Up and Running

Meeting Santa

2011-12-19T00:12:00.000-07:00

I know it's been eternity since I've updated this, but I just got these pictures today and had to share :)

Evelyn was beyond excited to meet Santa at our awesome ward Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. Cassidy...not so much. But, she didn't cry! I sneakily handed her to Santa while an elf handed her a candy cane then when she realized where she was sitting she very quickly slid off his lap, I love the picture of her running away from him, lol :)

Great Grandma and Grandpa Bennett's

2011-11-08T09:36:00.000-07:00

We love going out to Cameron's grandparents house. We made a fun trip out there to get some pumpkins and the girls had a blast running around their yard and playing with grandma and grandpa. Evelyn especially thought the screen door was fun and kept telling grandpa to push the door closed and squish her.

Cassidy wanted to taste the fresh zuccini...she didn't like it.

And of course we can't go to grandma and grandpa's without ridind the "tractor". Evelyn LOVED it as you can tell from her face in the picture.

This year they had two HUGE pumpkins.

And these are just a few of the beautiful flowers they have in their garden.

Country Mercantile

2011-11-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

This year we went to the Country Mercantile TWICE. Once with all of Cameron's family and annother time with Evelyn's preschool group. It's always so much fun to go and climb the hay pyramids, do the little hay maze, see the animals, and or course, go on a tractor ride to pick our pumpkins.

We only got baby pumpkins this time because we had already gone out to Cameron's grandparents house and gotten big ones.

We had lots of fun going as a preschool. There are now 6 kids that we do a preschool co-op with (used to be 7 but one just moved to China!) All but two of them were able to come to the pumpkin patch. My camera died halfway through so I didn't get any pictures of the kids picking out their pumpkins but they had so much fun. I love the picture of all the kids trying to climb over/throught he pony's gate.

Halloween!

2011-11-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

We had a super fun Halloween this year. Evelyn got to have a Halloween party at pre-school on Friday, Saturday we went to a Trunk-or-Treat at the church, and of course, Monday was the real deal and she got to go around house to house with some of her cousins.

Evelyn was a Cupcake Fairy (I did not make the costumes, but I did make the candy bags:) ) This is a picture of her heading out to do some trick-or-treating, she was soo excited to walk to all the doors.

Evelyn's cousin Eva had her birthday part the day before Halloween so that's where this is from.

Cassidy was a cupcake :)

This next sequence on pictures just makes me laugh and I had to share. I took the girls out in the backyard and wanted to get some cute pictures of them, I asked Evelyn to smile and this is what happened:

Family Pictures

2011-07-06T14:24:00.001-07:00

I have been dying to get our family pictures done FOREVER! Ever since Evelyn was born I wanted family pictures done but for one reason or another it never happened but when Cassidy was born Cameron promised me when she was one we could get pictures done (since it would be nice out and she would be able to smile and sit up on her own). So a few weeks ago we got them done and we just got the pictures back and I'm in love with them :) I'm posting almost all of them mostly so my parents can see them so sorry there are so many. Now I have to decide which ones to print!!! (I'm thinking all of them, :) ) Our photographer was wonderful, her name is Diane and you can check you out at alandfoto.com, my girls (Evelyn mostly) had their share of meltdowns and she was so patient and the pictures speak for themselves but she was able to capture some good ones.

Cassidy is ONE!

2011-07-05T20:33:00.001-07:00

Our sweet sweet Cassidy turned one (a month ago) :) She is the most calm, sweet, loving little girl. We are so so so blessed to have her in our family!

We celebrated by having family over for some cake. Cassidy loved playing with all her cousins and she actually enjoyed the cake. Evelyn wouldn't touch her cake so I was thinking Cassidy would be the same way but nope, she dug right in!

At Cassidy's one year check up she weighted 16 lbs 15 oz (6th percentile) and was 27 1/2 in (2nd percentile). Some of you may wonder if we feed this girl but the truth is she never. stops. eating. Seriously she is a vacuum. She was born little and I think she'll just stay little :) (I'm not worried and neither was the doctor).

She walks everywhere. She eats everything. She is pretty much always happy. She is a great sleeper. She gives kisses. She loves her grandpa. She LOVES strawberries. She has 6 teeth with one (that I can see) on it's way in. She loves being outside. She does not like to sit still. She loves to babble. She can't live without her blanket. She currently loves to open and close doors/cabinets and empty any drawer or cupboard she can't get into.

I've been thinking of all these things to blog about her but now my mind is blank. Basically she is a sweet heart and we LOVE LOVE LOVE her! :)

Lately

2011-06-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

Not a whole lot has been going on here lately (hence the lack of posts). Really we've just been hanging out and going to parks. Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure :)

By the way, Cassidy walks now, like ONLY walks now and she gets faster and faster every day. I cannot believe she will be ONE in just a couple of days!!! Where has the time gone????

Carie's House

2011-06-08T19:30:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of May I watched my sister Carie's three kids for a week while her and her husband went to Hawaii. Evelyn had soo much fun with her cousins! I am horrible at taking pictures when I go to Lacey, I don't know why, but I just am. So these are pretty much the only pictures I got while there. Evelyn loves all her cousins but had so much fun with Chandler. It was nice that he had kindergarten in the morning then him and Evelyn could play all day after that. Here are a few things they did together:

watched movies

built trains (that pink dress Evelyn has on was actually Aubrey's swimsuit cover up and Evelyn literally slept in it, she didn't take it off the entire week we were there)

Carie has three cats and Cassidy LOVED them. She would crawl around chasing them and squealing. I don't have a picture of it but after a few days she got brave (and so did the cats) and she'd crawl over to them and be on her knees and 'attack' them with both hands and squeal and just go crazy, lol, it was hilarious.

Cassidy even helped Aubrey practice paino.

Chandler and Evelyn even dressed up together haha

Swing Set

2011-06-08T19:16:00.000-07:00

When we first moved into our house our neighbors had a swing set and they said that their son who is 8 had pretty much outgrown it so maybe someday they'd toss it over the fence. Well on my birthday (best birthday present!) our neighbor came over and asked us if we wanted it, ummm...YES! So it literally got tossed over the fence. We love it! The girls have so much fun on it. Evelyn can just go out and play whenever she wants and Cassidy stands at the backdoor yelling at it haha. So here are just a couple of fun pictures of our girls enjoying it.

Don't you just love that cheesy grin :)

Faux Chenille Blanket

2011-06-08T17:32:00.001-07:00

This is one of my most recent projects, a faux chenille baby blanket. It is SOOOO soft. I touch it every chance I get :) I used this awesome tutorial. It is a very simple blanket/quilt to make, you just put four or five layers of fabric together then sew diagnal lines 1/2 inch apart across the whole thing then cut between all the lines, bind and wash. So pretty simple but it takes FOREVER. It took me 5 hours to sew all the lines 3 1/2 to cut between all the lines then the time to bind. BUT it is SO worth the end result and I am sure I will be makign lots for of these because I love them. I used three layers of flannel for my back like this lady did. I also used satin binding and am so glad I did, it added so much to the quilt.

I will be sending this one off this week..or next...to a friend expecting a sweet little girl any day now and I won't lie, I'm very sad to part with this one, it's just SO SOFT! At least I know what I will be making when I have another baby :)

Quilts

2011-05-16T21:51:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of catching up to do, these last 4 weeks have been crazy. But for now I'll just show you my latest projects.

This is my baby girl zig zag quilt:

I am soooo in love with the way the quilting and binding turned out on it :) I had a lot of fun making this one and I love it to pieces. Tomorrow it is being sent off to a brand new baby girl, hopefully she'll get lots of love out of it :)

I made this quilt using THIS amazing tutorial! I will definently be making lots more quilts using the disappearing 9-patch pattern because it's super easy and fast. I am calling this my Summertime quilt. The fabric is all from a line called Summertime and it just makes me think of summer with all the bright colors. It makes me happy to look at :) Since this was my first quilt ever I am going to keep it for myself :)

And these two piles are just waiting to be cut up and made into quilts of their own, I'll let you know how they turn out ;)

Embellish Party!

2011-05-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, May 14 at 6:30 pm I will be having an Embellish party at my mother-in-law's house and EVERYONE is invited! So if you live in the Tri-Cities you should come! We will be making custom, interchangeable watchbands and pendant necklaces. It is going to be lots of fun! If you would like to come and need directions e-mail me at burchjm@gmail.com. And I'm serious when I say EVERYONE is invited (even if I don't know you but you check out my blog ;) )

Be sure to check out their website www.embellishjewelry.biz for pictures of some of the things you could make. You can also check them out of Facebok. There will be thousands of beads so everyone will be able to find something they love.

Easter Preview

2011-04-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

kind of walking

2011-04-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

Cassidy is really good at walking along like the couch or chairs and also when you are holding her hands and when I set her down standing up she will stand there forever until she decides she wants to go somwhere then she'll sit down and crawl. We have this walking toy that I've tried to get her to use for weeks now but she just wasn't interested in useing it for walking, when I put her at it she'd sit down and crawl around to the front and play with the toys. Well yesterday Evelyn stood her up at it and suddenly she was interested and just started cruising with it. So here's some video of her "walking".

The Park

2011-04-14T15:33:00.000-07:00

Every few days we have a really nice day and we've been trying to go to the park as much as we can, here are just a couple of pictures from our trip the other day.

Cassidy was being kind of serious and I had to keep her binkie in so she wouldn't put things in her mouth, so no smiles...

She was crawling around and then at this spot she just decided to lay down, it was kind of silly actually, almost like she was sun bathing, it was pretty cute (maybe one of those "you had to be there" moments?)

Finished Projects

2011-04-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

I made new table runners for my kitchen table and bookshelf. I LOVE them.

Remember when I commited to this impossible task? Well I survived it! We ended up making them over three mutual nights and the girls loved making them! yay! I took my camera every time we did it but didn't take a SINGLE picture, argh. I think a total of 13 girls and 2 adults made covers. One leader and one young woman though for different reasons weren't able to finish theirs so I brought them home and finished them for them. So here are the two I finished so you can see what they looked like.

I really enjoyed helping the young women make them but couldn't have done it without my friend Ashley! Oh my goodness she was a lifesaver!

So now I have a tutorial and patterns for a large quad, small quad (both without the flap), triple +bible and the large triple + bible. I would LOVE to share them since I put so much work into it and I just want people to use it. I would say they are very simple to make, a beginner project for sure, so if ANYONE wants a copy let me know and I will e-mail it to you. Seriously, let me know, I don't want all my hard work to go to waste :) They only take half a yard of fabric and abour half a yard of interfacing, two inches of velcro and that's all. I would also be willing to make them for anyone who wants one for $10 (basically the cost of the fabric, interfacing, and shipping). So if you want a pattern and isntructions (for free) leave a comment and your e-mail and I'll get it to you (I would put it on here but I don't know how to put a word document on here). Or if you want me to make you one let me know :)

the simple things

2011-04-14T15:10:00.000-07:00

Oh to be a baby again and to be able to enjoy the simple things...

Sometimes...

2011-04-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Evelyn's room looks like this before 10 am:

And we have to play I-Spy at naptime to find Cassidy's binkies (can you find it?)

And before we clean it up I like to have Evelyn show me what's been going on, like this baby went for a walk...

This cat is drinking some milk...

And Belle and Cinderella are taking a bath.

Sometimes (actually it's more like ALL the time) Evelyn likes to dress up as a beautiful princess

And sometimes making castles out of the couch cushions and all the pillows in the house is the best way to pass time.

Worst Fear

2011-04-11T13:57:00.000-07:00

bleck...just thinking about it makes me sick to my stomach...public speaking. ew.

I have to give a talk this Sunday and I think i'm going to lose a LOT of sleep and maybe some weight too worrying about it. Public speaking is my BIGGEST fear I absolutly positivly hate it and I just want to die thinking about doing it. My only consolation is that my topic is a pretty good one "Be thou and example" and once I've given my talk I won't have to do it again for a looong time (hopefully).

ugghhh...so here's to a long and stressful week.....

(What do you think my chances are of having the whole ward be sick next Sunday?...)

My Girls

2011-03-28T11:47:00.001-07:00

The other day Evelyn and Cassidy were playing in Evelyn's room and I heard them both giggling so I went in to see what was going on and I found them just sitting and looking at each other and I think Evelyn was tickling Cassidy or something. And Evelyn had put the hats on them. I love that these two girls love each other so much.

Also, this is Cassidy's new past time: pulling things out of drawers.

Bike Ride and Park

2011-03-28T11:40:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we went on a family bike ride to the park and Evelyn of course had tons of fun but this time Cassidy got to try out the slides and loved it. These pictures don't really do it justice, but both the girls were smiling and laughing and having a great time.

All the fun at the park wore them out :)

I even got a chance to pull the trailer! Usually Cameron pulls them but I wanted to give it a try and it wasn't hard at all (I'm a totaly wimp so I was concerned I wouldn't be able to do it haha).

Ashton's Quilt

2011-03-28T11:26:00.001-07:00

My brother Jeff and his wife Sarah welcomed a new baby boy, Ashton, to their family. I wanted to make him something and since I really only have experience making dresses and skirts and I've been wanting to make a quilt forever I thought this was the perfect opportunity. I am soooooooooooo in love with it!!!! I want to keep it for myself :) I used this tutorial to make it.

I love the colors, the way they are all laid out reminds me of Legos.

And the back is soooooooo sooooooo soft!

This gives a better perspective of the size of the quilt.

Enjoy baby Ashton!! Love Aunt Jamie

Capes

2011-03-28T11:15:00.001-07:00

Two of my nephews had birthdays this month Zakry turned 5 and Mikah turned 6. I decided to make them capes for their birthday because every time we go to Cameron's parents house they pull out the hot pink handkercheifs and want them tied around their neck then proceed to run all over. When I told Evelyn I was making the boys capes she insisted I make her a purple cape too. I couldn't pick just one picture to show how cute these kids are in their capes so there's a lot :)

Oh, and I decided to make masks to go with them and they are even reversible! (don't look close at them though I did a horrrrrrrible sewing job)

Mikah, Zakry and Evelyn. They were SO cute running around the back yard in their capes and making all sorts of super hero poses.

SUPER ZAKRY!

SUPER MIKAH!

SUPER EVELYN!

All the grandkids were outside running around so my mother in law wanted to get a picture of all of them...this was the best we could do lol. Jakob holding Jamison, Evelyn holding Eva, Mikah, Zakry holding Cassidy.

It was fun making the capes but even more fun seeing how happy the kids were to get them.

Bike Rides

2011-03-15T12:27:00.000-07:00

Last fall we got a bike trailer and we have finally gotten to use it! Evelyn LOVES her "red bike stroller"!! We have had some nice weather off and on the last few weeks and every chance he get Cameron takes Evelyn on a bike ride. There is a fun park just 4 miles one way and Cameron's parents a mile the other way so Evelyn has been in heaven going back and forth. Last Saturday Cameron spent 3 1/2 hours at the park and riding around with her! Evelyn had sooo much fun and was sooo worn out when they got home Evelyn had fallen asleep...unfortuantly she didn't stay asleep, but i'll take a 10 min nap over no nap these days.

Yesterday for FHE we decided to take Cassidy on her maiden voyage in the trailer and ride to grandma and grandpa's house. The road there is all torn up because they are doing contstruction to make the road wider and put in a bike traile so I was a little worried Cassidy would get tossed around so we put lots of pillows around her. Turns out I was paranoid for nothing because the road is super hard packed dirt and it really wasn't that bad. Evelyn held her hand the whole time, it was so sweet :)

We cannot wait for the weather to stay nice so we can go on LOTS more rides!!!

9 months!

2011-03-15T12:21:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe my baby is 9 months! Time flies when you're having fun! I cannot get enough of her smiles and I figured you guys wouldn't be able to either so I'm posting a bunch :) She has totally mastered the cheesy grin.

She is 26.8 inches tall (24th percentile) and a whopping 15 lbs 6 oz (3rd percentile) She's just a tiny one but healthy so it's all good :)

Cassidy is such a fast little crawler it's hard to keep up with her sometimes. She can climb the stairs but I think she gets scared after about two steps so luckily she doesn't do it too often (I usually put a gate up because she can't go down). She pulls herself up on everything and is starting to walk along things more and more and is getting braver every day and sometimes lets go and will just stand for a few seconds. She LOVES socks! She would be happy if all her toys were socks. She loves to put things in her mouth and crawl around with them just hanging there, it's pretty funny to watch. She HATES vegetables but LOVES fruit. I've been trying to give her more easy solids but she kind of gags and spits it out. She is such a momma's girl. She always has to know where I am and if she hasn't seen me for a few minutes and then catches sight of me she comes straight for me. She is always moving but if she is in her carseat she will be content for HOURS which is great for grocery shopping and church. She loves her sister and gets the biggest smile when she sees her and loves "playing" with her. She gets into EVERYTHING, seriuolsy EVERYTHING. Oh and if there is paper around she will find it and eat it. She is pretty much always happy and if she gets sad or cranky a little love will usually cheer her right up. We sure love our Cassidy!!!!!!!

Skirts

2011-03-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

I made Evelyn and Cassidy matching skirts and shirts and I LOVE them :) They turned out so cute and they look so adorable on the girls. I love the ruffly bottoms :)

Aaaaand they're done!

Evelyn got a haircut

2011-03-15T11:44:00.003-07:00

Evelyn was in desperate need of a haircut. The longer her hair got the thinner and stringier it got so I finally took her to get a cute little bob.

Before: After:

It sure is super cute on her :)

Valentine's Day

2011-03-15T11:29:00.004-07:00

I know this is wayyyy late, but it's better late than never right?...

For Valentine's Day we made some delicous rice krispie treats and took them to Grandma and Grandpa Burch. Anytime I am cooking Evelyn has to pull up a chair and watch me or help me so she had a blast helping me make these.

She did a fantastic job of measuring out the marshmallows.

Cassidy was in charge of smiling :)

And making faces...

Evelyn also did a great job of adding the sprinkles (the entire jar) and smoothing it all out.

Then daddy helped her cut them into heart shapes.

These were actually some of the best rice krispie treats I've ever had, we used about 3/4 regular marshmallows and 1/4 of the strawberry flavored ones, they were yuuuuummmy!
Then she made some awesome Valentines and we delivered them :)

My Valentines

2011-02-14T17:48:00.002-07:00

Basically I have the cutest Valentines on the planet. I might be a little bias, but you can't deny the cuteness that is all mine :)

Cassidy is a funny girl. She smiles, just not for pictures. Ever. She gives these extremely serious looks anytime I try to get a picture of her. And Evelyn doesn't smile either. But instead of extremely serious faces, she gives extremely funny faces. So that's how this photo shoot went down: one serious 8 month old and one funny 3 year old. Enjoy! :)

Valentine's Decor

2011-02-14T17:31:00.004-07:00

I have never really been a holiday decorator, except for Christmas, but I think that since I finally have my own house I might become one. I have had WAY too much fun decorating for Valentine's Day :) Granted my house isn't really that big and there aren't that many places to decorate but I tried :)

I made this table runner and am SO happy with the way it turned out. I used this awesome tutorial. I was ridiculously nervous about making it, especially since it involves quilting and binding, but I found that I really enjoyed doing it and I love it so much I want to make a million more...

With the scraps from the fabric I used for the table runners I made the garland using this tutorial, but I attached my hearts side to side instead of the way she did it.

I made a runner for my bookshelf too.

One day I went over to my sister-in-law Tara's house and she was making a cute picture to frame and let me make one too, I love it :)

I put it on my entry table with some candles that I wrapped with different ribbons.

Sorry if you didn't want to my decorations, they just make me happy so I wanted to share :)

An Impossible Task

2011-01-19T13:08:00.003-07:00

Next Tuesday I am teaching the Laurels in our old ward how to make scripture covers. Why I agreed to do this I'm not really sure...I guess I wanted to share my talents (but that's stretching it because I haven't reached the point where I consider sewing a "talent" of mine) Anyway, what's done is done and I am committed. So I am faced with the task of figuring out how much supplies I need for 15 scripture covers and purchasing it (done), creating patterns for 4 different sizes of scriptures (almost done, I have the dimensions figured out I just need to cut out the patterns) and creating a tutorial on how to actually make these which means I actually have to make one, take pictures along the way and write out the instructions.
I'm really not complaining, I'm actually haveing fun doing this and figuring things out. My problem is I have two sweet little angles that make this task seem almost impossible to complete. This is what it looks like when I try to sew:

Yes Evelyn is wearing a stool. These sweeties have toys all around and yet the ones I'm "playing" with are the most interesting and exciting and they want to play with them too.

Here's hoping they both take nice long naps at the same time every day from now till next Tuesday...

Christmas!

2011-01-11T17:14:00.004-07:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We were able to go to Lacey and spend 9 days there! And the best part was that Cameron got to stay the whole time :)

We let Evelyn open her pajamas on Christmas Eve and she was SO excited! This girl lives for anything princess. Chrstimas morning the girls had lots of fun opening and playing with their fun new toys.

I am horrible at taking pictures when we go to Lacey. But we had SOOO much fun! We spent the trip hanging out with my parents and sisters and their families and Cameron and I even got to see a few of our closest friends while we were home, Heather, Chelsea and Brad. We played lots of games, ate lots of yummy food, went shopping, Cameron and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, my mom and I sewed, Cameron and my dad built some walls and moved some dirt outside and lots of other fun things. My sister Kelly started a business called Embellish and she makes watch bands out of beads. But the way she does it is she has watch parties and you get to make your own. They are sooo cute and lots of fun to make, I ended up coming home with three :) I'll post pictures of those soon :)

Ward Christmas Party

2011-01-11T16:37:00.002-07:00

We had a lot of fun at our ward Christmas party this year. Each auxiliary did a little something like sing or do a skit. The Young Women went last and they did a little skit about and elf that didn't believe in Santa and during the skit Santa came out to show the elf he was real. When Evelyn saw Santa she got SO excited. We were about half way back in the gym with most of the ward in front of us and she just started yelling as loud as she could "SANTA! HEYYYYY SAAAANTA!! SANTA! HEY SANTA! Mommy look! SANTA! HEYYYY SAAAANTA!!!" It was pretty funny. I was so excited when I saw that a lady in our ward is a professional photographer and brought a beautiful back drop and we were going to get super cute pictures of our girls with santa....yeah...maybe next year...blah. As excited as she was about seeing him on stage, Evelyn would NOT sit on his lap. Here he is trying to get her to get on his lap but she just touched his gloves and wouldn't get any closer.

Santa: Would you like to see my bells?

Evelyn: Sure, from a distance!

Santa: Maybe you would like a candy cane?

Evelyn: Sure! But I'm still not coming near you!

I need to find the lady that took the pictures and see how hers turned out...

Sister Love

2011-01-11T16:30:00.002-07:00

These are just a couple of cute pictures of Evelyn and Cassidy. They sure do love each other!

doesn't Evelyn have the cutest big toe? ;)

Solids

2011-01-11T16:22:00.002-07:00

This wasn't Cassidy's very first taste of solids but it was one of the first. I love these first three pictures in sequence, haha, and Evelyn's facial expressions in the background are pretty funny too :)
Cassidy was so excited to eat and was waving her arms all around and trying to grab the spoon. Finally I had to hold her hands down so I could get it in her mouth.

Ohhh the anticipation!!!

lol, maybe not what she was expecting/hoping for?

Yup, she's a pro :)

She will down a jar and half of peas, she LOVES them. Rice cereal, green beans and sweet potatoes not so much.

Cassidy Update

2011-01-11T15:41:00.002-07:00

Yesterday Miss Cassidy had her 7 month birthday. I cannot believe she is 7 months already!! She is growing up wayyyyy too fast. Here are a few updates on her:

-I don't have her stats yet, her and Evelyn will be going to the Dr next week and I'll let you know what they are.
-no teeth yet, and I am so not looking forward to when she does get them. I hate teething!
-She crawls! Before Christmas she was doing this funny little hop/scoot/army crawl thing but by the time we came home she was full on crawling. And every day she gets better and faster. I really have to watch her close because she disappears out of my sight pretty fast now.
-Puts anything and everything in her mouth.
-Sits up perfect. She is happy sitting with a basket full of toys and just playing away, and when she does get bored she will just crawl away and find something else to chew on.
-Eats solids now. She LOVES Peas, HATES sweet potatoes and will tolerate green beans for a few bites. Oh, and she's not a big fan of rice cereal but will tolerate that too.
-SO HAPPY! This girl never fusses unless she is hungry and sees me.
-She loves playing peek-a-boo with people and likes it when you pretend to "get her" while she is crawling on the floor.
-Blows raspberries all the time and has just figured out how to spit out her binkie when she sees something else she wants.
-She is a great sleeper! I put her to bed at 8:30 and she usually sleeps until 6:30! Sometimes she'll wake up around 2:30 but if I give her her binkie and rock her for a minute she goes right back to sleep.
-Takes naps in her crib now. She used to only take them in her swing which was fine when she could sleep through anything. But now she will take two or three 1 to 2 1/2 hour naps in her crib, it's wonderful!
-Loves to babble and talk! And if someone babbles and talks back to her she gets so excited and will talk forever :)

Cassidy is such an angel and I am so blessed to be her mother. We love her soooooo much!!!

Twirling

2011-01-11T13:39:00.002-07:00

I forgot that Cameron got some video of Evelyn twirling and dancing in her new skirt. Enjoy :)

Birthday 3!

2011-01-10T16:58:00.007-07:00

Evelyn had a Cat in the Hat birthday party this year. It was tons of fun!! Instead of a cake I made Thing 1 and Thing 2 cupcakes :) Evelyn sneaking some "carton corn" lol that's what she calls it until we remind her it's "cotton candy"

I made a hat for each child (I could have never finished them all without my mom!) So when each child arrived Evelyn gave them a hat, here she is waiting for the guests to arrive!

the calm before the storm...

I just love this picture of the two of them!!

Mommy and Daddy with the birthday girl!! Cassidy was sleeping, that's why she isn't in the picture.

The first thing we did was color paper hats for the game "Pin the Hat on the Cat"

Evelyn pinning her hat to the cat, lol, it was pretty funny watching all the kids try to get their hat on the cat, but they all had fun and that's the important thing :) (My father in law did an amazing job drawing the hatless cat for me!)

The birthday girl blowing out her candles!!!

She was so excited to eat her cupcake :) All the other kids loved them too, but who wouldn't, after all they had cotton candy on them!

Miss Cassidy decided to wake up and join the party. I made a hat for her that was just her size :)

Then we played another game. It was a bean bag toss game and the way I did it was I printed five copies of two images off the computer one of The Cat in the Hat and the other of Thing 1 and Thing 2. Then I made a little deck of cards with the same images on them. I laid the plates in rows on the ground and each kid would pick a card and then try to throw their bean bag on the plate with the matching image. If they hit it then they got a swedish fish. This game was a BIG hit. Here's Evelyn taking a turn.

I had to put this picture in because this little girl LOVED the bean bag game. After every kid had a turn there was a little time left before their parents came and so all the kids went outside to play except Emily, she just played the bean bag game for like 15 minutes by herself lol.

This pretty much sums up what opening presents was like: CRAZY

Evelyn got a ton of awesome presents, but the Snow White dress and crown from aunt Tara hands down won as the favorite. Evelyn lives for anything Princess and I'm pretty sure this is what she wished for when she blew out her candles :)

Each child got to go home with their hat, a Cat in the Hat bean bag and some swedish fish.

On Sunday, her actual birthday, she opened her presents from me and Cameron and my mom. My mom got her this super cute super sparkly skirt and she LOVES it!!!

This is what she was doing all night :) I wish the camera could do it justice, in the light when she twirls the sparkles are extra sparkly and even I was mesmerized by it :)

I have to include this picture. Evelyn would live in the snow white dress if I could let her. She put it on as soon as the party was over and the only reason she took it off at night was because she got a new princess nightgown too. Then Sunday morning she put it on first thing and wore till the last possible second before going to church. And as soon as we got home...yup, you guessed it, the dress went on. And again this moring when she woke up she put it on, lol, so here is Snow White eating her cereal lol

So there you have it, Birthday #3! It was a success!

On another note, I just have to say I cannot believe my little girl is THREE! She is such a sweetheart and we are SO blessed to have her in our lives!!! We love you EVELYN!!!!

Blast from the Past

2010-11-03T19:38:00.003-07:00

After moving and going through all of our boxes and also going through boxes full of Cameron's stuff from growing up that have been in his dad's garage for years and years and years we have come across some pretty funny stuff. One thing we found is Cameron's glasses from when he was in 1st and 2nd grade. They are AWESOME! haha and Evelyn thinks it's funny to wear them and try to walk in them and we think it's hilarious to watch her because she take really big steps and when she looks at us she looks through the top of them. Anyways, they're funny and she's funny. Here are some pictures of her trying them on :)

Smiles

2010-11-01T16:00:00.002-07:00

I captured some cute smiles from Cassidy and thought I could post them foryour viewing pleasure :)

Halloween!

2010-11-01T15:37:00.003-07:00

We had a super fun Halloween this year and it seemed like it lasted forever! Friday I took Evelyn and Cassidy to see Grandma Burch at her office and then to see daddy at his. That night our ward had a Trunk-or -Treat and a chili feed. It was so much fun! Saturday night our old ward (Cameron's parents' ward) had a Trunk-or-Treat and a carnival. It too was tons of fun! Then Sunday all of Cam's siblings went to his parents house for dinner and it was fun to hang out with family and Evelyn always always always loves to play with cousins!

Cassidy the kitten and Evelyn the candy corn witch

Visiting grandma at work

A few more pictures of the girls...

My sister-in-law Megan makes the most amazing costumes for her boys each year. This year was no different, they were sock monkeys! Pretty much the cutest, funniest things ever!

And we finally got one of Cassidy, Evelyn and Eva in their matching outfits. I have no idea what they are all staring but they they look pretty intense lol

And I tried to get a family picture...this was the best we got haha

Winner

2010-11-01T14:57:00.002-07:00

A winner has randomly been picked and it is............. Meagan!

I told Cameron that I was so excited to give a bag away, but after so many people 'entered' for it (WAY more than I ever expected haha) I felt so bad that I can't just give one to everyone! If I could, I would make one for all of you!

call me the bag lady

2010-10-25T14:15:00.005-07:00

there's a give away at the bottom so read on...

I have been sewing quite a bit the last week, and it's been sooo nice. I love sewing. A few years ago when I was pregnant with Evelyn and Amy (Hi Amy!) and I tried making a receiving blanket for her and it took us 2 hours just to make the fabric square and by that point we were so annoyed we didn't finish it (my mom finished when she came down to help me with the baby haha), yeah, I don't think at that point I ever would have thought I would say the words "I love sewing". But I guess with lots of practice and some great teachers I truly do love sewing now. But anyways, like I said, I've been sewing a lot this last week and when a friend asked me what I've been making I realized all the things I made were bags! lol, I guess I have a bit of a bag obsession and didn't even know it!

The first thing I made was the Birdie Sling by Amy Butler. My friend Julie has one and when I saw it I fell in love, so thanks Julie for the inspiration :) I love that it's nice and bright, hopefully it will keep me nice and cheerful through these cold months ahead.

Evelyn is going to be a Candy Corn Witch for Halloween (no I am not making her costume, I'm not brave enough to do that yet) so when I saw this tutorial I knew it was perfect and I copied it. I did make a little change to how I put together the bottom of my bag, but the rest is the same :)

I dont' know if any of you remember this post, but I gave all those bags away and ever since then (8 months ago!) I have been meaning to make one for myself, so I finally did!

And if that's not enough proof that I have become obsessed with making bags, I just bought this book too!

I don't know when I'll find the time to make all the bags in there but I have looked through it probably fifty times since I bought it and can't wait to make them all!

And since I'm in such a bag making mood, I thought I would give one of my bags away. I don't know how many people actually read this blog, but I think there are at least a dozen of you. So for one of you lucky readers I am going to give away one of my mini totes (the blue one up there). It really is a perfect church bag, but it could also have lots of other uses. So if you want one just leave a comment saying you want one and your e-mail address, then a week from today, Nov. 1st I will randomly pick one lucky reader :)

Eva's Birthday Party = Happiest Day of Evelyn's Life

2010-10-23T21:37:00.005-07:00

Evelyn's cousin Eva had her First Birthday last week! Woohoo!! They had a party for her at a loval gymnastics place and Evelyn was in HEAVEN! For those of you who know Evelyn you know she has SO. MUCH. ENERGY. Seriously, I have never met a child with more energy than her. You will never see her just walk anywhere she has to be eithe running, skipping, going backwards, sideways, hopping, or anything other than walking. She also loves to climb anything in sight and anytime we are in a parking lot she has to walk on the curb like a balance beam. So naturally, this place was heaven to her. Here are pictures of her going going going:

This was a big swing they had and it might have been her favorite thing there.

And of course, the beautiful birthday girl! Eva is such beautiful and sweet little girl. Tara and Jason were so blessed to be able to adopt her a year ago. We are so grateful she is a part of our family. We love you Eva!!

Here's her first bite...

Going in for some more!

I think she liked it! :)

And some shots of the rest of us enjoying the party :)

Grandma and Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-23T20:35:00.002-07:00

Last night we went to Cameron's grandparents house to get some pumpkins. By the time we got there it was pitch black but we still had lots of fun!

Look at all those beautiful pumpkins!! They had tons of huge ones! Evelyn told us the whole way there that she wanted a "baby one" and this green one was the first one she saw haha she quickly decided it wasn't ready to be picked yet though.

But then we found a PERFECT one for her! She was SO excited!!! And check out those nice big ones we got too!

The neighbors have cows and they were totally drawn to the spotlight we had. Evelyn wanted to go over the fence and touch them but Cameron told her they would eat her, after which she quickly jumped up in his arms. Yeah, not sure I want her thinking cow will eat her, but it kept her on the right side of the fence!

Mommies Little Monsters

2010-10-14T19:06:00.003-07:00

Evelyn and Cassidy have these cute matching outfits for Halloween (their cousin Eva has one too, but the day they were all wearing them and were together Evelyn was not in a picture taking mood). It's really hard to get a good picture of one kid, let alond two, so here's my best ...And since I haven't posted any of Cassidy for a while, we'll call these her 4 month pictures. (I can't believe she is FOUR months already!!)

I tried so hard to get her to smile, the above one is the best I got, which is cute, but kind of lame because she smiles ALL the time! But, of course, when I pull out the camera she won't perform. Also, these days this is how she would rather suck on her binkie:
or like this...
or this...
Also, I don't know how I have neglected to tell you all that Evelyn is potty trained! She has actually been potty trained since August. And it didn't really take any training...One day we were at the store and I bought her big girl panties, I let her choose between princess or Dora, she chose princess. When we got home she wanted to wear them so I was like "Okay, but if you need to go potty tell mommy so you can go on the toilet. DO NOT go in your panties" Now, I didn't really expect her to tell me, and I wasn't really planning on training her yet, I guess I just bought the panties so someday when I was ready I would have them. Well, she did tell me when she needed to go potty and from that moment on she never wore a diaper again (except at night for two weeks, then after we realized they were dry every morning we stopped that and she just wears panties to bed). She has never had an accident either. I guess she was just read. I am one LUCKY mother. Hopefully all my kids are that easy...yeah, I know, dream on. lol

Candy Corn Wreath

2010-10-14T17:41:00.003-07:00

Last Saturday I had a Candy Corn Party which was tons of fun! The idea was for everyone to make some sort of decoration using candy corn. I had a bunch of ideas that I got from a magazine and one of them was a candy corn wreath:
Isn't it pretty? I was a little intimidated at first but once I got started I realized how easy it was. It took maybe 2 1/2 hours to make (it's hard to tell since I had to stop and tend to my children quite often). Anyways if you want to make one yourself here's some rough instructions on how to do it:

Supplies:
candy corn
black ribbon
hot glue gun
lots of hot glue sticks (I probably used about 10-12)
foam wreath
black duck tape

How to:
-wrap your wreath with black duck tape
-with your glue gun make about a 3-5 inch line and attach candy corn. Don't make too long of a line so that it doesn't dry before you have time to attach the candy corn.
-I didn't cover the back of the wreath with candy corn so that it hangs better and the candy corn won't get knocked off when it bounces against the door.
-Cut your ribbon whatever length you want and hang! (I glued my ribbon to the wreath so that it won't slide)

Pretty easy!

Bumbo Baby

2010-10-14T17:29:00.004-07:00

** Cassidy rolled over today! Woohoo! haha isn't it funny the things that get us mothers excited? She rolled over while I was sitting right next to her, but of course she did it in the 2 seconds that I turned to look at Evelyn so I didn't actually see the roll, just the after of her on her tummy. So then I tried to get her to do it all day after that. Of course, she wouldn't do it again, she would roll to her side and try hard but never make it over. Then, again, when I wasn't watching she was laying still and not trying to roll and I looked away and looked back and there she was again on her tummy! Silly girl :)

Today we broke out the bumbo for this little babe. She is so good at holding her head up and loves sitting up when you hold her and she was starting to get a little squirmy in her bouncer so I thought I would give it a try. She loved it :) She was concentrating SO hard on her toys it was funny. No, she did not grab the toy she's holding, I put it in her fist, but she loved sucking on it when she made it to her mouth. Before I know it she'll be grabbing them all by herself.

Aren't those little feet so dang cute?! She has the tiniest, softest, cutest feet ever :) Doesn't this picture make you want to tickle them? When Evelyn saw it she did, she said "ickle, ickle, ickle" lol

Virtual Tour

2010-10-12T19:10:00.008-07:00

There were a few people that wanted to see pictures of our house and I was waiting for my mom to come visit and bring the curtains she made for me. Well she has come and the curtains are up so here are the pictures! As a side note, I didn't actually want to post any pictures until I had stuff up on the walls, but who know when that will happen so I figured I better do it now. And for those of you who don't care to see my house then you better just skip this post because there are quite a few pics.

Welcome!To the left of the entry you will find the laundry room and a bathroom. (this laundry room along with the master closet sold me on the house lol)

Then we will head down the hallway to the living room, kitchen and dining room.
Aren't these curtains beautiful? My amazing mother made ALL the curtains in my house! She loves me :) Evelyn's and Cassidy's even come complete with blackout lining, amazing!

Toys, Books, magazines, blankets, and everything else I don't want people to see are hidden on the bookshelf behind the couch and there is even enough room for Evelyn to play back there, it's wonderful.
When my parents came to visit my mom recovered this chair for me. It was U-G-L-Y and now it is gorgeous!
I love my kitchen, it's so big and open.

Behind the curtains is the sliding door that goes to the backyard.
Our backyard isn't very big, but for now it is the perfect size. That fence on the right wasn't there when we moved in, when my parents came my dad and Cameron built it, it's beautiful, it now keep kids in and our neighbors dog OUT! (behind our house is the freeway and across the freeway is Home Depot and Wal-Mart)
Now we will head upstairs. This is where all the bedrooms are. First is the master bedroom.

Master Bath (don't judge me, it's a mess...but a clean mess :) )

Then you will find Evelyn's Room. We painted it the perfect shade of pink but I still need to paint stripes on the wall that her bed and play kitchen are on, I have the paint I just have to do it...then I can hang things up, which I also have but I have to paint first...lol

This is Cassidy's room :)

The girls' bathroom.
And last but not least and quite possibly my favorite room in the house........my CRAFT room! I have all the space I need to do any project and even a closet just to house all my supplies so it's not all over the place anymore :)
Oh and the computer is in there too :)
So that's our house! We LOVE it! And there is plenty of room for guests! We even have a queen size air mattress that is REALLY nice and comfy for people to sleep on, so anyone and everyone should come visit :)

Here's what Evie did today

2010-09-19T20:34:00.002-07:00

She decided her animals and babies needed to read some books. And then she heard her Baby Lamb crying upstairs so she went and got it and was giving it loves to make it feel better. Baby Lamb got a special book. She was telling it all about "My Chandler" and "My Luke" and Madisyn and Rylee and Aubrey and Craig

Then it was time for the animals to take a nap.

But they each needed a toy to sleep with.

She makes me laugh :)

Just as I predicted...

2010-09-19T14:22:00.003-07:00

...my girls look so cute today :)

Also, did you know it is SO hard to get a good picture of a 2 1/2 year old who just wants to wiggle and kiss her sister and a 3 month old who can't sit up by herself and doesn't know how to look at the camera? Yeah, I tried my best...

Cassidy's dress could be an inch or two longer...oh well.

We were in a hurry before church trying to get pictures of the girls so after church I tried to get one of Cassidy and Evelyn wanted SO bad to lay next to her sister and have me take a picture :)

I am so blessed to be the mommy of these two angels!

4th of July

2010-09-17T21:44:00.004-07:00

Yes, you read the title right. So I'm a little late, haha. I figured while I was catching up I might as well catch all the way up.

Cassidy was 3 1/2 weeks. She really enjoyed her holiday, she celebrated by sleeping through it :)
I love that smile :) Evelyn definently enjoyed her 4th of July. She got to hang out with her cousins and loved watching the fireworks.

All the cousins on the Burch side, haha, I love that everyone in this picture is in their own world.

matchy matchy

2010-09-17T21:36:00.002-07:00

how stinkin' cute are my girls going to be this Sunday?? I just whipped these up today (haha and by "whipped up" I mean spent ALL day making them). But I am SO happy with the way they turned out and Evelyn loves hers already and every time I look at Cassidy's I can't help but smile because it's so tiny and cute! I still need to make a flower to put on the bottom and matching headbands...we'll see if those get done by Sunday...

Cruisin'

2010-09-15T23:14:00.002-07:00

Evelyn loves her bike. And it makes her smile really big.

The things this girl does...

2010-09-15T23:06:00.003-07:00

I could not stop laughing looking at these pictures. I don't know if anyone else will find these as funny as I did, but I hope they at least make you smile.

When I first glanced at this picture it looks like Evelyn is floating. Also, she is not completely naked, she does have a diaper on. I love this look, I'm pretty sure I was laughing at her and she was like "What? What's so funny?"

Now she is just loving the attention. (I moved her throne so it wouldn't be so lopsided and she wouldn't topple over backwards)

Okay, she's done posing for me, Ariel is way more important than smiling for the camera.

beautiful baby

2010-09-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

just some pictures I love

Holding Baby Cassidy

2010-09-15T22:39:00.002-07:00

On a daily basis, actually hourly, Evelyn says to me "I hold baby Cassidy?" Or she TELLS me "I hold her! I hold her!" And she gets VERY upset with me if I tell her no, and since Cassidy is so good about putting up with her big sister, Evelyn usually gets her way, proof is in the pictures:

It is also impossible for Evelyn to hold Cassidy without kissing her in multiple times on her head, ear, fingers, eyes, arm, etc...

That might have been WAY more pictures than you wanted to see but oh well, I can't get enough of these two :)

Smiles

2010-09-15T22:15:00.002-07:00

Cassidy is the happiest baby in the world, I'm sure of it. Here's proof:

Those are genuine smiles, you can see it in the eyes. It is impossible to look at her and not be happy.

Here's a little bit of what she is up to (because as a 3 month old she is up to a lot).

She loves to smile and talk. If you hold her on your lap and start talking to her you can really get a good conversation out of her. She coos and goos and smiles and really it's very captivating.
She likes her binki but doesn't HAVE TO HAVE IT, which is how Evelyn was at this age. In fact, unless she is getting tired if you try to give it to her she spits it out.
She loves her swing, woohoo :) It's her favorite place to nap and her favorite place to watch what's going on in the world around her (i.e. her sister playing and her mom cleaning up after her sister). She would swing all day if I would let her, but I get a little greedy sometimes and want a turn holding her.
She's not really a fan of tummy time but I'm a mean mom and make her do it anyway :)
She sleeps in her crib at night!! Before we moved into our house she had a pack and play in our room that she never slept in, she slept in bed with us instead EVERY night. Once we moved into our house I made her sleep in her own bed, I know, I'm so mean. It only took two nights of a little bit of crying and now she sleeps there every night and will sleep 5-7 hours a night, it's a beautiful thing.
Because I made her cry herself to sleep for those first few nights she now likes to suck on her fingers. If she actually gets her thumb in her mouth though she gags on it, it's kind of funny. Usually though she just sucks on the knuckle on her thumb or her ring and middle fingers together.
She LOVES getting her diaper changed. She gets SO animated and giggly and smiley and kicks like crazy when I change her diaper, it almost makes changing her diaper fun...almost.
She does not like to fall asleep in her carseat. This is very hard on my life. If we are out and about and she's tired she gets fussy and cranky. But I guess since that is like the ONLY time she gets fussy or cranky I can live with it.
She still has a head full of dark hair! I can't believe it. I hope she keeps it :)
She's filling out quite nicely, as you can tell from the photos. She's well on her way to 11 pounds.

Well that's all I can think of for now, as you can see though, she's a very busy girl :)

life size doll

2010-09-15T21:47:00.005-07:00

I don't think there is a big sister in the world that loves her baby sister as much as Evelyn loves Cassidy. Anyone that sees these two knows it, and I mean anyone, the checkers at the grocery store, people sitting by us at church, anyone that comes to our house, etc. All day long Evelyn asks me if she can hold Cassidy. If Cassidy is crying in the car Evelyn will sing to her and soothe her by saying in a sweet little mommy voice "It's okay baby." "Ooohh, baby Cass, it's okay, we're almost home". If Cassidy cries at home and Evelyn is within reach of her she will go to her and give her her binki and LOTS of kisses. And if a person points to Cassidy and asks Evelyn who she is she will always say "MY baby Cassidy" because, you know, she's HERS. It really is very sweet and I love it, I hope that Evelyn will always love her baby sister this much and Cassidy will learn to love her big sister just as much too.

One day Evelyn decided to play with Cassidy while she was sleeping and the sweet little girl just tolerated it and slept right through it. lol. This is the look that says "You caught me, are you going to make me stop or can I keep playing..."
"hmmm...what's in this pocket?"

"And now what's in this one?"

lol she's such a cutie

And look at the angel

Evelyn wanted her other baby to take a nap with Cassidy.

For the sake of keeping a record (and since I am posting all these pictures in no particular order) and just in case you were wondering, Cassidy is 10 weeks in these pictures.

organized.

2010-09-15T21:37:00.002-07:00

So now I am just going through pictures from this summer that I have never posted (and there are a lot). They will be in no particular order.

One day I walked into the kitchen to find this:

I have no idea where she gets it from...okay maybe she gets a little bit of it from me (her need to be organized that is). I love watching her, she never ceases to amaze me with how creative she is and the things she comes up with.

Pajama Party

2010-09-14T18:51:00.002-07:00

So what's the point of having two little girls if you don't ever dress them alike, even if it's just for bed? I love this sequence of photos:

Two happy little girls, this was probably about the 20th photo we took, lots of adjusting and moving around before Evelyn was comfortable and would take a break of kissing and hugging her sister long enough to look at the camera.
Oh, poor Cassidy she has had enough of this photo shoot! She just wants her binki!

Awww, yes, the binki makes everything all better...

And instantly puts her to sleep, lol. I guess when you're tired, you're tired :)

Perfection.

2010-09-14T18:40:00.001-07:00

If this isn't perfection then I don't know what is:

YAY, I finally got pictures to load!! Now I don't have any more excuses, except that I need to bathe these beauties and then if I have time I'll post more pics :)

I tried...

2010-09-14T14:30:00.002-07:00

I just tried posting pictures 3 times but the internet keeps kicking me off, lame. But at least I tried, that counts for something right? I'll try again later... Also, pictures of my house will be coming soon, I am waiting to put them up until after my parents come next week because my AMAZING mom is making curtains for my house and I want to wait until I have those up :)

behind

2010-09-02T14:48:00.001-07:00

I am SO far behind on blogging it isn't even funny!! I have SO many pictures I need to post! It seriously makes me sad looking at other blogs and their new posts and pictures because it reminds me how far behind I am and that my family (the reason I started the blog) isn't getting to see all the pictures of my girls and what has been going on with us. Hopefully in the next week I will be able to get to it. But until then, I will be unpacking my NEW HOUSE!!!!

Sisters

2010-06-19T08:05:00.004-07:00

Some people have been asking whether Evelyn had as much hair or as dark or hair as Cassidy does. So I went back and found some pictures of Evelyn when she was just a week or so old, she did have as dark of hair but not nearly as much. Can you tell these two are sisters?

Evelyn

Cassidy

One Week

2010-06-18T08:30:00.004-07:00

Yesterday Cassidy turned one week old :) She is now 5 lbs 12 oz (she was 5 1/2 lbs when we left the hospital so I was very happy about her weight gain) and they said she was 19 inches, but I have a hard time believing she grew 1 1/4 in in a week.

Cassidy is such a great baby! She is sooo mellow. She only cries when we unwrap her to change her diaper but as soon as we start swaddling her again she calms right down. She makes some of the funniest faces, I could just stare at her all day long. She had her first whole body under water bath yesterday, lol, she was not a fan. But as soon as she was wrapped up in her towel she calmed down and was very happy after that. Cassidy is very tiny, everyone that holds her can't believe just how small and light she is, so I thought it would be fun to compare her to one of Evelyn's dolls. lol, I think the picture speaks for itself, she's a little one alright.
There certainly is no shortage of love for her around here. Evelyn seriously can't get enough of her. She is always kissing her or hugging her or wanting to hold her. Sometimes she loves her a little too much, but mostly she is very soft and loving with her.

I feel so blessed to be the mother of these two beautiful and sweet little girls. Life couldn't be any better. :)

eat your pancake

2010-06-18T08:24:00.003-07:00

I couple of days ago I had an early appointment and was really rushing trying to get two kids and myself ready. I kept telling Evelyn over and over again to "eat your pancake" and she kept saying "no". When it was time to leave I realized there was no more pancake on her plate, which I was very happy about because that meant she ate it...or so I thought. AFTER we got back I found this... So much for thinking my daughter listens to me...

New Arrival

2010-06-11T12:03:00.005-07:00

Cassidy Anne Burch

June 10, 2011 11:29 am

5 lbs 10 oz

17 3/4 in long

You can see the hospital picture here.

Cassidy came 16 days early just like Evelyn. She is healthy and happy. Mom is also doing very well.

Evelyn is so in love with "her Cassidy". It melts my heart to see how much Evelyn loves her, she really can't get enough of her. She's always giving her kisses and talking to her and wanting to hold her.

More pictures soon...

Evie and Eva

2010-05-28T13:39:00.005-07:00

Evelyn loves babies. Evelyn REALLY loves her cousin "baby hefa" as it sounds coming out of mouth :) Eva was over on Sunday and as soon as Tara took her out of her carseat Evelyn jumped on the couch and was ready to hold her. Evelyn loves to feed her her bottle (even though Eva can hold it on her own now), give her toys, help change her diaper and gets very concerned about her when she fusses. She's going to be a wonderful and very helpful big sister.

Does Eve look like she is about the same size as Evelyn? That's because she almost is! At 7 months Miss Eva is 19 lbs (I'm pretty sure that's right...) and at 2 1/2 Evelyn is 26 lbs lol

35 Weeks

2010-05-28T13:25:00.002-07:00

It's a little late, but here I am at 35 weeks pregnant (I will be 36 tomorrow). But I'm bad at getting pictures of me so I better put one up while I have it right?

Best. Lunch. Ever.

2010-05-28T13:08:00.002-07:00

Yesterday I got to have lunch with my best friend Amy!!
Why was this such a special event? Because Amy and I haven't seen each other in TWO YEARS!! The last time we were together was Evelyn's blessing day. Then I moved to Washington and we haven't been together since. Sure we e-mail, read each other's blogs and talk on the phone, but sometimes you just want to see someone and I was lucky enough to get to spend 5 whole hours with her yesterday :) It was a wonderful lunch and we had such a great time catching up.

The reason we were able to see each other was because she had a plane ticket that needed to be used by July. She left her husband and adorable baby at home in Utah and spent the day traveling (there were no direct flights from Salt Lake to the Tri-Cities so she literally spent the whole day flying) so we could have lunch together :)

Yay for good friends and making great memories :)

Fun Trip to Lacey!

2010-05-11T15:05:00.006-07:00

This last week Evelyn and I got to spen 10 fun days in Lacey with my family! We had so much fun hanging out with family! I never seem to get very many pictures when we go to Lacey, so this time I was determined to take more! Well, I did a little better, but we were just having so much fun I didn't even think about my camera most of the time.

One day Evelyn and I went with my sister Kelly and her little boy Chase to the children's museum in Olympia. Evelyn LOVED LOVED LOVED it!!!! She had so much fun just running from one thing to the next and loved that she could touch and get into anything she wanted, lol. (I didn't get any pictures of her and Chase because they were both too busy checking different things out).

She especially loved the pet area. She even took this little puppy on a walk ;)

The first couple of days we were there it was a little rainy, but then the last half of our trip was BEAUTIFUL!!! Evelyn had lots of fun playing outside. Here she is with Chase throwing sticks and rocks in the water (I know it's not the best picture but I tried to get a picture of each of the cousins and this is the best I could do with Chase)

I just had to throw this picture in, isn't it SO beautiful there!!!

Evelyn had tons and tons and tons of fun with Madisyn and Rylee, and I mean TONS of fun! Again, I this is the best I did on pictures with them...

Evelyn also had TONS and tons and tons and tons of fun with Chandler, Aubrey and Luke. Chandler is 4 and a great cousin to Evelyn, she really likes to tackle him and boss him around and he takes it all with a smile, lol. Here they are getting some energy out just racing around the back yard.

awww...so sweet :)

Evelyn loved jumping on the trampoline with them. It looks like she might be crying in this picture but she's not, she is laughing, she thought it was so fun to lay down and have the other kids bounce her. (argh, I realized as I was putting pictures on here that I don't have ANY of Luke! Next time I will get him...)

Another picture I just had to add, this is a view of Mt. Rainier from just up the street from my sisters house. Beautiful huh?!

I "helped" my sister Kelly finish these wall hangings in her house and I had to show them off because they turned out so nice! (you can't really tell but over the pictures she put a piece of plexi glass, it looks soo nice!)

Whenever we head home from Lacey it's kind of a rush to get back and it's usually dark for most of the trip, but this time we left earlier and stopped at Mt. Rainier for a nice little walk. It was beaufiful and Evelyn loved walking across the bridges and jumping off the little rocks and roots along the path. I think we will definently have to make more stops here from now on.

A few other things we did on this trip...My mom and sister's took me out to lunch for my birthday, we got to visit one of my best friends Havalah's family and have dinner with them, for Mother's Day the husbands took us (us being me, my mom and two sisters) out to dinner and then we played games after, and of course there were trips to the fabric store :) It was such a fun time and we can't wait to go back and show off our new baby!!!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Bennetts

2010-05-11T14:55:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago we went out to Cameron's grandparent's house in Prosser to help them plant some of their garden (Cam's grandpa had a pacemaker put in not too long ago so he can't do as much work as he used to). We had a great time, especially Evelyn.

His grandparents have a few cats and Evelyn LOVED chasing them around! Those poor cats..... So here she is trying to get them to come to her:
lol, and then they came and she ran!

She eventually decided she wasn't scared of them...this poor cat put up with QUITE a bit from her. It did get it's revengence though by making her break out all over her arms and chest. We knew she was allergic to them but how do you tell a two year old to stay away from them?? The gloves she was wearing helped a little bit.
Evelyn got to ride on great grandpa's "tractor". She actually didn't like the lawn mower for very long, I think it was just too loud for her.

But then she got to sit on the real tractor and LOVED that!

Evelyn and I weren't very much help in the garden, since I'm all sorts of pregnant and well, she's two. But she did help pull the hose! :)

They have a little swing set and she spent a lot of time on that. YAY for being outside!!!

Sick Baby

2010-04-14T09:56:00.002-07:00

Evelyn has been doing a lot of this the last few days. Evelyn and I woke up Monday morning horribly sick. Mine only lasted 24 hours but this poor girl can't seem to shake it. *sigh* it makes me so sad to see her so miserable... She is better than she was Monday, and even better than she was Tuesday, but it's not even 9:30 and she has already fallen asleep on my bed. Hopefully she'll get better as the day goes on.

Little Mommy

2010-04-14T09:51:00.002-07:00

I just had to put this picture up. Evelyn is such a good little mommy and helper. She LOVES babies, both real and dolls. The other day I was in the living room and she kept running back and forth from the living room to the front dinning room and I wasn't really paying attention to what she was doing until a few hours later I found this. Whenever she is playing with her dolls and if she drops one or it falls out of her stroller she always picks it up and looks it in the face and says "Okay?" then gives it a kiss on it's owie and a hug. I love her so much! She makes me smile all day with her cute little mannerisms :)

Easter

2010-04-05T08:28:00.004-07:00

We had a very nice and fun filled Easter. Here are a few pictures from it.

Evelyn "opening" her Easter basket. She loved it.

Reading her new book and wearing her new hat with Daddy.
It's tradition that Cams family all come over for brunch on conference Sunday and it just happened to fall on Easter this year so we had everyone over and had lots of fun. Here is Evelyn patiently waiting to go outside and get her pictures taken...if only she would have sat that still for the actual pictures...

This is the best I got. *sigh* I guess with three boys who would rather make funny faces than smile, a 2 year old who doesn't like to sit still and has the blue eye syndrom (any sunlight is too bright) and two babies it's bound to be difficult to get a perfect picture right? But you can at least see how cute they all were :)

haha, I just had to include this one, it pretty much sums up how she felt.

It is pretty much impossible to get a picture of this girl from the front or looking at you. She is SO busy and just never stops and could definently care less about posing for the camera.

The Hunt!! She was very excited about this and caught right on! At the beginning she was going around counting as she picked the eggs up and towards the end she realize there was stuff IN the eggs and became more interested in opening them than collecting them.

Eating some of her loot with Daddy :)

Busy little girl

2010-03-27T10:59:00.003-07:00

Evelyn has been keeping us busy around here lately. I got out of the shower the other day and she was standing by the door when I opened it. She got the sweetest smile on her face and tilted her head to the side and said "Colors?" All cute like. I thought "I didn't get her crayons out, what is she talking about?" I go around the corner and she again says, "Colors?". And then I saw this... She got a hold of a SHARPIE and made that beautiful drawing on her table. LUCKILY she didn't get it any where else, AND my father-in-law had some sort of marker remover that took it right off (only after I scrubbed and scrubbed and tried every cleaner I could find, did I find out he had this magical stuff).

Well the marker surprises didn't end there. Two days later I woke up to this:

(And yes that is one of my maternity shirts she put on). Again, fortunatly she didn't get it anywhere else and it wasn't sharpie this time, it was a dry erase marker so it came off with a little soap and water.

*sigh* I'm sure she'll only get busier and busier as the days go on...

Easter Treasures

2010-03-27T10:56:00.004-07:00

I made these little boxes to give to my primary class for Easter. They have four little treasures inside :)

Mini totes

2010-03-27T10:52:00.002-07:00

I have a pattern for a big tote that I LOVE and I use it for church. But I thought it would be fun to make some smaller ones. So I adjusted the pattern and I love the way they turned out! I made these ones as gifts for some birthdays coming up.

And they are just the right size for scriptures or to use as a purse.

Neck Pillow

2010-03-27T10:44:00.003-07:00

My friend and I made these cute neck pillows for our kids this week.(I know it looks huge on her, but it's really not THAT big, and she'll grow into it)

I saw them here and thought it was such a great idea. We travel a lot to Lacey to see my family and I think this will be very nice for Evelyn so her head does bob around all the time when she falls asleep.

It went together really fast, only took about 15 minutes to sew and stuff. BUT It did take me HOURS to get the pattern just right. That was the frustrating part, but they turned out way cute in the end and that's all that matters right?

Menu Book

2010-03-17T15:32:00.004-07:00

Okay, so this is something I started last fall and it has been one of the most amazing and beneficial things I have ever created. I love to cook. I really do. BUT I HATE trying to figure out WHAT to cook. Anyone else with me on that? There is nothing worse (at least I don't think there is) than it being about 5 o'clock and going "What do you want for dinner?" And everyone else saying "I don't know. Anything is fine." argh! So annoying! And then you have to make sure you have the food in the house and usually you are missing one key ingredient to every recipe you have? Yeah, that's how things were going here and I was TIRED of it. SO...I created this beauty:
I am in love with my menu book. You might laugh, but it't true. It has totally eliminated the "What do you want for dinner?" battle. And now if you want to know what IS for dinner you can look for yourself at the menu. It has ensured (well 99.9% of the time) that we have the food we need in the house. It has given everyone an opinion (because we all know that with 4 adults in the house, everyone does have an opinion on what's for dinner at some point). Unless we want to have the same thing more than once a month, this has given us enough options at out fingertips that we can have a different meal every night of the week. If I am not feeling up to cooking, or if I'm not home when dinner should be getting started someone else can just look at the book, see what's for dinner, pull out the recipe and get started on it. Basically it has been a life saver and I really just couldn't live without it. So let me share with you how this amazing thing works.

First off, I have to say I've seen a few different menu ideas around and none of them worked for me so that's why I made this one up. A different way might work for you , or after you see this you might find all the things wrong with it and what I can do to make it a million times better. But for ME, it's perfect :)

So I have 5 tabs in mine. And I use the 5 tab folders that have the pockets on both sides so I can put notes, coupons, recipes that need to be filed, and other things in them. My 5 tabs are: Menu, Grocery List, Meal Ideas, Monthly Recipes, and Recipes.

This is what our menu looks like this month. No, it's not pretty. Yes, things get moved, changed, crossed out, etc. But that's just the way it goes. Sometimes people have things going on one night and I realize I don't want to make a casserole that feeds 12 people when I am the only one home. But we are usually pretty good at sticking to it. At the end of the month I MAKE everyone fill in at least a weeks worth of meals for the next month. Sometimes it takes a week or so to get the whole month filled in, but so no one complains about how we never have this anymore or we ate that last week, etc., I make everyone put in their two cents worth (or 5 days worth, however you want to say it). Occasionally I will change things around so we aren't having 5 nights of meals that are huge and create lots of leftovers.

Then comes the Grocery List. The menu has been a wonderful thing because we can go grocery shopping once a week, or if you want to get the whole month done at once, or in two weeks, you can, but one shopping trip a week works for us. I just pull out the recipes I need for that week, go through them real fast and look through the pantry and whatever I'm missing I put on the list. I am currently learning how to coupon so now I kind of look at the whole months worth of recipes and see if there are any coupons for that week that I could stock up on items I'll need later. And again, I love the dividers with the pockets so I can put my current weeks coupons in there and when it comes time to go to the store I can grab my list and coupons and be on my way. Oh, and also throughout the week I can just turn to this page and jot things down that we need like paper towels etc.

Next is the Meal Ideas. I have a page of Main Dish Ideas, Side Dish Ideas, and Desserts. On the lists are all the recipes we like and the recipes we have in the menu book. This is nice when we are filling out the monthly menu because we can just scan through the list and pick off things we want. And the side dish list is nice because I am always trying to figure out what to make with our main dish and with that list handy I don't have to think too hard.

Then comes the Monthly Recipes. You might have wondered why I have two tabs for recipes. Well, let me tell you. The monthly recipes are were I put that months worth of recipes in the order we will use them. This makes it easier to put a grocery list together, it ensures that I have all the recipes I need, and it just makes things easier to find. After I make that recipe I file it back alphabetically under the recipes tab.

Last comes my Recipes tab. Do any of you have a cupboard FULL of recipe books, magazines, loose recipes, recipe card boxes, etc? And if you are like me you really only like about 2 or 3 recipes from each of these books, magazines, etc? I made photo copies of the recipes from magazines and books I like and I typed up the recipes I had on little cards. Then I just gave them each their own sheet protector and filed them alphabetically and tada, all the recipes I actually use are in one place! And if I print something off the internet I can just add it to the book, or if I go through a cookbook or magazine and discover something I want to make I photo copy it and add it to the book too. (from the picture you can see that I have a few recipes that need to be put in sheet protectors and filed away)

So I have a nice stack of about 60 recipes in my book (all of which are listed in the Meal Ideas tab so I actually know what I have without having to skim through the pages all the time).

So that's my pride and joy. I love it and I probably gave you all WAY more information about it than you wanted, but you also could have stopped reading at any point ;) Some people have asked if we have actually stuck to this and I am proud to say that yes we have! We started it sometime last fall (September-Octoberish) and we have filled out the menu EVERY month, done our weekly shopping trips, saved lots of money (because we are making fewer trips to the store and we have a nice list of things we need) and made my life a whole lot less stressful :) I have even made one for my mother-in-law for when we move out (because she informed me I couldn't take this with me when I left, see how wonderful it is?), my sister-in-law, and my best friend Heather (because she informed me she can't cook and she is getting married next year so I thought I would help her soon-to-be-husband out and help her learn to cook).

Not Much...

2010-03-17T13:36:00.003-07:00

Not much going on here. We are enjoying the beautiful, sunny, and warm weather, especially Evelyn. She cannot get enough of being outside. All day every day she just wants to be outside.

Since not much is going on, I just thought I'd put a pic of my at 25 weeks.

Big Girl Bed!

2010-03-08T18:22:00.002-07:00

A Few weeks ago we transitioned from the crib to a "big girl bed". Evelyn did very well with the transition, as I thought she would. We are still working on trying to get her to sleep past 6 am, but otherwise I can't complain since she takes good naps and goes to bed good and generally sleeps through the night (sometimes she'll come into our room but I just turn her around and put her back in bed).

This is what her bed looked like, isn't it cute? That's the quilt my mom made for Evelyn and gave to her for her birthday. I love it. But...
This is what it looks like now :) Isn't it beautiful!!! I have the most amazing mother in the world! Here's the story behind this beautiful quilt: We went to Lacey over President's Day weekend and my mom showed me this gorgeous qult my sister-in-law asked her to make for her little girl. When I saw it I fell in love with it. Naturally I had to have one for Evelyn :) It's even the same fabric (Ruth, I hope you don't mind me copying you). It has the ultra cuddly and soft fabric on the back. I am so in love with it. After we got back to out house I decided I needed a pillowcase too, and isn't it just beautiful? :) My mom has a quilting machine and I think she did an AMAZING job on the whole thing. I love it so much!! Thank you mom!!!!!!

AND it gets even better...she's making one for baby number 2 also :) hehe

Mom, this pircture is just for you, Evelyn is blowing you kisses :)

Cause for Celebration

2010-03-01T15:53:00.004-07:00

Today Evelyn and I celebrated our 60 degree weather with a trip to the park. She had SOO much fun! She was non-stop moving from one thing to another, running here and running there and telling me what everything was. She's a good talker but when she gets excited she doesn't stop. I couldn't help but smile the whole time because her joy and happiness was contagious. I hope the nice weather keeps up so we can continue these trips daily.

I LOVE this age! She is SO much fun, so full of life and her personality just gets bigger and bigger everyday. She is the sweetest little girl in the world and I LOVE her!! AND I love that she'll actually pause long enough to say "cheese" and smile for me :)

Fresh Mountain Air

2010-03-01T15:45:00.002-07:00

A couple weekends ago Cameron met my brother-in-law and two of his kids at White Pass to do some snowboarding/skiing. Cameron said it was TONS of fun. I thought the pictures he brought back were pretty :)

My niece Aubrey, brother-in-law Craig, and nephew Luke getting ready to do some skiing!! umm...can you say BEAUTIFUL! It couldn't have been a better day.

Are you guys getting jealous of the beauty...

I know you're all jealous now that I live in the most beautiful state ;) but you can come visit (or move here!) any time you want :)

Cereal Box Activity Book

2010-03-01T11:45:00.003-07:00

I'm really excited about this project!! It turned out better than I expeceted and I love it when that happens!
I followed the instructions found here to make the book. But...instead of just putting plain paper in, I went to www.friend.lds.org (which is awesome if you haven't looked it) and saved the images for activities they have there and resized them in a document. I actually used power point because for some reason when I tried to do it in word and I made the pictures free moving so I could make sure they would print where I needed them to, the images would disappear, it was strange. But in power point everything is automatically free moving so they printed just fine. (I drew a 7x10 box on each of my slides so I knew how big my pictures needed to be and where to place them and when they were printed I knew where to cut the paper). After I had all my images I printed them front to back. So I had ten slides with two activities each on them, and when printed it was 5 sheets with two activities on each side.

This one I printed in all black and white because it was my first one and I didn't want to waste all my colored ink on something that wasn't going to turn out, haha. But it turned out wonderfully!! I am so happy! Obviously Evelyn couldn't do the activities in this one, so I am going to make her one with just coloring pages in it :)

So many crafts, so little time

2010-02-23T12:55:00.002-07:00

This morning I was checking my google reader and saw that a craft blog I like had a new post. I looked at it and loved it. Then I saw a link to another blog where they got their idea from and after browsing that blog I fell in love with a ton more crafts and then I linked to another one and on and on...lets just say I spent WAY too much time this morning (didn't shower till 10:30 because of my blog browsing) browsing blogs and finding all sorts of super fun and easy crafts I want to make. I thought I would share my findings:

This is for a cereal box book. Doesn't that look like so much fun and soo easy?! And you can decorate the covers however you want...oh the possibilities :) There are a few other variations, this one has complete instructions and this one tells you how to sew the seam a little different so your kids can even do them. They would even be cute to add a ribbon tie or a button with elastic to keep it shut.

Then I came across these cute valentines books. Yeah, totally love them! And you can make different variations for any holiday or birthday or anniversary etc.

As I was browsing that site I came across these adorable love minibooks/cards. Again, can be adapted to any holiday, birthday etc. I love her site, you should browse it if you haven't already.

As I was browsing this site (another one you should browse, it's WONDERFUL. You can search for ideas by holiday, by your childs age, by season, etc.) I came across these paper flowers. How cute and SO simple are they?? I LOVE how she put them on the branches in a vase. They would be so cute as center pieces for receptions, parties, birthdays, you could make a garland of them...

And last I saw this tutorial for Tic Tac Toe Hearts. LOVE it! (haha, I love a lot of things don't I...) So simple and easy and just imagine all the fun you could have with it. You could do any shape really.

So those were the crafts I came across (and saved) this morning... And now I want to make them all! :)

If anyone else finds cute, simple, easy projects please share! I'm always looking for ideas :) Also if you make any of these let me know how they turn out.

where they come from...

2010-02-21T20:50:00.002-07:00

So here are where I have gotten some of my ides:

The fabric covered notebooks, I did my first ones exactly like hers just added the monogram. My other notebooks I decided to use paper instead of fabric and hot glued a button to the front and cut a 3 inch piece of elastic and hot glued the ends to the back.

The nursing cover also came from the same lady as the notebooks. I LOVE her blog (makeitandloveit.blogspot.com) I have made some other things she has tutorials for and love them :) The crayon rolls also came from her, although I altered the sizes and at what stage you sew your pockets in so the seams don't show on the outside and also how you sew the ribbon on (I sew mine into the seam when you sew around the entire edge at the end). If you scroll down on her blog, on the left side she has a TON of super easy and really cute tutorials.

I had wanted to make some drawstring bags because I thought they would be perfect ways to give the notebooks and crayon rolls and other homemade gifts instead of just wrapping them in wrapping paper. Well this lady just happened to post a tutorial on how she made hers just when I needed it :) (because I'm too new at sewing to try and figure out something this simple on my own, haha) I used cording on my first bag and didn't like how stiff it was once you pulled the bag shut so I used ribbon on the rest of mine and loved the way they turned out. These are wonderful because they just take one piece of fabric and you can make them in any size.

So as you can see, I can't take all the credit (or even most) for the things I've made. But the more I make them the more creative I get with them and are able to alter them to my liking :) Although... as I've been making these things I have been thinking of ideas of other things I want to make and I haven't seen the ideas for any of them on the blogs I frequent so I'm excited to actually create something of my own hehe :) stay tuned...hopefully they turn out...

Goodie Bags

2010-02-21T17:19:00.003-07:00

For my primary lesson today (I teach the 5 year olds), it said to bring some sort of "small gift" for each child as part of an object lesson. The manual suggested a flower or pretty stone, but I have been in a sewing craze lately and wanted to try out some drawstring bags. Then I thought how fun would it be to make personalized notebooks for each of them? Now I am no sewing expert and these bags are nothing fancy or special, but I had fun making them and was so proud of the finished product!

I made the striped ones for the boys.
I have a ton of this beautiful fabric so I made the girls bags out of this.The notebooks I made for my nieces could get expensive to make for my whole class so I found these little notebooks for $1.50 for 3 and just used some scrap paper and buttons I had to cover them and personalize them. I loved the way they turned out :)

(this was one of the extra boy ones I made to keep on hand for myself so it doesn't have an initial on it)

Oh, and the kids loved them :) yay!

Gifts

2010-02-12T12:52:00.003-07:00

I made these super easy and cute personalized notebooks and pen rolls for my neices. They are all in their "tween" years and what girl that age doesn't love gel pens and notebooks?? I know I did (in fact my sister used to pay me with gel pens when I would babysit for her haha). I've been trying to get better at sewing and these were a perfect project to practice on.

Pictures

2010-02-04T13:50:00.003-07:00

These are the pictures from our ultrasound :)

I guess due to the fact that I was measuring at barely 19 weeks they couldn't get a good picture of all four chambers of the heart and so they want me to come back in two months to get those pictures, which is just fine by me, I'm more than happy to go see more pictures of my baby! :)

latest project

2010-02-03T09:49:00.003-07:00

So this is my latest sewing project. I am SO proud of it! I got the tutorial here. It was so fun to make and I did it all by myself! I can't wait to put this beautiful reversible nursing cover to use :)

It's a...

2010-02-03T09:45:00.002-07:00

...baby sister!! We will be having a GIRL in June!!! (due date June 26th)

We are SOO excited! Cameron and I were convinced it was a boy so we had a name all picked out and were totally surprised to find out it's going to be a girl. But we are so excited for Evelyn to have a little sister!! She is going to be the best little helper and big sister ever!

Playing in the sink

2010-01-27T10:02:00.002-07:00

The other night Evelyn was watching me doing dishes and after I was done she pulled a stool over to the sink and started playing in the water. I don't think she has ever had so much fun doing anything in her life! Every day now she pulls that stool over to the sink at least 5 or 6 times a day to try and play in the water haha Of course usually the sink is empty but every once in a while I'll fill it up for her to "wash" some dishes in and she LOVES it :)You can't fake that much happiness!

Look at what I made!

2010-01-27T09:44:00.003-07:00

I made a crayon roll for Evelyn! Have you guys seen these? I've been seeing them everywhere and decided to attempt one myself. I used this tutorial but adjusted it for the size of crayons and the number of crayons. This was my first attempt and it turned out pretty good but not perfect. I had wanted it to hold 10 crayons, but as you can see it only fits 8 haha and the last one is sqeezed pretty tight in there so I want to make another one to fit my 10 crayons. But i'm pretty darn proud of myself for doing this! Evelyn even enjoys untying the ribbon and unrolling it and pulling all the crayons out and putting them back in.

Evelyn's 2 year pictures

2010-01-18T14:14:00.002-07:00

We had Evelyn's 2 year pictures taken this last Saturday. They turned out pretty darn cute if I don't say so myself :)

Ice-Skating

2010-01-18T14:00:00.003-07:00

After Evelyn's birthday party our ward had an ice-skating party! It was lots of fun. Evelyn LOVED it. It was pretty funny watching Cameron try to help her skate because she couldn't keep her feet under her. She also just liked to walk around with me in her skates, I think she liked the way it felt. Eventually I got her out of her skates and took her out on the ice just in her shoes and she thought that was fun too. We will definently have to take her again soon!

Evelyn turns 2!

2010-01-18T13:33:00.004-07:00

I cannot believe my baby is 2!!!! She turned 2 on the 9th and we had a fun little birthday party for her with our family that lives here. I made her a special dairy free cake so she could actually eat it. I was worried about how it would turn out but it was actually really good! She wasn't quite sure what to do with her candles. We tried to get her to blow them out but she just didn't get it lol it was pretty funny.
Evelyn LOVED the cake. There was extra batter so I made cupcakes with it and she loved eating them for a few days after. I will have to make them again for her sometime.By now Evelyn is a master present opener and ripped through her presents in no time!

My mom made this beautiful quilt for Evelyn!!

We got her this "critter clinic" because it has those doors on the front and a set of keys that opens them and Evelyn is always trying to get our keys and unlock things and she loved it! Definently a good investment. She also got more play food for her little kitchen and some fun books, all of which she absolutly loved!

It was a great birthday and I can't wait to see what this next year brings with our little princess!!

New Year's Eve

2010-01-18T12:56:00.003-07:00

We had a fun New Year's Eve. Cameron had to head home the Sunday after Christmas so he could go back to work and Evelyn and I stayed in Lacey. Then he drove back to Lacey New Year's Eve. We spent a little while at the adult dance at our church with my sister and her husband who was the DJ. Then we headed to my friends Havalah's house to play some games. We played a fun game called Quelf. Ever heard of it? You're really missing out if you've never played ;) It's full of craziness! For example:

Cameron had to sing his favorite Shakespear poem to the person to his left (and if that person was moved to tears, they were able to move forward one space!)

Havalah had to wrap herself up like a mummy. She is also wearing a glove which she had to wear for the rest of the game. :)

I had to find a spatula before the next persons turn was over and hold it on my head until my vext turn. Oh and I think everytime someone rolled a certain number Curtis had to play something on his air piano. lol Doesn't it sound like a fun game?!

And here is my favorite Havalah and her husband Brigg with Cameron and I :) I sure miss her!!

All of us brave Quelf players :)

Christmas

2010-01-10T16:31:00.006-07:00

Better late than never right?

Our Christmas started with a ward Christmas brunch where we had a visit from Santa. I was surprised that Evelyn wasn't scared of him, she was actually very excited to meet him when he brought around the toys.

She wasn't AS excited to meet him when Cameron chased him down the hall so we could get a picture of Evelyn with him, lol.

We had our Burch family Christmas party the Sunday before Christmas since a lot of us were going out of town. Evelyn loves her cousins and had so much fun playing with them that night!

This is just a funny picture of Evelyn. hehe Evelyn opening her present. The first present took her forever to open! She ripped it open sooo slowly.... after lots of practice she is much faster now. We got her a play kitchen and she LOVES it! Giving baby Eva kisses!! Evelyn LOVES babies. She can't get enough of them. She loves to take care of Eva by making sure she always has her binkie, a blanket and her bottle. She's such a good little helper :)

And here is our family Christmas picture.

Wednesday we headed to Lacey to spend Christmas with my family. Evelyn had no trouble at all warming up to her grandma and grandpa Chandler and all her cousins. She was spoiled with so much attention and loved it! :) So here she is "helping" grandpa put together one of her Christmas presents.

We got her a pez dispenser and I think that is the best $1 we ever spent, she LOVED it!

I was a horrible picture taker on this trip, this was the only picture I got of her with her cousins! She had so much fun watching movies with them, playing games, being doted on and of course just being chased around and given all the attention she could ever want :)

Like I said, I was horrible at taking pictures that trip, but I also got to see my best friends Havalah and Heather who are both living back east right now. It was wonderful!!