January

 We spent a little time after Christmas at the Cluffs, but no too much time, mostly because the main bathroom of the house looked like this:

 Under total remodel. The kitchen was set to begin shortly as well, so we didn't hang around too long. 

Ben slept on the couch downstairs while the girls crashed in bed with me. 

 Back in the apartment, Evelyn was learning that she could see Grandma on the computer and talk to her. 

 Carrying around a tool of some sort and wearing her potato head glasses. She had a glasses fetish at this point in time. 

 Wrapping some baby doll up in her high chair. 

 Both girls napping again, on me again. This looks like a Sunday, maybe on the last one where we attended 8 am church. I hope we never had 8 am church again. 9 am is bad enough.

 Uncle Dan sent Evelyn a little sitting sofa. She liked it, and  would sit and drink her milk in it or read books in it. 

 In Mommy's sunglasses. 

 I caught Evelyn  unbuttoning Jilly's sleeper one evening, I think she thought Jilly needed a diaper change. 

 Jilly was hitting that really cute stage I love, between 3 and 6 months. 

 I was working on a quilt, and Evelyn thought she'd be helpful. Or she was just going to start on her own project. 

I propped Jilly up for a picture, and took her binky out. This is like her binky face or something. She loved being wrapped up. 

We decided to bless Jilly over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, but Jilly had other plans. Evelyn brought home a wicked cold from nursery, and shared it with all of us. We were all coming through it okay, and then Jilly decided she simply wasn't going to eat anymore. No matter what I did, she refused to nurse for over 12 hours. I finally took her into the urgent care, not wanting her to get too dehydrated, and after the pediatrician watched me try and fail repeatedly to get her to nurse, she referred me to the pediatric unit in the hospital to see what they would say. She was dehydrated, and had a bit of a fever, so they decided to hook her up to an I.V. and watch her overnight. In the morning she still didn't want to nurse, so they called in a respiratory therapist to suction her nasal cavity out, to see if that was the trouble. It did the trick, once they got the really thick, deep boogers out, she could breathe to nurse again. All the family was down to see her get blessed, so they all came to the hospital instead to bless her there.

  Nate and Michelle 

 Evelyn was happy to see Jill. 

 Grandpa Cluff

 And Mommy. 

 The Cluffs will always find some way to goof off. 

 Grandpa and Grandma Gibbons stuck around for a few days until Jilly was out of the hospital. It was about 2.5 days, not long. 

 Grandma Cluff

I did a lot of dozing in this chair, and hand quilting. I was glad to have something to do to relieve the boredom. Jilly was sleeping and eating, and sleeping some more. It turned out she had a cold virus very  similar to RSV, one that sends many kids to urgent care and E.R.s each winter. It was one of the worst colds I've ever had. No wonder Jilly couldn't breathe. I will add that Evelyn was not sent to nursery for the remainder of the winter. We had gotten all the illness I wanted by this point. 

Christmas

 Jilly and cousin Jaren were born just a few weeks apart, and since Jaren's blessing was to occur over the holidays, the Gibbons clan came together for Christmas at Grandma Hill's house. Evelyn's hair was finally getting long enough (and she was no longer ripping it out), to keep a little pony-tail in.

 Evelyn loved having another little buddy to run around with. Though I don't know how much Kaden loved it.

 We were just getting Evelyn accustomed to snow, and she liked it until she got cold. Or I got cold.

 Aunt Heather was nice enough to take her out and play with her in the snow.

 We went to the Southeast corner of Idaho for Jaren's blessing. It was colder and snowier than Grandma Hills house, but we all had fun talking together and letting the kids run around. We stayed in Tyler's Grandma's old house, which was more than large enough for all of us. I will always remember the batch of mint-chocolate chip brownies I made and ate that ended up making Jilly wake up every hour during the night. She wasn't cranky about it, just awake. All I could think was that it had to be the caffeine in the chocolate.

 I was trying to help Evelyn figure out that you could keep reaching in and finding surprises in the stocking. She was happy picking one and running away.

 Daddy helped her open a present, and soon she was wanting to help everyone rip the paper off their gifts.

 Jilly getting really smiley for Grandma Gibbons. She had a clogged tear duct in her left eye until she was 3 or 4 months old, so that eye was a little gunky in several pictures we have.

Grandma made this car seat cover, which we used quite a bit in the cold and windy winter. I like how Jilly's face is peeping out. After we finished up Christmas here, we headed to western Idaho to visit the Cluffs.

First part of December

A picture Daddy took before he headed out to school one morning - I was tired! When Evelyn was a newborn, I would sleep in until 10 am or later sometimes. That luxury was now gone with Evelyn waking up around 7:30 most mornings. 

 So I could often be found on the couch napping, or trying to while Evelyn was napping or otherwise occupied. 

 Evelyn started carrying stuff around almost constantly at this age. A phone was a favorite item, and anything with a handle worked well too. 

 A cute face where you can see the brown of her eyes starting to develop. They'd been slate gray for so long, I thought they were going to stay that way. 

 Getting ready to brave the cold. 

 Ben got creative one night and built a fort so Evelyn would have somewhere to focus her energy. I can't remember what I would do all day to keep her entertained during the winter. She didn't have much stamina to be out in the snow and cold for too long. 

 She enjoyed it. 

 Talking to Grandma Cluff (I think). She liked to wear the headphones, just like Daddy. 

 Hanging out with Jillian. 

 One of Jilly's first smiles while awake, though I think it was still a spontaneous smile. We hadn't done anything to elicit the smile. 

 Helping Mommy again. Never-ending piles of dishes. 

 Evelyn's first experience with snow. She lasted about 15 minutes before getting cold and wanting to go in the house. It being night outside probably didn't help either. 

 A cute baby face, finally cleared of baby acne and oil. She was starting to interact just a bit by this time. 

Evelyn got this doll high chair as a gift from one of Ben's friends, and she was convinced it was for her to sit in. See the baby doll in the background? She wasn't about to let the doll sit in there. I think she eventually ended up breaking it. 

Other pics from November

 Evelyn had just woken up from a nap, and was watching her beloved Baby Einstein, "Old McDonald had a Farm." She loved it, and she'd watch it three times in a row before getting bored to come and find me. 

 "The Fridge Bandit." None of the other kids have been as interested as Evelyn was in the fridge and it's contents. She would pull the entire bottom shelf out. I think we only had one jar get broken at some point. 

 Toilet plungers are good toys. She just liked having something to drag around. 

 "Helping" me with the dishes. It was pretty much the only way I could get them done. 

 I can't get this picture to flip, but she was hamming it up for the camera. 

 Jilly at about 10 days old. 

 She would hang out in the baby seat for most the day, and Evelyn would mostly ignore her, except when she started making noise. 

 We went to St. George for Thanksgiving with Ben's family at his Grandpa Hafen's home, and took a new and updated family picture. We played games, toured St. George a bit, and had fun being together. All the women enjoyed taking turns holding a new baby. 

 Grandpa took these pictures for us as well. The weather was so nice that weekend, I loved getting another chance to wear my sandals before the cold forced them back into the closet until spring. 

 Evelyn loved watching Elke play Zuma on her laptop. She would crouch over like that, and stand there for quite a while. 

Uncle Nate and Aunt Chelle got little Christmas pajamas for Jilly's baby gift, while Great Grandma Buttons had given her an elastic headband that was also Christmas-colored.