Craig and Paula Evans Reunion

The last weekend in July was our reunion. This is for the children, in-laws, and grandchildren of my parents. We had so much fun! I love being with my family! There is such a sense of love and laughter that I enjoy so much. My sister Alisha, her son Ethan, and my brother Mike's family were there a couple days early. I tried to spend as much time as possible there during the day. My loving husband graciously offered to watch the kids each night so I could go back over and visit without kids. I usually take him up on this offer, but lately he has been working really hard on a project for work, and I have felt like I haven't seen him much. He has now completed (mostly) the project, and it has been nice to have him around more.

Back to the reunion. Thursday night, we had a girl's night at Naomi and Dennis' house. Naomi was so cute. She had special plates and cups for us. She had made special treats for us. Plus we brought lots of food. We ate, then put together little flower clips for our girls' hair. We had so much fun, and the husbands that could, watched our children for us. Thanks guys!

Some of the adults (more kind and generous adults stayed home with kids) went and played basketball in the cultural hall of the Stake Center. Now, as most of you know, I do not consider myself athletic. I actually made a couple of baskets, and dribbled it once or twice. It was fun. The wonderful thing about my family is that I can go play basketball, (not knowing or liking much about the sport) and we all still have fun. The next day we played volleyball (again, thanks to wonderful adults willing to stay with sleeping children) and had a blast.

(Re-reading this, it sure sounds like other adults took care of my kids while I had all the fun. I hope they don't feel that way. I think we tried to balance it out so everyone could have fun.)

There was also a ping pong tournament that lasted through most of the reunion. However, since I lost so early on, I didn't pay much attention to the outcome of that. :)

The kids decorated some bags my mom got for them. They had a lot of fun with the paint and markers. The adults were all right there, making sure the mess stayed on the tables. My parents thoughtfully got some scissors, a glue stick, a notebook, and some crayons to put in the bags.

Another project that the kids had fun with: my parents had some cowboy hats that they got for each child. The girls have a red rose on their hats, and the boys have a red handkerchief tied around their hats. Through much coaxing and lots of teamwork, we got pictures of all the grandchildren together. It is very cute!


After we found one, out of a million different images, that was satisfactory, my dad put names on it and we got it printed 17 times. Then, we put the picture on a sticky foam pad, put a sheet protector over it, trimmed the excess, and punched holes for a ribbon. The kids then had fun putting stickers on the front of the "frame" and they all got to take home their very own picture of all their cousins on the Evans side.

There was also, of course, lots of swimming, eating, and playing taking place. All in all, I think it was a wonderful weekend, and I believe everyone had a great time. Mom and Dad are so generous to let us have the reunion there. They have such a nice, welcoming, beautiful, and familiar home. They both put a lot of effort into making sure we are all comfortable and have stuff to do.
I'm very grateful for my Mom and Dad and the family they have raised.

Blessings

Ryan has an uncle Jim that passed away many years ago. Jim left Ryan some money, and we were able to get our patio in the backyard poured last fall (2008) because of Jim's generosity. Here is the before picture:

And here is the after picture:


Can I just tell you how much I love this patio? It is so wonderful to have! I can just send Katie out there in the mornings, and because it is on the west side of the house, the whole patio is shaded until about 11:00 am. As you can see, it still needs some work. Mainly the concrete steps that will be poured this summer. The wood stairs that were there before don't fit, so they are now covering the big, gaping, windowsill.

The story that prompted these pictures is this: Sunday morning, I knew I wasn't going to church, so I slept in until about 8:30. The girls, however, woke up at about 7:15. Katie laid down with us for a bit while I fed Elayna, then I put Elayna back in her crib, and Katie left soon after. I figured she was reading, or playing games on my computer. At about, I don't know, 7:45, I could hear Elayna jumping in her crib and talking. The crib seemed to be kinda hitting the wall, but I wasn't that concerned.

Well, when I finally rolled out of bed, I started looking for Katie. She wasn't in the living room or my computer room. As I went in the kitchen, I heard her calling, "Mom?" from outside. I let her in, and she said that she had been knocking for a long time (the crib banging against the wall) and that she had been crying. I felt so bad! I told her that from now on, she can go outside, but she needs to come whisper in my ear that she is going out. Also, if she goes through the garage, she can get back in. See, the trouble is, she goes out the french doors, but then she can't reach the handle to get back in if she closes the door all the way because there aren't stairs. If she goes through the garage, and remembers to unlock the doors, she can come back in whenever she wants.

I sure hope I didn't have any neighbors that were outside while she was crying. I'm sure she was saying, "Mom! Let me in! Mom!!". That doesn't sound so good if you don't know the situation.

The reason I knew I wasn't going to go to church on Sunday was because Elayna has had a fever. She got her 3rd tooth on July 15th. I'm pretty positive she is getting 3 more this week. She is so miserable. She wants to be held, and walked, and entertained. Not just held. I don't mind just sitting and holding babies. Especially when they are sick and cuddly. But she wants to see and participate as though everything is normal. Not so much fun. Hopefully she will feel better soon.

Katie drew this guy with sidewalk chalk on our patio. (Back in May, but I'm just getting around to posting it). I'd never seen her draw a person before, and was amazed at the detail she included. Eyes, nose, mouth, arms, legs, feet, hands, hair. I was impressed:

Mmm... Dirt!

Katie has a lot of fun with the swimming pool that the Bowman's gave her for her birthday. She is quite spoiled by the Evans' pool though. After Katie's pool had been sitting in the hot sun all day, she still thought it was too cold to play in. The neighbor kids were playing in their Slip 'N Slide and invited Katie to join them. Now THAT was cold! She felt one splash, and was NOT going there. We invited the kids to come to our house, and they thought it was a hot tub! Katie was still too much of a wimp to play in her pool. I'll work on making her run around first, and then she will appreciate her pool more.



This is my Elayna:

...Talking on the phone. Surprising that she actually knows this is a phone, since we only use cell phones.

The other day Katie told me that I had "bless you" all over me! What? Oh, a sneeze. That makes sense.

Mom finally translated what Elayna says on the phone. "Hiayou"
Translation-"Hi. How are you?"

Elayna opens and closes her hand to say Goodbye. She is also crawling all over the place, and walking between furniture. She will be walking soon. Ryan has a Depeche Mode song called "Wrong" that he listens to a lot. Katie likes to sing along, and Elayna will mimic the word wrong. (the song repeats the word "wrong" about 20 million times) It is very cute. She will actually mimic quite a few sounds. We had her saying "Ta da!" the other day.

Katie is talking clearer and understanding things better. We were reading a story about Noah, and there was a picture of the boat in the water. She kept on asking what it was, and then being confused when I told her it was the boat. Then, she said something about the boat not all being there. I told her some of the boat was under the water. She looked really hard at the picture for a minute, then laughed, and said, yeah, silly me. She has a great understanding of humor.
Well, I take that back. Abby and Katie were swimming the other day, and Amanda asked Abby the question, "What are you eating under there?" Abby, of course, responded with "under where?" and laughed. Abby asked Katie the same question. Katie responded with "underwear", laughing also. It was obvious that Katie didn't comprehend the joke when Abby continued to ask Katie, and Katie would respond with random items. "dragons", "chocolate", etc. Mom, Amanda, and I were laughing so hard.

Speaking of Katie and Abby:

These two girls have so much fun. Amanda and I have commented that for this stage (and probably this stage only!) it would be fun to have twins. They can spend all day together, and not need a parent at all. They have so much fun together. Amanda and I take turns watching the girls so the other can get something done at her house. It is great.

On a side note, I was released from Relief Society Secretary. It will be nice for a change, but I will miss knowing all the sisters in the ward. Each sister in the ward has something unique and interesting about them. I just wish I had gotten to know each of them better. I loved serving with Jenet Grill, (President) Valerie Michalek, Lynn Peterson, Cleann Brost, (3 1st counselors served throughout our Presidency) and Cindy Coughanour (2nd Counselor). They are wonderful ladies and I learned so much from them!

Videos and stuff

A quote from Katie, "When you was a kid, and I was a mom, like 3 months ago?" (she really likes for us to trade places, so she can be the mom. The other day she wanted to be a mom so she could take a nap. "Cause mom's tired all the time." Uh-oh. Guess I better be more energetic. :)

Speaking of energetic, this is my two girls dancing: Katie freezes up when she sees the camera, and this is pretty tame for Elayna.


We played doctor this week. She was the doctor first, and asked concernedly, "What's wrong? Does your throat hurt?" Then she put a movie on for me, of my choice. (interesting to note, most of the time, the first movie that was requested was usually not available. Like she feels that no matter what she asks for first, it just won't be there?) Then, she dropped some pretend eye drops in my mouth for my throat. Next I got a pretend shot on the neck. And then, at the end, 2 pieces of pretend candy. We then switched places. We did this for about an hour. Lucky for me, Ryan came home, so we could stop. During lunch, she said, "How you feel guys? I did heal you cause I'm Jesus."

Ryan really wants to teach Katie to speak correctly. "Say Bio. Now say physics. Biophysics."(Not really a word we have worked on, but I can't think of a suitable example at this point.) "Speak clearly, Katie." Anyways, Katie was trying to tell Ryan and I about the movie "Fox and the Hound" that she had been watching at Buppa Irma's house. She said the dog's name was "dofur". This is the conversation that followed:
Katie-Doughfur
Us-gopher?
K-No. Dahfur.
Us-Dahfur?
K-no... say Dah
Us-(laughing uncontrollably at this point) caw?
K-no. speak...
Us-clearly? Katie, we just don't understand. The fox is named Tod, right? What is the dog's name? Can you say it again?
K-I don't remember anymore.
So I came home and looked it up. It is Copper. Close to Dahfur. I think we might have made her feel bad about it, but it was just so funny.

This was supposed to be a video of Katie opening presents, but I switched to filming Elayna halfway through. She is really moving all over the place. I'm reminded why crawling is such a hard stage of a parent's life.


Elayna is pulling herself up on anything she can grab. Including Katie's legs, drawers, etc. She likes to hold fingers and walk, as long on when you walk with her, you go in the direction SHE wants.

This is some phrasing that Katie uses when she prays. It is so cute! "Thank you for we can bless the food." "Thank you for we can go to Daddy's Mommy's house."

Elayna waved at Ryan today. Opened and closed her hand at least. And, I think she might have said "Mommy" at me while I was changing her diaper. Plus, I've got to get a recording of her saying "Hi Katie!". It is so clear. It's amazing that she is talking already at 10 months.

Katie's 3rd Birthday

Happy Birthday Katie!

Katie had a fun birthday. It actually lasted about 3 days, just because schedules didn't match up. On Friday, she spent the morning with Ryan, Elayna, and I. Then Ryan and Katie went to lunch with some of Ryan's extended family. (I didn't feel well, so I stayed home with Elayna.) She came home and took a nap before Ryan's 2 softball games that night, and that was pretty much the whole day.
On Saturday, Katie opened some presents from us. The first was a backpack with books in it.Then my parents came and brought her a set of Littlest Pet Shop animals. Then she opened 2 Barbie dolls, with extra clothes and shoes. (Sidenote: So, apparently all Barbies are not the same. The first one I bought her had ballet shoes on, so normal shoes won't fit her. The 2nd Barbie has wide "normal" feet because she is a Beach Barbie. So the normal shoes won't fit her either! It's a conspiracy!) We went to Gigi's and Grandpa Joe's and she got some CD's of children music, and a baseball cap. (just like daddy, and Grandpa Joe, and David, and Uncle Ryan, etc.)

This is a video of her opening the Barbie clothes, and then the Barbies. It makes me laugh every time I watch it.

I love how she compares the clothes and shoes to herself. When Katie pulled the 2nd Barbie out of the box, the Beach Barbie was in a package. Katie just looked at the back of the box and said, "It's a beach." We got her to turn it around and look at the doll, but she acted like she had never seen a Barbie before. Odd, considering her response to the first one.


Then we had a party in our backyard. Cupcakes and ice cream. Katie loves her cousins, so it was great to have some of them there to help her celebrate. Irma and Jerry got her a fun pool thing, and some cute, cute clothes.
As if that wasn't enough, on Sunday, Clarissa, Ryan, and Ryot gave her a bag full of paint, paper, snacks, foam letters and numbers. This girl has way too many people that love her! (As if that could ever happen.)

This is Katie's little Mexican dress that Irma and Jerry got for her. She looks so cute! Her hair is getting so long. It is so beautiful! It always looks good, even if it is messy. It's just so curly and soft.
We are so glad we have Katie in our lives. She is such a joy to us. She has the sweetest smiles, she helps me with everything, and her giggle melts my heart. Katie is smart, has a great sense of humor, loves to pretend, tickles and entertains Elayna, and is just a good girl.

There is no way to adequately express how much we love her.