THE EVANS FAMILY: November 2013

Weekend in PHX

Ember and I spent the weekend in PHX (Dustin went to Tuscon to visit his cousin Matt) with Ember's Grandma and Grandpa Flin. We had a wonderful time with gorgeous weather!

On Saturday, we took a walk to get some Starbucks in the morning! YUM! Then we let Ember play in the yard. She loved "helping" Grandma with the weeds by putting rocks in the bucket!

That afternoon, I went to my dear friend, Alli Hughes, bridal shower! It was so great to see Alli and get to celebrate her upcoming wedding. We had to wear these blue mustaches as part of a party game!

Then after eating snacks and opening gifts we did some Jazzercise dancing :) (since Alli's mom is a Jazzercise instructor)

It was so great for us four friends to be together again after over a year and a half! I love these girls and cannot wait for the wedding weekend to spend more time with us all together!

Saturday night, we had flat iron steak at the house and then took another walk to get Yummiville Frozen Yogurt! It was indeed yummy!

On Sunday, Ember and I took a meal to another good friend, Jenn, and got to meet her newborn baby boy, Kade! It was so WONDERFUL to see a long time friend again and meet her new baby. Can't wait for later this month to see Jenn, Kade, and Blake again and have my other favorite group of four reunited! :)

Then, I went to my home church growing up and got to hear God's word preached and see a lot of people I haven't seen in a long time...people that I miss! It was fun for everyone to see how big Ember has gotten since last time I visited.

Top the weekend off with Dustin meeting up with us back at the house for some delicious Texas Road House and we had a wonderful weekend full of great fun, food, friends and family!

Little Pink Fairy

Ember was a fairy for Halloween this year.... nice and easy since her party took up a lot of time and energy. Ember and I went and visited Mima at College America during the day and then then that night we took the little fairy downtown for the Fall Festival type event going on down there! She is pretty darn cute if you ask me ;)

Birthday Smash Cake

Ember got her own little cake again on her actual birthday! She loved it and I was thrilled with the way the pictures came out. Here are quite a few of my favorites! :)

12 Months Old!

EMBER RENEE EVANS was born exactly 1 year ago at 7:42 am weighing 6 lbs 8 oz and 19 inches long. One year later she is a walking, smiling, noise making, ball of personality that weighs 16 lbs 5 oz and is 26.75 inches long! Oh what a FUN year it has been! Here is Ember's last monthly update and her last monthly balloon pictures :( Just another sign that my sweet baby girl is growing up! This is what she has been up to in the last month of her 1st year of life:

We started the month off right by going to Mexico for another week long vacation! Ember fell in love with books on this trip and it has continued ever since. She did a lot better about not eating the sand so much - probably because she was focusing all her effort into trying to get walking down. She got up to 8 steps in a row in Mexico on the beach! Maci played with Ember for the first time by running in circles around her in the sand every time Ember made a move toward her. They were both loving it until Maci bumped into Ember and made her cry. Once we got back home from Mexico, Ember went into her room and started hugging all her toys (stuffed animals, books, rattles). It was pretty much the cutest thing we had ever seen! She missed her toys while she was gone. Two days after Mexico, Grandma and Grandpa Flin came for a visit and they got to see Ember get walking down officially. She got over 20 steps in a row their first night here and has gotten better and better every day since. Ember has also learned how to climb on things... things that aren't too tall that is. She can climb on top of boxes, onto the step stool, and on suitcases. Ember got to try many new foods this month. Some of them are cantaloupe and watermelon, spaghetti squash, eggs, and ham. She is getting so good at eating finger foods by herself that we rarely feed her pureed foods anymore. Ember learned how to sign "eat" too so she is able to let us know when she is ready to eat her meal. But usually we have to stop her in the middle of playing and have her eat because she would rather play play play! A big thing for Ember (and mommy) this month was Ember's 1st Birthday Party! It had a Little Pumpkin theme and it was held in the BBQ patio area at our condo complex. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Ember had fun eating her first cake, playing with the leaves and straw on the ground, and opening presents. Her family and friends that were able to make it had fun eating a variety of pumpkin and fall treats, watching Ember play in her first cake, and simply celebrating Ember's 1st year of life. Ember got to have another cake on her actual birthday and LOVED that one even more. She got dressed up as a cute little fairy and went trick or treating for the first time at her Mima's work (College America). This year has been full of so many changes for Ember and us. We are truly convinced that "children are a blessing from the Lord" and we cannot stop thanking God for the real blessing and gift He gave us in Ember Renee one year ago!

Ember's 1st Birthday Party

OCTOBER 26, 2013

Preparations:

The preparations were being made weeks before the actual party but here are a few last minute preparations that took place the week of.

Welcome to PUMPKIN AVENUE inside our condo! :)

This is what Ember's closet has looked like for the last little bit housing the party supplies!

Dustin and Dad carving out the middle of some pumpkins to put flowers in to be the centerpieces on the tables.

PARTY DAY SET UP:

Here is the scene before the guests arrived:

The food table complete with Autumn Brittle, Fruit Skewers, Candy Corn and Peanuts, Sweet Potato Cake in the shape of a pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats, and Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.

These were the centerpieces on each of the 3 tables to eat on.

Here is the warm drink table with Spiced Cider and Pumpkin Spice Latte (caramel and whip cream for toppings, of course!)

This is the table for guests to write a small note to Ember to be put into a scrapbook. There are also Pumpkin Spice Cake Pops for the guests to take as a "Thank You"

Some more decorations

The hay bale of presents! Ember has some very generous family and friends :)

And my absolute FAVORITE! That hay bales set up!!! I loved how it turned out even though the lighting in this picture doesn't do it justice!

PARTY TIME:

Here is the birthday girl ready for the party!

Here is Ember with her Grandma and Grandpa Flin and her Mima! Pappy had to work last minute :(

And the birthday girl with her puppy :)

After everyone got some food to eat, we sang to Ember and let her have her 1st cake! It was a "healthy" cake made of bananas and applesauce and the frosting was cream cheese and apple juice concentrate! She LOVED the frosting!

The boys!!

Next, we opened presents! Ember stayed surprisingly engaged with the process and got a lot of cool stuff!

The happy birthday girl!!

Ember and her friends checking out the goods!

THE AFTER PARTY(AKA PLAY TIME):

During her nap, I got some pictures of Ember's cool new things so that she could dig in after a little rest!

Ember got a caterpillar tunnel to crawl through, a singing snail with a mirror, a soft cuddly baby doll and also a more real like baby doll that sucks her pacifier and thumb, a Taggie book, a book and stuffed Humphrey the elephant to help tell the story, a Veggie Tales and Baby Einstein DVD, a Cheerios book, and a box of Mother Goose story books.