Summer Magic

I think I'm one of five people who has actually seen the movie Summer Magic. I would say it is a Disney Classic, except for most people ... its probably not.

I'm a HUGE Hayley Mills fan. In fact, besides Pollyanna, I think Summer Magic is her best film. And of course there's Parent Trap, but if you haven't Summer Magic - you won't be disappointed.

Anyway, the movie also holds a fond place in my heart because I used to watch it with my Grandma Phyl when I would visit Utah. Grandpa Smart would usually go to bed and Grandma would pop in the show and we'd binge eat copious amounts of processed food while singing 'Ugly Bug Ball.'

(I could go on a Burl Ives love rant right now, but I'll spare you)

Moving on.

Our trip to CA in August was just magical. Visiting Disneyland with my 2-year old was seriously the highlight of my life up to this point (what this says about my life, I'm not sure). 

I was so worried how Ev would do all day at Disneyland (stimulation overload!), plus I was nervous for my almost 8-month pregnant self.

But everybody had a purely magical time.

Seriously I cannot say magical enough times in regards to this trip.

Aunt Chels and Ev bonded big time. 

(Ev asks to get on an airplane to CA constantly now).

As you can tell, Ev inherited her pre-Disneyland jitters from her mother. 

"I go see Minnie."

And here is where Aunt Jillian deserves a shout out as the best aunt EVER. Two weeks prior, Jillian had major jaw surgery and she felt terrible, but of course we had to make her come with us since she needed a wheelchair and we could get through lines faster. 

She did not complain once and suffered for an entire day so Ev could make the most of her one day at Disneyland. 

Jillian - I will not forget to remind Ev of this when she's trying to decide who her favorite aunt is.

Is your heart melting right now?

Because mine is.

Ev rode Dumbo twice. She also insisted on riding in the "pink" Dumbo, which is odd because he favorite color is ALWAYS blue. 

Nick is the only one willing to ride teacups with Ev. I blamed it on my pregnancy (which is true), but in reality I freaking hate the teacups. WORST RIDE EVER.

During the entire 11 minute It's a Small World ride, I think Ev blinked twice. 

Grandma J took Ev to the gift shop (like five times) and Evelyn picked out a stuffed Pascal, a minnie bracelet and an Aurora jewelry box.

Meeting Rapunzel (Ev calls her "Tangled") with her Pascal in tow was the highlight of the day for me. Ev was so excited and when we had to leave she kept saying, "Where Tangled go?"

The highlight of Nick's day were the guns in Frontier Land.

Classy.

I snapped this photo of Nick and Chelsea on Splash Mountain.

It worked nice for them to ride a couple big kid rides while Ev napped in the stroller. 

Normally Ev loves Eeyore, but for some reason she was terrified of him in real life.

Maybe its because he looks ... so sad?

Tigger was another story - she was so excited!

She also loved the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Hugging Tigger.

Safety first Pascal, buckle up!

The Lost Friends section is the coolest idea ever. I kept thinking how much Keith would have loved it. He had such a fondness for weird friends like Mr. Pricklepants, Nicodemus and Friar Tuck, plus he loved Robin Hood.

Here is Ev, giving Prince John a high five. 

She looks a little unsure of Friar Tuck here.

Dumbo round 2.

Hands down, Ev's favorite part of Disneyland was the parade. 

She LOVED it. She kept asking to touch all the characters.

Rapunzel's tower! Cue: Ev hyperventilating with excitement.

Her face when she saw Tinkerbell.

Of course, Tink didn't disappointed and gave Ev a shout out. 

Visiting Minnie's house.

Ev LOVES Minnie.

She was so happy to meet her. Plus at this point, she really started to understand the concept of meeting the characters. 

My favorite picture - kissing Minnie.

Best Aunt Ever Award.

Like I said, a magical, magical day.

Thank you, Grandma J!

Can't wait to go back!

Also if you're interested in a sneak preview of Summer Magic, here you go.

Meet the Kitties

When Nick blessed Evie as an infant, she was blessed with the unique ability to make others feel loved. 

This is an attribute that I see displayed in her almost daily, and have since she was very young (well, younger). She is constantly telling me, "I love you, mom," or "You cute, mom."

And she is already a very loyal friend, perhaps the most loyal toddler I know (I don't know that many toddlers, but whatevs). 

Evelyn LOVES her "friends."

She never forgets them, brings them everywhere, kisses them "all better" when they fall out of her stroller, eats meals with them and plays with them. She even lets them sit outside the tub and "wait" for her to finish bathing. She changes their diapers, feeds them play food and wipes them clean when they get dirty. She reads books to them, watches movies with them and brushes their fur/hair/face/copious other body parts. If I'm sleepy or I tell her I'm tired, she offers one of her friends to me so I can snuggle with it. 

Her "friends," (she calls them that) are an integral part of her social/familial life. They pray, read scriptures and brush teeth with us every night before bed.

There is nothing Evie wouldn't do for or with her friends.

No limits to how far her friendship and loyalty will go. 

Initially, when Nick and I realized that she instantly got attached to anything stuffed, soft or fluffy, we thought it was cute. Then the amount of stuffed animals in our home reached a level unsafe for most apartment fire codes. It would be bothersome to help her haul two or three "friends," plus Ket (her blanket AKA best friend) all around. She HAD to have Ket and her friends in the car wherever we went and when I would put them in my purse at the park, she would occasionally quit playing and come check my purse to make sure they were still there. She often couldn't carry all her friends plus her Ket and I was always helping out, plus helping her get up and down stairs and re-tying shoes, etc. It was exhausting just getting Ev and her "friends" to our destination. 

We're finally at the point now where we've come full circle. Evelyn is responsible enough to carry her own friends and she understands the concept of "too many," or "not enough room," and she knows she only gets Ket plus two to three friends depending on their size. If her hands are overly full, then only Ket and one friend get to come into the store or to the park. 

Her extremely silly (and often annoying) habit of taking friends everywhere has become second nature to me as a mom. Its just what I do. I get all my "kids," - Ev, Ket, Bear, Polar Bear and Pumpkin Kitty in their carseat and ready to go. I make sure the music is loud enough for all my "kids" to hear. And now a chore that I found completely irritating is more adorable to me. People chuckle as Ev sassily walks down the aisles in Target with her "friends," and I can't lie, so do I. 

I used to fret about how we were going to wean her from her "friends." I mean, she can't take them to kindergarten or snuggle with Ket on her wedding night, right? 

I know people think we are crazy for letting her have so many "friends."

They find it weird, a nuisance, or just plain dumb and I'll be honest, for a long time I did too.

But Ev's loyalty is rubbing off on me and if she forgets a "friend" for nap time, I find myself running upstairs to hand it to her before she falls asleep. 

And here's the deal - IT ISN'T ONE.

And I mean that. In the grand scheme of parenthood, whether or not my child has a bajillion stuffed "friends" doesn't matter. So I'm rollin' with it.

It makes her happy and I don't find it an inconvenience, so who cares? I mean, so much of being a parent is inconvenient, so why stress over something that really isn't? My concept of time and what matters has warped from the day Ev was born (in mostly good ways) and I feel like I'm constantly learning to "let things go." And I don't mean letting everything go - we don't live like savages or anything (at least most days), but sometimes you just have to relax. 

Like today, on the way home from playgroup when we stopped by McDonald's and Ev and I split a french fry and a vanilla cone and I couldn't help but chant, "I'm not like regular mom, I'm a cool mom," as we jammed to Bibbity Bobbity Boo and Bare Necessities.*

*And not to brag or anything, but I also showered, did my hair, shaved my legs, and did Ev's hair. AMAZING MOM AWARD RECIPIENT!

Anyway, we got home and I was on cool mom cloud nine until I realized that my kid didn't want any lunch since she already had greasy french fries and fatty ice cream. 

Nailed it!

I don't really know where I'm going with this - my stream of consciousness these days is often ... odd. Bottom line, my kid looks like this when we leave the house everyday (usually without my cell phone).

So in thirteen years when she's like, "MOM YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING I HATE YOU WHY AREN'T YOU MORE LIKE SALLY SLUTFACE'S MOM AND LET ME ACTUALLY DO STUFF WITH MY FRIENDS I WISH I HAD DIFFERENT PARENTS THAT WERE COOL LIKE ALL MY OTHER FRIENDS PLEASE JUST LET ME GO DO SOMETHING THAT I WILL PROBABLY REGRET IN FIVE YEARS BECAUSE ITS SO IMPORTANT AT THIS MOMENT I MIGHT DIE!"

I respond with this blog post and this statement:

"Ev, that is ridiculous. I let you do plenty of things. Remember when you slept with all ten of your Hello Kitties for five years of your life? I think that puts me right up there with Sally Slutface's mom."

And by that point I'll probably be sick of the AMAZING MOM AWARD certificates hanging in my bedroom since it will be old news because we all know, "I'm not like a cool mom, I'm a regular mom."

Anyway, to justify all my future mom awards, I thought I should lay face to all of my daughter's "friends."

Meet the Kitties (From L-R, back row first):

Cupcake Kitty, Pink Kitty, Bunny Kitty, Rainbow Kitty, Plaid Kitty, Blue Kitty, Pumpkin Kitty, Duck Kitty, Baby Kitty, Baby Kitty.*

*All kitties/"friends" are named by Ev.

When she realized I was taking pictures of her kitties she wanted all her "friends," in the picture.

Are you surprised?

Ev is sitting in the chair with Puppy.

Then we have:

 Baby Minnie, Minnie, Pink Kitty, Bunny Kitty, Rainbow Kitty, Plaid Kitty, Blue Kitty, Ram, Theodore, Baby, Green Bear, Bear, Ket (kind of hard to see), Pumpkin Kitty, Duck Kitty, Chick, Baby Kitty, Owl, Baby Kitty, Care Bear, Cupcake Kitty, Polar Bear, Frog, Turtle, Other Turtle, Naked Rat, Pascal and Rainbow.

Two weeks ago the favorites were Ket and Bear.

One week ago it was Theodore, Bear and Ket.

This week its Bear, Chick and Ket.

At least I force her to make her bed.

(She gets a dime each day for doing so)

See? Her "friends" eat with us EVERY morning.

If you need help weaning your child from their bottle, binky, blanket or thumb ...

I am clearly not the person to talk to.

But you could try looking for the perfect mom down the street, I heard she exists somewhere. 

My Precious

I took this video a two weeks ago when Ev and I were "unpacking" into our new apartment. I unpacked, she got to play with a lot of things that are normally off limits/make huge messes when I wasn't looking.

As of Late

Life in Snicksville has been a roller coaster as of late. It is so nice to be back in Eugene, settling in and getting back into our school routine. And I'm saying that despite it being 90 degrees IN OREGON (we don't have air conditioning). I love sitting down to dinner just the three of us and just living our everyday, boring, simple life. That said, its been a hard couple of weeks.
Sometimes life just plain sucks - I'm so eloquent, I know.
In fact, Nick and I have discussed how incredibly blown away we are by the amount of sucking life has done recently. And I do not have a way with words when it comes to life sucking. I'm a deflector - a sarcastic callus who ignores the bad and jokes while eating my feelings.
Three weeks ago, my dad's brother passed away. I was able to go to Utah for the funeral while Nick stayed home with Ev. It was a quick trip, but I'm so glad I was able to go. Not only to celebrate the life of a truly legendary man, but to see some of my extended family. Funerals are never an enjoyable experience, but I'm so grateful I got to spend time with family that I don't get to see often - the Smarts are amazing people. And I'm not just saying that because we share DNA.
Several days later was the anniversary of Keith's passing.
The next day, a dear family friend passed away after a long battle with breast cancer.
Then, a few days later, our dear friend Ryan Conley passed away in a car accident.
To say our hearts are aching is a huge understatement. Nick and I have felt devastated for those we love going through such horrible trials. Ryan's death has been so hard to bear. We are so sad for Tiffany and her girls and we both miss Ryan.
Since I'm less than a month from my due date, I wasn't able to attend the funeral, but Nick was able to make a quick trip to California to be there and again, I'm so glad he was able to go. I never know what to say in situations of extreme grief, but I know that when I don't know what to say, a prayer always helps. I can't even describe what I'm feeling these days. Incredible grief and sadness for my friends and family, gratitude for the light of the gospel and my sweet family, and confusion as I try to make sense of it all.
We all know that bad things happen, but that doesn't make it any easier when they do.
And I'm not just word vomiting all these terrible things to depress anyone who reads this blog, I just didn't know how to blog about the good things we've experienced lately without acknowledging the difficult as well. Because we have experienced good, even great things recently. Its never all bad, even when it seems that way.
Bottom line,
I'm so thankful that our family is forever.

And I know this picture is old, but I love it. It just felt appropriate to put it in here, especially when we only have a few more weeks to be just the three of us.