July catch-up

Well, as always, I have been a slacker when it comes to the ol' blog. We have been pretty busy, mainly over the last few weeks, but here is a little update.

Page has been working in Oklahoma for a few days a week over the last couple of months. With him gone, I have been able to do a few things. One week, I went to Grapeland to see my parents for a few days. It was great- I was able to relax & Evan got to be spoiled a little. He and my Dad (BaBa) went out to look at the cows in the pasture next to their house, and looked at the ducks that swim in the pond behind their house. It was a wildlife adventure.
Evan got to play in the water- by far his favorite thing to do. But, being a boy, he went straight from the water to the flower bed and started tossing dirt and rocks into the air. It was pretty funny.

Back home one day, we were having oatmeal for breakfast & I thought I would use the opportunity to let Evan feed himself with a spoon. He did really well- this was as bad as it got! I even stripped him to a diaper and everything, expecting a disaster- Nice surprise.

For our friend Lila's birthday, we went to the Frisco mall to eat lunch & ride the carousel. It does not totally show in this picture, but the kids really did love it. When it was time to go- Evan and Claire both cried.

One afternoon, I decided to make dinner before Page even got home- that is a rarity :) Evan was wanting me to hold him, so I put him on the counter so he could 'help'. He did well for a long time, mainly drumming on canned goods and talking up a storm. He seems so innocent in this picture...

I turned my back to put something away & turned back to find that he had dumped the water pitcher all over the counter and was having much more fun making a huge mess. Figures!

Ok, so we are going to California in August, and we thought it would be great for the plane ride if Evan had some earphones to listen to, so we don't all have to listen to Elmo & Baby Einstein all the way to LA. So, being frugal, we figure that we have several pair of headphones around the house- surely one would work. My ipod buds worked the best, but kept falling out. Here was Page's solution to his standard phones being a little big- judging by Evan's face, it was definitely the coolest idea. It is almost like he is saying, 'Are you kidding me? I have to wear these in public?'

The solution to the earphone problem was easily solved by a trip to Target. We thought we would have to get him used to wearing something on his head, but that was not the case... observe his first taste of headphones...

I have said many times, Evan loves the water. We play in it pretty often if it is not a scorcher out- which eliminates most days. This day, Page made a home splash park out of our sprinklers and water hose. Evan liked watering the tree...

But again, liked even more the mud that the water made. :) So much for the white shirt.

My uncle, Scotty came to visit us for a few days during his vacation. One of the days, Page was off, so we took the opportunity to go back over to the mall and ride the carousel again. Evan loved it!! He and Page rode twice & he smiled and looked around the whole time. He is adorable.

More mud in the back yard...

Another trip to Grapeland... here is my Dad with Evan playing with the numbers and letters on the fridge. This trip will be continued into August :)

July 4th

Over the weekend of July 4th, my family met at my grandparent's house in DeLeon and worked on their back porch area. They have a deck already, but it needed some work. So, my Dad, brother Casey & Page gave it a face-lift. We had a great time eating watermelon & watching Evan play in the water. Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Evan and Pa watching the workers.
Judge trying to stay cool.

Casey and Page posing for a snapshot.

Evan playing on his water mat that Nana and BaBa brought.

Pa reading the paper and enjoying the morning.

Evan loved his watermelon- so much that he would throw it onto the water mat and then pick it up and eat some more. Pretty yummy!

The porch is coming along nicely.

My cute little man taking a break.

Such a tired guy- he was out before we got to the highway. :)

Our little copy-cat

Today, while I was driving I was tapping my thumb on the steering wheel to the song that was on the radio. Evan was being super-quiet, which usually means trouble. However, when I turned around to check on him, he had his hands on the sides of his carseat & was very intently watching my thumbs and trying to tap them the same way. I almost started crying. It was adorable. God is amazing in how he teaches little ones, and teaches us about Him in the process. :)

Sweet prayers...

I know, I know- I need to update my blog. I will try to get to it in the next day or two. But, in the mean time-I thought I would share Evan's latest adorable action. At night and at meals, we always pray. Evan just started really paying attention within the last week or so. He started by blinking his eyes while we prayed, but now it has gotten so sweet. After we pray, mainly before bed, I have asked him to say his prayer. He bows his little head, says some random jibberish and then raises his head with a very conclusive, 'Mem-mem'. Obviously we need to work on pronunciation, but that will come. Each time he does it, I give him lots of hugs and tell him how happy Jesus is to hear from him. It is a blessing to experience something so simple and so powerful at the same time.

Aren't they cute...

Our friends Matthew and Jes went out for a date night last week, and we were able to keep Claire while they were gone. The kids have gotten to be friends over the last few months. It was absolutely adorable when I came in from the kitchen and they were sharing his chair. They were watching a cartoon and eating snacks.

Claire was even sweet enough to feed Evan some of her snacks. He would eat them and laugh histerically. It was great.
Here are some cute smiles from the kiddos.
After snacks, we went outside to play with our water table. They had a great time. They splashed each other and poured water all over the place. The yard ended up looking more like a bog than anything else. It was great. During cleanup, I had a cute photo op- diapers and crocs, doesn't get much better than that. :)