Evan 8-9 months

I had to get a picture of this but didn't get the best shot. Evan was doing a perfect downward facing dog right on the yoga mat!! Evan had just started crawling before the move and at our new home everything is tile. I felt bad for him trying to get around on the cold hard floor but he has done well. I think to give his knees a break he will often go up on his feet...which makes for great yoga moves! :)

Ev

After about a month in our home Evan started pulling up on things which made for a lot of bonking of his head on the hard tile. Gratefully he can now get himself down safely and we don't always have to be right on his tale trying to keep him safe.

Evan is still our sweet little happy boy.  He brings me smiles every day and brings so much joy. Every now and again we get these fun moments to just snuggle him.

Right now he pulls up, crawls really well, makes lots of little sounds but his favorites are baba and mama, he loves applesauce, bananas, and anything that he can feed himself. He loves going outside and upstairs.  He's climbed a couple of stairs all by himself but we usually catch him after that. He also loves playing on the piano especially during piano lessons...granted that is the one time Mommy is usually sitting by the piano so I can hold him up there, but that is when he likes to play! :)  He is super happy and makes us all happy too!

Evan 5 months

Evan is our super happy baby.  Every time I even look his way he gives me the best smiles.  Even if things are crazy I can't help but smile when I look at him.  He sure is a joy to have around. I love the stage that he is in.  He is so playful, and just a little rolly polly little guy.  Anytime I lie him down on his back he grabs his toes and will just roll from side to side. I have taken many pictures of him grabbing his feet because I think it is super cute.

If I put him on his tummy then he just stays on his had and knees and sways back and forth.  He is not crawling yet but he can get around pretty good and the way he is always up on his hands and knees it probably won't be long until he is.

Here are a couple pictures of his sweet little smile! Basically he smiles like this anytime any of us look his way and give him a smile.  Also when he hears the bath going he not only smiles but starts kicking with excitement.

Evan is a big boy.  He is in 9 month clothes .  This is him with Benson who is still wearing 18 month clothes.  Little Evan is trying to catch up with his big brother!

August

Sunday morning boys...Alden has been really loosing a lot of teeth.  Every few weeks another one will fall out, he is getting quite a collection from the tooth fairy.  The toothfairy will often leave 4 quarters, Alden saves these quarters in a special jar.

All of the boys love Evan and love to be the one to help him, hold him..ect.  But Calvin especially is always asking to hold and love Evan.  First thing in the morning when Evan wakes up, Calvin is there talking to him, and the last thing Calvin usually asks for when he goes to bed is if Evan can come in his bed for a minute.  Anyways one day I looked down to see Calvin with his picture book up so that Evan could see it, and was sitting there telling Evan about the pictures!

Temple day!! We all love temple day.  Everyone looks forward to it every month to spend the day at the temple.  We are excited to get a temple closer here but we will miss out trips up to Mesa where we spend the day at the temple. Fun to walk out and see all of boys sitting together in a row!

4 month old, happy baby!! Evan is such a happy baby.  He is real easy going and loves to sit and talk. Whenever I am a little frustrated, tired, ect all I have to do is look at this little guy and almost every time I turn his way he gives me the biggest grin and I realize it really isn't as bad as I think.  When I have this little guy around everything seems so much better.  He is such a blessing to have around.

I took this picture because it documents us making our prickly pear lemonade! We finally harvested some prickly pear fruit! So far all we have done with it is make pink lemonade but it has been fun! The lemonade has the prickly pear juice, lemon juice from our lemon tree, peppermint leaves from our peppermint plant in the back, and some local honey to sweeten it. We all love making and eating our prickly pear lemonade!

Again our happy Evan! Evan really really loves bath time, when he even hears me turning on the water he starts smiling and kicking and then he is all smiles the whole time.  I have a hard time taking him out because he loves it so much!

Couldn't go through a summer without posting pictures of us going to the swimming pool.  We all love swimming! Alden and Calvin are great swimmers and swim all over the pool and do all sorts of tricks.  Benson has warmed up to the pool this year and will play on the steps.  When he has the goggles on I will often pull him underwater...I know I am a mean mom sometimes...but he holds his breath just fine so I think he is going to be a great swimmer to one day! (Lately I can't get him to put the goggles on any more...so I guess going under isn't his favorite thing.)

Sunday cleanup.  I love cleaning with vinegar because all of the boys can use it almost anywhere and I don't need to worry.  On Saturday's I often give each of them a spray bottle and give them an area to clean...after they do that they then just start spraying all over.  Sometimes our Saturday cleaning is more like drench the house with vinegar water but in the mist of all of it there is some cleaning getting done!

Benson got this hat in nursery and loved it! He wore it the rest of that Sunday and then asked to wear it much of the next day.

3 months old and first swim!

We have been to the swimming pool a number of times but I haven't put Evan in because the water has been cold and I worried about the huge temperature change from the heat to the cold pool.  But the other day he went in for his first swim and seemed to be quite content with the whole thing.

Evan is our super smiley boy.  He has some of the best and biggest grins.  He makes me smile and laugh often, so grateful for this sweet little boy. He is now 3 months and growing well.  He is tall like Calvin was.  As far as I can remember I would say that Evan is our biggest talker, he loves to sit and talk to us and will respond any time I ask him something. He is also very observant. In this way he is like Alden was as a baby, he notices if I change my hair or if I put on a hat, or anything like that.  You will see him stare at whatever has changed and will even smile if he thinks it is funny at least so it seems.  My sunglasses are one that he will often smile at and seems to say, "Mommy those are silly why do you have those on." The one way in which he is like Benson is that he is a good little snuggler. We sure love this sweet little boy! What a blessing he has been in our home.

Evan's baby blessing

Evan was blessed in the ward that I grew up in with his cousin Natalie. Evan is just a little over a week older than Natalie.  It was neat to have them blessed together and even more neat to have so much of our family that was able to attend.  Our families made up almost half of the congregation.

Michael and I had to make a quick trip to make it in time for church on Sunday considering he had to work Saturday but we are glad that we did, so neat to be all together.

After the baby blessing we met up with Michael's side of the family at a nearby park to have lunch.  It was fun that they could have a little cousin time. (We have more pictures from the luncheon but I haven't figured out how to upload them here yet, I had left my phone at home when we went to church and then didn't have it at the luncheon.)

All of my family together! It has been a while and gets harder and harder to have all of us together.  So neat that we could all be there.  Above is all of us with our babies, we are just missing Jeanine who will be having a little girl next month!

Benson is really growing up, he definitely is looking like a big brother now!

Greyson and Benson were fun to see together, they play together really well!