Everly at two

Oh little Miss Everly.

That thing happened where she woke up one day and suddenly she had ideas and opinions and things she definitely does NOT want to do. It happened to the other five and it has happened to her too.

BUT! She also has a sense of humor and an intense love of Elsa (of Frozen, of course).  We can be walking down any store aisle and if there is any type of Frozen merchandise stashed anywhere, she senses it and starts saying, "UH UH! UH UH!" That's code for: ELSA! When I hear that, I can look up and never-fail there is a Frozen toothbrush stashed in a giant bin of loofahs. It's a talent.

Speaking of "UH UH".....that is definitely her go-to phrase. She says a handful of words: apple, purple, no, Laney, Anna, Mama, Dada, Ee (Ethan), Maymee (Megan), Toe Toe (Cocoa), Peash (Please), yah yah yah (cereal), me me (chocolate in any form), Baby (her word for herself or any small animal), bye-bye, hi, heh-yo (hello), UP!,  wah wah (water), and, ball, ammah (grandma).....I'm sure there might be a couple more....

She will say any of these words. Anytime. But if you ask her to repeat any thing else, she will simply say, "uh uh." or even better, she'll just agree with you.

An example:  "Everly, can you say 'Mathew'?"

"Uh huh"

"Everly, can you say 'go'"?

"Uh huh"

"Everly, can you say 'peaches'"?

"Apple!"

That reminds me. All fruit are apples. She loves peaches and oranges and strawberries and she calls them all apples. What she really doesn't like are apples.

Oh...and blueberries. She doesn't appreciate blueberries in any form.

All colors are purple. Except for red and green. Those are....wait for it.....apple.

She loves Clifford and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Frozen!! Don't forget Frozen!

She has great hair.

She falls to sleep to Kurt Bestor's album "Evening's Angels" every night. And she still holds my hand.

She is frighteningly good at navigating my iphone for games and little kid shows.

She has a special talent for making a mess....

She loves to help stir the eggs and the pancake batter.

She hates poofy coats.

She loves Rice Krispies.

She has become Anna's best friend, worst enemy and all around co-conspirator.

She can sing "Jingle Bells" and "Reverently, Quietly" in their entirety. Using the words, "uh uh", of course.

She is a world-class snuggler and she makes me glad every day that I have her in my life.

Basement progress

It baseboard time.

It's fun to see it transform, but these baseboards are going to be the death of me. They are everywhere....just when you think you are done, you aren't.

But I love these little ladies looking out of their window. They are the sweetest.

Happy yellow playhouse paint!

In kahoots

I love it when they put their heads together to discuss how to bring about maximum chaos and destruction.

Candyland

So, we decided to join in the New Year's fun at On Track and participate in "Candyland".

It's basically a game of torture.

You earn the privilege of playing this nightmare of a game by doing 100 burpees. And if you decided that's too much for you and you put it off, you can't leave the game unless you do 100 burpees at the end. We chose to do ours at the end. Maybe we'll get lucky and die first.

So, every time you roll the dice, you just get more and more hard things to do. Its....so fun!

And if you stick it out, stay alive and trudge through those terrible burpees, you get to write your name on the gameboard.

So there! We did it!

Stickin with it

It's been a year! 

I've been injured, chickened out, cheated, toughed it out, nearly vomited, made new friends and learned alot about myself. 

Can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

Christmas Day 2014

Sleepy babies, princess jammies and 3 (THREE!) boxes of Special K with berries. It can only be Christmas morning!

Stocking exploration.

A huge one!

Anna's felt garden.

The key to Laney's Christmas....adding to the wolf pack!

A jewelry box :)

Pretend Dyson for pretend housework.

New duds for gymnastics class

Nerf arsenal expanded.

Compound bow. Love that face!

And dad's big downstairs surprise.....

One for the books!

Shepherd's Night Marathon

I'm not sure how I manage it, but every year it seems that December 23rd is the day that we wrap up several of our ongoing Advent activities....it can be a little intense.

We made good on our promise to go for Chinese food. We discovered that not a single one of us likes Egg Drop Soup. Good thing we only ordered 7 bowls of it. 

But everybody seems excited about the fried wontons...Chinese food's answer to the french fry.

We piled in the van for our "Minivan Express". Strangely enough, this isn't as surprising to the kids as it once was. I think from the trajectory of Everly's gaze, we can safely assume that we had a movie going.

It's not for them.

It's for us.

The Littles were put down to bed for Shepherd's Night and the big kids were off to their adventures with Dad. Sometimes I really love being the one "left behind" to read or hang out in my jammies.

Poor mama.

The bigguns headed of to the Ward Ice Skating party that always starts at 9 pm. 

Wah? 9 PM???

Despite Mathew's sore bickies, I'm pretty sure they had a great time.

Yay Christmas!