Conversations with Evan...

Evan has always been a talker. I've tried hard to write down some of our conversations but they seem to be so involved now that if I don't write it down right away then I forget his exact words. Here are some that I wrote down in the last couple months:


5/6/10

Evan: What's this?
Me: Its called a sticky note.
Evan: What's it for?
Me: You write things on it that you need to remember. What do you want to write on your sticky note?
Evan: Thank you for my Mommy.

5/17/10

While baking muffins, Evan touched the raw eggs...
Me: Please go wash your hands because you touched the raw eggs and if it gets in your mouth, it might make you sick.
(Evan goes to wash his hands in the bathroom then returns to the kitchen)
Evan: Hey mommy, can I see the rotten eggs again?

5/24/10 (after looking at our neighbor, Kurt's, Machu Picchu pictures from Peru)

Evan: I'm gonna be Kurt, you be Lauren. Kurt is climbing the tall mountains to Machu Picchu.
Me: Did you make it?
Evan: Yeah - I drove in a loader over the bumpy rocks. Then I turned that way and walked through the tall mountains to Machu Picchu.
Me: What are you doing now?
Evan: Well I'm still in Machu Picchu doin' somethin'. I need my loader cuz I can't jump down. Lauren, do you have a rope?
Me: Yep - here it is...
Evan: Look! A big waterfall at Machu Picchu! Let's look for something else at Machu Picchu, like a tunnel!

(This conversation went on for a LONG time but I quit writing it down after awhile. It was so cute to hear him say "Machu Picchu".)

6/29/10 (while visiting the Osorios in Viera, FL)

Evan: That's my best, favorite (something, something, something that I didn't catch)
Owen: Mommy, what does that mean?
Tori: I don't know Owen, why don't you ask Evan?
Owen: (to Evan) What does that mean?
Evan: Ummm....probably.....Your Mom.
(Tori and I laughed SO hard!)


7/1/10 (After naptime)

Evan: I dreamed that the sun will come up in 10 minutes and the construction workers will be working.

7/2/10

I was sorting through coupons and gave Evan all the expired ones to play with. He made up his own "game." He put one sticker on each coupon then if he found an "E for Evan" he got to keep it. If he found an "M for mommy" then he gave it to me.

For the Non-Facebookers...

Ok Non-Facebookers, this is for you. I tend to put more on Facebook than on my blog these days but since a couple of you have been asking, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last month!

Playdate at the park and 16 weeks prego:

Sometimes Evan and Megan love each other....


16 weeks...


Kelly and Jake...
Easter Picture at church (17 weeks prego):

Easter Sunday in Jacksonville with the Whitlocks
(Katie was 12 weeks and I was 17 weeks prego)...

Trip to IL (Apr. 6-20):

My brother Jake's family in front of my dad's peach tree that is finally going to have some fruit on it!...
Cam & Evan playing in the driveway cuz the grass was muddy...

All the boys with Grandma...
Some of my girlfriends from highschool at Kyle's wedding...
Evan latched on to this chainsaw at Grandma & Grandpa Bridgwater's house and he even found goggles "to protect his eyes"...
Paxson running at Gma & Gpa Bridgwaters...
Finally a nice picture of Joel & I...

Evan loved visiting his Grandpa Raymer at work. "Grandpa works at Weedman loading fertilizer in big trucks." In addition to watching the big trucks, he also got to ride on the loader...

Our friend, Jeff, gave Evan and I ride in the tractor...


Visiting Grandma Edi...


Evan & Paxson digging where my parents just removed our pool that we've had for 17 years. It was really sad to see it gone:(
Grandpa Bridgwater brought a train set over to my parents' for the boys to play with...
Cameron & Evan on the steps at my brother's church...

Aunt Melissa concentrating very hard on Evan's hair as he enjoys his ring pop...
My mom & Nolan (6 months)...
Evan and I were able to go to Lincoln one evening to see his cousins, Jack & Josie, as well as Grandma Searby and Great Grandma & Grandpa Parmenter.

Jack Searby (4 years old)
Josie Searby (1 year old)
cousins sharing goldfish...
Gma Parmenter took Evan on a little bike ride...
Pregnant sisters: In this picture I was 19 weeks and Jodi was 21 weeks. We're both having girls!
David & Jodi...
Back in Florida playing basketball at the park...Evan loves the playground!
Well that's enough pictures for now! Hope this holds you over for awhile:)

Practice

Practice makes perfect, right? Well I wanted to make sure that Evan was well-trained in Easter-Egg hunting before yesterday's big hunt so on Friday we did a practice run. I hid plastic eggs in our yard, gave him a bag, and let him go for it. He loved it! Of course he didn't have any competition but we weren't really playing for anything except empty eggs:) I'll post the real Easter Egg Hunt pictures soon!




After I had hidden the eggs and Evan found them all, I took this video of HIM hiding the eggs...

Sea World with Grandma & Grandpa Searby

Last week we went down to Orlando to meet up with Joel's parents who were in town for a conference. They were able to come down a day early and spend some time with us. We took the opportunity to use our Sea World passes again! Evan enjoyed his two days with Grandma & Grandpa Searby...


The best part of Sea World for Evan is getting the map out to see "which way we should go." He LOVES the map.


Touching the "ting rays" was fun...


Joel and Evan wanted to get as close to the roller coaster as possible without getting splashed....I think they were a little too close this time...


The Shamu show was up and running and it was still just as good as the first time we saw it!


Evan pretending to be a fireman, "I'm going to 'pray you!"...


Riding the carousel is always fun! "Hi Mom!"

Not the best family picture ever but it was the only one we managed to get this time...

Chile

Here is the most recent update we have received from the Swanson's in Santiago Chile. These are the missionaries we worked with while in Chile 5 years ago and whom we visited last year....

Here is the latest update we received from the Swansons, Missionaries in Santiago that Joel and I worked with while in Chile....


Dear friends and supporters:

1. We’re fine after Saturday morning’s earthquake in Chile . We have some minor damage to our house (mainly cracks in some walls and some furniture fell, but the house is good and it’s more a matter of cleaning up. In general, our neighborhood is fine, too. Since coming to Chile in Nov 1993, although we’ve experienced tremors over the years, this was our first real earthquake—somewhere around 3:45 a.m. Chile time Saturday morning. It lasted for approximately 3+ minutes, was pretty strong (as our two-story house was shaking and moving quite a bit), and there was a lot of noise. Afterwards we went through the house not knowing exactly what to expect.

2. The quake in Santiago was around 8 on the Richter scale. The center of the quake was approx. 35-40 miles north of Concepción (6 hours south of Santiago ) and registered around 9 on the R. scale. There are several parts of Santiago still without electricity (we were one of them up to this afternoon, but a neighbor passed us his electricity yesterday afternoon so that we could plug in our fridge. At the same time yesterday, the cable came back on, giving us phone and e-mail access, so we are now able to E-mail you that we are fine.

3. The damage around Concepción is quite extensive, with roughly 700 people dead at this time in that general part of the country (the 7th and 8th regions). Whole towns are wiped out and towns near the ocean have had to deal with tidal waves as well. PLEASE KEEP PRAYING for people in that part of Chile , without food or water or electricity. (Of course we realize how much, much worse was the disaster in Haiti ) We have just today started having success in reaching our friends via phone and internet in that part of the country, including Willy and Karina (who make the marble figures we sell in the States to help support the ministry with kids), Luis Alberto (a church member who is with his parents there right now, Carolina (a church member who goes to the university there), and the mother of another member who lives near the epi-center of the earthquake. So far, all of them are fine, but without water, food, and electricity. There is also a lot of looting and purposeful destruction in Concepción and other areas, where the government has declared “martial law”.

4. In Santiago , they hope to re-open the airport (it sustained substantial damage to the main tenminal) today or tomorrow, and the subway too. The main roads to the south of Chile have been heavily damaged in spots, as well, with some bridges out, etc.

5. We, as a church, in today’s service identified some good, basic ways (in addition to praying) that we can help others, and some will be able to travel south the 10th of March to help. Janine is also going in two weeks to see what she and some others can do. We’ve been able to encourage and pray with neighbors, too. Mike and Tabi have contacted IDES (they know its president) and we will be sending a small team to southern Chile with some staple items to see what more we can do.

6. We’ll be sending out March’s Prayer Letter soon. One praise is that we are due to receive the first child in the children’s home this week. She’s an 11-year old girl. PTL!!

We know that you may have other questions, but at least we’ve answered some of the basic ones. Feel free to E-mail with those other questions. Schools were due to open for their fall semester this week, and we don’t know at this time if they’ll wait another week or not. Many stores, etc. are still closed to put things back on the shelves, etc. and others still lack electricity. Chile ’s army just swung “into action” today to help protect and help.

Thanks again for your prayers!

Love and blessings, in an always-there, “non-earthquakable” Jesus,

Jack and Janine

We've had a really rough couple weeks around here with Evan working on his 2nd molars. They are still not all the way through but at least he's a little less irritable now and actually wants to play.

Evan loves to pretend. He's always making up something! Here is his "firetruck" that he made this morning....


While he and I are were sitting on the firetruck, this is the conversation we had:

Evan: What kind of trees do you see out the window?
Me: Palm Trees, Oak Trees, and Pine Trees
Evan: Yeah, me too! And I see a kitty (our cat, jack).
Me: Do you think he wants on the firetruck too?
Evan: No, he's got his own firetruck. When he grows up to be a person he can drive his firetruck.


I actually took this next idea after looking at my friend, Michelle's, blog. I gave Evan dried pasta to use as "dirt." I'm always telling him to pretend so he was excited when he actually had something to dump out of the dump truck and garbage truck.



When he got bored with the "dirt" we turned it into his name. He got bored with that after only doing the E & V so we'll have to finish it later.


Evan also loves stickers. I got to the point where I hated stickers because it felt like they were just a waste of money when really they just end up all over my house and I throw them away. So, I came up with a "sticker book." I just used an old scrapbook that I'll probably never use for anything else. I let Evan put his stickers in it as I wrote next to them what he said about them. I figured this way we're creating something that we can look back on!





Evan is growing up fast and sometimes I just need to remember to take time to pretend, create, and just spend time with my little guy.