Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Lilypie Second Birthday tickers

Friday, July 27, 2012

3rd anniversary

last wednesday, on july 18, matt and i celebrated our 3rd anniversary. we had a great day together to celebrate! my mom kept evan (i LOVE her being her for a million reasons, and that one is definitely toward the top of the list) and we headed off to greenville for the afternoon/evening. we started at the mall to get my gift. matt and i have been broke our entire marriage so in year one we decided to start a tradition- we can spend $1 for each month we've been married. so this year we got to spend $36 each! i got matt a really nice shirt from banana republic (on sale of course!) and tron (he's been begging for it). he wanted to get me belts, since the only one i own for daily wear is from high school, but that required shopping together. we had a great time and lots of success- i ended up with 3 great belts! after shopping, we went and saw madagascar 3. the madagascar movies are some of matt's favorite movies and we thoroughly enjoyed the 3rd. it was a little out there, but funny and great! we ended the evening at what is probably our favorite restaurant- the melting pot. we ate every. last. bite. and had not a single regret about it.

although 3 years may not seem like a lot, here is the short list of what those 3 years have meant for us:
-2 degrees from USC
-sealed in the orlando temple
-2 high school band director jobs
-3 moves
-3 wards
-2 new cars
-2 puppies
-1 amazing baby
-1 bought home

in a nutshell- a lot! but i wouldn't want to have experience it with anyone else. i'm so thankful for matt and our marriage and our little family- it's all of my dreams come true!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

independence day

evan's 11 month birthday was on the 4th of july. my mom kept telling everyone that the whole country was celebrating that, which only confirmed to people how insane she is. :)

we had a great couple of days celebrating the 4th. on the 3rd, we went and saw the clemson fireworks. we joined with some friends from church and sat on a beach on campus at the lake and watched their show. it was really good and supposedly it is always on the 3rd which is awesome because that means 2 nights of fireworks for us.

for lunch on the 4th we went to a church pool party. it was really evan's first time swimming in a pool and of course, he loved it. we all loved it too since it's the first (and probably only) time we made it in the pool this summer (we go to the lake often, though). we enjoyed excellent company and food, which always makes for a great day!

we ended the actual 4th by going to see the seneca fireworks. after a minor setback from some rude ladies who claimed to be saving the last parking spot and refused to move their lawn chairs for our car full of people, we created our own spot to enjoy the show. it was even better than clemson's! (naturally) we got there early enough to have some down time so we spent a lot of time making really hideous faces and photographing ourselves. i will spare you these photos on here but if you wish to see them, just check out my july 2012 album on facebook.

probably the best part about this particular fourth, aside from it being evan's first, was being with my family. we spent the day with my grandparents, parents, and katie. it's so awesome to have everyone so close now and i'm so glad katie gets to come often and has been able to spend most of her summer here (major perk of being a teacher).

i am so thankful to be an American. i am thankful for the freedoms we have and eternally indebted to those who have fought and paid the price for those freedoms. God Bless the USA!!




Sunday, July 15, 2012

evan- 11 months

so yes, this one is 11 days overdue!! but july has been so busy and so awesome, i just haven't made the time for blogging. but i'm back now, and asking for forgiveness from my few readers.



my "baby" is 11 months old! hardly a baby anymore. i cannot believe my next monthly post for him, he will be one! they say the first year flies by and in my opinion, that's putting it lightly. it's amazing how smart he is now. he prefers to feed himself but will still let us feed him some baby food (which is good since i still have a lot that needs to go!). he still loves books, and now he really loves picture books that he can point to and you tell him the word. he says a few things (that we can understand, anyone else probably would not). he says "wa" for water (he loves to drink water from his baby camelback) he says "ugh" for more or again. he says "ollie", which is my parents' dog's name. if he is looking at a picture of our family he can identify both mommy and daddy. he can also identify my cousins tyler and nora, because their pictures are on mine and my mom's fridge. he still loves lions! he is drawn to them first in any picture or in any book. if you ask him "are you funny?" he smiles and says "ha!" he laughs when other people laugh. when he passes any kind of gas, we tell him he's rude and he says "rrr" and laughs- every time. if the puppies are licking him or doing anything he doesn't like, he shews them away with his hand, which is awesome. he is not confident enough to stand or walk on his own, but i know he could. he is so strong and walks around holding things like its nothing and can go up stairs so fast, he just has to muster up the courage to let go! he HATES the bath all of the sudden, which is not fun for anyone in the house. but he is still just happy happy. he has developed so much awesome personality, we love him so much and he is undoubtedly the greatest joy ever to enter our lives.



had to share this extra gem of a photo this month too: