Birthday Week

Evan officially had an entire birthday week. We saved all the presents and cards that he had gotten in the mail and let him open one per day. His actual birthday was last Monday but unfortunately we didn't get much sleep the night before. He has been working on getting his canine teeth in for about 3 months now. Every once in awhile we have a sleepless night. He wasn't in too bad of a mood on his birthday but if you look closely you can see the snot running down his nose in almost all the pictures below.

"Need bib Mommy. No want grape juice on my jammies"

We try to play outside or go to the pool everyday. He usually likes to ride on his "scooter." For his birthday joy ride, we went to the mailbox where he received a fun package from his friend, Everly. That was the only present he actually opened on his birthday!

On Tuesday Evan opened his Animal Hospital from Grandma & Grandpa Searby. That kept him busy ALL day! He did really well with the color coded keys for each door and loved listening to all the animals' heart-beats and giving them vitamins. We tried to practice for his visit to the doctor the next day.


Wednesday morning was his 2 year check-up with the doctor. Lets just say he was a LOT happier in the waiting room with the toys than in the check-up room!

He tried to escape multiple times...

After a few tears and a lot of coaxing, we BOTH got our stats:
Evan's Height: 34 1/4 inches Jen's Height: 5 feet 5 inches
Evan's Weight: 27 pounds Jen's Weight: a lot more than Evan

Thursday, Evan and I spent the day out at the Birkett's house. Evan loves to play with Megan's kitchen...he just doesn't like when Megan wants to play with it too. They both brought our their 2-year-old attitudes that day. Evan went to time-out 3 times.

Friday and Saturday of birthday week were spent at home (opening more gifts!) and running errands for Evan's little party on Sunday. Evan talked all week about having cake on his birthday and "getting all messy like Paxson." But then would follow it up with "my need a fork!"

We just invited a few close friends, that we consider family, over for Evan's party on Sunday evening. I asked Kelly to make Evan a little basketball cake....it was huge....but it sure was yummy!



After everyone had left, Joel and Evan went outside to play with the new T-Ball set. Evan demanded that Joel have his "own bat." They had fun "hitting it really fast."



Here are some more random things from last week....

Evan likes to pretend that he's a fireman. He usually runs around the house saying things like, "gotta put out that fire," "put the ladder up high," "gotta get my hose." He now has 2 fire hats so of course he likes for me to wear one too. One day he called me "Mr. Fire Mommy."

He not only pretends to be a fire man, but Evan likes to "surf" too. He uses one of my little plastic cutting boards and stands on it while making ocean sounds and then saying: "surf, surf, surf." I told him that we were going to the beach this weekend and that he could watch the surfers. He said, "Got my pretend surfboard. That's a big wave. Gotta jump over it!"

As if being a fire man, and a surfer aren't exhausting enough, he also likes to pretend he is a giant. He loves the story of David and Goliath. He'll come up to me and say, "My the giant, mommy is David. Oh-no! Giant fall down, hurt his head, he ok."

So I guess we have a typical 2-year-old. He's a lot of fun, talks constantly, and is learning new things everyday, but watch out when he doesn't get his way...you'll definitely witness a meltdown!

Growing Up...

Evan turned 2 years-old on Monday, August 24th. I'm trying to get a blog posted with pictures from last week. In the meantime, here is a video that Joel put together a couple months ago that I thought I would share...

Curious George

Evan is really picky at meal times these days. Its really frustrating to me that he wants his food cut a certain way, at a certain temperature, and in the right place on the plate. Sometimes he wants a spoon, sometimes a fork. Sometimes he wants a sippy cup, and sometimes he prefers a big-boy cup. Seriously....can you just eat your food and be thankful that I gave you some?

Last Sunday night we let Curious George sit at the table with him and he seemed to do a lot better eating his food. He would pretend that George took a bite and then he would take a bite. Here they are sharing their BLT...

Chach & Valla's Wedding

I was honored when Valla asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding this summer. It was actually on my Mom's birthday AND it was the day Chris & Renae brought their baby, Eric Mathew, into the world. I will have no excuses for forgetting August 15th!

Valla & Chach had a small ceremony at the North Central College Chapel and then dinner at Tango in downtown Naperville. After dinner, the bridal party and a few friends went to Bar Louie, just down the street from Tango. I witnessed Valla winning a bacon-eating contest on her wedding day. Hilarious.

The newlyweds...

Valla and I ...


My groomsman was Nic, Chach's brother. Ironically the groomsman I was paired with for Amanda's wedding was also named Nick.





Just Married...


Tango, where the tapas and sangria were delicious....

Getting ready to eat some bacon...


If you want to see the contest, someone has posted it on youtube. You can search for bacon eating bride!

It was a fun weekend and I'm looking forward to sharing many more memories with Valla and Chach. Love you guys!

Surprise!

My parents celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary on June 30th. Jake, Melissa, Jodi, David, Joel, and I pulled off a surprise party for them on Saturday, August 1st. Thank you to everyone that kept it a secret...you did a great job! Mom and Dad were down the alley at Dan & Deb's house for the afternoon at a birthday party. Jodi, David, Joel, and I just took turns going down there and making sure they were well entertained. When we had a crowd at our house we told them that we had a surprise for them and they had to wear blind folds to walk down the alley (otherwise they would see all the cars at our house!)


They were SO surprised when we took the blind folds off and there were about 60 of their friends and family members shouting, "Surprise! Happy 30th Anniversary!" I'm pretty sure mom cried.


Jodi took care of ordering the cake...


I caught dad visiting with his groomsmen...



David and Jake were busy giving Joel a hard time for not wearing a Cub's shirt...


Evan was excited to see Cameron for the day...

But most importantly I think Mom and Dad enjoyed having all their kids together for the afternoon...


We love you mom and dad and hope that you enjoyed your party and we wish you the best for the next 30 years!

The Last Week of July

Joel was able to come up and spend the last week of July with Evan and I. He was here for Amanda's wedding and then made Bellflower his "home base" while he worked in Indianapolis, Springfield, and his favorite spot: the back porch. Evan loved having his daddy to play with and the weather was perfect for playing outside...



My dad made a ramp for Evan's cars. He has spent many mornings sitting on the steps pushing cars down a piece of wood only to gather them up (or ask someone else to pick them up) and do it all over again....


Evan has been helping out with dinner time by shucking the corn with his Grandpa...

And one night after dinner Evan decided he wanted to play basketball. Well he couldn't play basketball without "basketball shoes." He went inside and came back out with my dad's tennis shoes on. It was hilarious! Then he wanted his Cubs hat that my mom gave him. He has become quite attached to that thing and gets really excited when he sees the Cubs on TV...which means practically every day at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Evan continues to love books. He and I sat on the swing one day and read Goldilocks and the Three Bears about 14 times in a row. When Goldilocks breaks the chair in the story Evan always says she needs to "go to the grocery store and get a new one!"

On Friday, July 31st Mom, Dad, Evan, Joel, and I went to the McLean County Fair. Joel and I both grew up going to the fair but hadn't been to it since it had moved to a new location. It was a lot bigger than we had remembered it being!

Evan and Joel "drove" the combine...

We all shared a funnel cake and a lemonade shake-up....except we think they forgot the sugar in our shake-up so Joel had to go back and ask for a scoop of sugar...

Evan liked looking at the bunnies...

But I think my mom and dad enjoyed them even more...

At the end of the evening we went to the grandstand to listen to Chuck Wicks perform. He had a great crowd and put on a good show. I saw him last fall when he was on tour with Brad Paisley and only had one popular song....now he's playing at county fairs and drawing a crowd of his own.

Mom couldn't leave the fair without having icecream...and of course Evan thought he needed some too....