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Category Archives: Family & Friends

11 Months Old (a week late)

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Jennifer

Jessica turned 11 months old last Thursday. I had planned to do a blog post sooner than this (still later, but sooner). However, the server that hosts our website and email was exploited and died. It was down all day Friday and Saturday and part of Sunday. I ended up losing 3 posts (2 already posted and 1 scheduled) along with some comments. It was disappointing to have to rewrite them, although I think the scheduled one turned out better. You’re probably saying, why didn’t you back up? Well, I do personally back up about once a month and the server is actually backed up daily, but they restored to a point prior to the exploit. I am going to try to back up more frequently, but sometimes I forget. Anyway back to the preferred topic of Jessica.

Playing with Mommy's Water Cup, 8/17/10

What Jessica is Up To

She is a little speed demon on her hands and knees. She moves all over the place. Jessica is also a little mountain goat, always trying to climb things. If I’m sitting on the floor with her in her playroom, she likes to climb on me to climb up on the futon. She walks a fair amount, but only if she is holding on to something like the couch or some of her toys. We had bought one of these toys that she can push and walk behind. As of yet, she hasn’t pushed it and walked behind it, but she has gotten up on her knees and pushed it from that position.

Cruising the Jungle, 8/29/10

Jessica is quite my little explorer. Sometimes that means exploring the inside of her monkey laundry hamper or climbing into the laundry basket to try to climb into the dryer.

Jessica Explores the Laundry Hamper, 8/18/10

Jessica Plays With Her Laundry Hamper, 8/18/10

She explores the underside of her exersaucer.

Exploring the Underside of the Exersaucer, 8/23/10

She has also explored my tupperware cabinet and I don’t know how I feel about that.

Exploring the Tupperware Cabinet, 8/23/10

Jessica loves to play and can play by herself quite well. She doesn’t have a favorite toy. She enjoys her crawl ‘n’ cruise jungle as much as her swim toys as much as the free fire hat from Firehouse Subs.

Cutie Pie, 8/22/10

Playing with the Swim Float, 8/23/10

Wearing a Fire Hat, 9/9/10

We’ve been trying to see if she has a favorite stuffed animal to sleep with at night and comfort her when she is upset, but alas, most of the time, she just pushes them aside.

What Jessica is Wearing

Yesterday, I started packing up most of her 6-9 month clothes. She can still wear the 6-9 month dresses, so I haven’t packed those up yet. Outside of dresses, she is wearing 9-12 month clothes. Although some of the one piece outfits are getting snug in the length. She seems much skinnier than she used to and I attribute that to being so active. But don’t worry, she still has the cutest little chubby tummy.

After a Bath, 8/22/10

Since about 9.5 months old, I’ve been trying to get her accustomed to shoes, primarily this pair of little white size 2 sandals. I’d put them on her feet and see how long she’d last. Most of the time, she got upset as soon as I set her down in them. I recently switched to a pair of little brown size 3 shoes with flowers on them. Since they’re closed toe shoes, I put socks on first and I don’t know if it was the size difference or the socks, but she loves wearing her shoes now. Although she will try to eat them while she’s wearing them.

Investigating the Sandals, 9/2/10

What Jessica is Eating

Jessica still has just four teeth, although it seems like she has been teething the entire month, just nothing to show for it.

Before Getting Messy, 9/15/10

Eating Kiwi, 8/25/10

In the last two weeks, she has started feeding herself. I put food on the spoon and then she will take the spoon and put it in her mouth. It is fun watching her feed herself. Sometimes she won’t eat now if you try to feed her, but as soon as you let her have the spoon, she’ll eat it up.

Feeding Herself, 9/15/10

I will warn you that the 1 year post will be late as well. Her 1 year check-up isn’t until the 19th, because apparently insurance and vaccinations won’t let you have it even 1 day earlier than her birthday and her birthday is a Saturday.  Don’t worry, there will be multiple posts relating to her birthday.

Posted in Family & Friends | Tags: Jessica | 3 Comments |

Evans Family Reunion & 70th Wedding Anniversary

Posted on September 16, 2010 by Jennifer

James’ grandparents, Cecil and Freda Evans, were married September 10, 1940. That’s a whooping 70 years of wedded bliss.

Over Labor Day weekend, all the Evans kids, grand-kids and great-grand-kids plus some assorted nieces and nephews and some others got together to celebrate this momentous milestone. We had a great time catching up with everyone.

Saturday morning, Jessica played on Nana’s living room floor. Isn’t that tongue sticking out cute?

Jessica Playing

"Are you done taking pictures yet, Mom?"

After some time spent at Granny and Pawpaw’s house, we went and had a somewhat early dinner at Tampico, a great little Mexican food restaurant that we seem to go to at least once whenever we go to Midland. As this was not the official reunion/celebration, not everyone made it to dinner. However, I was able to take a photo of everyone who came except Randy, who doesn’t do flash photos, and Dawson, who didn’t want to be in a picture for some reason.

Jessica and James

Larry III and Denise

Boyd and Jamie

Freda, Cecil and Norene

Kay and Larry

Jane and John

Jason and Dory

Boyd, Braiden and Barrett

Braiden is always game to have his picture taken.

Barrett, Rachel, Braiden and Howie

Aundra and Lyle

Carson almost didn’t want to have his picture taken either; however, we were able to convince him. I’m sure that it didn’t hurt that I didn’t say anything about him giving Fallon rabbit ears.

Carleigh, Fallon and Carson

Olivia and Joe

James and Jennifer

Jessica and her Aunt Tami

The big reunion/celebration was held on Sunday at Clear Springs Restaurant in one of their side rooms. After a late lunch, cake and ice cream were served. Jessica ate ice cream for the first time and loved it. Group photos followed on the patio.

The Whole Gang

This next photo is of Granny and Pawpaw with their kids and their spouses, their grandkids and their spouses, and their great-grandkids. Four generations of Evans.

Four Generations

I like this next photo of Granny and Pawpaw with their kids. The only one missing is David, Tami’s father who died when she was three.

Dale, Kay, Boyd, Cecil and Freda

Siblings

The group photos were taken on my camera using my Dad’s tripod. A nice waitress snapped them after I got everyone in the frame. After the group photos were done, Howie seemed really interested in my camera, so I let her take some photos (no fear of a 6-year-old dropping the camera when it’s on a tripod). This next photo is one she took of her Mom and 2nd cousin Braiden.

Rachel and Braiden

After the luncheon, we went back to Granny and Pawpaw’s house and worked on a family tree project, which I will share in my next blog post.

Overall, we had a great day Labor Day weekend spent with family. The weekend was a little extended for me, but I’ll go into that more in another post. So stay tuned.

Posted in Family & Friends | Tags: Family Reunion, Jessica, Midland | Leave a comment |

A Birthday Card for Jason

Posted on September 12, 2010 by Jennifer

My brother’s birthday was last Wednesday, but I was a little slow in making him a birthday card. It worked out okay since he and my SIL Julia went to San Francisco on Thursday and they won’t be back until later today. His card and gift will be waiting for him when he gets back. I’ll have to get some pictures of him using his gift. I think that will be hilarious.

I was doing some browsing in my google reader of all the challenge blogs I like to see if there was a good challenge or two for a card for Jason. I found two. First off, I used Phindy’s Friday Challenge #22 to to go green. I used both the color green and reused some ribbon binding a pack of washcloths I bought a while back. Second, I used Our Creative Corner Sketch Challenge #32. The sketch was perfect for the Phindy’s Place image I had picked out. The image isn’t definitively a birthday image, but my brother likes to cook and he’s been posting pictures of food he’s eating in SF on their blog, so I thought it suited him. I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel like something is missing or not quite right. Maybe if I had some silver cardstock for the punched sentiment, that would rid the feeling. Hopefully, Jason likes the card and doesn’t find the bow too girly.

Jason's Birthday Card

Stamps: Phindy’s Place Soup for 500; Stampin’ Up Party Punch (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point; Basic Gray
Ink: Dell printer; Stazon Jet Black (sentiment)
Embellishments: recycled ribbon; Inkessentials Glossy Accents (on soup)
Tools: Stampin’ Up Designer Label punch; atYou Spica clear (on sentiment); Prismacolor colored pencils

Posted in Crafty Goodness, Family & Friends | Tags: Birthday, Cards, Phindy's Place | 1 Comment |

James’ Parents Visit

Posted on September 11, 2010 by Jennifer

James parents came to visit the second weekend in August. They brought our nephew Dawson with them. We had a really great weekend with them.

Dawson’s 10th birthday was near the end of July and so we waited to give him his gift in person. It is so much fun to watch people open the gifts you picked out especially for them. Jessica really wanted to help him open his two presents. She enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper when he had finished unwrapping the gifts.

Dawson Opening his Birthday Present

Jessica Reaching for the Wrapping Paper

Jessica Playing with the Wrapping Paper

Jessica Playing with the Wrapping Paper

Saturday morning, we went swimming. Well, all of us except for James’ Mom. She watched us from the shade. We were the only ones at the pool. I guess swimming before noon is not too popular. Dawson’s swimming skills have vastly improved since last summer. Those swim lessons this summer have really paid off as he is no longer afraid of the water. I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked because silly me didn’t check the battery life before going to our neighborhood pool and I didn’t bring along the spare.

James and Jessica

Dawson

On the way home from dinner that night, Dawson and I sat in the very back of the car.

Jessica in the Car

Dawson kept Jessica entertained by wiggling his fingers and making faces at her. She smiled really big for him.

Jessica Smiling at Dawson

Before they left on Sunday, I got some family shots.

Jessica and her Grandpa

Grandpa and Nana with their Grandkids

Jessica with her Daddy

Family Photo


Posted in Family & Friends | Tags: Dawson, Jessica | 2 Comments |

Lost Pines Resort Vacation – Day Four

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Jennifer

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

We got up early, for us, and met everyone for breakfast at the Firewheel Cafe. Jason and Julia then went horse-back riding. We would have joined them if I had heeded my husband’s request to pack jeans for horseback riding. Silly me thought we could go riding in shorts. Oh well, I know for next time.

Jessica rode the lobby horse with Cameron who then rode it with Trevor.

Jessica and Cameron on the Horse in the Lobby

Trevor and Cameron on the Horse in the Lobby

Then Cameron went to ride a real live pony (see Sarah’s post about Cameron’s pony ride here) while the other kiddos relaxed in their strollers.

Jessica and Trevor

Aspen, Jessica and Trevor

Cameron Riding a Pony

Afterward, Aspen and Jessica checked out some little bug cars, which were really too old for both of them, but they sure looked cute.  Both girls really liked the bug’s antennae. Sarah and Cameron then swam a bit more, while we took Jessica back to our room to nap.

Jessica and Aspen

Jessica and Aspen

Jessica and Aspen

Jessica and Aspen Smiling

Jessica and Aspen

We loaded up and drove back to Austin where we all ate lunch before everyone went their separate ways. The next time we’ll all be together will be Jessica’s 1st birthday party.

Resort Entrance/Exit


Posted in Family & Friends, Travel | Tags: Aspen, Cameron, Jessica, Lost Pines Resort, Trevor | 1 Comment |
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