Evelyn's First Birthday-Part One

Evelyn turned one year old on January 2nd, 2010! Since we had just come back from our cruise, we had a mellow day at home but got to celebrate with some yummy cupcakes and gifts while Gram and Pop were still in town.
Shortly after her birthday, she had her one year checkup. She is still our little girl, weighing in at 19 pounds, 6 oz (19%), stretching to 28.5 inches long (25%), and her head circumference was 17.75 inches (47%). She is doing great with her milestones is getting better at communicating every day. She uses signs for yes, no, more, want, milk, diaper, and please. She says (or at least has said) mama, dada, a-x (Alex), a-me (Sammie), yes, this, that, and a handful of other sounds that sometimes mean similar things like ba and un (snack, food, want). She walks and borderline runs all over the house and climbs onto low chairs. She loves to push buttons, move lightswitches, dance and clap to music, wave hello and bye-bye, give kisses, blow kisses and make funny sounds. She is getting more opinionated and likes to express her displeasure at some things rather "strenuously" but still is generally well-natured and smiley. She has gotten very attached to mom and dad over the past month or so, wanting to be held a lot and has some stranger anxiety. She still nurses 2-3 times a day but is also drinking "regular" milk and eating lots of foods...seems like chocolate is a big favorite!!
No stranger to sugary treats anyway, Evelyn dug right into her birthday cupcake. Alex led the Happy Birthday song and the present opening and is now eagerly anticipating his birthday next month. We plan to do some more celebrating when more family is visiting for her baptism in February (same weekend as Alex's birthday party), but here are pictures of her first birthday. And here is video of the singing. Happy Birthday baby girl...you are our super sweet pumpkin pie and we love you!

Happy First Birthday Evelyn from Andrea McElvaine on Vimeo.

Cruise and New Years 2011

We rang in 2011 somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico on our first cruise. We went with Gram and Pop, Aunt Michelle and Uncle Rob, and cousins Robby and Beth. We had a great time and the kids loved all the attention from their extended family. Alex stayed in Gram and Pop's cabin and Evelyn stayed with us, which worked out pretty well. We enjoyed playing mini-golf, roaming the decks, and of course, eating lots of food...who knew ice cream and cookies were standard at every meal?? I enjoyed the on-board spa and Andy and I both got some workouts in the gym and running on the short track on the top deck (11 laps=1 mile means lots of circles!). The grandparents kept the kids one morning so Andy and I could enjoy an excursion from Cozumel of sailing, snorkeling, and beach park fun. We also got to enjoy a show and drinks with Michelle and Rob one night. We celebrated Gram and Pop's 41st wedding anniversary and Beth's 12th birthday. New Year's Eve was our last night on the ship and we kept pretty quiet, but the kids had a blast with the blowouts and hats and singing at dinner. It was great to have some time away from the day-to-day busyness (and business) of our hectic schedule at home. Here are the pictures from the cruise. And one video...dancing and singing at dinner.

Cruise dinner and dancing from Andrea McElvaine on Vimeo.

Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas here at home this year. Gram and Pop visited so we had a full and festive house. We enjoyed going to Christmas Eve service, presents and Christmas dinner, and playing with lots of new toys.
The month of December was filled with fun times and anticipation, as Alex decided that this year he loved Santa, and was very conscious of the impending toy invasion. He also enjoyed the cookies and other treats. He enjoyed the mall train almost as much as last year, the light festival at the zoo which included a small train ride and a visit with Santa, and jumped right up on Santa's lap on two occasions. He loved the Polar Express book, especially after we rode the Polar Express train from Calera, AL to the North Pole and got a present from Santa and his elves. Here are pictures from December. We looked each day for Ernie, Santa's elf who was sent to keep an eye on us and report back to Santa each night on our naughty or nice status. We left cookies and milk out for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer, which were all apparently appreciated during their visit. Evelyn was not quite sure of the situation, but certainly enjoyed the rides, treats, and presents all month. Alex also began to understand that all this revolves around Jesus who was apparently born in the farm at the back of our church (their nativity scene). He kept wanting to wake up our baby Jesus from our nativity set to take him back to said farm, but I assured him that Jesus needed to remain "night-night" at our house so we could wish him happy birthday. And we did say happy birthday Jesus....the most precious thing was Alex spontaneously singing Happy Birthday to Jesus at Christmas dinner.
We got to talk with Grandma and Grampa and Gramps and Jean as well as great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, great-aunts and great-uncles, sisters, and cousins. What a great, fun day to enjoy being a family and especially enjoy being a parent to kids who bring that joy! They really are the best present ever!!
Here are the rest of the Christmas pictures.
And some videos...
Christmas Dinner

Christmas dinner 2010 from Andrea McElvaine on Vimeo.

Kids and their car

Alex pushing Evey in car from Andrea McElvaine on Vimeo.

Evelyn can crawl, cruise, and walk--Videos!

Since I did not have the correct settings on my camera to view videos on a computer, some of my videos I took this year are lost (at least to me). So I wanted to catch up on some videos of Evelyn. These were both taken on her first birthday although she had been cruising and crawling for several months and walking since December 13th. So we'll call these the "advanced" versions, but they are better than nothing...this girl can move and loves to walk all around the house now. There is something I will miss from having a crawler...the sweet little swish, swish, swish sound of the diaper as her bottom bobs side to side. Here's our little mover...

Evelyn Cruising and Crawling from Andrea McElvaine on Vimeo.

Evelyn Walking from Andrea McElvaine on Vimeo.