Tuesday, November 10, 2015

pumpkin patch


We hit up several pumpkin patches leading up to Halloween until I decided I should bring my camera with me to snap some pictures of the boys.  I just upgraded my camera + one of my goals it to pack it around more often so that I can get more comfortable with it.  I'm so happy I decided to bring it with, the lighting was so pretty and I love the pictures of the boys giggling in the cart.






























Wednesday, July 29, 2015

catching up

Nixon :


Nixon turned 4 in February. He finished up his first year of preschool + loved every minute of it. I love his personality so much. He is so sweet, kind + caring.  He is very sensitive at times and has a heart of gold.  He tells me out of the blue that I'm beautiful and that he loves me. I want to freeze time and keep him little forever. 




"Last day of preschool. You are 4 years old. Your favorite colors are green, blue + red. Your best friends at school are Ms. Andie, Samantha + Cash. For show and tell you loved taking Legos and soldiers. You told me your favorite treats at school were donuts. Ms. Andie complimented you on always being kind, smart, having good manners and always listening. You play well with others and love sharing your show and tell with Cash. You wanted Ms. Andie to buckle you up today and she told you one last time "see you later, alligator!" just like you always want her to. "


We have another season of t-ball under our belts. This season Nixon played for the Pirates.  His coach was Coach Cody.  Nic decided not to coach because his work schedule didn't allow him to.  Nixon loved having Nic help him out on the field this year though.  Last year Nic coached and had to give his attention to the whole team, so it was fun for Nixon to have him all to himself. 



"A day of lasts. Last t-ball game of the season. You had two good hits and ran really fast. While the other team was batting, you were distracted by a lady bug. It was game over after that. Bugs trump baseball right now, and that's fine. You are four. And you had fun. And holding it made you do that nervous giggle that I love so much. And the way your eyes light up when I tell you how much that bug loves you. THAT! That is what I love more than anything. " 



Some things I want to remember about Nixon:



"Nixon, do you know how much I love you?

How much?
More than anything in the whole world.
Mom, do you know why I love you so much?
why?
Cause you are my wife!"


Cries for his brothers when they leave.. I'm talking huge crocodile tears. He usually spends the day hanging out in one of their rooms. I think it helps him feel better. 



Always wants to get the same drink as me anywhere we go so he can say "same, same"



Wants to work at "Auric Solar panels" when he is big like dad.

He wants to change his name to Hayden. It makes us laugh, although I don't think Hayden loves it. 



Grey : 



Grey turned two in March. He got a balance bike from Grandpa Harry that he is obsessed with. And he is so good. It amazes me. It's all he ever wants to do. He calls it his motorcycle and he could ride it from sun up until sun down. He had a pretty gnarly wreck on it though, and it killed his front two teeth dang it.

He is wild and crazy + loves to be dirty.  He is a ham with a big personality and makes us laugh like no other. He is pretty much the poster child for the terrible twos.  That kid has no shame in public and loves to throw a good tantrum right in the middle of the store. 

If you ask him his name he says
"yays necklace evans!"
(Grey Nicolus Evans)



We pray every night together when I lay down with him for bed. After prayers he likes to tell me everything fun that he did that day.  Then he says, "sleep good mom".  It pretty much melts my heart.  



He is still a momma's boy, but man, you should see him when dad gets home.  It's priceless. 









Nic + I took a trip to San Francisco in June. Nic's parents had planned to take the boys to Vernal to see the dinosaur park + told us we weren't invited. It was just a grandma + grandpa trip. I think the last time we were kid free for a weekend was when Nixon was 8 months old.  It was much needed, lets just say that.  We decided it would be fun to plan a little getaway while the boys were gone so we booked our trip. We had a great time + stayed busy seeing all the sights.  My favorite part of the trip was biking across the bridge.  We rented bikes from Blazing Saddles, and yes, our saddles were blazing by the end of the ride! I didn't necessarily love going across the bridge on a bike.  There were SO many people + the wind was blowing like crazy.. I like to call myself "worst case scenario Whitney" so you can imagine all of the horrible things I was playing out in my head as we biked across the bridge. We walked around Sausalito for a bit + grabbed some delicious ice cream.  After that we decided to catch the ferry back to the bay vs biking back over the bridge again. 


Other highlights include:

nordstrom rack shopping
charlie's sandwiches
fresh lobster + crab
fishermans warf
lombard street
painted ladies 
polaroid pictures
full house house
walking down ellis street
mr holmes bakery
nic running over a seagull on his bike   
lots of laughs
lots of memories made
and lots of sleeping in 
 





Hayden + Quinn:



Quinn + Hayden played baseball and soccer this past spring. Nic was the coach for Quinn's soccer team (although I coached him behind the scenes) We put our date nights on hold on Thursday's and held soccer practice in its place.  It was fun to help with practice and it made me miss soccer like crazy.  It was a lot of work being the coach when we live 45 min away.  Our Saturday's were filled with leaving the house by 8am and a long day full of soccer games and baseball practice.  Quinn's team was the "misfits" team for sure.  It was so hard for Nic to coach them, he is so competitive.  It was their first year doing soccer and we had a lot of fun watching them play. Quinn played defense most of the season (and kicked butt)and then we learned half way through his very last game that he wanted to be a forward.  Hayden's  team was fairly decent + he had some friends on his team.  Hayden can run and run.  He is a big time hustler and I think he could be a really good soccer player!  We only made it to  one baseball game of theirs.  Most of their games were on the same day as Nixon's t-ball games.. Can you tell we had a busy spring?  I can't even imagine what it will be like when they are all older and all 4 of them are in sports!



We have season passes to Cherry Hill + Lagoon this year and thats been fun.  We took Nixon + Grey to Lagoon last week on a week night and it was perfect.  They were able to walk on almost every little kid ride.  Grey was brave with his big brother by his side and went on almost every ride with Nixon.  Those two are very best buddies and I have loved watching their relationship develop.



We had family pictures taken about a week and a half ago.  I think these ones might be my favorite ones yet.  I am dying to see them all and can't wait to share them once I get them.  We had a lot of fun and I didn't stress over them like I usually do.



Hayden turned 9 on July 5th. We didn't celebrate until the following weekend. We rented a blowup obstacle with a slide. Talk about fun. We had it over the weekend and the boys had so much fun playing on that thing all day long.  One night we played on it as a family for a couple hours. We all had fake guns + were shooting each other. It was a blast and the smile on Hayden's face was priceless.



The 4th of July was a lot of fun. We go to the Layton parade every year and Grey really enjoyed it this year.  He loved all of the firetrucks, motorcycles + cops! The older boys were with their mom most of the weekend, so we just did some smaller fireworks that night with Nix + Grey.  



Our date nights are going strong again now that soccer is over.  It's something we look forward to each week. We love spending time together as a couple and feel like it recharges our batteries. We have been trying to be better at taking pictures together so that we can look back on them with our kids one day.


It's been fun having flower beds to take care of. I don't claim to have a green thumb by any means, but it has been fun learning how to plant flowers and take care of them.  Hopefully I will have it down by the time we have a house and yard of our own.



 We finally got Hayden a room. They (Quinn + Hayden) had been sharing a room and I really wanted to give him his own room and make him feel special. (Note: He hasn't even slept in it, he still sleeps with Quinn) I will have to post some before and afters in another post.  It turned out pretty dang cute!


Beautiful Kaysi graduated from high school. She looked so beautiful on her graduation day. 








We are trying to soak up the last little bit of summer before school starts up again!