Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!! We had a wonderful Christmas at our house. We were lucky enough to have Mark's family and My family here! It was fantastic to let everyone experience Evan's first Christmas with us. He, of course, was not too interested in his presents. He ripped open ONE of his presents and took a few bows off. He loved walking around in our wrapping paper mess. It was a Christmas obstacle course! 

On Christmas Eve, we all went to church, but Evan spent his time coloring in the back with a new friend. After church, we all worked hard making taco, tamales, and tortilla soup. It was delicious! Evan enjoyed some tortilla soup before he had to go to bed. Once Evan was asleep the fun began! We played a new game the elves lefts us, Quelf! It was an hilarious game!! You have to be ready to act a fool, but we made some great memories. Who knew my mom was great at slow motion, Mark could beat box, Matt could be in the nutcracker, Marilyn has talent as a mime, and Lindsey was Almighty Lord of Quelf! We learned so much :)

Well, I am happy to say that Santa came to visit! I guess we were all good this year. Between eleven people we had more than enough presents to open. We are truly blessed!!! Once the gifts were open, we began making Christmas dinner. Mark was in charge of the turkey, which was really delicious, but someone an oven fire was started. I mean flames 3-5 inches high. It was scary, but somehow we managed to get it out and did not ruin the turkey. That was our only disaster of the day! Our dinner turned out amazing. For the first time cooking it, with family help, no dish ended up terrible. In fact, everything tasted great! I can only hope that next year goes just as well! It was great to have family around and I am truly sad that everyone is gone and the house is quiet again!

Gingerbread House!!

Well, Mark and I attempted making a gingerbread house (from a kit). Anyone that knows us, realizes we have NO artistic ability. So, please be nice, we think our gingerbread house is a HUGE improvement from last year. Right, Sally? Evan loved making his first gingerbread house. All he wanted to do was eat EVERYTHING!!! He ate the snowman of the gingerbread house and cried when we took it away. He loves his gingerbread! Maybe next year he will enjoy making one instead of eating all the chocking hazards! Goodness knows we could use some artistic ability in this family :) This year Mark decorated one side and I did the other. That is why are house looks a little bi-polar. We got some good ideas, so next year can be more cohesive! Can't wait!!

If you give the gingerbread back, he is a happy camper!!

Cookies!!!

'Aunt' Mandy was nice enough to come over and make Christmas cookies with us! So we did it the total homemade way! Premixed cookies and canned icing, but still it was fun!! Evan loved eating the icing and even cut out a few cookies himself!! We can't wait to do it again with Daddy because we know these cookies won't last for Santa!! 

YUMMMM!

What mom?? It's yummy!

Evan's adventure. He loves crawling in the bar stools!!

And back out again! Don't worry no babies were hurt in the making!

Our cookies!!

Cutting out the cookies!!

Eating some too...

Evan's hand!!

Busy and Sick...

Well we have been busy doing things to the house. We painted the living room, then got new carpet! Finally, we really needed it. We replaced the light fixture in our dining room and bought a few new things for our living room. We are also getting some bar stools and have a new fan to put up in there. After that we will be done!! It is so nice to have a clean, beautiful room down there instead of a room that had been poorly painted with stained carpet. Then after that busy weekend, a sickness made the rounds of our house. I think Evan has made it out sickness free (knock on wood), but I was down for the count on Tuesday, and Mark had it Wednesday. Thankfully on Thursday, we all feel better!!

Oh, and Evan now has SIX, yes six, teeth!!

Chewing paper....again....

Silly boy!

Look at those teeth!

Christmas baby!

New light. Thanks Mark!!

New pillows. I should have moved the furniture. We were still painting!!

Cute diaper!!

Stuffing his mouth!!

So happy!!

Playing with Troy!!

Get this hat OFF me!!

I know it is blurry, but it is so cute!!

Monkey!!!

Santa!!!!!

My mom came to visit for a few days. Woo hooo!! We decided to take Evan to see Santa. We had to wait about twenty minutes, so my mom took Evan to wave at Santa and watch all the other kids visit with him. Evan was having a blast, so I was sure this time would go better than the first. Well, I was wrong. Evan sat down on Santa lap. He was ok for a second. He looked at Santa. Then, he started screaming. Oh well! Maybe he will learn to like Santa next year!!

Speech Therapy!

We had our first speech therapy session today! I could not have asked for it to have gone better! The therapist was really sweet and Evan seemed to take to her quite quickly. I learned a bunch of tools to help Evan. She thinks he will zoom right along. It was also interesting because she said my doctor refers a lot of children to them. I guess he has the proactive approach instead of the lets way and see. Which that is our thoughts exactly, so we can't wait to get Evan back up to par. Evan is smart, so I have no doubt he will catch right up.

I have a few pictures of Evan at Brittany's 1st birthday party! He had a blast. Sadly, it was nap time, so we only got to stay about an hour. Evan got to see Brit open her gifts and then he helped himself to the cake!! Silly boy!!

MMMM....chocolate cake!

Happy Birthday, Brittany!!

Let's celebrate!

Whoa, lights AND troy!!

Is this present really for me??

Helping Mommy with the tree!

Milestone!!

Getting into trouble...

Helping me hand lights...

Evan said "Mama!!" We have been working so hard on other sounds. We finally got an 'm!" Hooray! In even better news he is working on the 'r' sounds too!! We have our first speech therapy on Tuesday, so I can't wait to see other techniques to get Evan verbal! Additionally, Evan 'graduated' to the 10-16 month class a Gymboree. He LOVED it! NO crying at the parachute and he socialized with most of the babies! This class is definitely more suited to his needs! The best news, Evan can go off his iron supplement, and is now down to just his multivitamin with iron! So happy to have a boy that is progressing so well!