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!

From the View of a Child

From Evelyn's Memory:

"I went to Disneyland for 5 days. {We were only in the park for 3, but it was an 8 day vacation.} And I am not going anywhere else in Disneyland but the Tiki Room. *sings* In the Tiki Tiki Tiki room, in the tiki tiki tiki room, all the birds sing words and the flowers croon in the tiki tiki tiki room! And the ones (tikis) said 'kuk, kuh, kuh-kuh-kuh!' and the daddy ones said, 'Oop! Ha! Oop! Ha!' Like that. And the bird said, 'I sang so beautiful!" Like that. It rains in the tiki room, but when you are done, it's not raining! And it's magic, huh?

"We go on Jungle Cruise and the animals said 'roar!' and the elephant said, 'whoo! whoo!' and the monkeys said, 'ee-ee-ee!' And the tiger and the lions were not here again, just Hippos! My favorite part was the tiger, because I have a tiger like in the cruise. My tiger's name is Tissy. It is a girl.

"Then we went on Small World again. My favorite ride! We go on boats and see silly indians with masks on. --And belly buttons. We saw baby pandas and Ariel and Nemo and Dori.

"And besides that we went on 'Pirates,' then we waited 5 days to go on 'Pirates' again. We saw two slides and we go, "Splash! Splash!" and I covered my eyes so I don't get water in my eyes. And they sing, "yo-ho yo-ho a pirates' life for me!" My favorite part was the slides but they almost splashed my eyes. And they were a little bit scary, Mom.

"Now I have to tell you about Small World again. Did you know Small World is my favorite ride? When I get bigger and bigger, maybe I can go on Indians-Joneses.

"On Dumbo, we FLY! With a magic feather. Uh, huh.

"We went on Horsies. They went down. And Up!

"We saw Woody! That was in my movie. And we saw belly-buttons with the indians. Because they don't have clothes on. We saw Jessie and Bullseye and Woody in Disneyland. We killed Zurg dead with shooters!"

"And we saw Cruella DeVille! Cruella DeVille! She's a little bit scary. But she was a nice Cruella, not a mean Cruella.

"We were waiting for Repunzal to come out and we said, "*gasp!* Who's that? Is that Repunzal? No, that's a silly boy!" Then she came out and she gave me a hug and went to her tower. But she didn't see my shirt!

{Did we see the knights at Mideval Times?}

"That was not at Disneyland! But we got a Blue knight with blue flags and we whipped with them. And Daddy took my flag away because I whipped with it. The Green Knight said, "I'm going to kill you, Blue Knight!" and we said, "Boo! You naughty garbage, Green Knight!" I don't like Green Knights. They're really naughty, like Ursula is a naughty witch. My Blue Prince gave me a flower. He loves me so much! He is my favorite boy in the whole world!" {Even more than Maxwell?} "Yes. And the bad guy said, "I'm going to throw you in the garbage!" You can give him to me! *giggles* Just Kidding! I will get rid of the green Knight and throw him in the garbage and in your big white toilet. And we say, "Woohoo!" and *spits*. And we are mad at the Green Knight. Some Green Knights are Naughty. Some Blue Knights are nice. Some Yellow Knights are naughty, too. We will have to go see them again because they will be lonely. Poor Blue Knight!

"Do you know a special thing? The special thing is: *whispered* I love you!

Grandmas Mary and Papa Dail came with us. We drove, drove, drove. Grnadma had presents for me, but not right now! She set the timer and it said, "Beep, beep, beep!"

"I got a hat from a store in Disneyland. It looks like blue and purple with a big, big flower. I buyed my hat with lots of money; and a sucker too.

"We trade pins! And I was crying and I got two pins! Tinkerbell pins. They were my favorite."

Isaiah 53:3-5

Come on, Little One, look at the camera!

What Monkey?!

People are fascinating. What lengths they go through to convince the rest of the world that they are "cool."
For instance, the other day Michael and I were out on a date, and we were at the University Parkway/State Street intersection in Orem when I noticed a sign dancer. You know, those people who get paid for standing out on a corner holding a sign that you can't read anyway because they are swinging and spinning it. But this wasn't just any sign dancer...oh no! It was a guy in a full monkey costume! I thought it was a pretty effective attention grabber.
Since we were stopped at the light, I had an opportunity to watch this monkey for some time and observe the effectiveness of his costume. I watched--I kid you not!--5 people walk next to this monkey, close enough to shake his hand, and not one of them even appeared to notice the monkey! They passed him with bored expressions, and didn't give him a second glance!
I can only bet that once they got out of ear-shot those who were walking together hissed, "Did you see that monkey?!"
So tell me, why do they pretend to not see the monkey?? Why this studied indifference like, "I've seen it before. You can't shock me"? At the very least they could laugh, or say appreciatively, "Hey, nice suit!" Is it threatening to see a monkey? Or would your image of coolness be crushed because you raised your eyebrow at him and walked as far from the monkey as possible? Come on, people, Give a reaction! Don't they know they look more ridiculous when they don't notice the monkey? For heaven's sake, how can you NOT see the monkey?!
So next time you're walking down state street, I want you to ask yourself this vital question:

Do you acknowledge the monkey?

"Wishing You Were Here"

...The most depressing words you can find on a postcard. They might as well put "nanner-nanner" in parentheses below it. It doesn't even help if you know the person who sent you the card really does wish you were there...there's nothing you can do but stare at the picture of the tropical paradise and wish it would stop snowing outside as you pout into the early morning hours.
Michael just had a business trip to Puerto Rico. His hotel was a 5-star hotel right on the beach. Originally the plan was that I would accompany him without Evelyn. But Michael (being the practical man he is) decided he would be in meetings the whole time, and therefore I would be bored. BORED?! On the beach with 80 degree weather?!
To add insult to injury, Michael WASN'T in meetings the whole time. The first two days they met for like an hour, and then were released to go do whatever they wanted. The rest of the week they were released somewhere between 1 and 3. So Michael spent the whole week on the beach and came home all tanned, with stories of holding crabs and having 50-year-old ladies flirt with him. (Ha ha! At twenty-eight it was high school girls...at twenty-nine it's old ladies...Michael must be getting old!)
Anyway, Michael did bring us home presents. He brought me a beautiful hand carved necklace/earring set of flowers and for Evelyn he bought a monkey that chatters when you push a button in it's tummy. She fell in love immediately and dubbed it "Peachy Rico" after her favorite specialty drink as Los Hermanos.

Sticker-y

Evelyn is so big now; she did her own hair! I thought it was very beautiful! And there was something about doing it herself that made her brave enough to stand it when I had to pull all the stickers out again. That is quite miraculous because she can't even stand me to brush her hair.

Little Moments that Make Being a Mom the Best Job in the World:

1-Evelyn carrying her imaginary pink kitten around in the palm of her hand. (She brought it to Los Hermanos and introduced it to the waiters and fed it some Peachy Rico drink.) When asked what her kitty's name was, she replied, "Jane Michael Adams," then changed it to "Shhhhmmmm."

2-The way she calls everyone "Sweetheart."

3-Sunday when she ran up to a complete stranger in a different ward and lit up his day by shaking his hand and giving him a hug like he was her best friend.

4-She calls tap dancing "Clickity-clacking," and wants to learn to dance like Fred Astaire, but not any girl tap dancers, because they're "naked!"

5-When I ask her to help me clean up the house and she tells me she won't help me because: "There are no damsels in distress in this family." Rats. I gotta watch what I tell her.

6-When she is throwing a tantrum in bed, screaming that she wants Mama to give her another snuggle-hug! I tell her I'm not coming in there because I already gave her a snuggle-hug, and besides, I don't reward tantrums. So she tells me, "Mommy, I want you to give me a spank and then a snuggle-hug!" That girl knows what she wants! So I gave her what she wanted and she went to sleep with no further protests!

7-I love how she sings "Count your Blessings" fortissimo in church--going red in the face and leaving everyone around her in giggles.

8-Her parting words at bed-time are: "Now Sweetheart, you be nice with Daddy, or I'll have to come put you on a time-out!"

9-Her evil laugh that she's practiced since she was 18 months old. (It's pretty scary now...)

10-When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she replies earnestly, "A Turkey Farmer." What?!?!

11-Her original Valentines: "Dear Daddy, Fear Not! I will go to Grandma's if you want me to." (Right before Michael's surgery.) and "Welcome! Welcome to Presents, darling! I will love you if Maxwell does!"

It feels just like I'm bowling for the first time!

The other week, Michael decided to do something a little different with Evelyn and I and took us bowling! I haven't been bowling in soooo long! Evelyn was so excited! She couldn't hardly pick up her 8 lb ball by herself, but there was something so thrilling about being able to throw something that heavy at things and knock them down and...have your parents CHEER you on! But she was young enough to not understand the game at all, so after a few turns, she started taking everything as a matter of course.

For instance, this was her reaction when she got her strike!

She got one strike and a couple of spares! Pretty impressive for someone who's throwing the ball at around 2 mph! (I might have actually won her if my pride allowed me to use the bumpers too. Granted, I could hardly lift my 8 lb ball either...)

And at the end of the game, when she beat us by 20-30 points, this was her victory dance:

The coolest thing I ever saw while bowling was when Michael was trying to show off when we were first married. He chucked the ball as hard as he could with a twist, but he threw it right into the gutter. Just as he was about to turn away in disgust, the twist popped the ball back out of the gutter and he ended up getting a strike!

Greensleeves :D

Glimpse into the Adams' household

Mama: "I am the world's best mom and you know it!"

Evelyn: "Yes, I do. ...But you still can't sit on me!"