the searbys

This portion of the blog is dedicated to my sister...

On Tuesday, Evan and I went in to Bloomington to our friend Katie's house. She has a little girl, Ellie(2 years old) and a little boy, Lincoln(1 year old). Melissa also met us there with Cameron and Jodi came for a few minutes with Paxson. Ellie LOVES babies! She made friends with Jodi really quickly and wanted to help take him out of his carseat, change him, dress him, etc. It was SO cute! Here are all the boys playin' together...

Day 6 & 7 were full of Grandmas, Grandpas, and friends. On Sunday after church Evan and I spent part of the afternoon at Grandma & Grandpa Bridgwater's house. It has always been a tradition to walk one block to their house from church, eat a yummy home-cooked meal and then sit out on the porch. Evan and Paxson were able to experience that on Sunday...



On Sunday evening Angela brought her nephew, Braxton, over to play with Evan. I used to babysit for Angela & Clinton and now Clinton has a little boy that is just a bit older than evan! That makes me feel a little old. The boys played pretty well together...



Besides wanting to pull Braxton's ears, Evan also wanted to play with Uncle Jake's basketball...




On Monday evening Mom, Dad, Evan, & I went to see Grandma Edi. She also made us a yummy supper! Evan was a little hesitant at first to sit on her lap but once she had a book to read he sat still long enough for a picture...

And then my dad had to show Evan the world...

Evan is having SO much fun at his Grandma & Grandpa Raymer's house! Yesterday we stayed at the house since we had been running around all week. We have a lot of people to see in the next month....but it makes it a little easier if some of them come see us (hint, hint). So....if you want to see Evan and I just give me a call or stop by my parent's house and we'd love to hang out!

Here are some pictures from yesterday & today:

Evan loves to play in the kitchen. He has been pulling things out of the cupboards and playing with the pop bottles that normally sit by the fridge...


Last night Jake, Melissa, Cameron, Jodi, David,& Paxson came over for dinner. Melissa & I took Cameron & Evan for a walk before dinner and we ended up at the swings...

The boys also had a good time in the kitchen together...
Pax is too small to play in the kitchen...

Here is the proud Grandma with all her boys...


We even managed to have a family skillet cookie! Well, mom and dad were party-poopers and chose not to join us...


This morning Jodi was having her breakfast and Evan decided he needed some too. She shared her banana with him...


And this afternoon we headed back to the Gradeschool for some more fun! This time after swinging we tried out the slide...

Now that Evan is in bed it means a little peace and quiet for me....and maybe some icecream.

Evan and I spent the afternoon in Champaign today visiting Amanda. It was fun to catch up with her and meet some of her friends that she works with at the Vineyard Church. Two of her friends are leaving for Chile tomorrow! It was awesome to get to have lunch with them and encourage them as they go visit a place that Joel and I both hold dearly in our hearts. (Woah, that was kinda cheesy.) Evan was very entertaining at lunch as he used his growly voice and threw macaroni on the floor.

What a great day!

-Evan took 2 good naps!
-It was about 75 degrees and sunny!
-I spent the day with my mom, sister, and Pax
-Pax spit up ALL OVER me, then Evan spit up on me....but luckily I was at my sister's and had plenty of clothing 0ptions to borrow.
-we went to the neighbor's house tonight (their regular Wed. night get-together) and Evan tried to eat rocks...but I caught him just in time!
- I talked to Joel on the phone.

Hope you had a great day.

I'm exhausted from this day but wanted to let everyone know that Evan and I made it safely to Illinois. We actually went down to Orlando last night and stayed near the airport so we wouldn't have to be up so early this morning. Joel had to be in Palm Beach today for work so he dropped Evan and I off at the Orlando Airport at 7am this morning on his way south. We had a little over 3 hours to kill before our flight left. It actually went faster than I thought it would go. We walked a lot, went in all the shops, played on the dirty floor, and ate lots of cheerios. Evan was asleep as we were taking off but it didn't last long....the kid behind us was screaming so he woke up. We arrived safely and on time to Bloomington. My bags arrived safely and on time to Baltimore, Maryland. Bonnie, the very nice lady at the Bloomington Airport, helped me locate them and requested that they be flown to Bloomington ASAP. They arrived safely and were delivered to my parents house about 8pm tonight.

Joel is a wonderful father. He loves his boy SO much and I know the feeling is mutual.

In the evening when Evan hears Joel come home from work he immediately crawls toward the door and gets really excited. Joel picks him up and they exchange hugs and kisses.

Evan loves to play peek-a-boo with his daddy. They crawl all around the living room and take turns peeking around the corner of the chair...Evan giggles the entire time.

Night time has become their special time together. Joel likes to read to him, sing him a song, then cuddle a minute or two before he puts Evan to bed.

Evan and I are headed up to Illinois on Tuesday for a long visit. Joel will be coming up for the week of the 4th of July but until then, Evan is sure going to miss seeing his daddy.

I love apples with peanut butter. Its my new thing. I seem to want it every day.

I remember being the kid that didn't like peanut butter. My sister always wanted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I preferred bologna and cheese. When I went to Chile I ate a lot of peanut butter with bananas and thought that it was wonderful. Now I'm finding that apples with peanut butter is quite delicious.

I like my apples cold....right out of the fridge. I've only recently started putting them in the fridge too. My friend, Kelly, puts hers in the fridge and then she cuts them different than I've ever seen anyone cut an apple before. She slices it into really thin slices, starting from one side and working her way to the middle then doing another side until she reaches the middle, continuing until only the core is left. The slices are SO fun to eat, especially when they are cold and slathered with peanut butter.

Apples with peanut butter. Yum.

Our mall in town has a great "Swamp" for kids to play in! Today was Evan's first time to be set free in the swamp. He loved it!!! He just crawled from one thing to another and giggled the entire way. He climbed the stairs up to the tree slide...
He then discovered the tunnel underneath the tree. It was about 5 feet long and all the big boys were crawling through it so he took off following them! I just met him on the other end as he came out with a huge grin on his face. He also thought crawling through the "water" under the bridge was fun...

We've been teaching Evan just a few signs since he was born. He understands "milk", "eat", & "more" very well. He does the "milk" sign every once in a while but last week I think he finally understood the concept of doing the "more" sign. He's also waving hi and bye and today I think I finally got him to clap!

Text Message Conversation with my sister last night: