Happy Birthday Grandpa Evans

We Love You and Wish You A Very Happy Birthday. Lot's of Hugs and Kisses. See You Soon! Love...Chris, Mimi, Anna, Lukie, Baby and Roxy

Love my days.

Although most of my days are spent cleaning up around the house (and still wondering what I cleaned because it looks exactly the same) I look forward to the moments that make me laugh. The times when I take a break from everything and sit and have lunch with my babies. I love our lunch time conversations. Lukie is usually throwing his food around or refusing to eat what is given to him. I think his favorite phrase is "no eat!" You'd never guess he's a picky eater by his size. In the end after a power struggle he usually complies and eats. Poor guys meal time is not his favorite time. Good thing we have Anna around to keep the mood light. Today we talked about strawberries and pineapple.

Anna: "I'm not eating that!" (pointing to a pineapple)
Me: "Why not?"
Anna: "Because kinapples are poky and I don't eat poky things."
While eating a bowl of strawberries...
Anna: "Mom, I know how Jesus makes these strawberries."
Me: "How?"
Anna: "First he makes the inside and then he makes it red, then he puts all these little dots all over and then he uses glue to stick it all together. The glues for it won't fall apart when we eat them."

And then tonight at dinner...

Lukie actually ate his pizza but it didn't stay down for long. After a few laps around the pizza parlor and some heavy breathing. Chris picked Lukie up in an effort to get out the door and well...Lukies gag-reflex set in and YUP Chris got a face and shirt full of puke. I guess that's just a day in the life of the Evans.

25 Weeks!

How time flies. Really I can't believe how quickly this pregnancy is going by. In the begging I thought it would never end...the nausea, the sickness, the exhaustion but all things considered it's been pretty easy. And now we are counting down the weeks. We have less weeks than more and that's a refreshing thought. Well, I do have my moments of "ahhhh, it's almost time!" and telling myself "you can do this, you can do this" brief moments of freaking out only because of I have c-sections and now I know what to expect. The sounds of the doctors talking you through the surgery, knowing that they are cutting or slicing through my stomach, my insides-outside, the doctor and nurse pushing on my stomach to push the baby down, laying on the operating table knowing (hoping) they are putting my insides back the way they came out, and finally the pain of laughing and coughing for days. Once those freak-out moments are over I go back to enjoying the wonderfulness of this stage of pregnancy-

-Eating whatever I want. Even if it is three scoops of ice cream. So what if I pay for it later, it was sure worth it.

-Taking naps in the middle of the afternoon. I love climbing into bed knowing Chris will watch the kids. So nice he works from home. Truly a blessing.
-Being lazy whenever I want. I have to say I keep up most tasks but sometimes if I let something slip through the cracks (laundry, dishes, vacuuming) I just blame it on "being pregnant."
-Feeling the baby move. Oh I just LOVE it. She is constantly reminding me she's in there! Sometimes I don't appreciate it at 2am but none the less it's wonderful.
-Having all the girls in Young Women's giggle and want to touch my tummy. It's also a perk when they tell me how cute I am pregnant. I get more "your cute" when I'm pregnant. Self esteem booster.
-Seeing Anna notice my tummy growing and now referring to her as "one of them." Tonight Anna said she wanted me to snuggle with her in my bed. So taking ever opportunity given I hopped into bed with her and Lukie not wanting to be left out joined in the snuggling. I hugged them both and said "I love snuggling my two little babies" and Anna replied "mom it's three little babies."
-Swollen feet. Hate how they look but always gives me an excuse to sit down and rest. Gotta love that!
-Oh! Oh! Baby shower. I love a good party. What will my mom and aunt come up with this time. I know I have a few ideas in mind.
-The only thing I crave is this...

Please! Please! Please!

OK so the story goes...if you call a name it's yours. Well, it just so happens that we picked a name and my brother called it a few years ago. I don't remember the conversation but he said it happened, so I believe him. Well the problem is I LOVE it and he won't give it up! Anna loves it and Lukie can say it. This is our final plea for the name. Really it's not we won't give up that easily. Aarie how can you say NO to these adorable faces????

It's complicated.

I was talking to my aunt on the phone tonight and she told me that a friend she hadn't spoken to in a few weeks told her that their life was complicated.
I thought about that for a minute and in the midst of what I was doing I decided that I was very grateful for the fact that the most complicated thing in my life right now was
Deciding what three flavors to choose for my triple scoop of Thrifty ice cream, how I was going to carry my purse, two half gallons of ice cream and my triple scoop to the car and then trying to figure out how to eat a triple scoop, drive and talk on the phone at the same time.
In retrospect, three scoops was probably one to many.

These shoes were made for walking...

...and squatting,

...and climbing,

and playing,
and dancing!

How sweet it is to be a child. To go through life just dancing and twirling. To be innocent and free. To flutter around with no cares or worries. To really, really believe you are a princess. These are the times I watch our babies in amazement of their innocence and purity. These moments make me smile.

Our Little Sunbeam...

Well we have come upon another milestone. Our sweet baby girl has graduated from nursery class to primary. As of Sunday she is officially a Sunbeam. She has been looking forward to this transition for many months. Mostly because she gets to see her friend Leah again in sharing time. Although she was excited she was a bit hesitant about leaving Lukie alone in nursery. They have been in the same class for the last six months and we are always reminded by her teacher, Sister Tuttle, that Anna really looks after Lukie. Right after sacrament meeting Anna turned to Lukie and began to explain to him that she would not be going to nursery with him because she was a big girl now and had to go to primary. Not that he understood a word but he willing took her hand when she offered to walk him to class. Lukie was obvious at first that he was going in without her. However, according to Sister Tuttle, Lukie had a rough day without Anna. After a few minutes he was looking for her and calling her name. He even cried. It makes me happy that they have such a bond. When I picked up Anna from her class all she wanted to do was go and pick up Lukie from nursery. As soon as they saw each other there were BIG hugs and a sweet "hey dude, I missed you!" from Anna.

Northstar at Tahoe

The Saturday after Christmas we spent the day at Northstar with my family. It was kinda spur of the moment decision. We had decided the night before we were not going to go because the kids were kind of sick but them in the morning we decided to just get in the car and go. Good thing we did because we had so much fun and were able to spend a few more hours with my brothers before they headed back to Salt Lake. It been years since I'd been to Northstar and boy has it changed. It's like it's own little city. There is even a Mikuni there. YEAH! for us. Aaron and Andrew spend the day snowboarding and Mom, Mike and Ryan hung out on the property shopping and eating. We arrived around 3pm walked around for a bit and then meet up at Mikuni for dinner. After dinner we did a bit of shopping and then found a nice spot by the fire pits. Chris and my brothers took Anna ice skating. I wasn't sure if she like it. I was wrong about that! She loved it. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that she had to do none of the work. She just glided along while someone held her up. The boys didn't like it because they were doing all the work. They were all great sports and took turns taking Anna around the rink.

Lukie playing with Aaron's IPhone.

Playing in the snow.

"I want to go again!"

Christmas Delievries

One of our families traditions is to make and deliver Christmas treats to our friends. I try to get them out a couple of weeks before Christmas but this year I was running behind schedule. Go figure. I'm starting to remind myself of my mom. No offense to her but I usually plan things out really well and keep on track. Not this year I was late doing everything. I even Christmas shopped on Christmas Eve. Not only that but I can't even take credit for making the cookies. Lupe came over and made them for me. I guess this pregnancy is wearing me out more than I'd like to think. Other than making our deliveries just a couple of days before Christmas we spent the evening together baking and creating.

This year we delivered cookies and monogrammed ornaments.

I needed another idea for some families that we didn't get a chance to deliver to for Christmas. When ever I need a cute idea I just ask Joy. She didn't fail me. She shared a cute Peanut Butter Smores recipe with me a few weeks ago. With that idea I put my own twist on it and delivered them for New Year's. I packed the cookies, chocolate bars, marshmallow and because it was New Year's Eve that I delivered them I added a bottle of sparkling apple cider and a tag that said "Midnight Snack." I thought they came out super cute and the families loved them!

Don't they look yummy! 15 seconds in the microwave and you have a yummy, gooey, melted pile of pure heaven!

Another must try. For your family or as a gift.

Hummmmm? What to do next year. If I start thinking about it now maybe I'll get them out on time next year.

Christmas 2008

Like in years past it is tradition for the family to spend Christmas Eve at our home. Usually Grammy make posole but this year because she wasn't feeling up to it Lupe, Charo and I had to try our hand at it. We surprised our selves when it turned out pretty good. The only problem was that mom and Charo bought a different brand of chili than Grammy usually buys and one of the pots of posole was really spicy. Good thing for the other two pots that we didn't add chili too. After dinner we spend the evening watching movies, playing games and talking. One of my favorite things about Christmas is having my family over and enjoying their company. I love when our home is full of family...by no means is it a quite peaceful night. It's usually very loud and crazy but we always make our time together fun. Lot's of laughs. I can't believe this year we even were able to take a picture of everyone. No one really wanted to but thanks to my mom she got everyone to pose for about two minutes.

Aaron and Ryan made it home this year for Christmas.
After dinner and dessert we opened presents. Watching Anna and Lukie gets so excited was a thrill for everyone.

As I've posted before, Anna loves everything princess. She was thrilled when she opened this pair of Belle slippers.

Tia Charo and Uncle Albert gave Lukie a Mickey Mouse shirt and we couldn't get him to take it off for two days.

Can't forget about Pollie...he even got some presents.

Tia Lily gave Anna her very first Porcelain doll. Anna loved it but couldn't quite figure out why I wouldn't let her open it. "It's just a big barbie" she kept saying. Finally I convinced her it was made of glass and it was very special. I'm curious to see how long before she remembers we have the doll in the closet and wants to open it.

Christmas morning we went to my mom's bright and early to open presents. Anna couldn't wait to get over there because that's where Santa had delivered her presents.

Lukie enjoyed a candy cane shaped bagel from Noah's. I thought these were so cute. Next year I'll have to buy more.

My mom bought me this really cute necklace from my favorite store in Utah. Usually I like to be surprised with my gifts but I was happy to have picked this one out when we were together in Utah a few months ago. "Junk Fairy" is perfect for me because I love anything whimsical and lot's of cute things that clutter up my life!

Anna has been wanting a tea set so I found this cut porcelain set but came in a ugly plastic box. I went over to Michael's and bought a wood box and with some modge podge, paint, sparkles and cute pink paper I created my own little box. I was surprise at how excited she was when she opened it. She thought it was so fancy.

Mom bought Mike a new IPhone. He was so happy.

Andrew was a bit concerned that he had opened up a box with a pineapple in it. He looked at it for a couple of minutes and it wasn't until Aaron pointed out that the stem of the pineapple was filled with $20 dollar bills that Andrew got excited about the pineapple. Leave it to my mom to think of something so silly. The ironic thing was that at the same time Andrew was opening the pineapple, Anna was opening the XBox360 and said "mom this isn't mine!" Before Andrew notice the money in the pineapple he was dying because Anna had gotten an XBox and he had gotten a pineapple. It all turned out well and that money filled pineapple turned out to be enough for Andrew to buy his IPhone.

Lukie LOVES Kung-Fu Panda. Really! he does. He would watch it all day long if we let him. Sometimes he even sleeps with the DVD case.

Guess Santa reads the blog because he got me my Tiffany necklace!

After presents Mom had everyone over to her house for Christmas Brunch. Thanks to Lupe for making brunch. It's funny how she always ends up cooking. Good thing she loves cooking because we love eating.