Birthday Party and Family Fun

I can't believe it is almost two years since my little Buddy Boy was born. We had a birthday party for him and his couin Carter, whose birthday is Sept.1st, and his Uncle James, whose birthday is Sept.5th. Evan's actual birthday is on the 12th-but still, it made me, once again, think that time moves way to fast. We went to Kari and James' new place in Salt Lake.

Singing Happy Birthday to Evan

Singing Happy Birthday to Carter.

And last but not least, singing happy birthday to James.


It was a fun night. All day long, Chad and I were debating whether we wanted to go or not. We went back and forth on the idea, but we decided that we should go. And I am so glad we did. I have heard it said that where God closes a door, he opens a window. And Chad's family is my open window. When I look at them, I don't see in-laws, I see people who love me and care about me. I see family.



I am lucky to have them. Chad and I thought it would be fun to bring our bouncy house with us, and it really was fun. Little kids and not-so-little kids (James) had fun playing in it. There were so many fun pictures, It was hard to pick just a few, but you can totally tell that it was a lot of fun. Evan waited untill it was empty, and then he bounced in it (smart kid) and Lauren was terrified to go in there with so many big kids. She said it was "to crazy for little girls."



Evan is just like "I'll Chill here where it is safe."





At one point, my nephew D.J just flew over the top of it and landed on the ground just outside the bouncy house. How no one broke there neck, I just don't know! chad thought it would be funny to turn off the fan while people were still in there. It actually was pretty funny.


Haha. It was a fun night. It is not everynight that you get to spend with a multitude of people who know your faults and love you anyway.






But alas, all good things, like this blog post for instance, must come to an end. We had to pack up our bouncy house. I think that the big kids had more fun getting all the air out of the bouncy house so we can put it into it's bag, then they had actually bouncing on it.




Now remember, these are all husbands and fathers! Yeah, boys, they never grow up. And we love them so much for that. I didn't really get all emotional at the birthday party, because to me Evan isn't 2 yet. Just wait untill his actual birthday and I am sure that I will cry. Or, maybe I was just having to much fun to cry.

All about Evan

I wrote all the cute things that Lauren has said recently, so I thought I would write a little something about Evan. He doesn't talk much yet, but there are things about this time in his life that I just don't want to forget.

Evan is the happiest little guy ever. He always has a smile on his face and he is always happy to do whatever anyone ealse wants-he is just content to be there. Every monrning when I get him out of bed, he laughs when he sees me and says "Hi". He laughs when I get him out of bed and laughs when he sees the dog waiting for him. He laughs when I put him in his high chair for breakfast and he laughs when I bring him his food. If he asks for something and I guess right like "Oh buddy, you want your sippy cup"-he laughs! He is just such a delight to have and so sunny all the time. The only time he gets cranky is when he is hungry (then I bring him his food and he laughs) or tired (then I put him in his crib and he laughs). He makes taking care of him easy and fun.

Evan also loves music. He will sing in Walmart for a long time. Just nodding his head from side and side and cooing some tune that I have no idea what it is, but it sounds sooooo adorable!! If he is fussy for any reason, all I have to do is start to sing and he will stop and listen. When we were in Las Vegas, Evan was having a hard time at night settling down and sleeping somewhere other then his crib. All I would do is sing him different songs untill he feel asleep. One of his favorite things to do at night is grab his sippy cup full of milk and climb onto Chad's lap while Chad is on the computer. Chad will put head phones on Evan and play him some music off his computer while Chad plays his computer games. Evan will just lay there for the longest time, completly relaxed, just listening to music. And it could be anything form country to punk rock, he just loves music. I keep telling myself that I need to get him a CD player for his room so I can play him some music as he falls asleep, but I always forget.




Evan also loves to draw. He has more fun with a pen and paper then with a bat and ball. He will scribble on a sheet of paper for a long time too. If I have a pen and papaer in the car, he will just scribble away for as long as I need to drive. We went to Wheeler Farm recently, and the whole way down, Evan was drawing. Maybe Evan will be all creative and artistic. But what ever he grows up to be, he will always be my little buddy boy!

He loves his sister. His face lights up when ever she comes into a room. He follows her around everywhere and trys to do everything that she does. If Lauren hurt her hand, Evan will point to his hand and say "aowie." When Lauren gives him a hug, he just melts into her. He looks at Lauren as if she hung the moon for him. And I think that Lauren can feel it from him because she trys to protect him and help him. She fills her role of the big sister very well and takes it seriously.

Every night when it is time for bed, I tell Evan "lets go night-night." He imediatly drops to his knees and folds his arms. I love it. Sometimes when I don't feel like saying prayers because it was a stressful day, I look at my kids. Evan will be two years old on September 12th and he is teaching me already. He knows you say your prayers at night and he gets upset if we skip that part of the night time ritual.

Evan has such a sensitive heart. He loves animals very much. At the duck pond, he want to follow all the ducks into the water. At the zoo, he just can't contain his excitment! He loves it. At wheeler farm, he would rather look at the bunnies then the tractors. He loves Radley so much. He will lay on Radleys stomache at night and drink his bottle. Radley totally lets him do it too. He talks all softly when he talks to our "tee-tees" (kittys) or to "aaadee" (Radley). The people at Chad's work call Evan "Hurk" (for hurcules) because the kid is build like a football player. I think it is so funny that he should be build so soild and have such tender little soft heart.




I love Evan so much. I can go on and on about how much I love this kid. He really is just so full of happiness all the time. He makes me smile right along with him. I would have 10 kids if I were certin that their temperments would be the same as Lauren's and Evan's. I know I have real easy-going kids. I feel very lucky to be there mom.

Lauren-isms

Lauren always says the cutest things! And she really is so intelligent. So her trying to use big words in her little voice is so funny!! I always tell Chad the cute things she said through out the day and he always tells me to please write it down. To wich I reply that of couse I will write it in her book right away. Only to find that two days later with a pen in hand and her little baby book open-I have writers block! Ahhh! But latly, I have been running right to the wipe board in our kitchen and jotting down her funny little moments so I not only remember to lavish tells of all things Lauren onto Chad the moment he walks in the door from work, but I can also remember when I go to write it in her baby book. So to all my blog readers out there, I am first going to appologize. She is my baby girl, there for I think she is the funniest cutest thing EVER...and I have a lot of little things she has said over the past week.

*Any one who knows Lauren, knows of her love for the Disney Princesses. She lives in all of her princess dresses-all day, every day. It is all I can do to get her out the door for church not dressed like Sleeping Bueaty. And lately she has been prefixing almost every thing she says with "When I get big and become a mom...." So the other night when I was tucking her in bed she gets this serious look on her face and tells me, "Mommy, when I get big and become a mom, I will still wear princess dresses. I will Mom."

*Lauren was walking into the living room. As she was walking, she was putting on her sun glasses. She just stoped and said "Wow! How is it possible that it got so dark in here!?!"

*Chad brought home an old broken blackberry from work. It was all pink, so he gave it to Lauren to play with. She loved it! (mainly because it was pink. She loves pink almost as much as she loves princess dresses) She came to me and said excitedly "Mommy-you have a blackberry and I have a pink berry!"

*Lauren says the cutest prayers! They are so full of innocence and so much faith. She always prays for "love and peace and hope for everyone in the whole world" I don't know where she got that from, but it is cute. The other night at prayer time, she said "Heavenly Father, please please I pray that you would move Utah sun to California and California sun to Utah. I know you can do it!" Cute huh. She inherited her parents adversion to bight super hot sun. And then tonight in her prayer she said "I know that I miss Jesus but if I just close my eyes and say a pray then I am talking to Jesus." Chad and I just looked at each other and smiled. So sweet. She really has a tender heart. Everytime she sees something sad on T.V or when we were out, she always says "oh no. I think we should pray about that."


*Lauren is such a good big sister. She is always pulling Evan away from the water's edge at the duck pond or screaming and crying to me when she thinks he is in danger. She has even stuck her delicate little fingers into his mouth to fish out a coin. (to which she was reward with a bite). She is the one who gave Evan his nick name of "buddy boy" and now Chad and I call him that all the time. He answers to "buddy" or "buddy boy" quicker then he does his own name. So you can imagine that the day Lauren came to me all full of concern to talk about Evan, I listened...and then I laughed. She said to me "Mommy, I think there is something wronge with Buddy boy." She was so full of concern and so serious, that I had to listen. When I asked her what was wronge, she replied "I think he is an alien."

*Our next door neighbors were out in there backyard jumping on their trampoline. They has a sprinkler under the tramp and they were in their swim suits. (Maybe I should also mention that if Lauren isn't wearing a princess dress this summer, she is running around in a swim suit) She ran into the house all excited and said "Mommy, the next door neighbors are jumpin' on the tramp in their swim suits! So it made me say in my mind, 'hum, maybe Lauren wants to wear her swim suit.'"(apperently her mind speaks in third person format).

*Last one, I promise. Lauren is always thinking the best of everyone and everything. Everytime someone hurts her in one way or an other, she always gives an excuss for them. Lauren was in our backyard again playing with Radley, our dog. I always keep the window or back door open when Lauren and Evan and playing outside. I was cleaning when all of the sudden I heard Lauren's "hurt" cry, so I ran out side and held on to her and asked her what happen..and this is what she said inbetween sobs. "I was walking down the stairs and Radley just ran up behind me *snif snif* and she just knock me on the ground really really hard. *sob, gulp, snif* But she didn't know it was me, she thought I was a flower and she said to herself, I want to PICK that pretty flower out of the ground. But I am not a flower mommy, I am just Lauren."

Haha, she is a funny girl. I hope you enjoyed all the cute things she says. Evan now can say a few real words. He just said "da-dee" this week. He says "Or-ann" for Lauren and aaadee for Radley. He says "I yant smmm" for I want some, he says "moor peese" for more please, and "shee shoo" for thank you. He also calls his stuffed animal duck (which he has to sleep with every night) cuck cuck. I think he is saying quack quack. I am so excited that he is starting to speak english instead of Klingon. Soon I will be writting about all the adorable things he says too.

Dinosaur Park and Wheeler Farm...

We have been a little busy (at least for me) this week. I really don't have a lot of energy and I am kind of a homebody. I know some people who are out of their house everyday of the week. Sometimes I wish I had the energy to do that because I really want to give my kids all of these fun great memories. But honestly, I am so lucky if I get out of my Jammies by the time Chad gets home from work. But having said that, I really do try and do at least one thing a week with my cute little kiddos. This week I was able to go and do TWO things! (yeah, we were totally living it up this week).

On Wed, we went to the Eccles Dinosaure Park up Ogden Canyon with my friend Aimee and her cute girls Haylee, Kallie and Natalie. Her little baby Natalie totally makes me want an other baby! She is this cute little angel baby! Anyway, I always love getting together with Aimee. And her little girls are Lauren's favorite little people. Everyday she asks if she can play with them. I am not sure when or how old Lauren will be when I feel ok about letting her actually "go" to someones house and play. I don't know...anyway...I got off track a little bit. It was hot and I hate the heat! But it was fun. The girls laughed and giggled and followed each other around the whole time. Lauren cryed when it was time to go, and in her most dramtic tone she let me know that "I am so sad and I am never going to be happy again." Can you say Drama Queen? I am convinced that she will win an Oscar one of these days with her flair for the dramatic.

It was hard to get them to hold still for me to get a good shot of them. This was the best that I could do.

I love my sweet sweet little guy!

These girls crack me up!! I love all of their funny faces. Goofy girls! And, easy-going Evan, just hanging out, happy to be there and do whatever.




Poor little guy-he face planted in it right into the ground. He got out of his stroller right when I started to go. Lucky for me Aimee was prepared with friut snacks, ice and some acedimediphine. (I am not very orginized).

And I love this picture! Just because I love how sensitive Evan is. And how sweet Lauren is. She kept telling him "It's Ok Buddy." She is a good big sister. It was a fun day. When we got home Evan slept for a soild 4 hours and Lauren just sat and stared at the T.V (I know! Bad mommy! I let me kids watch T.V when they are tired). I love how a long day in the sun just subdues your little ones :)

The next day, we went to Wheeler Farm. Everytime I drive out there, the whole way I am so convinced that I am going the wronge way! Haha. But I always make it. I was late, of course. I really try hard to make it on time, but I just can't seem to do it even when I try and prepare. Wheeler Farm was very important to me. I got to see two of my cousins!! Yeah!! Kayli and Jill. They are closer to my little sisters age, but they both have two cute kids that are around the same age as mine. When you are younger, a 4-5 year age differece is a big deal, but when you get older, it is all the same. It really ment alot to me to see them. I loved seeing them as mommys to their little ones, and they are really such cute mommys. I love family, and I guess that is way it is so ironic that I am in the situation that I am in. I was nervous (silly I know, but I was), but I thought it turned out so fun. I really hope to do it again. We never know how people live their lives, but in essence, we are all wives and mothers trying to do what is best for our little familys. When you get talking to people, you realize that we all have the same basic struggles and dreams.


I swear that I have the cutest little monsters!! I have been so thankful lately that I get to be their mom. I am a lucky girl to have such cute, silly, adorable kids!


Petting the bunnies!! I love bunnies. If I didn't already have a zoo at our house, I would seriously want a rabit. That is my cousin Kayli with her two little boys, Austin and Caleb. While we were there, Lauren decided that she was the wife and Austin was the husband. She is a funny kid!



All the kids thought it was just hillarious to chase around this little chicken. I am thinking that the poor little chicken disagreed.



(The cute little blonde girl that looks like a living doll is my cousin Jill's little girl Jayci.)

Jayci had just gotten hurt (I can't remember how) and Lauren gave her a hug. I missed the picture just barley. Oh well.


Here are all the kids sitting in the shade. It was so stinkin' hot!! I really really don't like the heat (have I said that before?)

This picture makes me laugh! Evan loves water. He is always trying to climb into fountians and he loves his baths (hates soap though). He kept trying to get closer and closer to the water to touch it. Finally he laid on his stomache and played in the water. Goofy boy! And now to end my post-more pictures of little kids chasing a poor terrified chicken around the farm.