My Busy Little Valentines

Evelyn at 2 Years

- Loves to say "Hi!" to everyone we see.  She's a pretty social little girl.
- Evy is such a girly girl.  She loves to wear dresses, tutus, hair bows, necklaces, bracelets, etc. She loves princesses. She loves to get her hair done and will sometimes even request pigtails. Yes, she's a girly girl for sure.
- A true blue Dukie.  Whenever she sees a Duke shirt she points and cheers,  "Go Duke!"
- Little dancer.  She doesn't have the best moves, but she loves to dance.

- Destructive.  Oh so destructive.  I now know why there are so many different safety gadgets because we've had to install so many with this crazy at our house.  She'll rip things open with her teeth.  She's dumped whole bags of grain on the floor.  If we happen to have a intact crayon she'll snap it in half.  She likes to dig out chapsticks if yours happens to fall out of your chapstick.  I found her taking a plastic fork to my entertainment center I worked so hard on and scratching off the paint.  And of course, magic erasers are my favorite for taking off her art on the wall (even though the crayons are locked away she seems to squirrel them away for later.) She's very much the reason we won't buy anything nice for a few years.
- She loves Minnie Mouse.
- Evy is a little talker.  Nate's speech therapist has remarked the Evy's speech is very advanced for her age and I definitely believe her.  I'm always surprised by the things she'll say to me.
- A huge fan of nursery.  But it's always nice to get a huge hug from her when I come pick her up.

- Absolutely loves her brother.  It's so sweet to see them when they're playing happily.
- Such a good little eater.  She's always wanting snacks and eats so well at meals (usually.) My favorite is when she tries a meal and says, "Oooo, tasty!"
- Evy is definitely mastering the art of tantrum throwing.  The trick is to make sure mom is watching.  And if she's not, stop, move closer to mom, and then throw yourself on the ground wailing. She's an expert at this.

- Extreme climber.  See exhibit A above.
- Evy loves her daddy.  She always wants to see him first thing in the morning and will often ask for him when I'm putting her down for her afternoon nap.
- Jumping.  All the time.
- Two year old stats: 34 inches tall and 25 lbs.
- I discovered a box of our old Halloween costumes and Evy loves to go through it to try things on.  She especially loves dressing up in her Wendy costume from this last year and begs Nate to put dress like Peter Pan.
- Such an enthusiastic celebrator.
- Evy's pretty sure she knows her colors.  If you ask her what color something is she will tell you a color, but not the right one.  She's just says it with so much confidence.  She is always right about pink though.

- Evy has a couple baby dolls that she absolutely adores taking care of.
- Evy is heart broken when Nate has to leave.  We have two therapies at one office.  One therapy we get to go with Nate, one we don't.  When we don't get to go back with Nate, Evy is so so so sad Nate has to leave.  She'll come up to me every 5 minutes and ask for Nate.
- Loves loves loves books.
- Such a good little singer.  She loves to sing along with I lullaby to her when she's going to bed.  My favorite right now is when she'll sing Skinnamarink, but mostly because then she says, "I love you!"

- Generally, this girl is the happiest, cutest, sassiest little bug.  We love love love her so much! 

Birthday Girl

Evelyn's 2nd Birthday

It was pretty much Minnie Mouse all day long!  Minnie Mouse pancakes for breakfast, sharing Minnie and Mickey cupcakes with friends, and a Minnie party as a family.  It was pretty cute to see Evy pointing out all the Minnie Mouse things for her.  Lots and lots of presents and so much cake!  I think it was Evy's dream day.  Happy Birthday Evy!

Out of the Mouth of Babes

One day Nate's catch phrase was, "What's the big idea!" I'm not sure where he got that one.

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Nate and Evy were playing with their kitchen.  Evy did something Nate did not like.  Nate told Evy, "Oh no! That's not cool!"

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It had been a long day.  Brad teased the kids, "Who wants to go to bed early?" Evy gave Brad the death stare before telling him, "No."

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Nate's had a medicine change that has made him pretty emotional, but its getting better.  One morning Nate came up to me with big tears in his eyes.   He tells me, "Mom, I'm sad." Trying to figure what has made him so sad I ask, "What makes you sad Nate?" "Because the heart is gone." I think that made my heart gone too.

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Evy in the bath. "Mom, I'm swimmy like a fish!" Is it really just her 2nd birthday coming up, not her third right?  She talks so much!

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I'm trying to make dinner one night when Nate keeps asking, "Tape. I want tape.  I want tape." On repeat.  Over and over and over and over again.  After telling Nate a dozen times no, I finally tell him, "I don't have tape. Don't ask me again." Nate quickly switches gears and responds, "I'll go ask dad."

Christmas in Minnesota

It's always fun to go to the Packer's for Christmas.  Not only do we love to see Grandma and Papa, but we also love all the fun traditions.

Take for example, putting up the Christmas trees.  Yes, trees.  If you know Janet at all, you know that she has a great love for Christmas trees.  A love that means you can't simply have one Christmas tree for Christmas.  This year the Packers reached a new record for Christmas trees. Evy and Nate got to help Grandma put together her woodland creatures tree.  They both loved helping and kept trying to redecorate the rest of the Christmas trees around the house.

While we were in Minnesota we had to go out and play in the snow.  There is a perfect little sledding hill in the backyard that daddy used to go down when he was a kid.  It was both of their first times sledding and they loved it.  And we also made some snowmen friends.

Christmas at the Packer home also means mint chocolate rice krispie treats and chex mix.  Nate was more than happy to taste test.

Then of course, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner of roast beast on the traditional Christmas china.

We had a new tradition this year, 50 years in the making.  Papa Doug had made Santa and his reindeers when he was 12 and this year decided to bring them to Minnesota for the grandkids to enjoy.  Evy and Nate were so excited to see Santa on Christmas morning.

And if it's Christmas morning, there are Christmas jammies and French pancakes.

And Christmas stockings.

And Christmas gifts.

We had a great Christmas. There's something extra special about getting to spend the holidays with family.  Nate and Evy especially loved being with their Grandma and Papa.  We can't wait till we can see the again!

A Quiet Christmas Morning in the Colorado Snow

Since we were planning on spending Christmas with the Packers, there was one or two things that wouldn't fit in our suitcases.  So we had our own Christmas the Saturday before. We woke up to lot of beautiful snow that had fallen overnight.  It was a perfect start to our quiet Christmas morning.

Christmas morning in their jammies.  These two looked at the camera at the same and both smiled!  It's a Christmas miracle!

We let the kids open up their stockings while we made the traditional French pancakes for breakfast.

Then onto the presents!  Evy's favorite new toys is here baby stroller.  She loves pushing around her baby.  And she thinks she's little enough that Nate can push her in there too.  Nate also loved his new train book.  It comes with a little train that drives itself along the tracks on the page.  It's so fun to watch!  You might have also noticed a theme with some of the presents.  Utensils, pots, and pans. There were some baking supplies too.

Well these two got a kitchen from Grandma and Grandpa!  They both love it!  They cook, put food in the fridge, wash the dishes, bake cookies.  Now if only they could do that for me!

Little did these kids now they were going to get another Christmas!