Evan turns 2! And an Idaho Christmas

I have to start our Christmas post with this pic. A house in our neighborhood goes all out with lights. Every square inch of yard, roof, and house is covered. This scene is Evan's very favorite part, and he would ask to see it every time we got in the car. It is pretty dang cute.

 We had so much fun spending a couple days with Nate's brother and his family before we headed up to Idaho. Too much fun, I didn't take any pictures there! We also stopped on our way up to Idaho to have dinner with my sister and Evan helped her make sugar cookies. Those are two very talented cooks!

 She gave him an early birthday present. He wasn't totally sure what to do with it at first. But don't worry, by the end of our vacation, Evan was a pro at opening gifts!

 She gave him bones gloves that glow in the dark, and they terrify him! It's hilarious :)

 Once in Idaho, Evan had a blast having Daddy around all day, every day!

 All Evan had been talking about for at least a month was building a snowman when he got to Grandma's. We only got snow one day our entire trip, and it was pure powder! No snowman, but we still did go play in it and kick it around before it melted.

 We FINALLY got to meet sweet Millie (she's 8 months!), and she and Evan hit it off right away. She is more adorable than all of her pictures I've seen, and we were so thankful to get to spend some quality face time with her parents. We miss you, Hartwell's! (They are working on a PhD at Purdue).

Evan reminded Grandma Fuller every day to turn on the Christmas tree. He would go and examine it and talk about all of the ornaments he could see, every night. Here he is on his birthday with Grandma's tree!

 This birthday was lots more fun than last year's, because no one was sick this year! Hallelujah!!

 I made mini funfetti cupcakes to celebrate.

 

They were a huge hit with the birthday boy!!

 I think he was most excited about having all the balloons on his chair, but he quickly got the hang of opening presents, and learned to automatically give me a cheesy smile any time I said his name  ;)

 I was excited he immediately started reading his new $1.00, last minute purchase, book. This boy LOVES to read, and it makes me so happy!

 He didn't need any help at all with that wrapping.

 It really was pure joy on this boy's face, all night long. It's like he couldn't believe these were all his. I guess that's what happens when you only get to open presents once a year! You forget what it's like!!

He was spoiled just enough for his birthday, and learned the words to "Happy Birthday", which he likes to make me sing to him regularly.

 Apparently Evan's birthday tradition is to go bowling, because we have been in ID so far for each of his birthdays, and it's kind of the only thing to do in town! This year he was big enough to get his own cute lil bowling shoes. I was obsessed with them.

 And good ol' Pop-n-Pins has a special kid ball that weighs about 4 pounds. It was way funny how excited Evan was to have his own ball, and that it was pink!

 I guess he's been bowling often enough (as in like 4 times ever),  that he's got it figured out. He knows right what to do, and doesn't even need any help.

We were having so much fun, we didn't even realize how very much past bedtime it was. Note: I look so tired in every picture because Evan decided our first night of vacation, that he would no longer be sleeping in a crib. He just up and jumps out. Transitioning from crib to no crib on vacation is a terrible, horrible, rotten, exhausting thing. Thank you, son.

I feel lucky that we were able to go to the cemetery on Christmas Eve with lots of family, and teach Evan about this very special tradition. We light candles and sing Christmas songs, and talk remember loved ones lost. I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to teach Evan about death, resurrection, and eternal families. That's a bit much for a 2 year old, but it was a good teaching opportunity for me, and it's never to early to start! Lucky for us, there was no wind this year and it was a quite pleasant 14 degrees that night, the warmest it's even been since I've been going!

 I took hardly any pictures Christmas morning, because I was too busy soaking it in. Christmas was so much fun with Evan this year. His just couldn't get enough of it! We have him this cute little pup tent, and had it set up Christmas morning. He saw it first thing and started laughing and squealing, then played in it most the rest of the morning. After he would open a present, he would take it in the tent to play with it.

And of course, mommy and daddy had to play in it, too. It's just the right size for all three and half of us.
It was wonderful to go to church on Christmas, and like everyone else, I think that should be mandatory from on. It set a nice tone for the rest of the day, even though it made us shower and get dressed for the day. Not our Christmas norm :)

 We attended a neighborhood Christmas party in ID, and Nate had a VERY proud moment in teaching his son to play ping-pong for his first time. Evan appeared to love it just as much as his dad does. My favorite part is that he is so excited waiting for the ball to come, he can't contain himself and hops up and down. (Sorry for the shaking camera, I was laughing too hard)

Awesome times bowling! And Evan randomly says a few times a week, "I wanna go bowling, Mommy...please?" (Imagine a small whine to go along with that each time I say no.)

SO last year...

It may or may not be taking me a little while to get back into the swing of things after being on Christmas vacation for two weeks. None the less, I hope all my blogger friends enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. We sure did, and now I'm off to work on getting all of those blog posts done.

YES-that is my pregnant belly that Evan has his heart shaped hands on. No, I am not actually that big, just thanks to the angle of the shot, and the way my couch was squishing me. No, it's not a couch or a basketball that Evan is holding. Yes, of course I am wearing a shirt. A pink one, in fact, to further acknowledge the fact that we will be welcoming a GIRL to our little family in about three short months. And yes, the above picture is a shot from my phone, taken at my mom's house, of my Christmas card hanging on her wall. Any other questions/comments/snide remarks about my Christmas card this year?? :)

Shanell and Shamu

We had a great surprise when my fabulous friend Shanell decided to come out for a visit!

 

We stopped by the beach after the airport, for a windy stroll and some yummy lunch. It wouldn't be California without some beach!

I found this little display on the Boardwalk so amusing. It's just not right to have ocean behind your Christmas tree! Silly Californians.

While she was here, we obviously had to go feed our wild burros. I don't know who loved it more between Evan and Shanell!We seemed to take it pretty easy the during her visit, which I think was what she needed. Not like there is really a whole ton to do in town anyways, but Evan couldn't have been happier to have a playmate with him all day every day. He and "Nell" are great buds, and he still asks me every morning "Where Nell go?"

 Shanell left us on a flex, so we took her back to the airport and continued onward to Sea World to make use of our passes one more time before the year was up.

 Evan was old enough this time to enjoy the rides, and enjoy he sure did! The firs picture is right before the ride was to start for his first time. He was SO excited!! Nate and Evan rode this Elmo's flying fish ride more times than I could count over the next 24 hours. The bottom pic is at the end of his last time riding. Pure happiness :) 

 He also loved this spinning ride, which I thought he for sure would not. It's like the teacups at Disneyland. Nate let Evan be in charge of spinning it if he wanted to, and they spun a lot! Luckily, they got to ride this one a few times, too.

 It was a lot fun to be there at Christmas time and take in a lot of there fun Christmas shows, which I always forget to take pictures of. I'm just enjoying myself!

 We watched the Polar Express 4D experience, and were so surprised that Evan sat through the whole 20 minutes and kept his glasses on, too! He actually really loved it, and always talks about the "choo choo movie with bells".

 I did manage to get pictures at the Shamu show, because we were sitting so stinking close! Our goal was to get wet, because it was a very warm 65 degrees. Shamu didn't even sprinkle us, but managed to completely soak a little family and baby about 30 rows up. Soak zone my eye...

 We let Evan go wild here after seeing Shamu and the dolphins, and not getting wet once. He was soaked from head to toe by the time we made him leave, and was definitely the only kid to play in the splash zone. Stay tuned for some awesome video...

And if the splash park was not the highlight of his Sea World trip, then this definitely was. Everytime he sees this picture, he laughs SO hard and says, "Elmo, cookie monster so funny. Say cheese, Evan!" (He obviously doesn't know who Grover is, just assumed a blue monster was cookie monster.)

 Somewhere in this same week, Evan and I also had the chance to go to Disneyland with my sister and her kids. Evan got a kick out of the huge tree, and even got to see Minnie walk right by him. He was in shock.

 We saw It's a Small World on crack, Christmas style, as my sister calls it. There was so much to look at, Evan couldn't keep up. We came out just as they turned the lights on outside, and he could not look away.

 I thought the castle looked extra beautiful, and want to make it over there one day. I don't ever manage to take pics of my kid at Disneyland, because we are usually so busy making efficient use of our time, I just snap pictures of stuff I like from my phone as we are running from ride to ride :)

 Disney Christmas is pretty magical, and I was convinced they had gingerbread blowing through the streets.

The best picture I got of the kids was riding the bus back to the parking lot, which is probably Evan's favorite ride. :) They are usually so hyper after we are done, this is really as much as you can make them hold still!

Evan at Sea World Splash Park

We probably let Evan play here like this for at least 20 minutes. We have several different videos of him trying to "catch" the water. By the end of this one, he was starting to get an audience! It made me so happy to watch him so thoroughly enjoying himself. We sure do love that kid.

All Aboard!!!

Our favorite family tradition came and went this week: The Train Man! The Sagebrush Shortline Railroad becomes more and more incredible to me each year. And although a new piece or two is added each year, they usually aren't anything real spectacular; it just continues to amaze me how much time, effort, dedication and pure heart goes in to making this happen year after year. It's also becoming more fun every time we go, because Evan is grasping it more and really loving it. This year, our tickets were set for a really windy day (the day of the infamous wind in Utah!), and I was worried our train ride would be cancelled. But by the time night arrived, the wind had calmed down a bit, it was just awfully, awfully chilly! We braved it anyway, and it was SO worth it! because no one else was there!!! We walked right on to the train, and rode back to back at least twice, maybe even three times. Plus, visited with Santa, and all of this in less than an hour. Evan hasn't stopped talking about all of the things he saw on the train ride since, and asks me at least once an hour if we can go ride the train. :)

 I was thrilled to see the "no pregnant riders allowed" rule removed from the tickets this year (although I had planned on riding no matter what!)

Evan's favorite sights along the train ride that he chatters about constantly: "boat, skeletons say, 'phew, phew!'; penguins playing; big polar bears; castle guy play drums; Santa reindeer; moon; choo choo train; bridges on water".

Oh, and I can't forget, "Santa, Merry Christmas, lap, candy!"
I was shocked that Evan wasn't scared at all to go sit on Santa's lap. We told him as we were walking over we were going to see Santa (which I wasn't even sure he knew who that was) and he just said, ok! we walked in to Santa's tent and Nate went and sat him on Santa's lap, we told him to tell Santa Merry Christmas, which he did, then Santa told Evan to say cheese so Mommy could take a picture. Evan pointed to the candy canes, looked Santa right in the eye, and said, "Candy?" So Santa gave him his cane, and Evan immediately turned to me and said "Cheese". What a pro! No crying, shaking, screaming, nothin'. When Nate picked him up off Santa's lap, Evan just turned and waved, and said, "Bye!" He was so darn cute.

And my favorite part was watching him like the kid in The Christmas Story that can't move due to his coat :)

Thanks to my sister for reminding me of a favorite Christmas treat that I can't buy here, I made my own chocolate covered cinnamon bears. It definitely satisfied my craving for them, but I may need to make them again before we get to Utah, because Nate I finished them off way too quickly! Yummy, yummy, yummy.

 Evan is definitely almost two. We have our rough days together, but he always makes up for it by having lots of good days to follow ;) When he's good, he's really good, and so much fun, and so creative, and so grown up! He talks so much, and I am always laughing at the conversations we have together. I don't know where he gets some of his information...

 These were his "funny socks" that he could not stop laughing over. He kept running between me and Nate (in different rooms) to show us his "funny socks". Then he kept telling me people that he wanted to show his funny socks to. Since it was late, and most of those people don't live here, I promised him I'd take a picture so we could show everyone he knew :)

 He can be so sweet, and lots of times when we are sitting on "Evan's couch" (this is where we have to go to have a rest from playing, according to him), he turns to me and tells me to take a picture. His words "Cheese, please, Mommy" . And just so you don't think he is asking me for food and I'm taking his picture instead, he has a certain "cheese" smile he gives me, that is usually faded by the time I can get a camera out.

Tonight he was laying like this and looking like he was playing a flute while singing, "doo doo doo". I seriously don't know where he gets this stuff! But I'm glad he does, because it sure makes my days lots more fun.