Quotes, Water, Toys, and Beauty

On Sunday, Katie just amazed me with her beauty. And since we had a minute or two before we had to be to church (for once), I took some pictures. I think this one is the best:


And Elayna's feelings on the matter of posing for a picture:



I've been eating string cheese lately. It is usually an on-the-go snack, so I just eat it in bites while driving. Katie was at her cousin's house, and they had string cheese. The next time we had some, she asked if she could have her cheese like Nathaniel did-like a banana? Then I understood that she wanted to pull it apart (like peeling a banana) so it was all stringy. Cute.

Elayna is practicing standing by herself now. She will push herself up, then say "tada!". She is also walking around using furniture a lot more. She doesn't seem interested in walking yet. But the other day I saw her supporting herself on the wall as she "walked" down the hall. She will get it eventually.

Katie was asking us last week at the Bowman's house if we could go outside and throw around the roast beef. What? Roast Beef, you know, that is flat and has lots of things on it? Grandma finally had to translate for me. She wanted to play frisbee.

Elayna was crawling around in the bathroom, playing with the tub toys while I read a book to Katie. We heard a thunk, and realized she had fallen into the tub! Luckily there wasn't any water, and she didn't act like it hurt at all. She was just surprised.

Ryan is such a bad influence on Elayna! Pepsi! She is only one year old!



Oh, it is caffeine-free? Okay, I guess that is alright. :)

The other day, at my parent's pool, I was helping Katie get out. I had taken her water wings off while she was standing on the steps. I got her towel, turned around, and saw her in the middle of the pool, without wings on! Her head was barely above water, and I think she was right on the edge between the shallow and deep ends. She can touch the bottom of the shallow end, but her head is mostly underwater. It looked like she was maybe touching, (as we analyzed the situation after the fact) but of course I jumped back in and grabbed her. I gave her a fairly good lecture, and she didn't act like it was that big of a deal.

Well. That night, after she was in bed, she just started crying, and saying she wanted her Dad. I went in and asked her what was wrong. She said she "was never going to go into the pool without wings again. Sorry." I realized it must have scared her more than I thought. I reassured her that she would have been fine. I was right there, and she could almost touch. She calmed right down and went to sleep.
How do you get the right balance between scaring them so they don't do it again, and not scaring them so bad they have nightmares? Tough.

Katie does love being in to pool though. Her and Abby (her cousin) love to jump in together. In fact, Katie will start counting while she is running around the edge so she can jump in at exactly the same time as Abby, whether Abby knows it or not.

Ryan likes to collect toys. See?
One of the best things about this is his joy in receiving said toys. Katie and Ryan (and sometimes Elayna) will take pictures of the "guys", then open them, take more pictures, and then they get to play with them. I liked how this picture showed Ryan posing and playing with his newest toy while Katie looked on:


I guess he was hanging the guy from the mirror as though the figure was rappelling down the side of a cliff or something. It is very cute how Ryan will pose and examine and sometimes play with his figures. He doesn't JUST collect them for their history, articulation, and size. I am reminded, once again, that he collects them because they are toys.

Elayna's first birthday!

We had a birthday party for Elayna. For some reason, I don't have any pictures of her eating the cupcake, but I'm working on getting that. We had so much family there, it was great! That is what I remember most about my birthdays - having my grandparents and extended family there with my family.

This is Elayna standing all by herself:

She will walk if we hold one of her hands. She still hasn't attempted to walk by herself. Katie can sometimes lead her around by holding both her hands.

Elayna's stats for 1 year old: 19 pounds and 29 inches tall. She is healthy and on track. The doctor didn't have any concerns.

Elayna is completely weaned from breastfeeding as of Aug 19th. Hurray! As I was telling Ryan, now I can leave for as long as I'd like, because I don't have to be back at a certain time to feed her. It is very freeing. She loves her bottle, and gets so happy when she sees it warming up. The other night I was heating up some food for Katie, but Elayna was so tired. She heard the microwave, and came over so excited! She was pretty upset when she realized the contents of the microwave were not for her. Elayna only wakes up once in a 12 hour period at night to eat. That is also very nice.

Some of Elayna's favorite things are: babies, balls, playing with Katie, saying Hi to Katie, talking to Katie, laughing with Katie, following Katie around, and watching Katie. They have been playing together outside while I weed. Let me rephrase that. Elayna follows Katie around until Katie finally gives in and lets Elayna have whatever Katie took away from her. Then it all starts over again. I think I might have actually weeded for about 15 minutes without interruption the other day!

Elayna says, "thank you" when she wants you to take something from her. She loves to point, and loves that she can convey the idea that she wants what she is pointing at.

This is supposed to be a picture of her teeth, but you can only see the top 2. Her 4th tooth on the top came in on the 20th. The grand total is now 6. Katie didn't have any teeth when she turned one.


Katie was upset last week, and as I told her to get out of the car, I heard those awful words, "I hate you!". I was, of course, a little shocked, but mostly mad. I came back over to her, and asked her, "What did you say?". She refused to say it again, seeing as I was so upset. Then I told her she needed to apologize to me. After about 30-45 mins of tantrums, screaming, yelling, spankings, scoldings, explaining that it hurt my feelings, hugs, kisses, and holding her on my and Ryan's lap, she finally did apologize. I actually had been dreading this moment in my life. I knew that one day, my child would say those words to me, and I spent many nights crying and worrying about it. Now that it is over, I think that it will hurt more when she is older, but we will probably be fighting, so maybe it won't be as bad as I've imagined?

Anyways, I remember, ONCE, I said those words in reference to my mother. I was in my room, in the basement. I remember waiting until I KNEW she had gone upstairs, gone outside, and driven away. Still, after I yelled those words, I was immediately filled with remorse and shame. Even now, thinking about it, it makes me want to cry. How could I have ever felt that way about my wonderful mother?

Katie certainly has a mind of her own:

This is the middle of August, and what does she decide to wear? Her snowboots, gloves, hat and a newborn crocheted jacket. So strange.

On Friday morning Katie came into our bedroom at about 7:15 am (I think. I was kind of asleep). She reached down and turned on our sound machine, and told Ryan, "Shh. Go back to sleep". She quietly shut our door, then went into my computer room, closed that door, opened an internet browser, found the bookmark for Sesame Street, turned up the volume, and played games/watched videos until we came and told her to stop. Then she asked if I wanted her to "lock" the computer and she proceeded to do so. Amazing. This is what happens if I don't lock my computer screen so she can't do anything on the computer.

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!