It's about time I posted more recent pictures of this little princess!  Evie is eleven months old now (people think she's 18 months or more because of her hair).  She crawls everywhere and has started trying to walk.  She says a few "words"--mostly just recognizable sounds.  But "booh" for "book" is pretty clear; it was her first word, same as her mommy!

We can't imagine life without her; I think that's one of the miracles of adding another child to your family.  They immediately become such an integral part of things that the world would be empty without them.

She still loves me more than anything (not bragging--just stating the facts!), but Christmas was wonderful, because Seth had more time to spend with her.  Now he's her #2 choice for hugs, #1 for playtime.

 I love this typical mealtime picture; dinner ready at 7:30 pm, Jacob doing something silly and making Eleni laugh, kids on the counter in spite of repeated reminders to sit on the stools, flat pumpkin pancakes almost burning, and Evie's hair in her boogers and her hand in the pumpkin (yes, it was from Grandpa Ben at Halloween--squash keeps well!).  She grabs anything and everything within reach of her seat; three different times I have turned around to her waving a knife in the air when I swear I hadn't left it close enough . . .

 There is hope for Gabe & Evie; they have started actually playing together instead of him smashing her and her screaming to be rescued.  Now he just kisses her to death.

Cutest little button nose ever! 

Christmas Miracles Can Happen . . .

My top-ten list of Least Favorite Experiences would probably start something like this:
1. Gettting cold & wet.
2. Getting sandy and wet (although this one might go first . . . ).
3. Having family pictures taken.

We haven't had an actual family picture photo session (aside from mandatory Family Reunion pictures) since Lydia was 18 months old.  Getting five kids and two adults color-coordinated, cute, freshly-pressed, and there to wherever you're shooting (how ironic that it's called a photo "shoot"--I'm usually wishing someone would shoot me before it's over . . .) is not my idea of a good time.  Also, trying to schedule anything with my busy husband is "pret-near" impossible, as Mom would say.  However, I grudgingly understand the principle behind family pictures--they're a special treasure for grandparents and posterity.  So when Seth told me he had arranged a family picture session (which completely shocked me) with a seminary student/photographer, I realized it was now or never.

And it was painless!  Aside from Gabriel falling asleep in his clothes and wetting the bed in them just minutes before we had to be there, it was really quite easy.  The cute girl who took our pictures was happy and fun, and the kids loved all the attention.  And here you have the result--enjoy it now, because it may never happen again.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Too Big

 Yes, I realize we just had Thanksgiving and that I'm a month late on this post . . . But for posterity's sake I decided to go ahead and post these.  My kids were incredibly excited for Halloween.  We live in a fantastic neighborhood for safe trick-or-treating, and this year we added a trunk-or-treat to the festivities.  

Don't worry about Evie's knee . . . she survives a lot of love around here. :)

Evie was a lady bug and Eleni was a witch-in-borrowed-robes.

 Gabe was a makeshift Jedi of sorts--he said he was Darth Maul before he turned bad and had his face turned red and black and scary.

 Jacob says, "It was fun at school; in the parade it was fun how I could see everybody's costumes.  We had a party with a lot of fun activities.  I was a karate guy."  Jacob, the best sport of the bunch, made do with my friend's 10-year-old son's jiu-jitsu robe and some baseball pants.  Benjamin Franklin the karate dude. . . .

Lydia made a lovely Hawaiian girl, courtesy of this lava lava from her Uncle Brian's mission to Vanuatu.

A good time was had by all.

All About Evie

Evie told me it was about time I did a post of her and her only--after all, she is the new baby around here.  And she has grown up quite a bit since last time we spotlighted her.

 She learned (just last week, in fact) to sit up and started to crawl on the same day.

 She is now eight months old and starting to have her own little personality--she just picked up growling a couple of days ago.

 This is her watching her big sister, Lydia, walk around the room . . .

A few of Evie's favorite things:

Mom

 Mom

her "love fingers," which you can't quite see in this picture (Gabe calls it "sucking on 'I Love You,'" because she sucks on her middle and ring finger, while the rest of them spell "I love you" in sign language)

 Momma

 Mommy

Mother

 You think I'm kidding, don't you?  I have never had a child quite so attached as this little dolly!  She absolutely loves me, is content all day as long as I'm carrying her around, and cries inconsolably if I leave the room.  After a screaming fit, all I have to do is pick her up and she's completely happy again.  If I'm sitting close by teaching piano, she's fine.  If she's playing on the floor and can touch me with her feet, she's fine.  If I give her to Daddy, nice friends in church, or one of the kids, she screams bloody murder.  If I sit her on the floor for more than five minutes so I can knead the bread, I end up with a screaming, tear-streaked baby face staring at me.

So rather than get frustrated that I can't get any cleaning done, that my arms are tired, or that I need some space, I've decided to just brag it up--I have a #1 fan!

And how many people can brag about inspiring this kind of smile every time they walk in a room?

Eleni's Vitamin A Deficiency

 The poor thing 

 just can't seem to open her big, beautiful blue eyes for a picture

 any wider than this

no matter how hard she tries.

Especially when I am trying to get her to look at the camera. 

 So I tried taking pictures as she was explaining something to me,

 but it didn't work.

 At all.  She really tries, and the more she tries,

 the worse it gets.  The red-eye light on my camera seems to intensify the problem,

 so I told her to close her eyes and I would tell her when to open them:

TA-DA!  And we lost the smile and passed the closed-eye syndrome on to Gabe.