Evan's first time bowling

Craig and I thought we would be brave and take Evan bowling for the first time. Craig was talking to my Dad and he asked my Dad if he has ever taken my little half brother who is Evan's age bowling. My Dad just laughed which unnerved us a little. In this picture you can see Evan's "chicken arm". Whenever Evan feels big or confident he puts his little arm up like a chicken wing. I don't know if it is an impression of me putting my hand on my hip but it always makes me laugh.

The bowling alley didn't have any of the ramps for Evan to use to bowl so we had to help him throw it down the lane. It stalled once in the middle of the lane but we got the hang of it eventually. Notice Evan's cute bowling shoes? Adorable! Also notice Craig's arm muscles-hello!


Evan's first bowl.

Here I am trying to help Evan bowl. My arm muscles are not nearly as impressive.

Here we are taking a little nap while we wait for the ball to reach the pins. Evan is probably the only person in the world who bowls slower than me. Evan soon got bored. He thought the arcade was far more entertaining. Keeping him entertained and making sure he was safe meant that Craig and I took over two hours to bowl 2 games. Towards the end Evan was playing in a little alcove behind our lane. Craig and I would take turns standing by him while the other person bowled. I came in to the little room and saw Evan smearing poo on the foosball game. I hurried and walked him into the bathroom and Craig grabbed his diaper bag. By the time I changed Evan's clothes and cleaned up the foosball game we were almost late for Craig's volleyball practice again. You should have seen that kid book it into the gym when we finally go there. Never a dull moment.

Reid Park Zoo, Tucson Arizona

Evan chasing birds. Who cares if there are zebras or rhinos around when there are birds to chase?

I went down to Tucson for my brother, Craig's spring break. We went to the Reid Park Zoo. It is a great little zoo. Evan can choose which animal he wants to see and we can walk to it and then let him choose the next animal.

This is Rena, Craig's new girlfriend. Isn't she adorable? Sweet and smart too. He definately chose a good one.

Evan was so excited to buy some duck food and feed the ducks. Unfortunately there were no ducks. Craig did fish Rena's chapstick out of the water which was pretty exciting.

Evan dragged Craig into the water area. They had a blast trying to avoid the spraying fountains. I can't believe it was warm enough to play in the water in March! Especially when we just came from all of the snow in Utah.

Before Evan climbed on the elephant he was yelling at the peacocks. Apparently, he thinks the peacocks are called peakcocks because that is the sound they make. He was yelling at the top of his lungs "PEACOCK" in a raspy voice. It was pretty funny. Evan LOVES birds. They are usually his favorite part of any activity. He spent most of his time chasing the birds.

We attempted to get a picture of me and Evan. It seems like every time I make the effort to get one of us he fights it. He did like sitting on these big rocks though so that made it a littel bit easier.

The blanket-our constant companion. He must be getting molars or something because he chews on his blanket all of the time.

We were in charge of the Christmas Party for our church. It turned out

pretty well and it wasn't even that stressful! Everyone helped out with the food,

the kids sang a song and the teens put on a nativity. We had a special visitor-

Santa! You will never guess who Santa's "helper" was! Any guesses? Evan

thought Santa resembled his Dad for some reason. Hmmmm.... My cousin Mark

helped us out by watching Evan while we were busy with the party.

It would have been impossible without him!

We went to Breakfast with Santa at Thanksgiving Point on December 6th.

They had a yummy breakfast, crafts, games and fun Christmas characters

did a presentation and visited afterwards. Evan liked all the characters except

for Santa! Maybe he was worried about whether Santa

had heard about some of his "naughty"

episodes over the past year.

Who wouldn't love a friend made of candy?

Evan really loved the polar bear. He followed it everywhere.

We were his official entourage.

Evan with Mrs. Claus. She handed out candy and fun
cookie recipes.

Evan giving the polar bear a hug.

Evan liked the Grinch a lot too. He just saw the movie but

apparently it did not faze him. Evan won a Hershey kiss

playing a game. He ran down the stairs to find the Grinch. He handed

the kiss to the Grinch and didn't even ask for it back. I agree with Evan-

chocolate makes everyone happy!

Evan also thought the fairy was pretty darn cute.

While I was holding our place in line to see Santa, Dain said

Evan was playing with his plastic dinosaurs with the fairy.

Evan was pretty bashful when he first saw her.

Evan watching the presentation.

My handsome boy!

We helped Evan make his first gingerbread creation.

Of course the candy was the first main draw.

He wanted me to help him open all of the packages.

When Evan wants help he says "Help You?' instead of "Help Me?"

We think it is pretty cute.
Evan even liked the peppermints.

He is our eating machine with

a very diversified sense of taste.

Dain was in charge of the structural portion of the build.
He is very careful and has great attention to detail.


I got to help with the decorating. Some of the candy was half eaten before it
was put on the train but that is okay. After all, no one was going
to be eating it but Evan! Evan liked to fill the train with candy.


The proud boys. Evan is still eating candy of course.

At least Daddy knows how to smile for the camera!

Business Trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Okay, so I still have issues getting the pictures to go in the order I want them to go. Reverse chronological. Reverse chronological. I will get it soon-for now bear with me. I went on a business trip for training to Ft. Lauderdale Florida. This is an alligator I saw on an airboat Everglades tour. I think he was about 6-7 feet long.

Hiding in the bushes. It was fun to go on a scavenger hunt to find them in the wild. We only found 2 because it was mating season and hunting season so the alligators were a little out of sorts. Also the Everglades were very flooded so the water was too deep to see a lot of them. They like to hide in the shallow parts so they were pushed pretty far back inland because the water was so high.

One of the channels that were man made by the Army Corps of Engineers. (This trip was in August so if my memory is failing me and the info is wrong forgive me.)

One of the airboats we rode. It was very fast and moves side to side kind of like the feeling of being on a jet ski.

The beautiful accomodations. The waiting area was completely flooded. The only ones using it were the birds.

I felt like I stepped into a scene from "Waterboy". Yes, we actually went inside and even used the bathroom. Brave, I know! It actually was a really cool atmosphere.

The view from our window at our hotel. It overlooked a golf course and was surrounded by very beautiful homes.

Me and Bree standing on a long pier. People were fishing off the docks. It was very cool to see.

Bree and Brenda my friends from work. We had a great time despite the fact that Ft. Lauderdale is a very sleepy town with not a whole lot to do. Bree and I heard about this awesome shopping center with like 70 or so stores. We drove all the way to Ft. Lauderdale and found the "amazing" shopping mall. There were maybe 15 stores that were actually in business, none of which were too desirable. A couple of nights later Bree and I spent 45 minutes driving around trying to find a nice restaurant to eat in. We could not find any chain restaurants. Were do people eat who live there? Finally, we found Olive Garden and we were elated. Bree and I did get in trouble for being on the beach when Hurricane Ike had closed the beach. Who knew that the red flag on the lifeguard station meant the beach was closed (we couldn't even see the lifeguard station from where we were at)? Not to mention the first night we arrived the fire alarm went off in our hotel and we all had to wait in the lobby for 45 minutes in our pjs. We couldn't go back to sleep until 2:30 am. We were all grateful we didn't have our little ones with us or we probably would have never got back to sleep. Oh well. It was still a great trip and it was fun to have a few days away.

Ode to a bottle

Life has been busy and I didn't find time to memoralize our family friend at his passing. For over the past two years our life has revolved around our friend, the bottle. It shared with us our joys and it was there for us in the very worst of times. Nothing could calm our screaming child faster, nothing could bring a smile to his face, no word was screamed more often than "bottle!!!" At last it was time to put away childish things and let go of our friend. Evan had outgrown simply sucking on it and decided it was way more fun to unscrew the lid and spill the contents everywhere, fling the liquid out of the nipple or simply chew the nipple off as quickly as possible. Sometimes it is better for all parties involved to end the relationship. Regardless, it will always have a special place in our hearts. Farewell, infancy! Here we come boyhood!