Happy Birthday Evie!

Dear Evie,

It's hard to believe it's been 8 years already since you woke me up at 1am to come barreling into the world at 6:08. Your story will be forever burned in my mind, as your Daddy and I both worked at the same company and on October 22nd, 2001 our employer layed off 700 people - Daddy included. THAT was not part of our plan. You decided to arrive early the next morning, which was probably the best distraction we could have ever had.

Baby Evie, not even hours old

Baby Evie, 6 weeks later

As you grew, so did our family. At 2, you were already a big animal lover, and so much fun to have around! Mostly you had me all to yourself & we would color & play, and watch Dumbo over and over and over and over again. But then William came along and you had to share.

Nothing says 2 like a ghost cake

Or maybe nothing says 2 like a morning cup of coffee.
We like to start them young!

A birthday trip to the Smithsonian

By four you could identify just about any dinosaur there ever was by it's proper name. It was pretty amazing. Your favorite animal would change like the flavor of the week, but dinosaurs were always at the top of the list.

At 6, as Queen of the Nile

Today at 8, you have a fair amount of artistic talent and a huge love of animals still...

You made me so proud in your first summer on the swim team

You're a wonderful big sister to Sarah and your brothers

And you're still super fun to be around!

Happy Birthday Evie, I hope you enjoyed your day.

Love,
Mama