The Birthday Boy and a few extra special festivities

Evan on his 3rd Birthday bright and early, Sunday, August 7.  He was so excited to see a present waiting for him and was eager to open it up and see what it was.  Just look at that beautiful 3 year old smile.

On his official birthday we went to church and then out to lunch at Islands.  He was so cute though, he couldn't even eat all he could think about was presents.  Jim and I should have just brought some to the restaurant with us, instead we just had to endure hearing the when do I get to open presents over and over again. :)  Here is Mommy and her birthday boy.  Sure do love this precious child.

Here is our family at Islands with Evan's Birthday brownie Sunday.  The waiter didn't take the best picture.  The lightening was way off, but you get the idea. 

Evan digging in and enjoying this special lunch dessert.

When we got home he was so excited to open presents.  Just look at that joyful smile.

As you can see from these presents and several others he made out like a bandit with so much Cars 1 and 2 stuff.  He was in heaven!

I tried something different where I kept surprising him with a few additional presents throughout the day- he loved it.  All in all he sure had an amazing birthday.  After sissy's nap we headed out for a walk/scooter ride.  He got to test out his new birthday scooter.  It was a nice walk with a creek and some wild blackberries, but it was pretty hot.  That evening we ate some of his birthday party leftovers and had a nice BBQ outside.  The kids played in the water and rode their bikes.  We also saw the movie How to Drain Your Dragon for the first time during his birthday weekend.

Evan also got some extra special Birthday treats before and after his birthday.  We had a special visit with Grandma Shirley at her house on Saturday, 23 where she surprised him with a gigantic gift.

A new Pirate Ship Water Table!

 

The kids have been loving it and we even got to put it together and try it out at her house for the first time.  Thank you Grandma Shirley!  Love you!

Grandpa and Grandpa with almost 3 year old Evan surprised him with a few early birthday gifts too.  The Thursday before his big day, they gave him an electric Cars guitar that he had been wanting and a new Cars microphone.  I posted some pics with the kids rocking out in another blog.  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa.  Lots of love!

Evan with girlfriend, Brittney Moon on Thursday, August 4 too.  The Moons came over before Evan's birthday because they were unable to come to his party and surprised Evan with a Bubble Mater.  He loves it!  Evie does too.  Thank you Moons- so rad!

The group photo attempt.

Evan's buddy Eli also surprised him with a special early birthday gift because he was unable to come to the party.  Thank you Eli.  Here is Evan enjoying the special Cars 2 activity book he got him.  He loves it!  Hours of fun.

We had a special birthday frozen yogurt date with his buddy Cameron on Wednesday, August 17.  They missed each other's birthday parties, so we had a special Cameron's Mommy and I scheduled this get together.  They had so much fun celebrating together.

All the kids sitting at Big Spoon watching the festivities.  Evie thought should would help Cameron unwrap his gift. :)

 

Both boys were super excited about what they got.  Carly and I actually coordinated before.  The boys are big Cars fanatics so we wanted to make sure we got the perfect addition to their collections.  Evan loved getting Miguel Camino below.

 

And Cameron was especially excited about his new race car, Jeff Gorvette.  He also got one of the bad guys from Cars 2 too, but the race cars are the kids favs. :)

Evan had the most amazing birthday this year with so much love and care.  Thank you for helping to spoil our little guy and giving him the best 3rd Birthday ever.  We love you all so much and thank you for being in our lives.  Evan sends a great big Thank You too! :)

Evan is 3!

 

Our boy is 3 years old!!!  Evan turned three on Sunday, August 7.  We were able to celebrate on Saturday with a special party.  More details on this in a separate blog post.

Evan is just the best 3 year old a Mommy and Daddy could ever want.  We sure do love this little guy.  He continues to be the apple of our eye and fills our days with so much fun and laughter.  He also is always keeping us on our toes.  He has a ton of energy and passion.  We know this will serve him well in his future.

Here are some of the exciting things that Evan is doing at age 3.

-Evan loves to play especially with anything with wheels.  He has so much non-stop energy and can run, run, run!  We are so happy that we bought the house we did because there is a walkway that let's the kids go back and forth and around the kitchen.  They get so much use out of this space every day with rolling cars back and forth, both little and ride on cars, as well as kicking the soccer ball, and running with push toys.

-Evan is a moderate eater.  He does better at eating a variety of foods now because we can enforce it a little more by him not getting up until he takes a bite, etc., but he still doesn't always want to try new things.  The best way we find sometimes to get him to each something is to have a race.  Usually Daddy and Evan will race to see who can eat their vegis the fastest etc.  Also, he doesn't like many sauces or dip.  He also wants everything plain.

-Evan is wearing big boy underware!  This is so exciting and really makes us note that this little boy is growing up.  This has been going on since June, but we are so proud.

-Evan's favorite thing to say when we tuck him in at night is "See you in the morning," he says this several times.  It is so funny!  He also has to have his stuffed giraffe with him when he sleeps and also usually has a special car or train he takes with him in bed every night too. (this item usually changes daily though).

-Evan loves to wrestle and be tickled.  If you are taking a minute to lay on the floor watch out, Evan is most likely to run over and jump on you. :)

-Evan loves playing with Evie.  Some of their favorite activities together are playing, "Ring Around the Rosies," playing pirates, making a mess together, playing store (they love to pretend to get water together I don't know why water, but this is what they do :) ), looking through books and one by one bringing them from the playroom and putting them on Evan's bed.  This is one of their favorite things to do lately.  Then they both climb on the bed and start looking through them.  So fun.  They also love hiding together and playing chase.  They love jumping, dancing, and smelling each others feet and pretending they are really stinky. :)  Sometimes they are...hee hee!  Basically anything Evan does Evie wants to do too and will copy him.  The latest is that Evan says "He is shy." when we see someone for the first time or he hasn't seen them for awhile.  Well Evie does it now too.  So funny! :)

-Evan gives the best hugs and kisses and always makes you feel extremely loved.  He and Evie still fight over who gets to be held by Mommy.  Another sweet thing is if I have been gone for a little bit, Evan comes up and gives me big hugs and says "Oh, I missed you Mommy.  I love you!"  Sweetest thing ever!  Evan is my cuddle bug.  He also loves when we do family hugs and kisses- makes your heart melt.

-Evan has amazing dialogue with his toys and can play by himself for hours.  I love overhearing the story and voices he gives each characters.  Usually it pertains to something he is going through or experiencing at that time.  For example, you can usually hear him telling his characters to share or be nice to each other. :)

-Evan loves playing with his family and friends.  He gets so excited when people come over to visit and play.  He also likes to go to other people's house and play too.  Evan enjoys calling people his best friend.  It is very precious and we are so thankful for all of his best friends. :)

-Playing outside, this boy loves to take walks, ride his bike, scooter, run, and he has to go fast.  If he doesn't think his bike or scooter are going fast enough he gets frustrated.  We have to keep telling him you are going fast you are way ahead of Mommy and Daddy.

-Evan is such a boy, he can get soooo dirty and doesn't care.  We recently ripped out our entire front yard and now all that is left is dirt.  The kids love it.  They drive their cars in it, dig, run through it, find sticks you name it.

-Evan also has so much fun playing and helping his Daddy.  If Daddy is working on a project he wants to be there too.  So cute!  The best part is he actually is somewhat helpful these days.

-Evan is a big fan of movies and favorite shows.  He can watch the same movie or show over and over again.  He currently loves the show Umizoomi on Nickelodeon, and any show with trains or race cars in it.  His favorite movies now are Bambi 2, Pooh's Heffalump Movie (he seriously belly laughs during portions of this movie), and The Little Engine that Could to name a few.  A funny movie story, for awhile the movie The Little Engine that Could which was playing on Netflix, was not playing the sound in the movie correctly.  It was totally missing the voice track, it had some music, but that was it.  However, Evan didn't care he loved the movie and wanted to watch it anyways.  Well when Netflix finally fixed it and we watched it with words it was like a brand new movie. :)  By the way it took Netflix forever to fix it, like over a month.  So he probably watched it without words over a dozen times.

-Evan enjoys reading and can listen to several books at a time.  However, he is very squirming and always moves around to get in just the right position.  Jim and I love that one of his favorite books that he wants to read nightly is our Children's Bible.  It is so exciting to see him remember the characters and the lessons that our taught.

-Evan can become obsessed about things from toys to movies, to doing an activity.  Usually the obsession these days is over toys, but man he can run you down.  After the millionth time of hearing about something you want to do it for him so you can have peace again.  For example, he really wanted a certain race car from the movie "Cars 2," Carla Veloso, he was obsessed we heard about it morning and night.  The problem was that she was really hard to find in the stores.  Well we finally found her, Evan was a very lucky boy to get her and he knew it.  I am sure a new obsession will be on the horizon soon.  Once he gets his mind onto something it is stuck there.

-Evan is learning constantly.  I love seeing how his brain work.  He is constantly asking questions and discovering new things daily.

We are blessed beyond words with this little boy and treasure every day.  Thank you God for our Evan!  We pray for him to know you and serve you..

How many adorable kids can you get in a tub?

Weeknight fun on Monday, August 15, while the Daddy's were working.  The Wisners came over for some dinner, some fun playtime outside and then we got them ready for bed which included a full tub of precious little babes. :)

Here is a fun pics of some of the water fun too.

Jayne was having a great time with the hose.

Natalie tried to get some of the kids jumping into the pool, but most were blurry.  They were just going so fast and having a blast in the meantime.  We did have some tears at one point when Evie got hit with a toy boat by her brother, but all in all it was a fun time and everyone enjoyed the activity. :)

As always good times with the Wisners!  Look forward to hanging out again real soon.

10 Year Wedding Anniversary

Happy Anniversary to the love of my life!  We celebrated 10 years together on Thursday, August 18.  My parents watched the kids and we got to go out to dinner to a real fancy restaurant, Suede Blue.

 Jim ordered the rack of lamb.

 I ordered a delicious crab and avocado salad- so pretty don't you think?!?!

 And the Shrimp Cocktail...those were some huge shrimp.

Everything was very delicious and the service was excellent.  We had such a nice dinner.  It was perfect!

After dinner we saw our first every 3D Movie, Glee in 3D.  This was actually the first movie we saw in the theater, just the two of us, since we had Evan.  We had the best time and the movie was a lot of fun.  It was like a concert at the theater.  It was a real get up and dance type of movie.  However, there were only about four other people in the theater so we didn't want to get too crazy. :)  And man let me just say movie prices have gone way up $14.50 a ticket- wow!  This is probably why there were only four other people in the theater with us that night. :)

Here are the kids trying out the 3D glasses we brought home for them the next day.

The glasses fit Evan a whole lot better than they did Evie.  Thus the pics of Evan are a little better.  Since Evie's glasses didn't even stay up for a second.  They were huge. :)

 

This is the best I could get of Evie. :)

Fun times!

I am so thankful for our marriage and the ten years of amazing blessings God has given us.  Thank you Lord for being at the center.   Here's to many, many more!

Future Rock Stars

Our little rock duo...look at those moves Evan has.  Wow!

 

These were an early Birthday gift to our little 3 year old, Evan, from Grandma and Grandpa Thompson.  The kids love them as you can see.

Our 18 Month Old

 

Our little baby turned 18 months old on July 9, 2011.  As I write this email Evie is now 19 months.  Life just doesn't seem to be giving me much time to update the blog these days, but I have to get this post done before I forget all the awesome things Evie did at 18 months.  These pictures above were taken at a recent photo shoot by our friend Melissa Babasin.  Didn't she do an amazing job.  

At Evie's 18 month checkup she weighed 21 lbs and 15.3 oz and measured 30 1/4 inches in height.  Her head measured 17 1/2 inches.  Our doctor thought she was doing fabulous and made a prediction that she would probably be about 5 feet 2 inches later in life, just like her mommy.  Our doctor thought this would be perfect as we could share clothes.  He is so funny!  One of the best compliments we got from our doctor during our appointment on July 19 was that Evie was acting more like a 2 year old.  He was very impressed with her vocabulary and comprehension as well as with her motor skills.  Jim and I are so proud of our little girl!  

Here is a picture of her after her appointment with a sticker from the doctor and a lollypop from Mommy after her shot.  She was very brave!  She only had to have one this time which was good. :)

Here are some more of Evie's milestones at 18 months:

-Evie is our little talker.  She can pretty much say anything you ask her too and understands everything.  It is crazy.  She is a constant amazement.  She even puts things in sentences already.  For example, when she does something she is not supposed to do, she has the cutest little "I'm Sorry" you pretty much instantly have to forgive her. :)

-Evie continues to adore her brother; however, she also knows how to push his buttons.  She likes playing with everything that Evan likes to play with and can be found taking his toys and running off just to get a reaction out of him.  This happens all the time.  Nevertheless, Evan and Evie have a blast playing together.  She has to do everything that Evan does and she wants everything that he has too.  She also can be found saying exactly what he says. The latest is that Evan has started to say that he is shy when someone asks for a hug, etc.  Evie now says, "I'm Shy" too.  

She is currently into wrestling.  Here she is taking Evan on...he loves it.  The hardest part is that these sessions usually always end with someone crying.  

-Her hair continues to grow.  She probably could use a haircut, but we are waiting just a little bit longer before doing this, however, she has to have her hair up somehow or her bangs are in her eyes as demoed below.

-She sleeps real well at night, usually going down around 8:00 p.m. and sleeps until about 6:30 a.m. or 7:00 a.m.  The past few nights she has been waking up a bit, but we think her front side teeth are coming in.

-She loves her babies.  She has two favorites (we call them the twins) and she recently got a brand new Minnie Mouse doll that we purchased when we visited Downtown Disney last month.  She also has a very special blankey she loves too.  Here is a picture of her below with her new Minnie.

 

-Evie's eating is okay.  She LOVES all dips, especially sour cream and guacamole.  Sometimes we think she confuses sour cream with ice cream, she can seriously eat it by the spoonful.  We have to remind her that this is supposed to be enjoyed in small quantities.  All we know is we have a girl who loves dairy.  She eats cheese in great quantities too!  Her palette has grown a bit, but she still isn't a huge eater.  She has good and bad days.  At this point we still just keep offering her everything and hope she will eat it.  The other day we had a victory when she was eating red peppers.  Go Evie!  Her favorite eats are still the sweets- cupcakes, cookies, ice cream, candy, you name it!

-When she eats she can't sit still and at restaurants prefers to pretty much stand for most of the meal.  So she usually gets either pretty messy or is a danger we tend to not even bother with high chairs, crazy girl.

-She was officially weaned from nursing at exactly 18 months.  I had my MOPS Leadership Retreat during the weekend she turned 18 months so it was the perfect opportunity to end.  She did really good.  Ultimately, she was already drinking milk from a cup from even before she was one, but still enjoyed nursing.  It was actually hard to be officially finished for Mommy too because it meant that my baby was growing up, but we are both doing great now with the adjustment. 

-She doesn't get as tuned into television shows like Evan did and still does. :)  She will watch here and there, but would rather be doing a variety of activities.  She is not one to sit still for very long, except for when she has to go #2. :)

-She does love Minnie Mouse and Elmo.  These characters appear to be her favorites so far.

-Evie loves to read (her favorite kind of books are the ones where you can touch and feel).  She also enjoys stickers, coloring, 

and playing outside especially in the water.

-Evie can be very destructive with toys, packages, paper, etc. and we have to watch her with throwing and stepping on toys.  If you give her something to hold while in a store she will usually figure out how to open the package or tear the package apart.

-She likes shoes, but what girl doesn't.  Here she is modeling some pink boots.

-She enjoys friends and does great in Sunday School and in playgroups.  She isn't the best at sharing, but what one and half year old is.  However, when asked she will share.  She also can be very possessive and likes to verbally claim things that belong to her or Evan and will quickly say "Mine."

-Evie does make you work for a smile if you are taking pictures of her.  But, she recently learned how to make a "Sad Face" and likes to do it when asked.  Here she is giving her "Sad Face."  Isn't it just stinkin' adorable?!?! :)

-She is very stubborn and has a temper.  She likes to stomp her feet when she doesn't get her way.

-Evie loves being tickled, spun around, and looking at her belly button.  She also enjoys buckling straps on anything that has buckles and climbing.  She is not afraid to get dirty, especially if it is with her brother.  She is slightly a little more cautious than Evan, but not by much. :)  She enjoys exploring; however, does stay a little bit closer to Mommy so far and will not run off as much as her brother did and still does :)

Overall, Evie is just the sweetest girl ever and we feel very blessed.  We love you Evie Joy!  Happy 18 Months darling.  We are so lucky to be your Mommy and Daddy!