Our Christmas

The Evans family had a great Christmas!

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We spent time reading many Christmas books at Grandma's house.

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Grandma and Genevieve went out shopping for some fabric to make a blanket for Baby Jesus. They had a chance to work on it Christmas day.

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Tyler bought these fighting bugs for Hayden. They kind of creep me out seeing them crawl all over the floor. Hayden claims that they are his favorite gift this year.

Well done Tyler!
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This girl.....how can you ever say no to that face?
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Tyler and Hayden received binoculars from Great Grandma and Grandpa "Power". Tyler loved checking out the beautiful scenery in Grandma's backyard.
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Then it was time to do some shooting.

This gift was for the boys from Santa, but we all enjoyed using it!

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Hayden was a natural. He hit the target on his second try.
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I sure love this man!
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Wayne pretty much amazed us with his mad skills.
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My turn....two out of four hit the target. I think I need more practice.
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Apparently I make HORRIBLE faces while shooting.

I should work on that......
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After seeing those ridiculous faces I felt the need to console myself with this delicious pumpkin cheesecake with the best praline topping ever.

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Much better!

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I hope you all had a great Christmas too!

look what I did

I am soooo stinkin' proud of this crocheted flower I made yesterday. I am totally in love with it!

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Now I have to make more....

in every color and every SiZe.

Ouch!

So, here's Genevieve's head after she took on the coffee table/chest. It's looking a lot better now, but the staples will have to stay until Wednesday.

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I'm so creeped out by the staples.

It's a little Frankenstein-ish.

Dear Toothfairy

Hayden had his first dentist appointment (I know... I'm a horrible mom) a few weeks ago. The good news - no cavities! The bad news - he has two permanent molars that grew in crooked and were pushing on two baby molars. So, the dentist had us come back on Tuesday to pull out Hayden's baby molars. He was such a trooper! I was so much more nervous than he was.

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Now we get to go to the orthodontist to have him straighten out the permanent molars.

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Here's Hayden's letter to the toothfairy:

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Dear Tohfare, my theth got plde out today. it cinda hrt. But I dild with it. Just so you nowe the rots are stil ther. They wor pld out bekus the prmenit theth wer goring in. Win my non prminit theth wor stil ther.

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forom, Hayden

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thancs for leveng sumthing.

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TRANSLATION:

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Dear Toothfairy,

---My teeth got pulled out today. It kinda hurt, but I dealed with it. Just so you know, the roots are still there. They were pulled out because the permanent teeth were growing in when my non permanent teeth were still there.

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From Hayden

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Thanks for leaving something.

Turkey Triathlon

These five fellas are amazing!

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They are now Triathletes!

Or as some people like to call it....triathlon-ers.

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Hayden finished in 23:18

He swam 50 yards in 3 minutes and 20 seconds

Biked a mile in 10 minutes and 40 seconds

Ran a half mile in 6 minutes and 44 seconds

and finished 83rd out of 90 kids

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Tyler finished in 20:19
He swam 50 yards in 2 minutes and 21 seconds

Biked a mile in 8 minutes 29 seconds

Ran a half mile in 6 minutes 47 seconds

and finished 58th out of 90 kids

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Wayne finished in 56:8

He swam 200 yards in 6 minutes

Biked 5 miles in 28 minutes and 51 seconds

Ran a mile and a half in 17 minutes and 58 seconds

and finished 83rd out of 116
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I'm so proud of my boys!

Oh, and did I mention that the pool is 13 feet deep? Yeah, kinda scary! I was so glad that we took the kids there to practice once before the big day. While we were practicing there were scuba divers down at the bottom getting certified. How cool is that!

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I do have to give a special thanks to Genevieve's favorite person, Bowe, for helping out with her while I ran around taking pictures.

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You're awesome Bowe!

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What an amazing day!

It's official

I turned 30 a few weeks ago!

I feel so grown up...well, kind of.

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Anyway, I had the BEST birthday probably EVER! It started with us running a mile to help raise money for breast cancer research. It was so fun to do that with the kids. I was so proud of them for running the one mile! Hayden made me laugh when he said, "I'm going to be skinny after this." Then he made us proud when he sprinted through the finish line. Tyler did an amazing job seeing that he was struggling with his asthma the night before. Genevieve was happy sitting in her stroller. Anyway, we had a great morning!
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Then we headed over to Mom's to hang out with Kayla and Bowe. We ate an enormous lunch at 2:00 then we had cake and ice cream and watched a little football *yawn*. At EXACTLY 5:00 we HAD to leave Mom's to go play Rock band at my house with Kayla and Bowe. Suspicious? Not yet. Well, we pulled up and I noticed that my lawn was mowed. I knew Wayne didn't do it because it was mowed the opposite direction. So, I thought, "how nice of someone to mow my grass for my birthday." Suspicious now? Nope. We head into the garage and I notice that our 6' and 8' tables are missing.....a light bulb goes off..... I kind of panic when I see the light under the laundry room door telling me that the kitchen light is on. I tell Wayne, "I don't want to open the door. I don't want to open the door. I don't want to open the door." I finally do and SURPRISE!!!! I have the best friends ever! Can I just say that I'm not good with surprises or anything that gives me too much attention from too many people. But I felt soooo special! Thank you soooo much for making my birthday amazing! I was a little bummed that my stomach couldn't possibly fit another bite in it after that amazing lunch, cake and ice cream from my Mom's house. However, I did manage to eat a slice of the best chocolate cake ever at my party.
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Okay, so my birthday didn't end there. My actual birthday was the next day, Sunday. Wayne was gone early for bishopric meetings and I was sleeping in. Tyler peeks around the corner to see if I'm awake. I tell him to come on in. He has a sneaky smile on his face. He had a plan and I couldn't know about it. So, I took my shower, dried my hair, gave Genevieve a bath and got her all ready for church. FINALLY I was allowed to come downstairs. Tyler and Hayden had made me breakfast all by themselves.
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The recipe is for blueberry muffins, but Tyler told me, "we didn't have blueberries so I figured I'd use cranberries instead." Such a smart boy! I'm so glad I have him help me in the kitchen so often. That breakfast was fantastic! He even cut up some apples to go on the side. I'm all about eating a balanced meal and he knows it.
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I'm such a lucky old lady...I mean...girl!!!

What do you see?

I stepped out of the shower after cleaning the bathroom a few days ago and this is what I saw.....

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Are you seeing what I'm seeing?

Or am I seeing things?

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It's totally a sleeping baby with a little smile all wrapped up in a blanket...

right?

another birthday....another plate

You're really going to have to click on the photo to see the finished plate up close.

Hayden did an AMAZING job!

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Beauty and the Bruiser

Here's our little Beauty all ready for church.

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Did you notice the headband?

I made it myself and totally adore it!

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And here we have our Beast....oops, I mean Bruiser.

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This is what happens when you take on Dad and Tyler at the same time. I love when they all wrestle, but someone usually gets hurt. This photo was taken 4 days after the incident. You know, in the ugly greenish yellowy gray healing stage.

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I'm sure it won't be his last black eye,

but I can hope, right?

I am loving the cooler weather!

Genevieve and I decided it was perfect weather for hot chocolate and what goes best with hot chocolate?

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Homemade Marshmallows, of course!

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They are totally worth the sticky mess.

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Oh, and I came across a recipe for homemade pumpkin spice marshmallows yesterday. Can you imagine pumpkin marshmallows all melted and gooey in a cup of hot cocoa? Yeah, that's gotta be amazing! I'll let you know soon.

seven years old

Can you believe it? My Hayden is seven! CRAZY!
Wow, that means I'm like.....well never mind.
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Hayden woke up (at 6:45 very excited to start his celebration!) to this delicious baked french toast thingy. It was so yummy.
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Then we opened presents. Dad and I gave him 12 date cards. He can choose to take me or Dad on these dates throughout the year.
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Tyler picked out this star wars guy.
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Genevieve should never have gone with Dad to pick out presents because she really couldn't keep her mouth shut! I kept telling her to shhh and that it was a secret. But the next thing I know, she's saying....quite loudly and too clearly for a 2 year old...."I got an idea, give Hayden PEANUTS!" So, this next present was not a surprise at all.
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He loves peanuts and especially when they're in their shells.

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Let the party begin!

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We had a birthday party for Hayden on Friday. He was soooo excited! He decided to have a Halloween themed party.

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It seems as though all Hayden's friends knew how much he LOVES Star Wars. What a lucky boy to have such great presents from fantastic friends!
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Thanks to Kayla's fella, Bowe, we taught Hayden's friends how to sing Happy Birthday in Mandarin Chinese. They all just looked at us like we were totally crazy.
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This girl thought I wasn't looking and helped herself to another cupcake. Two cupcakes doesn't sound all that bad, but when you add in all kinds of candy plus a juice box....yeah, she was pretty sugared up!
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And here they all are with their pumpkins all dressed up like bats. It was a fun craft that I could not have pulled off without Teresa's help! Thank you Teresa for sticking around!!! You are my hero!
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Well, it looks like I am next on the birthday list. Hip hip hooooray!!!

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I love birthdays!!!

all dolled up

So, I was doing my hair and this cute girl comes in to get some supplies. She then sat outside my door and played beauty shop.
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Don't worry - the curling iron wasn't plugged in.
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Here she is.... all dolled up for the day. Lucky me had to take her out of the house looking like this. She insisted that she looked beautiful.

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Which of course she did......

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from the front.

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The back was.....let's just say.....interesting.

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