Mothers Day Firsts

Shawn gave me his first school-made Mothers' Day gift. He was so excited and told me all about how he painted it purple because he knew I would love that. He was so proud of his little gift and carefully hid it from me. I remember being so excited to make those gifts in school and now here I am receiving those gifts. What a fun mom moment!

Hiking the Y

For date night last week we decided to go out to eat and then hike the Y. The restaurant was so busy because of Mother's Day that we ended up starting the hike later than we wanted. We hoped to be sitting on the Y to watch the sun set, but ended up watching it set as we hiked. It was still beautiful. After we had relaxed at the Y and started our way DOWN the mountain, I decided it was a really fun activity. ;)

This is the only bit of sun that we saw while hiking



Beautiful Views!!

There are 12 switch backs on the hike to the Y. What we didn't realize is that if you go straight
at turn 10 then it takes you to the bottom of the Y. Why oh why did we not know that. The
last switchback was so steep and horrible. Well, now we know.

Finally made it just before it got really dark

Caution: Inappropriate content

Evan turns 2!!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, energetic, smart little guy. We love Evan so much and are so glad he is part of our family. He is talking more and more each day and always refers to himself in the 3rd person. Every morning he calls for me and then says good morning. As soon as he sees Shawn for the first time that day he always says, "Hi Shawn". He loves to be cuddled and held. He insists upon being rocked to sleep and requests which song he wants you to sing to him. He will climb as high as he can and jump from anything possible. We often talk about how we will probably end up in the ER with broken bones with him. His favorite place to be is outside in the dirt. I am not sure if he likes playing or eating the dirt more. He makes the funniest face that make me laugh everyday. Although he can completely exhaust me, I am so happy to be his mommy. He is a joy!

Getting ready for the party



Playing one of Evan's favorite games, London Bridges



Let the presents begin

Look at that face!



And that one



Once he opened a gift, he would take a moment to show everyone

He had plenty of help from all his boy cousins

Sadly, Evan reached a point where the party was too much and he couldn't handle it anymore. He just cried and wouldn't let anyone talk to him. He calmed down after people left and I turned on a Mickey Mouse show for him.

While I was cleaning up I found this little boy eating the leftover whip cream.



The morning of his actual birthday I made him Mickey Mouse pancakes



Blowing out the candles that I had to relight several times because he thought it was so fun.



Then we headed to Chukee-Cheese...




And played SkeeBall, and then SkeeBall, and then SkeeBall

My dad came with us and decided to help Evan roll the ball instead of throwing it overhand.

Went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. One of the workers asked what plans we had today and when I told her it was Evan's birthday she got him a shake for free.

Finished off the day with chasing bubbles

Golfing With Grandpa

My dad loves to golf. We all grew up with our own golf sets and spent many Saturdays out on the course with my dad. He has taken Shawn golfing before and bought him a golf set for his 4th birthay. However, this last week he decided to attempt taking all the grankids (minus Evan) golfing. He decided it was not possible to actually do a round of golf so they had golf lessons instead. He started with putting lessons, then on to the driving range, then took them to play mini golf. Amy decided to stay and help with crowd control, which my dad was very grateful for. I think he will be taking smaller groups in the future.

I let Evan play for a few minutes while we dropped off Shawn. He was not happy he wasn't invited to stay.



Grandpa with the kiddos

Practicing putting

Shawn eating a treat he got for answering Grandpa's golf questions

This little face was not happy to leave  "Evan Grandpa, Evan Grandpa"

Preschool Envy

A couple weeks ago Evan started crying after we dropped Shawn off at school. He kept saying "Evan backpack, Evan backpack" between sobs. So I found him an old, small backpack we had in the closet. As soon as I put it on him he headed for the door saying, "Evan preschool, Evan preschool". I tried to talk to him about it and distract him, but this is one determined boy. He probably cried close to an hour about wanting to go to Shawn's preschool. Poor kid. It was cute though. :)

Easter 2012

We started the Easter festivities with coloring eggs a few days beforehand. We have never done this with the kids before because they seemed too little. When we told Shawn about it, he just started laughing. What a weird idea. Color eggs. For no reason. He had a blast though and wanted me to cook a bunch more eggs for him to decorate.

I have video of Easter morning and Easter egg hunts, but they aren't downloading right now. I guess pictures will have to suffice.

Checking out a new book

Easter morning before church

Easter Egg hunt at my parents house

Evan was not happy his Easter basket was put up in a tree he couldn't reach

Easter Egg hunt #2 at my Grandparents house. What a great yard they have for egg hunts!

Examining their spoils (which included some cash, thanks to Grandpa J.)

Dinosaur Museum

Shawn's preschool had a field trip to the Dinosaur Museum a couple months ago. 



Evan likes to be up close and personal

I don't even know how many pictures I have with that thumb in Evan's mouth

Sweet face



Shawn making a scary face. One second later he
fell backwards
off this railing, hit his head and scraped up his back



The result of the fall