Feb 2011

I did the girls hair the same the other day. Actually, Katie usually wants me to do them the same. But I thought this hair style was really cute:


The girls are even cuter:


At the beginning of February, Ryan and I decided we wanted to have "dates" with our girls. So, I took Katie, and Ryan took Elayna. We went the first Monday night in February. We decided to meet at Walmart and get Elayna a booster seat, since she was big enough, and it would be easier to trade her car seat around, for situations like this.

I wanted to take Katie to see "Tangled" at the movie theater in Payson. So we met Ryan in Payson, at the Walmart parking lot. Turns out, the power was out. At Ryan's work, at both places we planned on eating, at the movie theater, at Walmart, etc. It completely disrupted our plans. And it was raining pretty hard. Not the best way to start this activity.

Ryan took Elayna, and they drove to Smith's and bought some fingernail polish, then got some food at Santaqueen. I guess they ate, then painted their nails. Yes, both of them. Ryan bought some black polish for his nails, and Elayna used some purple and blue. Ryan's fingernails looked very weird black. And he kept them that way for about a week. It was strange, but he thought it looked neat, I guess. Thankfully, he conceded to take the polish off before Sunday.

Katie and I started driving more into Payson, to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at The Wildeflower Grille, over by the hospital. We ate, then headed back to the movie theater, spending the whole time talking about whether the power would be out at the theater, and what we would do if it was. It wasn't out, so we got tickets, and started watching the movie. THEN. the power went out, after we had been watching for about 20 minutes. AGH!! We were informed that if the power didn't come back on within 10 minutes, they would refund our tickets, and we could go home. That wasn't the preferable option! So we sat in the dark, with about 15 kids and 6 adults, until it finally came back on. Yay! We got to watch the rest of the movie without interruption. Then we went to McDonald's (Katie kept calling it Old McDonald's) and got ice cream. We also stopped at Walmart and got some groceries. She didn't get home and in bed until close to 10, but we had lots of fun. We are going to do this the first Monday of each month, trading girls each month.

One day, Katie wanted to play outside instead of taking a nap. I looked out and saw her playing in this mud:


Then I noticed the table, with the hand prints on it:


Then Katie showed me her hands. I don't know that I've seen her hands this dirty before:


Valentine's Day was nice. Ryan and I got books for each other, so I thought we were done. But then Ryan brought home some pink tulips and a big heart full of kisses for me. He's so thoughtful! Katie got her first taste of Valentine's Day-School-Style. She took some valentine cards for her class, but when she came home, I realized she hadn't given them to the teacher, for some reason. Anyways, her cards would have been the only cards (besides one other) that didn't have candy attached. So, she got 20 pieces of candy. She was loving it!

This looks really weird, but it is actually just some gum that got stuck in Elayna's hair. We were outside, and she asked me where her gum was.
Me-I don't know. It must have fallen out of your mouth.
Then, much later, after naps, I was trying to get her hair out of her face, and noticed the side of her neck was sticky, and this clump in her hair. Thank goodness it didn't get stuck closer to her scalp. I just had to cut a very small piece, in the back, close to the end of her hair:



I am having fun in Young Women's. Right now our biggest stress is planning New Beginnings at the end of the month. We had made assignments for one girl to make a large "temple" out of butcher paper that we could hang on the wall. She volunteered to do this about a month before hand. Then, 4 days before the actual event, she casually mentions she won't be able to do it after all. Sorry. Panic! Heidi and I had to go to the church and plan it all out and then Heidi went home and painted some windows on it. It looked really good, but it caused lots of stress. We had a couple of things like that. Stuff the girls had volunteered to do, but then fell through on at the last minute. But, it all went well, and the decorations (which she didn't forget to do!) looked amazing. I think it turned into a great event to introduce the new Beehives into the program.

I'm finally in my third trimester! Hurray! I hit 29 weeks at the end of the month. I have some projects I want to finish before the baby comes. Of course, none of them are important, or even related to the baby. Just stuff I want to finish.

I finally got my office all moved into the kitchen. I'm trying to finish my block quilt. I'm trying to transcribe my Granny's journal. I want to have Katie and Elayna's baby books finished. I want to make 2009-2010 into a Blog book. Stuff like that.

We are trying to decide if we want a Suburban or a minivan. We decided we would wait to buy a larger vehicle until August (so I can do carpooling when Katie starts Kindergarten), mostly because Mom and Dad were buying GG's car, and offered to sell Dad's car to us. The price was good, and it is so much nicer than my car. So now I drive a gold Buick, and Ryan drives the green Camry. Hopefully we will sell the blue Camry sometime in the next month or two.

Katie wanted to paint. I looked over, and noticed that she had clipped two papers together with clothespins, then hung it over the edge like this so it looked like she was painting on canvas or something. She's very inventive.

Jan 2011

Such cute girls:



Katie-"Sometimes kid's bodies don't like what Mom's cook for dinner."--1-11-11.

Katie is being so responsible and helpful lately. She can get toast or cereal for her and Elayna's breakfast in the morning. (I sleep in way too much, obviously). One morning she put all the dishes from the dishwasher away in the cupboards. Unfortunately, they were all dirty, but it was very thoughtful of her. She also helps a lot with Elayna-getting things for her when I'm not near, making sure she is happy, "reading" books to her.
Katie isn't taking naps every day anymore. Every once in a while she will, but not very often. She is doing great during quiet time. She will read books to herself, or play downstairs, or just watch quietly while I sew or type.

The girls love to "Cook" with Grandma Irma. She will help them make pancakes, hamburgers, tacos, etc. They can spend lots of time with the "play dough":


Oh, Katie also changed Elayna's diaper one day. It was on backwards, but still. They both had powder all over their faces. Then she wanted to put the dishes away and the laundry away, but she had to go to school. When she came home from school, she said, "Oh, thank you for not putting the dishes away. I wanted to do that." Funny girl.

Elayna is mostly potty trained. Well, most days. Some days she wants to wear a diaper during the day, and underwear at night, which doesn't work out so well. She keeps dry during her naps, but all night long is hard, even though Ryan and I take turns going in and taking her to the bathroom throughout the night. Elayna whines a lot lately, but if I ask her to be happy, she will smile, and be happy.

Elayna's cute smile:


My pregnancy is going okay. I've had aches and pains, but nothing serious. I'm glad I seem to be getting a little more energy. I haven't cooked real food for my family for about 3 months, so it is about time I started back into that, I suppose. It just takes so much work!! :)

Me at 23 weeks:


Mom helped me re-hang the pictures in my front room. I also purchased a beautiful desk and hutch to go on top. I've moved the dining table into the living room, and my office into the kitchen, so we can have a room for the baby, when she finally gets here. Right now it is being used as a storage/project room. I'm trying to finish some projects before the baby comes.

Here is my new "office". I'm really happy with it. I love that it is where I see it all the time, so I keep it relatively neat, and I can put the laptop on the pull-out keyboard tray when I'm not using it, so I have desk space. I think it looks nice, and it is very functional.



Alisha came and visited at the end of January, beginning of February. We had so much fun with her and her boys.
This is Elayna holding Nicholas. She held him for about 20 seconds, then said. "Heavy for me."

Katie liked holding Nicholas also.

We love seeing Alisha's family whenever we can. We spend as much time with them as possible. We went to the Bean Museum at BYU one day also, with Mom, Alisha, Amanda, Naomi, and me. So, 5 adults with 8 kids. It wasn't too bad. We had fun.

Replying to my blog posts

For those of you that get my blog posts through email. My dad just discovered that when you reply to the email, it gets sent to "non-reply blogger". I know it used to come to me, but now it doesn't, for some reason.
So if you want to reply to a post, please send me an email, or click the link at the bottom of the email, and leave a comment on the blog post.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting. I love comments.
Also, sorry about all the posts that are from forever ago. I'm just catching up, slowly. :)

Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. Of course, I don't have any pictures, except these:

These are from our Ward Party. Ryan was there also, but wasn't feeling well, so he left before they took pictures.


Ryan worked Christmas Eve day. When he got home, my parents came over and taught me how to make Granny's Chicken Noodle Soup. The directions I got over the phone went something like this:

Make a pile of flour on the table. Just the right amount. Then, crack an egg into the flour. Fill half the eggshell with water, and add it to the flour and egg. Mix until it is the right consistency. Roll until very thin, then cut thin strips and put them in the soup.

Not too complicated, but I felt a little wary of trying this on my own, so my parents agreed to come and teach me. We finished right about when Ryan got home from work. My parents went home, and we ate soup and breadsticks. It reminded me of many Christmas Eve nights spent at my mother's parent's house with all my cousins on that side.

Then we opened pajamas that I had made. They are mostly pink, with gray donkeys on them. Ryan got gray pants. Then Ryan read the Bible story while the girls acted out the story with our nativity set. Then we had family prayer, and put the girls in bed.
We had a fun Christmas morning. The girls woke up around 8:30, so we went out to the living room at about 9. (Ryan tried to delay the process of getting out of bed for as long as possible.) We had lots of fun opening presents and giving presents to each other. Ryan surprised me with a laptop, which I love. I can never surprise Ryan with presents, but he seemed to enjoy the movies and treats he got. He actually asked all my family members if they would contribute to my laptop instead of getting him presents. He also told me to use the money I would have used on him towards my present. He's so sweet.

Then we went to my parent's house from 12-2:30. We had delicious soft tacos, and exchanged family gifts. We had David's family, and he had our family. Then we got to sit around and visit while the kids played.
My parents have individual Christmas nights with each family on their own. So one night, Ryan, Katie, Elayna, and I went and had some good soup, breadsticks, salad, and dessert. Mom and Dad like to give us our family gifts then, so they can see the grandkids opening and playing with their presents, instead of the mad pandemonium that we used to have.

At about 3 pm we went over to Bowman's. We exchanged presents with each other, and enjoyed the time with their family. This is Ryan, opening one of his presents:



Irma made cute aprons for the girls. I'm not sure why we didn't get a picture of Katie also, but this is pretty cute:


The extended Bowman family came over at about 5:00, I think. We had a yummy Mexican meal, with tamales and posoli (I have no idea how to spell it, but that is kinda how it sounds). We played a white elephant game. Mickie and John each brought a story about past Christmases, then every time they said "Christmas" we would pass the present to the left or right, depending on who was telling the story. We sang some Christmas carols, then it was time for our family to go home.

The girls were pretty tired, as were Ryan and I. We love spending time with our families for Christmas! We love the visiting, and seeing each other, and sharing food, and enjoying the Christmas season with them. We are so grateful we have so much family close by that we get to see often.

This is our family picture for this year:

December 2010

Some of my high school friends met at my house and we had lunch together. Hannah Thomson, Heather Perkins, and Melissa Bringhurst came and visited on Dec 14. Hannah had her little baby Ryder with her. He was adorable. We ordered some Chinese, but they don't deliver, so Ryan was so nice and brought it to us. He's a sweetie. I had lots of fun catching up with my friends.

Dec 11, 2010
I had a dream about the baby last night. It was moving it's head back and forth, and I was putting my hand on it's head to feel it. Then it said, "That Mom?" (meaning, what's that, Mom?) I laughed and said, "My hand". Then I felt a small ridge, and said, "That baby?" and it said "My hand". Then I took a drink, and there was a loud rushing sound. "That mom?" "Water, I just took a drink." In the dream I was waiting for Ryan to come in. When he did, I told him about the dream. Then Ryan said, "Hi baby" and the baby said, "That mom?" Me-"That's Daddy" Baby- "Hi Daddy!!"

Naomi watched Katie and Elayna for me one day. I think I had a doctor's appointment. I guess they had a tea party with their cousin. Here are some pictures that Naomi sent me.



Katie:
Elayna:


We had so much snow on Dec 21! It was the last day of Preschool before the Christmas break. Katie got all ready, then I talked to the other ladies in the carpool, and found out they weren't going. Then someone was going to come pick Katie up, then they never showed up. Seems they actually couldn't get down our street because the road hadn't been plowed yet.
Ryan shoveled the driveway so he could go to work, but then realized that he couldn't get onto the street, because it hadn't been plowed yet. The 4X4 truck that is next door got stuck on the road in the snow. We had tons of snow!

Ryan shoveling driveway. It was up to his knees!

Can you see how much snow is on this tree? The snow fell fast, but it was big flakes, and there wasn't any wind, so it piled up on the limbs pretty high. You can see the chair is piled high with snow.


The next day, the girls wanted to go outside and play in the snow. The snow was so deep that Elayna couldn't walk. she had to crawl to get anywhere.


Then they found this "cave" under the table. They had fun playing under there.


I'm not sure why Elayna is wearing this, but I think it is so cute!


December is always a busy month, with Christmas performances. Ryan and I had the opportunity to participate in a performance written by Rob Gardner, and directed by my Dad, Craig Evans. It was called "He is Jesus Christ". It was a beautiful blend of music, pictures, and spoken word. The choir wasn't the focus, just the music for the pictures and the soloists. Ryan was the Pharisee soloist, and I was the Samaritan Woman soloist. We had lots of fun.

Later in December, we went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert. David Archeletta and Michael York were the guest performers. It was a fun and cold evening, like every year. We really enjoy going to the performances with our family.

After Christmas, Mike's family was able to come spend some time at my parent's house. Mike and Kylie actually had to leave after about a week, but Kristine and the boys stayed for a week or so after that. The girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. One day, the kids all played outside with Mike, in the snow. My parent's have a small hill in their backyard, and Mike made a little trail so the kids could slide down. I'm sure glad Mike stayed out there with them, and played. It was too cold for me, and Elayna came in after just a short while.

On Dec 23 we got an ultrasound of the baby. She's a girl!! We are excited to meet her. Here is a picture showing how agile she is. Maybe she will be a gymnast. (For those that don't look at ultrasound pictures very often, her head is on the bottom, and her legs are parallel with her head and neck.)



Some fun things the girls said:

I asked Katie-How long do I have to stay here?
Katie-For a couple of whiles

Grandma Paula told Katie to go to bed. Elayna asked "Shall Elayna too?"

Katie wasn't sure what to think of all this Santa Claus talk. She asked me once who put the stuff in the stockings? Was it Santa Claus, or maybe just the mom's put it in. She decided that it was the Mom's, but then the next day or two she was talking to someone else, and said something that meant she thought Santa Claus was real, so I don't know what she finally decided about Santa Claus.

It just amazes me when I stop and look at my girls. They are so beautiful!! I love them so much!
Katie:


Elayna: