that's what it's all about

Been a while, I know. :)



A few weeks ago we were driving in the car and I let the kids have the windows down for a little air. As we started speeding up to around 50 mph the wind was gushing in at all sides and whipping our hair around. I knew the kids were loving it because I could hear them giggling in the back. And then out of no where Maddie exuberantly yells above the wind, "That's what I'm talkin' about!"



That same day I took the kids to McDonalds to eat and play. Maddie likes the jungle gym but only if there are no other kids playing on it. Lyndon, on the other hand has the motto of "the more the merrier". This particular day there were lots of kids so Maddie took her seat next to me and Lyndon ventured out to start making friends. He attached himself to this Hispanic family of 3 kids. They ran and played together, Lyndon with them every step of the way. Meanwhile their Dad and one of their brothers were playing air hockey so the rest of the kids, including Lyndon, stopped to watch. To cheer her dad on the littlest girl yelled out, "¡Vaya a Papá!" (Go Daddy!) So what does Lyndon yell out? ..."¡Vaya a Papá!" I started laughing and so the Dad. He wanted to know if I was teaching Lyndon Spanish. Nope. :)



One day Maddie and Lyndon just would not listen. It seemed like anything we said or threatened were falling on deaf ears. So Jonathon, thinking on the fly, said, "Do you know that Santa is watching you all the time?" This perked their attention a little. Especially Maddie. So Jonathon continued, "Yeah, do you see these things?" (pointing to the smoke alarms.) "these are cameras so that Santa can watch you at all times. And if you aren't listening to your Mom and Dad, Santa knows." Maddie quietly listened and was pretty good the rest of the evening. I actually forgot about it until about a week later we were in Chick-fil-a and Maddie pointed to a smoke detector and exclaimed, "He even has them in HERE too??!!!" And then last night we come home from a night out and our baby sitter, the lovely Diana, said to us, "So...Santa has your house equipped with cameras, huh?" Apparently Maddie and Diana were in the pantry getting a snack when Maddie says in a hushed voice pointing to the ceiling, "See that? Up there? That's a camera." Diana's immediate thought was, what the heck? Are the Evans monitoring their pantry?! But then Maddie explained how it's a camera for Santa to make sure she and Lyndon are being good. Sweet success. For the record, I don't feel a bit guilty. This has helped us more than you know. :)

(side note: phone calls from Santa have also worked miracles in this house. I've never seen Maddie pick up the playroom as fast as I did the night that Jonathon had a little chat with the big guy.)



Lyndon has a big tendency of running off. We'll be in a store, any store, and if left out of the cart for any length of time he will turn, look at me with a sparkle in his eye and bolt. It's annoying. I can't stand it. (But he's just so darn charismatic...) So, needless to say, he spends the majority of his time buckled in a cart. Which he's certainly is not a fan of. I've never understood what the point of it is. (Except for the sure thrill of seeing his Mom sprinting down a crowded isle dodging innocent bystanders.) So I've never figured out why he won't stop after I call out his name 8o times. ...until now. We were at IKEA, eating hot dogs and cinnamon rolls. (what a steal, btw.) Lyndon jumps off his chair and immediately begins to take off. I call out, "Lyndon, Lyndon, stop, turn around, Lyndon, stop, Lyndon." I finally catch him, bring him back to the table sit down and sternly start the "Mom scolding" quietly in his little ear. "Lyndon", I say in a quick low voice, trying to make myself sound gruff, "when I call out your name. you. stop. do. you. understand?" to which he innocently replied, "What's my name?" So has this been our problem...he doesn't know his name?

So here are some random pictures...

First of all this was a fun Christmas parade. And most of you know...I'm a sucker for any type of parade. This was a pretty good one.

Lyndon, waiting for the parade to start was trying to make some leaves "Fly around".

We love our H-E-B!!!

Maddie got her face painted. Our little Rudolf. I'm actually a little surprised she didn't choose something a little more girly. Incidentally after the parade we went to Chik-fil-a for lunch. And I think the face painting gave her some power because she wasn't a bit hesitant to go in the jungle gym and play with all the other kids. All of the other girls pretended to be scared of her and would scream and run from her. At first I thought it might hurt her feelings a little but boy was I mistaken. She loved it. She was very proud to be the scary one chasing everyone.

Check out that HUGE bag of kettle corn. Real kettle corn made in a real kettle. It was heavenly. I wish that bag was twice that big. :)

Okay, so Lyndon has had a long term love affair with Cinderella. He likes to point out, "My favorite princess is Cinderella." It's really quite sweet. He wanted me to take a few shots of them together. ...engagement pictures maybe?

...astronaut, Lyndon came back for a bit.

Maddie had to come join us with her favorite princess, Aurora.

Lyndon LOVES to make anyone laugh, especially Maddie. I just love this picture.

and this one.