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portrait a week 39/52

the oh so grown up almost 18 month old on her way out the door for church.

i am amazed by ever recently for the following reasons:

-early this morning she repeatedly gave me the best hugs.

-she was counting while we ran errands.  it was so cute to hear from the backseat "un, two, free" with the occasional extra enthusiastic five thrown in there. 

-she has been really good about going to sleep at night or for naps without much fuss.  i can set her in her crib while wide awake as long as she has her stuffed turtle and puppy and she will fall asleep like a champ.

-yaya gave us some home grown tomatoes and as soon as they were in our possession ever began gobbling them up as if they were candy but the best part was how she said tomato.  it sounds like "tatledos"....so cute!  

the gum chewing moment

 for a few months now ever has expressed an obsession with gum.  if i'm chewing gum she opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out expecting me to do the same and show her what is in my mouth then hopefully share it.  she has tried grabbing it out of my mouth.  she has kissed me and attempted to steal it that way.  one day i left a pack of gum where she could reach it and i found her chewing a piece that i quickly took away for fear that i'd find it in her hair next or plastered on the furniture.  she now calls it gum and can spot a pack of it a mile away.

last week as we said hi to my mom while running errands ever noticed the pack of gum in the center console of the vehicle.  she finally reached it and looked at both of us with this look like....i know i shouldn't have this and i'm shocked that you aren't taking it away.  slowly a story evolves and i caught some of the story in pictures.  first she cautiously opens the pack of gum and pulls out a piece.  next she smells it and says "mmmmm taste".  then she slowly opens the wrapper and scratches the pieces of gum then rubs her finger on her cheek (this is also what she does with all of my makeup i let her play with).  then she licks the piece of gum.  finally she takes the smallest nibble of it, all the while my mom and i are watching and smiling as ever keeps looking at us for approval slightly shocked that we aren't stopping her.  that tiny nibble turned into a slightly larger bite and eventually the whole piece.  and here is the rest of the moment in pictures.....

my expressive little gum chewer.  i wanted to gobble her up in that moment because she was exploring in a smart, naughty, slightly cautious way that was incredibly adorable to witness.

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portrait a week 38/52

she is happy that the halloween decorations are starting to be set up.

i have a feeling that this owl is going to be carried all over the house until it is put away after halloween is over.  ever has already carried it all over the living room and kissed it. 

p.s. prints of my most recent painting, pictured in the background, are still available here.

it would be a super cute addition to your halloween decor.

now let me tell you a funny little story:

yesterday ever and i were near yaya's work so we had her come down to the car to say hi to us.  i took ever out of her seat so she could play and sit on yaya's lap while we were parked.  eventually i told her we needed to go home and that i was going to have to buckle her back in.  she gave me the meanest glare.  i mean if looks could kill i would have died.  she squinted and looked at me as if laser beams were going to shoot from her eyes because i suggested she needed to buckle up in her car seat.  i cracked up.  i'm glad my mom witnessed it too because i don't know if she could have believed such a look could come from the girl she thinks does no wrong.  we laughed and when i told the story to will later i laughed again.    

ever's first trip to the fair

here you have our trip to the fair last week:

i caught her doing this face several times while we were walking around.  it is her thing....her concentration face or taking it all in face.  i've seen her do it other times too and i'm pretty in love with it.  

basically ever wanted to kiss all the animals, especially the pigs.  she comes by the pig love naturally...after all i was a pig farmer in 4-H for five years.

the picture quality is not the best for any of these because of the weird lighting with or without flash but phones were all we brought to capture the moment so....

see how amazed she is by the horse.  i guess she comes by that naturally too since i had my very own horse two different times in my life and our family (my dad and everyone on that side) is very horse oriented.

when the horse started eating she laughed like i've never heard her laugh.  her whole body became limp because she was laughing so hard.  you know the kind of laugh where you feel like you'll lose all control.  it was the cutest thing and we all laughed uncontrollably at her reaction to a horse chomping on hay.  

ever basically had zero fear of the animals except she wasn't so sure about the turkeys or chickens.  

she liked the bunnies but not nearly as much as the pigs or horses.  

i have never been a fan of the rides at the fair....disneyland on the other hand...i'll ride them all but the fair rides just seem dirty and scary so even when i was a kid this area wasn't my favorite.  i assumed ever would care less about it too but i was wrong.  as soon as she saw the bright lights she was drawn like a moth to a flame and when she heard the loud music she brought out her best dance moves.  

i kept trying to get a good picture but it was almost impossible to get her to stay still.  she wanted to explore and dance.  she was content with just looking at everything....no riding of rides for her.

during her solo dance performance that impressed onlookers.  

amazed.  

notice the backpack leash thing.  yeah i never knew if i would use one of those but since i do have a wild fast moving explorer i figured it was time to give it a try.  she doesn't care to be in a stroller these days so i thought this might be a nice was of containing her a little.  she loves her backpack and very often asks to wear it around the house even when there isn't a need for it.  i like that it keeps her safer in big crowds.

it is incredibly fun to see the world through her eyes and feel the pure joy she has in every experience.

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portrait a week 37/52

ever climbing and discovering with my supervision.  

this picture is totally her in a nutshell...both extremes all the time.

passionate about everything.

she loves to get dressed up and enjoy all things pretty or cute but at the same time she craves all sorts of adventure, as is evident in her scraped up elbows and knees.  when she gets hurt sometimes she cries a little and other times she doesn't, even when i expect her to.  you can guarantee the next second after a tumble or set back she's back to running and playing like nothing happened.

i love her tough yet sensitive nature.

delicate and daring.  

my wild beauty.

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portrait a week...36/52

ever dancing at the county fair.  

when she saw the bright lights and heard the loud music she just couldn't help herself.  strangers couldn't help but watch and say how cute she is and i couldn't stop laughing.  i am fairly certain ever enjoys the spotlight.  

more on our trip to the fair to come.

it is always halloween

if you go to my society6 shop you can buy this painting of mine as a print.  

i've been working on this off and on over the last few weeks and i finally finished it today just in time to add it to my collection of halloween decorations.  

i mean who doesn't want cute pumpkins, ghosts, a haunted house, a bat, and candy corn flowers as part of their decor?  

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portrait a week 35/52

several things to say about this picture and recent days....

1. ever is putting on her makeup....or "kup" if you ask her.  yesterday she was begging me to put on my makeup so she could play with all my stuff.  i let her play with it even if it means some of my stuff gets thrashed because she loves it so much.

2.  in the photo she is actually using a reusable marker you fill with water and the thing she is sitting on is what you draw on with the water markers.  one of her favorite toys and i enjoy it as well.

3. right before i took the picture i walked up to her putting makeup (water marker) on her pony.  i couldn't get over how much she was concentrating....it was a serious thing for her.  p.s. that my little pony is one i played with as a child....she inherited a bunch of mine and it is crazy how different the my little ponies look today compared to the way the looked in the 80's

4. ever is sitting on the couch and she got up there on her own.  the couch climbing has been going on for a few weeks and i don't like it.  the first few times she climbed up there i was shocked and startled so i reacted a bit too excitedly and now ever things it is a fun game to shock me.  she climbs up there and starts giggling and saying mama to get my attention because she wants me to react.  recently i've tried to ignore her couch climbing because it seems the moment i look at her or try to remove her she gets so excited which involves jumping, squealing, and flopping.  i am so terrified she will fall off the couch and land on the tile floor.  it hasn't happened yet and i hope it never does.  the back of this couch is much lower than our previous one so i am also concerned in one of her hopping moments she will hop right over the back of it.  i do what i can to keep her off there but she finds a way even when i try to trick her with a barricade or something.  

5.  you can't really tell but ever is sporting her first real little pony tail.  by the time i took the picture most of her hair had fallen out because we had been wrestling around but it was adorable to see her looking so grown up with all her hair up.  i think in another month or so her hair will stay up much better as it continues to grow at a rapid rate.  

6. not pictured but the movie UP was on.  ever smiles at certain parts and repeats certain parts.  the short film before it, partly cloudy, is one of her absolute favorites as well.  she cracks up at the part in "cloudy" where the storm cloud creates the alligator and the alligator bites the cloud so he shakes his finger and says uh uh uh.  very often she runs around saying uh uh uh now.