The Party

We had a family party at our place for Anisten, Leah, and Lilly.

Lilly and Ry were the appointed decorators.

This picture is so cute, and blurry! I need a new camera!
I delete half my pics due to the blur.

Balloon Fun

Enjoying a mama smoothie.

Presents and cousins

Leah's new birthday dew, nice!

Smoke caught Anisten off guard

She got over it fast enough. Licked the frosting a few times then went for a new cupcake.

Anisten's 2nd Birthday

Doesn't she look BIG? We got all dressed up

Got in the car, and headed to Woodland Park Zoo
Anisten got to touch a hedge-hog.

Slide the zoomazium slide

Play in a egg shell

As well as Lilly-chick

Penguins were our favorite

The ride home after a full Zoo day, blissful sleep, holding hands. Nice for mom.

I decided to get a Zoo membership for Anisten's Birthday gift. She has everything else in the world!

Pre-School

Lilly started pre-school and is so excited. She has also decided to pose in every picture I take of her. Thanks Nana Jewels for the cutie dresses.

I need a new camera.


Car trip to preschool was full of excited singing.

And we finally arrived.

Lilly Settled in by playing with her staple, ponies.

Upside-Down Daisy Hat

Fast and easy to knit.

Flower petals on top took just as long as the rest of the hat.

Used smaller needles and changed up the colors on this one.

Newborn size.

Lilly's 4th Birthay Party

It's a Snow White kind of thing.

We had fun at Idylwood park with 7 of Lilly's friends.

The weather was perfect.

I made this costume, Lilly you are really spoiled!

Cupcake Cake turned out really great (and easy to make too!)

Pretty as a princess

Diligent preparation for our game "pin the princess on the castle balcony".

Blind-folded of course!

Thanks to Rylan and his skills with drawing, Lilly had a beautiful

poster of a castle.

Ooooh, Ahhhh! Presents.

All smiles from the cake eaters!

Knitting Bug

This hat was soooo hard! I hated knitting it. It looks too fat, and too short, weird shape. I'll try it on a baby tomorrow. Supposedly a 12 month size. I bet it won't extend to baby's ears!

How dumb.

UPDATE: Tried this on a small 12 month old baby boy and it looked really cute, fit him OK. So I'm not that mad anymore.

Update

I figured since it's been so long, I'd give you an

Evans Family Update

Anisten is sleeping in her own toddler bed. Today for nap she played for at least an hour before falling asleep on a bunch of toys she stacked in her bed.

Lilly likes to play dress up during nap time. Sometimes she naps.

I need to look up narcolepsy, and yes, Anisten actually fell asleep on the toilet.

Rylan's been trecking around the woods with the boyscouts. He thinks that being prepared means bring every item you own. His poor back!

I've been knitting up a storm. Here is the latest modeled by Anisten.

Lilly can almost swim on her own. She has been taking swim lessons, and is very comfortable in the water.

Putting Up

That's the Southern term for canning. "Putting Up" I checked this great book out from the library and it's teaching me how to transform my kitchen into a home canning fortress! I'm so excited. I'm not talking about canning pickled beets, or pickled asparagus. I want to can apple sauce, strawberry jam, berry syrup, peaches, pears, marinara sauce, and other unknown can-able yummies. This book has the 1-2-3's of canning in the first section, and a month by month guide of what to can with recipes in the second section. The author Stephen Palmer Dowdney explains one of the reasons for canning...

"The quality of commercial products has continued to escalate. However, when using the word 'quality,' I am referring to the fancy glass packaging, eye-catching labels, and those special additives put into maintain color and 'freshness.' All this might appear to be fine, but the actual taste of the products we purchase has not improved. In fact, as the complexities of industrialization and competition have increased, the taste factor, in many cases, has eroded. The pretty package and the fancy label do not matter to our palate."

He goes on to say that there are four ways manufacturers can compete: advertising, price, label, and container. Taste isn't even in competition. He also says that our ancestors would not tolerate some of the foods we are accustomed to eating. Preservatives, fresheners, and chemicals take the flavor and nutrition right out of the food.

I'm not turning into a health food crazy. But he really has a point. I'm going to get my hands on the freshest, juiciest fruits and berries available. I'm going to eat up all I can, and can what I can't. YaY!

Wish me luck, I've never done this before.

Anisten's Firsts

I would like to share than Anisten got her first hair cut, but that is unfortunately not the case. With the way things grow in her hair department, there is no need for a cut. However, I was able to pull her hair into her first piggy tails and I must say

cute, cute, cute!

She tried and successfully pulled both of them out later in the day. It must have felt funny.

Anisten went potty on the toilet today! YaY. We were doing some

spring cleaning and found our two little potty seats. Anisten knew just what to do from the start. She flopped it down and sat on it. Then after watching Lilly go on the toilet, she climbed up and went herself. Surprised the heck outta me!

First tinkle. She earned a chocolate chip reward.

Captain Hand Hygiene to the rescue

I'm remembering back when Lilly potty trained. Each time she went tinkle on the potty she got a Rolo. I didn't realize that she would potty on the toilet seven times in the first day, so she ultimately ate the whole pack of Rolo's and basically nothing else the entire day! LOL. We changed the reward to a single M&M the next day, worked much better.

Rattle Snake Lake

This is our Second photo session as the Evans family at Rattle Snake Lake. Since the first session we have had two additions to our family. We were supposed to wear blue... these dresses are the only blue items my girls have.

Cousins

Loggers

What a good looking family

Rylan's Bros Randy, Kyle, Kevin and Sissy Leah