trick or treat

This year is Everly's first Halloween

and I'm pretty excited for all things Halloween today

because of crazy schedules, the Mr. and I will probably be fitting

all the pre-Halloween activities into the actual day

so, we will be carving pumpkins, watching hocus pocus

and of course trick-or-treating

and I have a new little baby to take some photos who was born in the wee hours

of Halloween, yay for new squishy babes!

now I just need to survive Halloween with 1000+ middle schoolers

and then I'm back to hanging with my little witch

Happy Halloween!

oh hey, I'm 52 weeks old!

 That's right folks. 

 Today officially means I am one week away from one!

Lately, I've been all about waving hi and bye to people

and there were even a few times when mom asked me to say hi

and I actually waved

I think my parents are starting to realize how much I really understand

what they say to me

even if I still choose when I'm going to respond

because let's face it, I like doing my own thing

speaking of my own thing

I am now walking all over the place

I have literally walked around the entire house without stopping

the only problem with me walking [according to my parents]

is I now want down, everywhere

and once I'm down, do not pick me up, or I will most likely freak out

[which means mom has had to get over me on the ground
outside of the house pretty quickly]

at home I am starting to be quite the climber

and I am clearly going to be a tom-boy like my mom

because I love playing in the dirt and exploring outdoors

I also love army crawling underneath the sofas

and finding all sorts of treasures
I'm also working on snuggling and giving hugs

^mom & I at 11 months and 3 months^

^when we approve of something, we say "oooh"^

today we were too busy doing some shopping for my party
so instead, I'll just share some photos from our trip to Disneyland last week
next time you will hear from me, I'll be one!
-Everly Mae

changing times

This morning, I woke up at realized something.  Last night was the Saturday before Halloween.  The night we have thrown a Halloween party for the last five years.  Normally, I'm waking up to very dirty floors, too many party cups, and a good amount of recycling to take outside [and a few years, people still sleeping on said floors].  But not this morning.  Today, I'm waking up to a very snuggly baby girl who is all cozy in her Jack-o-Latern pajamas from Old Navy.  Yesterday was very busy getting ready for Everly's first birthday next weekend, and I'm so focused on that big event, I already packed up my interior Halloween decor to start party decorating [no worries, the porch is still very trick-or-treat ready!].  I also realized that baby girl was born just a tad too close to one of my favorite holidays, because trying to enjoy first Halloween and first birthday is making my head spin a tad. 

So now I'm flipping through my instagram feed that is filled with costume-laden fun, and I will not let myself feel like I am missing out.  I think that when you first become a parent, there is always going to be the adjustment period.  Not saying we had to adjust to Everly, but we are having to create new traditions that include all three of us.  For us, it is also the transition of realizing that all of our friends are in very different places.  We have the newlyweds, the married with no children, the dating, and single crowd, and just now beginning, friends with kids.  I had always heard that once you have kids, you gravitate towards other people who have kids, and I can now say that I get that [so before mentioned people, we will love when you have kids, and I'll try to be patient!].  So there may not be a crazy weekend before Halloween party, but we still have Halloween.  We get the chance to trick-or-treat around our neighborhood with our baby girl, who is now loving walking so much, I have a feeling she will be wanting to go door to door like a big girl.  And with that thought, I'm now pretty giddy, and ready to enjoy my Sunday.

good call on the birthday theme

Everly's third trip to Disneyland meant she was getting old enough to really experience the rides.  This trip meant baby girl was sitting on my lap, hands on lap bar, fully engaged in the ride.  This also meant she was now starting to have favorite rides.  When I was trying to figure out what we were going to do for her first birthday I somehow stumbled onto the idea of a Queen of Hearts theme.  I liked the Disney connection, without being too "themey", and since she is too young to pick her own birthday party theme, we decided on "Onederland" [because man, that is a freakin' cute theme].  So, back to our trip to Disneyland, Alice was one of the first Fantasyland rides we went on this trip, and she was so into it all.  Sitting there like a big girl, going in between smiles and very serious looks throughout the entire ride.

Turns out, Alice has now been deemed her favorite ride.  How did I determine this of my eleven month old child you may ask?  Well, as soon as we got off the ride, Everly broke out in tears.  Like serious tears.  Holding her arms out for the green caterpillar we had just gotten off of.  Thankfully, we were quickly able to distract her with all the Disney goodness that was surrounding her, and the tears stopped pretty immediately, but still, her intentions were clear.  Alice, you are the favorite, for now.

And with that being said, today is my last Saturday before birthday weekend, so you better believe we are diving head first into all things related to the Queen of Hearts today - wish me, the mister, and grammie luck, we may need it!

Thanks Sarah for letting us borrow your camera - here is the first proof we used it!

the pumpkin farm

I love fall, not new news.  I love fall with my baby girl, probably not a stretch for anyone reading this blog.  A few weeks ago the mr. and I decided to squeeze in a quick trip to a pumpkin farm before going to my school's pasta feed.  I'm still not sure if the pumpkin farm changed, or if I was picturing a different location all together, because where we ended up was not exactly what I had in mind.  Even so, it made for a perfect quick visit, and some fun photos, and I think we plan on hitting up "the big farm" tomorrow while I still have Everly's daddy on vacation.  Even though the farm was limited, it didn't stop Everly from enjoying it, and even eating her first clump of dirt.  Oh good.

Thanks for putting up with us and our camera E, even at a fifteen minute trip to the pumpkin farm!

happiest place

Being in Southern California for an International Baccalaureate Educator Conference

meant we had the perfect excuse to visit Disneyland for a bit

I will have to share more a little later, when I am not fighting exhaustion

because right now I am all happy and tired from another great trip to Disney

every experience with Everly is a little different and new

she has now been at three months, seven months, and eleven

and this time was the first trip that she would sit on my lap

hold on to the lap bar

and take in the ride, not like a baby

but sitting still, like a real little girl

we even took a moment at the end of our trip to take a little walk

but as I learned a few days ago, don't let the little lady down to walk

unless you are dedicated to her walking for as long as she wants

because once she gets a taste of walking freedom

she does not want to be held

oh everly, we love you

thanks for being awesome, and being so good to your tired mama!

oh hey, I'm 51 weeks old!

well, 51 weeks tomorrow if we are being official

but I figure since we are on the countdown to one

I should be prompt with these posts before they are done and gone

it seems strange to think that in just two weeks

mom will be able to officially call me a one year old

my newest tricks include walking the lengths of entire rooms

I'm also obsessed with straws

and even though I look like I am using it for it's intended purpose

I assure you I am not

my newest foods include my love for olives

and I'm also a pretty big fan of pomegranates

it is my newest routine in the evening to be playing,

come get a few little pieces from my mom,

make a scrunchy face if the pomegranate is too tart

and then go back to having fun playing

I am also starting to really love music

and dancing to my favorite songs

that of course includes Miley Cyrus and anything on Ellen

[which includes only Miley on Ellen, hmm, wonder why?]

this weekend we have been extra busy with a work conference for my mom

so that means extra daddy time

but the good news is she is almost done, and then we get a few "family only" days

since mom has been super busy this week

I'll just share the rest of my "cake smash" session with sarah

next week, the countdown to one will be officially down to days

craziness!

-Everly Mae

talk about a happy little surprise!

This month Rebekah from A Bit of Sunshine decided to add an optional theme to her monthly ten on ten challenge, and I thought it was a pretty amazing idea.  I have participated in the photo project for three years now, never missing a month.  So, needless to say, I feel like I could use a little extra push to find the beauty in everyday things.  In addition to a theme, Rebekah had offered a prize for the winner of the challenge, a free canvas from photo.net.  

On Friday my Everly and I were about to get on a plane when I decided to check my instagram one last time before shutting down my phone, only to find a very happy little tag on my account!  I won the challenge!  Seriously, made my day.  I had had what was less than a beautiful week.  It started with the 24 hour flu, and ended with some serious field trip drama [don't ever try to organize 40 chaperones to drive students to camp three hours away, it seriously will kill you, and no, it wasn't my idea, because a while back they invented this thing called a school bus, just saying]. 

So, back to my point!  Thanks to Rebekah and Photo.net for this contest, it really made my weekend.  Here's the photo that won:

oh hey, I'm 50 weeks old

can you believe it?

I'm 50 weeks old, which means one is just around the corner

literally

this means mom and grammie have been working overtime on some

birthday goodness

and I've even been photographed for the special occasion

turns out, when I'm given an entire cake to eat

I'm most likely only going to eat a couple of bites

I clearly prefer being fed my cake off a fork by my friend Bethany

go figure

my favorite toys these days include long pieces of ribbon

a laundry basket, as well as pillows and blankets

since I've written last I went from owning no shoes

to having too many pairs to count

oops, mom had a little too much fun

babys-r-us and the target boys section were attacked pretty hard

in other news I love making silly noises with my daddy

I can mimic pretty much anything he does

I love playing peek-a-boo

and one of my favorite faces these days is when I grab my face

and tap my cheeks

I'm still making my piggy scrunch face

and they are all just too adorable for my mom

I'm still taking steps

I think mom has counted nine in a row as my record

and daddy finally got to see these steps in person

I was holding out on him pretty bad

finally a couple of nights ago I let him see my new moves while 

visiting our friends Salma & Nevin

my newest favorite foods include green beans and grapes

and strawberries have replaced my blueberries fix

be back next week!

-Everly Mae

thanks Sarah for my pretty pictures!

the road to one

Well, seeing as how it is October already, we are officially doing the countdown to Everly turning one! In honor of this pretty big occasion for us, we shot her cake smash photos earlier this week.  Once again, we teamed up with the awesomeness known as Sarah Maren Photographers to document the big smash.  Before we got crazy with some pretty lavender icing, we took a few photos since we didn't technically do her nine months photos, I blame the working mom factor.  We didn't really have an outfit picked out besides the one for the smash, again, blame the working mom here, but thankfully her daddy pulled this little number together as I was running out the door with E.  So, we will call this "look one" of her cake smash shoot.

ten on ten [october 2013]

Today was non-stop, and I really tried to capture some moments from throughout the day. Unfortunately, they are kind of clumped together, and missing the hours in the middle when I was in crazy teacher mode!  This month Rebekah from A Bit of Sunshine introduced a theme into the photo challenge, pumpkin spice.  After participating in the project for several years, the theme was a breath of fresh air.  It is amazing how a simple theme can refresh things!  Lucky for me, I've been decorated for quite some time now, and even had a trip to the pumpkin farm already planned for this afternoon.  So, here is a little extra pumpkin lovin' for this month's ten on ten.

-5:15 wake-up call, not working for me-

-trying to survive the afternoon grading/end of quarter slump-

-realizing I need to get my pumpkin baking back on, these pieces are my favorite for the season-

-this truck just makes me want to wear a scarf-

-in the dirt, in love-

-um mom, this thing isn't moving-

-this particular farm was small, but made for a great first pumpkin experience for E-

-our yard needs attention-

-but at least some of the leaves are pretty-

-but most are just dead on the ground, which is okay with Everly-

happy ten on ten!