The Searbys

Lydia - 16 Months

2012-02-01T21:06:00.004-05:00

Lydia is over 16 months old already! We love our sweet girl and she has brought such joy to our lives. I have compiled a list of things about Lydia right now that I thought I'd share:)

Lydia signs a lot. Here are the signs she knows....

Please

Thank You

Milk

All Done

Diaper

Help

Bath

Her vocabulary is growing each day but here are her current words...

Uh-oh

Ball

Bye

Nigh-Nigh

Drink - says this for both water and milk

Bonk - when she hits her head on something

Thank You

Dog

Kitty

Cheese

Done

Sock

Baby

Other Random things about Lydia right now...

-Lydia prefers to crawl. She loves to stand and push things. She'll let go and get excited that she's standing on her own and then fall over from giggling. She can hold on to your finger and walk and has taken 5 steps on her own.

-She loves to eat! The girl will eat just about anything you put before her.

-Loves to copy Evan

-Sleeps 11-12 hours each night and generally naps 1 1/2 to 2 hours during the day.

-Hugs and Kisses her baby dolls and bears (and us)

-Recently learned how to climb on the footstool and the couch

-Likes to look at books

-Capable of throwing a nice big fit when she doesn't get her way

-can stack blocks up to 3 high

-learning to use her silverware

-loves to take her socks off, but still gets excited about putting socks & shoes back on to go "bye"

-likes the idea of drawing with crayons or chalk but usually gets them taken away because she just wants to eat them

-loves to ride in the stroller

Recent Pictures....

Interviews with Evan

2011-09-13T21:59:00.003-04:00

Two years ago, I did an interview with Evan. Today I asked him the same questions. Here are his answers at 2 years and then below that are his answer at 4 years old. I'm not sure if it was just his mood or what but apparently he answered in sentences better at 2 years old than at 4!

Interview with Evan, 2 years old.....

What is your name? Evan Jacob Searby

How old are you? I'm 2

When is your birthday? August 20 August I like chocolate cake on my birthday

Do you have a brother or sister? no

What do you like to play with? fireman, firetruck with a farmer in it

What is your favorite color? red

Who are some of your friends? I don't have friends, they went bye-bye

What is your favorite movie? Alabama Movie (????)

What is your favorite book? Carousel Book (???)

What do you want to be when you grow up? um, I don't know

What do you like to do at church? I like to play at the church

Which train is your favorite? This one (as he points to his wooden melissa & doug train)

Do you take naps? uh-huh I do Why? I don't know

What do you want for Christmas? I want some playdough

What is mommy getting for Christmas? I don't know what you're getting for Christmas, What are you getting? I think you're getting a present!

Do you know how much I love you? I don't know

Interview with Evan, 4 years old....

What is your name? Evan

How old are you? 4

When is your birthday? August 24

Do you have a brother? no

What do you like to play with? my steam shovel

What is your favorite color? red

Who are some of your friends? Megan & Josiah

What is your favorite movie? Boz

What is your favorite book? Mike Mulligan

What do you want to be when you grow up? a policeman

What do you like to do at church? play

Do you take naps? yes Why? Because I'm tired.

What do you want for Christmas? Toy Story 4 (Maybe he knows something I don't?)

What is mommy getting for Christmas? What ARE you getting for Christmas? A new blanket?

Do you know how much I love you? You love me up to the moon and back. And I love you up to the farthest star and back.

Lydia - 9 Months

2011-06-28T15:09:00.002-04:00

Lydia was 9 months old last week. She is 28 1/4 inches tall (75th percentile) and only weighs 16lbs 13 oz (20th percentile). I actually asked the nurse to re-weigh her because I was certain she weighed more than that!

Lydia is still such a super-sweet baby. She tends to be a mama's girl but loves to snuggle with her daddy and giggle at her brother. She is definitely more laid back than Evan and therefore figuring things out a lot later than he did. Here are some random notes from the past month...

*She became a great roller. She can roll to get whatever she has her eye on. According to Evan..."Me & Lydia are good rollers. We should have a rolling class. People who don't know how to roll could come and we would teach 'em."

*She's finally sitting up by herself. She still tends to tip backwards when she's wearing cloth diapers.

*Lydia got her bottom two teeth....3 months earlier than Evan got teeth! She's now working on popping the top two through.

*She loves the pool! Kicking is her favorite thing to do in the water. When she's not kicking, I can hold her in the snuggli and she'll fall asleep while we're still in the pool.

*She is easily entertained. She sat on my lap for a VBS meeting, playing with one toy for over an hour. Just today she sat in the stroller at the museum for over two hours.

*Lydia has finally decided that food is not so bad after all. After 2 months of force-feeding her, I think there are a few things she's decided she likes: bananas, oatmeal, and green beans. I continue to try new things with her and she continues to close her mouth and look away...or just slap the spoon out of my hand.

*She is learning to take milk from her sippy cup and is doing much better than she was a month ago. She never took a bottle so we went straight to the sippy cup.

*Peek-a-boo is one of her favorite games, especially if its with Evan

*She started clapping.

*If you take something away from her, she now gets mad and you have to re-direct her. She's also started taking toys away from Evan which he doesn't appreciate.

*Evan really loves her and wants to give her hugs and kisses quite often. He also likes to help feed her and is fascinated by her poop. He usually asks what color it is.

(I'll try to add some pictures later;)

Packaging Pillow

2011-06-17T14:37:00.004-04:00

Today Evan was trying to pop an air-filled packaging pillow (see example photo below). He first tried to use his hands. When that didn't work he tried his knees. Standing on it didn't work either, nor did jumping on it.

What next? He tried his head!

Before I could stop him, he smacked his forehead on the plastic which really meant smacking it square on the floor. He came up crying and asking for his ice pack.

I really had a hard time not laughing.

Some Notes about Evan

2011-04-06T14:55:00.004-04:00

Evan is such a fun 3 year old! His favorite thing to do is pretend. You could give the kid a cardboard box and he would soon be a robot, a sea creature, or even a super hero. I wish I could just sit with a pen all day and write down everything that comes out of his mouth. I'd be sure to run out of ink before the end of the day:)

Some of his favorite toys right now include construction trucks, fire trucks, Matchbox/Hot Wheel cars, & of course his dress-up clothes. He's learning to play games like Dominoes, Uno, Crazy 8's, Memory, & Go Fish.

Evan loves to sing....mostly his own made-up songs. He is great with rhymes so his songs end up including a ton of made-up words that rhyme with whatever he's singing about. When you ask him what a word means, he'll make up a definition. One of his favorite songs right now is Wibbly Wobbly Woo. He likes it when we sing the beginning and he gets to fill in the end. When we're riding in the car he generally asks to listen to "Big Rock Candy Mountain" (Lisa Loeb version). Otherwise, if we're in the car, I have to be careful what is on the radio because he'll repeat it!

Evan is still a picky eater. He likes his food separated on his plate and usually throws a fit if things touch each other. The kid won't eat pizza very well but yet he'll eat a handful of mushrooms out of the can! Today I cut up chicken nuggets (that he wouldn't eat yesterday!) & put them on a toothpick and called them chicken-kabobs and he thought they were wonderful. I really think its all about the mood and not necessarily the taste.

Evan is still napping every afternoon. I am thankful for the 1 1/2 - 2 hours of silence each day!

We've been playing outside a TON lately. Its been beautiful. This morning was even cool enough for jeans and long-sleeves. Evan tried golfing....he got a little angry when he couldn't hit the ball very far. He started hitting the ground with his club just like Happy Gilmore. I couldn't help but laugh a little:)

We also got out the sidewalk chalk. This is Evan's jellyfish that he drew...

And here is his "Non-tentacled sea creature that you can pet".....

And here is Evan getting eaten by the shark that he drew...

What a fun kid! We sure love him:)

A Loud Toucan, 2 Worms, and some Squid

2011-04-01T17:01:00.005-04:00

After nap yesterday Evan said....

"Mom, I just couldn't sleep. There's a toucan outside making a lot of noise."

While playing outside this morning, Evan found two worms. He named them "Wormy" & "Squirmy." Very appropriate.

During snack time today...

"Hey mom, do you want to try one of my magic pretzels? When you eat them they turn into squid!"

Porch Make-Over

2011-03-22T22:09:00.003-04:00

Joel's parents came for a visit a couple weekends ago. Joel and his mom had a great time giving our porch a much-needed make-over! Thank you Linda for your hard work and for donating the treasures that you found:)

Here is what one side of the porch looked like. It always seemed to be over-taken with toys...

Now we have an awesome table to eat on! Joel and Linda found an old sewing machine base at a garage sale then picked up the round, tiled, top at a thrift store.....

I wanted to keep the chairs with the red cushions so Joel painted the metal brown and they look SO much better...

The other side of the porch had a random table and chairs just barely big enough to eat a meal on...

We left the green chair but added a new rug and trunk. The trunk contains all the toys but can be used for a footstool or add a tray and you have a place to set your drink....

Its the perfect time to use the porch! The weather has been beautiful and we've been trying to eat all of our meals out there.

Pets

2011-03-22T21:48:00.002-04:00

Evan: I would like to have two pets.

Jen: I think having one cat is probably enough but IF you had another one what would it be?

Evan: I would go to a pet store and pick out a mouse.

Jen: A mouse?! Hmm...I'm not sure I'd like to have a mouse in the house.

Evan: Well then maybe I would pick out a rabbit.

Jen: That might be better, but rabbits can be pretty messy. Any other ideas?

Evan: How about a dog?

Jen: What if he chases Jack around the house and Jack doesn't like him?

Evan: hmmm....what CAN I pick out?

Jen: (really trying hard to not crush his dreams of owning another pet) Maybe a fish?

Evan: Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Let's go pick out a fish....and we need a tank too. Can we go tomorrow?

Jen: Well we need to talk to your daddy first.

Now...How in the world am I getting out of this one!?

Meat Lab

2011-02-26T16:33:00.003-05:00

Evan loves going to the University of Florida Meat Lab. He's buddy-buddy with one of the guys that works there and somehow ends up wearing a hard hat or getting a sticker on each visit. Yesterday I took the kids with me to buy some meat and before we could even get out of the car, Tommy came out with a hard hat especially for Evan to take home with him. Evan was very proud of it...

Evan's job is to pick out a basket to put all our meat in...

"Do we need ground beef?"

What a great morning!

Visit with Osorios

2011-02-14T21:06:00.005-05:00

Last weekend Joel had a trustee meeting at FCC so the kids and I went down to Kissimmee with him. Evan always gets excited about staying in hotels and Lydia has sure seen her share of them in the past 4 months. This was a great opportunity to see our friends Tori, Ryan, Owen, and their new little guy, Miles. Miles is only 4 days younger than Lydia so this is the first chance we've had to get the new babies together.

Some pictures from our day...

Lydia - 4 1/2 Months

2011-02-14T21:00:00.001-05:00

This was last week but thought I'd go ahead and post it since it has her stats too...

Lydia: 4 Months

2011-01-25T14:48:00.002-05:00

Lydia is 4 months old!

This little girl is growing up so fast. She's SO sweet and content. Lydia has discovered that she loves the taste of her hands and tends to chew on them daily. She's also trying to grab toys and just generally pays more and more attention to her surroundings.

Evan loves her and even chose to keep her when someone asked him if he wanted to give her away. He loves to hug and kiss her, play with her hands and feet, and of course talk to her.

She is back to sleeping through the night after a 3 week phase of some sort, maybe a growth spurt? We are thankful for that and pray that she continues in that pattern. She's happy when she's awake, loves to nurse, and thinks her brother and her cat are hilarious.

The challenge right now? She won't take a bottle. I'm perfectly happy nursing her but it would be nice to have the option of a bottle if needed. We've tried lots of things but if anyone has something specific that worked for them I'd love to hear it!

We are enjoying our baby girl!

Books & Sleep

2011-01-14T15:24:00.004-05:00

Well Miss Lydia, when I told you to sleep you listened. Thank you for sleeping 11 hours last night. Now lets work on that napping routine during the day!

Today Evan and I read 14 books in a row. When I say books, I don't mean short little baby board books, I mean BOOKS with real stories and characters. I love that he loves to read!

A couple more pictures to share...

My bathing cutie:

And all those books certainly give this boy an imagination...

Evan & Lydia

2011-01-13T10:15:00.003-05:00

I'm always writing blogs in my head but then never get a chance to type them out and post them. I know I'm going to forget things as the days go by so I'm going to try to be better about posting little things about the kiddos. Read them if you'd like...but mostly I'm doing it for myself so I can go back and read it again someday!

And of course I'll start with a pooping story...

On Tuesday night we had friends over for dinner. Evan needed to poop. He was sitting on the potty when our friends' 17 month old little boy, Eric, came in to check out what was going on. Evan looked at him and said, "You're going to have to learn to do this someday."

Evan loves watching cooking shows on tv so last night we were watching 30 minute meals with Rachel Ray. Rachel said something like, "throw your pan on the stove..." and Evan looked really surprised and said, “She said throw your pan, that’s not very nice!”

As for Lydia...she's a sweetheart unless you make her take a nap. That girl loves her social time. As long as someone is talking to her and paying attention to her or she's at least in the bouncie seat amongst the craziness then she's fine. Her napping routine however is not great! I blame this on our long trip to IL and now I feel like I'm reading Babywise for the 7th million time trying to get her back to sleeping at night and napping during the day. Oh Lydia...please sleep.

Lydia loves to smile! Just look at her and she'll smile. She even smiled at the cat yesterday. She's also starting to eat her hands a lot and grab for toys on her playmat. I can't believe she's over 3 months old already!

These pictures were actually taken about a month ago...

Nicknames

2010-11-08T10:44:00.002-05:00

This morning while cuddling on the couch...

Jen: "Are you my sweet pea?"

Evan: "No, your baby is your sweet pea."

Jen: "Oh that's right, and you're my peanut."

Evan: "And you're my robot."

Laughs from today...

2010-11-05T15:57:00.002-04:00

Evan saw his sunglasses sitting on the counter. He put them on and said, "Mommy you're so shiny I need sunglasses."

Later in the day...

Evan was pretending to be a skunk, or as he says, "kunk." He turned around, mooned me, and said, "I have a smell coming out of my bottom." I couldn't help but laugh!

The Dump Truck

2010-11-02T12:54:00.003-04:00

I asked Evan to tell me a story. I typed it out as he was dictating it to me so these are his exact words....

Once upon a time there were 3 dump trucks and they didn't know what to carry so they called up their grandmas and grandpas.

Grandpa told them " I have a heavy block to lift so can you please come?"

"yeah"

Well and Grandma told one of the dump trucks I have a big ol' tree in the middle of the road and I'm trying to take my little kid to (s)chool but I can't. Then a big ol' excavator came with a long arm and big ol' dumper at the back. And then it could do it.

Then one of the grandmas and grandpas had a big ol' rock in the way and they called a big ol' dump truck, one with a dumper at the front and a very long arm at the end of it. The rock was on the road and the little kid didn't want a big bump so they called up the excavator. It digged on the cement and cracked a hole in it and digged way down in it. Then a dump truck came and a giant excavator put the big rock in the dump truck and then a big ol' "frumper trucker" came. Its a big ol' truck that trims trees but it trimmed up the rock.

Where food comes from...

2010-11-02T12:47:00.003-04:00

Evan is really interested in where his food comes from and how its made. This morning we saw a Velda Milk truck and he got really excited. He then explained to me that milk comes from cows and then a big tanker called a "milk truck" comes to get the milk and takes it to a factory where they put it in jugs and then another truck picks it up and takes it to a store.

During lunch he asked "who makes grapes?" My initial reply was "God does." But then I had to explain to him about the seed, sun, water, etc.

He also wanted to know how yogurt was made. I told him it was made out of milk but he wasn't satisfied with my answer, he wanted more. I told him I wasn't sure how exactly it was made. He then told me that someday he "would like to go to a yogurt factory so they can show me how to make yogurt...they'll know."

Evan's Favorite Word

2010-10-27T17:05:00.002-04:00

Evan and I watched "Word Girl" on PBS this afternoon. At the end of each episode they ask kids what their favorite word is. When it was over, I asked Evan what his favorite word was. He replied, "Love." Then he gave Lydia a big hug!

Pirates

2010-10-27T14:05:00.000-04:00

Evan and I were playing pirates in the living room. We were finding buried treasure with our telescope and flashlight. We spotted some treasure and Evan wanted me to go with him to dig it up. I was being lazy on the ship (the couch) and told him that this pirate's leg was broken. He quickly replied, "You can just put a pointy thing on it and you can walk again." So much for getting out of digging for buried treasure:) I didn't realize how educated he was on pirates!

Life with Lydia

2010-10-25T17:25:00.009-04:00

As always, I tend to pay more attention to Facebook than I do my blog these days but I wanted to take a couple minutes and write (type) out some thoughts about Lydia.

This girl is awesome. We waited a week past her due date and she finally came like "a thief in the night" just as I had prayed only 2 nights before she was born. On Sunday night (9/19/10) I had an entire conversation on the phone with my sister-in-law about how I didn't want to have to be induced on Tuesday. After talking with Melissa, Joel and I ate our normal frozen pizza that we eat every Sunday night. We went to bed around 11:30pm and I wasn't even asleep yet when I felt a pretty good contraction (around 11:45pm). I told Joel that was the "best contraction I'd had all week!" Half asleep, he told me to wake him up if I had any more. About midnight I had another one just like it. I figured if they kept coming then I'd start timing them. Well, this girl didn't waste any time...I had another at 12:05am and they just kept coming. We called our neighbor to come stay with Evan and we left our house at 12:30am with my contractions 3 minutes apart. We were in a room by 12:50am and I was already dilated to 6! As planned, I said no to the epideral and only about 1 hour later, she was born! Lydia Mae Searby weighed in at 6 lbs 12 oz and was 19 inches long. She felt SO tiny when they placed her on my chest:) Joel and Kelly were great coaches. I couldn't have done it without them!

This first month with Lydia flew by. She was the sweetest thing ever that first two weeks. We took her to her first tailgate at 5 days old and to church at 6 days old. She mainly ate and slept and enjoyed all the hugs and kisses from her big brother. Unfortunately with those kisses came germs. At 2 weeks, Lydia tested positive for RSV. So for the next two weeks we had to give her breathing treatments and we were in the doctor's office about 5 times. We are very thankful that she never had a fever nor stopped eating. Her doctor said she "took it like a champ!"

Mark & Linda were down for a weekend visit while Evan was sick and Lydia was just catching it. Hopefully our next visit with them will go a little better! My Mom and Dad came down at the end of Lydia being sick. That was a blessing to have some extra hands around the house for 2 weeks and Evan enjoyed having lots of attention.

Now its back to figuring out what "normal" life will look like with 2 kids. We're getting into a routine. Lydia is sleeping 6 to 8 hours each night. Evan is going to preschool twice per week. I'm trying to keep up with the laundry and dishes while maintaining a social life.

Lydia's stats:
Birth: 19 inches / 6 lbs. 12 oz.
2 Weeks: 19.5 inches / 7 lbs. 10 oz.
1 month: 21 inches / 8 lbs. 4 oz.

Lydia Mae, 1 month old, photo taken by Linda Bainter:

Comments from Evan

2010-09-29T13:16:00.001-04:00

Last night Evan said, "Daddy I'll pick your nose and you pick mine." What he meant was that he wanted to pretend to steal each others noses.

This morning we were reading a book and it said something about the sun being made for me and you. I asked Evan, "Who made the sun?" His reply: "God, Jesus, & Moses." I'm not sure what Moses had to do with it!

The Pony

2010-09-13T20:36:00.002-04:00

Evan and I spent the day at the Birkett's house. Upon arrival, their neighbors were riding their horses through the neighborhood. A lady was riding a pretty large horse and a young girl was on a small white horse. We all walked down to the end of the driveway to see the horses. Kelly and Evan's conversation went something like this....

Kelly: Evan, do you want to pet the little horse?
Evan: You mean the pony?
Kelly: Well, yes, I mean the pony.
(We were both cracking up...too smart for his own good)

Moments with evan

2010-09-12T13:42:00.003-04:00

Evan really is hilarious. I need to write down more of our conversations!

Today he was helping me put new batteries in the Fridge Farm because the poor Leap Frog guy had been sounding sick for awhile. We were talking about what kind of batteries we needed. I asked him if he wanted to help me find some Triple A batteries. We found them, put them in, and then he told Joel, "We put Chick-fil-A batteries in the farm!"

Later after lunch we were talking about what he learned at church that morning and then he made a comment about something he learned at school. Joel asked him which teacher at school told him that to which Evan replied, "The one with not a lot of hair."

I love that boy. He really cracks me up!

Viera, FL / June 28-30, 2010

2010-08-28T12:11:00.004-04:00

Our summer fun continued with a trip down to Viera, FL to visit the Osorios. Evan and I went during the week while Joel and Ryan were working so Tori, Owen, Evan, and I got to spend some good time together. Evan and Owen played great together which made it quite relaxing for the pregnant mommies! I was 29 weeks and Tori was 28 weeks pregnant in these pictures.

Beach day with Tori's playgroup...

Evan loved riding Owen's scooter....but was even more obsessed with wearing the helmet....

Tori and Owen took us to a fun pool with a splash park....

Thank you Osorios for hosting us! We had a great time and hope to do it again sometime. Looking forward to having our next babies so close together just like Evan and Owen!

Blueberry Picking / June 11, 2010

2010-08-27T17:01:00.003-04:00

This was Evan's first time blueberry picking! There were a few blackberry bushes mixed in with the blueberries. I picked a whole bucket full of blueberries....he picked a few blackberries instead. Actually I think he ATE more blackberries than anything. After picking, he got to help feed the animals with the owner of the blueberry farm. We had a fun morning!

Palm Coast, FL / June 3-4, 2010

2010-08-27T16:50:00.003-04:00

As always....I'm way behind on blogging. I'm going to try to do a few super-short blogs so that I can catch up and do a big 3rd Birthday Blog for Evan.

Here we go....

These two pictures were taken in Palm Coast, FL. Joel had a business meeting so Evan and I went out there with him and stayed at a resort in the Hammocks. It was beautiful! Joel took the pictures so we don't have any pics of him:(

Evan loves the beach...

Me at about 26 weeks prego...

Memorial Day Weekend in Birmingham

2010-07-22T20:53:00.006-04:00

We spent an extended Memorial Day Weekend in Birmingham with Joel's family. We had a good weekend relaxing on the patio and porch and watching the kids play together. Here are a few pictures from the weekend...

Joel & Mark grilling...

Cutie-Pie Josie...

Downtown Birmingham...

We spent a rainy morning at the McWane Science Center. We didn't have enough time to conquer the entire thing. The kids loved it! Well...so did the adults:)

Jack experiencing the bed of nails...

The Searby men trying to build the Arch. Took them a bit to discover that the numbers needed to face to the inside...

But they eventually got it together...

We spent another morning at the Birmingham Zoo. Jack and Evan both wanted to "drive" the tractor...

Evan having some mommy time at the zoo. (25 weeks pregnant)

Jack (4), Josie (1), and Evan (2) sitting on the steps of Grandma & Grandpa Searby's church...

Sprinkler Time!

Thanks Joel for entertaining the kiddos for the afternoon! You're wonderful!
Jessi & Linda were present the entire weekend too. I just didn't have any great pictures of them that they would have appreciated on the internet:)

Thank you Mark & Linda for a fun weekend in Birmingham!

Fun with Megan

2010-07-22T17:23:00.004-04:00

These pictures were taken back in May (5/17/10) when Evan and his friend, Megan, were having fun dressing up. Kelly and I couldn't resist taking a few photos...

"Whaz up?"

New Post!

2010-07-02T14:38:00.002-04:00

I posted a blog including some conversations that I'd had with Evan lately. I started it a long time ago so when I posted it, it went under Ben & Kyra's wedding blog so scroll down for a good laugh!

Videos from Ben & Kyra's Wedding Weekend

2010-06-23T16:08:00.004-04:00

See post about Ben & Kyra's wedding for more details!

Evan loved dancing at the reception...

Playing with daddy on the beach...

Ben & Kyra's Wedding Weekend - May 14&15

2010-06-23T15:07:00.012-04:00

Evan was asked to be the Ring Bearer in our friends, Ben & Kyra's, wedding back in May. The rehearsal was in Jacksonville at the church then dinner at a fun Mexican place by the beach. After dinner we went out for a walk on the beach and took some pictures...

Evan loves to ride on his daddy's shoulders:
Evan and mommy (25 weeks pregnant):

Evan's feet are getting SO big...

The wedding on Saturday wasn't until late afternoon so we decided to go back to the beach for the morning. Evan loves to play with his daddy at the beach which is perfect cuz I like to sit in my chair and be lazy....and take pictures of them!

My boys...
Evan being pulled on the "boat"...
Evan attempting to pull Joel...
Evan was able to nap back at the hotel before we went to the church for pictures. He was bribed the entire day: "If you take your nap, do good for pictures, do what mommy and daddy tell you to, and walk down the isle like you are supposed to....then you can have a Buzz Lightyear." It worked, he did great for most of the day!

He cheezed for most of the pictures...and so did Ben:

He waited patiently until he was needed for another picture:
He loved playing with the flower girls...although the little one didn't enjoy pictures very much:
And he walked down the isle like a champ! He even reminded one of the flower girls to throw her petals:
Ben and Kyra had a beautiful wedding!
Newlyweds...
Our happy family...

Conversations with Evan...

2010-05-06T21:14:00.004-04:00

Evan has always been a talker. I've tried hard to write down some of our conversations but they seem to be so involved now that if I don't write it down right away then I forget his exact words. Here are some that I wrote down in the last couple months:

5/6/10

Evan: What's this?
Me: Its called a sticky note.
Evan: What's it for?
Me: You write things on it that you need to remember. What do you want to write on your sticky note?
Evan: Thank you for my Mommy.

5/17/10

While baking muffins, Evan touched the raw eggs...
Me: Please go wash your hands because you touched the raw eggs and if it gets in your mouth, it might make you sick.
(Evan goes to wash his hands in the bathroom then returns to the kitchen)
Evan: Hey mommy, can I see the rotten eggs again?

5/24/10 (after looking at our neighbor, Kurt's, Machu Picchu pictures from Peru)

Evan: I'm gonna be Kurt, you be Lauren. Kurt is climbing the tall mountains to Machu Picchu.
Me: Did you make it?
Evan: Yeah - I drove in a loader over the bumpy rocks. Then I turned that way and walked through the tall mountains to Machu Picchu.
Me: What are you doing now?
Evan: Well I'm still in Machu Picchu doin' somethin'. I need my loader cuz I can't jump down. Lauren, do you have a rope?
Me: Yep - here it is...
Evan: Look! A big waterfall at Machu Picchu! Let's look for something else at Machu Picchu, like a tunnel!

(This conversation went on for a LONG time but I quit writing it down after awhile. It was so cute to hear him say "Machu Picchu".)

6/29/10 (while visiting the Osorios in Viera, FL)

Evan: That's my best, favorite (something, something, something that I didn't catch)
Owen: Mommy, what does that mean?
Tori: I don't know Owen, why don't you ask Evan?
Owen: (to Evan) What does that mean?
Evan: Ummm....probably.....Your Mom.
(Tori and I laughed SO hard!)

7/1/10 (After naptime)

Evan: I dreamed that the sun will come up in 10 minutes and the construction workers will be working.

7/2/10

I was sorting through coupons and gave Evan all the expired ones to play with. He made up his own "game." He put one sticker on each coupon then if he found an "E for Evan" he got to keep it. If he found an "M for mommy" then he gave it to me.

For the Non-Facebookers...

2010-05-03T13:58:00.018-04:00

Ok Non-Facebookers, this is for you. I tend to put more on Facebook than on my blog these days but since a couple of you have been asking, here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last month!

Playdate at the park and 16 weeks prego:

Sometimes Evan and Megan love each other....

16 weeks...

Kelly and Jake...
Easter Picture at church (17 weeks prego):

Easter Sunday in Jacksonville with the Whitlocks
(Katie was 12 weeks and I was 17 weeks prego)...

Trip to IL (Apr. 6-20):

My brother Jake's family in front of my dad's peach tree that is finally going to have some fruit on it!...
Cam & Evan playing in the driveway cuz the grass was muddy...

All the boys with Grandma...
Some of my girlfriends from highschool at Kyle's wedding...
Evan latched on to this chainsaw at Grandma & Grandpa Bridgwater's house and he even found goggles "to protect his eyes"...
Paxson running at Gma & Gpa Bridgwaters...
Finally a nice picture of Joel & I...

Evan loved visiting his Grandpa Raymer at work. "Grandpa works at Weedman loading fertilizer in big trucks." In addition to watching the big trucks, he also got to ride on the loader...

Our friend, Jeff, gave Evan and I ride in the tractor...

Visiting Grandma Edi...

Evan & Paxson digging where my parents just removed our pool that we've had for 17 years. It was really sad to see it gone:(
Grandpa Bridgwater brought a train set over to my parents' for the boys to play with...
Cameron & Evan on the steps at my brother's church...

Aunt Melissa concentrating very hard on Evan's hair as he enjoys his ring pop...
My mom & Nolan (6 months)...
Evan and I were able to go to Lincoln one evening to see his cousins, Jack & Josie, as well as Grandma Searby and Great Grandma & Grandpa Parmenter.

Jack Searby (4 years old)
Josie Searby (1 year old)
cousins sharing goldfish...
Gma Parmenter took Evan on a little bike ride...
Pregnant sisters: In this picture I was 19 weeks and Jodi was 21 weeks. We're both having girls!
David & Jodi...
Back in Florida playing basketball at the park...Evan loves the playground!
Well that's enough pictures for now! Hope this holds you over for awhile:)

Practice

2010-03-28T15:49:00.005-04:00

Practice makes perfect, right? Well I wanted to make sure that Evan was well-trained in Easter-Egg hunting before yesterday's big hunt so on Friday we did a practice run. I hid plastic eggs in our yard, gave him a bag, and let him go for it. He loved it! Of course he didn't have any competition but we weren't really playing for anything except empty eggs:) I'll post the real Easter Egg Hunt pictures soon!

After I had hidden the eggs and Evan found them all, I took this video of HIM hiding the eggs...

Sea World with Grandma & Grandpa Searby

2010-03-27T21:14:00.005-04:00

Last week we went down to Orlando to meet up with Joel's parents who were in town for a conference. They were able to come down a day early and spend some time with us. We took the opportunity to use our Sea World passes again! Evan enjoyed his two days with Grandma & Grandpa Searby...

The best part of Sea World for Evan is getting the map out to see "which way we should go." He LOVES the map.

Touching the "ting rays" was fun...

Joel and Evan wanted to get as close to the roller coaster as possible without getting splashed....I think they were a little too close this time...

The Shamu show was up and running and it was still just as good as the first time we saw it!

Evan pretending to be a fireman, "I'm going to 'pray you!"...

Riding the carousel is always fun! "Hi Mom!"

Not the best family picture ever but it was the only one we managed to get this time...

Chile

2010-03-03T13:45:00.001-05:00

Here is the most recent update we have received from the Swanson's in Santiago Chile. These are the missionaries we worked with while in Chile 5 years ago and whom we visited last year....

Here is the latest update we received from the Swansons, Missionaries in Santiago that Joel and I worked with while in Chile....

Dear friends and supporters:

1. We’re fine after Saturday morning’s earthquake in Chile . We have some minor damage to our house (mainly cracks in some walls and some furniture fell, but the house is good and it’s more a matter of cleaning up. In general, our neighborhood is fine, too. Since coming to Chile in Nov 1993, although we’ve experienced tremors over the years, this was our first real earthquake—somewhere around 3:45 a.m. Chile time Saturday morning. It lasted for approximately 3+ minutes, was pretty strong (as our two-story house was shaking and moving quite a bit), and there was a lot of noise. Afterwards we went through the house not knowing exactly what to expect.

2. The quake in Santiago was around 8 on the Richter scale. The center of the quake was approx. 35-40 miles north of Concepción (6 hours south of Santiago ) and registered around 9 on the R. scale. There are several parts of Santiago still without electricity (we were one of them up to this afternoon, but a neighbor passed us his electricity yesterday afternoon so that we could plug in our fridge. At the same time yesterday, the cable came back on, giving us phone and e-mail access, so we are now able to E-mail you that we are fine.

3. The damage around Concepción is quite extensive, with roughly 700 people dead at this time in that general part of the country (the 7th and 8th regions). Whole towns are wiped out and towns near the ocean have had to deal with tidal waves as well. PLEASE KEEP PRAYING for people in that part of Chile , without food or water or electricity. (Of course we realize how much, much worse was the disaster in Haiti ) We have just today started having success in reaching our friends via phone and internet in that part of the country, including Willy and Karina (who make the marble figures we sell in the States to help support the ministry with kids), Luis Alberto (a church member who is with his parents there right now, Carolina (a church member who goes to the university there), and the mother of another member who lives near the epi-center of the earthquake. So far, all of them are fine, but without water, food, and electricity. There is also a lot of looting and purposeful destruction in Concepción and other areas, where the government has declared “martial law”.

4. In Santiago , they hope to re-open the airport (it sustained substantial damage to the main tenminal) today or tomorrow, and the subway too. The main roads to the south of Chile have been heavily damaged in spots, as well, with some bridges out, etc.

5. We, as a church, in today’s service identified some good, basic ways (in addition to praying) that we can help others, and some will be able to travel south the 10th of March to help. Janine is also going in two weeks to see what she and some others can do. We’ve been able to encourage and pray with neighbors, too. Mike and Tabi have contacted IDES (they know its president) and we will be sending a small team to southern Chile with some staple items to see what more we can do.

6. We’ll be sending out March’s Prayer Letter soon. One praise is that we are due to receive the first child in the children’s home this week. She’s an 11-year old girl. PTL!!

We know that you may have other questions, but at least we’ve answered some of the basic ones. Feel free to E-mail with those other questions. Schools were due to open for their fall semester this week, and we don’t know at this time if they’ll wait another week or not. Many stores, etc. are still closed to put things back on the shelves, etc. and others still lack electricity. Chile ’s army just swung “into action” today to help protect and help.

Thanks again for your prayers!

Love and blessings, in an always-there, “non-earthquakable” Jesus,

Jack and Janine

2010-02-26T13:20:00.003-05:00

We've had a really rough couple weeks around here with Evan working on his 2nd molars. They are still not all the way through but at least he's a little less irritable now and actually wants to play.

Evan loves to pretend. He's always making up something! Here is his "firetruck" that he made this morning....

While he and I are were sitting on the firetruck, this is the conversation we had:

Evan: What kind of trees do you see out the window?
Me: Palm Trees, Oak Trees, and Pine Trees
Evan: Yeah, me too! And I see a kitty (our cat, jack).
Me: Do you think he wants on the firetruck too?
Evan: No, he's got his own firetruck. When he grows up to be a person he can drive his firetruck.

I actually took this next idea after looking at my friend, Michelle's, blog. I gave Evan dried pasta to use as "dirt." I'm always telling him to pretend so he was excited when he actually had something to dump out of the dump truck and garbage truck.

When he got bored with the "dirt" we turned it into his name. He got bored with that after only doing the E & V so we'll have to finish it later.

Evan also loves stickers. I got to the point where I hated stickers because it felt like they were just a waste of money when really they just end up all over my house and I throw them away. So, I came up with a "sticker book." I just used an old scrapbook that I'll probably never use for anything else. I let Evan put his stickers in it as I wrote next to them what he said about them. I figured this way we're creating something that we can look back on!

Evan is growing up fast and sometimes I just need to remember to take time to pretend, create, and just spend time with my little guy.

Fire Station

2010-02-23T12:08:00.006-05:00

Evan and I were able to tour the High Springs Fire Station on Saturday with the Mom's Group from our church. One of the mom's husband is a Fireman at the station.

Evan wasn't so sure about going inside at first...

But when he found out he could get IN the firetruck then I could hardly get him out!

The kids got to try on firefighter gear. Megan could hardly stand up with the air tank...

Evan trying on the face mask...

Megan and Evan wanted to climb back in the truck...

I think I spent half the time just saying "no don't touch that!"

They were in awe of the fireman with all his gear...

I think there were about 10 kids that visited the fire station and they all seemed to enjoy it. Thanks Susan for making that happen!

Ft Collins, Colorado

2010-02-15T21:41:00.011-05:00

A few weeks ago I was able to get out of town for a little vacation. I went to see one of my best friends from college, Amanda, and her new husband, Geoff. It was wonderful! Just being able to relax and only take care of myself for a few days was amazing. I would recommend that to ALL you stay-at-home-moms!

I flew into Denver on a really clear day! The snow-capped mountains were beautiful. Amanda picked me up and we drove to Boulder to relax at the Celestial Seasonings Tea Room. We took the little tour of the factory and then just chilled-out, drank free hot tea, and caught up on life.

On Sunday I was able to help Amanda with her Kindergarten Class at church, sit it on their membership class, and then worship. Its always nice to have a break from your own church and experience how God is working on the other side of the country.

Monday I went with Amanda to her new job at a school doing the K-5 before and after school program. Monday night's at the Olmstead's house is pizza and tv night! We ordered pizza, watched some of Geoff and Amanda's favorite shows, and then they attempted to make brownies. I'm pretty sure all they had to do was add water and bake....but it seemed to be a challenge:)

Amanda took me to "Old Town" in Ft. Collins. We had fun wandering in and out of the shops and posing for fun pictures on the walking streets...

On the way back to the airport to say our sad goodbye, We pulled over to take a few mountain pictures. Of course I've seen mountains before but seeing the range covered in snow during the winter was a first for me!

Thanks Geoff and Amanda for letting me visit! I had a wonderful little vacation and look forward to hosting you when you get the chance to come to Florida!

Sea World

2010-02-15T20:42:00.006-05:00

At the end of January we took a little trip to Orlando. Joel had a bunch of meetings while we were there but in our spare time we were able to visit with our good friends, the Osorio's, and we took Evan to Sea World for the first time. He wasn't really feeling very well the 2 days that we went so I'm looking forward to taking him back again when he can enjoy it more.

Sea World, Part 1:
Joel was working so Evan and I went by ourselves in the morning....

Trying to touch the sting rays...

Watching the dolphins swim...

Sea World, Part 2:
Joel had an evening break from work so we went back and spent a couple more hours....

Wahoo! We can ride some kiddie rides....

We ended our day with the Shamu Show....pretty impressive!

Tori, Ryan, and Owen were able to come spend the evening with us! We gave owen his late birthday/Christmas present...

The boys were able to play a little before taking a bath and heading to bed....

Trucks

2010-01-20T15:34:00.002-05:00

Evan is fascinated with trucks. I asked him today what his favorite truck was. He told me his favorite is a tractor. Although it probably doesn't fall into the "truck" category, you will often find all of his tractors at the "construction site" right along side his other trucks.

Some of his other favorites...

"Giant Excavator" - "He makes big piles of concrete."

"Bulldozer" - "He scoops and crawls at a creep and makes piles"

"Roller" - "It turns, turns, turns"

"Garbage Truck" - "It dumps the dirt and the garbage. The dirt is inside the garbage."

Christmas

2010-01-19T13:34:00.010-05:00

My entire immediate family was able to come down to Florida for the week between Christmas & New Year's! It was a lot of fun, and a little crazy, to have everyone here at once but I'd definitely do it again!

I have SO many pictures but wanted to share a few of my favorites from our time with family...

Fishing with Grandma & Grandpa...

Eating Santa's sprinkles...

Gator Basketball...

Playing in the yard...

At the park...

And New Year's Eve....

Thanksgiving '09

2009-12-08T10:17:00.014-05:00

I thought I better get my Thanksgiving Blog done before Christmas gets here...

Evan and I flew in to Chicago the week before Thanksgiving so that we could meet my new nephew, Nolan. We spent the weekend at my brother's house. Evan and Cameron had a blast together and I got to snuggle with the new baby:)

Mom, Jodi, and Pax drove up on Sunday to spend the day and then Evan and I rode back down to mom and dad's house with them. The minute mom walked in the door ALL the grandsons were on her lap...

I was only in central IL for 3 days. My parents are used to having Evan and I for at least a couple weeks when we're in town! But I guess a little time with them is better than no time at all:) While we were at Mom and Dad's house, Grandma & Grandpa Bridgwater came to visit us.

They brought Evan a firetruck which Paxson enjoyed too....

And Grandpa brought a little wood dancing man which entertained Evan for awhile....

I was able to spend an ENTIRE day with my sister! When was the last time that happened? Jodi and Evan started to make pancakes until we realized we didn't have any eggs....oops.

Paxson is hilarious. I love how anytime he sees the camera he automatically offers up his best "cheese"....

We took Pax and Evan to the library where they were both on their best behavior as the lady sang about turkeys and pumpkin pie. We checked out some books and then just ran through the aisles of books for awhile....best part about being at the library, right?

Mom came to Jodi's for the afternoon to watch the boys so we could go see New Moon. I gave Jodi an assigment about a month ago: Read Twilight, Watch Twilight, Read New Moon. She did great...I think she was in the last chapter of New Moon when I arrived! We LOVED the movie and I'm actually going to see it again on Thursday:)

Being in Illinois for only a short time makes it completely impossible to see everyone that I would like to see but I always try to make at least one visit to see my Grandma Edi...

3 Days in Southern, IL....

Amazingly, I have NO pictures of the actual Thanksgiving day. Evan and hitched a ride with Joel's cousin, Jason, and his wife, Andrea, from Champaign down to Tamaroa. Evan did great on the 3 hour car ride except for when I told him Jason might put him in time-out if he kept kicking the back of his seat. After a few seconds of only his lip puckering and tears forming in his eyes....he let out a full-forced cry. It took me awhile to convince him that Jason was really a nice guy. Jason dropped us off at the Searby Cabin where Linda was waiting for all of us to arrive. John, Jessi, Jack, and Josie pulled in only a few minutes behind us and then Joel and Mark arrived from Birmingham about a 1/2 hour later. We had a traditional Thanksgiving Supper "homemade by Publix and Walmart."

On Friday morning we had "Thanksmas" with Joel's parents and brother. Sometimes its just easier to Christmas with one of our families a little bit early rather than trying to cram everything in at Christmas time. Evan and Jack ripped into their packages and Josie worked hard on hers. I think we were all thankful for the gifts that we received and for the time spent with family.

On Saturday, the entire extended Searby family met at the Friendship Church of Christ in Tamaroa to celebrate Granny and Grandpa's 65th wedding anniversary. Someone even brought a recliner to the church for Grandpa to sit in....

Since the whole family was going to be together we went ahead and did the BIG Searby Thanksmas too. Evan and Jack had fun opening their gifts:

Joel, Evan, and I drove home on Sunday...the worst possible travel day of the year. But after 15 hours we were happy to be back in our own home in Gainesville!

Camping

2009-11-06T10:16:00.004-05:00

Kelly did such an awesome job blogging our camping trip that I'm not even gonna attempt to top it. Go to her blog by clicking here and then you can enjoy the couple extra pictures I posted below:

In addition to tie-dying to get ready for our trip, we also baked cupcakes and decorated some for Halloween and some for UF....

Superman and Supergirl...

Kelly forgot to tell about the animal invasion we experienced on Saturday night. Its quite normal to see deer running around the campgrounds during the day but you gotta watch out for the armadillos at night!!! They were not scared of us and would come right up to our camp looking for food. This one thought the remaining steak juices were appealing and decided to help himself. I know, gross huh? We were sure to burn off all the armadillo germs in the fire before we made our toast in the morning!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-11-02T19:00:00.005-05:00

When we turned into the lane at the church Evan said, "The sign says pumpkin patch!" I guess on the 3rd trip there he even had the sign memorized. He wasn't too excited about posing for a picture...

Evan Jacob Searby
2 years, 2 months

Of course he smiled when his buddy, Asher, sat next to him...

Pulling each other in the wagon is always a highlight at the patch. Megan wasn't looking where she was going and ended up sitting on a pumpkin...

As if the bounce house and pumpkins weren't enough, there was a tractor to sit on too! Evan probably would have sat on that thing for an hour!

Our good friends Ben & Kyra took Evan to "Trunk o Treat" at the Pumpkin Patch last week. If you're on facebook you can see her pictures of Superman (Evan) having lots of fun!

The Last Two Weeks

2009-10-22T16:38:00.003-04:00

We've been busy the last two weeks !

Believe it or not, we were in the pool just over 2 weeks ago! Evan loves the pool and is getting braver and braver with his water wings...

The rain cooled things off a little...

"Wear my rain coat"

"Daddy doing?"

Evan decided it looked like fun after a few minutes of hesitation...

Joel and I attended our neighbor's wedding in St. Augustine. Thank you to Lou and Kelly for tag-teaming the babysitting duty! We didn't know anyone (except the bride and groom) at the wedding so we really just spent time together and enjoyed our private cocktail table...

Austin & Melissa, Just Married!

Playing outside is one of Evan's favorite things to do. We borrowed a big firetruck from one of our friends so that has given him something new to do this past week.

"I spray you!"

"Gotta put out the fire!"

The fire-fisherman?

Jesus Loves Me

2009-10-22T15:25:00.003-04:00

Evan picked up my Bible last week and started singing...

Potty Training

2009-10-02T09:00:00.002-04:00

For the past 2 and a half weeks we've been working on potty-training Evan. He's really doing awesome...much better than I ever expected him to do. Thank you to everyone that has been encouraging us and giving us advice. We've taken a little bit of everyone's advice and found a way that is working for Evan. We started out with a timer going off every 20 minutes to signal "time to potty." It stretched to 30 minutes after a few days....thank goodness cuz I felt like I was spending half my day in the bathroom. Now he's going without a timer and he's getting better at telling me when he has to go. Evan loves his big-boy underwear and will do just about anything for an M&M or a Pez. I'm pretty sure he's had more sugar in the last 2 weeks than in his first 2 years of life! Its been exhausting but I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Disney

2009-09-21T19:36:00.004-04:00

It was kind of a last minute decision but Joel had to go to meetings in Orlando last weekend so Evan and I tagged along. We were exhausted from our Fripp Island Tripp but this was a chance to see our good friends, the Osorios. Friday was actually Tori's birthday so Evan and I were invited to the family birthday party at Ryan's parents house (Joel was working). Evan enjoyed playing with the big kids and got really excited when he saw the cupcakes!

On Saturday Tori, Ryan, Owen, Kaylee (Ryan's little sister), Evan and I went to Disney! We spent all morning and part of the afternoon at Animal Kingdom. The boys loved the Nemo Show as well as seeing all the animals on the Safari. I'm pretty sure my favorite part was riding Mount Everest with Tori & Kaylee. Thanks Ryan for staying behind to feed the boys while we had some big-kid fun!

Ponchos and Puddles. They had a good time...

Looking like we've been through a thunderstorm...

Look at that Tiger...

On the Safari, I was amazed at how close the animals are to the vehicle...

Evan and Owen were in desperate need of a nap, despite their wonderful behavior that morning, so Tori and took them back to the hotel for a good two hour nap. After naptime we met back up with Ryan and Kaylee at Magic Kingdom. It had rained on and off all day but we were happy in our ponchos and the rain actually kept the crowd away. We were able to ride lots of rides and the boys loved almost every minute of it!

The traditional picture with the castle in the background....not a great picture of us but I promise we had lots of fun after this!

"driving" the teacups...

Riding in Pooh's Honeypot...

I really expected taking a two-year-old to Disney to be a not-so-pleasant event....but Evan LOVED it!!! The only hard part was getting him in and out of the stroller all day. I'm looking forward to our next visit and hopefully Joel will get to go go with us!

Fripp Island

2009-09-10T17:26:00.004-04:00

We returned yesterday from our vacation to Fripp Island, SC. We met Joel's parents and his brother's family there for a few days. The house we stayed in was only a short golf cart ride to the beach and we had our choice of 3 different pools! Jack and Evan enjoyed playing together and Josie is almost crawling! Thank you Mark and Linda for a fun beach vacation!

Here are a few pictures from our trip..

Birthday Week

2009-08-31T15:20:00.006-04:00

Evan officially had an entire birthday week. We saved all the presents and cards that he had gotten in the mail and let him open one per day. His actual birthday was last Monday but unfortunately we didn't get much sleep the night before. He has been working on getting his canine teeth in for about 3 months now. Every once in awhile we have a sleepless night. He wasn't in too bad of a mood on his birthday but if you look closely you can see the snot running down his nose in almost all the pictures below.

"Need bib Mommy. No want grape juice on my jammies"

We try to play outside or go to the pool everyday. He usually likes to ride on his "scooter." For his birthday joy ride, we went to the mailbox where he received a fun package from his friend, Everly. That was the only present he actually opened on his birthday!

On Tuesday Evan opened his Animal Hospital from Grandma & Grandpa Searby. That kept him busy ALL day! He did really well with the color coded keys for each door and loved listening to all the animals' heart-beats and giving them vitamins. We tried to practice for his visit to the doctor the next day.

Wednesday morning was his 2 year check-up with the doctor. Lets just say he was a LOT happier in the waiting room with the toys than in the check-up room!

He tried to escape multiple times...

After a few tears and a lot of coaxing, we BOTH got our stats:
Evan's Height: 34 1/4 inches Jen's Height: 5 feet 5 inches
Evan's Weight: 27 pounds Jen's Weight: a lot more than Evan

Thursday, Evan and I spent the day out at the Birkett's house. Evan loves to play with Megan's kitchen...he just doesn't like when Megan wants to play with it too. They both brought our their 2-year-old attitudes that day. Evan went to time-out 3 times.

Friday and Saturday of birthday week were spent at home (opening more gifts!) and running errands for Evan's little party on Sunday. Evan talked all week about having cake on his birthday and "getting all messy like Paxson." But then would follow it up with "my need a fork!"

We just invited a few close friends, that we consider family, over for Evan's party on Sunday evening. I asked Kelly to make Evan a little basketball cake....it was huge....but it sure was yummy!

After everyone had left, Joel and Evan went outside to play with the new T-Ball set. Evan demanded that Joel have his "own bat." They had fun "hitting it really fast."

Here are some more random things from last week....

Evan likes to pretend that he's a fireman. He usually runs around the house saying things like, "gotta put out that fire," "put the ladder up high," "gotta get my hose." He now has 2 fire hats so of course he likes for me to wear one too. One day he called me "Mr. Fire Mommy."

He not only pretends to be a fire man, but Evan likes to "surf" too. He uses one of my little plastic cutting boards and stands on it while making ocean sounds and then saying: "surf, surf, surf." I told him that we were going to the beach this weekend and that he could watch the surfers. He said, "Got my pretend surfboard. That's a big wave. Gotta jump over it!"

As if being a fire man, and a surfer aren't exhausting enough, he also likes to pretend he is a giant. He loves the story of David and Goliath. He'll come up to me and say, "My the giant, mommy is David. Oh-no! Giant fall down, hurt his head, he ok."

So I guess we have a typical 2-year-old. He's a lot of fun, talks constantly, and is learning new things everyday, but watch out when he doesn't get his way...you'll definitely witness a meltdown!

Growing Up...

2009-08-31T15:12:00.005-04:00

Evan turned 2 years-old on Monday, August 24th. I'm trying to get a blog posted with pictures from last week. In the meantime, here is a video that Joel put together a couple months ago that I thought I would share...

Curious George

2009-08-28T13:45:00.005-04:00

Evan is really picky at meal times these days. Its really frustrating to me that he wants his food cut a certain way, at a certain temperature, and in the right place on the plate. Sometimes he wants a spoon, sometimes a fork. Sometimes he wants a sippy cup, and sometimes he prefers a big-boy cup. Seriously....can you just eat your food and be thankful that I gave you some?

Last Sunday night we let Curious George sit at the table with him and he seemed to do a lot better eating his food. He would pretend that George took a bite and then he would take a bite. Here they are sharing their BLT...

Chach & Valla's Wedding

2009-08-24T13:55:00.007-04:00

I was honored when Valla asked me to be a bridesmaid at her wedding this summer. It was actually on my Mom's birthday AND it was the day Chris & Renae brought their baby, Eric Mathew, into the world. I will have no excuses for forgetting August 15th!

Valla & Chach had a small ceremony at the North Central College Chapel and then dinner at Tango in downtown Naperville. After dinner, the bridal party and a few friends went to Bar Louie, just down the street from Tango. I witnessed Valla winning a bacon-eating contest on her wedding day. Hilarious.

The newlyweds...

Valla and I ...

My groomsman was Nic, Chach's brother. Ironically the groomsman I was paired with for Amanda's wedding was also named Nick.

Just Married...

Tango, where the tapas and sangria were delicious....

Getting ready to eat some bacon...

If you want to see the contest, someone has posted it on youtube. You can search for bacon eating bride!

It was a fun weekend and I'm looking forward to sharing many more memories with Valla and Chach. Love you guys!

Surprise!

2009-08-10T15:13:00.007-04:00

My parents celebrated their 30th Wedding Anniversary on June 30th. Jake, Melissa, Jodi, David, Joel, and I pulled off a surprise party for them on Saturday, August 1st. Thank you to everyone that kept it a secret...you did a great job! Mom and Dad were down the alley at Dan & Deb's house for the afternoon at a birthday party. Jodi, David, Joel, and I just took turns going down there and making sure they were well entertained. When we had a crowd at our house we told them that we had a surprise for them and they had to wear blind folds to walk down the alley (otherwise they would see all the cars at our house!)

They were SO surprised when we took the blind folds off and there were about 60 of their friends and family members shouting, "Surprise! Happy 30th Anniversary!" I'm pretty sure mom cried.

Jodi took care of ordering the cake...

I caught dad visiting with his groomsmen...

David and Jake were busy giving Joel a hard time for not wearing a Cub's shirt...

Evan was excited to see Cameron for the day...

But most importantly I think Mom and Dad enjoyed having all their kids together for the afternoon...

We love you mom and dad and hope that you enjoyed your party and we wish you the best for the next 30 years!

The Last Week of July

2009-08-09T21:50:00.007-04:00

Joel was able to come up and spend the last week of July with Evan and I. He was here for Amanda's wedding and then made Bellflower his "home base" while he worked in Indianapolis, Springfield, and his favorite spot: the back porch. Evan loved having his daddy to play with and the weather was perfect for playing outside...

My dad made a ramp for Evan's cars. He has spent many mornings sitting on the steps pushing cars down a piece of wood only to gather them up (or ask someone else to pick them up) and do it all over again....

Evan has been helping out with dinner time by shucking the corn with his Grandpa...

And one night after dinner Evan decided he wanted to play basketball. Well he couldn't play basketball without "basketball shoes." He went inside and came back out with my dad's tennis shoes on. It was hilarious! Then he wanted his Cubs hat that my mom gave him. He has become quite attached to that thing and gets really excited when he sees the Cubs on TV...which means practically every day at Grandma & Grandpa's house.

Evan continues to love books. He and I sat on the swing one day and read Goldilocks and the Three Bears about 14 times in a row. When Goldilocks breaks the chair in the story Evan always says she needs to "go to the grocery store and get a new one!"

On Friday, July 31st Mom, Dad, Evan, Joel, and I went to the McLean County Fair. Joel and I both grew up going to the fair but hadn't been to it since it had moved to a new location. It was a lot bigger than we had remembered it being!

Evan and Joel "drove" the combine...

We all shared a funnel cake and a lemonade shake-up....except we think they forgot the sugar in our shake-up so Joel had to go back and ask for a scoop of sugar...

Evan liked looking at the bunnies...

But I think my mom and dad enjoyed them even more...

At the end of the evening we went to the grandstand to listen to Chuck Wicks perform. He had a great crowd and put on a good show. I saw him last fall when he was on tour with Brad Paisley and only had one popular song....now he's playing at county fairs and drawing a crowd of his own.

Mom couldn't leave the fair without having icecream...and of course Evan thought he needed some too....

Amanda's Wedding: Part 2

2009-07-31T16:14:00.011-04:00

Shouldn't all brides begin their wedding day as a pirate?

Well I guess only if your flower girl thinks she's a pirate...

Lily, the flower girl, and her mom (Laura), the maid of honor were a lot of fun to spend time with on Amanda's wedding day...

Laura laced Amanda up. I think this was the point where she got a little nervous...

She was a beautiful bride and her dad was so proud to walk her down the isle...

Geoff and his dad waited with anticipation....

And here I am standing up there to support my Amanda....

The ceremony was short but very meaningful...not too many tears. It was a beautiful day for pictures outside at the park and when they were all done, the wedding party boarded a boat and headed to the reception...

Geoff and Amanda looked SO happy getting off that boat and heading into the reception...

The reception at the boat club was filled with friends, family, food, and music. It was fun to get some of the LCC girls together again....too bad Kim wasn't able to be there.

Amanda and Geoff are going to make a wonderful couple! They look so happy together...

And this picture really shows their fun personalities...

Thank you Amanda for inviting me to be a part of your wedding day. I can't wait to visit Colorado and spend some time with you and Geoff! Congrats:)

Amanda's Wedding: Part 1

2009-07-31T15:48:00.006-04:00

Last weekend was Amanda's wedding. Joel flew up on Friday morning so that he could go to the rehearsal and wedding with me. We finally got to meet Geoff for the first time! He seems perfect for Amanda and I'm SO happy that she has found the love of her life!

The very first picture taken at rehearsal was Lily (flower girl) running to Amanda for a hug...

It was fun to reconnect with Julia, another friend from college that was in the wedding...

I'm not sure if Geoff and Amanda were running away from the bridal party or running to the Beef House for dinner...

Playing Outside in Bellflower

2009-07-28T22:31:00.004-04:00

After SO much driving, it was nice to relax for a week! I spent a couple days at my sister's house but hung out mostly in Bellflower. Evan and Paxson had lots of fun playing outside. Its been beautiful weather...a little unseasonably cold but a really nice break from the Florida humidity.

Evan got to sit in Grandpa's new truck...

And I'm pretty sure that's how the keys got locked inside. Oops....good thing it was only Evan's first week with Grandpa or he might have gotten in trouble!

On the Road Again...

2009-07-28T22:16:00.003-04:00

As if driving two days to Illinois wasn't enough, I drove the next day up to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin (4 hours with road construction) for my friend Valla's Bachelorette Party. She had a small party with just the bridesmaids and we had SO much fun. Valla has been one of my best friends since high school and I'm SO honored to be a part of her wedding!

I stayed in Wisconsin that night and then drove to my brother's house on Saturday (2 1/2 hours after following someone who took a wrong turn). It was fun to see Jake, Melissa, and Cameron for a little bit before heading back to Bellflower...only an hour and 1/2 more.

I saw Evan for just an hour before I got in the car again to go to Champaign for another Bachelorette Party! Amanda's party was a lot of fun too and once again I feel SO honored to be a part of another friend's big day. She has been an awesome friend since college and I can't wait to visit her in Colorado some day!

Road Trip

2009-07-27T15:26:00.005-04:00

Jodi, Pax, Evan and I survived our road trip up to Illinois. It wasn't as bad as we had expected. The boys did as well as two 1-year-olds could do in a car for two days! Thank goodness for the DVD player!

We left on a Wednesday morning and drove up to the panhandle to have lunch with some of my college friends that I hadn't see in about 4 years. Jenny, Justin, and Paxton were on vacation and it worked out perfect to stop and see them....

That Wednesday night we stayed in Birmingham at Joel's parent's house. The boys had fun playing with Grandpa Searby and Evan got to help Grandma fix pancakes on Thursday morning...

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch...

After a few more stops....

We finally arrived in central Illinois! It looks like a typical Illinois summer....corn and beans for as far as you can see, tomatos on the porch railing, and green beans in the garden.

Jodi and Pax Visit Florida

2009-07-27T14:51:00.005-04:00

Somehow I convinced my sister to fly down to Florida and then drive up to Illinois with Evan and I. We had a fun few days in Florida before the big 2-day rode trip up to Illinois.

While they were in town...

The boys played in the ball pit in their diapers:

We went swimming:

We went to the splash park:

And of course Evan and Pax played with the rocks:

Merritt Island

2009-07-07T15:39:00.008-04:00

Last weekend we were invited to spend some time with our good friends Ryan, Tori, and Owen. Ryan's parents have an awesome condo right on the Indian River on Merritt Island. It was SO relaxing and such a great time spent with friends. We ate lots of good food (Thanks Tori for cooking!), enjoyed the pool, and even went to Cocoa Beach on the 4th of July. The little boys had fun playing together and Evan has been talking about Owen ever since we left on Sunday!

This was our view from the balcony....

That bay is where I sat in a kayak for the first time! I gotta tell ya, my legs were shaking when I got in....but it ended up being really easy. I'm not sure that I'm ready for white-water-rafting though.

Joel, Ryan, and Owen took Evan on his first boat ride...

Evan and Owen enjoyed the big bathtub...

We went across the bridge to the city of Cocoa for a little bit on Friday afternoon. It was SO hot! You can see Owen eyeing the splash park from Ryan's shoulders.

And Joel and Evan went for a walk on the boardwalk...

Saturday morning was the trip to Cocoa Beach. We all did our share of skim-boarding and boogie-boarding. The conclusion was that Joel could boogie-board, Ryan could skim-board and you don't even want to see the embarrassing pictures of Tori and I trying to skim-board! Here are some of Evan and Owen instead...

Saturday evening we let Owen and Evan throw snap-pops (Joel's official name for the things that come in a little box of sawdust, you throw them and they pop on the ground). Evan loved them and just kept asking for more. We should have gotten more of those rather than all the sparklers. It was a little windy so they were hard to light. Here is a "snap-pop" picture but all the sparkler pictures are on Tori's camera. I'll have to post one later.

It seems like Tori and I are always the ones taking the pictures and never get to be in the pictures so here is our "Happy Fourth of July" picture that we took of ourselves....

Thank you Ryan and Tori for an awesome weekend! We can't wait to do it again!

Singing

2009-07-02T14:33:00.005-04:00

Yesterday morning after breakfast, Evan wanted to sing. This is what I could catch on video...

A Big Week!

2009-07-01T13:40:00.008-04:00

I think this blog could actually be 4 different blogs but I'm going to try to cram it all into one!

"Fireman Hat and Tomatoes"
I found a fireman hat at a garage sale last weekend and brought it home for Evan. He's been wearing it all around the house since I gave it to him. I can hardly get him to take it off for naptime. A couple days ago he was pretending with it and this is what he came up with...

"Evan's First Movie"
Yesterday morning it was storming and pouring down rain and I didn't feel like sitting home all morning. I remembered that our movie theater offers free kids movies throughout the summer so I thought Evan and I would try it out. Charlotte's Web was playing...what a perfect first movie for Evan. He immediately loved the idea of the "big tv" and wanted to know where the remote was. He also had fun talking to the "big kids" around us. Although the gradeschool boys in front of us did asked me to tell Evan "to stop staring" at them and that it was "kind creepy." I explained to them that this was his first movie and he was watching them to see how they behaved during the show.

I fully expected Evan to last the first 15 minutes and then we would go find something else to do. I was wrong. We were there for just about the entire movie....1 hour and 40 minutes. He loved the animals and kept asking where the "big red barn" went. He talked about it all day and I think we'll try to go to another one next week!

"Plain White T's"
Joel and I went out last night! We heard that the Plain White T's were playing downtown so we found a babysitter and had a little date night. There were 3 opening bands that we'd never heard of and then the T's played. They were a lot of fun and very entertaining. I definitely prefer their sing-songy "Delilah" and "1,2,3,4" songs over the more "poppy" songs but it was fun to get out of the house and do something that we hardly ever do anymore....listen to live music.

"Big Boy Bed"
Evan has always had a daybed in his room in addition to his crib. A few weeks ago he started asking to take his naps in it. We let him do a few naps in the "big boy bed" and then he started asking to sleep in it at night. We really had no intentions of switching from his crib until he tried to climb out but it seemed to happen naturally and now he's been sleeping in his "big boy bed" for 2 weeks. We took the crib down this week and it was kind of sad....our little boy is growing up fast!

Last Minute Getaway

2009-06-23T14:22:00.005-04:00

Last week was so stressful for Joel and I that we decided to get away for 24 hours. We went over to Vilano Beach and stayed at the Hampton right on the water. It was wonderful. Sometimes just removing yourself from the situations at hand and giving your mind a rest can help you see so much more clearly. We enjoyed every minute of our family time and Evan enjoyed every minute of his beach time. Here are a few pictures from Friday and Saturday....

Cookies

2009-06-16T13:57:00.004-04:00

Evan and I baked cookies on Sunday afternoon! I let him pull a chair up to the counter and help with every part possible. He was very excited and kept saying "cookies, cookies." We made a bigger mess than what I would normally make doing it myself...but we had a lot fun.

I had on an apron so Evan wanted one too...

MMM...Cookie batter.

Hopefully he'll turn out to be a good cook like his daddy!

Conversation about Babies....

2009-06-15T14:56:00.003-04:00

Evan: Kelly have baby in belly?

Jen: yes that's right, Kelly has a baby in her belly.

Evan: Nae-Nae have baby in belly?

Jen: Yes, Renae has a baby in her belly.

Evan: Chris have baby in belly?

Jen: (lots of laughter because Chris is Renae's husband)
no honey, Chris doesn't have a baby in his belly.

Playing with Friends

2009-06-11T13:58:00.006-04:00

Evan had three slumber parties this week! Owen stayed the night with us on Sunday night so Tori and Ryan could go out to celebrate Dental School and Florida Boards being completely over. Then Monday night Megan spent the night with us. Kelly & Kevin just had a normal work day on Tuesday but Megan's Nanny was out of town so Evan and I filled in for her on Tuesday. Then Evan stayed at Owen's house on Tuesday night to give ME a break from kids. It sure felt odd for Joel and I to leave our house at 9:30pm for Taco Bell and Super WalMart! I kept thinking that I left Evan and home sleeping!

"Hmm...Where could Evan be?"

Riding the brooms...

All Ready for bed...

"Cheese!"

"Knees!"

I got really brave and let Evan and Megan paint! They loved it!

For some reason they thought it was hilarious to sit "underneath" the shelf.

And I guess Evan wants to be a plumber when he grows up...

Pickles

2009-06-05T17:29:00.003-04:00

I forgot to mention that Joel and I canned 12 pints of pickles a couple weekends ago. It was a lot of fun...and SO much easier than I thought it was going to be. We just combined a few recipes from the internet and I called my mom about 4 times.

Evan's Imagination

2009-06-02T13:34:00.005-04:00

Evan's imagination amazes me every day. He's always coming up with something new to pretend.

He loves to pretend that he is fishing. He first did this in Illinois at my friend Margie's house. He sat inside the circle of a hula-hoop and starting fishing. After this incident my dad gave him a real fishing lesson:

Since then he's been fishing out of the laundry basket, catching "big fish" and then eating them. I finally made him some paper fish to catch!

One day last week, Evan took a place mat off of the table and put it on the floor. He then put his cereal bowl and milk on the place mat. He said, "mommy picnic?" Who could resist that? I have no idea where he came up with the idea but it sure was cute!

He has also created his own water spout. He sees me get water out of the spout in the fridge so one day he went over to a safety lock on a cupboard and made a water sound while holding his cup under the lock. Now when we have picnics he knows where to go to get the pretend-water.

On Sunday morning Evan was playing with a little rubber Easter Bunny who's arms and legs move all around. He put the bunny on the couch and told him "hold still, change diaper."

Who knows what he'll come up with next!

Coupons

2009-05-21T14:05:00.002-04:00

I've really been paying attention to all the deals you can get with coupons and combining them with sale items. It amazes me when I see a story about some lady using a zillion coupons for $100 worth of groceries and she ends up paying $25 (or less!). I want to BE that lady.

This morning Evan and I went to Albertson's. I had looked at the store flyer online and had my coupons ready.

I bought $50.37 worth of groceries and with coupons, sales, and BOGO's, I only paid $23.89!!!

Anyone have any good coupon advice for me?! I would love to hear it!

Evan's Prayer

2009-05-20T17:05:00.003-04:00

Evan didn't want to pray with Joel and I when we prayed before supper last night. However, towards the end of his supper he decided he wanted to pray by himself. Here is how it went...

Evan: Dear God, Thank you for big kids.
Joel: Who else do you want to pray for?
Evan: a lot of big kids
Joel: anyone else?
Evan: more big kids
Joel: anyone else?
Evan: Dear God Thank you all the people. Amen

Joel: Where are all the people?
Evan: Go Bye Bye in Jeep.

(insert- lots of laughing and confusion from us because we don't even have our jeep anymore!)

Evan: Pray Again. Dear God Thank you chicken.

(We had fish for supper.)

Playing with Pax

2009-05-15T16:08:00.005-04:00

My sister's little boy, Paxson, is growing up SO fast! He turned 11 months old last week and has been walking for more than 2 weeks! I helped mom babysit him a few times last week...he's such a sweetheart!

The O'Malleys in front of the new house they are renting...

Evan playing with Uncle David's golf clubs...

Paxson braved the bathtub with Evan. He survived...

The boys ate their snack on Grandma's couch...

Paxson loved the swing at the gradeschool. (And "the house across from the swingset" is still there :)

Evan and Pax also had a good time opening and shutting the door and the playground...

We're looking forward to seeing Pax again in a couple of months!

Evan and Cameron

2009-05-12T18:58:00.006-04:00

Joel, Evan, and I flew up to Chicago last weekend to go to his cousin, Jason's wedding. Unfortunately we didn't get any great pictures that evening but the wedding was very pretty and we had a good time visiting with family at the reception. They were all disappointed that we had taken Evan to stay at Jake and Melissa's house for the night. But he had a better time with them than he would have at the wedding!

Joel had to leave for Lexington, KY on Sunday but I was able to visit my friend, Valla, for the afternoon before I headed back to Jake and Melissa's for a couple days.

Chach & Valla's new house...

A few pictures from our time with Jake, Melissa, and Cameron...

Johson Visit: Part II

2009-05-12T18:25:00.006-04:00

I know I'm really late doing this blog but I wanted to at least put up some pictures of the weekend Aaron and Shauna spent with us!

We went to Satchel's for yummy pizza and fun playtime at Lightnin' Salvage:

We spent a couple hours at Paynes Prairie and saw wild horses:

AND we can't have visitors without going to the beach:

We love you Johnsons and can't wait to see you again!

Johnson Visit: Part I

2009-04-29T15:12:00.005-04:00

We had the privilege of babysitting Everly Johnson last week. Aaron & Shauna (Everly's parents) are great friends of ours from college. They currently live and work in the New Orleans area and were required to attend a church-planting conference in Orlando. It worked out perfect for them to stop through Gainesville and leave Everly to play with Evan for the week.

We had a very eventful week.
Evan and Everly found a fun place to have a drink...

We went to the Splashpark...

The kiddos did some coloring...

And we had plenty of time to play outside...

(to be continued!)

Oprah

2009-04-24T09:52:00.003-04:00

I went to Oprah's website because I was interested in reading about what she said on Earth Day. I was distracted by the headline "Are You Bikini-Ready-13 Shortcuts to a Better Beach Body." I was really disgusted at what I saw...

1. Breast Implants
2. Liposuction for Love Handles
3. Liposuction for your tummy
4. Fat Disolving Injections (yes-with a needle!)

The list went on, but I definitely quit reading. What in the heck happended to good old exercise and eating healthy?! Come on America....are you just lazy?

The Beach

2009-04-21T14:52:00.004-04:00

Last Thursday Melody, Tori, and I were brave enough to take our 3 little boys to the beach. We really had a lot of fun and plan to do it again but will be sure to pick a warmer day! Here are a few pictures (compliments of Tori)....

Easter Sunday

2009-04-16T22:19:00.005-04:00

Joel, Evan, and I spent Easter in Gainesville this year. It was a beautiful morning and we had good intentions of making it to breakfast at church but somehow didn't make there on time. Maybe it was because Evan was playing in the dirt rather than getting in the car...

Evan sang us one of his favorite songs in the car on the way to church...

Our Easter picture in the church yard...

At the last minute we decided to invite our friends Tori, Ryan, and Owen over for Easter Dinner. We were all without our families this year so it made sense to have a meal together. Joel did a great job on the ham. He copied the Honey Baked Ham recipe and it was delicious! I'll never buy one from the store again. After dinner, the boys hunted for Easter Eggs. Evan was very excited about finding the eggs and even more excited about eating the goldfish the I put inside them. Owen was happy with the first 3 that he found and just wanted to carry them all around the yard.

We're Home!

2009-04-09T15:29:00.007-04:00

I really meant to blog last weekand just didn't make the time to do it! Yes - We are home, for those of you who may still be wondering where in the heck the Searby's are.

We arrrived home last Monday afternoon after a much better plane ride and a drive up from Miami. Evan was extremely happy to see his house and his own bed.

Just to catch up a little....We spent those last few days in Chile just a little north of Santiago in "el campo" (the country). Richard and Paula are currently building a new home and they asked us to come spend a few days with them. We had a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Richard & Paula's new house that they are building themselves...

Paula & Joel in the kitchen (or where the kitchen will eventually be!)...

This is a HUGE spider that we found outside. Richard's uncle picked it up and told us "no hace nada." Yeah Right, I still didn't let Evan touch it...

Richard and Paula invited a buch of friends out for an asado (BBQ). They told everyone to come between 7 and 8. We ate at 11pm. That's an asado chileno for you!

Playing on the tennis courts and teeter-totters...

Evan had his bath in a bucket while we were there. He LOVED it!!!

He and Christopher also liked visiting the "caballo"...

"Salud!" (Cheers!)...

Stay tuned for Easter Pictures!

Only a few more days :(

2009-04-02T15:30:00.008-04:00

We're really enjoying our time in Chile....even though there have been some stressful moments traveling with a 19 month old. Its been awesome to see our friends as well as spend some family time at the beach. We are in Santiago today but will be headed north of here to spend our last few days with Richard, Paula, and Christopher at their new house. This will probably be my last post since we will probably not have internet up there. We'll fly out on Sunday night and return to Gainesville Monday morning!

Here are a few pictures of the last few days....

Our friend Sara and her fiance, Alan (not pictured), came to visit us....

Here is my amiga Paula with Evan and Christopher....
We went to visit Claudia's parents, Luis and Brenda....

Evan and I playing outside at Claudia's house...

Evan and I downtown Santiago....

Evan loved watching Humberto play the guitar....and he loved putting the pick inside the guitar...

We've also been to visit Juan's family...

And here are few pictures from Quisco where we rented a cabin near the beach to enjoy a little family time. Unfortunately Evan was sick the two days we were there but he's feeling much better now!

Food

2009-03-29T19:08:00.006-04:00

I'm short on time to post this blog but I wanted to at least put up a few pictures. Instead of going through each day and what we've been doing, I thought I'd pick a theme. Looking through the pictures from the last few days I seemed to have a lot of Evan eating.

At Jack and Janine's house, Evan enjoyed eating grapes:

When we went downtown, Evan had a great time dipping his french fries...

And then we had icecream...

He loves the fresh bread just as much as his daddy does....

But how could we come to Chile without his snack cup filled with goldfish?!

Hope all is well at home and we'll try to update again in the next few days!

Estamos en Chile!

2009-03-26T16:22:00.007-04:00

Evan did a great job helping to pack for our big trip to Chile:

We have arrived safely in Santiago, Chile. Monday’s five-hour car ride to Miami was nothing compared to an 8-hour overnight plane ride. Evan only slept about 4 hours and I think Joel and I slept less than him. Having Evan with us made customs and immigration go super-easy. We were able to skip ahead of the long line since we had a baby!

Evan enjoyed watching the airplanes and trucks at the Miami airport:

We were pretty tired on Tuesday but tried to re-connect with as many friends as possible. It was fun to see people that we hadn’t seen for about 5 years! La Cisterna (the neighborhood in Santiago) looks the same as we remember it but the ministry site looks a lot different. When we left, only the church building was completed. Now there are 4 condos built on the property that will eventually house a set of foster parents with children.

We have enjoyed helping with lunch the past two days. Janine is in South Chile for the next 2 weeks so I’m sure Jack has appreciated a couple extra hands in the kitchen.

Tuesday night we had 2 surprises! First, Claudia’s parents came to visit us. We were very excited to answer the door to where we are staying and be greeted by familiar faces. For those of you who may not know, we met Claudia when we were here the first time. I was teaching English with her in one of the schools near our neighborhood. She was done with high school and looking to go to college to be an English Teacher. We connected her with Lincoln Christian College. Joel’s parents allowed her to live with them and supported her in many other ways. Now she is due to graduate from LCC in May! Claudia’s parents are very proud of her, as are we.

Our second surprise came around 10:30pm. Evan was asleep and I was almost asleep. Joel had gone down to Jack’s house for dinner where Richard, Paula, and Christopher showed up! Joel brought them back to the ministry site where were staying so that I could see them too. Evan woke up and played with Christopher while we sat around catching up! It was SO much fun.

And here are some random pictures of Evan....

Sitting on the steps at Jack and Janine's house:

Lounging on the patio...

And of course playing with keys....

Update

2009-03-23T12:15:00.003-04:00

It was really great to have my parents here for the last two weeks! We had lots of fun and I have a ton of pictures but I thought this one was one of the best:

We are leaving for Chile today! Pray for us as we re-connect with our friends there and spend some time together as a family in a country that we love!

The Beach

2009-03-17T12:48:00.002-04:00

Mom and Dad are visiting us right now and Evan has had a lot of fun with his "Bay-Pa" and "Bay-Ma." We went down to Sarasota to spend a few days at the beach. Evan loved every minute of it....and so did I!

Evan enjoyed the porch at the "conco" (condo). He could watch the golfers from the porch and he got really excited when the golf carts went by.

But that boy LOVED the "dirt" at the beach!

He hardly had time to stop playing in order to get his picture taken...

I think he would have played all day if I would have let him.

Evan at 18 Months

2009-03-02T15:24:00.004-05:00

I took Evan to his 18 month doctor's appointment this morning. Here are his stats:

Height: 34 Inches (90th percentile)
Weight: 26 lbs. (60th percentile)
Words: TOO many to count!

Pictures

2009-02-17T15:12:00.003-05:00

"My mom is finally posting some new pictures!"

"Hmmm this looks like a fun tub to stand it."

"I think I'll stand in this basket too."
"I like strawberries.....this week."

"And I like to feed my kitty."

Coffee, Continued

2009-02-07T14:06:00.002-05:00

To top off my coffee story from Thursday...

After I made my coffee for the second time, I put some in a To-Go cup so I could take it with me to a play date.

Evan and I got in the car and drove towards our friend's house when I realized I FORGOT my To-Go cup on the kitchen counter.

I ended up having to go through the drive-thru at Coffee Culture!

Coffee

2009-02-05T09:23:00.002-05:00

Don't you hate it when you go to pour a cup of coffee and all you have is really hot water?

I must have forgotten to put the coffee grounds in (again).

That's never a good start to the morning.

2009-01-29T21:21:00.004-05:00

Evan continues to talk more and more everyday. Here are a couple videos of him tonight:

Joel loves to have cereal for dessert. Evan now looks forward to having "sir" with his daddy...

Phrases & Pictures

2009-01-20T19:45:00.005-05:00

This kid talks ALL the time. These are just a few of the phrases Evan said tonight:

"Yaya drink" (Evan drink)
"Mommy hold"
"Sit Mommy"
"Hi Mommy"
"Hi Daddy"
"Mommy pull boat"
"Mommy get moak (milk)"
"Mommy eat sir (cereal)"
"Daddy sit lap"

And here are a few pictures of Evan from the past week or so....

Playing at the park...

Hmm...what kind of trouble can I get into....

"Fixing" his racetrack...

Evan and I on my birthday...

Sittin' on the porch...

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

2009-01-16T22:08:00.002-05:00

Peas

2009-01-08T16:09:00.003-05:00

I met my friend, Tori, and her little boy, Owen at the library this morning for story time. The boys did really great and even tried to do the actions to some of the songs. After story time we went to the park where Owen was very nice and shared his lunch with Evan. The only green vegetable that I can get Evan to eat right now is broccoli so you can imagine my surprise when he was boxing Owen out to get to his peas.

This afternoon when Evan got up from his nap I asked him if he wanted a snack. He immediately said "peas"! Here is our snacktime video:

Christmas Craziness

2008-12-31T14:32:00.007-05:00

I had way too many pictures to pick from so here are some of my favorites from the last 2 weeks...

Evan enjoyed looking at the "no" out the window:

The whole crew went to visit Grandma Edi:

We had a terrible time getting Cameron, Paxson, & Evan to sit in front of the tree:

But Evan decided to say "cheese" for the camera:

And he had hugs for Paxson:

Cam & Evan were buddies:

Evan and Jack were buddies too:

And the day we were in Southern Illinois was finally warm enough to play outside! Evan loved it...

And he loved his 2nd cousin Ellie...

We are looking forward to being home by the end of the week! Hope you all had a nice Christmas!

Evan & Jack

2008-12-25T12:09:00.003-05:00

Paxson & Our First Snow Day

2008-12-19T13:28:00.003-05:00

Yesterday mom and I babysat Paxson while Jodi was at work. That boy is SO sweet. I would have held him more if Evan wasn't so jealous. Evan wanted to be on my lap or at least right next to me if I was snuggling with Paxson.

But if Paxson was on the floor, Evan wanted to play with him...

And hug him...

There is a little bit of snow on the ground here....or as Evan would say: "no" He went outside this morning with Grandpa. He wouldn't even touch the snow until Grandpa made him a little snowman.

Random Pictures

2008-12-14T22:50:00.004-05:00

Here are a couple pictures I took this week of Evan with the Christmas tree....

And here we are at our Small Group Christmas Party....

Evan is learning early that he needs to help clean up after himself...

High School Musical

2008-12-08T14:19:00.004-05:00

I admit I was very reluctant to watch High School Musical. But after watching the first one....I was hooked! Kelly and I rented the second one then Kelly, Renae, and I went to the theater to see the 3rd one. We were so excited about going to the movies that we thought it would be fun to dress up for the event!

So I guess this blog is dedicated to my HS friends because I certainly felt like I was back in high school again!

Getting ready for our big night...

All Ready to go...

We had a lot of fun at the movies!

For more pictures and details about our night out, be sure to look at Kelly's blog!