Another Great Grandma's passing...

Evelyn has lost another Great Grandparent. My grandmother, Thelma, on my father's side passed away January 7th. Even at one month shy of 83 years of age, her death was a shock to us. She was not sick and she had recently spent an entire week with us in May and in November. She lived in PA and they say she diedly peacefully.

While my grandmother was here for her week long visits to see us, she rode my father's horse and I fit her with new hearing aids that used a remote control. She loved them. Also while she was here, she was able to help babysit Evelyn every day. She enjoyed watching the same videos Evelyn wanted to watch, like Disney's Aladdin and Peter Pan.

This past weekend in PA was very sad and at times surreal. Her death hit me pretty heard, but really not until I saw her. Probably because part of me did not want to believe it. I had to be forced to see the truth, even whispering to her to come back to me, yet when she didn't answer... the truth stung. We were supposed to take Evelyn with us, but 1 hour before we were hitting the road for the 6 hour drive, we decided to leave her here with her Aunt Lois and her two cousins. The weather in the area where we were traveling was calling for record snow in a short amount of time. The trip there was not as pleasant as we were hoping, yet wasn't as bad as we feared. Friday night and all day Saturday it snowed and snowed. Sunday the snow wasn't falling anymore and the roads were fairly clear. Our drive back on Sunday was better than Friday's drive.

I'll share a few fun memories of my grandmother and some pictures.

My grandmother had a funny bone, always having a zinger to shoot back at you. Sometimes being the one to start the joking. I love the memories of visiting her as a child. She would give all of us kids anything we wanted. Her homemade Strawberry Jam was, and still is, the best I have ever tasted. My goal is to begin making it and stop buying that store brand junk!

The one thing I regret is not asking her to write out more recipes for the cookbook she created for us as a wedding gift over 6 years ago. I have cried over the fact that I had 6 years to ask her and I never did. If only I had asked. I miss you, Grandma and Evelyn will miss her Great Grandma.

Christmas Blast!

Blast! Seems to be the best word to describe Evelyn's Christmas. She really enjoyed herself. She had a Blast!

It was great to see the excitement in her eyes and hear it in her voice, whenever we spoke of the Christmas parties to come. She had a party at pre-school. Then as usual, we had the Wright family Christmas on Christmas Eve. We had just our little family gift giving on Christmas morning and then in the afternoon we had the rest of the family gift giving.

While placing Evelyn to bed on Christmas Eve, she asked me how Santa was going to get into the house since our fireplace has a glass front. So cute! I told her he would find a way. In the morning, Evelyn came into our room and asked if Santa had put presents under the tree. She then went flying down the hallway to the tree and exclaimed, "Oh, yes! Santa left presents under the tree." Then proceeded to immediately ask to open them. We had the video camera ready!

Here are some pictures from her events.

Evelyn in the Christmas Spirit

Evelyn has been very busy helping the family prepare for the Christmas Holiday.

Evelyn went with her Grandpa (Pa Pa) and me to cut down a Christmas tree this past weekend. We spent awhile browsing through the beautiful trees, trying to find the perfect tree. After bringing the tree home, Evelyn started off the decorating by stringing ropes of beads on the tree. Evelyn really enjoyed placing other decorations on the tree and actually did a very good job of placing the bulbs in different areas on the tree, but mostly near the bottom branches.

After the tree was complete, Evelyn was subjected to a photo shoot, trying to get the perfect shot for our Christmas card. Evelyn also posed for a few shots with Grandma and Grandpa.

Here are some pictures, displaying Evelyn in the Christmas Spirit!

Evelyn re-cap

House building, movie going, the holidays, work, dance class, pre-school, etc...are keeping Evelyn busy!

The other night I was putting Evelyn to bed and she wasn't falling asleep to my story like she normally does. So part way through a second story, when she moved around in the bed, I looked at her and said "Seriously? You are not asleep yet?" So after the second story was over I informed Evelyn that I had things to do before I went to bed so I was going to leave her to fall asleep on her own. Before departing her room, I stated "I am going to wash my face and brush my teeth and then I will be back to check on you." Well, after I got sucked into watching "Desperate Housewives" for about 10 -15 minutes, I went back to Evelyn's room to check on her. No surprise that Evelyn was still awake! When I told her that I still had to brush my teeth, she replied with, "Seriously?". This made me laugh inside, but outwardly I said "What did you say?", so she repeated "Seriously? You were gone for a long time and you didn't brush your teeth?" I had to chuckle, told her I was sorry and that I would brush them and be right back. I did just that, returned to her room and kissed her goodnight. She soon fell asleep. I guess I cannot tell her that I will be back to check on her, because that keeps her up waiting for me to return!

Over the last couple of weeks Evelyn has made countless cute crafts at pre-school and recently started telling me what she is learning at dance class is a secret. I hope this is because they want to surprise us with their talent at the Spring Recital, not for any other terrible reason!

Evelyn has been out to the house building site many times with us, even once asking to go see the house since we hadn't been there in a few days. She understands that building a house takes time and she is able to see it all coming together. We have more pictures to post today.

Evelyn made home-made butter in her pre-school class and made a Native American vest out of a brown paper sack.

Evelyn understands that Thanksgiving, getting a Christmas tree, getting more snow, etc...has to happen before Christmas is really here, but that doesn't stop her form constantly saying..."I want that" to every commercial she sees on television!

Evelyn and I went outside yesterday and built two snowpeople. Yes, I said snowpeople because we actually built a boy and girl. Evident in the pictures I will post today.

Evelyn got really silly with her cousins Alexis and Courtney the other week, once again, you will see in some goofy pictures within this post. Not sure what to explain about the pictures...they were just running around with scarves and old fashioned hand-fans.

Now for some pictures!

Movie Go-ers

Evelyn and I have been busy with movie theaters lately!

Andy was out deer hunting the other weekend and this weekend he has been roofing our house with a friend, so Evelyn and I have been passing time by seeing new children's flicks.

Last weekend we went to see "Madagascar 2", with 4 of Evelyn's friends. The movie was very cute, with lots of laughs.

This weekend we went to see the Walt Disney movie, "Bolt", with 2 of Evelyn's cousins. The movie was very cute, with lots of laughs, and a touching story.

Until next time or when a new children's movie comes out!

Evelyn: The Halloween Dragon!

This is actually only the second Halloween that Evelyn has participated in...by trick-or-treating. It is not the first time she dressed up though. This year she went as a Dragon.

Evelyn was around 8 months old for her first Halloween. We dressed her as Piglet and she helped us pass out candy from our front porch. On her second Halloween night she started a swim class. We dressed her as a Giraffe, yet figured she didn't know any difference between trick-or-treating or not...so we didn't take her to any houses. For her third Halloween - we did take her trick-or-treating. We dressed her as a Lady Bug and we went out with our nieces, so they could "show Evelyn how it's done"! This year we repeated the trick-or-treating in my nieces' neighborhood and dressed Evelyn as The Halloween Dragon.

School Picture!

Evelyn Wright

Preschool Picture 2008-09

3 1/2 years old