Clothed or Not, Here We Come...

Evelyn showed off her newest look to Honey yesterday, courtesy of her sweet godmother (aka seamstress extraordinaire!).  Monogrammed pink seersucker bubble?  Check.  Handmade hat?  Check.  Beautiful matching pin to adorn hat?  Check.  What an amazingly talented godmother, right?  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Anna--we love dressing Ev in all the beautiful clothes you share with us:)

And later on, in between removing the cute outfit pictured above and donning a bathing suit, Ev wriggled out of my grasp and made a beeline for the pile of books on the floor of her room.  Nothing like a naked baby reading her favorite books (remember that in Evelyn's world, "reading" is still the same thing as "chewing").

Meet Virginia.

Last week, Evelyn made her inaugural visit to Virginia, that blessed state that boasts my beloved University and the homesteads of Ev's great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, numerous cousins, and other friends to boot.  We drove all the way to northern Virginia (Leesburg, specifically) to celebrate the marriage of Ailsa (my first cousin and Ev's first-cousin-once-removed) and John (her fella).

For the first leg of our journey, we hopped in the station wagon with Honey and D (and by "hopped in," I mean "loaded down the back with all of Evelyn's gear and then stuffed ourselves and her carseat into the small amounts of space remaining toward the front") and trekked east on I-40 and north on I-81 and then a little more east until we arrived in Lynchburg at the home of G.G. and Grand-D.  They were so gracious to host us on our journey both there and back, and we had such fun staying with them in their beautiful house and spending time with them over the course of the wedding weekend!

Where are we here?  The Tavern, of course, one of my fave Charlottesville breakfast spots.  We swung through C-ville on our way to the wedding, stopping for brunch and for some short-but-sweet visits with some dear friends of mine.  I wish I had some pictures of Ev playing with Lane, Lauren, William, and Milo (the first three are people and the last one is a dog); suffice it to say that she has four new pals in the C-ville area.

We all made it safe and sound to Leesburg, eventually, and checked into our digs for the weekend.  After a lovely bridesmaids' luncheon,  I returned to our hotel room and found this waiting for me.  Awwwww.

 

The Saturday of Ailsa's wedding was sunny and beautiful and not TOO hot, which was a good thing, since we are all obviously sitting outside.  It was a beautiful setting, and such fun to catch up with lots of family and introduce them to Little Bit!  The man on the left in the foreground of the picture above is my great-uncle Preston Orr; sadly, I don't have a picture of Preston Orr and Evelyn Orr, but they definitely hit it off.  Birds of a feather, I guess:)

 Look at these two all dressed up.  I love it!

 The beautiful bride!  

 Evelyn and D spent some quality time waving together...

 ...and Evelyn also made the acquaintance of numerous family members, including these two sweet cousins of mine, Emma and Ezra.  Emma and Ezra seemed to make a particular impression on our girl when they so generously allowed her to chew on their clothing and water glasses.

Now this is a girl who has lived it up, I'd say.  All tuckered out after a night of socializing.  See that add-a-pearl necklace?  Honey and D presented it to Evelyn on her baptism day--so sweet!

What a fun adventure....lots of time spent hanging out with all sorts of family, catching up with old friends, and generally just eating, drinking, and making merry together.  Oh, and lots of time spent in the car, too--it's a long way from Nashvegas to northern VA and back:)  

It's Playtime in Avocado Land....

This picture doesn't really do it justice.  Eating these days generally requires stripping down before and hosing off afterwards:)

 So I mentioned Ev is crawling these days?  She moves fastest when she's headed toward food (a girl after my own heart).  In the pic above, she spotted a Puffs container and motored right on over.

Have a fun rest of the week!

Happy July!

We're only 5 days in, but what a month we've had so far! 

This sweet baby turned 8 months old on Saturday!  Goodness gracious.  Though still not much of a sleeper, our little lady loves pretty much everything else about life....socializing with family and friends, going on hikes in the park, playing at the pool, eating, bouncing in her jumper, and so on and so forth.  

And in a glorious turn of events, Dave returned home from Peru a week early (he had been chaperoning a school trip and had to escort a student home), just in time to celebrate the 4th!  Ev and her Daddy had a sweet reunion yesterday:  decked out in our best Independence Day outfits, we picked Dave up at the airport, brunched at Le Peep (one of our local faves), CRAWLED for the first time (Ev, not Dave), practiced clapping and waving, and finished the day with a feast and fireworks at Honey and D's.  

So now our little lady is on the move.  She is pretty fearless so far, and has already managed to wedge herself under the Pack n' Play in our living room, as well as making several attempts to stand up.  Awesome.  Time to baby-proof, I think:)

B is 88!

I mentioned in the last post that we had spent a long weekend in Black Mountain, NC, celebrating the 88th birthday of B (Evelyn's great-grandfather) with a whole gaggle of Berrys.  We had a wonderful weekend!

 Here's our distinguished man of the hour, with his sweet baby great-granddaughter...

...and then with all three of his sweet great-granddaughters.  Note that Ev is perched precariously on the edge of B's lap underneath her cousin Lily and is looking slightly worried about it.

Over the course of the weekend, Ev LOVED having playtime with her cousins...

...mealtime with Aunt Amy...

...chats with great-aunts Clare and Karen and Patsy...

...and quality time with a flamingo at Camp Ridgecrest, where Uncle Phil works.

Hooray for B!  We love you so much and are so thankful that Ev gets to spend time with her great-granddaddy!  

(Above, Ev is doing her new favorite thing:  clapping.  She claps when she is hungry; she claps when she is happy; she even claps when she is angry sometimes.  It is pretty wonderful.  Anyways, in this pic, she is clearly clapping for B.  Yay B!)

The Orr Cottage

Whew!  We are FINALLY settling back into our semi-normal summer routine, after being on the road for most of the last few weeks.  So last we checked in, we had just spent a fabulous weekend in Oxford celebrating the wedding of Aunt MC and Uncle Eddie.  Since then, we have spent a weekend with friends on the river at Rock Island, time in Indiana at the lake with G.G. and Grand-D, and a long weekend in Black Mountain, NC, celebrating the 88th birthday of B, Dave's grandfather and Ev's great-grandfather.  More on Black Mountain later; for now, a look back at our time on the water!

Ev is getting to be quite a water-baby these days; she loves to splash in the pool at the Maryland Farms YMCA, and seemed to really get into chilling on the dock next to the river at Rock Island, too:

Some of the sweetest moments we've had this month, though, occurred during our stay at the Orr Cottage on Lake Webster in Indiana with Honey and G.G. and Grand-D.  Ev's visit was kind of like a visit to the homestead, since the Orrs (whose name Evelyn shares) originate in that part of the country.  One of Ev's Orr ancestors built the lovely cottage on the lake, and G.G. said that Evelyn is the seventh-generation Orr to stay there!  Pretty neat.

Here's the mailbox out front; we clearly had to take a picture on it:)

Ev relished our daily spins around the lake in the boat; the faster, the better for this girl!  In the picture above, she is holding her mama's adult beverage for her--don't be alarmed:)  Also, note that her life preserver is NOT completely fastened around her neck; she and the life preserver are not good friends.

She also helped G.G. and Grand-D with some planting and landscaping.  They even planted a lilac bush together in honor of Ev's first visit to the lake.

And of course, Ev received a plethora of snuggles from everyone all day every day:)

Finally, if you've ever wondered what Evelyn looks like in a freezing lake in the summer in Indiana, check out this video.  It's a little lengthy, but just a few seconds will give you the idea:

An Oxford Wedding

It has been a whirlwind of activity over the past couple weeks in the Berry household....after our sweet baby's river baptism, we packed up and headed down the road to Oxford, MS, to celebrate my youngest sister's wedding over Memorial Day weekend!  Mary Cooper married Eddie, her beau of the last several years, in a beautiful ceremony in First Presbyterian Church in Oxford, and then we all enjoyed a fantastic celebration at the reception at the Oxford University Club downtown.  Little Miss Priss had several firsts over the weekend:

Her first stay in a "penthouse" (Ev's grandparents generously put us all up in the penthouse of the Oxford Downtown Inn--fancy schmancy!)--Ev's luxurious digs are pictured above...

 Her first rehearsal dinner photo shoot with a beautiful bride (although Ev didn't get to attend the actual rehearsal dinner itself)...

Her first bridesmaids' luncheon, with lots of love from her G.G. and her great-aunt Lulu...

Her first wedding ceremony (which she viewed/slept through in the comfort of her Ergo on Daddy)...

Her first ride on a double-decker bus, which transported us all to the wedding reception...

Her first wedding reception, where she posed with the bride, danced with Daddy, and hobnobbed with family and friends...

And finally, her first meal at Big Bad Breakfast before we left town, an amazing breakfast spot.

What a weekend!  We are so thankful for such a fun time together, and so thrilled to have Eddie officially join our family.  Hooray!