February

Last night Breanne slept for 16 hours straight! Yes, you read it right, SIXTEEN HOURS!!!!! We put her down for her nap at 2:30 p.m. after Church and she slept the rest of the day and all through the night until 6:30 this morning!! I kept checking on her and wondering if I should wake her to feed her dinner or change her diaper, but she looked so peaceful I just couldn't bear to wake her up. She must have needed it! I think she's like an inch taller today.

Here's a picture of the happy, rested, and hungry girl:

And here's the 16 hour bed head:

We had a little family birthday party for Aaron last weekend. We took the kids swimming, ate at a yummy mexican restaurant, and came home for presents and ice cream cake. Abe and Breanne picked out presents to give their Daddy. I wrapped them in white paper, and they colored them. Abe's gift to Aaron was a race car track toy and Breanne picked out a mini football. Happy Birthday Aaron!This is just a cute picture of Breanne one day when she was ready to go play in the snow:

And of course, I saved the best for last! At the beginning of February, our very good friend, Erin Fox-Smith was baptized by her husband, Gus. It was a very sweet experience and we are SOOOO happy for her. She has been active in the church for over a year now, serving in callings and attending church regularly, and now she is an "official" member. She is such a Christlike person and we are so glad to have her and Gus as our friends. Congratulations, Erin!

Family

I had to post a few more pictures from when Suzanne photographed us. Thanks, Suzanne for the GREAT pics, by the way! The picture of Abe and Breanne together is one of my favorites. Abe is SUCH a good big brother to her. He plays with her, teaches her things, helps her do things, and is SO gentle with her. His pet names forher are "sweetheart," "cute lil' girl," and "sweet girl." Breanne LOVES doing big kid stuff with Abe. The other day they were jumping off the bottom few stairs onto the carpet below and Breanne kept shouting (even though I was two feet away from her), "DID YOU SEE THAT, MOM? I JUMPED DOWN!! DID YOU SEE THAT?!!" It was cuuuuuuuuuuuuute. Of course there are times when Abe and Breanne get a little fiesty with each other, but they normally get along great most of the time. That is a good thing too, because for those of you who haven't heard, we are expecting another child in July! Abe and Breanne are very excited about it and talk to the baby and about the baby quite often. Aaron and I are way excited too. Our family is growing! Yeah!

Sweet Abe

Last night I was up with Abe until 2 a.m. because he was in pain from an earache. He was quite upset for some time, but I finally got him to take some pain medicine. He still felt better sitting up in bed, so I lay in his bed while sat up and told me stories. He told me about how he never wants anything bad to happen to Breanne because he likes to play with her and she's cute. Thats why he shouldn't leave his lamp by his bed on all night because it might be a fire hazard and he doesn't want a fire to jump out and get Breanne. :) He never wants anything bad to happen to any of us or our house because he likes our house and he likes to play with Daddy and me. Then he told me the story of when Breanne and Mommy (Abe and Aaron were there too, but the story was just about Breanne and Mommy) decided to go to Utah for Christmas and they went to Grandma Evans' house but Grandpa Evans' wasn't there because he is watching over us from heaven. And on Christmas Eve Santa Clause came and gave gifts to Abe and Breanne because they were so good all year. And Abe played with his Mac trailer and new Lightning McQueen all day. Then he turned off the light and finally fell asleep. As tired as I was, I really enjoyed listening to him. He has such a tender heart, wonderful imagination, and love for everyone. What a sweetie!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wierd Awakening

Yesterday I happened to get the kids down at the same time for their nap, so I decided to take a nap too. What woke me up was the sound of Abe's voice, saying to Breanne..."Breanne, you peed in your diaper! I am very dissapointed in you." I listened some more and realized the voices were coming from the bathroom downstairs and Abe was trying to teach Breanne how to go pee in the potty (I'm sure he was standing up in front of the toilet fully expecting Breanne to be able to do the same). My next thought, the more alarming one was, "How did Breanne get out of her crib?" She has never even attempted to climb out of her crib. When I went down to ask Abe how Breanne got out of her crib he simply said "I helped her." Abe really has taken on the "big boy" role ever since he potty trained, and I must say, he can be quite helpful! Although, I may need to intervene a bit when it comes to teaching Breanne how to pee in the potty. :)

Thanksgiving and Potty Training

For Thanksgiving this year we pretty much just played with the kids, ate a lot of food, and took naps. Here are a couple of pictures of us sledding. Snow was something we were Thankful for that morning.

Something else I am very thankful for today is that Abe has finally pooped on the potty! Yeah! I've tried and failed 6 times to potty train him, and finally, the 7th try is working!!! I am so proud of him. It was fun to see him so happy about it too. I just let him be naked, set the potty out in the middle of the room, and went about my business doing laundry and whatever else. I didn't even know he had pooped until he brought the potty pail up to me and shoved it in my face like it was this huge prize...he just grinned like he was the bomb and we marched around the house chanting "Abe poops on the potty!" millions of times after which I made him cookies to celebrate. Later that day he walked up to me, apparently still reminiscing about the poop experience, and said, "I just squeezed it out, Mom" like it was no big thing. Now he gets to wear his Deigo underwear and he keeps reminding me that he's a big boy. Go ABE! I learned through all these attempts to potty train and the eventual sucess that you cant force it. He pooped on the potty when he decided he wanted to, not when I told him to or bribed him. Its got to be intrinsically motivated, I guess. Hopefully I wont torture myself so much with Breanne now that I've learned my lesson!

Aaron and Breanne

Same nose. Same eyebrows. Same Chin. Hmmmmm.

The Real Resemblance

I've had multiple people tell me they think I looked like abe as a child, so I had to post an Abe/Nan picture to satisfy that speculation. I must admit, I think I agree that Abe may resemble me even more than Breanne does. Poor kid! What can I expect though...I was, after all quite the little tomboy.