Seafood Festival

Morehead City has their Annual Seafood Festival every year and we love to go. Sometimes it is hot and sometimes it is cool, we never know. We will get on

our bikes and ride down. It is fun for the kids to see all the crafts and ride rides. The seafood is out of this world!

Granny and Papa joined us last year and they enjoyed the festival

Cullen, Papa and Ethan loved the Elephant Ears!

Playing lots and lots of games!

Grilling out and enjoying the beautiful weekend down at our beach house.

A Wonderful Surprise!

Sunday we got a wonderful surprise!! IN APRIL THERE WILL BE A NEW BABY IN THE FAMILY! Adam and Jayme are having the FIRST GREAT GRAND BABY! WE CAN'T WAIT TO SPOIL THE BABY!!!!!!!

Meet Boxie

Ava loves turtles, so today Nathan came home with one he found on the road. She was so excited. So the kids job was to do some research on him. What kind of turtle, what do they eat, how long do they live etc. Then after they had their information they could feed him- Boxie is a Male Box Turtle and he loves lettuce - the kids found a earthworm for the topping! Always Learning! I love it!

Ethan Reads!

He's 6

and He's reading!

ZOO

It was the perfect day to go to the Zoo. I told the kids we will take a Field Trip once a month but before we go to the place they have to learn things about the place. For the Zoo they each learned a few things about their favorite animals. For a few weeks they have been learning about Elephants, Polar Bears, Cheetahs and any other animal they could think of. We were so proud of them when they got to the animal they could tell us so much! Their favorite was the otters. They were fun. There were two of them and when the kids would go to the glass they would swim and flip, like they were putting on a show for the kids. When the kids would walk away they left too. The kids loved the elephants and the Bears. Ice cream was a high light of the day also! Cullen was in charge of the map, he loved that job! He was really excited to be there. When the trip was over we had Chinese at an awesome place downtown Raleigh and then headed to our MOST favorite place of all thanks to Aunt Rosemary, Gigi's Cupcakes. They are heavenly! A perfect day with my perfect family!

Saturday afternoon

Nothing better than watching a football game in the front yard on a Saturday afternoon!

The Pond House

Last weekend we celebrated what would have been Aunt Ann's birthday at the Pond House. Family all gathered and shared special memories of her and Uncle Chris. Walking up to the Pond House and not having Aunt Ann there to greet us was surreal. It was not the same with out them and walking around seeing things as she had left them made me so sad. It was a wonderful healing time for the family to hug and laugh and cry. At the end all the kids let go of balloons and they drifted up to the sky and as the kids watched the balloons fly away John Chris said the sweetest thing- "They are flying away like angels to heaven." And just like that it took a child for me to remember I should not be sad I should rejoice that Aunt Ann and Uncle Chris are in heaven with their Heavenly Father and I know I will see them again!

Star Wars Pancakes Anyone????

DARTH VADER + YODA + STORM TROOPERS = HAPPY CHILDREN

can you say FOOTBALL?

ahhhh fall is just around the corner and football is back on at the Evans house. Ethan loves football- he wants to talk about plays, he wants to make up plays, he wants to watch football all the time with his dad- it is funny to hear him get excited when a touchdown is made-

cruddy croup

yes it has happened again... Cullen has the croup. He is pitiful and sad- I hate it when my baby is sick. Dr. Munt said since he was born early and has had problems with his lungs in the past with RSV he possibly will have to deal with this for a while. Hopefully he will grow out of it but for now we have to continue the nebuilizer/medication. So tonight he got his nite-nite and made a pallet for himself on my chair and drifted off to sleep. I pray it is a good night for him tonight!

who loves to do chores?

Cullen Does! Everyone in the Evans house has a chore chart.. Even the 2 1/2 year old! We all have jobs to do, some fun, some not so fun! Cullen's job is to feed the cats- Every morning when he wakes up the cats are waiting. Cullen goes out the door and feeds them all by himself- He loves this job b/c he has all the POWER- the cats are at his mercy- and he loves every min. of it!

IT IS COMPLETE...

AFTER A WEEK OF WORKING, SORTING, BUILDING THIS HUGE STAR WARS TURBO TANK THAT SANTA BROUGHT ETHAN LAST CHRISTMAS.. AND I DON'T WANT TO FORGET TO MENTION THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DADDY/ETHAN BONDING TIME BUT IT TURNED OUT TO BE MOMMY/ETHAN BONDING, ALL I CAN SAY IS THANK GOODNESS.... IT IS DONE.....

through my little girls eyes....

today I noticed Ava's notebook beside her bed that she writes in and it said this:

how to be a good mom: laundry, snacks, reading, patience, love, play dates

the next page had 10 things to describe my mom:

pretty, kind, smart, curly hair,33,talent,crafty,love,thoughtful,bedtime 10:00

this makes me so happy to know these are the things that my little girls sees in me, and on those days I feel I have let my children down I can think of these things that Ava saw in me through her little eyes.

Cullen's first day of preschool...

First day of preschool for my baby. I have been nervous all week about how it will be when I leave him. Would he be ok, would he cry, would I cry.....When I asked Cullen was he ready for his first day of school to meet his teacher and play with his friends he replied, "NO WAY!"

This made me even more anxious about leaving him but to my surprise this morning he was excited. He wanted to get dressed himself, he wanted to carry his lunch box and book bag. He walked right in his room, straight to the teacher and handed her his stuff and went to his chair and sat down. Never looking back at poor old mom who was just waiting for a meltdown- I was in shock, No tears, No grabbing my legs, No nothing...... He is a big boy now- and my heart is breaking.

first day of homeschool

It was a great first day! Everybody worked hard and did what was asked of them!

This is a lot of work and pressure on my part and the second day of homeschool I had a minor breakdown because I am starting to realize my reality but I know through lots of prayer and patience this is what God has planned for our family. Ava told me she was so excited about homeschool because she had her mom as her teacher. I told her I hoped I would be a good teacher and she said, "Of course you will be a great teacher b/c you are a great mom!" And that's all I needed to hear.

Ethan figured it out...

Ethan: "Mom, I know what happened with Christopher Columbus. Everyone on his ship fell asleep, that is why they past the Indies and landed in the Caribbean Sea."

Weekends....

I love our weekends. We try to do as much family activities as we can. Nathan leaves on a trip to California in a few days so we wanted to do as much as possible. We started off Saturday morning at Ethan's football game then we were off to eat lunch and to the farm to feed the cows and ride the four wheeler. I love going out to the farm. It is so peaceful and quiet. We talk about Granddad and remember all the fun times we had with him. After spending some time at the farm we went to the pool for the rest of the afternoon and grilled out at home. Sunday we hiked a trial at Umstead park. We love hiking. Even Cullen is getting old enough walk almost the whole way on some of the trials. Nathan told the kids once they could walk a whole trial by themselves he would carve their name in a tree. I am sure this is illegal but it is special b/c each of the kids have their own trial. Ava's is the very first trial we ever hiked there. Ethan's was the longest trial we have hiked. Cullen is almost there and he will get a tree one day! I am so glad my children love the outdoors and nature. It is one of my favorite times when we are all walking together in the woods and talking. What a wonderful weekend with my wonderful family.

game of rook anyone?

everytime ethan is with papa he wants to play cards. ethan likes to play rook "ethan's way" he thinks he knows how to play and papa goes along with whatever ethan's rules are because he knows no matter what ethan will win. papa has played rook for over 60 years and is the King of Rook but when he plays ethan he always somehow comes in second!

"every little boy needs some money in his pocket"

A while back we went to eat lunch with my mom and dad (granny and papa). When we got home I noticed Cullen had a pocket full of something. So I asked him what it was and he pulled out some quarters and dimes. I asked him where he got it from and he said "papa". So I call mom and asked her did daddy give Cullen a pocket full of money and she started laughing. She said that dad was wondering where all his money went. My dad for as long as I can remember has kept his change on the corner of the dresser. So Cullen had swiped all of my dad's money. So Cullen and I had a talk about not taking things without asking first. So the next week we went to mom and dad's for lunch and Cullen went back to the dresser and there was 5 pennies in a row lined up, he took them and put them in his pocket and went on about his business. Dad told me that "every little boy needs some money is his pocket, but from now on it would be pennies instead of quarters!"

Rock collector....

Cullen loves Rocks. He is just like Ava. From the time she could walk she collected rocks. She has a shoe box full of all sorts of rocks from over the years. Now I have another child that loves rocks. He does not care where we are- he will stop and pick up a rock. I find rocks everywhere - on my laptop, on my kitchen counter, on the floor, in the bathroom and tonight in Cullen's bed. Yes, he was sleeping with his collection of Rocks-

R.I.P Hermie Evans

Hermie Evans

07-27-2011-09-01-2011

leaves behind a sister HERmet Evans

You know there are times when the words you are about to say are going to break your childs heart. For three days now I have put off saying those words. Hermie was just sleeping in his shell. Until tonight when I could not put it off any longer because Ethan knew something must be going on with his dear pet Hermie. I braced myself because I knew what would happen following the words I was about to say, "Hermie has died."
Ethan had a shocked look on his face for a second and then it set in what I had said, the tears came, lots and lots of tears. Oh, how I dreaded telling him. Oh, how I wish I could take the pain away. I wish my children would never have to endure pain and heartache. So tonight we are all sad and tomorrow we will give Hermie and proper burial in the back yard and have a prayer for our dear pet Hermie Evans.

"He was the best back scratchier ever!" Ethan Evans