Christmas 2008!

Christmas was a busy time for us this year. It started with Evan helping decorate. He got a little pre-occupied with the ribbons.

Then there were days of trying to keep Evan away from the tree....

We got to see Santa come to town on a fire truck!

Evan sat on Santa's lap at the local fire station.

He even got to sit in a fire truck with Daddy!

We had a good time, thanks to our good neighbor, the fireman.

Christmas morning started early at Grandma's. I mean like 5 am early. My mom was so excited, she decided we all needed to get up when Evan stirred just a bit.

It was fun though. Santa brought Evan lots of cute toys, and he didn't seem to mind the early hour.

Next, we went to Grandpa's for a little horse back riding.
Then we wrapped up the day with a family party at aunt Sarah's. We had a blast!

All in all, it was a bit exhausting. My boys were pooped.

Cancun Baby!!!

We got to spend the week before Thanksgiving on the beach in Cancun. We stayed at the Royal Sands, where even the ash trays are fit for royalty. Patrick's family has a few time shares so a bunch of us were able to go. There were 28 people in our group. We had a blast. Here are some of the pictures from our trip.

Evan and his cousin, Owen, playing in the sand.

Evan loved the parots at the auquarium.

Evan floated all over the pool in his turtle. See his little legs sticking out the bottom? He kicked around the pool like a motor boat. It was so cute!

Patrick and his brother burried their mom and aunt in the sand. They got out just before a wave came gushing over this spot.

You can see our beach-front balcony in the upper left of this picture. It was so awesome! You could literally throw a stone into the ocean from our room. Talk about luxury! We got spoiled this trip.

We all took a trip on the bus to Wal Mart. Now that was an adventure. Patrick's grandma said you can't get the feel of Mexico without a trip to Walmart. The bus was crouded and had Mexican music blaring loudly. It was fun to go and see how different everything is in Mexico. For example, milk comes in cardboard boxes that are not refrigerated. Hmm...sounds a bit scary. We bought some for our cereal and we are still alive, so I guess it's okay. :)

One of Evan's favorite things about Cancun was eating the beach. That's right, I said "eating."

The ocean was beautiful and the waves were rough. I tried to let Evan sit on the beach and have the waves come up to his toes. After getting rolled over by a wave a few times, he wasn't sure how much he liked that anymore. Oops. :(

This is the Royal Sands Resort. That round thing in the bottom left corner, is the swim-up bar. You could actually sit at the bar and eat while in the pool. Everyday they had half priced drinks and free chips and salsa for Happy Hour. We drank virgin pina coladas, and chocolate monkeys every single day. Yum!

The ocean was a little rough for him, but Evan had a blast in the pool with his green turtle.

My pictures are a little out of order. This was our first day. We just arrived in Cancun and Evan could not wait to check out the beach. This is how he says, "I am so excited!" I am not sure who was more excited, Evan or his mom.

A Beary Happy Halloween!

Okay, I know I promised everyone that Evan was going to be a turtle this year, but his costume just didn't work out. I ordered it on-line, expecting a Large infant costume, only to receive a 2-4 yrs toddler costume. Oh well, at least I know what he will be next year. Luckily for me, my dad bought Evan some cute teddy bear pajamas to keep Evan warm in my dad's cold house. They made a great Halloween costume. Evan was a huge hit. Everyone told me he was the cutest little bear they had ever seen. I even had a couple strangers taking pictures of him at the "trunk or treat." The picture above is Evan after all the excitement in his Halloween PJ's.

This is my hungry little bear trying his first "Dum Dum." I figured since I went around "trick or treating" for Evan, I should probably let him try one of his candies. I think he liked it. He sucked every bit of candy off the stick, and then cried until I gave in to a second one. Uh oh. What have I started?

Evan and I experienced our first "trunk or treat." I am not sure what I think of it. I guess it is a great idea for little kids, and obviously a safer way to "treak or treat," but what happened to the good old days where kids actually worked for their candy? I remember not being allowed to leave the house until dark, and then practically running through the neighborhood to get to as many houses as we possibly could. By the end of the night, we were cold, hungry, and exhausted. The "trunk or treat" wasn't like that at all. It started promptly at 6 pm. All the neighbors parked in a half circle around the church parking lot, exposing their vehicle trunks to the center. Then the kids jumped out and visited each car for treats. Some adults went with their kids, some stayed at their cars. I went around with Evan for a few minutes, until I felt like I had sufficiently embarassed myself by loading up his bag for me and Patrick. Then I went back to my trunk. In a matter of minutes I had depleated my candy supply. I couldn't believe how many kids were lined up for candy. I hardly set the bucket down before it was gone. Fortunately for me, everyone esle seemed to be out of candy around the same time as me. People were loading up their kids and heading home by 6:20. What the crap? That's it? After all the anticipation, the hours of costume making or shopping, and all you get is twenty minutes of trick or treating. What gives? Okay, I guess it is great if you just have little kids, and you really don't want to be out all night. But seriously, it wasn't even dark yet and we were done. Crazy.........I didn't decorate my trunk, but that's okay. Plenty of people complimented me on my cute 'lil bear. All part of the plan... Hee he.

Evan's not too sure if he likes his nose paint. Aw so cute!

And this is the happy boy, we all know and love -sitting next to Rupert, of course.

Nanna's & Emily's Visit

We were so excited to have Nanna and Emily come visit us this week. Patrick wanted to take them site seing, so we went to Mesa Falls and Cave Falls. Although the Mesa Falls are bigger, we decided that we like the Cave Falls better. You can hike right down next to the falls which makes it a lot more fun.
This is Emily scaling the rocks in the river.

We found this awesome tree that hangs out over the river. We all had to have a chance getting our picture taken on it.

Here's Nanna keeping Evan warm.

It was so fun having Nanna and Em come visit. We can't wait to have them come again.

Hide and Seek

Evan is seven months old this week. I can't believe how big my little boy is getting. We took him to the doctor today and found out that he weighs 21.5 pounds and is 29 inches tall. That means he has grown 2 inches since last month! No wonder he has been so hungry all the time! We have been trying to supplement his diet with formula, but we still can't get him to drink from a bottle. Fortunately, he did learn to drink from a straw. He kept eye balling his parent's Capri Sun drinks, until I finally gave him a sip from the straw. I was amazed at how easily he learned to suck out the juice. Now I give him juice and water out of a cup with a "Capri Sun" straw. We tried sippy cups, and bottles for weeks. I guess we should have tried the Capri Sun first. LOL. Oh and his new trick is blowing bubbles through the straw. I never thought having juice blown all over me by my baby boy could be so cute and funny. I couldn't stop laughing. I love my little boy! I walked into my closet the other day, and noticed a few of my sweaters had fallen from the shelf onto the ground. "Huh? That's weird," I thought.

Turns out Chloe had found a new hiding place. I can't imagine for the life of me what she could be hiding from.

Needless to say, I have found her in some strange places lately. And she thinks no one can see her. He he hee. :)

Our Anniversary!

We took a dirt road and found a secluded little boat dock on the side of the river. It was so serene and majestic there!

For our anniversary, we decided to take a road trip through Idaho. First stop: a beautiful little town called St. Anthony. We stopped in this tiny little town for a Subway sandwich and discovered an awesome swimming area off the river complete with a playground, sand beach, diving board, and water slide. We can't wait to come back and take a swim here in the summer.
This is me and "E" checking out the riverside playground in St. Anthony.
My mom came along this weekend to watch Evan so that Patrick and I could go out for our anniversary. We decided to spend Sunday driving up to Mesa Falls. It was absolutely breath taking!
This is my adorable husband and Evan basking in the mist from the falls.
This is one of the amazing waterfalls at Mesa Falls.

Merry Go Round

Today Nana took us to the Zoo. Evan went on the train and the carousel for his first time. We had a blast!
This is Nana with Evan's cousins Max and Rosie.
And this is Evan's oldest cousin, Lizzy.
I'm not sure who had more fun, me or Evan. :)