Evie's First Haircut

Evie got her first haircut right at the start of the new year.  We took her to my friend's salon in Auburn.  It was so nice and the whole family actually got to get in on the hair cutting fun; both Jim and Evan also got their haircut. :)  Here is our beautiful girl pictured below with Joceyln.

The salon has a little firetruck chair and lots of fun toys for the kids to play with while they wait (Evan liked this a lot).

This is the before picture.

Evie did amazing.  She wasn't nervous at all.  She has been wanting to get her hair cut for awhile, especially when she sees everyone else get it done. :)  Here are some more pictures of the haircut in action.

Evie was following directions real good.

She loved trying to drive the firetruck.

Jocelyn making sure everything was just right at the end.

Then Evie got to pick out a special hair barrette.

Ta Da!!!

Here is a final pic with a smile.

And the back.   Joceyln basically just evened out Evie's hair.  If you didn't know about the cut you probably wouldn't notice, but Evie loved it and I think her hair looks a lot thicker and fuller now. :) Thanks Jocelyn for an amazing job with our little girl.

Lastly, a picture of the whole family at the event.  It was a fun day in Auburn with some Taco Tree and haircuts.  Couldn't ask for a better time together with family. :)

Big Blessings this year for our Family

Our family was blessed with one of the most amazing gifts of all this season, a new baby due July 10, 2012!  We feel so excited about Baby #3 and can't wait to welcome this little bundle of goodness.  The kids are super stoked too.  Each of course wants a different gender.  Evan wants a brother and Evie a sister, but I have told them it will be fun for us to find out what God thinks our family needs.  Evan's logic for wanting a brother is because he already has a sister. Makes sense if you think about it.  :)

Here is a picture of our little miracle on November 25 at seven weeks.

Here is another picture of our blessing on December 21 at 11 weeks.

And lastly, a picture of the baby bump on December 26 at 12 weeks.

The first trimester is over and I finally feel a little better, especially in the day time.  I was really sick with this pregnancy and  nighttime is not the best.  I have to go to bed early almost every night because I feel sick, but I can't complain too much.  A sick pregnancy means a healthy baby!  Stay tuned for more to come on our newest little blessing. 

Christmas Memories 2011

We were not 100% health wise this year for Christmas which made for an interesting holiday time, but still enjoyable and memorable.  Evan had this bad virus that was with us for eight days starting Saturday, December 17 and lasted until about December 28.  He had a fever every day, with chills and hot flashes.  Nobody was sleeping well.  Especially, Jim and me as he woke up miserable every night.  Poor boy!  The good thing is none of the rest of us got hit with hit super hard.  Jim got a one day fever; Evie got a cold in the middle of things too.  I also got a mild cold in the middle of things.  All in all we made it through and still had a nice holiday with family.  Here are some pictures from the events.

Christmas Eve with Pops, both kids eagerly awaiting their presents Christmas Eve. :)

The gift opening thrill!

The kids with their Pops!

Christmas Morning

The real look with the lights that Jim tried to capture.

Both kids were super excited to see what Santa had brought them and couldn't wait to dig in.  It was hard to get a picture of the two of them looking at the same time because they were so pumped up!  Here they are below holding two of their new toys.  Evie with a new Jessie and Bullseye from Toy Story and Evan with some Cars 2 cars. :)

Here is a good picture of Evan with a cool Buzz Lightyear Toy from Santa. :) This was actually a hand me down from our wonderful friends the Waltons- Thank you so much!  He loved it!

Here is our recent favorite cheeser smile girl, Evie with her gift she asked Santa for, her new pink helmet.  She was thrilled!

Here she is with the helmet on.  She it wore for a good portion of the morning.  This is a picture of Evan with his big Santa gift he asked for too- a new firetruck.  So cool! :)

Even though he was sick, he couldn't contain his joy Christmas morning.  Good thing for Tylenol which allowed him to have some fun and some super sweet smiles. :)

After we finished opening up the presents under the tree we got to open the presents in the stockings.  This was a good end to Christmas morning for our family.  Evan actually got a little disappointed all the present opening was over, so it was nice to say wait did Santa leaving stockings for us? :)  You can see they were pretty excited to find he did.

Since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year after all the Christmas cheer in the morning we had to rush and get ready for church at 10:00 a.m.  With Evan not feeling 100% we probably would not have attended, but Jim and I had to serve in Children's Ministry so we had to go for a bit.  My parents came to the service too so they sat with Evan.  Evie actually wasn't all that great, so she came and sat with us too. :)

Here is Evie before church looking beautiful in her Christmas dress from Grandma and Grandpa and eating peanuts.  Silly girl!

My boys looking handsome this Christmas after church.

Grandma and Grandpa posing with Evie.

Our family and one of the best family pics we were able to get Christmas morning. :)

After church, Jim and I made a delicious Christmas brunch for our family.  Then later that afternoon we got to have Christmas with Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison.  We were not able to be with Grandma Knight and Aunt Alison on or near Christmas this year, so we did the next best thing- opened gifts over Skype.  They were so awesome and sent us a huge box of gifts in the mail.  It was a thrill getting such a giant package.  The kids couldn't wait to open everything.

Here is Evie below saying hi to Grandma and Aunt Alison.

Evan in action opening gifts, he was helping Evie with some of the more challenging wrapped gifts. :)

Evie's new babies, twins Raggedy Ann and Andy from Grandma Knight.  She loves them!

Here is Evan posing with Grandma and Alison in the background with one of his exciting new gifts, a Leapster Explorer- So cool!

Later that evening we headed over to my parents house for Christmas with the Thompsons and Grandma Shirley.  The kids were so excited to see even more gifts under this tree!  What  a day! :)

Here they are both opening a gift.

Evie with Grandma Shirley and some new Dora Blocks.

The kids with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Rhett with some of their goodies.

Evie with Grandpa and a new Minnie Mouse.  She loved it!

Evie checking out a new Dora doll and books.  You will notice less pictures of Evan at the end, he started to really fade that night.  Sickness was taking over again.

One of the hard things for the kids this year besides being sick, was understanding when all the presents were opened and there was nothing left to unwrap.  They loved the thrill of unwrapping, however, they also had to open everything immediately that was unwrapped and play with it in some fashion.

We had such an amazing Christmas this year.  Even with sickness.  Everyone was so generous!  Thank you family and "Santa" :) for helping make our 2011 Christmas so special.  Happy Birthday Jesus!!!

Visit with Santa

We had fun visiting Santa this year.  The kids got so into it and couldn't wait.  We of course waited until one of the last weekends to go just because it took awhile to get their Christmas outfits together, etc. Then finally, my parents had got Evie this adorable little number pictured above and below and I already had the fun Santa train shirt for Evan so we were ready.  Also, we like to make it a family affair so it means that usually we need to go on the weekend.  This of course also means lots of people.

Well this year was no different we were hoping to visit with a Santa we had seen at the Fountains the previous weekend, but he apparently was only there for one day.  Thus we headed over to the Roseville Mall.  The line was insane and we did not want to wait, plus we haven't been too happy with our service there with the pictures either.  So we had to try to explain to the kids why we couldn't see Santa in the morning and had to wait to go see him at another mall in the evening.  We opted to go to Sunrise Mall who had this new system where you didn't have to wait in line.  You could just put your name on a waiting list with your cell phone and they would continue to call or text you as your picture time with Santa got closer.  It was amazing and the Santa was just as good if not better than Roseville.  We also were mailed a coupon in the mail which was another huge bonus! :)

Here are a few pics we got with the kids at the Roseville Mall.

We still had lunch there and got a Christmas gift so our time was spent productively.  We felt good about that, but couldn't justify waiting in an hour plus line to see Santa.

Now here are the kids pictured below at Sunrise Mall headed over to see Santa.  They were so pumped up!

Here they are waiting in front of the Christmas tree near Santa.

They were being so adorable holding hands.

Evie was all for the experience, until we got to actually seeing Santa.  The reality set in and she got "Nervous" and cried.  The best part is she tells people "I got nervous."  But, we told her that Santa understood and that he was still glad she came to see him.  Jim and I told Santa what Evie was wanting for Christmas instead since she was crying.  She was hoping that he would get her a pink bike helmet.  Evan was very brave; no tears at all and even smiles for the camera.  We were proud of both kids, but couldn't believe the transformation this year to last for Evan.  He told Santa that he really wanted a firetruck. :)

Both kids got a coloring book after their visit too and Mommy and Daddy got a fee set of wallets and key chain wallet picture frames with our coupon.  This was such a wonderful experience.  We loved the new system and the coupon was fabulous too.  Can't argue with a great deal!

Looking Cool!

Are these kids silly or what!?!?!?  Here they are posing pretty and "cool" in their winter hats.  We were preparing to head out in the cold to go look at Christmas Lights with our MOPS group on Monday, December 12.  The funny thing is that the hats didn't actually stay on when we went out in the cold, but they had fun wearing them inside and taking goofy pictures for Mommy. :)

I love Evie's "I'm tough face."

Do these two look related or what?!?

Our sweeties!  Side note, notice that neither of them have their socks on.  They hate wearing their socks in the house.  Kind of defeats the purpose of keeping warm, don't you think?!? :)  So silly!