Current Evans Events—January 2014

It’s hard to believe the first month of 2014 is already over!  Here are a few randoms from a nice month.

Isaac got a Captain America belt for Christmas, Lee was supposed to get a Superman one but it didn’t get here in time.  Boy was Isaac excited when he saw that Lee had a superhero belt too when it finally came. 

He especially loves it when they both wear them to church!

I love my handsome boys.

I am always sad when it’s time to take Christmas down.  Before we took it all down I got in one more Christmas craft, again a little late!

I put Emma to work wrapping our Christmas books for next year.  She loves this job!  (ok, not really)

We enjoyed the most beautiful sunset one night as we drove to a friend’s house for a party.  I couldn’t resist taking a picture.  What a beautiful world we live in!

Isaac and Grace were killing me one day while we were grocery shopping.  They were being super silly and crazy.  They may be twins, but they will never be able to get away with switching places even if they trade accessories!

I love scenes like this:

I finished reading The Wizard of Oz to Isaac and Grace.  To celebrate we watched the movie with some special treats.  Red licorice for the ruby slippers (although in the book they are actually silver), over the rainbow fruit salad, munchkin carrots, yellow brick road chocolates, and wicked witch guacamole and witch hat chips. 

The twins loved it, both the treats and the movie!  They were quick to point out the differences between the book and the movie and we had a good discussion about how it’s always best to read the book before you see the movie!

Grace all of a sudden decided that she really wanted to learn how to ride a two-wheeler so Lee got out there to try and help her make that happen.

I loved how Isaac would ride along beside her and shout out encouragements and give her high fives.

She had a couple good runs, but she isn’t quite there yet.  Still needs to work a little on her balance and build her confidence.  Hopefully we will be able to get out more often when the weather warms up.

Gracie and I had a date to see the local dance studio’s ballet production of Alice in Wonderland.  Unfortunately it was sold out and we didn’t get in.  We were both bummed but I told Grace we could go get a treat instead.  I was thinking a small ice cream or something, but she immediately brightened and asked if we could go to the store and pick out treats for Emma and Isaac.  This sweet little girl is always thinking of others and how she can make them happy.  I was proud of her that night and her sister and brother were happy with the treats!

We had the driest, sunniest January that I can remember which meant more time than usual playing outside.  Isaac and Grace have loved playing soccer in the street.

Speaking of soccer, Emma started playing Indoor soccer in January.  It’s pretty low key with only one practice and a game every Saturday for 8 weeks.  We decided she could handle that along with swimming right now.  Their only practice didn’t really prepare them for the fast pace of their first game.  Indoor soccer is different and much faster than outdoor.  The first game was against a much more experienced boys team and they got slaughtered!  Emma really enjoyed it though and they learned a lot so hopefully the rest of the games will be better!  I was looking forward to nice warm games since it’s indoors, but the facility is FREEZING cold.  Darn.

I got a good deal on a bunch of rubber bands for the bracelet loom, but they came with all the colors mixed together.  Isaac started sorting them on his own.  Soon Grace joined him, and then I did too.  It was mindless fun!  We sorted a lot of rubber bands!

Isaac spent a little time with Lee at the Rust’s office.  He came home convinced that he wants to work for Vic Rust as well as Dave Gibb when he gets older.  He also came home with his very own safety hood and safety glasses which he wore for several days. 

Lee and I love it when we get a chance to play Ticket to Ride with each other on our phones.  It’s nice to be able to snuggle up and play on the couch instead of at the table.  Emma has started joining us and was thrilled when she finally won. 

Lee was still on school break during January so it was nice to have him home during the days (he still worked at night).  One morning Isaac and Grace gave us a nice puppet show.  Glad I could enjoy it with Lee. 

The kids love that they can play with him during the day.  He is so good to play and rough house with them.  It will be sad when he goes back to school.

Is there anything better than a Sunday nap?  I don’t think so.  We are loving morning church again.  It’s so nice to have time for a nap after church and still have time for family time the rest of the day.  Love it!

Isaac and Grace got their very own blocks of wood for hammering nails and screwing in screws.  Isaac especially loved the work!

I had the problem of too many books and not enough time.  I hate it when a bunch of books I’ve had on hold all come in at the same time!  The books in the stack next to bed are calling my name…

 

I started running in the mornings three days a week with a new girl in our ward.  We are doing the Couch to 5k program.  I don’t consider myself a runner, and I really don’t like it, but I am excited to start this.  I have really enjoyed getting to know Laurel and it’s been nice to have somebody to keep me accountable.  We shall see how this goes!

My sister Kristin reminded me that I have never made German pancakes for my kids.  I loved them when I was young and I can’t believe I’ve never made them as an adult.  Isaac and Grace were amazed at how it puffed up in the oven. 

When it was done Emma exclaimed “that’s not a pancake, it’s a trough!”.  That’s pretty much exactly what it looked like!  It was yummy though and the kids are excited to have it again.

We didn’t get to the library in January as often as we usually do.  When we finally did go and got a big bag of books for the twins, they were in heaven.  I love it when they just sit and look at books happily for a long time.  A new stack of books from the library will do that!  Wish I could join them…

They sure like books!

There was much anticipation in our house for the Lego Pinewood Derby at church.  The whole week before Isaac and Grace built miniature versions and raced them down the couch cushions.

Emma and I were on our book date the night of the derby, but we dropped in at the end.  Lee and the twins were having a great time and they raced lots of cars.  The perfect thing for our Lego lovers.

Emma and her friends weren’t as interested in the Lego building.  I found a million silly pictures like this one on my phone.  Such lovely young women!  :)

Finally, Lee and Emma cut this comic out for me.  Made me laugh.  Between what has to be done and what I want to get done I don’t think I ever get bored! 

Annual Mother-Daughter Book Date

It is no surprise that Emma beat me in our annual book reading competition.  The stats for 2013?  Emma read 90 books and 34,032 pages.  I read 70 books and 22,496 pages.  Yah, she beat me.  Four of her books were from the Wheel of Time series and were 800+ pages.  Funny story, she was desperately trying to finish a Wheel of Time book before the end of the year.  2013 ended and she only had 20 pages left in that darn book!  All 800 some odd pages ended up on the 2014 list.  Phew, she could have beat me even more!  Actually, I’m pretty impressed with my showing this year.  I was quite surprised that I was able to read that much.  Every year I just get busier and busier, how do I have time to read that many books?  Then I realized that 2013 was the first full year that we had a treadmill.  I get a good chunk of time to read when I am walking every morning.  In fact, that time to read keeps me motivated to get on there in the early morning hours!  Anyway, as the loser I got to treat Emma to an evening out, a new book and a Blizzard. 

Emma is much like me when it comes to buying books.  She only wants to buy a book that she really likes and wants to keep, not something that she’s never read or doesn’t know if its going to be good or not.  That’s what the library is for.  She spent most of the time taking pictures of books that she wants to read, in fact when we got home she got right on the computer and put a ton on hold at the library. 

She finally decided on Ender’s Game.  A book she has read and loved. Lee and I took her to see the movie last year, so it also has a fun memory attached to it.   

We headed to Dairy Queen for her celebratory Blizzard after she finally chose a book.

Selfies may or may not have happened while we were at Dairy Queen accompanied with a lot of giggles and laughing fits.

Oh how I love my Emma Mae and that we can share our love of books together.  Good job Emma for another win!

Preschool Fire Station Field Trip

Our little preschool took a field trip to the fire station. 

Isaac and Grace have been to the fire station many times, but they always love to get a close-up view of what firefighters do.

Isaac was eager to say that he had been in that ambulance!

We are grateful for the firefighters and their work to keep us safe!

Goals for the New Year

It took us awhile, but we finally found the time to sit down as a family and discuss our goals for 2014.  First we went over the goals we had for last year.  We celebrated our successes and talked about the places we needed to improve.  Then we thought ahead through 2014, it could be a big year for us!  Lee will be focused on graduating from nursing school and starting grad school.  Emma will be starting high school.  The twins will be starting kindergarten.  I will be trying to survive it all, including the 7 Sunbeams I am teaching in Primary this year.  Whew.  So with all that in mind we made our goals for the new year.  After we decided what we each wanted to work on we went to the stairs and discussed that we couldn’t make it all the way to the top in one big step, just like we couldn’t accomplish our goals without little steps along the way.  We each chose a goal and decided on all the little steps that needed to be taken to accomplish it and make it to the top.

Of course Lee tried to cheat.  It didn’t work.

Then we hung our goals where we could see them easily and be reminded of what we are working on.  Isaac and Grace were especially excited to have a new list posted by their beds.   We’ve also started new scripture studying.  After studying Preach My Gospel and conference talks with Emma last year, we have started reading the Book of Mormon again this year.   The twins and I are reading the Old Testament selections from The Friend.  Isaac got to color in the first spot on the chart which was Noah’s face.  He colored the nose a little darker than he wanted, but he explained to me later that Noah forgot to put sunscreen on since they didn’t have any back then so his nose is sunburned.  Ha!

It’s going to be a good year!