Glorious

We had a wonderful string of good weather at the beginning of February, and boy did we enjoy the sunshine!  We spent a lot of time outside which made for tired kids and easy bedtimes.  Definitely an added bonus to sunny days. 

Isaac found a baseball that he threw over and over.  He had such a good time with that ball.  Grace, Lee and I all took turns playing catch with him, but he mostly just threw it and then chased after it himself. 

Grace pushed her baby in her stroller up and down our street and found the sidewalk chalk to do some coloring with.

It was so nice to let them play outside and enjoy basking in the sun (albeit cold sun).

One of those nights I was inside making dinner while Lee was out with the kids.  I heard Isaac exclaim “look Dad, there’s a rainbow in the sky!”.  There wasn’t a rainbow, just a beautiful sunset. 

One day we took a family walk down the logging trail.  It was a nice, slow leisurely walk.  We enjoyed being together and, again, enjoying the sun! 

We had just been talking about shadows because of Groundhogs Day, so it was fun to make funny poses with our shadows.

Isaac and Grace loved standing on the bridge and watching the cars drive under us.

We have had a very mild winter, but we are definitely ready for spring weather!

Family Home Cleaning

Whenever we announce a Family Home Cleaning FHE we hear audible grumbles from our oldest child.  We don’t do them all that often.  Well, they might happen a little more often during the summer months when we get overwhelmed with outside and inside work.  I was feeling overwhelmed with just inside work this January, so decided it was time for a family clean to knock some things of the to-do list.  We had a quick lesson on the importance of work, then we drew jobs.  Lee was lucky enough to get to clean the fridge, Emma got to vacuum and mop the wood floors, I got to wash windows and help Isaac and Grace with their playroom assignment.  Isaac and Grace didn’t think it was enough to clean the playroom and they ended up “dusting” the whole house.  What good little workers!

Emma may not like Family Home Cleaning, but I LOVE it!

Talent

Our ward had a talent show.  Since we are just not as cool as our friends who did fun family acts (you know who you are…), Lee and I chose the easier option and just put our children on the stage. 

Emma had big plans for a video she wanted to produce.  She enlisted Kaitlyn’s help and Djeryd’s videographer skills.  Unfortunately the big plans didn’t quite pan out, and the ideas kept changing.  It got to the 11th hour and Lee and I were pretty sure nothing was going to pull through, but we were wrong.  Emma kept plugging along and came up with a fun little video skit that they practiced, filmed, and then Djeryd and his dad edited all on the day of the talent show.  They used a classic Abbott and Costello skit as inspiration and it turned out pretty cute.  Click on the link below and take a look.

Math Comedy

We were proud of Emma for pulling it together and getting it done even when her parents weren’t so sure.  She did it without help from us!

The other Evans family representative was Grace.  She was so excited to sing her favorite Primary song, the “church song”, on stage.  Of course when she got up there she totally chickened out and wouldn’t sing.  Right when we sat back down she started crying and insisting that she wanted to sing.  So, we went back up a few acts later for another go at it.  She did it and was so cute! 

She had practiced her bow over and over before the actual night, but she forgot that at the end.  That was the cutest part of her act.  Darn it!  Here’s the video.  Excuse the sideways first half.  I always do that when I shoot video from the camera. 

Thank you Emma and Gracie for representing our family!

“Just a Little Bit of Hair Cut”

Gracie’s hair was getting long and she needed a haircut.

Every time we talked about it though she freaked out and said she didn’t want one.  After talking with her a little more we finally realized she thought she was going to get a cut like Isaac’s—really short.  We were able to convince her that we wouldn’t cut it as short as Isaac’s and she slowly warmed up to the idea of a haircut.  However, she insisted that she only get “just a little bit of hair cut”.  I was planning on being brave and cutting it myself (for some reason I am TERRIFIED of cutting hair), but my hair cut lady came to cut Emma’s hair one day and she said she would cut Grace’s while she was at it.  Grace was ok with it, but when the moment came to sit down she got really upset.  I popped in a movie, gave her a sucker and she settled down, insisting again that she only get “just a little bit of hair cut”. 

She did great and was so proud of her hair cut. 

She did end up getting just a little bit of hair cut, in fact you can hardly tell.  I really wish we had gone shorter, but her hair looks much nicer and not so scraggly.  What was funny is that several people that week said how long her hair was getting. They were all surprised when I told them we just cut 2 inches off.  I guess it just looked noticeably better. 

So, that was Grace’s first hair cut.  I’m just glad she still has curls!  Emma’s hair was also way too long and she looks even more beautiful with several inches cut off. 

The best part…I didn’t have to cut any of it myself! 

First Time

Emma was so excited for her first opportunity to visit the temple and perform baptisms for the dead.  What a special experience it was for her and for us.  Both Lee and I were able to go and be with her for her first time.  Lee even got to perform the ordinances of baptism and confirmation with her.  How we love Emma and love to see her growing into such a beautiful young woman.  I hope she always remembers her first trip to the temple.

185 to 52

The prize for the Fourth Annual Evans Mother/Daughter Book Competition goes to…

Emma! 

Of course.  I wonder if I will ever win.  This years stats:

Emma read 185 books with a total of 56,480 pages.

Adrienne read 52 books with a total of 17,045 pages.

Emma is a reading machine.  We still have to tell her to “put that book down” many times a day.  She was a little disappointed that she didn’t hit 200 books this year, but I had to remind her that several of her books were in the 500+ pages range.  She didn’t do too shabby.

There could definitely be worse things for her to be doing, so we will deal with it!  I have said it many times, but I will say it again:  I am so glad that Emma loves to read as much as she does and I love that we can share that interest together.  She read a whole lot over Christmas break. Her class had a competition over the break and they kept track of how many hours they read.  Emma read 69 hours and 12 minutes.  Crazy.  This a pretty typical view of the floor next to Emma’s bed, and shows some of the books she read over the break.

Usually Emma’s prize for winning is a date out with mom and a new book.  This year we decided to go see a movie for our date instead.  It seemed appropriate to see Hugo since it is a book that Emma has read a couple times (in a previous year).  We both really enjoyed it.  I was hoping to read the book before we saw the movie, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on it in time.  I ended up reading the book shortly after we saw it, and for the first time I actually liked it that way. 

After the movie we went to Dairy Queen, Emma’s favorite ice cream spot.

I know I won’t be winning this competition any time soon, but I love the excuse it gives for me to spend some one-on-one time with Emma.  Love that girl!

Sunbeams

Isaac and Grace were so excited to be Sunbeams in Primary this year.  I must admit I was a little worried when they first started coming in to Primary for Singing Time at the end of last year.  They made it a difficult for me to lead the music, but they got better over the month of December.  They have done great since.  They sure make cute little Sunbeams.  I love that I get to be in Primary with them and hear what they are learning, to see them participate and to listen to them sing.  It’s hard to believe they are old enough to be in Primary, it seems like just the other day that we were excited to finally put them in Nursery!

To celebrate their first Sunday as Sunbeams, they got their own bottles of Sunny D. 

After church we shared them with their Sunbeam friends and then they drank them down with their lunch. Too bad Gracie’s didn’t stay in her stomach for very long…

And, just for fun, here are just a few of the many faces of Isaac:

Hello 2012

We crawled into bed a little after 1:00 am after leaving Uncle Howie’s house on New Years Day morning.  Unfortunately, Emma decided to ring in the new year a few hours later by getting a stomach bug.  It wasn’t fun.  I still needed to go to 9:00 am church in the morning, so I went with the twins feeling a little bleary eyed.  Shortly after we got home from church we realized Gracie had the sickness too.  A couple days later Isaac was the lucky one.  Thankfully Isaac and Grace got over it quick, but Emma had a tougher time.  She was able to tack on an extra day of Christmas break though, and we took advantage of it by canceling several things and lazing around watching movies all day.  A rare treat at our house! 

Thankfully they were better in time to go to Lego night at the library later that week and for us to have a fun birthday party at our house for a dear friend in our ward.  Happy Birthday Barbara!

And then we finally took Christmas down.  I put Emma in charge of wrapping the Christmas books for next year.  That was a job I was happy to pass on!

We talked about goals for our New Years Family Home Evening.  One of our family goals is to add more Book of Mormon study to our morning “scripture picture” time.  This chart from the January Friend is the perfect addition to our Book of Mormon study, now we can read a little in the morning and then more in depth at night.  Isaac and Grace were excited to see the first spot colored in.

The kids also filled out these cute questionnaires describing the highlights of 2011 and goals for 2012.  Emma set some good goals for Personal Progress.  Isaac wants to do hard work and be on a baseball team.  Grace wants to learn how to be a mommy and play soccer like Emma.  It was so fun to hear their responses!

We reinforced the step-by-step goal setting idea by playing Candy Land (yeah, kind of a stretch, but it was fun!). 

2012 has gotten off to a good start!

Goodbye 2011

I love the week between Christmas and New Years.  It’s a short work week and kind of slow and lazy.  We’re still riding the Christmas high but without all the stress, pressure and busyness.  As much as I love Christmas, it’s nice to have it done.  I was talking to a friend the other day who commented that Christmas for a mom is a full-time job, so true!  So that week after Christmas is usually a relief.  The day after Christmas this year we went to Grandma Dorothy’s for dinner.  Isaac and Grace were mesmerized by her nativity pyramid. 

They also were busy with new toys throughout the week.  They put on a few puppet shows with the puppets that a sweet friend gave them.

Gracie finally decided that she wanted to wear her princess dress.  She looked so cute!

She spent much of that day in her dress, even colored in at at her new desk.

Isaac and Grace thought their new face plates that La La gave them were hilarious!  They have made many mealtimes fun since.

Lee, Emma, Peter & Kaitlyn went on TWO double-daughter dates that week.  They had great seats for two Winterhawks games.  Thank you Peter & Kaitlyn!

Lee spent some time working on his car and his little helpers fixed their “cars” up too.  If Lee is doing anything in the garage, Worker Isaac is sure to be out there with him.

We spent New Years Eve at Uncle Howie’s house.  No pictures, but we had fun evening eating, playing games and chatting with the family.  2011 was a good year, not wonderful but not bad.  We are happy and excited to welcome new adventures 2012!