Tribute to my Missionary Siblings

Several weeks ago i mentioned that my brother received his mission call for our church. i attempted to take a video of it but i'm not very technology smart, so i probably didn't do it the best or easiest way, but i did try. I finally found the thing i needed to get the video off the video camera, so i'm just now sharing it. i'm grateful for things like Skype that allow me to take part in these memories with my family even though we live so far away! 

Michael will report to the MTC October 16, 2013 and will serve in the Tallahassee, Florida Mission. 

I also have another Missionary Sibling; my little sister Jessica.

She is serving in the Rochestor, New York Mission, Spanish Speaking. And she gets to serve at the Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center and cool places like that. She has been out since February of 2013.

Recently i have received a couple pictures of her that i'm sharing despite that they have already been shared on Facebook. it won't kill anyone to see them again, and i enjoy seeing the pictures! 

First, my cousin's inlaws went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant and were told to keep their eyes out for Hermana West, and they found her! How cool is that? 

Then, i got to see a picture of Jessica and a friend from the ward that we grew up with, Corinne! She is also in New York and happened to find the time to see this beautiful sister of mine! 

From what i read in her weekly emails, she is having the time of her life on her Mission and is enjoying every second of it! I write to her often because i miss our fun sister chats, but i love hearing everything she is learning and doing, and being able to see the beautiful woman she is growing into! 

I'm so so SO proud of these two siblings of mine! 

Another Week

 Our Connor has been giving us laughs this week. Although he is infuriating at times, like when he breaks his sister's things or makes poopy messes, we also think he is pretty darn cute. For some reason he is convinced lately that he needs to be a baby like his sister. What will we do with you, mister Connor?!?!!?

The other day Caleb was playing a game and took a bathroom break and i hear Connor over by the computer saying "oooohhh!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!" i started laughing when i realized he was wowing over stupid WoW (world of warcraft), but he thought it was fascinating and when i showed Caleb, he laughed too. 

Despite the horrid heat we have here, i have been encouraging us to get out at do more family things. So, last Sunday, i insisted we take a family walk in the evening all together. I will admit, it wasn't my smartest move, as it is monsoon season and we had a 35% humidity and quite a bit of heat. We were sweating like pigs not long into the walk! my little family were troopers though, and we completed the walk without anyone complaining. Caleb and i enjoyed talking plans and watching our kids relax in the strollers. 

We also enjoyed a giggle at our little girl on Sunday. She has the cutest/silliest habit of always lifting up dresses to chew on. her tummy is ALWAYS showing if she has a dress on (unless of course it's a dress attached to a onesie like the picture shown below). We have discussed how we will have to curb that habit when she grows, but for now, we just find it hilarious. Don't you?

 As i mentioned in a previous post, Evelynn turned 3 months old this week! She started off her morning by screaming her head off and making her Mommy want to tear her hair out. Luckily, Dad is smarter (and less sleep deprived) than Mom is, so he was able to make the brilliant suggestion of trying the swing. Luckily for me, that turned out to be EXACTLY what she wanted. She got a ginormous smile instantly and didn't make a peep, and fell asleep for a nap. 

Later that morning i took her cute 3 month pictures, and then snapped this little cutie for Instagram. "Just as cute as can be! Raise your hand if you agree!" I'm telling myself there were a whole lot of hands raised when they saw this, haha! We think she's adorable. 

Evelynn used to be an AMAZING sleeper. But i think i jinxed myself somehow because there has been a serious lack of sleep this week. This little cutie patootie thinks she needs to be up til midnight every night PLAYING!!!! can you believe that?!?!? She spends her time smacking her lips together and blowing spit bubbles... such a lady, she is. She loves to play on mommy's bed when i'm getting her ready for bed, so maybe she's come up with the idea that mommy's bed means play time. the silly girl!

 Due to the lack of sleep of a certain little girl, we've all been tired. Connor and Daddy still think they need to sleep instead of waking up when alarms go off in the morning! Connor usually comes in to our room before alarms at that point in his morning to get in his snuggles!

 Last, but not least, we have a cute little picture of Miss Evelynn. If you look closely you will see a messy cheek, and you will probably wonder why i would take a picture of it. Well, that is a chocolately kiss from her big brother! i thought it was just too darn cute not to document. haha! Daddy brought home chocolate chip cookies the other day and big brother loved them and devoured them. 

the origin of a name

I thought it would be fun to make a post about the origin of our little girl's name. We didn't say much about it in her birth story, but Evelynn's name came from a special place. We spelled it differently due to Caleb's preference, but we don't feel like that takes away from the fact that she is named after her Great-Great-Grandma. She is named after my Great Grandma Durrant, who i never knew, but always thought had such a beautiful name. Her name was Evelyn Marguerite. Our little Evelynn's middle name came from my own middle name, Li, which came from my Aunt Cheryl's middle name, who is my mom's sister. We came across the name Liahna when searching for names during our first pregnancy and i thought Liahna sounded so pretty and unique. Then realized it also has one of my cousin's names in it, Ahna, who comes from the same side of the family as my Great-Grandma. How fun is that??? My mom's side of the family got to pass quite a bit down to Evelynn, i guess!  i asked around to my relatives for some pictures of her so that i would have some to show Evelynn when she gets older. I had a lot of fun looking through the pictures, so i figured i would share! 

Evelynn Marguerite Hinckley Durrant

Born  March 9, 1905

Died March 29, 1963

1926

about 1940

And here middle name came from :

Me, her Mommy!

and my sweet cousin Ahna

 Our Evelynn Liahna's name come from some wonderful ladies, and we know she will be just as wonderful as them! ;)

Evelynn is 3 month's old!

 Evelynn turned 3 months old this last monday (the 22nd), and to celebrate, i took some pictures! She wasn't too pleased about my idea and just wanted to chew on her hands the whole time, but i managed to get a couple cute pictures. she kept getting fussy and crying and finally i blew on her face a bit and she stopped and just stared at me. 

As usual, i was hesitant to share these pictures because i really don't have much training and when i see the flaws in the picture it doesn't seem like the best work, but i'm trying to remind myself that what matters is that i had FUN, and that i am documenting our little girl in these early months that seem to pass much more quickly than i would like them too.  i want to try to do some outdoor pictures which would have to be taken in the morning to avoid the dreadful heat, but if i recall, that's better lighting anyways. I really want to do some two year old pictures of Connor but he isn't interested in that either. Maybe outdoor ones would be easier to hold his attention??? i'll have to see what i can work out. until then, hopefully you will enjoy these little snapshots of our Evelynn. 

yes, this pose made me laugh my head off.

We love this little girl. We love her patience with her big brother, her sweet-natured personality, and her smiles she gives so freely. We cherish her little giggles, adore her deep blue eyes, and giggle over her excitement when she knows she is getting a diaper change. We are so grateful to have her in our family and to be able to see her growing and learning new skills. We love our Evelynn Liahna. 

She has rolled over a few times but doesn't seem to have much interest in it. She loves to be snuggled, and loves, loves, LOVES her sleep. she is one baby you shouldn't dare to wake up before she is ready! Daddy claims it comes from her Mommy... haha. She loves her fingers, and loves to smack her lips together. We have fun with her new habits she is learning and adore every bit of her!

Fun Times in July

 We had a fun week. It was filled with laughs, mischief, and even a bit of trouble. i even made a big decision that will bring some big changes the next few years four our family. i've decided to go back to school! it had been on my mind the last few weeks, but the entire last week i started feeling very strongly about it. i did some research on the program i would want and prayed about it and talked to my husband about it several times, and i finally got the courage to make up my mind! i will be going back to school this fall through the BYU-Idaho online program. i plan to major in Marriage and Family Studies and am very excited! i plan to start out with just a couple classes until i get the hang of online classes and get back into the groove of being a student. My sweet husband is very supportive of my decision and has given me a lot of encouragement, and i really appreciate it! 

Now for the fun stuff about the kids. as usual, my little munchkin was getting into trouble. if i turn my back for even a second there is a catastrophe! I took a shower and had Caleb incharge of the kids in the living room, and when i was done, i was welcomed by this messy little face: 

who...me? a troublemaker???? no way!

Our cute little Evelynn has been getting compliments on her eyes lately. We just love her! Even when she isn't pleased to get pictures taken, we think she is a cutie!!!

Here are some naptime pictures! They look so innocent when they are sleeping.

At the beginning of the week i was a bit stressed out and not acting like a happy person, and my husband had to remind me that life really isn't that bad! The next morning i decided to make sure i took time to just sit and give the kids my full attention and do nothing else! it's important to remember how lucky i am to be a mommy and be able to be at home with my kids! We had fun playing legos and doing tummy time. Connor kept sharing toys with Evelynn, but he wasn't too enthusiastic about the pictures i was trying to take and kept running away! 

We have made some small efforts towards potty train recently. We haven't really started it since he doesn't like the little potty he has, but we are making efforts to familiarize him with the potty and even bought him pullups since he constantly takes off diapers everytime he poops or pees. He loves Car's, so as soon as he saw that these new "undies" had Car's on them, he was thrilled. 

One day in the week i was chatting on the phone with my dearest big sister and my son came running into the kitchen where i was cleaning looking like this:

 I got a HUGE laugh out of it!!! What a goof! i have no clue where he learned it honestly.

Connor also made us laugh when he piled all this favorite cars and trains in the fireplace! he seems to think it's a special play area for his toys.  i think we will have a bit of a problem if we ever actually want to use the fireplace this winter!!! 

Evelynn and i did a girl night this weekend. She slept through it all, but i still had fun with it! Bubble baths and toenail painting! of course, we had to do "matchy-matchy" tonenails. that's what girls do, and having a daughter is SO FUN! We also went shopping together to get Evelynn some clothes in the next size up so she has things to wear in the coming weeks when she grows into 3-6 month size. 

On Sunday we had a bit of an incident at church. Connor wanted to run off after the sacrament and was pulling on my arm to get me to go with him. i stood up to go with him but i apparently wasn't moving fast enough for him so he let go of my arm and threw himself on the ground. he had had a toy car in his hand the whole time, and when he fell, he landed face first on it! :( of course he started screaming and crying and didn't want me to clean it up when it started bleeding. I took him to the bathroom to put cool water on it and try to make it feel better, but he just wanted to be held after that and made his Daddy hold him the rest of the time before nursery. we were sad that he got hurt!

Evelynn also caused some chaos on Sunday. She had a huge blowout all over me, and when i went to change her diaper i saw that it had gotten all over me and it looked like i had and accident too! Caleb thought it was hilarious, but i didn't think it was so funny! i did giggle over his jokes after he walked away though, but i'm not telling him that little detail! After we both got all cleaned up and changed i asked Evelynn is she was sorry, but she didn't really seem that apologetic. she sure is cute though! 

Monsoon season has started here in Arizona. I was happily enjoying the rain when it first started pouring down outside, but soon after i made a discovery that i wasn't too pleased about. Caleb kept asking when there was water in the hallway and i had no clue what he was talking about and told him Connor probably left some when he was running in and out of his bath. i cleaned it up but was really confused when i felt drops on my head... i finally looked up and saw water dripping down from our vent! we had to call our office to get a maintenance guy to come take a look, but he wasn't able to fix it until this morning. We had buckets and bowls lining the hallway all night and got to listen to a constant "drip,drop,drip" of water. 

The last thing i have to offer for this week's blog, is this cute little video of Evelynn "talking" to me. She loves to coo and is very good at whining to us. She's a little chatter-box! and you can even hear Connor yelling enthusiastically in the background!