has figured out how to open the front screen door!! The handle is low enough for her to reach....trouble!

-Evie LOVES her daddy and when he gets home from work I say....'lets go see daddy' she gets all excited and points to outside and reaches for him with big smiles and hugs.

Those are just some of the cute and memorable things about Evie. We love that she is part of our family and can't wait to see what adventures this next year holds for her.

I love this girl!