Thursday, February 25, 2010

Somethin' to talk about...

My cute and very talented sister-in-law, Rachel Darling, was asked to write an article for a magazine. (how cool is that, huh?) She submitted 5 photos for the publisher to choose from that would accompany her piece. And guess whose photo was chosen? Yours truly. Yep, I can now say that my photography has been published!

The Magazine is called "Bride's Guide". It is mainly distributed in Idaho. So go ahead, pick yours up today, flip to page 32...and get ready to be dazzled. :)

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

feeling cozy and crafty.

Look what's happening today!!

I can't believe how much snow we're getting. It feels so cozy to see the big flakes falling outside and hear the heater on in our house. I think I'll go make some hot cocoa...

So I've been feeling a little crafty lately. This is what I put together while the kids were napping. (Actually I thought Lyndon was napping until Jonathon peeked in and found him sitting on top of Madaline who really was napping. He missed her.)

Anyways...here's an idea for a FREE bulletin board...

I made it out of those cardboard bolts that they wrap fabric around. When I was little my Mom, who is a crafting guru, helped us make a bulletin board out of a cardboard fabric bolt. I wanted a bigger bulletin board and wasn't willing to spend the $40 + on it so I went to the fabric store and asked them if I could have their empty bolts. I then taped 14 bolts together and wrapped it in fabric that a friend of mine gave me and viola, a free bulletin board. Not too shabby.

I plan to put up pictures, goals, ideas etc.

(I actually have quite a few left over so if you want any, let me know!)



Sunday, February 21, 2010

Guardian Angels.


I'm 99% sure that Lyndon has his own guardian angel. And I'm 100% sure that the poor thing was pretty tuckered out this week.
Case #1: On Wednesday I was in our closet and I see a bright flash of light out of the corner of my eye accompanied by a subtle "poof" sound. Jonathon and I both went running out the hall to see what was going on. What do we find?
Lyndon.
a blackened wall socket.
a nightlight.
And a melted and blackened penny.
...you do the math. (or the science?)
(btw, Lyndon suffered no damage and was, thankfully, extremely frightened from the whole ordeal.)
Case #2: Saturday Night as we are enjoying a fun night at our friends house, when realize we can't find Lyndon anywhere. we were sick. Everyone was looking for him, shouting his name. Where do we finally find him? Outside at the neighbor's house having a nice little chat with their kids.
I'm pretty sure that kid's gonna be wearing his "backpack" (aka: leash) until he's 20.
Here are our pictures from Valentine's Day...
This is our little Valentine couple heading to church... pretty darn cute.

Lyndon can't help himself...he's a born dancer.


Ready to jump...






They do love each other. :)




For Valentines Day Jon made me a surprise dinner. (below) But before I explain how YUMMY our dinner was I first need to recount our Valentine morning...


I go downstairs to find 3 red cards sitting on the counter that read, "Lyndon", "Maddie", and "Katie" with a note on top of them that said, "Don't open without me". Ooooh goody. I was so excited. (On a side note just a few weeks earlier Jon and I were talking about receiving greeting cards. I expressed to him how disappointing it is to me to get a card and the only thing a person writes in it is "Love, so-and-so". Even if the person spent so much time picking out the perfect card, the only message that really means a lot to me in the one written by the person.) Okay, so we go and get Jonathon and Maddie opens her card first. It had a really sweet and quite lengthy sentiment written just for her by Jon. Then we open Lyndon's card. Same thing. Sweet words perfectly written by a loving Dad. Then I open mine. First of all I was thrown off by his choice in cards because on the front of the card was a dog wearing heart shaped glasses. Now if any of you know me you would understand that this kind of a card isn't something that would usually pique my interest due to the fact that #1 I'm not so much a dog lover and #2 dressing them up is even worse. But I didn't really care about that because I knew Jonathon had taken the time to write a thoughtful sweet Valentine inside. So I eagerly open the card and my eyes immediately lock in on the only 2 words written inside, "Love, Jonny". silence. But as soon as I looked at him I knew...it was only a joke. (you see I have this gift that I can look at Jon's face and know exactly what is going on in his mind. he's loves that I can do that.) Sure enough the rascal wanted to throw me off and he had the real card hidden away. Which turned out to be very sweet and filled with lots of writing. My favorite kind.



Okay on to the food...
He made us fillet Mignon, scalloped potatoes and green beans. It was all cooked to perfection.






And for dessert...Chocolate turtle pie.
(notice the picture is blurry and there is already a bite taken out? I was so excited to dive in that I forgot to take the picture and I didn't care that the only shot I took was blurry because I was way more interested in just eating.)
It was a great Valentines Day...even though my husband likes to combine the typically romantic holiday with April Fools Day.






For Family Home Evening this last week we had our own "Evans Family Olympics"!! It was fun. We had an obstacle course and a dunking contest.
Here is Lyndon starting the obstacle course...






Maddie finishing up the obstacle course...





And here's Lyndon helping "Sarafina" (Any Barbie in the Princess and the Pauper" watchers out there?) finish the obstacle course.



Never a dull moment, huh?
(In reality there are dull moments ALL THE TIME around here but I don't seem to capture those to post on the blog.)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

We have animals.



Any idea what this is? anyone? anyone?


I was making dinner while Maddie and Lyndon were playing in the pantry. After a couple of minutes I thought, hummm, I should probably go check on them...

I open the door to find the above scene...oatmeal strewn all over the floor and Maddie blurting out, "It was Lyndon. It was ALLLLLL Lyndon."

After a couple deep breaths I send Lyndon to the naughty stool and set the timer for 2 minutes.
As soon as he does his time I kneel down next to him and say, "Lyndon, do you know why you're in time out?" Silence. I repeat, "Do you know why you're sitting in timeout?" Silence.

Finally, he spoke.

"For feeding the horses."

"What?", I said.

"For feeding the horses their oats.", he promptly said again.

Heaven help me.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Jonathon is a member of our family.


Jon frequently comments that he feels as if he isn't present on our so-called "family" blog. And as I've thought about it, I've come to the conclusion that he is in fact correct. So as a valentine gift and an attempt to let everyone out there in the blog sphere know that yes, Maddie and Lyndon have a Daddy and yes, I do indeed have a husband...here are 28 (because there are 28 days in February. get it?) reasons that I LOVE my Jonathon...

1. He wanted me to call him "Jonathon" (instead of Jon) early on in our relationship.
2. He saves the last bite for me. EVERY TIME. no exceptions.
3. He makes me laugh out loud at least once a day. (Real belly laughs, not sympathy laughs.)
4. He has 2 really great parents. (He really does. I'm not just sucking up.)
5. He takes (and enjoys it.) Maddie to Daddy Daughter dances.
6. He knows more useless facts than any one I've ever met.
7. He's is an amazing musician.
8. He will play his guitar and sing to me.
9. He's downstairs making me a surprise Valentine Dinner as I type this.
10. He likes dressing up when we go on dates.
11. He remembers every single important date, even the ones I forget...like the date we got engaged.
12. He listens to my constructive criticisms and actually puts it into action immediately.
13. He opens the car door for me.
14. He loves and cares about every member of my family.
15. He puts up with my occasional orneriness and then puts a lid on it at just the right time.
16. He has so many dreams and goals in life.
17. He is one heck of a nursery leader.
18. He's patient and kind with Maddie and Lyndon.
19. He is moved to tears by the Olympics.
20. He knows almost nothing about cars but wants to.
21. He helps people when he sees a need.
22. He stands up for what he believes even if it's uncomfortable. (For him or for me.)
23. His love and interest in music and anything musically related is contagious. (I never thought I would care about or look forward to watching the Grammy's as much as I do.)
24. He always wants to share what's on his mind with me. If we're in a room with lots of people and something is said that is funny, sad, interesting, whatever, he always looks to me to make eye contact.
25. I'm his favortie friend.
26. He likes to play games with me. (Except for Mad Gab. He hates it.)
27. On the same note, he's extremely competitive with me when we play against each other. But when we play with other couples he loves for me to win.)
28. Last but not least...He makes me feel like I'm the most important person in the world. (I just hope I can do the same for him.)

Now you know. There is a man. He is my husband. He is Maddie and Lyndon's Dad. He is amazing. His name is Jonathon.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Maddie kept talking about "Our tutti too". She knew exactly what she was saying...I didn't have a clue. So I finally got it when she said, "You know, Our tutti too on Star Wars." OOOOHHH...R2D2! Got it. It was like we were playing our own game of Mad Gab.

I keep forgetting to post this...A few weeks ago we went to Chuck E. Cheese with our friends. (We've actually found some friends who like Chuck as much as we do! :) ) Anyways, while we were there Lyndon was playing one of the games. I stood close by just watching him. After a while he stopped, looked at me and said, "Mom, go find another game to play." uh, o-kay. So knowing that he didn't want his Mom crowding his game play, I stepped back about 3 feet and continued to just keep an eye on him. After about 30 seconds he stops his game again. Takes me by the hand. Walks me over to a different game. sits me down and says, "Here you play this while I play my game." And that's Lyndon for ya...


A bit more Valentine stuff...
I was at the fabric store and found a bunch of Valentine decor for half off. So I had the idea to do a holiday tree. We keep our Christmas Trees up all year long (we just move them upstairs) because they look more like a little wooden forest than a Christmas tree AND because I don't want them to get all dusty in the garage...
Maddie and Lyndon are in love with the tree. No pun intended. :)

Do you think this is a form brain wash?


I just about died laughing when he brought me these two little people. He hand me the one on the right and said, "This is me." and then handed me the one of the left and said, "This is my girlfriend." I'd say he picked a pretty accurate representation of himself. ...he's a locksmith, btw.
(also, I swear I clean this kids face but you would never know because it looks dirty is practically every picture.)



Two buds. (Maddie will NEVER look at the camera.)




The Disney store had a little Valentine craft and story. Lyndon was WAY more interested in the store than the activities.





Maddie gets to be a flower girl in April!! We went and tried on her dress today. I'm not willing to spend close to the same amount of $ on a flower girl dress as I did on my wedding dress so my Mom has graciously offered to make the dress for us. Thank you Mom! Little did the ladies know I was taking pictures so that we could re-create it ourselves. sneaky.











Isn't she beautiful?



Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Lyndon's chair just slipped out from under him...

"I just hurt by bootie.", he whimpered. "Kiss it better?"

How could I resist those big blue puppy dog eyes...
I kissed it.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

I heart Valentine's Day

I tend to write mostly about the kids and their crazy ways but today I'm going to write some things that have been going on in my head.

I forgot something pretty important yesterday. I can't believe I forgot about it. Our Stake has combined baptisms for kids turning 8, the first Saturday of every month. Yesterday was our ward's turn to have someone there to lead the music and provide a musical number. Guess who didn't show up? Luckily our cute Activity day girls showed up to sing. But I was MIA. How could I forget? I'm mad at myself.

So then i start thinking, why in the world can't I keep it all together? ...just when it seems I start getting the hang of one portion of my life I end up dropping the ball in another. Does everyone else have it all together or is it just me? Does anyone else forget to brush their kids teeth? or have messy bathrooms? or sticky floors? or slack on visiting teaching? or neglect your lawn? or feed your kids chicken nuggets 3 days in a row? or forget to show up to lead the music at a Stake baptism? or is it just me?

If someone has got it all together I'm not sure if I really want to know or if I want you to share some tips with me...you be the judge. :)
(on a very random side note: My sweater smells like squiggly noodles {aka: raman noodles} I wish it smelled like Tide.)

Okay, on to the more interesting stuff...
I'll explain Maddie's "Daddy" tattoo at the end of the post. The picture got out of order and it's too big of a pain to re-do the picture order.)
We made sugar cookies and frosted them. Nothing says Valentines day more that a soft sugar cookie and pink frosting.








Jonathon took this picture. I'm pretty sure he was thinking of me. :)




Ha! They don't look too impressed with my cookie do they? :)
















We also made these cute valentines out of dum dum suckers. I got the idea from the Family Fun Magazine.


Jonathon drums are downstairs now so the band can practice. Lyndon and Maddie LOVE to get on them and pound out a beat or two. You can see in this first picture that Lyndon always starts off with hitting the sticks together and saying, "One, two, three, four!"






So this is why Maddie had a "daddy" heart on her cheek...She and Jonathon went to a "Daddy Daughter Valentine Dance". They went with Jamie and his daughter, Anna. Maddie had THE BEST time. Jonathon said she was dancing like there was no tomorrow and she was so sad when the dance was over. She would have kept dancing and dancing.
We used her dress that my Mom made for Rachel's wedding and then made a new pink sash and pink hair bow to go with it. Very Valentiney.


















Maddie thought of this pose all on her own.




the end.


Wednesday, February 3, 2010

this and that.


I couldn't help but snicker when I saw her...

Last week we had some great weather so we took advantage of it and went to the park. We had a great time. They always make me smile.



































I made this hair clip, if you want to know how to do it, let me know...it was easy! (and fun.)



I love Maddie's different faces she gives us. This one is her "really Mom? I'm-not-buying-it" look



















Lyndon was standing at the top saying, "Good job, Maddie! You're doing great! You're almost there!"


I love that they love each other.





























Lyndon fashioned his own drums. This kids is a musician at heart. He turns anything into an instrument. He got a huge lollipop at Chuck-e-Cheese the other day and he's never opened it, he just uses it as a guitar.








These are my "sneaky" healthy muffins. The kids just know them as banana peanut butter cupcakes. But they have whole wheat flour, just a dab of oil, and get this...cauliflower in them!! They're good too. I even like them.