Grandma and Grandpa Mann

We had the wonderful opportunity to go and visit Evan't great grandparent's. Grandma Mann cooked us a delicious lunch and we had a blast visiting and getting to know them better. Grandpa Mann showed us some of the great memorabilia he's collected, and told us a bit about his fascinating life and his travels. Grandma Mann showed us some of her amazing needle point art. Evan had so much fun playing with them and getting to know them better. We can't wait to go visit again!

Evan's 1st Birthday Party!!!!

Evan had his first Birthday party on March 5th at his great Grandparent's house. He had tons of family and friends come to help him celebrate. Almost all of his cousins, grandparents, great grandparents, and aunts and uncles were there. It was an awesome party, and Evan got spoiled with tons of great gifts. Thank you to everyone that helped make Evan's first birthday so great! I am pretty sure Evan had a good time. :)


Mmmm cake!!!
So many toys.....so little time........
I'm not sure who was more excited about the toys, Evan or Daddy.


This was my first attempt at cake decorating. Evan loves music so I made him a guitar cake. Thank goodness my mom was there to help! It was more difficult than it looks.
Ahh.....Evan's all time favorite toy, ribbon.


Yay! More ribbon!!

Mom's the Word

Okay, so I am not the best blogger. It has been ages since I've updated. Sorry. Obviously a lot has happened since my last post. Evan started crawling shortly after Cancun and has been getting into everything! He recently started standing up on his own. We're thinking that he will be walking before his first birthday. It's so much fun to have our little mover crawling all over.

He has also been talking up a storm! His first word was "Dadda," which he has been saying for months now. Since then, he has added "kitty" (which sounds more like "Key" pronounced in two syllables), "up," "apple," "uh oh," and my favorite "mamma." Those are the only words that come out perfectly clear, but I swear he is saying full blown sentences and we just don't understand them yet. This morning I heard him talking to the kitty through the baby gate. I swear he was saying "hiya kitty," over and over again. I've also heard him proclaim proudly as clear as day, "I did it!" Although he hasn't repeated that sentence, I think he deserves credit for that one. It's not often that baby babbling comes out sounding like pefect English.

His favorite toys are the kitty, the toilet, the garbage can, any reachable cupboard or drawer, the dishwasher, and the heating vents. I actually found him the other day with the vent cover on his lap and both legs down in the vent. Apparently he thought it was the perfect heated seat for him. Needless to say, I keep the vents taped down now. I have also removed all the doorstoppers from our house. He discovered they were fun to spring back and forth, and even more fun to unscrew from the wall and eat.

Speaking of eating, he loves to eat grown up food. He wants whatever we are eating, no matter what that may be. This is great, because we don't have to buy him baby food much anymore. It's bad, because his parents tend to eat a lot of junk that probably isn't the best for a growing baby. He sure loves his ice-cream though! Everytime he sees someone eating ice-cream his whole boddy tenses and shakes with excitement. That's his non-verbal way of saying, "Give me some now, and no one gets hurt!" If that doesn't work, he just starts yelling. Wow, we've trained him well. Yikes.

We love our little guy. He's quite the handfull, but personally I think he gets more fun everyday. Who knew having a kid could be this much fun? :)

Angel Baby

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.