Eve - Nine Months

The nine month mark has come and gone for our Eve girl and this baby thing just keeps getting better with time. She keeps being cute and her personality keeps pushing through making her a joy to be around, even though she has plenty of sass mixed in with it!

The girl still loves her food and this is one of her happy places! 

And the chubby hands...they are just so perfect!

Brian let her stay up late with him one night while I was out, and she really had to throw out a major clue that she was ready for bed- 

How cute is she? So tired!

We weren't quite ready to deal with this, but she officially started climbing the stairs...yikes!

We tried to deal with it for a little while without a gate at the bottom, but if it wasn't guarded that was the first place she was headed! It's actually darling to watch her climb them and if we didn't have tile at the bottom I may let her do it more, but just too scary. And again, please notice the perfect thigh rolls.

Strawberry shortcake joined us at church one Sunday- 

Not really, but I just had to document her cuteness and how BUSY she is! There are a couple other babies in the ward her age and they move around a little, but mainly stick by their moms and play with toys or let their mommies hold them. Oh, not Miss Eve. She wants to crawl under the benches or chairs and make really loud noises when people look at her. She is a NUT, but we love it!

This girlfriend loves the pool-

This month was her first experience with the pool and she can't get enough! I haven't gotten any pictures of her being so cute when she crawls around in the shallow part because I kinda can't leave her side...she doesn't quite understand the beach entrance yet and her face will just keep going deeper. We will get some in Utah when we have some extra hands!

She loved playing with her daddy! 

Funny side story: When I took her over to crawl in the shallow part an 11-12 year old girl said, "Ma'am, I think those elastics around your baby's wrists are too tight, you should take them off." She said it so kind and serious and I giggled and said, "That's just her fat rolls, sweetheart, she doesn't have elastics on her wrist." She felt bad and apologized and I told her not to worry about it one bit. I loved it! Chubby babies rule! 

Having a baby is the best kind of spectator sport around. We could watch her all day!

 And who doesn't love a baby in jammies?

Especially with a bow-

 I can never resist snapping a perfect sleep smash face when I peek on her before I head to bed-

Mmmmm!

Speaking of sleep, this girl is just getting better with age! She still gets about 10-11 hours and doesn't make a peep until she's ready to get up. She still takes two naps each day that are each about two hours long. Some days it's more, some days it's less, but she is pretty consistent and very flexible, so that is what is most important.

I'm no professional photographer and I know there are some shadows and not the prettiest lighting, but I think I captured our nine-month old beauty pretty good-

 She is so curious and always checking things out...very intensely sometimes-

She always seems to be on a mission when she is crawling back and forth throughout the house and is always sure to check any grain of anything out with her mouth before moving on-

She's always up for a good growly laugh with her perfect toothless mouth- 

  

 At her nine month check up she weighed in at 20 lbs 4 oz putting her in the 80th percentile. I think she measured 28 inches long putting her in the 79th percentile for height. She didn't have to get any shots and the boys were happy about that as they tagged along for the appointment. She got a clean bill of perfect health. I was not surprised. She's perfect. 

Nine months has come and gone in a flash and we're just so happy our Evelyn Ann has been a part of it!

The First Week of Summer

The first week of summer has come and gone and I have to say I am quite happy with its arrival and the way it has passed. Mostly because we get to hang out with this guy all day-

And nobody is more excited about it than our Wesley boy! 

I think you can tell that these two brothers are pretty fond of each other... 

So now that it's very clear that we are so excited to have our Thad home all day with us, I have to admit I was a titch on the nervous side about having all three all day. I mean, I haven't had to run errands and keep house with all three kids...ever! Eve was born three weeks after school started and Thad has been gone seven hours a day, 5 days a week since that baby girl came and it has sort of felt like a redo of two kids, because most of my days I can knock my to-dos out with just the two of them. (And let's be honest, if it wasn't done before Thad was home it got pushed back until he was at school!) With all that said, I have been so excited not to have a routine! Being up at 6:30 a.m. and to school by 7:30 a.m. was really wearing on me, and though we are usually up and at 'em pretty early, not having to be somewhere was starting to sound really nice. So I got myself excited about summer and really tried to make a plan about how I could help our summer go smoothly. The couple weeks leading up to school being out, we set some summer goals, I made a simple schedule and I really thought about how I could make our days successful. 

(Thad wanted to hang his flags so that we could say the pledge whenever we wanted. Thank you, Thad.)

 Spiritual: 1. Memorize Articles of Faith 5,7,8,9 & 10 

Mental: 1. Read twenty minutes a day 2. Work on hand writing 3. Tie shoes

Physical: 1. Pump on Swing 2. Be a better swimmer

These things are pretty simple, but they have made all the difference in our days! I know only one week has passed, but our days went so well. I thought a lot about how Thad thrives in an academic environment and I know that the structure of their days is a big part of that. It also helps me to step back from all of the the things I could be doing and focus on them. I know it's not my job to entertain children every minute of every day, but they are all so small and need my guidance and it really helps me help them. I love these three littles so much and want their days and their memories to be happy ones.

So the first day of summer, we ate breakfast, got ready and headed to the park! It was really hard for me to walk out the door with so much undone, but I just knew if I could do something for them first, they would be much more willing to do something for me.

 Thad hasn't been able to pump on the swing, but he got it down on our first day at the park! I may have told him that if he didn't learn before we went to Utah that he would have to take lessons with Leah who is a girl...and younger than him...that was so motivation and this boy got those legs a pumpin'!!

So on the first official day of summer, Thad was able to cross two things off on his list: pumping and memorizing the seventh article of faith which he had to recite in Primary the day before.

This kid is a go getter!

And what do you know?! When we got home they helped with chores and did everything else on our schedule with no hesitation.

We got some work books and printed out some worksheets to help with our "Brain Power" section of the schedule and again, just another thing that Thad eats up! He loves reading the instructions and figuring things out. I love to see his wheels turn! 

Here are some of the other fun things we worked into our schedule during our first week of summer-

Quarry Splash Pad

Colby and Diane Dimond (good friends from high school) just moved to Temple, Texas from Michigan and we met up with them at the splash pad near our house.

I only got a couple of cute pictures of Eve because Diane and I were too busy catching up and trying to keep track of the six kids between us! I haven't seen her since she and Colby got married 6-7 years ago, but it has been so fun to see our families grow over social media. We both have two boys and then our girls, so it was really fun to compare that aspect of our family life. I'm sure we will be seeing more of them and will be sure to get more pictures next time.

Wednesday Pool Days

Ward pool days are back! Each Wednesday all summer the ladies in the ward take a turn hosting at our neighborhood pools, and it is always one of the best days of the week!

Eve was down with pool days and can't wait to go back each week!

Good Old Fashioned Summer Fun

And if you think we were all schedule, goals, worksheets and play dates, think again! There was plenty of lazy, happy (and not so happy), pure summer moments mixed in there too.

I live for these sun-kissed cheeks! 

And these two melt my heart on a daily basis-

I think the love definitely goes both ways!

Eve does not hesitate to jump right in with these brothers of hers and they are usually pretty good to let her. 

And when Thad got this get-up going, I couldn't resist requesting a few poses-

That boy gets it.

The grill-

 And I guess I better get rid of that 2T swim shirt! Sorry, Wes!

This summer is going to be busy and I'm sure we'll have our bad days, but for now I'm going to try my hardest to make this summer a good one for all of us. I have to remind myself that most good things come with a lot of hard work and it's, oh, so worth it -- Here's to an awesome Monsen summer!