Evelyn: Five Years

Evelyn walks to the beat of her own drum. She does what she wants when she wants to, and it can be hard to change her mind. She has sass and attitude and it will either get her in trouble or keep her confident.
Evelyn still has the best laugh. It is so contagious and you can't help but laugh when she does. She laughs when she is tickled, you tell a joke, make a funny face, etc. When she doesn't want to laugh then don't bother trying to get her to. She'll get upset instead and do everything in her power not to laugh.
When Evelyn isn't making us laugh or when she isn't playing, she is probably doing something mischievous. She tests my patience almost daily but you gotta give her points for being curious and creative.
Evelyn loves dressing up! She wants all the princess dresses, shoes, and even asks me to put "lips" on her sometimes. She enjoys twirling around in her dresses and acting like a princess or queen. She has interesting clothing choices sometimes and it can be a battle for me to get her to wear things that match. Some days I don't wanna fight so she looks the way she does cause she chose to.
Evelyn is a movie lover. She could watch them all day everyday if I let her. She enjoys playing with barbies, anything mermaid or unicorn, and stuffed animals. One of her favorite things she got for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa is a squishmallow pillow. She takes it almost everywhere even though it is basically as big as her. She likes real animals as well. She likes to play with them when they're at the park or go visit people who have them. She has an amazing imagination and sometimes I like to just sit and watch/listen to her play. She likes riding her bike and learned how to do so without training wheels. She loves playing in the water - pool, beach, sprinklers, bath tub, you name it. She likes to play by herself, but does well playing with others too.
Evelyn is wearing 4T and 5T clothes. 5T is a little big on her but it works. Her hair gets super blonde over the summer from being in the sun. It still has a little curl to it but there is no rhyme or reason in the curl, it's just random. I noticed a few months ago that her eyes are actually two different colors. You have to look closely at them (but don't say anything to her about it!), but one is a little more green/brown and the other is blue.
Evelyn's favorite place to eat is Chick-Fil-A. She wants to eat there pretty much every day. She loves putting Chick-Fil-A sauce on everything. She still loves yogurt and cheese. She isn't much of a vegetable eater but does a good job of eating fruit, even without me suggesting it.
Evelyn did a great job in preschool this past year! I am so impressed with all she has learned and how quickly she is growing. She had a great experience at St. Luke's and loves her teachers there. She enjoyed going to school and wished she went more than just the two days a week. I was worried how she would do, and the first couple days were hard for her to say goodbye, but she got over that pretty quick once she got to know her teachers and classmates. She still struggles in primary a little, I'm not entirely sure why though.

We catch her watching TV in the weirdest spots sometimes.

She got a gnarly bruise from falling down the bunk bed stairs.

She loves her Grandpa something fierce.

Swimming lessons.

Lagoon!

Just throwing a fit at the aquarium. One of those, "Whose kid is that?" moments.

Colorado.

The dream catchers the girls made at Grandma's house.

My matching swim babies.

First day of preschool.

We went boating (in September, Texas isn't all bad) with a couple in our ward and they brough these wheat things and Evelyn just sat and ate them just about the whole evening.

Playing doctor with Dad.

Superhero day at school!

Primary program.

She didn't want to sing in her Christmas program so she ended up sitting with me the whole time. Poor girl gets stage fright.

Cousin sleepover at Grandma Becky's.

Sometimes Eve likes to crawl into Paige's crib, with and without her in it.

Found them sleeping out by the fire.

Eve barfed in the car. Hopefully it was the first and last time.

She looks like an angel when she sleeps.

Sojourn to San Antonio: March 2022

My wonderful parents came to Lubbock over the girls' spring break so that we could go down to San Antonio for a few days. Dan had school, surprise, so he didn't come with. They are truly the best to have driven so much in the past week! I am grateful every time they take the time and effort to come see us.

They got here on Friday, March 11th, in the evening. Saturday was my Mom's birthday so we celebrated by going to Whataburger for dinner (I think Hayley had some influence on Grandma's decision). On Sunday we left after breakfast to head down to San Antonio. The drive is six hours so it took us about seven between stopping for food and gas. I am grateful for how well my girls do in the car. It is like second nature to them now. They are the best road trippers! Once we made it to our hotel and took our stuff up to our rooms we got some dinner. After dinner I turned on a show for the little ladies and unpacked all our stuff. Then it was time for bed!
On Monday morning after we ate breakfast we walked to The Tower of the Americas, which was only a ten minute walk from our hotel. It was cool to be able to look out and see all of San Antonio. We tried finding a few different buildings and then made our way back down to watch a 4D movie. Paige did not last three minutes into it so we spent some time in the gift shop while the others watched it. We had some lunch after we were done there, the girls and I took a nap, and then it was off to The Alamo once we were awake. This was a longer walk, about twenty minutes, and even though the girlies had a nap they definitely complained more than they did this morning ha. It probably didn't help that The Alamo is not something they really care to see or know what it is. They enjoyed looking at the fish more ha. Once we made it back to the hotel it was time for dinner. We went to Taco Palenque. My parents were kind enough to go there so I could relive my missionary days. I'm happy to report that, after ten years, it was as good as I remember it being. The girls had pretty much been begging to go swimming since we got to the hotel so we finally did that after we got back from dinner. The water was cold so it took some getting used to but it did not phase them. They are my little fishies. It was bath and bed time after that and we all slept really well.

Tower of the Americas

Tuesday morning was the same story, breakfast at the hotel, and then once we were ready we headed to Sea World! This was definitely what I was most excited for and that the girls seemed to enjoy best. We started off by watching the Orca show, rode a few rides, then watched the Ocean Discovery show (dolphins and beluga whales), and finished with Sea Lion High (another show). While we were watching the whale show Evelyn turned to me and said, "Mom can I get a pet whale?" Ha she loved it and has not stopped talking about them. She also wanted to sit in the splash zone but it was not a hot enough day for that. My sweet Dad held Paiger while she took a nap while we did a couple rides and looked at alligators. We survived all day on popcorn and drink refills so afterwards we hit up Chick-Fil-A and then went back to the hotel to do more swimming. We all fell asleep pretty quick again since it was another busy day with lots of walking.

Wednesday morning after breakfast we went to the Japanese Tea Gardens that are apparently right by the zoo. It was quite the walk to get there and definitely underwhelming. The photos on the website made it look way prettier, but maybe that had to do with the time of year? We saw quite a few squirrels on our walk to and from the gardens and Hayley and Evelyn would run after them screaming any time they saw one. Crazy girls. We picked up some lunch from HEB, they have some good pre made sandwiches ha, ate it back at the hotel, and had nap time. After nap time we went on a boat ride on the river walk. The girls were not very amused by anything besides the ducks and it was hard to keep them quiet so we could all hear the river guide, but it was neat to learn about all the things that are a long the river walk. I would definitely go there often if I lived in San Antonio. On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at a little ice cream shop. The girls and my parents had cones and I got a Mangonada. I hadn't had one of those in ten years either and it was delicious! If you ever have the chance to try one, do it. We had dinner back at the hotel and were planning on doing one more night of swimming (despite my not really wanting to), but the pool was closed for maintenance. So my parents brought along some play-doh and the girls played with it for a while before bed time. Paige was my bed buddy this night and she woke me up just about every hour. It was a rought night but at least it was the last night.

My Mangonada.

After breakfast on Thursday we packed up all our stuff and hit the road. We stopped at Bucee's in New Braunfels because it was only half an hour out of San Antonio and my parents needed to experience it. That made our drive back closer to seven hours so we made it home in about eight. I was sneezing the whole way home and caught a little cold from somewhere. My dad did too. But it was worth it! We had a blast and I'm grateful we made the trip happen!