More Evelyn Cuteness

Sorry it's been forever since I've last written. I'd have an excuse....but...I don't.



Those of you who know my family well, know that Evelyn has imaginary friends. Not just one, not just two, but multiple. Her favorite changes periodically, and she occasionally adds more to her list. Well at the beginning of December, she had quite a few, consisting of Batman, Woody and Buzz, Jack Skellington, and the Furious 5.



Is Evelyn a tomboy? Just a bit...But I have some hope: she has no female imaginary friends because she plays those parts. For instance, we had a little Catwoman slinking around our house for a couple weeks. While she was being Catwoman, Evelyn would tell us, "I am a very sneaky Catwoman, and I steal anything I want for my parents."



Obviously we had to put the kibosh on that. After a little while, Catwoman became a person who snuck around doing anonymous acts of service instead of stealing things.



Anyway, a few weeks ago, Evelyn got a new favorite imaginary friend. Can you guess who it is?

That's right! Jacob Marley! We got this for our yearly ornament, and Evelyn has also been watching the Disney Christmas Carol, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and she watched Scrooge this year. She calls him, "Jacob Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Spirit." I think it's a very appropriate name!

Jacob Marley has been accompanying us everywhere: he runs (or rides a bicycle which would be very difficult with all those chains...) beside our car, and she shares her dinner with him. He wears the same flowery-pink jacket as Evelyn when it is cold outside.

So the other night, Evelyn was having me tuck Jacob Marley in bed with her. She told me, "Be careful with Jacob, Mommy; he has terrible chains!

Dem Bones Dance

This is what Evelyn performed on Halloween for Michael's family.

Doctrine and Covenants 128:22

Evelyn could be a soap box preacher. That is, IF she could remember the reference...the little goofball!

And here is a more reverant version:

Percy Pugshire

Meet Percy:

Percy the pug/yorkie puppy stayed with us for a whole week! What a lucky Evelyn! She adored Percy, and when I would punish the puppy for biting (even if he would bite her) she would come passionately to his defense. "MOMMY! Don't punish my puppy! He is just a sweet baby! He doesn't know any better!" When I asked how he would learn what was right and wrong if we didn't punish him, she couldn't argue though. I have never seen a little kid so defensive of a dog, though. Anytime we got within a block of a person when we were taking him for a walk, Evelyn would yell, "This is MY dog! His name is Percy and he's sweet. But you can't take him home!"

He was a sweet puppy, but unfortunately we had to sell him so I could remember how to breath again. I don't know if I developed dog allergies or if just having to take him out so frequently was making my allergies act up, but it wasn't much fun. We will have to try again when we have a yard.

Evelyn handled it well when we sold him, though. We just dropped subtle hints like: "Did you have fun having a sleep over with a puppy for so long? Did you know it's almost time for him to go?" She didn't even cry when he left, but she has mentioned that she is really sad, "because Percy hasn't come back!"

"If it hasn't got a tail..."

Due to a lesson learned from VeggieTales, Evelyn now knows the difference between a monkey and an ape. As a consequence, anytime Michael or I tell her to stop monkeying on the furniture, she corrects us:
"I'm not a monkey, I'm an ape! See the way my body puffs out?" (as she protrudes her rear in our general direction,) "See? No tail!"
By the way, Barrel of Monkeys isn't really a barrel full of monkeys. It's a barrel full of APES!


(P.S. Michael says that due to the fact that he didn't know the difference between a monkey and an ape before VeggieTales, I should include the fact that primates with tails classify as monkeys, the rest are apes.)

Expressions

Disgusted

Happy

Excited

Mad

Exasperated

Sad

Wiggly

More of Disneyland

This time from my perspective!

We were quite the little group of lazy-bones this year. Dad rented himself, mom and me all little motorized scooters. We had fun driving through the park in a little line. Michael was the only one who got any exercise the whole week, because Evelyn stayed on my lap the whole time.

Here's our non-traditional picture in front of the castle (Dad was taking all the pics):

Our Vacation went as follows:

Day 1 (Saturday the 9th): Rent Van, pack up and drive to Henderson Nevada

Day 2: Go to Church and drive to Anaheim CA.

Day 3: Disneyland!

Day 4: Disneyland!

Day 5: Rest in hotel and in the evening go to Medieval Times and watch the Knights

Day 6: Disneyland!

Day 7: Relax in Hotel, Play in Park and Feed the ducks

Day 8: Drive to St. George

Day 9: Go to Church and drive home.

The driving wasn't bad. My mom bought 20 presents for Evelyn so that every hour she couldn't have a new toy or project. There was everything from a Pez dispenser to stickers to fingernail polish. And a million books from D.I. So Evelyn loved driving. It was like a really extended Christmas morning, with Disneyland to look forward to.

(We are so spoiled, especially Evelyn!)

My favorite part was the World of Color. It was actually really nice to sit and wait for it and just chat with Michael, but the show itself is awesome too.

We got Evelyn to go on most of the rides--mostly by bribing her to go on Smallworld. "Do you want to go on Smallworld again?" "Yes!" "Then you need to go on Casey Junior first!" etc. The only one she wouldn't go on was Haunted Mansion, and I certainly didn't push her. She was scared enough of Snow White's scary adventure. But even after going on all the rides, she really only wanted to ride Small World (and occasionally Pirates.) On night I said "ok, we can go on smallworld and one more ride. What would you like to do best?" And she told me, "I just want to go on Smallworld and then go to bed."

By the third day of Disneyland she was getting a little punchy:

The medieval times show was really fun too. Especially watching Evelyn. She loved cheering on our Knight with her flag and spitting at the bad guys...she was so enthusiastic I actually have wondered if bringing was wise...especially yesterday when she chased cousin Maxwell around the yard with a 2x4 and when we told her to not hit people with sticks--she might kill someone! All she replied was, "But I'm the King!"

She fell in love with our Blue Knight when he threw her a carnation. You should have seen her face! She just melted! But sadly, our knight didn't win. Actually he was pretty much killed. I thought Evelyn was going to burst into tears. But she remembered it was all a game, and we consoled her with the fact that she could meet her "Blue Prince" and give him a hug after.

Evelyn brought all of her money this year to buy a souvenir and had fun looking at all the hats at Disneyland. She found one like her Grandma was wearing (a coonskin cap) and wouldn't take it off until Grandma saw her in it. Later, Mom and Dad took her to the hotel to get some groceries and go to bed and when they walked into the grocery store, Evelyn got the giggles and said, "Grandma! You still have your funny hat on!" She just thought that was too much!

Our Vegas Story

On our way home we passed through Vegas and bought our first two bottles of wine. We almost bought five, but figured that was a little extreme, I mean one for each of us and Evelyn's too young anyway. If you don't believe me, here's my proof:

(Cheap prices, huh?) It really wasn't all it was cracked up to be, though. It just made all of us ornery for the rest of the day. Evelyn spent the day in the doghouse. Serves her right though for dropping those five bottles!