Happy 1st Birthday, Evelyn Rose

Evelyn's 1st Birthday was on Saturday and I'm finally getting to the computer to post pictures.  No one told me just how exhausted we'd be after hosting Evelyn's party!  I guess I thought that only the birthday girl would really feel tired after her big day.

June 25th was filled with activity and company!  We felt so blessed to have so many of our wonderful friends join us for the celebration.  None of our family could make it to the party (we'll have a family celebration soon), so having friends to celebrate with on Evelyn's actual birthday was truly a gift!

We had a garden themed birthday for Evelyn (with her middle name being Rose, we felt a garden theme was more than appropriate).  I had so much fun designing invitations to match the theme and planning our appetizers and decorations for the garden birthday!  

I wanted the invite to include pictures from Evelyn's first 11 months of life in this world.  I made 11 petals and pasted a picture from each month on the petals of the flower.  Each month I took pictures of Evelyn and her Bunny, so that we could measure her growth against the same object!  All of the pictures I used for the flower were from the individual monthly shoots with Bunny.

Evelyn's 1st Birthday Invitation

With the garden theme set and the invitations mailed, I started to prepare for the actual birthday!  I kept the menu pretty simple; I wanted things that would be easy enough for all the party guests (even the youngest ones) to consume!  I planned to have pulled pork mini sandwiches, fruit and veggie trays, a cheese and cracker platter, dirt pudding, cupcakes, cake and chips.  The miniature sandwiches are always better when you have a bunch of people to feed at once (especially for the little ones with smaller stomachs)!  I decided most of the menu was straight forward but thought I could get creative with the fruit/cheese trays and the desserts.

A pineapple, grape and blueberry bouquet! Yum!

A cheesy bouquet

Appetizers on the move... time for cake!

Edible worms and dirt and a trowel for a spoon...
doesn't get any better!

Some of the spread... photographed the day after the event!

Evelyn didn't know quite what to do with Gus.
She's never seen him with facial hair!

By far the best decoration of the day was not anything I had planned and

certainly not something I bought from the store! Evelyn's best buddy,

Gus Skillman, came dressed as a garden gnome (his mother, Anna is quite a

talented costume designer)!  He came bearing a friendship rose and

big grin for little Evelyn's birthday!  What a happy surprise!

It was a truly special day for Evelyn!  We can't believe our little girl is one!  We feel so blessed to have her in our lives!  She is a precious rose in God's beautiful garden and we are so grateful that He has chosen us to be her parents!

...and that way

She really just wanted to grab the camera.

Walk this way...

On the eve of her 11 month birthday, Evelyn decided that she could do better than going for old diapers.

Tiny Dancer

Evelyn testing out her newest moves.

Walking Wonder!

Since May 3, Evelyn has been taking a couple of steps at a time, cautiously letting go of one piece of furniture and reaching out to catch herself on another.  Watching her taking steps by herself has been a joy for us all.  We have held her hands when furniture is hard to come by and she happily walks along beside us (actually, she usually steps in front of us, fearlessly leading the way)!

Last Friday was a break through day for Evelyn; she took at least 4 steps on her own as we watched in awe.  Of course, we always imagined her first real steps to be memorable because she was walking toward me or Joe!  As usual, our daughter had something different and perhaps more memorable planned.  Evelyn chose to take her first real steps walking away from us and toward a blue trash bag, full of dirty diapers (waiting to be taken out to the trash)... how proud we were!! :)

Fast forward 5 days to today and Evelyn's 11 month birthday; now she is walking all over the room and moving like she's been walking for weeks (how did that happen so quickly?).  With every step she takes she's more sure of herself and clearly feeling like an independent little lady.  She still crawls when she needs to get somewhere fast, but with every passing hour, she seems to be more taken with walking.

As I watch my little girl grow before my eyes, I'm realizing that her days left in infancy are short and that she's all too rapidly becoming a toddler!  I'm off to enjoy many more of these precious moments!  I'll post a walking video soon!  Happy 11 Month Birthday, Evelyn.  We love you so much!

Look Mom, no hands!  Ready to take off.

Apparently, something about this 11 month photo shoot is funny!

"Clap, clap, clap!"  Evelyn loves to clap on demand!  Here's to 11 months of photos with Bunny!

Silence is Anything But Golden

Evelyn has mastered crawling and is well on her way to walking these days.  With this newfound mobility comes newfound freedom!  She is curious, so leaving her to her own devises for mere minutes can prove troublesome!

Last night, Evelyn and I had to go to church (I teach class on Monday nights) together, because Joe wasn't home.  I didn't want to come home to a messy kitchen, so I decided to do the dishes before getting Evelyn ready for bed.  Evelyn sat on the kitchen floor playing, while I cleared the table, then I saw her crawl down the hallway, and turn into the bathroom.

I wasn't worried about her being in the bathroom; I knew the toilet lid was closed and there was no water in the tub. Usually, when she heads to the bathroom, she crawls to the tub, stands up and holds onto the side.  She likes to play with the shampoo bottles that are on the edge.  Soon after she crawled out of sight, I heard the sound of her banging the plastic shampoo bottles against the side of the tub.  This sound told me she was keeping busy and staying out of trouble... so I washed the last few dishes.

When I turned off the water at the kitchen sink, I heard only silence coming from the bathroom.  When your child is playing out of your sight, silence is usually not golden!  I ran down the hall to find Evelyn quietly sitting on the bathroom floor, surrounded by toilet paper!  She had pulled the ENTIRE roll of toilet paper off the holder and managed to unroll almost all of it in less than two minutes.  She looked up to find me standing there in shock.  She had the biggest grin on her face.  She was clearly proud of her achievement.  So much for thinking that she couldn't get into trouble in the bathroom (and I thought we had "Baby Proofed")!  All I could do was hold back my laughter, pick up most of the paper and run for the camera.  These pictures were taken after I picked up some of the paper!

"Would you like some toilet paper, Mom?"

"Should I roll it back up for you?"

Guilty... but cute!

Imperfect Blog for an Imperfect World!

The months continue to race by and we have all we can do to keep up with Little Miss Evelyn!  The blog has quickly fallen by the wayside and I'm afraid I just haven't posted much of anything in the last nine months.  I have recorded all of Evelyn's many developments in short form on our family calendar (easier than pulling out her baby book every other day) and in long form (37 pages and counting...) in a Word document!  With all of that said, I'm quite embarrassed by my inability to keep up with the blogging.

When I decided to blog last August, I had really hoped to take off running and create a beautiful work of art that everyone would want to read (I was hoping for perfection- perfect stories, perfect pictures).  I read many other blogs that are skillfully adorned with family photos and catchy stories.  I guess I hoped that mine would resemble those blogs, right from the get go!  By laying out such lofty expectations for myself, I inadvertently paralyzed my own creative muscles.  The result- 3 posts in 9 months and refusing to share our blog address with anyone but my parents!

So, I'm turning a new leaf.  After plenty of gentle nudges from friends and family, I'm going to start sharing this address and going to do my best to keep up with this imperfect blog!  Here's an imperfect, but adorable image to end this post.

Evelyn reading her book... it's upside down, Baby Girl!