Swamp Tour

 While the Sparks were visiting we went on a swamp tour. It was a lot of fun and really cool to be guided through the swamp by someone who knows so much about it. 

Our guide called Evelyn gator bait :)

Splash Pad

Just over a week ago we decided to head over to the Splash Pad to play. Evelyn had fun walking around splashing in the water and mom and dad got to cool off too :)

 Evelyn got to swing for the first time! She seemed to enjoy it. She was pretty tired by this point so we didn't get to play on the swings for too long. 

 This was her face after Daddy said she couldn't suck on the swing. Tragic, I know. 

Strawberry Patch

About a month ago Evelyn and I went with Amanda and Hannah out to the strawberry patch. You can go and pick strawberries, but it was $7 a kid for a clam shell. So Amanda and I opted to split a half of a flat. The girls had fun and us moms were happy for get out for a morning. 

 I think Evelyn was having some allergy problems that morning

 Hannah checking out the play area

 These two girls are cute together. Evelyn and Hannah play well together, despite the age difference right now. 

One Handed Walker

This is what Evelyn has been up to these past few days!

Rainy Day

This is what we do when it is raining outside and we are broke :) Evelyn laughed and rode like this all around the living room and down the hall and back. 

8 Months

Sunday Evelyn turned 8 Months old. I can hardly believe how fast it has really gone. I weighed her yesterday and she weighed 17 pounds exactly. She army crawls EVERYWHERE and is pretty fast. She loves getting into everything that she shouldn't. If we sit her by the ottoman she can pull herself up. She started saying "dadadada" and "blablablabla". I have been working on getting her to say mama but we have had no success. Her favorite snacks are Gerber Puffs and Gerber Lil' Crunchies. She still doesn't have any teeth, though I check almost daily. The thing that I think is the funniest is Evelyn won't crawl on the linoleum (which is in our hallway, kitchen and bathrooms), which means she never leaves the room she is in. Kind of convenient huh? 

From our phone

I'm going to warn you, there are a lot of pictures. Yesterday Ben and I finally uploaded all of the pictures/videos from our phones. I was shocked to see that I had taken over 500 pictures and 30 videos. But what else do I have to do but take tons of pictures of my beautiful baby girl. So I thought I would make a massive blog post with pictures since Evelyn was born and you can kind of see how she has changed over the last 8 months.

Minutes after she was born

 

Those first few months when she would lay still or sleep in your arms or on you lap

 

We failed as parents in getting a picture of Evelyn in her Halloween costume with our actual camera. So here we are at the ward trunk or treat

 

Her first trip to the Zoo 

 

 

The one and only time she fell asleep on her own on the floor. I was making her do tummy time (at the time this was her least favorite part of the day).

Leaving extremely early in the morning for her first flight to California

First time eating rice cereal. Our regular camera was having issues so this is what you get :)

 

Dancing with Daddy 

 

First time sitting in the basket

This was after her 6 month shots. She had a cold and was so exhausted.

I realized then that I had to watch Evelyn closely while we shopped. She likes to grab anything within reach.

 

Swimming failure
 

My grandma made me this shirt when I was a baby. I think Evelyn pulls it off well!

Her reaction to Mike is about the same as her reaction to swimming.

Opening her package from Nana

Evelyn sits in the high chairs at restaurants now 

She is starting to pull herself up on this and this is how she was checking out her toys the other day.