Reading with Evan

I love that Evan will sit and read with me. He will actually sit for at least 3 books before he gets to squirmy and wants to get down. His favorite book right now is the "Little Cricket Song" it's a book that my parents got for us a while back.

Sledding with Cousins

Well it started snowing 2 days ago and practically snowed for a day and a half. Dan was just itchin' to get out of the house so he called his brother and family up and they all went sledding together. They had a blast! They were gone for 2 1/2 hours which was really surprising because I did not think that Christian would last that long. Of course while they were sledding it was snowing and Christian didn't like going down the hill because the snow would blow up into his eyes. So Dan told he that he took him to the top of the hill he would sit down and then sit Christian down facing him, so Christian was going down backwards, and they took off down the hill. Dan said the Christian loved it! Of course the men came home dog tired because they went to Rock Canyon Park which is the best for sledding because if has these huge hills, the only problem is that the little ones could only make it up half way without falling down. So they guys would have to pull the sled with one hand and carry a kid in the other arm. Oh the things we do for our babies! It sounded like lots of fun and I hope next time me and Evan can go, Evan was not feeling well and so I stayed home with him. Happy Sledding!

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas! We had a very fun and exhausting Christmas this year. Christian woke up right at 7:00 like he always does and there was no staying his hand when we tried to tell him he had to wait for Evan to wake up. Leave it to Evan to sleep in until 8:00 on Christmas! We had lots of fun with family and friends and feel blessed to be in the situation we are in :)




Evan finally awake!


Evan with his loot!


So fun to have Evan big enough to open presents on his first Christmas




Christian stood still for one picture before he tore into those presents


There was no stopping him!


Two big construction trucks! We're all testosterone here... well almost :)


He loved the Doctor Halloween costume we borrowed from Miriam that we had to get him his own set. I think the glasses are hilarious!


And of course... more cars!

Crawling Pictures

Here are some cute pictures of Evan crawling around. He loves crawling underneath the coffee table despite all the bumps he has collected from his adventures.

Waking Up

Christian loves when Evan wakes up. I say "Hey Christian I think that Evan is awake" then he runs in there jumps in the crib and they start jumping around and turning on the jungle and giggling like crazy. I love it!

A Funny Conversation with Christian

This morning me and Christian were talking about why he can't open the presents under the tree yet.
B: We have to wait for Santa Clause to come with more presents, have you been a good boy
C: Santa Clause?
B: Yep, Santa Clause, are you a good boy?
C: No, I Christian
B: (laugh) have you been a good Christian?
C: No, I a good boy!

Ah, conceptual thinking, it's coming, it's coming :)

Imagination, Adorable Prayers & Crawling like MAD

Christian is just the bomb right now- his imagination is going crazy. For example, did you know that there is a giant that lives in our house. He actually only lives in Evan's room when the lights are turned off. This is not a scary giant but a friendly one that Christian always wants to play with whether or not Evan is sleeping. He also is very funny when he is in trouble or feeling shy he closes his eyes, of course, because if he can't see you then you can't see him right? The other night Christian was having a hard time going to sleep he was standing right outside the door and when we said "Christian go to bed" he closed his eyes and quickly shuffled across the hall to the playroom and closed the door. Me and Dan about died laughing before we went and got him and put him back in bed again. Another cute thing he is doing is he is finally saying prayers- and they are the best. His voice gets a little higher as he says them and they are long prayers. He blesses everybody and their dog, sometimes twice. He is always thankful for Daddy's job and for nursery and church. We NEED to record this before he stops saying them like this because they are so adorable right now.

Evan is crawling like MAD. He is such a happy camper now that he can get around. He has figured out how to go up stairs, and he goes pretty quickly, but had yet to learn how to go down them yet which has resulted in falling down them once, don't worry he wasn't hurt, more shocked than anything. One of my favorite things about Evan is when he is upset like he's hungry or tired, he crawls to me with his head down and the whole time he's coming he's kind of whimpering, not crying, and he sucks his little bottom lip in and out and makes the best boo-hoo face ever. I love it so much. He is also now eating bread and thinks he's the man because of it, he gets offended if I don't give him some bread at the start of each meal. Evan is a sweet little boy and he will sit on my lap and let me read a few books to him before he gets to wiggly (I couldn't do that with Christian until he was about 15 months). Still trying to figure out the food allergies, I don't think he's allergic to dairy, he had a few little bites of ice cream the other day and it didn't seem to affect him. Oh, he also had his first smartie the other day, thanks to Christian. In the grocery store they have little treats for the kids to have while you are checking out. Christian asked for some smarties so I unwrapped them and gave them to him. A few minutes later I looked back and noticed Evan was chewing on something and I said "Christian did you give Evan a smartie?" and he said "Yeah mom, look he likes it!" He sure did. He did just fine with it because they disolve pretty quick. So much for being the paranoid mommy who doesn't let her kid have any sugar before they are one- Christian always makes sure that Evan doesn't miss out on the best things in life.

Clothes on floor; clothes on door?

Dan here! Ok, so I have a habit of putting my clothes of the floor. Yes, yes, I know. Shame on me. Recently Beth has been putting clothes on the doorknob of our bedroom and bathroom. This begs me to ask the question, "What is better, clothes on the floor or clothes on the door?" :)

Here Comes The Snow!!!

Poor little Evan was worn out by the time advent was over last Sunday.



Doesn't Christian look ready for the snow... wait a second, I think he is probably going to want some pants on for sure.





Like always Christian wants to be right in the action with his Dad. Dan found this little shovel at Home Depot and Christian happily shoveled the walks with Dan almost the entire time.

A Wedding, Thanksgiving, and a Birthday

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. My brother Dan was married to Stephanie on the 20th- it was a great day, it's so great to see him so happy they really are perfect for each other and will have a great day.
Thanksgiving was great as well, we spent it with my parents this year and it was extra special because Rob and his family, and Brenda and her family were still here so it was nice to have almost the entire family together (just waiting on Davie- less than a month!!!). After thanksgiving we headed up to Wyoming for Joshua (our nephew's) baptism. While we were there we were suppose to go Christmas tree hunting and cut down our own tree. It ended up not being the best experience. I didn't go, but Dan and Christian went with everyone, the snow came all the way up to Dan's knees and so he carried Christian the entire time and he just froze, the poor guy. In the end the tree that Dan ended up picking was actually illegal to pick up, so after about 4 hours of traveling and being frozen we were, sadly, still tree-less. Later on the next week we went and picked out a pre-cut tree and it smells soooo good and is beautiful. While we were in Wyoming we lost our camera somehow!!! I can't say that I'm too sad because I've been wanting to get one that was better quality anyway. We have it and I am in love.
Dan also had a birthday this week, and we will now be the same age for only four months, Dan told me that I'm a cougar--- I'm not sure how I feel about the term "cougar." hmmm. We had a great time, my parents took us out to eat at this resteraunt in provo called "Spark" if you consider yourself a foodie, you will Love, Love, Love it here! But be warned, it is expensive so save up before you go.
Well got to run for now, I will post pictures soon.

Fun Fall Leafs

I love fall there is no doubt about it, I get really sentimental and nostalgic around this time of year because I have so many good memories associated with the season. One memory is my parents would always send us out to rake up leaves and it would take forever to get any of it done because, 1- there were a lot of leaves, 2- put 4-5+kids doing this job and how can piles not be jumped into occasionally...okay it happened all the time, which is why it would take us at least an hour to an hour and a half to rake up. Well in our new home we have an enormous tree in the front, I watched it and watched it turn colors and drop leaves. It took for forever for it to start dropping leaves, but when it did it looked like it was raining leaves! It is a constant flow of leaves just floating to the ground in dizzying circles. So on the nice afternoons after Evan went down for a nap me and Christian would wander outside and rake up the leaves that had fallen so far. Christian soon discovered the fun of leaves- he was so fun to watch. Well this last time I was raking up leaves and realized I hadn't seen Christian puttering about and I looked around and could not see him- and I called for him "Christian where are you?" and he said "I'm taking a nap in the leaves mommy!" I look over at the enormous leaf pile and somehow Christian has climbed to the top of it and snuggled himself in for a nice autumn nap! After awhile of being there he wanted to get out, but every time I got close with more leaves he would lay down on the pile and want me to sweep the leaves over his body and face as he giggled uncontrollably. A few days later my sister Katie invited us over and she took Christian out to play in the leaves and my brother Dan came home and made "Leaf Castles" with him, which he has been talking about ever since. I hope that I can help our family create memories like this every year that will all send us into a sentimental swirl the minute we smell leaves, pumpkins, and the cold in the air.

Happy Happy Halloweeny!

Well we had a very fun Halloween each year. It us true, the holiday's are so fun with kids, it's like you get to re-live everything again! Christian was a veterinarian (cute costume provided by my sister Miriam) and Evan was a monkey. Every year Dan's work has a party where the kids dress up and they give lunch to everyone. Well Christian would not put his costume on, I got the coat on him and he took it off saying "I'm sorry Mommy, I'm sorry" which brought me to tears and I told him he didn't have to wear a costume, he could go as a cute little boy. Well after all the drama he watched me put on Evan's costume and immediately wanted me to put his costume back on. Go figure, right? Ever since then he was all about his costume. I was worried that Evan would hate wearing the little hat thing but it didn't even bother him. We had a lot of Halloween between Dan's work party, trunk-or-treat with the ward, and just plane old trick-or-treating Christian made out with a whole lot of candy! What a fun holiday, Happy Halloween.

Finally!!! Some time to RELAX!

Dan's parents cabin has been finished for awhile but we haven't had a chance to get up there with all the work being done on our house. So we finally made it up, as you can tell from the pictures it is beautiful and very spacious. We spent 3 whole glorious days there sleeping, watching movies, taking baths (they have jetted tubs- oh yeah baby I was in heaven!), and doing absolutely nothing. It was fantastic! It snowed while we were there, it was so beautiful.

Annual Pumpkin Carvin'

My sister Miriam and her family have held a pumpkin carving party at their house for the last couple of years and it has become a tradition. We have soup and goodies and then get down and dirty with the pumpkins. We always have a great time and love spending time with them.

Gardner Village

I went with my sister Miriam, Katie, my mom, my sister-in-law Marianne and her kids, and Miriam's in-laws to Gardner Village this fall. They have these cute witches up everywhere and are fun to look at. I thought there would be more for the kids to do, but really it's just shopping. It was still fun and of course the kids found things to do outside with all the pumpkins and grassy areas. Next year I will leave the kids at home and spend some time with just the girls.

Scary Moments

For those of you who know me well, you know I have really bad food allergies. I was hoping not to pass this onto my kiddos... Well today I decided for lunch I would mush up some left over lasagna for Evan to try, he really hasn't had much but fruits, veggies, and baby oatmeal. Well after about 5 tiny little bites his tiny little top lip swelled up very quickly. I quickly whipped out my cell phone and called 911- I don't mess around with food allergies- The EMT's came and checked to make sure he didn't have any more symptoms or an increase in the ones he had. He was okay, but we took him to the ER and they gave him some medicine and watched him for about an hour. We have Evan's well check soon so we will discuss all the fun allergy testing stuff with the doctor then, until- we will stick to what we know does work. It's crazy because while of this happened I was really calm, even the 911 person noted that- now I'm starting to feel a little shaky about the whole episode. How do people have lots of kids? Having 2 gives me anxiety, I worry about them so much sometimes.

The Playroom

Okay before you get all crazy and start saying, "Holy Cow! I didnt' know Beth was so artistic." Let me correct you and say... I'm not. This was so easy, thanks to my sister Miriam. She had done some fun stuff like this in her playroom and what she did was she brought home her overhead projector (she's a teacher) and she xerox copied coloring book pages traced them on her wall using the projector and then colored them in using paint pens. So super easy and way fun.
One funny story about this project. About a day or so after I had started this project Christian came and say "Mommy come!" he was so excited to show me something, he took me into Evan's room and show me that he had been coloring on the wall with a pen (only black, thank goodness!) I wasn't so sure how to react because he was so proud of what he had done. I said "Oh Buddy, only Mommies can color on walls" Talk about feelings of GUILT! I felt so hypocritical. But he listened and has never colored on a wall since, thanks for understanding buddy.