What kid doesn't love McDonald's? Our kids especially do. You wanna know why? One reason is because Maddie has taken a seemingly "healthy" option of apples and caramel sauce and turned it into her own personal sticky paradise. She not only dips her apples in the caramel but also chooses to dip EVERYTHING else in there as well...chicken nuggets, fries, fingers, her hair...




Our treats for family home evening consisted of banana chucks with lots of dipping choices. Obviously chocolate was the family favorite. It amazes me how quickly and efficiently these 2 can make a mess. They're really gifted, I'm telling ya.






Maddie has been having some trouble taking her afternoon naps. Just when I think she's asleep because all in quiet in her room, I come in to find this...

a whole tea party spread out on her bed.

Yes, I was invited to tea. And yes, I did stay and have cup. She's quite the hostess.





This is the floor under the chairs where my two darling children eat most of their meals. Let me quickly identify what you are seeing in this picture:
Macaroni and Cheese (from yesterday's lunch), popcorn from yesterdays snack (there was actually a lot more under there but Lyndon kept eating it before I could get a picture of it.), a piece of pepperoni from my dinner that I kindly shared with Lyndon only to have him throw it to the floor in disgust because it didn't please his picky palette, cheerios from breakfast this morning and 2 random dirty spoons.

So why do I post this disgusting picture showing my true housekeeping?

When my kids look back on this book (I'm turning my blog posts into a memory book), I want them to know that their Mom would rather spend time changing their dress-up clothes for the
16th time or cuddling with them on the couch then clean up the floor under which they sit.

This was a family Home Evening Project...Our Thankful Tree.

Maddie is thankful for Lyndon (all her idea) and juice.

Lyndon is thankful for Balls and a healthy body.

I am thankful for Daddy and yummy food.

Jonathon is thankful for talents and modern technology.

*Huge thanks to Caroline for the idea!!

I know it sounds mean but I just couldn't help myself take pictures of how ridiculous Lyndon can be when he throws a fit. He wanted to stand up on his little car and being the mean Mom that I am, I didn't want him to fall so I made his get down.

Now that he knows I'm still not being sympathetic to his desires he's running to me so that he can REALLY show me just how mad he is.

We made up.

Maddie is showing her love.

Aaahhh, look at that face.

Here's a confession...

At least once a day I turn my ipod on, really loud, and
dance all around the the house. Well, I mainly stick
to the downstairs area. Maddie and Lyndon know the
drill. They immediately join on the fun and spin and
twirl until they can't see straight.

I love it. They love it. We usually have about 3 or 4
songs that are our favorites. "Bad Day" by Daniel
Powters is #1 on Maddie's list and anything with a
heavy drum beat satisfies Lyndon. Mine
ranges from "Lonestar" to "The Used".

Lately it's been "All I want for Christmas is You" by
Mariah Carey". I don't know what happens but the
second we all hear those little ding ding dings we
think we're on "Dancing With the Stars". You should
see the moves that we come up with.

We are awesome.

Am I secretly wishing Jonathon will pull me up on
stage because he knows I will rock that joint like
nobody's business?

No.

But does it thrill me to know that Maddie and
Lyndon think their Mom can bust a move like
Mariah Carey?

You bet.

So go ahead, have a listen and just tell me if you
don't want to jump up out of your chair and groove
around the room...

The Joys

There's nothing like having an extremely honest 3 year old scrutinize your face from a very close proximity...

Being the nice Mommy that I am, I went in and laid down by Maddie for a few minutes while she was trying to fall asleep. Mistake #1. Recently we put up a strand of white Christmas lights in her room because, well, doesn't everyone want Christmas lights up in your room? Mistake #2. Mistake #3 came when I decided to lay down with her, face to face. The next thing I know she's got both hands softly stroking each side of my face. Awwww, what a little angel...

that is until I hear her say..."Mommy, your face is so bumpy!"

I gotta say even though I'm a grown woman with a good sense of self confidence, I was pretty self conscious after that. It doesn't stop there. After blatantly letting me know that my skin is not as dove milky soft as I would want it to be she then accusingly points out the blemish on my chin and says, "what's that red dot?" Come on, give me a second to catch my breath after the first punch!
And for the last and final blow she then points out that I have something white on my two front teeth. (I have some sort of white calcium deposit there from taking a certain medication when I was an infant. It's something I've always been just a bit self-conscious about and even more so now that she kindly pointed it out to me.)

Blast those Christmas lights, if they weren't there to illuminate my face I would still have a self-esteem.




Last week I found Maddie having a quaint tea party with 2 of her BFF's. She even put on one of her princess dresses in honor of her guests. I love the sunglasses on Aurora. :) As if tea just wasn't enough time spent with each other, they also had a sleep over in Maddie's bed. I gotta say though, that Cinderella and Aurora are such bed hogs!


Here's anther fun Maddie story...
All four of us were just hanging out. Maddie and Jonathon were horsing around and Maddie got a bit rough and gave Jonathon a little smack ion the face. He paused the fun and said,

"Maddie, that's not nice. Do I smack YOU in the face?"

Maddie replied, "No." (Pause) (Longer Pause) "Mommy smacks me in the face though!" (Big smile.)

WhAt???!!!

Did she just accuse me of smacking her?! Of course it's just after I'm telling Jonathon how honest she is about everything...

***For the record, I have never laid a finger on that honest little girl.***

Lyndon watched Jonathon play a racing game so as soon as Jonathon was done Lyndon hopped up and took a turn at the controls. I love how he really gets into it by leaning the way he wants the car to go.

Lyndon just said his first sentence!!

The unfortunate part is that the only reason that he said it was out of grief, frustration, and desperation. He LOVES balls, loves them. He was in playroom and threw a ball across the room. He then proceeded to run and after it to throw it again. Well, in swoops Maddie. She intercepts the ball and sends Lyndon into hysterics.

"Ba! Ba!", he urgently pleads.

Maddie still does not relinquish the ball.

"Ba, Ba! MY BA!"

That's right folks, Lyndon's first sentence was, "My BALL!". Huh, I wonder what else we can get him to say under pressure.

One more thing I have to add about Lyndon. I've been exercising at home lately because it's been too cold to go running outside in the morning. (I know, I know, I'm a huge whimp.) Maddie will usually just go upstairs and play while I'm exercising but my little buddy, Lyndon, loves to exercise right along side of me. When I touch my toes, he touches his. When I do a push up, he's right beside me doing his version. His "cool down" comes a little earlier than mine though. He "cools down" by sitting on my stomach while I'm doing my sit-ups. Man, I love that kid.




I took the kids out for an impromptu photo shoot to see how I liked this particular location. We had a really fun time. I told them they could go and play on the jungle gym when we were done but they were having so much fun just running around that they just wanted to stay there. So I was able to get some cute pictures of the two of them playing.

This little sequence melted my heart.




Proud Mama moment.

The Biggest Disappointment

Jonathon and I love to watch "The Biggest Loser" on NBC on Tuesday nights. We always record it because I have mutual and then watch it as soon as I get home and after the kids are in bed. It's something I really look forward to. Yes, call me a nerd. But I just love being able to follow their stories and see them transform. It's really inspiring.
Before I get all comfy and sit down to watch I actually enjoy it more if the house in clean. I know, weird. But it's true, it makes a difference to me. So I made a special effort to clean the house. At least just the downstairs, so I could really enjoy myself tonight.

Well, (you may have to sit down for this) we didn't record it.

So Jonathon swoops in to save the day and find it on-line so he can download it, put it on a dvd and then enjoy our little dose of inspiration.

It took an hour and a half to download so I busied myself with finishing some other task that have needed to be done for a while. i.e. catch up on e-mails, surf the web for pictures of my dream house etc. You know the really important stuff.

It's finally done downloading. I'm so excited. (Yes, I know this is so trivial but it really doesn't take much to make me happy these days.)

Well, blow #2...whoever he downloaded it from labeled the episode wrong and we actually just downloaded LAST WEEKS EPISODE!! Ugh. Blast. Darn. Shoot. (I'm really mad it you can't tell.)

So here I sit, my house is clean (well, except for the upstairs but there's no way I have motivation to start on that!), I'm sick of looking on the internet, Jonathon is working, I just finished the book I was reading this afternoon. I'm bored. What should I do, what should I do?

I'm going to Taco Bell.





But before I go...I have to throw it a few weird random pictures because a blog post never feels complete until it's accompanied by photos. All of these pictures make me chuckle for different reasons...

Maddie took this picture. I'm lovin' my expression and how I am trying to force Lynson t take a sweet picture with his Mommy.



Again this is Maddie's doing. I let her take 3 pictures of what she thought was most important. All three pictures were of her shoes just at different angles. :)


I was trying to do a little photo shoot with Lyndon at the park a few months ago and this is what he thought about it... Yes, he's laying on the ground.



I'm not sure why I even took this picture but I found it to be a good representation of what a day in the life of the Evan's is really all about...Kids with only a diaper on and really grimy glass doors. What can I say?

Okay, that's it, wish me luck with my crunchy tacos and cheesy bean and rice burrito! :)

Free Hands

So it has been 3 years since Jonathon and I have been able to attend Sunday school together with no little ones to distract us. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure I could even tell you what book we are studying. (Just being honest.)

What has freed us from our Sunday School parental responsibilities?

NURSERY. That's right Lyndon is now in nursery.

You're probably thinking that due to our excitement of now being able to pay attention after 3 years, we would rush into Sunday School and sit in the front row with our scriptures open ready for learning...

Not so much. Basically we deemed it as social hour and talked to our friends out in that halls.

Who could blame us? We've grown so accustomed to the halls we're just not ready to make to switch. :)

Both kids have been extra snuggly lately. I, of course, am in heaven. When I pick Lyndon up from his crib, (along with his silky blankie, of course) he immediately lays his head down on my shoulder and hugs me. Tight. He doesn't let go for a long time. I revel in it as long as he will let me. Soon enough he sees something that will catch his eye and pulls his head up. But until that happens, I soak up as much Lyndon time as I can.

I'm in love with being a Mom to these two little rascals.

Today I took them to Christmas land...Garden Ridge. Watching their little faces light up while staring at all the Christmas decorations makes me remember the excitement and amazement of Christmas like when I was a kid. Remember when you would see that first Christmas commercial or when they would advertise for the upcoming "Frosty the Snowman" show? It was such a thrill to know that the holiday season was starting. Christmas in our house was AWESOME. My parents really made a big deal out of holidays. Our house was always decorated so cozy with the same decorations year after year. I loved seeing my Mom pull out those little pine cone Mr. and Mrs. Claus', the plastic holly berry wreath with the big green candle that went in the middle, and of course all the Christmas tree decorations. We always made new homemade decorations each year. One year my Mom even made "My little Pony" ornaments out of felt and yarn for their hair. Each pony was unique with it's own decal on it's hiney. You can imagine how thrilled 3 young girls were every time we passed the tree. I remember taking them off the tree quite often to play with them.

Now we get to help make those kinds of memories for Maddie and Lyndon.

Along with having 2 kids who are extra snuggly lately, we also have had 2 comedians living with us. My only question is, Where do they come up with this stuff?! Here's a good dose of "The Maddie and Lyndon Show"...(good for whatever ails ya!)...

Jonathon was putting Maddie to bed. He tucked her in, bent down to kiss her and then said "Good night, I love you." To which Maddie reached up, patted him on the head and said, "That a kid!" How old is she, anyways?

We've put our Christmas tree up (gasp, yes, I know...). Lyndon is understandably drawn to it. After about the 16th time of me telling his to not take off any more ornaments, I got right down to his eye level and said in a stern voice, "Lyndon,... no no,... do... not... touch... the... tree." He dropped his head down low and replied in a sincere deep little boy voice, "Ohhhh-tayyyyy". I had to turn my head to keep from busting up. Now I try to pose questions to him just so I can hear him answer, "Ohhh-tayyy".

Maddie, Lyndon and I were driving to H-E-B the other day. I was giving Maddie a little quiz.

Me: "Where do you live?"
Maddie: "Round Rock, TX!"
Me: "Where does Grandpa and Grandma Perkes live?"
Maddie: "Idaho!"
Me" "Where does Grandpa and Grandma Evans live?"
Maddie: "Um.......the airport?"

Lyndon is BY FAR the best hide and seeker I have ever met. Except tonight Lyndon was the only one playing...at first. We were downstairs and I told him to lay down because I was going to get a diaper from the pantry so I could change him. I returned from the pantry 7 seconds later only to find that Mr. Lyndon had vanished. Little stinker, I thought. I go to the next room...not there. I look in the bathroom. Not there. I look in the kitchen. Not there. Okay so he must have sprinted upstairs in the 7 seconds it took me to get the diaper. I'm not surprised, he's done it before. I go up stairs to look for him and by now I'm calling out, "Lyndon?!, Lyndon, where are you?" I do a quick glance upstairs thinking that I'll probably find him in the playroom or maddie's bed. No Lyndon. By now I'm chuckling because it's been about 3 minutes of me looking for him (with no Luck) when it only took him 7 seconds to hide. He's 17 months. I'm 31 YEARS, I can find him. Jonathon hears me calling out his name so he as well as Maddie join the search crew. After looking in every room, nook and cranny we NEVER found him. The little scoundrel miraculously appeared out of no where only after I shouted that he could have a piece of candy if he came out! He hid somewhere downstairs and we didn't get to see where because we were upstairs when he came out. If he can outsmart the whole family at 17 months, I'm afraid for the future.

Maddie is a typical 3 year old and doesn't take kindly to eating anything that is green. Last night for dinner she was told that she had to eat one bite of vegetable each time she ate a bit of chicken (which she loves). She politely refused. So being the superdad that Jonathon is she said, "Maddie, Mommy and I eat all of our vegetables that's why we are so tall and can ride on roller coasters." (side note: Maddie wants to ride a roller coaster SO BAD. She knows she has to be taller because she tried to ride the shamu ride at sea world only to be sent packing because she was too short.) Well, after she heard that eating her veggies will be her ticket to ride, she said, "Um. I'm gonna need those green beans right here." (pointing to her plate). Ahhh, it feels so good to win a round every once in a while!



For Family Home Evening on Sunday night we made sugar cookies with the kiddos. They loved the sprinkles. Madaline obviously doesn't understand the term "sprinkles". She thinks it means something more like "Dump".
Yes, Lyndon even turns cookie cutters into bracelets. Just a phase...just a phase...

These picture were taken by Mallory and Diana. They are two of the sweetest most genuine and funny people I know. Lyndon and Maddie adore them. They have watched our kids for "service" so many times I've lost count. I had to go to to a meeting for Young Womans this night and they stepped up to watch the kiddos at Mallory's house. AND even took these pictures so I could blog about it! :)

This is a ceramic dog that Madaline is obviously very attached to. Poor girl. Why won't her parents buy her a real dog?!

Mallory and Diana, if I haven't told you before, YOU GUYS ROCK! Those guys at BYU-Idaho don't know what's comin'!

Happy Birthday to...

Me!


That's right I'm the big 31 this year. Wow. I can remember when my Mom turned 31. I didn't necessarily think that was OLD but I certainly didn't think that was YOUNG.

I've learned a lot since then...I've learned that 31 is still VERY YOUNG. There are a lot of things about me that make me young. For instance, I still call my Mom whenever I have a question about cooking, sewing or when I want some sympathy. I still have never cooked a turkey. I like watching shows like "Rob and Big" and "My Super Sweet Sixteen". (If you don't know what those are, I'm sorry to say but you might be getting old.) :) And And...um, what else? Darn I can't think of anything.

Okay, so on the flip side here are some things about me that may show how old I really am. For instance the shows that are now on Nick at Night are sitcoms that I remember watching in Prime Time. (Can "Fresh Prince of Bel air" seriously be on Nick at Night? What happened to Donna Reed and Mister Ed?) I've bought a shirt at Anne Taylor. I admit to liking Barry Manilow. (Oh, Mandy well you came and you went without taking and then i sent you away, ooooh Mandy...) I use a special under eye cream because I fear that I am developing fine lines. And last but not least when I mentioned I was going to a "New Kids on the block" concert several of the Young woman in our ward said, "Who's that?". And then the girls that DID know who they were described them as "the Backstreet Boys in MY generation".

Okay, so as I lay out the facts it looks like the scales are tipping slightly to the "old" side. But you know what, I'm, happy with that because I still feel VERY YOUNG on the inside. My life is wonderful and I'm so content and happy that it really doesn't matter what my actual age is.

Here's what happened on my birthday:

In the morning I was able to attend a fabulous very fancy birthday party...




for one of Maddie's little friends.



It was actually really fun. It was a "Fancy Nancy" party. All the little girls AND the moms dressed up in our fanciest attire. I wore some very very high heeled shoes from a wedding that I was in years ago. I can assure you I looked very fancy and sophisticated while I was standing still but the minute I started walking I looked like a fawn trying to take her first steps. It was a sight.

Katie's (the mom throwing the party) neighbor made these amazing cupcakes. They were as tasty as they were fancy.

I have to give Gina the "Fanciest dress" award. Check her out! Boa and all!

Two fancy girls, Maddie and Anna.

Here's the whole crew.

Lyndon even got to join in on the fun. (Eating is very fun for him.) He tried going around from chair to chair to finish off everyones food again but I was on to him this time!

They even got to wear real make-up!

Jonathon won't be thrilled to see this but Lyndon climbed right up to sit and wait for his turn for a make-up application. What can you expect from a little guy who hangs around 2 girls all day long? :) And yes, even Lyndon dressed up. I wrestled with him to wear the tie and I'm pleased to say, I WON!

Later that day cute little Mallory and Ariel surprised me with birthday balloons! When I opened the door I was bombarded with confetti and serenaded by Joey singing "Happy Birthday to You...this is your day...from this day forward...I'm gonna love you in every way..." Okay, it was just on a cd player but I felt as though he were right here. THANK YOU girls!!! You really put a BIG smile on my face.
side note: I do have to admit that I am old when it comes to wearing "Skinny jeans" as these beautiful girls are wearing. I don't think I could ever "pull off" this style.



Later that night after the kids went to bed Jonathon set up an amazing birthday dinner for me. La Margaritas, Martinelli's, and rice crispie treats. It couldn't have been more perfect. Thank you , sweetheart. It was the perfect end to my 31st birthday.

Thank you to all of you who called, stopped by and sent birthday wishes my way. I felt so loved.