While we were in Wisconsin, we enjoyed a nice visit with everyone.  Eva got to spend time with lots of her second cousins. Maxwell and Lorelei (my cousin, Ashley's kids) were the first to greet her as soon as we got off the plane.  We slept at their house the first night where they played with toys, took over the living room, ate dinner, then they took a bath together...

This picture was so meaningful to get because I have one from when we were children doing the same thing!

(From left to right: Derek, Andrea, Ashley, me)

Eva got lots of attentions from all the family, but of course I didn't have my camera out the whole time because I was having too much fun with my family, too.  I did manage, however, to get one picture of Eva all bundled up with her fleece winter jacket and boots because she endured her first snow fall!

She was really fascinated with the huge snowflakes falling out of the sky.

When all the visiting was done and the snowfall was over it was time to head back home.  Traveling is never much fun, but with Eva it is so much more of a challenge.  Lucky for us, we had an empty seat on the plane both to and from Wisconsin, which gave us a whole row to ourselves.  That definitely helped keep Eva entertained and happy.  I managed to get a pic of her reading one of her books and super fascinated :)

Now we are all home safe and sound and getting ready to host our first Thanksgiving dinner at the house. And, just one day later...Eva will be 1 year old!!!

Just two nights before we left for my grandpa's funeral, we were encountered with another terrifying obstacle.  Rocky was attacked my a coyote right at our back steps.  I knew the second I heard him crying and was lucky enough to yell and run and scare the coyote before he could do any more damage to my little boy.  Luckily, the coyote dropped him.  After checking Rocky over and finding puncture wounds, we took him to the ER where he had surgery to get all of his wounds stitched.  Luckily, there were no punctured organs or broken bones, so Rocky will heal very quickly.

It was a very traumatic experience for the whole family, but Rocky has proved to be a tough little guy.  We are incredibly grateful that his life was saved that day, especially knowing all the other possibilites.    Lucky for him, his stitches will be removed on Monday and he should feel as good as new.  Thank you so much to everyone who supported us and sent Rocky special thoughts for a full recovery. 

On 11/11/11 my grandpa John left this world, to rise and be in heaven with my Grandma.  It was a day we knew we would be faced with soon, but nobody or no thing can prepare you for the emptiness in your heart when that day comes.  My grandpa is the strongest man I have ever known and he will always remain to be just that.  My grandpa has many remarkable things about him and has left quite the legacy.  I can only say I am so proud to have been his granddaughter and to have had him in my life for so long.  The picture below is of the very last memory I have with my grandpa....

My Grandpa's laugh is one I don't think anyone who knew him will ever forget (Grandpa is to the right, Uncle Jack holding Eva).  I am so glad Eva had the chance to share in laughter with him before it was his time to leave.  :)

Dana, Eva, and myself made it home for Grandpa's funeral last Friday.  It was a wonderful service, leaving us all at peace with our loss.  Later on that evening, a group of us gathered at my Grandpa's infamous fishing hole to release some of his ashes.  We all took a shot of Brandy in Grandpa's honor and took a moment to celebrate his life.  As the ashes were released, we all looked in the sky to see two eagles fly over our heads...It was Grandpa and Grandma letting us know they were finally back together.  Peace and happiness filled all of our hearts at that moment.

I love you, Grandpa!!!

Eva and I have had a busy, but very fun week.  On Tuesday, we met up with Melinda and Aiden to take a walk through the Zoo.  It had been a while since we got together, so we were excited to catch up and see how much our little babies have grown.  It was so much fun to see Aiden and Eva together.  They loved watching each other, smiling and giggling along side each other as we pushed their stroller.  They are also old enough now that they were becoming quite fascinated with the animals.  Here we are with the giraffes...

On Thursday and Friday, we met up with Heather, Rowan, Kierce, and Merrick for some fun in the sand.  Eva hasn't seen sand in a while, so Rowan showed her all the fun things she could do with it.  They climbed a big sand hill...

And when they reached the top, they threw sand all over.  Eva LOVED it.

Heather also snapped a pic of Eva taking a ride on Rowan's skateboard while eating popcorn (my little multi-tasker)...

After the beach, we took Rowan for the night so she could redeem her birthday sleep over.  We made dinner together, entertained Eva, then tucked in for an early night.  We went to the park the next morning where Rowan helped Eva climb to the top and go down the twisty slide together...

But, that just wasn't enough of a challenge for Miss Eva.  We also taught her how to climb the steps to the mini-playset, turn her butt around, and then go down the slide by herself.  It only took about 3 attempts before she was doing it all herself.  I managed to get it on video, but no pictures of it :(  You just have to believe that my smart little girl figured it all out herself.  Rowan and I were very proud.

But, that just wasn't enough for Eva.  She surprised us with a few more firsts over the weekend.  On Sunday, she started calling Daddy just that, "Daddy".  She knows exactly who he is and as soon as she gets a look of him, she immediately, happily and proudly, says "Daddy!"  She has made the noises before, but now it is so obvious that she says it only to Dana.  It is so cute.  You can see how much she just loves him and loves to call for him :)

And, just hours after that, as Daddy was in the shower, Eva and I were playing in the living room.  As she was standing next to the couch, I called for her and rather than crawling to me, she decided it was time to just walk on over.  She took about 10 steps.  I couldn't believe it and thought maybe it was a fluke, but she, too, was excited about the new moves and got up and kept doing it over and over and over.  Our little girl is going to be taking over our house really soon.  Yikes!

Last week, Eva and I spent the entire week alone.  Daddy was out of town for business, so Eva, Rocky and I entertained each other until he got back.  We managed really well, staying very mellow.  In fact, I didn't use my car even once the entire week.  We had fun at our house, going for walks, and spending time at the local park.  Lately, Eva has been pretty easy to entertain and has really developed her own goofy personality.  She seems to have caught on to the idea of a camera capturing moments, for now when she notices me taking a picture, she starts making really goofy faces...

She has also conquered climbing down stairs.  She loves turning around and going down the stairs so much so that even if she notices a slight decline in the ground, she turns her butt around and starts reaching with her foot to look for the step.  Its pretty funny to watch, yet makes me so proud to see that she recognizes how to safely go down.  With the stair climbing also comes the shelf climbing.  She is constantly looking for something to climb into like a bookshelf, kitchen cabinet, and this table...

Eva is constantly testing her limits and feeling very proud when she believes she got away with something.  Her favorite is to put something from the floor into her mouth.  If I don't notice it, she will come over to me, give me this mouth-closed grin and wait for me to say something.  As soon as I say "What's in your mouth?" She turns around and crawls as fast as she can away from me.  She laughs the whole time, trying her best to not let me get whatever it is that she has.  Whenever it is that I "catch" her doing something wrong, I always get the same mischievious face...here I caught her pulling all the books off her shelf

There is no doubt that this little girl keeps me on my toes, but I have to say it's alot of fun to watch her become so smart and quick.  I know someday this will become my biggest challenge, but in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy every moment.

Being that Eva isn't walking or allowed to eat candy, we decided to keep Halloween simple.  What was she?

A Flower...

We didn't dress up her up on day of, but instead celebrated last weekend at our neighborhood Boo Parade and Carnival.  Heather, Ryan, and the kids joined us in the celebration...

On Thursday, Dana and I had a pizza/pumpkin carving party in our kitchen.  Eva helped--by eating the pumpkin

And here's Dana with his infamous pumpkin carving face...

Our Pumpkins after they were carved (unfortunately, Rocky's didn't get lit for I only had 3 candles...but it was shaped in a dog bone, compliments of Dad)

Last night, our friend Liz joined us in passing out candy.  Eva and I wore festive pink spider shirts and greeted everyone with a "Happy Halloween!"

Eva in her "1st Halloween" Bib being goofy...

Lastly, Eva helping herself to the candy bowl...Hubba Hubba Bubble Gum

Eva has turned eleven months and has accomplished so much this month.  She is weighing in at 20 lbs and measuring 29 1/2".  She is getting more and more smart as the days go by and we are sure to embrace each new milestone. 

*She has started to point.  This is a great milestone, for now I am teaching her how to "point to baby's nose, eyes, etc." with one of her dolls.

*She is really starting to enjoy music.  As soon as she hears any music, she will start to 'fist pump' her arm in the air.  And, if she's standing, she will start shaking her booty.

*She is attempting her first steps.  One day while my mom was here, she took 3 steps from me to her before grabbing on.  I notice whenever she gets tired she will take a step here and there.  I think she still has some work on her balance before she'll really be walking, but she is excited for that day to come.

*Lastly, Eva has been helping herself to more and more finger foods. She still only has her 4 teeth (and I don't see any new ones on their way yet), but she puts them to good use.  As I was holding her as she sat on the kitchen counter the other day, she turned right around and grabbed an apple from the fruit basket.  I was curious too see what she would do with it and was really impressed when I found this on the ground a little while later...

I can hardly believe it, but I am now starting to think about her 1 year birthday party.  Oh my gosh, the time is just coming way too quickly.  Our little baby girl is almost a toddler!

If you remember a little while ago it was Kierce's Birthday, so Eva and I presented a "Birthday Coupon" for her to redeem.  The coupon was good for a one night sleep over at our house and a shopping trip to pick a gift of her choosing.  She redeemed her coupon this last Saturday.

She had a few choices where she could go to buy her gift, which she thought about long and hard.  In the end, she chose...

We all had fun together looking at all the toys and options.  Uncle Dana was pushing Eva on a bike, while I pushed Kierce in a car, Uncle Dana would take off with the cart, Kierce and I would chase him yelling "Uncle Dana, where are you?".  And, In the end, we found the perfect gift and checked out in one big, happy group.  Kierce chose a Phineas and Ferb game as well as a Magic Eightball.  Of course, she couldn't wait to dig in and try out the new things when we got home, so Uncle Dana played the game with her (while I cleaned and gave Eva a bath).  I knew they were having fun when I saw Uncle Dana spinning around in a circles while his head had to stay on the wall--10 times!

The next morning, we made "surprise" pancakes, which were loaded with more sugar than any of our bellies could handle.  Kierce helped Uncle Dana water his flowers, she played with Eva and her new toys (Thanks, Gwee)

We painted our nails and did Kierce's hair (hairstyle: KB Do)...

We all had a great time with Kierce over and hope she did, too!

Over the last week my mom and brother took to spend time with us, but mainly to see Eva.  It has been almost 6 months since we've all been together, so it was about time to get some quality time again.  They only had 4 full days here, so we had to cram as much time as possible.  On Tuesday, while Dana was hard at work, the rest of us put on our Web Design Solutions Tshirts and paid Dana a visit to have lunch together...

On Wednesday, I took full advantage of having Granny to babysit, for Derek and I spent the day together at the beach, then Dana and I ended the night with a date downtown.  I had so much fun doing both, bonding with my bro and my husband, while Granny and Eva bonded at home.  It was so nice :)

On Thursday, Dana took the day off to spend with all of us, so we spent the day at the zoo.  I think we all agree that it was the best trip to the zoo that any of us has been on and for many different reasons.  First, the weather was perfect, it was cool with the sun just slightly peaking, which meant all the animals were out to play.  Second, summer is gone and it was a week day so there weren't many other people there (you could get up close to animal).  And third, Eva LOVED seeing all the animals, and even got to pet a few herself...

She enjoyed standing next to the glass and getting a really good look at everything...

All in all, it was the perfect day for all of us.

When we weren't out and about, we spent alot of time at home entertaining Eva (or letting Eva entertain us).  Uncle Derek and Granny spent every waking minute that they could keeping that little girl happy.  She absolutely loved the added attention.

Before we had to say our good-byes, Dana arranged a Happy Hour with the Web Design Solutions team and extended the invitations to friends and family.  We all got together for some appetizers and a few drinks.  It was the perfect end to the work week for the team and nice to have all the spouses meet one another...here is some of the group:

And one of my brother and I:

Early Saturday morning it was time for Granny and Uncle Derek to leave.  When we woke up, they were gone and the house was empty.  It was hard to feel their absence, but I will just cherish the wonderful time we all had together and look forward to next time. 

I needed to escape for a couple hours yesterday to finish up Eva's Halloween costume, which required Daddy to have full custody.  This happened to be around dinner time, so it was also Dana's duty to make dinner.  As I was sewing away in my room, I could hear a little fussing from baby girl.  I called Dana on the phone and said, "Not telling you how to do your job, but just in case you weren't sure, Eva's probably fussy because you need to feed her." His response to that was, "You mean I have to make dinner, manage my fantasy football, watch the football game, AND FEED EVA?" Hahaha.  Yes!! That is what I'm saying :)  This is Daddy's way of multitasking...

The face that Eva gave me was to die for!  She had the biggest smile on her face and you could just tell she was thinking, "I love hanging out with Daddy, he lets me do things you would NEVER let me do!!"  Boy. Oh. Boy.  And it begins...

Earlier that morning I already redeemed my cool factor by finding a super awesome deal on Craigslist.  We got a new kitchen and train set and a ton of accessories to go with it for Eva.  She was so excited and overwhelmed with all the stuff she just couldn't figure out how to hold it all and get it all in her mouth at the same time...

...very excited about this (despite the fact that we are running out of room in our house.

But before that even took place, Dana was busy outside planting trees (I know what you're thinking...how many trees does he have? And, where does he have room?), Well I advise you to do what I do.  Stop asking questions, and don't try to figure it out.  haha.  Anyway, he had a hole dug and just couldn't figure out what tree he would plant there.  We decided together to plant Eva instead...

She absolutely LOVES being outside with Daddy.  It's always been where she's the happiest...and who could blame her?  So much dirt to taste test and tree leaves to pull on, and best yet, quality time with her big muscle man...

And here's a cute picture to share as the perfect ending to this post.

We gotta get going, gearing up for Granny and Uncle Derek's arrival!!