Christmas 2015

We ventured to Vegas again for Xmas, but did not drive again, that would be a big hell no, after what happened last year, so we flew, and we were all much happier;) The visit was jam packed with family and friend visits, naturally, and so we had a whirlwind five days!

This girl was all over the airport this time! She was incredibly intrigued by the suitcase weighing machines and the slot machines in the terminal. She definitely didn't let a late flight, which was even later due to crappy weather, slow her down!

We just hung out at Chris' parents house the next morning. Evey had fun exploring while we chatted up the parents.

And she had a blast playing with Grandpa! Later that day we went to Justin's for Christmas Eve dinner and we spent the night too. Lots of food, family, and friends.

The next day, Christmas Day! we got up at our usual early morning time and waited for everyone else to get up and get ready so we could go to Chris' grandma's house to celebrate with even more family! We exchanged Secret Santa gifts and ate more amazing food!

We didn't get back to Chris' parents house until 8:30, and we had Evey open her gifts. I'm a horrible parent and didn't take any photos of her doing this, it must have completely slipped my mind! But she enjoyed tearing through bags and wrapping paper and thoroughly ignoring the gifts that they contained, like all good 19 month olds do.

The next day I was the first to get up, probably due to the fact that I had developed pink eye! Not fun to get that, obviously, but it really sucks when you're not home and you don't bring your glasses with you...all I can say is that the next couple days sucked vision wise, and I spent a lovely 3 hours at the urgent care. Good times. 

That day we also met up with some of my high school buddies, which always makes me happy.

Chris saw Star Wars the night before we left with his dad and Steffen, so me, Debi, Nichole, and Evey all got to enjoy each other's company, and some late night Starbucks

Until next time, grandparents!

Thanksgiving in Tennessee

For Thanksgiving this year we visited my parents and brother in Tennessee, and my Kristin and her family came too! It was a whirlwind trip of hanging out, visiting the aquarium, eating, drinking, and visiting with extended family! It was funny to watch Evey and Collin interact; they are very different toddlers;)

We celebrated Xmas with my family and aunt, uncle, and cousins; my mom even decorated early! So the kiddos had plenty to play with while we were there!

We had breakfast at the Vegas airport. She slept from Reno to Vegas, which is wonderful because she got up at 4;)

We had a really long travel day because we decided to save money and drive from Nashville to Seymour, which was a little over three hours, instead of flying into Knoxville. I was exhausted, but I don't think I'd do anything differently.

Evey and Grandad chillin.

My parents got her a stroller and baby doll, which she pushed everywhere! She even made sure she gave her baby a bottle on occasion. She hasn't played with her much at home, it's probably due to the fact that she has too many toys!

Group photo with my cousin Madison, her niece, and Collin.

She seems so innocent, doesn't she?:)

Evey did not voluntarily walk to anyone in the beginning, so Uncle Andrew lured  her over with TV, genius!

 

We all went to the Ripley's Aquarium. My cousin and her baby from Georgia joined us too!

Swimming with the fishes.

My cousin Christina with the pops and husband.

This was our whole group, minus the photographer, of course.

Crazy family selfies are awesome!

Evey enjoyed playing with Collin's chain saw...

And Collin enjoyed playing with her baby 

 

Aunt Kristin was able to snag some Evey time.

Oh yah, this was Evey's thanksgiving dinner, a roll. <sigh> My mom made an amazing Thanksgiving meal, as always, and we went to my Aunt Sandra's for dessert, which was also absolutely amazing. Christina made the best bread pudding!

We took photos in front of my parents' house the day we left, so I will share those soon, but here's one that Kristin took of Chris holding the wee ones and the comparison from 14 months ago! We've decided to do this every single time we meet, and Chris said that he will continue to hold them both, we'll see about that;)

She's Walking!!!:$:&!:!:!!!:!

Seriously, I am so freakin excited, our kid is finally walking!! Woo hoo! She started when we were visiting my parents for Thanksgiving (more on that soon). Already she's become more independent, and is into more things, but whatever! We've waited soooo long! Yaaaaay!!!

Bueltel Family Reunion in Indiana Part Deux

Welcome to part two of our Indiana trip! The next day we went to the actual reunion and I didn't take many photos, and really only have this one of Evey, but Chris took tons of photos with his camera, so maybe I'll sneak some of those in as soon as he's done editing them (how many times have I said that on this blog??).

Of course we all had a great time because the room was full of awesome people and food, always a winning combo. We took tons of photos of all the Bueltels!

The reunion happened to fall on Chris' cousin's husband's 40th birthday, so an epic ping pong game occurred that night in celebration. 

The next day we fished and hung out at one of Chris' cousin's wive's parents' place! It was rather cold and windy, but everyone was in good spirits.

And we visited another cousin and hung out at their amazing and idyllic house, yard, and shop!

It was definitely a crazy whirlwind trip filled with tons of awesome family. I'm looking forward to future visits when Evey is more aware of the world and people around her and she can truly appreciate it.

Baby Painting

If you live in the Reno area and have a wee one, I highly recommend doing a baby painting class at the Nevada Museum of Art! Meghan and I decided to take the kids a couple weekends ago and we all had a blast!

The class consisted of about nine babies, whom we all stripped down to their diapers. Butcher paper covered the walls and floor, and the babies were given an 8 x 11 canvas to paint. 

Red, yellow, blue, and green paint were passed out and soon dug into by tiny fingers! I was pleasantly surprised by Evey's willingness from the get-go, which I think has something to do with daycare's love of creating art with the babes. At first she was apprehensive about leaving the paint on her hands, but was soon painting her tummy, so that was a very fleeting feeling;)

I really can't wait until they're older and they can look back at all of the pictures they're in together from when they were babies:)

She was covered, and decided to share the love. She got me in the neck with the paintbrush and left painty Evey handprints all over my shirt and pants!

I love how messy she got! And I just love her and her wonderful craziness:) 

So yah, take your babes to the class if you can, you won't regret it!

Halloween 2015

Halloween definitely snuck up on us this year, I didn't feel nearly as prepared as I would like. Throwing a week long vacation right before Halloween definitely did that, but that's ok, we still threw a great party and had an awesome Halloween night! 

We haven't thrown a Halloween party on Halloween in a while, so that was different, and I not think we'll do it again; now that we've all got kids, families have other plans, of course, so some of our friends couldn't stay as long. But we still had a pretty good turn out! 

As usual, we offered soup and a wide array of snacks and goodies. Our theme this year was video games, and Chris and I dressed up like Luigi and Mario and Evey was our little Princess Peach, although she was not content wearing her crown. 

Pinterest inspired my food choices, as usual! Here's my fire flower veggie tray.

Toadstool Cupcakes.

And my Pacman Brie!

Per tradition, we sat outside and gave out candy, and this year Evey was with us all night. We didn't take her trick or treating, we think she's still too young and the walking independently is a necessity in out book, so maybe next year;) But she was amazed by all of the strange people that came to our door constantly and thoroughly enjoyed having glow stick wars with her dad. 

We projected Hocus Pocus on the garage again this year, and it was a big hit like last year. We were going to project singing Jack o lantern faces on pumpkins, but time got away from us, but we're definitely going to do it next year! We did it the day after Halloween, just to see how it would work, and it was fantastic! Here's a sneak peak...

Can't wait for next Halloween! I already have our theme in mind;)