The Ballard Bunch

After realizing that it's been a few days since I've posted anything, I supposed it's time to update you all on our lives as of today! Not that anything of consequence has really happened, but I'll give you the rundown anyway.

We had a busy but fun weekend going to Audrey's wedding and then dinner with the family at "Guadalahonkeys" (no joke, that's the name of the restaurant). The wedding was lovely and we're so happy for Audrey and Jeff! Tatum was being so funny at dinner - she's discovered the art of blowing raspberries and makes the cutest scrunched face when she does it. Unfortunately, I couldn't snap a good picture of it because our camera was being retarded.



This week has been slow, but nice. Shanna and the kids came over today to finger paint and hang out with Tatum. They had a blast and, surprisingly, didn't make too big of a mess. Tonight I'm working on finishing up all of the invitations for our parties - they are turning out SO cute. We plan on having pictures taken of all of them this Friday so we can include the images with the instructions in each kit. Oh! And we were accepted to have a booth at "Holy Cow" so we're very excited - hopefully this will give our humble little company the boost it needs to start out! Now we're just frantically trying to get everything ready to have a finished product in time. I know we can do it - it's going to take a lot of work, but it'll so be worth it. If you're in town, please come by and see our booth. I'll post information on the whens and wheres later. Keep your fingers crossed!

Much to my dismay, Tatum has come down with pink eye. She seems to be doing okay, but I wish we could have avoided it all-together. She's a trooper in many rights, but she absolutely hates having drops put in her eyes four times a day. The best treatment is the nighttime one when daddy is home to help calm her down - it really is a two person job!

Other than that, life is the same as always here. Tatum got ahold of her dad's duck hunting hat the other day and looked so darned cute I had to take another picture.



Anyway, that's that. I'll try and stay more up-to-date on this blogging - it's difficult when I don't have much to write about. I appreciate all of your sweet comments and love looking at your personal blogs - this is such a fun way to keep in touch.

Love you you all! - Evonne

What time is it? I totally feel like I'm a zombie right now. I'm up late making cakes for our party business, but I'm wishing I were sound asleep instead. We got a last minute request for samples of our product from the organizer of the Holy Cow boutique, so here I am. Tesla is meeting with her tomorrow at 10am to go over everything and hopefully get the final okay to move forward and plan for a booth. If that's the case, I'll be in for many more late nights in the next couple of weeks.

The cakes are turning out really cute, though. I'm making a great purse shaped one for one of the parties and it's so great that we're going to try and see if we can save it for Shantell's birthday party later this week! I'm just waiting for the cake to freeze more so I can cut out the shape I need and frost the sucker so I can go to bed. :)

Here's a picture of how Tatum's birthday cake turned out - this was my first attempt and the homemade, decorated cake:


Tomorrow morning is Tatum's 1 year appointment (a few weeks late) at 8:30 am. Hopefully I'll get to take a morning nap with her afterwards.

Here's to hoping you are all currently sleeping sound. Loves!

Easter afternoon, we all went to Beau's grandma and grandpa Fullmer's house for an egg hunt and lunch with the family. The kids had a blast searching for eggs and seeing what kind of treats were hidden in the ones they found. Tatum did a little better with the concept of finding eggs and was a big help to her dad this time around.



After the hunt, we took the kids inside to change into play clothes (it was so nice outside!). After eating, Beau flew Tatum's Strawberry Shortcake kite she got from her grandma Tammy for Easter. It was fun while it lasted - the kite ended up stuck in the power lines and lived a short life. All the kids had a good laugh watching, though.

After the party, we came home and hung out with Brie and Nick for awhile. Tatum went to bed early (9 is early for this kid), but not before running around the house in her bunny ears she got in her basket from the Easter Bunny. The kid wakes up with more and more energy and personality each day, I swear. She's so much fun!



Now we're stuck inside because of snow (go figure, Utah) so we're cleaning the house (me) and subsequently making more messes (Tatum). Hopefully it will clear up and we can play outside again soon! As I type this, she's occupied with cheese and crackers - she is my daughter after all! :)

We're excited that Beau's family is making the trip back today from Southern Utah. His mom and dad made it back last night and the rest of the family carefully made it off of the mountain this morning (the rain was bad, I guess). We're glad everyone is making a safe trip thus far and can't wait to catch up with them all.

We've got a busy, but fun week ahead of us. We have Travis' birthday tomorrow, BUNCO on Wednesday, a bridal shower/bachelorette party on Friday and a friend's wedding on Saturday. Somewhere in there is Shantell's birthday party (with friends), too, but I can't remember which day. It'll be crazy, but I'm looking forward to keeping busy. Tatum will be happy to have her cousins back in town - I think she's sick of me and heaven knows Emmit is sick of her (haha).

Since Tatum looked so cute in her Easter dress (made by grandma!!!), we decided to get a few pictures taken of her before we headed out to church.

This is the best we could get of her attention once she'd seen her basket!


With Mamma


With Daddy


She got lots of bubbles (from us and grandma and grandpa combined), so this morning we tried them out for the first time ever. She absolutely loved them!

Waiting for Bubbles


Loving Bubbles

Well, now that I'm up late playing Easter Bunny, I thought I'd take a few minutes to post something other than pictures of Tate! :) (I'm sure those will be up tomorrow after we get some good Easter dress pictures, though.)

Tatum's basket turned out really cute...she's not getting much candy this year because she won't eat it, but we will. I figured better avoided than tempted, right? She's getting the cutest stuffed bunny, bunny ears, a puzzle, Backyardigans bubbles, Peeps, jelly beans, other random candies and the cutest spring outfit (white capris with a yellow floral bandana belt and a yellow puffed-sleeve tee). The other day she found her bag of basket goodies and toys and was playing with them hiding in her room, so I'm hoping that she'll be surprised when she sees her goods tomorrow morning! I have to admit, I do love that she's still little enough that she probably won't even remember that she'd seen the stuff before, though. Beau grew up with the tradition of his mom and dad hiding their Easter baskets and the kids having to search the house for their treats, so we're going to attempt that with Tatum.

Today Beau's extended family (on his mom's side) had their annual family Easter egg hunt and get-together. Tatum and daddy searched, basket in hand, for her allotted 6 filled eggs (each kid gets to find five so it ends up being fair). Being one of the youngest, she was in the first group and got a head start. After finding one egg, she was pretty satisfied so Beau ended up carrying her around looking for more eggs before the big kids took all the easy to find treats. She spent the rest of the day running around the yard with the other kids, exploring and watching the waterfall with her Uncle Shay and swinging with "Uncle" Josh. All in all, it was a great afternoon. Of course, I didn't get anything but video today and I'm regretting it, but tomorrow I'll get pictures of the real Easter - dress and all.

Beau and I just finished up dying eggs for tomorrow's hunt. I'm absolutely exhausted and having a monster of a time getting over this blasted cold or whatever it is. I dread going to sleep because I know I'll wake up more congested than I am now! Speaking of, AHHHH-CHOO! I can't stop sneezing either, I swear. I'm hoping this will pass soon - I spent my whole pregnancy with Tatum stuffed up and it was awful. Of course, if that's my biggest pregnancy pain, I can't complain too much - everything else has been picture perfect. I just know I'm going to have a long winter - I'm already dying of heat at night and it's April. :)

That's got to be it for now - I'm falling asleep as I type and Beau already went to bed. If I don't post sooner, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter tomorrow! Thanks for taking the time to read!

Having such a cute babe to hang out with all day sure makes a digital camera necessary!

Tatum has finally warmed up to
Emmit! Now the challenge is to get
her to leave him alone! :) He is so patient with her - she climbs all over him and he lays there like nothing is going on. She even took a few licks to the face without crying - she loved it! Now all I have to do is attack her with the lint roller...she's covered in dog hair!!!

This is too much fun, I have to add the rest tonight!

Tanya - this one reminds me of an old picture of one of the twins (can't remember which one). I think it's that "You're taking my picture so here are my biggest eyes possible" look. Or, maybe she was just shocked to wake up and see her fingernails painted pink. :)
This is so Tatum, though!


Somehow, this straight-haired mama got a blue eyed, blondish, curly haired baby girl!


Gauchos and her very own shopping cart. She's ALL girl.


Maybe next time I'll find some of the rest of the family...haha!

Spring Pictures of Shantell, Braeden & Tatum


Tatum's First Birthday

Okay, now I'm sufficiently frustrated. I just typed and ultimitely lost an entire family update. Let's try again...

I'm hoping that this will serve as a good way to keep friends and family far away up to date on our family goings-on. I loved Tanya's site and was inspired yet again by my Canadian BFF. :)

To the left is one of the latest pictures of Tatum. She's growing so quickly - I can hardly believe she's already a few weeks past one year old. She's walking like a pro and keeping me on my toes. We have Emmit (Beau's black lab that lives with the rents) for the week, but she's not so sure of the whole animal thing. She loves him from afar, but heaven forbid that he gets close enough to touch or lick her face! She's learning though, she'll venture closer and closer as the day goes on. I think by the end of the week, they'll be in puppy love.

Beau's doing really well post-surgery. This time around he was only out of work for a week, so we feel really lucky about that. Now the goal is to watch the knee and hopefully prevent a third surgery from being necessary. He's going to physical therapy and is back at work, but taking it somewhat easy. Luckilly, his softball season was postponed a month, so he'll be much more healthy for that when it starts May 1. It should be fun - he organized a team with friends last year and loved it. Tatum and I had a great time, too - all of the player's wives or girlfriends come and watch, bring their kids, etc. Fortunately, I enjoy hanging out with the girls and Tatum is big enough this year to run around with the other kids. Plus, it's a great, guaranteed excuse to a day in the sun at least once a week, right? We're all looking forward to a fun summer before the baby arrives!

Speaking of baby, it's a girl! Beau and I were very excited to find out at our ultrasound last week - I was secretly hoping for a girl. A boy would be great as well, but I have EVERYTHING for a babe, plus it will be nice for Tatum to have a buddy since they'll be so close in age (17 months). I've been feeling great and everything is progressing as it should and the baby looks healthy and big. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that we're not growing another 10 pounder this time around!!!

I'm still working hard with Tesla at getting this business up and running. I think things are going really well - we have our first product showing early next month. There's a lot of work involved, but I think it'll really turn out to be something great if we can just get through these next few weeks of prep work. Once our website is up and running, I'll be sure to let you all know how to access it and see the fruits of our labors.

I think that's about it for now. I'm going to try and post some more pictures so that you can see how things are at the Ballard house as of late. I hope you are all doing well and would love to hear from you whenever possible. Love to all!