Crazy May!

Well by the lack of my blogging all I can say is that it has been a crazy one. It's been filled with a lot of fun activities like Mother's Day, Evelyn's birthday and Kyle's graduation. Mother's Day was enjoyable being able to spend time with my wonderful husband, who is extremely busy studying for the bar, and spending time with the little one that allows me to celebrate mother's day, thanks Evelyn.
I can't believe it, but on the 18th we celebrated Evelyn's 2nd birthday. Things about Evelyn; she is so cute and so much fun, she is full of personality and is extremely independent, she makes me smile everyday, she loves to talk no matter if we can or can't understand what she is saying, loves to go on runs with mom, and likes to be styling with her shades no matter the time of day. Here she is with her new shopping cart, filled with her favorite treats, cookies and popcorn.

Grandma Patterson came home with some balloons for her, which she thought were punching bags.
Thanks Evelyn for pausing for a picture while eating your popcorn.
My cute little girl in her birthday outfit.
As you can see just days before her birthday Evelyn was running, fell flat on her face on the travertine floors and broke her front tooth. So our little 2 year old will be getting some dental work soon. The first appointment didn't go so well, they had to take her to the back room and shut the door so the rest of the kids at the dentist wouldn't hear her screaming her head off, so we'll see how the next one goes.
For her birthday we went with her cousin Chloe and Zach and rode on the ferris wheel. This face tells me she wasn't too sure about it at first.
Chloe and Evelyn having fun together.
Zach showing off how fast he could spin around.
Chloe and Aunt Rebecca.


Some more pictures of my 2 year old, oh how I love her so much!

Aunt Brittany gave her a cute little baby and stroller, which she has enjoyed pushing around and taking on walks.
Grandma Patterson gave Evelyn some fun toys and a puzzle with a stylin outfit.
Evelyn loved diving right into her chocolate chocolate cake. Yummy!



So just days after that big celebration, Kyle and I headed back to Michigan for Kyle's graduation. It was a really nice ceremony and I am so glad we were able to go. It was a very quick trip but nice to have the getaway. I am so proud of this man that I call my husband. He has put so much time and work into getting to where he is today and I can't wait to see where he will take me next, cause I know it is always an adventure with him. I love him so much and was so happy to cheer for him when he received his diploma.

It was so great to see Kyle's parents and so nice of them to make the long drive up to Michigan.
I just couldn't leave without taking a picture by Magic Johnson first, Go Lakers!

The rest of the trip we stayed in Detroit and had fun exploring and acting like tourists. It was a busy month, but a fun one. And I just can't finish the post before putting another picture of my cute girl dressed up and ready for church. This is one of the beautiful dresses her Grandma K sent her for her birthday, she loves getting those special packages in the mail. Thanks Grandma K, Evelyn always knows when she's dressed up and loves to get her picture taken.

Trip Out West

Evelyn's quickly getting back into her L.A. lifestyle, can you say Rock Star!

Well we finally made it out west. We had a fun trip together in the car for a total of 7 days! So from the previous post, after our quick trip to Chicago, it was crazy at our house. We were busy packing and doing more packing, selling stuff on craigslist and trying to enjoy our last night in our home. Tuesday the house was cleared out and amazingly all in one 16 foot trailer, then Wednesday it got cleaned, did a last walk through and we were on the road. Before we left, our wonderful friends, who I already miss, the Martins and Boardmans made a yummy dinner for us and celebrated Evelyn's 2nd birthday since she wouldn't be there on the actual day.
Can you guess what animal this is, isn't it so cute? Even if you can't oh well it still tasted delicious.

We decided to take a minor detour in our trip and head north before we turned west. We always wanted to see more of the Upper Penninsula so we thought this would probably be our only opportunity. It was a very pretty drive, luckily we caught it at just the right time and got to watch the beautiful sunset.
Mackinaw Bridge, pretty cool to go across.
On our way out we stopped at Best Buy to get Evelyn a portable DVD player and some movies so she could be entertained while sitting in the car for hours at a time, but we mostly tried to get her to do a lot of this...
After a night in the UP we headed towards Minneapolis. We stayed there a night but didn't really see a whole lot of the place, and lucky for us there was an Anime convention going on at the same time, so we saw a lot of very interesting people or "characters." Friday was a long day, we finished crossing through Minnesota and headed into South Dakota. Though the drive was pretty flat it was actually a very pretty drive. That night we ended up in Keystone, SD. Saturday morning we got up and went to see Mt Rushmore. It was pretty cool to see it in person, I just can't believe how massive it is and learning about the way it was constructed was really amazing. Evelyn didn't know quite what to do with all the free space she had to run around in, since she was used to sitting in the car now, so of course she just wanted to be held the entire time.
I bent down to take this picture of Evelyn and for some reason she thought she was supposed to bend over as well.



Evelyn enjoyed pushing the handle down that would then show dynamite exploding on the rocks.
After spending some time at Mt Rushmore it was time to get in the car again and keep heading west. I can't tell you how many cows we saw along the road, so we decided to stop on the side and let Evelyn go see the cows and get her picture with them, they didn't know what to make of us.



Pictures of the drive and of the grasslands.

So on the road we went and ended that night in Evanston, Wyoming. Side note, on our drive to Evanston, there was stopped traffic on the freeway and there was no where to go, we were out in the middle of nowhere, so Kyle looked on his phone for GPS to see if there was any other way since we saw an exit not too far ahead, well there was a side road so we decided to take it. The road soon became loose gravel, which then became dirt, which then became weeds with old tire marks following a path. We had now ended up crossing someones ranch and were on the wrong side of barbed wire and no way to get back to the freeway. Well we continued on, moved some barbed wire, crossed another ranch and ten miles later finally ended up behind some neighborhood and made it back to the freeway. It was quite an adventure but hey we saved ourselves hours of sitting on the freeway. Sunday morning we drove a couple hours and made it to my brothers house in Alpine, Ut. It was fun to see my brother and his wife and my cute nieces and nephew. I also got to see my sister who is attending the Y and my parents since they were there for my brothers graduation. Well my wonderful parents were leaving to come back to California that evening and volunteered to take Evelyn with them on the plane and we could finish the drive on our own. Well we took advantage of that and stayed 2 nights in Vegas on our way back. We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel, where we did not fit in with that crowd, and enjoyed the 90 degree weather and sat by the pool all day. Here's my view from the lounge chair. Oh how I love to relax and enjoy the warm air. Kyle and I had fun hanging together and having a few quite moments to ourselves.

Tuesday afternoon we finally made it to my parents house and are now enjoying being with family and trying to get situated. Kyle has already begun to study for the bar and is back to long hours of sitting and reading, oh what fun. So there's our trip, hope all is going well for everyone else.

Leaving on a Jet plane, don't know when I'll be back again

We are officially spending the last night in our home tonight. It seems surreal that this time has finally come. It is exciting yet a little sad at the same time. We have really loved our home and will miss it. We have been keeping extra busy lately with organizing, packing and with Kyle getting through finals, it has been quite the semester. The sun has finally decided to show up so we have enjoyed some nice days outside on walks and at the park.
Easter was a nice weekend, it was fun watching Evelyn go around and pick up her eggs and find her little Easter bag. Here she is with her collection and her favorite, peeps and bubbles. Saturday we went with Kyle to Grand Rapids while he competed in his court competition, we are proud of him for advancing and doing so well.

Right after finals Kyle and I headed over to one last Lansing Lugnuts baseball game, and of course had to get a picture by the new Cooley Stadium, tuition dollars at work here people. As you can see it was also Thirsty Thursday, but of course no specials on soda.
After finals for Kyle, and with Evelyn and I at home a lot, we all needed a break from packing so we headed towards Chicago for the weekend. We made a little detour and stopped at University of Notre Dame. It was fun to walk around the stadium and see the architecture of the buildings.
We had to check out "Touchdown Jesus"
We had a really good time in Chicago together, it was nice to actually have some family time. That night we went out to dinner with some friends that use to go to Cooley and ate some yummy deep dish pizza. The next morning we enjoyed a full breakfast, then Evelyn and I went swimming at the hotel. The pool was on the 19th floor so you had a nice view of downtown. Later that afternoon Kyle went with his friend Aron to a Cubs game while Evelyn and I walked around downtown and enjoyed some shopping. Luckily I was able to find some cute stuff at Nordstrom Rack, cause I just couldn't leave with empty hands. Here Evelyn is enjoying all the sites from her stroller.


Now that we are recharged we better get all the packing done we still have to do. Next post we'll be from California!!

Moving Sale!

Hey Everyone as you know we are moving very soon, and there are a lot of things we are going to be selling instead of taking back with us. I have created a separate blog to post all the items that are for sale, so please check it out and see if there is anything you could use and enjoy for us.

www.npkmoving.blogspot.com

No More Diapers!

Our little girl is growing up, we've made some huge steps in the last week. No more diapers in this house, Evelyn is all about the undies. She has done so well with her potty training. I decided on the intense 3 day program, which you never leave the house for an entire 3 days, yikes. Surprisingly she has done so well, and has been very cooperative, so far we've has 2 full days now with no accidents, lets hope it continues to progress. We are so proud!

Little Koester Update

Well what have we been up to lately? A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of having Kyle's parents come and visit us. We had a good time together and Evelyn enjoyed being the center of attention. She definitely enjoyed showing off her skills on her trampoline. We have been busy going to the YMCA just about everyday, thankfully Evelyn loves it so I can have some "me" time while I workout. The snow has finally melted away here and last week we had some very nice days so we actually got to go outside and enjoy a walk around the neighborhood. I have been waiting so long just to be able to go outside and get some fresh air without freezing.

Kyle had his Law Journal banquet this past weekend and it was nice to see him be recognized for all the work and time he has put into that organization. Evelyn is just growing so much and her vocabulary is expanding everyday. It is so fun to see her really recognize things and learn so much. She's had a rough week with a major diaper rash, which I had to go and buy women's product for, and on Saturday she fell off a chair and we had to go get x-rays on her hand to make sure she didn't break a finger since it was very swollen and blue. Luckily it's just a bad sprain, but the poor little girl has a fat finger.

We only have about a month left here in Michigan so I have been busy trying to start the packing process. There's a lot of work to do before we go, but I am getting excited that the whole law school process is coming to an end. We will definitely miss our home and friends but we look forward to what lies ahead.

Visitors and Valentines

A little behind on the blog but here is the fun Valentines we had with Grandma Patterson, Aunt Rebecca, Brittany and cousin Chloe. We just love to have visitors especially during the winter when time is kind of slow and there's not a whole lot going on. Luckily for us we get to look forward to more visitors this weekend when Grandma and Grandpa K come up. Valentines started with a fun party at playgroup, thanks to our friend Aubrey for putting it together. Evelyn enjoyed decorating and of course eating her cupcake. She got to wear a very cute new dress that Grandma K sent to her, which of course she looked darling in.

Grandpa Patterson treated Evelyn to some very cute boots for Valentines. She actually loved putting them on, but for some reason couldn't have any other clothes on at the same time.
Evelyn and Chloe had a really fun time together, it was fun to watch them interact with each other.
Chloe loves her Aunt Natalie!
Evelyn was not interested at all taking a picture with me.
After many tries this was the best picture we could get of the girls with Grandma. They were just too busy to give anyone some attention.
Rebecca and Chloe
Saturday night my cousin Melissa and her husband came up from Ann Arbor and hung out with us all. We all got to enjoy some delicious Thai food, which has taken Kyle and I 4 different restaurants to finally find a good one. Doesn't Evelyn look like she's having a wonderful time?
The visit consisted of a lot of relaxing, movie watching and a little shopping. Saturday we went to the YMCA to take the girls swimming, which they loved, while my mom and sister Brittany actually did a workout on vacation! Sunday we managed to all get up and be dressed by 11:00. Then we had a yummy Valentines dinner together.
We tried to get some cute pictures of the girls together but they weren't so into it.
They just kind of looked at each other and wondered why they were standing out in the cold.
Thanks family for visiting us and making for a nice Valentines weekend!