Reed~Brittnie~Evan~Audrey

Adjusting

2012-01-22T13:44:00.000-07:00

Life is good here at the Chilton home. We're adjusting to life as a family of four and we love it!

Yes, we are tired.

Yes we have some crazy moments.

And yes, this tiny person makes a lot of extra laundry!

But we're loving (almost) every minute of it!

Evan is such a good big brother!

I spend my whole day kissing these 3 adorable faces over and over and over again! Doesn't get any better than this!

Evan likes to turn the music on for Audrey when she's in the bouncer

Evan also likes to join in for tummy time-when did he get SO big?!

My awesome aunt, Alane, drew this for us and I LOVE it! I especially love that she remembered to include Cougar!

Our beautiful baby girl!

A HUGE thank you to Grandma Jo and Grandma Chilton for all their help these last 2 weeks! We couldn't have done it without you and Evan loved having you here to boss around! And thanks to the Grandpas who survived through their absence. We love you and miss you already!

So Blessed

2012-01-08T10:21:00.001-07:00

I'm sure most of you have already seen the big news on Facebook and stuff, but I figured it's worthy of a blog entry as well! Newborn Audrey looks a TON like newborn Evan.

Audrey Bryn Chilton

January 6, 2012

7 pounds, 10 ounces

20. 5 inches

Evan had this same bottom lip when he was little

All clean!

She's absolutely perfect!

Evan is a great big brother, although he's still warming up to Audrey

One happy family of four! Although Evan looks like he's plotting his first attack on his little sister...

We're so thankful for Audrey's safe arrival and for all of you who have helped take care of Evan this weekend and who will be helping in the weeks ahead. We love our TWO little ones!

Christmas

2012-01-04T15:03:00.000-07:00

Since we're so close to Baby Sister's arrival, we were stuck here in Utah for Christmas. It was our first time having Christmas with just our little family and it was a lot of fun. I was worried it wouldn't be the same and that I wouldn't enjoy Christmas as much with just us. But it was one of my favorites.

On Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa and then watched "Home Alone". Reed was so happy! Then Evan got to open his Christmas Eve presents-new PJs from my Johansson grandparents and an audio book from his Grandma and Grandpa Johansson. He loves listening to Grandma and Grandpa Jo read him the story!

We woke Evan up just before 8 on Christmas morning to come check to see if Santa had come. Sure enough, he did! Evan thought it was pretty cool to see that Santa had eaten the cookies and the reindeer ate the carrots! He got to check out his new stuff from Santa and we "opened" our stockings before Evan got to wear his new tie to church.

I didn't think I'd like having Christmas on a Sunday, but I actually loved it. I didn't like changing out of our PJs so much, but I did love the chance to take a break and focus on the real meaning of Christmas, our Savior. I'm sure my younger self wouldn't have felt that way though.

We came back and tackled the gifts under the tree! Evan made Christmas so fun this year. He loved everything about it (but was still able to sleep the night before!), especially Baby Jesus and the rest of the nativity crew. We are so thankful for that special baby and the impact He has had on all of our lives.

Speaking of special babies, stayed tuned-we're scheduled to be induced this Friday! We're so excited!

Visitors

2012-01-04T14:36:00.000-07:00

Christmas has come and gone-and so has a lot of our family! We had a lot of visitors these past few weeks and got to do lots of fun things together. We started off with a visit from Reed's parents a few days before Christmas. We had a lot of fun with them and the local cousins, but unfortunately didn't really get any pictures. But Monday night we had yummy homemade pizza and decorated sugar cookies, Tuesday we went to a BYU basketball game, and on Wednesday we had everyone over for dinner before heading down to The Riverwoods to see the lights and ride the carousal.

A few days after Christmas, my parents and 2 of my little brothers came to visit. My Mom got a kitten for Christmas, and since it was too little to leave at home, it got to make the trip up too. And Evan loved it! He always knew where that cat was and loved to follow it around. We started off their visit with a VERY large and VERY fun Christmas present.

Then we headed off to another BYU basketball game. Evan loves when they turn out all the lights and announce the starting line up and all the time outs and half time performances with Cosmo. The actual game isn't all that exciting yet.

Evan enjoyed watching "Finding Nemo" in Grandma and Grandpa's car while they ran a few errands. Then he played with Uncle Trae and helped Uncle B with his new toy (Evan is a really good driver!) and played games on Grandpa's I-Pad. And followed the cat around some more.

A couple days ago my little sister and her cute family came to visit! Evan hasn't seen cousin Bailey since last Thanksgiving and we finally got to meet Connor (he's almost one, but apparently didn't make it into any of our pictures)! Evan is just a couple months younger than Bailey, so they had a lot of fun playing together! They took turns on Evan's slides, watched SuperWhy, played blocks, and practiced their letters!

Thanks to everyone who made the trip out to see us! And we're excited to have the Grandmas back these next few weeks to help out with Baby Sister!

Looking A Lot Like Christmas

2011-12-19T15:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday night we headed down to a shopping center in Provo called The Riverwoods. They had tons of Christmas lights up, so we just went to walk around for a little bit. Evan had so much fun running around checking out all of the lights!

Checking out Santa-the line was way too long and it was way too cold out to sit on his lap

Riding the motorcycle

We later saw a shorter line and came to find out it was for free carriage rides! Since I have super pregnancy heat, I volunteered to wait in line while the boys ran around. There was definitely a reason it was free, but it was fun!

This isn't the best picture, but I love Evan's face!

We're excited to get to take Grandmas and Grandpas back with us in the next few weeks!

Frosty & Santa

2011-12-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

We got a little bit of snow yesterday and Evan was so eager to get out and play in it! He really likes that snowmen have carrot noses, so we decided to make a little one, just so Evan could give him a carrot nose. So I gathered what little energy I have these days, got us bundled up, and we headed out!

Getting some boogers as he works on his snowman

Evan was so excited to put the nose on and then he was ready to head inside-his snowman reminded him that he wanted a carrot!

Monday night we took Evan to our Rec Center to see Santa Claus! I've taken Evan to see Santa the last few times we've been at the mall this last month and he's loved it! He runs right up to Santa when it's his turn and sits there very quietly (he's only ever said one word to Santa)! He was really excited to go...and then when we got there, he was a little unsure about things. I mean, look at this Santa-wouldn't you be too?!

The one time I can get a free picture of Evan with Santa and this is what I got! But hey, check out Santa's sweet pictures of Mrs. Claus and Rudolph!

28 days to go!!!

Sugar and Spice

2011-12-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday some wonderful friends of mine threw me a really fun baby shower!

The food was really good

yummy pink cupcakes

cute little pancake stacks

fruit kabobs

pink lemonade

The games were really fun

stuffing our shirts with balloons!

candy bar diaper game

And the company was even better!

Thanks to everyone who came and an even bigger thanks to those who helped put it all together!

Blog Slacking

2011-12-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Partly because blogger hasn't been working very well on our computer and I just don't have the energy these days to deal with it. Here are a few things we've been up to since Halloween:

Me and Ev got to go on a tour of the local fire station with our playgroup. Evan got his own fireman hat and loves all things fire truck related.

Evan had fun helping Mom make some cookies

And we got our first snow that produced enough snow to stick and play in. Evan loved playing in the snow and can't wait to do it again!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my wonderful Aunt Alane's house. The food was delicious (including the 11 pies!) and the company was great! We appreciate them letting us join them!

Now we're just doing all things Christmas! Evan loves our Christmas tree and all of the lights. He loves going to the mall to see Santa. We were shocked when he went right up to Santa and sat on his lap. Too bad I'm not paying those mall prices to get a picture!

And I just checked my little pregnancy ticker and we're down to 37 days until our due date! CRAZY! A few of my awesome friends threw a baby shower for me this last weekend, hopefully I'll get some pictures soon!

Spooky

2011-11-01T15:43:00.000-06:00

We had such a fun Halloween this year! Evan has been obsessed with all things ghost this year, so that's what his costume was! We were a little worried because he wasn't very interested in wearing his costume, but once he figured out that he got treats when he wore it, he was all for it! And with enough bribing, he even let me put white paint on his face!

Here's our spooky little ghost with mom on our way to the ward Halloween party

Getting ready to lick the frosting off the cupcake he won at the cupcake walk

Here's Evan on Halloween night with Rapunzel (she even took her frying pan!) and Harry Potter right before we headed out for Trick or Treating

Evan really enjoyed pumpkin carving this year too.

He didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts, so instead he used a spoon and took out each individual seed.

We just had Evan paint his pumpkin and then Reed cut out a face later when it was dry

And here's our finished pumpkins!

We hope you all had a spooky Halloween!

Zoo

2011-10-23T22:05:00.000-06:00

On Friday we took Evan up to Salt Lake's Hogle Zoo. He got really excited to see the animals, but was ready to move on pretty fast. I think he got bored because they really didn't do much.

The elephants seemed to be his favorite. He really liked the baby.

The tigers were also pretty cool. Nice face, Ev.

He REALLY loved these tigers

And he enjoyed the playground

Afterwards we decided to stop at the "This is the Place" park across the street. Reed got some cool pictures.

Enjoying all the grass to run around on

Racing Dad

Pointing out their name

Evan went and stood in front of this and waited for his picture to be taken

Then he decided to read off all the letters!

It was such a fun day with such nice weather. We later asked Evan what we had done that day and he couldn't remember. Oh well, Mom and Dad had fun.

Pumpkinland!

2011-10-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

Evan and I go to our ward's play group Wednesday mornings and it's so much fun! This past week was especially fun because we got to go to Pumpkinland! They had a small corn maze, a "light" alley, a few playgrounds, lots of animals, and of course pumpkins!

All the kids, minus a few babies

The kids loved the baby bunnies!

Mom & Evan

Beautiful fall day at the pumpkin patch

Playing with the boys

Evan and Diego checking out the ducks

The "light" alley

The big pumpkins

We had lots of fun exploring Pumpkinland and playing with friends before Evan got to take his own pumpkin home!

In Between Sessions

2011-10-03T15:42:00.000-06:00

In between Saturday General Conference sessions we headed up the canyon to Aspen Grove. The weather was perfect and the trees were beautiful! We ate a quick lunch then took Evan on a few short "hikes". Somehow we made it home with only one rock-amazing!

Evan taking off

At the "top"

Giving Mom and her big belly a break on the log

Dad and Evan taking the lead on the way back

Getting Big

2011-09-29T15:09:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago we put Evan in a big boy bed since Baby Sister will be taking over the crib. He's almost always been a really good sleeper, so we were nervous about the change, but hoped that his good sleeping habits would carry over and make the transition a little easier. Fortunately, we were right! He definitely enjoyed the freedom to get out of bed and play, but he now understands that he needs to stay in bed in sleep. Whenever I go in to get him, he'll still be in bed, even if he's been up for a little while! He even really likes to get in his bed with Dad so they can pretend to sleep sometimes. He's such a good boy!

Doesn't that look comfortable? He was just practicing and making sure he had enough books and animals to keep him company.

Unfortunately, he's not the only one around here getting big! Here I am a few weeks ago, at 23 weeks.

And Evan insisted on getting his picture taken just like Mom!

Arco

2011-09-14T15:41:00.001-06:00

My parents stayed here with us for a few days over the Labor Day weekend. But I don't have any pictures, so we'll just say it was really fun and skip over it for now. Tuesday morning they got up around 4 am to take off to Idaho. And me and Evan went with them. This was really out of character for me. The thing is, I really like Reed. A lot. And I don't like being away from him. But I knew the trip up to Idaho was going to be fast and Reed would be busy at work most of the time anyways. So we packed up and tagged along.

Evan was such a good traveler. Except for the 2 times he got car sick and threw up. Poor little guy. But Dum-Dums fix just about everything!

Our first stop was in Rexberg to pick up my brother Bryant. Evan was really excited to see B. Then we headed for my grandparents house in Arco! It's been a while since I've seen them and it's been even longer since I've been to their house, which was another big reason we decided to take the trip without Reed. And I love everything about that house. It was so fun to see Evan running around their yard enjoying the same things I did as a kid.

Playing basketball on the grass with Uncle B

Picking all the crab apples off Grandma's tree

Throwing rocks in the ditch with Uncle Trae

Playing with Grandma

Helping Grandpa mow the lawn...Evan wasn't so sure about this cowboy!

Enjoying a bonfire

Roasting hot dogs and making s'mores before lighting off a bunch of Grandma's leftover bottle rockets

Ev loved putting the pool balls down the gutters and then having Trae get them out for him

Cowboy country started to rub off on Evan a little

My Grandma has this ceramic cat by her front door that Evan just loved! We would find him sitting over by this thing with his arm around it or giving it kisses or just hanging out with it!

He even helped the cat smell the candles!

Having fun with Uncle Trae's phone

Enjoying another Dum-Dum with Mom on our way back to see Dad!

We got to drop off both uncles in Rexberg on the way back so they could start a new school year at BYU-I. It was a fun and quick trip (I think we spent a total of about 25 hours in Arco) and even though we really missed Reed, we're sure glad we went.

Fun Start to a Fun Week

2011-09-08T16:50:00.000-06:00

Last Friday Reed's parents came into town for a quick weekend visit. Evan is always so excited when "Mama" and "Papa" come! We had lots of fun with them and Reed's family that is in Utah. We spent a lot of time at the park and enjoyed some yummy ice cream at the BYU Creamery on Friday. On Saturday we headed up Hobble Creek Canyon. The weather was just perfect and the kids had fun playing in the creek.

(Can you tell it was game day?)

Then we hung out at Reed's older brother's house in Springville. The boys had a nice flag football game before we had to run Evan home for his nap.

Ready to play with the boys

Getting the play call from Grandpa

Losing his flags

Not very happy about it...must be time for a nap!

Soon after Evan woke up from his nap, my parents and youngest brother arrived at our house! All of the grandmas and grandpas were a little confusing! That post (or posts) coming soon!

1-1

2011-08-26T15:42:00.000-06:00

We just got back from our 20 week ultrasound (or as Evan calls it, the "baby show") and it looks like we'll be adding a darling little GIRL to our family!
Here she is with her hand up by her face

At my last appointment at 16 weeks, the girl that was our MA that day used to work at the clinic I worked at before Evan was born (the Dr that delivered Evan switched offices recently and this MA followed). Anyways, she pulled out an old ultrasound machine and did an ultrasound with us for fun for about 10-15 mintues. It was awesome. And while doing this, we were pretty convinced it was a girl, but thought we'd wait for this ultrasound to be sure (meaning it hasn't been stopping me from buying cute girl things, I've just been keeping the reciepts!).

19 weeks with Evan:

19 weeks with Baby Sister:

We're so excited for Baby Sister! January 11(ish) can't come soon enough!

Not So Happy Campers

2011-08-14T16:27:00.000-06:00

We took Evan camping for the first time this weekend. Let's just say it might be a year or two before that happens again! Everything actually went great except the sleeping part-we all had a pretty long night! But here's a few pictures from when we were still well rested.

2 cougars and a volleyball-Evan is excited and ready to go!

Evan ready to help Dad set up the tent

He really enjoyed playing in the pack and play when we first got there-probably because Cougar wasn't allowed outside

Roasting a stick while eating a cold hot dog

Overall, it was a pretty good trip. Evan had a couple really good tantrums when we got home (he really didn't want to get out of his car seat?), but got a quick nap and he has recovered really well!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Evan!

2011-07-30T22:13:00.000-06:00

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

2011-07-23T18:00:00.001-06:00

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

2011-07-19T16:13:00.000-06:00

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!

2011-07-07T16:10:00.000-06:00

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

2011-07-04T15:58:00.000-06:00

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!

Croup

2011-06-27T16:32:00.000-06:00

We could tell poor little Evan wasn't feeling very well on Wednesday (of course while we had family in town. He always gets sick when we have family in town or when we visit family out of town...). Thursday and Friday morning weren't much better, so we took him in and came home with a diagnosis of croup. So we rented a nebulizer at the home health place and having been doing a few treatments everyday. Of course he hates it. Then after 2 or 3 treatments he decided to hold it himself and not fight us over it! And he even put the tube in his mouth! We usually still have to hold it out in front of him, but he will suck on it for a few minutes every time. And this might sound kinda strange, but I think it's so cute!

We're still doing a few more treatments, but he seems to mostly be back to his normal, happy, energetic self!

A Fun Weekend

2011-06-15T16:25:00.000-06:00

This last week Reed had to do some traveling (to fabulous Blanding, Utah) for work. Since he got so many hours in and they normally only work half days on Fridays, he was able to just take the whole day off! It was so fun to have a 3-day weekend together! So on Friday we headed up to Bridal Veil Falls. It was perfect-the temperature was just right, there were only a few other people there, and the water is shallow enough still that we didn't have to worry about Evan being swept down stream. And he loved it-so many rocks to throw with his Dad!

Finding sticks and all sorts of things to carry on the walk up

Mom's death grip hand hold while crossing the raging Provo River

So many rocks, so little time!

My Dad sure is tall!

Cute, happy boys!

Dad and Evan checking out the river on the bridge again (apparently Mom was much more paranoid about being so close to the river)

On Saturday we spent time at Orem's Summer Fest. It was a lot of fun, but we didn't take too many pictures. The highlights were seeing Cosmo in the parade and watching the awesome fireworks from our front window while Evan slept!

Getting Warmer

2011-06-09T21:15:00.000-06:00

It finally stopped raining here in Utah and is slowly, but surely, starting to warm up.

Our landlord FINALLY got us a lawnmower

This is Evan telling me that this dead thing off the tree is "blah"

We've enjoyed some ice cream cones (Evan in his new tiger camp chair)

And Evan has been working hard trying to get his calves ready for shorts season...don't tell Dad...

Movin' On Up

2011-05-18T21:34:00.000-06:00

About 2 weeks ago, we moved out of our duplex in Provo and moved into a bigger one in Orem! Super exciting, I know! Reed took a full time job up here, so we decided we might as well move closer to work! Work has been going well and Reed has really been enjoying riding his bike to work everyday. We loved our last place, but our new place is just as great!

One thing Evan misses about our old place was his special spot in the backyard by the shed. It was just his size!

Reed got to take Evan on their first Fathers & Sons church activity last week! It wasn't the usual camp out (Reed totally lucked out!), but just a dutch oven dinner up the canyon. Evan was pretty excited to go "camping" and Reed spent the whole evening chasing him around and making sure he didn't fall into the river!

We sold our couch before buying another one, so the air mattress has been filling the void. Luckily our new sectional comes tomorrow!

I've given Evan peanut butter before, but you'd never be able to tell by the way he dove into his peanut butter toast the other day...

And since it has decided to rain the whole month of May (and April) we've been putting our bigger kitchen to work! Cotton balls are sooooo fun!

Evan put a few cotton balls up on the counter, but couldn't quite reach them to get them back down. So he was super smart and grabbed his big spoon so he could knock them off!

And if you'd like our new address, leave me a message and I'll email it to you.

Easters

2011-04-28T21:45:00.000-06:00

Sorry this is a little late, but things have been pretty busy around here lately. But here's a picture recap of our Easter.

Evan and Cougar really wanted to help with dying the eggs. But we didn't really want his help. Maybe next year buddy!

Reed's parents were in town for graduations. Reed finished his Masters, but didn't walk. Marie finished her undergrad and not only walked, but was also got to give a speech! She did awesome!

Easter egg hunt with some of his silly cousins. Evan loved egg hunts. He would grab the egg and shake it to make sure there was something in there before putting it in his basket!

And of course it's not a complete trip without taking Grandma and Grandpa to a Cougar volleyball game! Evan conned Grandpa into buying him some popcorn. I don't think he took a single breath or took his eyes off the popcorn for a good 5 minutes.

Family Easter picture. Evan wasn't very cooperative, so it's not that great, but we haven't taken one since Christmas, so it will do.

Evan in his new Easter outfit rolling around in the grass after having so much fun in nursery at church (Apparently he loves to set up all the chairs for singing time and loves to help put them away. And he dominates "Book of Mormon Stories")

Watch Out Ladies

2011-04-12T20:35:00.000-06:00

Evan has been lifting weights at least once a day lately. Who ever thought Reed and I would have a child that loves to work out?!

And Evan always gets his pull ups in straight out of the tub!

And he's got a great sense of style! Check out those legs...maybe we should get going on the squats...

Glimpses of Spring

2011-04-06T16:09:00.000-06:00

Any of you who have ever lived in Utah County know that spring here isn't your typical spring. We will have beautiful spring weather one day and it'll be snowing the next day. So you can bet we've been taking advantage of all the good days we can get!

Evan loves strawberries. See below.

Evan loves having lunch picnics

For those of you who have been so unfortunate as to not have seen Evan lately, he's getting to be a big boy. He has been looking so grown up to me lately!

Loves playing soccer!

PS-He's wearing his Eto'o jersey that we bought for him on the streets of Florence, Italy. Not a day goes by that I don't think about Italy. Love that place.

Best of Friends

2011-03-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

Evan and Cougar really are the best of friends. They do everything together (much to his mother's dismay sometimes-luckily he washes well). Sometimes Cougar stays in the crib to sleep a little longer. When Evan finds him a little later he gets the biggest smile on his face and gives that Cougar a huge squeeze!

They like to get together with all their friends in their fort (Buzz, Woody, Kermit, his puppy, and Santa are all in there!)

Evan even changes Cougar's diaper!

And these are my new favorite pictures of this boy

This little face just kills me!

Haircut

2011-03-04T15:49:00.001-07:00

Last night we gave Evan a haircut. But this time we decided to try using the clippers since the last haircut with scissors did not turn out as well as we had hoped. Oops. We were pretty nervous about how he'd react to the clippers. But our good friend, Amanda, gave us a tip from her mom to tell Evan that the clippers just tickle. Worked like a charm!

Apparently we were too slow or he was unhappy with where things were going

PS-Reed just finished defending his thesis...and he passed! A few minor changes and he will be free of that thesis by March 18! We're so proud of him!

Best Job Ever

2011-02-24T20:38:00.001-07:00

Today was one of those days that I remember I really do have the greatest job ever. Me and Ev were pretty busy today

(not all of these pics were taken today, but we did all of it today)

We vacuumed the house and emptied the dishwasher...busted

We played with Play Doh
(Evan is holding up our rendition of Bolt-he has been loving that movie lately)

We water painted for the first time

And we made homemade bread and potato soup for dinner. We also got to squeeze in some good snuggle time while watching Toy Story 3 together.

And I got to do it all in my sweats...doesn't get much better than this!

Weird

2011-01-31T14:38:00.000-07:00

There's something weird about this picture...

...Reed is sitting with us at a BYU volleyball game! It was really weird and I miss watching him play, but we're loving the extra time he has at home since he's not traveling. The #3 Cougars swept #6 UCI both nights! We sure miss these guys...and the Wife's Club!

And this is how we were hoping Evan's first day in nursery would go

But it went a little more like this

We'll have to work on that I guess.

And this is what we get when we ask Evan to show us his happy face

Love this little guy!

January

2011-01-27T20:37:00.002-07:00

Nothing too exciting going on here lately, but here's what we've been up to lately...

Reed started a new internship at an engineering office in Orem and is really enjoying it. He also really enjoyed watching SDSU get Jimmered last night.

Evan got a new cousin a couple weeks ago! Congrats to Kristi and her little family in welcoming Connor Samuel to the Miller family! He's so cute!

Evan tries his best to stay warm

And sometimes we get a little time in the not so very warm sun to run around a bit...is it summer yet? We're getting a little stir crazy around here...

Oh-and Evan officially starts nursery this Sunday! We're gonna miss this cute little distraction in Sunday School for sure!

Aunt Marie's Wedding

2011-01-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

On December 22 we were able to attend Marie's (Reed's little sister) sealing at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. It was a little rainy outside after the sealing, so we didn't get very many pictures outside the temple. So here's a picture highlight from the luncheon at the church.

Here's the beautiful bride with Evan and all his cousins. Grandma made all of the cute little dresses for the girls. Seriously, so cute!

All of the kids loved the little wands...can you tell they were all a little hyper and excited to be together?

Boys will be boys

Marie and her big brothers

Evan eating applesauce at the kid table

So silly

We looked a little washed out, but here we are

Evan snuggling Grandma and checking out her flowers

The whole gang...pretty good lookin' group! Welcome to the fam, Taylor!

Our White Christmas

2010-12-29T14:03:00.000-07:00

This is where we spent Christmas (and a few days before) with ALL of Reed's family

And this was our view out of those big windows

Our time up at Aspen Grove was full of sledding, eating, and moments of complete chaos (8 kids ranging in ages from 3 weeks to 7 years). And every second of it was so much FUN!

The kids loved playing on the loft. The girls especially liked putting sheets on their head and letting that "Rapunzel hair" flow down.

Evan enjoyed playing on the stairs and scaring Grandma into thinking his head was stuck

The cousins loved coloring with Grandpa

And then Christmas came...and this is what Christmas with 20 people in one house looks like from the loft

(Notice the huge pile of gifts in the corner? Huge mess and we're only getting started!)

(Here we are after we'd made it through the huge pile)

Evan and Dad reading a new book

Evan and Cougar trying to figure out what is going on

(Notice the Rapunzel wig replacing the sheets? She wore that wig all day!)

We had lots of fun and miss all of those cousins already

A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for putting this all together for us. And to Marie and Taylor for getting married to give everyone the perfect excuse to come out (we'll save that for another post).

We are so grateful for this time of the year that brings us together with our family and helps us to reflect on the birth of our Savior. We hope you all had a safe and merry Christmas!

Snow Much Fun!

2010-12-16T20:35:00.001-07:00

Now that Reed is done with finals he's able to come home earlier or not go to school at all! Evan loves it-they are BFFs. Since he was home, we finally went out and enjoyed the fresh snow! So of course we had to make a snowman!

Evan trying to sign cracker because the silly snowman used his cracker for eyes

It's a good thing Reed came home and took charge over the snowman. Being the little California girl that I am, I had no idea that you could make a huge snow ball by just rolling it around! I totally thought that was just something funny they did in cartoons! The rolling method is a lot easier than my patting it together method!

Wednesday night we went to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. I love Christmas lights. So does Evan. So we were pretty excited to take him. He really enjoyed it.

Evan loved seeing Jesus

But Evan made sure to let us know when he was cold and had had enough!

Crazy December

2010-12-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

First off, Id like to apologize for our Thanksgiving post. It looked fine and normal on our Mac, but when I later saw it on our Dell, it looked terrible. So this time I'm blogging on the Dell, so hopefully there won't be any ginormous pictures.

Moving on, December is almost half way over! We've been pretty busy, but I think the really busy weeks of December are still ahead of us! Here's what we've been up to lately.

Evan has had a few chances to see the Big Guy...some attempts have been more successful than others. But he has yet to cry when meeting with Santa.

Evan has also been helping Reed get ready for his finals this week.

We got a Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving. Evan really likes it. We stratigically put it in a corner and then put up a baby gate. The tree is still up...so far.

This weekend Reed played in a local volleyball tournament. The team's name was "Old School". Reed and former BYU teammate, Mat Taylor, were the 2 youngest on the team. We went to the tournament with the hopes of some decent competition and fun volleyball. We got both and the team ended up finishing 2nd! Not bad for a bunch of old guys! (Sorry for the not so great pictures)

Evan enjoyed playing in the bleachers and snacking on apple slices during the tournament. He was a very good fan until we started losing in the championship match. He's quite the gym rat!

And just for fun-here's Evan getting ready for church!

Next up...a wedding, a week in a cabin with 8 kids ages 7 and under, and Christmas!

Grateful

2010-12-01T14:18:00.001-07:00

We had a great Thanksgiving week down in California this year. All of my siblings were there this year (except Ryne, who is serving a mission in Montana)! It's been a while since we've all been together, so we were really excited (PS-sorry all of the formatting is messed up. Stupid blogger.)
Here's the whole group with my Johansson grandparents on Thanksgiving day:

Evan and cousin Bailey racing cars

Evan trying to share a pretzel with cousin Reggie

These two look like they just got busted...but are actually just playing nicely together

Evan and Bailey playing with Grandma's candle holder (FYI-those are fake candles, we didn't let them play with real flames)

The three older grandkids playing with Grandma's chalkboard

Evan enjoyed pushing Reg down the slide

And Reggie enjoyed pushing Evan down the slide

This was the first time my parents had all four of their grandkids together at once

As you can see, the grandkids loved it. They love their grandparents, they just hate pictures.

All the grandkids love Uncle Trae (?????)

Evan giving Uncle Bryant a friendly right hook

As you can see, we have so much to be grateful for!

Art

2010-11-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Last night we got to go to the opening of an art show. But it wasn't just any art show. It was Reed's oldest brother, Todd's art show, Evens. It was really cool. We had a lot of fun at the show and seeing Todd. He's really good at what he does and we love being able to learn more about it.

Judging by Evan's less than good behavior, he hasn't discovered his love for the arts yet. Thank goodness for Halloween candy and grapes!

If you're in Utah, his show goes through December 3. Here's the link if you're interested.
If you want to see some of Todd's work, here's the link to his website.

It's the Great Pumpkin!

2010-10-31T15:18:00.001-06:00

Evan has been loving all things Halloween including:

ghosts

pumpkins

Dressing up as a dinosaur

Halloween parties and balloons

and trick or treating at Macey's and the mall

Happy Halloween!

Evan Signing Time

2010-10-24T20:04:00.001-06:00

Check out this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gl-I24rPjY

Homecoming Parade

2010-10-10T20:34:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we took Evan to the BYU Homecoming parade and had a lot of fun. Evan growled when he saw Cosmo and every time he saw a float that had a cougar on it. He got us a lot of candy and got himself a balloon-and Evan LOVES balloons!

When we were waiting for the parade to come Evan enjoyed running around in the street

Waiting for the parade with Aunt Marie and soon to be Uncle Taylor

Enjoying the parade

All tuckered out, but happy with his balloon and Laffy Taffy

Go Cougars!!

Every Little Boy Needs a Mom...

2010-09-17T15:30:00.006-06:00

Every little boy needs a mom to help clean off the dirt

Every little boy needs a mom to help him zip up his jammies

Every little boy needs a mom to put ice cream in his coneEvery little boy needs a mom to help him with the hard words (our future scholar athlete-just like his dad!)

And every little boy needs a mom to put his favorite movie on

Our LONG Weekend!

2010-09-07T14:37:00.005-06:00

We had such a fun, long weekend with family this week! Reed's parents came into town on Thursday to meet Reed's baby sister's fiance and start the wedding planning! We're so excited for Marie and Taylor!

Reed's mom brought Reed's basketball jersey from when he was 11 or 12 and Evan LOVES to wear it!Saturday we went to the BYU-Washington football game! Since Evan was so little last year, we didn't make it to a single home game. So we were really excited! We were a little worried about how Evan would do and didn't expect to make it past half time. But Evan did so well! We were there for the entire game! BYU looked a little rusty, but were able to pull off the win! The worst part of the game-the little girl behind us holding a stuffed cougar...Evan really wanted it!Evan got ready for the game by eating a blue suckerTaking a break from the sunEvan watching the game with GrandpaEating suckers with his favorite cousin, James

Reed's parents left Monday morning and mine arrived Monday afternoon with Bryant! They stayed the night with us before driving up to Rexburg to drop B off at school. It was so nice to have so many Grandma's and Grandpa's this weekend!

California

2010-08-25T11:15:00.003-06:00

We just got back from a week of fun in California...

Grandma took us to the beach

Evan had fun playing in the sand

But he really didn't like the sand between his toes

On Wednesday, we picked up this guy from the airport! Bryant is back from honorably serving his 2-year mission in Michigan!

Evan and Trae became good friends. Evan decided he didn't like Bryant so much after B thought it would be funny to give Ev a wet willy-not so much.

Then we went back to the beach for a fun bonfire with Grandpa

Evan decided he might kinda like that sandy feeling

Then he face planted
Welcome Home Mr. B! We are proud of you and are glad you're back!

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for such a fun trip!

Family Pictures

2010-08-21T13:44:00.005-06:00

Last week we finally did family pictures. Of course Evan wanted nothing to do with it! But Laurel did a great job and was able to get us some cute shots! Here are a few...Oh Cougar, how did you make it into the pictures?!
Check out more of us-and Laurel-on Laurel's blog! She worked so well with our stubborn 1-year-old! Thanks Laurel!

Recent Doings

2010-08-10T12:13:00.009-06:00

Here are some fun things we have been able to do the last few weekends

A few weeks ago one of Reed's freshman roommates got married and had a reception in Salt Lake. We decided to make the most out of the drive and go a few hours early and visit the zoo! I haven't been there since my freshman roommates and I decided to be freshman and go to the zoo instead of studying on a reading day!Evan loved it! He was going crazy pointing to everything and saying, "Whazat?"Ev seemed most interested in the elephants and giraffes. Reed really liked the tigers-we got to see them when they were really active.

Evan pulled out his BYU hat when we got to the cougars.Mom and Evan in a big gopher holeThe gift shop was another highlight of Evan's day We had some time to kill between the zoo and the reception, so we wandered around the This is The Place MonumentThis last weekend we went to an Orem Owlz baseball game with some friends. Evan had fun crawling around on the grass.Being silly while waiting for the fireworks after the gameWhy the heck does my baby look so big all the sudden?!

The Worst Day Ever

2010-08-03T09:22:00.009-06:00

One year ago today was the worst day ever.
One year ago today my baby was having a hard time breathing and wasn't eating or crying.
One year ago today I took my sweet little 6 day old baby to the ER.
One year ago today they were putting a PICC line into my son's head.
One year ago today my mom was with my perfect little baby while he had a spinal tap because we couldn't stand to be in the room.
One year ago today my mother-in-law was spending her birthday driving to Provo from Washington (a 11-12 hour drive) alone.
One year ago today they wanted to life flight Evan to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake.
One year ago today we found out we could possibly lose our little baby.
One year ago today we found out that if we didn't lose him, he could possibly have some severe mental and physical handicaps.
One year ago today I lost about 10 pounds in tears.
One year ago today my baby was on 4 different antibiotics, a few steroids, blood pressure meds, heart meds, a feeding tube, bili lights, oxygen, and others that I don't remember.
One year ago today we were blessed to see our family and friends rally around our little guy.
One year ago today we were able to exercise the power of the Priesthood like we never have before.
But one year ago today was the worst day ever.
Today is a much better day.
Today Evan is one and going crazy playing with all his new toys.
Today my sweet baby is walking and saying, "mama" and giving his dad high fives.
Today I'm still crying!
Today my mother-in-law is driving to Seattle for some birthday fun (Happy Birthday!)
Today we are counting our many blessings.
Today we are grateful for modern medicine, educated doctors, and caring nurses.
Today we are grateful for friends and family who did so much for us this last year.
Today we are grateful for the Priesthood, for prayers, for the power of fasting, and for faith.
Today we are mostly grateful to have a healthy, happy, perfectly normal one-year-old and for a very loving Heavenly Father.

Today is one of the best days ever.

Happy FIRST Birthday, Evan!!!

2010-07-29T11:27:00.004-06:00

July 28th was Evan's big day! We had so much fun getting ready for his birthday and were so excited for it. Here's the picture run down.

He was excited about getting a puppy and a truck full of blocks from mom and dad.

Birthday chocolate chip muffin for breakfast-turned out to be a small preview of cake time. And don't be fooled-he's not blowing out the candle, he's just making a funny face.

Getting impatient to open presents from his grandparents (thanks so much!). The soccer "cake" (sorry it's such a horrible picture)

Cake time! Evan wasn't too crazy with it. He had massive amounts of frosting in his hands and his entire arm was covered in it! He ate some of it, but most of it he threw on the ground (reminded me of every other time we try to feed him!)

Then we let him play in the hose to rinse off. He loves playing in the hose, even though the water is so cold! He thinks it's so fun to splash in the water, but it always takes his breath away when he gets it in his face! But he just giggles and does it over and over!

We love you, Evan!

New Things

2010-07-23T11:11:00.005-06:00

As we approach Evan's very first birthday (!!!!), he has been doing a lot of new stuff lately. We took him in for his 1 year old appointment and here are his stats:Weight: 20 lbs, 5 oz (he got sick last week, so he lost a little), 25%

Height: 29 inches, 25%

Head Circumference: 46 cm, 25%

So we're still waiting for some huge growth spurt, but at least he's well proportioned!

We got the ok to start Evan on cow's milk and to turn around his car seat! The Dr recommended giving Evan ice cream to help him get his daily dairy (Dad has a new love for this Dr now!). So to celebrate, we turned Evan's carseat around and went to get ice cream! He loves it!

We also decided it was time to give this boy's hair a trim. We had to do it in a few stages.

Stage 1: in the backyard while he played with the grass.

Stage 2: In front of the TV. Yes, he is watching a Spanish soap opera. It's the only channel our antenna picks up.

We went to the pool again yesterday. Evan had a lot of fun in the water. And when he wasn't in the water, he was lounging by the pool!

Happy 4th!

2010-07-06T15:28:00.005-06:00

We love the 4th of July. It's my very favorite holiday. Warm weather, BBQ's, and fireworks-doesn't get much better than that! Here's how we celebrated this year:

Friday night we headed to downtown Provo to check out the Freedom Festival. Evan loved trying on sunglasses! He was really funny. Here are a few of his favorites:

Saturday morning we watched the Argentina-Germany World Cup game. Evan was pulling for Argentina, but it didn't work out.

After Evan's morning nap, we were off to the pool. After his afternoon nap, we kept with tradition and went to the BYU Men's soccer game against the Ogden Outlaws. BYU won 3-1!

Then they let us down on the field to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks. We were really nervous about how Evan would do with the fireworks, but he did awesome. He just sat on my lap and enjoyed the show!

Sunday we went to church and then to Reed's brother's house for an awesome BBQ!

On Monday, we went to the Freedom Days Grand Parade. Evan liked seeing the horses and motorcycles, but was ready to get down and crawl around about 20 minutes into it!

Summer Time!

2010-06-20T21:11:00.008-06:00

Summer is finally starting to come around here in Provo...hope I didn't just jinx it! We took Evan to a pool down the street and he loved it!We also went on a short hike up Rock Canyon. Evan had fun in the backpack...

for a little while.

The Park

2010-06-09T11:44:00.006-06:00

Evan loves to go to the park. He gets so excited when he sees us get the stroller out! We are so lucky to have 3 parks within a 15 minute walk (one being adjacent to our backyard). Evan would swing all day long if Mom didn't get so bored. This week we have also discovered that he likes to crawl around the playground. We can't believe how big this kid is getting!

He loves playing in these little tunnels-which I love because it keeps him out of the sun!Peek-a-boo!Drivin' the firetruckLet's just call it a cat gameEvan almost made it to the top of this inclined tunnel-I was so impressed!"...and underneath the man, you find his...nucleus"-NachoSwingin'PS-I miss Italy!

When in ROME...

2010-06-01T15:13:00.016-06:00

Reed and I just got back from a 2 week trip to Italy with the volleyball team-and it was amazing! The team's stats guy, Giuseppe, is from Italy, so he planned the whole trip for us. It was so nice-all we did was show up every morning and he led us around the country! In every city that we visited, Giuse set up a "special" meal (which usually consisted of about 4 courses with about 7 dishes each!) for us that featured food that the city is known for so we could get a true taste of Italian food. It wasn't the Olive Garden we were expecting, but we got to try lots of yummy stuff. In an attempt to keep this post relatively short (but let's be honest-2 weeks in Italy is NOT going to be a short post!), here's a picture highlight.

Our first stop was beautiful Trieste, where we visited the Miramar Castle overlooking the Adriatic Sea, that once belonged to Maximilian and later served as US military headquarters during WWII.We then headed over to Piazza Unita d'Italia.
This was our group at our first special dinner. Since Treiste is on the sea, it was all seafood.We spent the next day in Venice. I loved Venice!

Day 3 we went to beautiful Lake Como. We took a boat tour across the lake and saw George Clooney's houses.
We took a few hours to explore the ritzy part of the lake, home of the original Bellagio hotel.
Next up was Giuseppe's home town of Casteggio. This was the view from our special lunch.The guys put on a volleyball camp at the local middle school, where we made lots of friends.

Then it was on to Milan! We visited this amazing cathedral, the Duomo Milano.
After checking out the inside of this place, we were able to go up on top! It was incredible!

The day we were in Milan was the day of the big Inter Milan soccer game. People started gathering in the square in front of the Duomo 6 hours before the game. We heard that during the game, there was 100,000 people there watching the game on the big screen!
Oh yeah-and the guys played volleyball! They won 3 of their 4 matches. The team they lost to is a pro team. The Cougs kept all of the games really close and all agreed it was the funnest match of the trip.
Then it was off the Florence! We were able to visit the Uffizi Museum, one of the most important art museums in the world. We saw work from all 4 of the Ninja Turtles there!Here we are overlooking the city
This picture is of us (duh!) in front of some famous bridge. It was really cool-they were running out of room to build in Florence, so they built these shops on the bridge!Next stop was Cinque Terre. It's 5 small villages built along the coast. So we took the hike that went to each little village. It was so fun!We ended our hike at the beach. We cooled off in the Mediterranean Sea while we got news of snow in Provo!On our way out, we made a quick stop at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.We spent our last few days in Rome. We kept busy the first day at the Vatican.Then Reed played his last game as a Cougar. We never thought it would be in Rome!3 of the 5 wives at the gameDay 2 of Rome:
Coliseum The Roman ForumThe Trevi FountainThe Spanish Steps (with Giuseppe and his friend)One last special meal-this one was our favorite! Some really good pasta, bread, lasagna, and lamb! This is the "Friend's Forever Club". I'm excited to be the first female in the club-actually I just like how small they make me feel!
As you can see, we had a wonderful time. I wish we would've been able to go to Verona, but hey, now we have a really good reason to go back! We love Italy but are so glad to be back home with Evan! We missed him a ton! Ciao!

So Big!

2010-05-15T11:29:00.007-06:00

My little Evan has seemed so big lately. Here are some of the big things he's been doing lately.

He is loving all of the new foods he is getting to try and the messes he makes trying to feed himselfmashed potatoes

spaghetti

popsicles

He really likes being upside down (though this version is highly discouraged!)

Not only is he crawling all over, he is also doing a lot of cruisin' and pulling himself up onto everything

He does take an occassional break to say hi to mom and dad

He likes to pull all of his toys out of the basket-but apparently it's not fun to put them back in

And he loves to ride on his new walker-that is when he's not walking behind it! He'll be walking on his own before we know it!

9 Months

2010-04-28T14:13:00.004-06:00

What a difference 9 months makes!

July 28: 7 lbs, 8 oz; 19 inches

April 28: 18 lbs, 7 oz; 27 inches

Sr Night/Graduation/MPSF Playoffs

2010-04-25T19:24:00.014-06:00

Such a busy week! Here are some pictures I got from last week's Sr Night to start off.

During the "ceremony"All the Chilton's in attendanceThe Wives' Club and our husbandsOne of the posters we made for Reed. James & Ella did the hand prints and Evan did all the footprints! And apparently the kids are flamingos!
This is the only picture we got on graduation day. It rained all day, so we just took one inside the Smith Fieldhouse. Of course the next day was beautiful, so we headed out to take some more pictures.
The grad with his parents and Evan.And these are probably my two favorite pictures of the weekend. Evan was so cute and happy checking out the flowers!
Saturday night BYU hosted the quarterfinals of the MPSF playoffs. #2 BYU defeated #7 UCLA in an exciting 4 match game! So the Cougars are now off to Stanford to take on #3 CSUN in the semis! Good luck Cougars!

#3 CSUN @ #2 BYU

2010-04-19T12:06:00.007-06:00

So of course our camera didn't work very well this weekend, so I'll have to post pictures as soon as I get them from other people!

This weekend we had our last regular season home games. And they were huge games. The games this weekend would determine our seeding for the conference tournament and where the games are to be held.

Friday night was awesome! Our Cougars swept the Matadors! CSCUM is a pretty dirty team. And we can't stand them-so it felt so good to crush them! And #1 Stanford lost-putting us at the top! With this win we were gaurenteed to host at least the first round of the play offs-so our seniors get to be in town for graduation (Reed needs to go to at least one of our graduations!)! Things were definitely going our way and we were so excited. Saturday was our chance to clinch the #1 spot and get to host the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the tournament as well. And it was senior night. No pressure, right?! The match went 5 long games. It was so intense. I was pretty sure I was going to throw up, have an anxiety attack, and/or drop my baby during the 5th game. Fortunately none of those things happened, but unfortunately stinkin' Northridge got the big win. Dang. The good news was that Pepperdine lost it's game and we have the tie breaker over CSCUM, so we are the 2nd seed. If Stanford loses in the 1st round, we will get to host the last 2 rounds instead of Stanford. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Like I mentioned earlier, Saturday was also senior night. A win would have been nice, but we just had to remind ourselves that the season isn't over. Me and Evan (and Reed's mom) got flowers and the seniors all got leis, a BYU blanket, and a nice beach volleyball. The announcer read thoughts from Coach Patchell and then read thoughts that the seniors had written. It was a nice little program, but we are sad this night came so fast. We have loved being a part of BYU Men's Volleyball!

One of the biggest highlights of the weekend happened off the court. Reed's parents are awesome and they flew Reed's oldest brother, Todd, in from Chicago for the weekend! Todd has never been to a home game and has only seen Reed play once in his life. Reed didn't know he was coming, so it was a really fun surprise. And because classes are done we were able to spend more time with Reed's family. It was so fun!

The Cougars start play offs this Saturday at 7pm in the Smith Fieldhouse as they host #7 UCLA.

Cal Baptist @ #2 BYU

2010-04-12T11:49:00.004-06:00

That's right my friends, BYU as moved up to #2! Pretty exciting! This week they hosted Cal Baptist. They aren't a NCAA team, but they always have a pretty good team. Our Cougars swept them both Friday and Saturday night! It was so fun and Evan loved not having to stay out quite as late.

This is how Evan is happiest:

He likes to practice walking

He likes to be upside down and with Dad

And he likes to be outside in the sun...with as little clothes on as possible! (Don't worry, he is wearing a diaper and shortly after this was taken we put a shirt and sunscreen on him)

This upcoming weekend is the last conference home matches of the season! I can't even believe it. That means that Saturday is Reed's senior night. I'll probably be a wreck. We have loved being a part of this team and will really miss it. But anyways, if you're in Provo, come to the games. They are so fun and it would be awesome to send the seniors off with a good crowd. And they are playing #3 CSUN-it's going to be so exciting! So if you're in the area, we'll see you Friday and/or Saturday night at 7pm in the Fieldhouse!

Easter

2010-04-05T14:47:00.004-06:00

Trying to be way too helpful dyeing eggs

Apparently Evan wanted some breakfast before we bothered him with his Easter basketWho knew the banana would be his favorite part?!A couple inches of snow for Easter...booThanks for the spiffy Easter outfit Grandma Jo!Evan is actually watching General Conference in this picture... Happy Easter!

#3 BYU @ #8 LBSU

2010-04-03T20:43:00.002-06:00

Quick volleyball update:

Thursday night the Cougars won in 4. It was another one of those night's where they should've won in 3, but whatever. Reed dominated on serving-he even had an ace!

Friday night was a much better night. They won in 4 and they played awesome! Robb Stowell in particular had a great night-he hit over .900 in the first set! Reed had 63 sets and 7 digs and the team hit .460. These were big wins for the team and they are guaranteed a spot in the conference playoffs. Few more wins and they will be able to host the first round and be around for graduation.

#10 UCSB @ #4 BYU

2010-03-29T14:52:00.006-06:00

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE home games?! I really like Reed, so it's really nice to have him around all the time. The games this weekend were so fun!

Friday night the Cougars won in 4! Should've won in 3, but hey, we'll take it. Reed had 2 kills, 46 assists, 3 digs, 5 blocks, and set the team to a .319 hitting percentage.

Saturday was so awesome. Once again, they should've taken it in 3, but settled with a 4 set win. But it was a record breaking night for the Cougs. They set a BYU all-time record of 24.5 blocks! Teammate Futi set a new BYU blocking record of 15 blocks! The blocking was crazy good! I get all excited just sitting here remembering the games! haha! Reed had 49 assits, 2 service aces, 8 blocks, and set the team to .377 hitting percentage. He's so good! Go to byucougars.com to see this weekend's highlight video.

And this little Cougar turned 8 months yesterday! He's such a trooper at the games-it's loud and past bedtime, but he does really well. He's a gym rat already!

I just can't get enough of this little face! He also pulled himself up for the first time today!

#7 USC @ #4 BYU

2010-03-21T10:46:00.005-06:00

Oh man-we've had a busy, but awesome weekend! Where to begin?!

This weekend we had Reed's parents and his brother and his family from Arizona here for games. It was so much fun to have so much family around! Evan got to meet his Arizona cousins for the first time. And Grandma Chilton was loving having 3 or her 5 kids and 5 of her 7 grandkids around! It got a little crazy sometimes, but it was so fun.

Speaking of cousins, Evan got a brand new one on my family's side! Little Penny arrived Friday afternoon and we are so excited! We can't wait to meet her!

Then of course there was volleyball! Even though BYU is ranked higher than USC nationally, they are tied in the conference. So it was a big weekend for both teams. Friday night was so intense! Almost all of the 4 games went past 30! They were so close. Good news...BYU won! They should've had it in 3, but we'll take it in 4! Reed played so well! He had 5 kills, 4 blocks, 10 digs and 65 assists! This kid was all over the court! He was doing it all. It was so fun!

On Saturday we had a little birthday party at our house. March is a big birthday month in the Chilton family. It was Reed's Dad's birthday on Saturday, our nephew's birthday is on Monday, and his older brother's (who was MIA working at the BYU bball game in OK) birthday this week! So we filled 4 of those 5 grandkids (sorry Evan!) with sugar and then sent them to the park! Aunt Marie also brought over some liquid nitrogen and we made our own ice cream with it. We throw really great parties!

The Cougars entertained us with that sweep we barely missed Friday night! Reed played so well again. The whole team had a really great weekend. Reed set the team to .394 hitting percentage! So fun!

If you missed the games this weekend, don't be too sad. The Cougars are at home again this weekend taking on UC Santa Barbara. Really, if you've never been to a home game, you're missing out. You should come. It's so much fun! And...you'll get to see us!

Friday and Saturday at 7 pm in the Smith Fieldhouse

BYU @ LBS Active Ankle Tourney

2010-03-16T14:22:00.003-06:00

The Cougars were off the Long Beach State this weekend to play in the Active Ankle Tournament. My parents also surprised us last Sunday when they told us they were flying me and Evan down for the tournament! We loved having one less lonely weekend and loved the warm weather. I was so nervous to fly with Evan alone, but he did really well (thank goodness!). Evan had a good time playing with Grandma and Grandpa Jo and his Uncles Ryne and Trae. Unfortunately Evan was busy getting his 3rd tooth and was a little grumpy...poor little guy!

We were lucky Thursday night to be at home when Ryne opened his mission call...he'll be serving in the Billings, Montana mission! He reports to the MTC on June 16. We are so excited for him and couldn't be more proud of him!

Friday night BYU played #9 Penn State. It was a really fun game to watch...and we won in 4! The team played really well and Evan enjoyed seeing his dad.

Saturday night BYU played St. Francis. They are a small school from Pennsylvania. The coaches decided to sit some of the starters and put some of the other guys in. So Reed didn't get to play. The Cougs won in 4. So it was a very good weekend for our team. Reed was able to come home with us Saturday night and then fly out Sunday morning.

This weekend BYU hosts USC at 7pm in the Smith Fieldhouse...come see us!

#1 Pepperdine at #4 BYU

2010-03-07T20:23:00.005-07:00

It's been a while since I last posted...things got a little crazy here for a little bit! Last weekend the team traveled to play at Hawaii. Because of the time difference and all the traveling, this trip is 2 days longer than normal trips. Then there were the tsunami warnings. I was pretty worried for a little while, but thankfully it turned out to not be much. Unfortunately, the Saturday night game was postponed until Monday night...so the trip was extended another 2 days! Believe it or not, no one was happy. The team couldn't enjoy Hawaii because they had to rest for their game. And then to make things worse, they lost.Everyone watching for a tsunami from their balconies.

After being on the road for a month, the Cougars were finally at home this weekend! It's been so nice to have Reed home! My parents and little brother came up to see their first home game (because of all the delays, they beat Reed here!). It was so fun to have them here! Evan loved having other people to play with after spending a week with no one but Mom. Evan was so excited to get his very first Cougar hat!
On Friday, my little sister, her husband, and little girl came down too! Her baby, Bailey, is just about 2.5 months older than Evan, so it was fun to see them together. Evan tried to suck on Bailey's toes and Bailey pushed Evan over. They had a good time together!

Friday night's game was awesome. We had a really good crowd and we won in 4! It was so fun! It was the perfect game for my parents to come to. Reed played really well and had fun doing it! It was one of those games that reminded him why he does this and why he loves it so much.Evan meeting Cosmo for the first time!Evan LOVED playing with cousin James after the games!

Saturday's game was not as fun. We lost in 3. Reed played so well in the 1st game! He had some awesome digs, a crazy pancake, and set really well. Then, for some unknown reason, he got pulled out. That's why we lost. BYU has always beaten Pepperdine when Reed plays. It was a hard loss.But overall, we had a really fun weekend. Reed's parents were also in town for the games, so Evan had grandmas everywhere! It was so fun! Thanks everyone for coming out!

# 5 BYU @ #13 UCSD

2010-02-20T22:45:00.003-07:00

Go Cougars! BYU won Friday night in 4 and Saturday night in 3!

Reed played awesome Friday night. He had a new career high 72 assists (previous high was 65)! He also had an ace, 7 digs, and 2 blocks-one of which was a solo block to win the 2nd set!

He had another good night Saturday night, but the coach switched things up once they had established a good lead and rested Reed.

So what does all of this mean for the Cougs? It means they are currently tied for 1st with Pepperdine in the conference! And we play Pepp at home the 5th and 6th of March (we'll see you all there!). What does that mean for me? My annual volleyball season ulcer will probably double in size that weekend. I can't wait-I love volleyball season!

Evan (& BYU) @ UCI

2010-02-08T11:59:00.007-07:00

#3 BYU played at #11 UC Irvine this last weekend, which is within an hour of my parents house. So we drove down with one of the other VB wives, Amanda, for the games and stayed with my parents. It was a quick trip, but it was so fun! I couldn't have asked Evan to be any better on the long car drives! He was so good! We were able to enjoy some nice warm weather on Thursday, but had rain on Friday. But we were just happy it wasn't snow, we didn't even really mind it!

Here is Evan while we had lunch at Chipotle

Uncle Trae feeding Evan...I love that Evan is watching him!Hanging out with my Johansson grandparents before the game

Thursday night was crazy. The Cougars won in 5 games. Why do we need to go to 5 games guys? A quick sweep is so much easier...and all the good food places are still open. :)

Here are all of my family members that came...thanks guys...and nice face Trae!

Thankfully we learned how much Evan loves bananas. This kid just goes at 'em! It's pretty cute.We got that quick sweep we were talking about earlier on Friday night. Too bad it was in UCI's favor.

Friday night we brought the husbands back to my parent's house with us. It was so nice to be back together a day early! Thanks mom and dad for housing us-we had a wonderful time!

(I was so busy trying to get the little one to smile that I chopped off my Dad's head...opps!)

No Way

2010-02-01T11:40:00.004-07:00

My baby just turned 6 months. Really? Half a year already? Really? I can not believe it! He's getting so big! And he is just so fun. We sure do love him a lot!

#4 BYU @ #6 UCLA

2010-02-01T11:25:00.005-07:00

The Cougars traveled to UCLA this past weekend to take on the Bruins. Back at home we had to settle for an audio only broadcast and "live" stats online. I wish we would've been able to watch this one because it was intense! BYU dropped the first set 38-40! It was a long, hard one to lose, especially after having 6 set points. Dang. Unfortunately they lost the next 2 games to give UCLA the sweep. One highlight was Reed's ace!

Saturday night was a battle to the end. But don't worry, the Cougars were victorious in 5! It was a big win for the team. They played so much better Saturday night and came away with what they deserved. Reed played so well and came away with 7 blocks!

Thanks to members of the Wives Club for coming over to watch stats pop up and keep me company! Love you guys!

This picture was taken after a game last year when I was just starting to show with Evan...can you tell?! lol

No. 3 Stanford at No. 5 BYU

2010-01-25T11:15:00.005-07:00

Oh man, games this weekend were intense! We knew the games were gonna be good, but they were even better than expected! Friday night we had a crowd of 4400! It was so loud and so crazy (just ask Evan!). BYU dropped the first game and then never looked back. They took the next 3 games to win the match! It was so exciting! Reed played awesome and had a great dig on match point!

Saturday had a smaller crowd, but the energy was still great. They team played pretty well, but dropped the match in 4 sets. Dang. It was really frustrating because we totally out played them and almost all of our stats were better. The guys just made costly mistakes at the wrong time. But the season is still early and we have a lot more volleyball! Reed had another really great game. He had a career high 69 sets! Bring on the Bruins!

We didn't get very many pictures this week, but I love this one of Evan and his cousin, James. James really loves Evan so much. He came and sat next to Evan and asked me to take their picture...but Evan wanted to stay on Mom's lap!
And here's Evan enjoying his new high chair...look how little it makes him look!

Pacific @ #5 BYU

2010-01-18T14:46:00.006-07:00

This last weekend was the BYU Men's Volleyball team's home opener! I have been so excited for season to start! I was pretty nervous about how Evan would handle all the noise and craziness, but he handled it all very well. The 2nd night he even fell asleep during the first game while sitting on the front row! Evan also had his very first interview! Reed's brother works in the media department, so he told the interviewer guy that my parents really wanted to see Evan on TV. So he came and got us during a timeout and Grandma Jo got what she wanted!

The Cougars played really well. They swept Pacific both nights! And the crowd was so awesome Friday night-they had over 4,000 people there! It was a lot of fun. Reed started both nights and did great. And now, here are the pictures you've all been waiting for...Evan in is jersey!

Giving Dad a few pointers before the game
Cheering on the Cougars with Mom
I love volleyball games!
Our little family after a big win!
For those of you in town, BYU will be playing #3 Stanford at home this Friday and Saturday night at 7pm. For those of you not close by, the games will be broadcasted live on BYU-TV both nights. Should be some good volleyball! Go BYU!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2010-01-13T14:28:00.003-07:00

It's volleyball season! We are so excited! Last weekend the Cougars played in a tournament in Santa Barbara and did very well. The #6 ranked Cougs beat #2 UC Irvine (the defending national champions) and #8 UCLA. They ended up losing to CSUN in the championship game, so they took 2nd in the tournament! Not a bad way to start the year!

This weekend is their home opener against Pacific. So come see us Friday and Saturday night at the Smith Fieldhouse at 7 if you're around!

Can't wait to see Evan wear this for the first time...we've waited so long!

2009 Top Ten

2010-01-01T20:32:00.010-07:00

So I saw this on my friend Lisa's blog and thought it was such a fun idea. So here it is!

The Chilton Top Ten Plays of 2009

#10
We are becoming Craig's List Pros! This year we got Evan's crib with a new mattress for an awesome deal and we just recently got a FREE dresser!
#9
We traveled far and wide to many exotic destinations. They include: Rexburg (Idaho), Las Vegas (Nevada), Yellowstone (Wyoming), Chino Hills (California), and Richland (Washington). Come on now, I was pregnant. But let's not kid ourselves- how different would this list be if I wouldn't have been pregnant?
#8
We moved across the border...or just University Ave. We are loving our new home that features 2 bedrooms, a fireplace, and a park in our backyard. Evan is going to love all this room once he becomes mobile.

#7
I quit my job to stay home with the little guy. It was pretty nice to have a steady income, but it's not worth it. The Lord has blessed us so much to make it possible. I miss all the friends I made while working at Grandview, but I still get to see them when I take Evan in for shots!

#6
We bought a new car! Ok, not really, we're just too lame to think of 10 cool things we did last year.

#5
Reed had another awesome volleyball season in 2009. Not only was he the poster boy, but he was voted co-captain as well. He also was named to the Academic All-MPSF team. The Cougars finished the season 17-13 and with a 7th place national ranking. One of the highlights of the season was that he ONLY missed my birthday this year (so far he's 0-2 since we've been married) Click here to see more of his stats.

#4
Reed passed the Fundamentals of Engineering Test (an 8 hour test we're glad he doesn't have to re take!)! He also did very well on the GRE only a few days after Evan was released from the hospital. And he has finally started his last year of undergrad work! He has worked so hard and has done so well. He is now entering his last semester (with a whopping 6 credits!) and we couldn't be happier! Then it's on to grad school...

#3
We celebrated our 2nd anniversary! Seriously, being married to Reed is the best. He was such a good helper when I was pregnant...and still is now that I'm not. We have so much fun together and I couldn't ask for a better father for my little one. And hello-did you see his muscles on the vball poster?!
#2
Our biggest feat of the year was Evan beating meningitis. When he was only 6 days old we took him to the ER. We had no idea what we were in for. No doubt August 3rd was the longest and hardest day of our lives. We were so blessed to be able to stay at the hospital here in Provo and that Evan started receiving treatment so soon. We were able to bring him home sooner than expected while finishing his antibiotics. Evan sure gave us a good scare!

#1
And our top play of 2009...of course the birth of our son, Evan! He joined us in Provo on July 28th weighing in at 7 pounds, 8 ounces. He has been such a fun little guy and we just love him so much. His perfect little smile just melts our hearts and we just can't get enough of his giggles. And...today we found his first tooth!

Jingle All the Way

2009-12-30T11:26:00.018-07:00

WARNING:LOTS OF CUTE BABY PICTURES AHEAD!!

We just got back yesterday from 10 days in Richland, Washington with Reed's family. We had such a fun trip! Evan (and Mom) loved having Grandma to play with all the time! It was Evan's first time on an airplane. It went pretty well over all, but he did have his moments. Since we were flying we had to open a few presents before we left. Here's what Evan got from Mom & Dad...
Here's a few pictures in Richland before Christmas

Playing with GrandmaHere are our graham cracker creations this year.
Reed's is his parent's house-with a cleaned out garage! Way to go Grandpa Chil!

We got some really cute pictures of Evan on his first Christmas

Warm in his new Christmas PJs!

Ready for presents!
Christmas is so much fun!
He mostly loved eating the wrapping paper of course
Dad needed a little help
Evan loved watching Windows Media Player play Christmas music with Aunt Marie
LOVE this little face!
Christmas is a lot of work!
Evan got green beans and peas along with some new bibs and bowls in his stocking!
Not so sure about green beans, but loved the peas!
And Evan turned 5 months a few days after Christmas! Getting so big!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

2009-12-24T17:35:00.006-07:00

Love,
The Chilton's

My New Trick

2009-12-09T18:52:00.002-07:00

Let's be honest...this is mostly for the grandmas! But way to go Evan! All that practice finally paid off!

A California Thanksgiving

2009-12-02T11:09:00.016-07:00

Since we were in Vegas the weekend before Thanksgiving, we decided to just keep going and spend the next week with my family in California. The weather was absolutely wonderful-why did I ever leave that place?! We had a really good time and enjoyed being able to spend Thanksgiving with family.

Grandpa Jo took us to the beach for the first time for a bonfire

Evan and Dad practiced their piano

We played with Grandma Jo...A LOT!

Played with cousin Reg
And of course ate a ton of good food!

This is how Evan looked most of the time on the 9 hour drive home...such a good boy!

We came home and got this lovely Christmas tree-our house smells sooo good!

And Evan turned 4 months!

Here's his stats:
Weight: 13 pounds, 5 ounces (50th %)
Height: 24 inches (75th %)
Head Circumference: 40 cm (25th %)

New Favorite Trick: Sticking out his tongue!

Vegas Trip

2009-11-22T19:11:00.013-07:00

This weekend the BYU Men's Volleyball team had their first pre season tournament down in Vegas. Since it's not too long of a drive, Evan and I decided to go! We went and stayed with my brother and his little family (thanks guys!). Evan got to meet his cousin Reggie and they had a lot of fun together.

Friday night Reed's team played Long Beach State and Grand Canyon University. They won both games and Reed played really well. On Saturday they played Long Beach City College and Long Beach State again. And once again they won both games! It was a lot of fun to see Reed play again and of course it's always fun to win!

Evan did really well at the games. He liked to watch for a little while and then he would take nap! We were there for 4 games and he didn't cry once! He must love the gym already! Here are some pictures of Evan with all of his "uncles"
This is Uncle Brandon-he's a real uncleAnd here's how I found Evan sleeping the other day:

Go Cougars!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-30T22:01:00.002-06:00

Like Father, Like Son

2009-10-25T21:29:00.009-06:00

They both like to take naps during General Conference (and let's be honest...so does mom!)

Both love to watch college football (this kid LOVES to watch TV!)And they both look good in a shirt and tie! Matchy-matchy!

And here's Evan after his first BYU paradeAnd spending time with Grandpa Johansson during his surprise visit! Thanks for coming to see us!

And we are moving this Saturday. We're excited for Evan to finally have his own room, but are so bummed we're not staying in our ward. We have really loved this ward and tried to find something that would work for us within it, but it just didn't work out. We're so grateful for all of the friends we've made and for all they've done for us, especially when Evan was sick. Thanks guys! We'll still be in Provo, so let's not be strangers!
If you want our new address, just leave a comment and I'll email it to you

Just for Fun

2009-10-14T15:41:00.008-06:00

I just emptied all the pictures off our camera and I just have to share a few of these...this guy is SO stinkin' cute!And my personal favorite...

Evan's First Hike

2009-10-04T17:47:00.010-06:00

This Friday the volleyball team hiked to Stewart Falls up by Sundance. All the guys were encouraged to bring a date, so Evan and I got to tag along. Reed and I had done this hike over the summer when I was about 6 months pregnant, so I told Reed it was his turn to carry the baby. We loaded Evan up in the Baby Bjorn and he did great! He slept part of the way, but the rest of the time he was very content just looking around, enjoying the fresh air. It was a perfect day to go-it was clear and the fall colors were so bright and beautiful!

All ready to go!

The scenery
Let's go Dad!
We made it!
Rosy cheeks
Family at the Falls
Thanks for capturing the moment Futi!

2 Months!

2009-09-29T17:39:00.005-06:00

Our little Evan turned 2 months yesterday! We all know what that means-shots! He was pretty ticked for a minute, but then calmed down and fell asleep...hopefully he'll be this good when he's 5? Probably not.

Here are his stats:
11 pounds, 15 ounces (50th percentile)
24 inches (90th percentile)

38 cm head circumference (10th percentile)

Not very happy about his shots...poor little guy!

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

2009-09-26T09:55:00.010-06:00

Me and Evan had a great day yesterday. He slept when he was supposed to sleep and was awake and happy when he was supposed to be awake. We were able to go on a lovely fall walk around the neighborhood.

When Reed got home from school and work we decided we were gonna get Reed's little sister, Marie, to come over and watch Evan after we put him to bed so we could go to the 2nd half of the men's soccer game. It kind of made me feel like a bad mother for leaving him when he's so young. But he was in bed and fed and we were just down the street. But honestly, it felt soooo good! I love my baby, but it was so nice to get out for a little bit with just Reed. Thanks so much Marie-you'll understand what a wonderful thing you did for me once you have your own little one!

Then it was 1 am on night 1 of sleep training. Evan was up for his feeding right on time. I fed him and put him back in bed. Then he was up again at 3:30 ready for his next feeding, 1/2 hour too early. So I gave him the binky and let him wait for about 20-30 minutes. We fed him and put him back to bed. But apparently he was ready to go back to sleep. Apparently he wasn't ready to go back to bed for the next 4 hours until he was supposed to get up! ugh! Needless to say, it was a long night. But shorter than Wednesday night when he did the same thing starting at 11 pm. I love my little guy, but he can be such a stinker! And of course he was all smiles when we got him out of bed this morning! How can you be upset with this face?!

Workin' hard on tummy time!

It's Contagious

2009-09-14T21:57:00.003-06:00

Betcha can't get through this post without smiling...

And my personal favorite

Love this little guy!

Evan's Blessing Day

2009-09-08T11:04:00.009-06:00

This past Sunday we were able to bless our little Evan at church. Reed did such a wonderful job. Evan was a really good baby and slept through the whole thing. We had such a great weekend with our families and are so thankful to those who traveled far to be here for it. It was such a little miracle-a month ago we didn't even know if we'd be out of the hospital quite yet. We sure do love this little boy and are grateful to have him be a part of our family!

And here are a few of my favorite recent pictures

Cousin James

Cousin Bailey (2 months apart)

Uncle Ryne (Good luck in college!)

Just hanging out with mom
Ready to go out!
Go Cougars!

Going Wireless

2009-08-25T14:36:00.004-06:00

Evan had the IV in his head removed yesterday! He has had an IV going since August 3 (21 days)! And he was on bili lights for a few days before that! So for the first time since July 30, Evan doesn't have any medical equipment! We finally have a "real" baby and are loving how easy it is to hold him now!

The stinkin' nurse that came and removed the IV didn't bring any adhesive remover-so Evan has a nice bald spot now where all the tape was holding the IV in. But if anyone can pull it off, it's Evan!

Welcome Home (Take 2)

2009-08-14T22:08:00.006-06:00

Guess who's at our house?! That's right-our little Evan was discharged from the NICU Thursday afternoon! He had passed all of his exams/tests and the only thing keeping him there was his last antibiotic. So the Doc sent us home with the IV still in his head and we just hook up his medicine to it every 8 hours. He has to be on the antibiotic until August 24th. We are so happy to have him back in our home and doing so well!

More Good News!

2009-08-10T10:30:00.003-06:00

So we just heard from the doctor...if Evan can wean off of all of his tube feeding and just nurse, we'll be able to take him home towards the end of this week! He'll still be on antibiotics, so a nurse will have to come to our house every 8 hours to administer that to him through his IV. We're a little overwhelmed by the thought of having him at home without any nurses, but couldn't be happier to get to have our baby back! Thanks once again for all your prayers and support-we really do appreciate it!
He's opening his eyes again and is so much more active and awake now!
PS-We would love to have visitors, but it might be a little while before it's safe to have people in our home. His little immune system has been working over time and needs to get strong again. Once it gets stronger and it's ok to have visitors, it will be even a little bit longer before others can hold him.

Quick Update

2009-08-08T14:43:00.003-06:00

Here's another update on our little guy:

We've been so blessed to have pretty much nothing but good news! Evan is doing so well! His infection levels and bili levels drop everyday. His head was pretty inflamed from all the swelling, but his measurements also continue to get smaller. He looks so much better! He's starting to cry more and he is getting his little wiggles back! We try to nurse a few times a day, and that keeps getting better as well. We are now on day 4 of the 14-21 days of antibiotics and the Dr has said that we might be able to finish the last few days at home! They are weaning him off the oxygen and some of his medications. Overall, he is just doing so good!

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support. We are so thankful to have so many good friends and family members to help us get through this hard time. We appreciate all of you so much!

Update

2009-08-05T21:27:00.004-06:00

First of all, we'd just like to thank everyone that has remembered our little guy in your thoughts and prayers. We have definitely been able to feel of your support and love. It means so much to us.

The last 2 days have been much better. He already looks 10 times better than he did on Monday and is starting to move around a little more and make a little more noise. Who ever thought his little screams would sound so beautiful?! We've started to get test results back and they have discovered that the specific bacteria is Group B Strep. So even though I was given antibiotics for it during labor, he still picked up the GBS. But the GBS meningitis is the most common type and apparently it's the one to get if you get it at all. So we were happy to hear that. His bili has come down significantly, but they want it even lower since it is paired with the meningitis.

Evan was having problems with his blood pressure and his heart contractions. So he got another IV for those medications. But he's already off both of them. All of his vitals have been really good and have stayed stable. He's such a strong little boy!

Today we found out that his blood culture from yesterday came back negative-if his blood culture comes back negative again tomorrow the countdown to coming home begins! It will still be another 2-3 weeks, but at least we'll be on our way. We are so grateful that we are already getting those negative results back so soon. He had a brain ultrasound done today and everything came back normal.

Mom and Dad have been able to get a few good nights of sleep and we're eating better. Things are still pretty crazy, but we're making some really good progress. We were able to hold him a little bit yesterday and helped to give him a bath today. We love our little guy and just can't wait for him to be better!

Tuesday, August 4 (Happy One Week!)
Wed, August 5

Prayers for Evan

2009-08-03T21:20:00.002-06:00

So today has been one crazy, terrible day. For those of you who haven't heard, Evan was admitted to the hospital today. He was fine last night and then when we got him up for a feeding really early this morning he was breathing kinda funny. And then he wouldn't eat and he was really lethargic. We tried to wake him and feed him, but he just wouldn't. So we called the on call doc who suggested we take him to the ER just to be safe.

So we took him to the ER and we're so glad we did. Evan really wasn't doing very well and the ER Dr started ordering lots of different tests for him and they put him on an IV to get him fluids since he wasn't eating. Basically the Dr was afraid he had either some respiratory distress or meningitis. So they sent us up to the peds floor to get more testing and monitoring done. Before we knew it, he was surrounded by nurses and doctors and was being prepped for a spinal tap.

When the results came back, it was confirmed that our little guy has bacterial meningitis. Needless to say, we've had a really long, hard day. They wanted to life flight him up to Primary Children's Hospital, but they were full. So they cleared out a room for him in the NICU where he could be isolated. And that's where he is now and will probably be for the next month or so. He's doing as well as we can hope he can be and really being a little trooper. He's had 4 different antibiotics, a steriod, blood pressure and heart medicine, food, and other different IVs throughout the day. It's been a rough day, but he's really hanging in there.

We'd really appreciate any prayers in Evan's behalf. He has a long ways to go and could use a little help. We love him so much and are eager for a full recovery so he can join us at home again.

Orange

2009-08-02T19:19:00.006-06:00

So we're all home and doing pretty well. I was discharged from the hospital on Thursday night at about 8:00. We ended up leaving without a baby. Evan had high bilirubin levels, so he had to hang out a little while longer to get his levels checked again. We went back a few hours later and his levels had improved enough to be able to come home with us! We were so excited! He has been on lights ever since, but we're just so glad to have him home with us. The first night was a little rough, but he has been such a good baby since. We sure love this little guy and are so happy to have him be a part of our family!

Hello World!

2009-07-29T22:04:00.010-06:00

Evan Reed Chilton

July 28, 2009
7 lbs 8 oz
19 inches

5 More Days

2009-07-23T08:26:00.003-06:00

So unless Baby decides to come earlier (which he's not really showing any signs of), we're on the list to be induced this Tuesday (the 28th)! Nervous and excited...but mostly just excited!