Happy 2nd Birthday, Evan!

I can't believe this little guy is a big 2 year old! We've had a lot of fun celebrating over the last few days.

Reed's parents were here last weekend, so we had a joint birthday party for Evan and his cousin (who's birthday is the day before) while they were here. The boys went fishing (with nothing to show for it) and then we all went miniature golfing and had Cafe Rio for lunch. Then we headed back to FINALLY open presents and have some yummy cupcakes.

Evan trying to wait patiently to eat his cupcake

 The birthday boys

 Evan really liked everyone singing the birthday song to him

 Ev was super excited for his new slide from Grandma and Grandpa!

Evan on his actual birthday playing with streamers and balloons

 Even his cougars got in on the birthday celebration!

 Loving his new little bike from Mom and Dad

 It even has a special spot for Cougar!

For some reason Evan didn't eat any cake on his birthday. So here he is going at it the day after.

Happy Birthday Big Guy! We love you!

Pickles

A couple months ago Ev and I were doing our normal grocery shopping. We were walking down the isle that had the pickles and they smelt so incredibly good! But we kept walking. The same thing the next week. The next week I finally gave in and bought a jar of pickles. And you better believe that me and Evan (but mostly me) polished off those pickles in just a few days.

A couple weeks later Reed and I celebrated our 4th anniversary. Being the sweet husband he is, he got me some beautiful flowers and a pack of chocolate pudding for every year we have been married. And I couldn't have asked for anything else that day.

Yep, you guessed it...Baby #2 is on the way!!!! Evan is due to become a big brother around January 11. We're really excited for this new addition, especially if this baby is half as wonderful as Evan! 

And yes...there is another jar of pickles in my fridge right now.

Piano

My parents just bought a new baby grand piano, so I got first dibs on their old piano! It's the same piano I learned how to play on growing up, so it's really cool to have it. We had no idea how we were going to get it up here (without it costing about as much as just buying a piano). Then my parents found out some family friends were driving a truck up this way! So we were able to pay them (much less) to haul the piano up here for us. We are so grateful to them for their help and are loving the piano in our home! Evan loves to play it, and thankfully (especially for the neighbors beneath us) doesn't just bang on it. 

Sweet Land of Liberty!

The 4th of July just might be my very favorite holiday. It's right up there with Christmas. But what's not to love-the weather is warm, BBQs, swimming, pride and gratitude for our country, and of course the fireworks! 

Reed got all of his hours in by Thursday, so we had a nice 4-day weekend! On Friday we went to the water park in Provo, Seven Peaks. We thought Evan would enjoy the kiddie pool, but he was not having it. He warmed up to it a little bit, but every time we tried to push him just a little more he would start signing all done or would try to get us to go to the car! Hopefully he'll like it by the time the weather cools down again! (We didn't take our camera, but here are a few pics from a few days before playing with the hose in the yard)

On Saturday, we took Evan to his first movie in a theater...and it was probably his last for a while! We took him to see a 11:00 showing of Cars 2, so there were only a few other families there (so we only got minimal dirty looks). Evan watched a little bit, but then he was much more interested in walking up and down the stairs in between fistfuls of popcorn. Oh well.

Saturday evening we got together with Reed's brother and his family for a yummy BBQ and flag cake before heading to the BYU men's soccer game. We do it every year and it's so fun. Evan was so excited to go to BYU with his cousins! Unfortunately the Cougs had to settle with a tie. After the game they let everyone down onto the field so we can watch the fireworks show from the Stadium of Fire. Evan loved the fireworks! He kept signing more and calls them "boom boom" (with a fist pump).

We of course spent our Sunday at church and at home trying to get a grumpy little boy back on schedule after a late night. 

We wanted to go back to Seven Peaks on Monday, but it was cloudy and a little rainy, so we decided not to. But we did do sparklers with Evan that night. I think he liked them!

Does his Dad look nervous or what? Cause he was!

When Grandpa Comes

A couple weeks ago, my parents and youngest brother came into town to visit! We got to do lots of fun things like visiting BYU (Evan had been so excited to go to BYU!), going on a picnic up the canyon, tackling Uncle Trae, and Evan got Grandpa to take him to the park a few times! We didn't get very many pictures because we were too busy having fun, but here are a few.

The fam up the canyon...this was Evan's day one of not feeling well

 Evan and Grandpa

 Evan and Dad

And this is the reason my parents are only allowed to fly if they want to visit anymore. This stupid thing is taking up our whole king size bed! It's pretty creepy if you walk into a room and you forget he's in there.

Thanks for the fun visit!