slapsgiving recap

we survived slapsgiving! and by survived i mean evelyn was so affected by the altitude up in breckenridge that she woke up the 4 nights we were there just about every hour and a half. it.was.rough. and really rough doesn't even touch how rough it was. and not just on us, though we got the brunt of it because we were in her room, but the rest of the family whose sleep patterns were a bit disturbed. i felt like a walking zombie the entire weekend and poor sam, who had to work a full day on black friday and a half day on saturday, is my hero for being so gracious and working so hard for us. he even drove back through and into a blizzard from evergreen (where he works) to breckenridge on friday night JUST to go back to work saturday morning. he's awesome and now a veteran of snow driving. nothing like trial by fire....or by a whiteout! 

so here is a slapsgiving recap in pictures. i somehow did not make it into any of them...and also forgot to turn the flash on so many of them look pretty grainy. but evelyn is still cute. grainy or not.

pouty

this is my box

evelyn and her honey

just some of the girls

daddy and mo in the early morn

the girl loves her iphone

honey, papa and mo

slapsgiving

tomorrow is thanksgiving or, as it is more fondly known, slapsgiving ... to us. the term comes from the show how i met your mother. it is one that gives us belly laughs and inside jokes that we like to toss around quite frequently...aren't we so cool?! if you haven't ever seen an episode you probably should.

evelyn just cut her top, right tooth. to say the least it has been a challenging go around with these top two teeth. there have been many sleepless nights, hazy days and grumpy people as of late. but we may be turning a corner, at least i hope we are.

we are killing some time before we head to breckenridge for slapsgiving with the fam. evelyn is crawling around on the floor, wapping things with a baby bottle, trying to put specks of whatever she can find into her mouth all while chanting "da-da." a typical afternoon.

to me it goes without saying that there are many things to be thankful for. however, i don't think everyone shares that sentiment. i think for some it is a challenge to name just one thing they are thankful for. and i know in times like this, where many are struggling in many ways, finding something to be thankful for can be, well, tough. truthfully, and this forthcoming statement will make me sound a bit perfect - i am far from it - but i often list off that which i am thankful for. i tend to be pessimistic: the glass is half full with a hole in the bottom of the cup and all the liquid is rapidly draining out type person. so i find it helps me to re-center myself by making a list. yes, a list. i am a list maker. so here is my slapsgiving day list of what i am thankful for....the abridged version.

faith
sam - because he gets me
evelyn - who has about 15 nick names...and will respond to them all.
family
friends - new and old
coffee every morning...and sometimes throughout the day
lotion - cuz DANG its dry here!
getting to rock my baby to sleep at any given hour of the day or night
good music
pumpkin EVERYTHING
the ability to exercise
my boots
pacifiers
my bed
my memories - good and bad (and that has taken time)
games
going to a movie
pasta - carbs. nuff said.
kitties who sit in your lap and bite your hand when you pet them
mascara - because without it i look like the lady in the water. no joke.
inside jokes with my husband, brother, kalani - and a few others
books - how they've shaped my past, taunt me in my present, and call to me in my future

happy slapsgiving!

   

the perfect blogging time

well let's see what's been goin' down up in our hizzie as of late...

evelyn said "ma ma" for the first time thursday night. it shocked me, sam and my cousin, matthew, who all heard it loud and clear. since we have had NO LUCK getting her to say it again. humph. but she jabbers on saying "da da" all the live long day and that makes sam beam from ear to ear.


my mom's birthday was yesterday and for her birthday she requested to take evelyn to see the old people at the retirement home near our house. this is not an uncommon activity or request and was something we did quite often growing up. i credit my "comfortable-ness" around the elderly to such visits and think it is important for children to be around the elderly for a few reasons. first, old people love young people. and if you could have seen the smiles when they saw evelyn, my cousin matthew and neighbor taylor, you wouldn't have been able to help but smile too. second, many people are afraid of the elderly, especially ones in retirement and assisted living homes, and this is not something that should be feared. life should be celebrated, even until the very end, and many of these lives are not celebrated and often forgotten. this makes me so sad and hope that i will have many people come visit me wherever i find myself in old age.

so we walked around, talked, hugged and loved on as many people as we could find. it reminded me of my college days working at The Courtyard. i couldn't help but think about some of my favorites: Polly, who had Parkinson's, Clyde, who wouldn't sleep anywhere but the recliner in the living room. Roscoe who wore his wife's wedding band on his pinkie finger. sweet Reba who i know i will see in Heaven, and Pearl who would always laugh at whatever you said.... i certainly wished i could go visit them or wondered if they were even still living. i think i consider that job the best job, outside of being a mother, i have ever had.

it is hard to believe that thanksgiving and christmas are upon us. it is exciting to be able to share these holidays with evelyn even though she really won't know what's up and why we are eating so much turkey and stuffing.  she will be 8 months old next week and it is hard to imagine that she has almost been "out" as long as she was "in." right now she is fighting a nap. sam is trying to rock her to sleep whilst watching the tennessee game. perfect blogging time, huh? i thought so too.

E squared: evelyn and everleigh

evelyn's first halloween was fun! we got to spend it with grant and lindsay taylor and their daughter everleigh. everleigh is 6 days older than evelyn. she was actually born on evelyn's due date and lindsay and grant sort of pretty much came up with her name from hearing of evelyn's name. so i think its really neat that they live close and we can do things together and have our babies try and beat each other up. because that is what they attempted to do. don't fret, i have pictures. perhaps i missed the "baby etiquette: how to teach your such-and-such-month-old how to interact with other babies" book when i was purusing the shelves as a bloated-about-to-pop pregnant woman - i'll blame the hormones - but apparently so did lindsay, so we were both in good company. and as we both learned from that night, 7 month olds don't care a flit about proper social etiquette. nope. instead they went after each other like monkeys. evelyn was obsessed with everleigh's hair and she attempted to pull it while we were and weren't looking. while everleigh was lunging, and by lunging i mean crawling full force, toward evelyn whenever lindsay put her down. it was a fun show to watch, for those that were simply spectators. lindsay and i were the referees. evelyn made everleigh cry at one point, but don't worry because everleigh got her back. regardless, i think they are going to be besties for life. we are already having the heart shaped bff's-for-life necklace made up for them to each have a half of. aren't we thoughtful? 

it was very fun though. and it is nice to have a familiar face and friend from college close by that we can get to know better. not to mention another young family to unleash our little maniac on every now and then. ;)

here are some pics:

everleigh was a cat and evelyn a lady bug

i'm gonna getcha!

seriously, you're just going to watch her abuse me?

love choke hold

in goes the ref

i told you that's my toy!

i'm gonnnnna getcha

take that! im the oldest!

 

i know all of these are everleigh attacking evelyn i must not have taken any of the other. ha! but i think they will be able to get past this and by next halloween be holding hands walking up to doors asking for a trick or a treat.