Evan wants a 'hoopey" for Christmas

Evan is a big fan of basketball. He almost always has a basketball in his hand and throws it in anything that resembles a hoop. Or in Evan's words "Hoopey". He is always coming up to people to try to get them to make there arms into a hoop. Here is a picture of what our bathroom usually looks like if we have left the door open:


He also loves the BYU Basketball games. Thursday night Michael and I took him to the game and he had a blast. The only thing that he didn't like was that he couldn't go down on the court and throw his ball in the "Hoopeys". He did have fun with Cosmo though. Cosmo actually came up and played with him twice.



We have a feeling that Santa will be getting Evan what he is wishing for, because Mom can't handle having balls thrown at her much longer.

Merry Christmas at Wal-Mart

I really don't know where to begin in what I want to say because I'm just so shocked. I'm sure the shock of it wont ware off any time soon.
Tonight, even though it was getting late, I decided to go do my weekly grocery shopping since the rest of the week is just crazy for us and we needed some things for activities that are happening before Friday. After making sure I had everything I needed off my list I got in line to pay for it. Matt won a $20 gift card at his company Christmas party and he told me to use it to pay for the White Elephant gift he needed for his party on Friday. There was a miscommunication between the cashier and I. She thought I wanted to add $20.00 to the card instead of actually using it, causing a delay. One of the customers waiting in line came up to me and said he will pay for it because he thought my card was being declined. I told him thank you but it's just a mix up with a gift card. He went back in line. At this point I'm extremely embarrassed because I was causing a big hold up and probably everyone is thinking I can't pay for my stuff. After a few mins he came back and gave me $26.00 and told me to keep my gift card and Merry Christmas. I tried giving it back but he insisted. Time was still passing by and they decided to finally void the transaction and take me to a different register near by to re-ring everything up. I tried again to give him back the money but again he insisted. After waiting for my stuff to be rung up again I can just see this guy in the corner of my eye coming back over to me and gave me more cash, gave me a hug and said Marry Christmas. I picked the money up and tried to give it to him and he just put his hand up and said you deserve it and made sure the cashier took the money to use it to pay for my things. The Cashier was a little shocked too but began telling me this has happened a few times today. People just randomly handing over money to people they don't even know. In the end this guy ended up giving me $226.00 and my groceries only came to $97. As I'm walking out of Wal-Mart I was shocked but felt guilty at the same time because we don't need this money. After putting the stuff in the car and driving towards the free-way I felt very grateful for this stranger that did such a selfless act of kindness and thought of a family who could use the money. When I got home I took out the rest of the money and Matt looks at it and says, "where did that come from?" I told him what happened and his response was "what?" I ended up telling the story four times before he understood it all. He couldn't believe it and asked questions about the guy. I didn't even think to get his name because I was just shocked. Matt too thought we needed to give the entire $226 away to a family that's in need of it and we both thought of the same family without even discussing it. It's a miracle the way the Lord works and we're grateful that we have been an instrument in helping another family this Christmas.

Counting Down The Days!

I'm so counting down the days till we find out if our little one is a boy or a girl. I'm pretty positive that it's a girl but of course I could be totally wrong. I will be extremely happy if it's another boy though. There's so many good and fun things about having another boy so I'm indifferent about it. Girls are just so much fun to dress up and do girly things with.
I have three close friends that are due around the same time so it's been so fun to see how each other is doing. We've also been sharing tips on finding good deals on baby things. Of course if we're having a girl we'll need to almost start all over. I've been looking for crib bedding and I found this bedding that I absolutely fell in love with. It's driving me crazy that I don't know for sure whats growing inside me because I want this if it's a girl. I'm so tempted to just buy it now and just pray it's a girl because It's an amazing deal that no one can pass up. All the mother's out there should know what I'm talking about. Crib bedding is just so expensive that it's a little insane.
This better still be available if it's a girl when we find out. I love dark colors and it has Ladybugs. Exactly what I've been looking for and it's so cheap. 13 piece set for $99.99. You can't get a 4 piece set for that cheap. I'm in love!

Slacker!!!

I'm a major slacker with this blog lately! I have so much I want to update you on. One of these days I will get around to it, if not tomorrow. I have it on my to do list!

For Daddy!

Evan's 2nd Birthday Party

Evan is turning two tomorrow! I can't believe how fast time has flown! We had his party yesterday with family and close friends. Evan loves Elmo so we threw him an Elmo party. He was excited with all the Elmo stuff and even had fun buying it. We went to a few stores to find what we needed and he was a good helper in finding the stuff. He found things that I couldn't even see till he pointed them out. The high light of the decorations for Evan was Elmo's fish Dorthy. If you know Elmo's World you would know Dorthy. This is his first pet. I can't let the fish be in his reach or he'll try and catch her. I wonder how long she'll last :). Another high light was Evan's cake. Matt's co-worker made it for us. She did such an amazing job that Matt and I couldn't bare to stick the number two candle on it. Instead we pocked two smaller candles in it so it wouldn't mess it up. Of course we cut into it afterwards so it really didn't matter but still. Evan loves all the gifts that were given to him. They are all so perfect for him. Last year Evan wouldn't open any of his gifts but this time he got into it after the first few. We had to distract him a few times because of the types of gifts he got but in the end he was an a roll. Here are a few pictures of him opening his presents. I love the look of concentration on his face.
I made a video of us singing Happy Birthday to him. I was deathly afraid of fire growing up. I still am but just not as bad. I'm just glad Evan isn't the type of child that reaches for the flame. I would be histerical.
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Here is Evan enjoying his cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday Evan! Your family loves you!

Family Pictures 2009

We were lucky enough to have our neighbors sister in law take some pictures for us. She did an amazing job! She got some really good shots of us and some really funny ones.
Here are our favorite ones.








Here are the funny ones but also favorites.
A classic Evan face

Evan's cheese face but distracted with something else.

You can totally tell that Evan is turning two in this one!

We laughed so hard when seeing these.

Thanks Jeannie! We will cherish these always!
Here's her blog if you're interested in getting pictures done by her.
http://jeanniemclaughlinphoto.blogspot.com/

Halloween

Halloween was a lot more fun this year because we took Evan out Trick or Treating. He got the concept after the first house and we didn't expect that. I thougt we would have to help him put the candy in the bucket if they didn't do it for him but he understood it from the get go and ran to the next house. We can't wait for next year! Evan was adorable in his costume. We couldn't find a Cougar so we picked the next closest thing to one. A Lion!

We went to our parents neighborhood to trick or treat so we do it with my sister Abby. She was a cute black cat this year.



Evan helped us a little more this year with our pumpkins. We would take the guts out but he would put them back in and take them out again. He also loved the seeds. He didn't like how they tasted but he loved how slimy they were so he had fun trying to catch them.

Baby Update

We had another Ultra Sound to see how our little bean is doing. He/She has grown so much since the last one that it's so amazing to see. It's always so fun to see them on the screen but of course it's better in real life. We got a really good shot of the baby because he/she was sleeping. It gave me a little scare at first but we saw that the baby had a really strong heart beat. I also got to hear it for the first time. It was only for a second or two because the baby desided to finally move. I'm not sure if it's a girl or a boy yet. My doctor did say it was beating about 160 a min.

This was Evan at 12 weeks. It's fun too look at them both to compare.

Through the Year's

Matt came across some pretty cool pictures of our home through the years on the County's website. It's pretty cool seeing how much the house has changed. I thought you guys might enjoy seeing the many changes.
Our house was built in 1941 and this picture was taken in 1951 or 1952 because the house next door was just being built. It was finished in 1952.

This picture was taken in the year 2000. The tree on the right lawn is now gone and it has different windows.

This is what the house looked liked when we bought the place. It really needed some TLC. The second tree on the left was taken out and the tree in the back is huge! The bushes were also taken out and rock gardens were put in their place.

Since then we really did a lot to the place. This was taken this year in the early spring. We cut down that old Juniper because it was ugly and we brought the lawn back to life during the two and half years we've been here. It's still a working progress. It's amazing that those rose bushes have been here since that first picture on the top. We plan on replacing them next spring/summer if we can get them out. Elizabeth has worked hard to remove some for us already. They have deep roots! We put in brand new windows in June. They have been amazing with keeping the heat in the house this fall. I'm glad we got them!