Nathan's 4th Birthday

Nathan turned 4.

It is hard to believe that 4 years ago h was a baby it seems like it was 6 months ago.  If only I could keep him little but then I think of all the life experiences he would never have.  I love him so dearly and he is becomeing an amazing little boy.  He loves superheros! Spider man has been his favoraite for awhile.  He saw a spiderman jumping castle at a park once and has been asking for one ever since, so this year we got him one.

He loved it, although it became hot very fast!  We had a party at our house with this cool jumpimg castle for kids his age.

I made him this suoerhero cake. Do you see the Super Nathan symbol?

I made all the children superhero capes as their favor.

After the party at our house we headed over to Grandmas house to celebrate with family and friends.

Where Nathan got this really cool Iron man costume.

It was fun for all but it was really hot! I hope he had a super birthday!

I am still here!

Sorry it has been so long since I have written anything, I am just so busy!  I have a new job creating and developing lessons for teachers to use with smart boards.  The problem with this is that everytime I sit at the computer I feel as though I should be doing that not writing on my blog. 

So much has happened since I have last bloged! My baby / first born turned 4.  He had a wonderful superhero birthday party.  THe weather is changing.  No it isn't a real fall but it works! It is only 90 outside now which means alot more time for the kids to be outside.  Lots of walks to the park and we are making our house look like fall.  Making fall leaves and pumpkins.

Here comes another post about the party!

LIfe at Home is not easy.

It is not easy being home everyday!!!

I give it up to those women who can keep up with in home daycare over a period of many years.  Not sure that I am one of them. 

I continue to say that if I could send my kids to daycare I would be in heaven!

It isn't the other children so much as it is mine!

Before I go on I think I should state that while about 50% of the day Carter and Nathan both drive me crazy the other 50% of the time we get to dance, smile at each other, hug, kiss, color, sit and relax, and to some extent just be which is blissful and I enjoy every moment that I get. 

Somedays are enjoyed by laying around on the floor while four children climb all over me.  Others by sitting outside and painting with water on the concrete. But one thing is for sure the days I enjoy most are the ones that I put down those cleaning supplies and just play.  When I get frustrated or annoyed by one or more of the wild children in my house I have to remember that we need to start over and I have to join in.

Playing house where Kate is the dad and I am the mom and Nathan and Cameryn are our children is a favorite among them but I enjoy dance parties and being outside (hopefully it will cool off soon so we can all get outside everyday all day).  I am sure that those are my favorite things to do because they usually do not include a lot of screaming, fighting, or biting (Carter!!).

The most upseting days are when no matter what I do Carter just keeps biting, Nathan and Camryn fight non stop about silly things.  These days happen often without fail I will have a good day and think some of these obstacles are behind me but they always come back. 

But as I stated before I am here for my kids!  I want to enjoy them and what they do. 

Somedays we just need a reminder of why we do what we do right?
I think that was what this post was all about!!!1

Summer Rain

Arizona Monsoons have officaly begun!!

Why is this so amazing? Well because up until now we have been stuck inside the house with it being way to hot to be outside for any length of time I try to aviod it at all.

But rain brings shade from the sun and what feels like a little cooler air although we did have 86% hummidity yesterday.

Here are my boys playing in the rain:

So I also love Arizona's Summer rains because my son can go out in his diaper and rain boots with no fear of being too cold.

Here they are watching the rain drip off the roof.

Disneyland

We were lucky enough to be able to take our boys for their first trip to Disneyland.

Disneyland through a child’s eyes has to be an amazing sight. We know what to expect what it looks, smells, and sounds like but for a 3 year old they have no idea. I have to say I was a little disappointed by Nathan's reaction he must have been excited and not wanted to move because he loved what he was looking at and didn't realize it was going to get better past Main Street but he immediately threw a fit and didn't want to go anywhere. The bribing began "Nathan I am sure daddy will go into the candy store and buy you something special if you get into the stroller so we can go on a ride." Of course John went to get a lollipop which Nathan thought was cool and we moved ahead. The first ride spotted by Nathan was the rocket ships in tomorrow land we went and stood on line for 30 min and neither child enjoyed it. Too high and too scary for them.

Then we were off to a much better ride. The Buzzlightyear ride!

We all really enjoyed it and it is Nathan's favoraite ride at Disneyland.

Meghan was our fast pass girl. If there was a ride we wanted to go on and it had a fast pass Meghan would run over to it get the pass and come back.  She did this with Roger Rabbit because we thought it would be fun for the kids. Nathan enjoyed it but it broke luckly we went through the whole ride and it broke right at the end so we felt like we got the experience and we could leave.

Next was the picture of the day or at least the one that took over an hour to get. 

We didn't realize that by walking into Mickey's house you were getting on line to meet Mickey.  We didn't care enough about meeting Mickey to wait on a line! Nathan was even disapointed because he thought that there were two Mickey Mouses the one standing on Main Street with a line and this guy who was dressed wierd.  Anyway what an excellent picture!

Carter waiting on line for It's a Small World.  Grammy gave him a lollipop also.

We rode many more rides and ate lots of food. Carter's favoraite ride was the Winnie the Pooh ride because he loves his Winnie the Pooh book. Thanks Kristen for the suggestion I had never seen that ride before.

We wanted to see the Fantasimc but it was way too crowded so we ended up at the firewrk show which was amazing. It was hard to keep Nathan up but I did.  As soon as he got back in the stroller he was done.

Here are my 2 sleeping beauties at 10:00pm.

We left the park after this. 

We had a blast although it was very exhusting especially for mommy and daddy. I think I could have slept the entire next day.

Thanks Grammy!!!

Family Reunion

Thank you Mom, Dad, Aunt Claudia, Uncle Robert, Aunt Suize, and Uncle Bill and all the cousins who joined in our first Evans' Family Reunion!

We had a blast!!

Maybe even a little crazy???

The weather was awful but that didn't stop us from hanging out on the beach!

We had a sandcastle building contest on the 4th here are some pics.

My teams castle                    John's teams whale

Awesome I think!!!

Morning walks on the boardwalk with the cousins Nikhil and Adie.

(Yes my son is holding a barbie)

Aren't they just the cutiest!

We found John's bench on our walk.

We tried swiming on the deck but it was still very cold.  The activity did not last long.

A little bar hopping!

Bobby, Meghan and Tori hanging out of a window on the second story of a bar that we decided not to go to becasue of the long line and expensive cover charge. We misssed the fun but it does look like they are having fun!

Will, me, and Meghan out playing some Wii bowling.

Stuffing our faces with Mexican food after drinking way to much!!

Since the cold didn't bother daddy at all he made many walks to and on the beach with his boys.  It was hard for me to join because even in a sweater and pants I was freezing but they look like they had fun.

How cute is he???

Bella did some amazing buggie boarding and surfing at the Wavehouse.  It was way too cold in the ocean.

John insisted on one last trip to the beach.  Nathan fully enjoyed it and seems to be taking after his dad. No sweater?

Meghan was freezing with me!

That is the sum up in pictures of our family vacation.  We had a great time no matter what the weather was like.  It was helpful to have a hot tub. 

So family when is the next one???

Love Ya all!
(there will be another post with Nathan and Carter's first Disneyland trip!)

The Daycare

Sorry everyone it has taken so long to update you on my situation!

I am now watching 3 children plus my two boys.  We are busy!!!!

It has taken a little while for me to relax and be ok with this. Ayt first I was constantly cleaning and planing activites!  I haven't gotten into preschool activities but I will.  The kids are having fun playing and being with other children their age.

It is a lot of work!  I always wondered how my kids babysitters did this and I guess now I know but I know it is tough.

The question is if it was the right decision and everyday when I look into my children's eyes and see them smile and know that I get to be here with them I know that it was the right decision.  I am lucky that I get to be here with them for a year or longer to se them grow, play, and learn.  When I get frustrated and the arguing and crying begins to get to me I have to stop and remember why we are here and what I will get from this experience.

Here are some pictures of us hanging out during the day.

Painting outside with water

Homemade Fingerpaints

A little dress up

(I am not sure what he is but I will have to take a picture of him when he is wearing his rainboots with the outfit!)

Anyway as you can see we are busy everyday!