Juli & Co.

I wanted to quickly write down what Emi did on Father's Day.  We were all sitting around the dinner table about to enjoy a fabulous steak dinner to celebrate our favorite daddy.  Nick started the prayer and then all of a sudden Emi interrupts with her own prayer.  With her little hands folded and her head down she said, "And thank you God for making my mommy NOT have any more babies."  Every time Nick would start the prayer again, Emi would quietly say this prayer over and over.   Ha!

After prayer time, we began eating our dinner.  Emi then started blurting out "BAGINA!" randomly.  Of course, the big kids were dying laughing.  And Nick and I, in our most serious voices, had to repeatedly say, "Emi stop saying vagina at the table" and  "If you say vagina one more time you are going to your room".

It was memorable, for sure.

Do you guys ever feel this way?? Like all you really want to be doing is sitting on the couch watching 'Terra's Little Family' (am I the only one who loves this show??) but instead you have three kids to take to the dentist (yes, I said THREE!), homework to help with, dinner to make, soccer games to cheer at, bills to pay...you know, grown up stuff. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a mom, I ADORE my children, and I EXPLODE with pride watching them play sports. But...dentist appointments, grocery shopping, dinner making...sometimes I just need a DAY OFF!

I am going on just about 6 hours of sleep (compared to my usual minimum 8 hours) and I'm definitely feeling it. My mood is just off. My sweet Sissy Monster "couldn't sleep" last night. So at midnight, I found myself being spooned by my very cuddly, affectionate 6 year old. And while I couldn't sleep a wink, it only took about 2 minutes in this position before she was breathing heavy and sweaty and I knew it would be safe to escape slip out quietly. As I laid there last night, I realized these moments with her are getting further and further apart. She is needing me less and less and becoming more and more of a big girl. And this makes me all sad and happy at the same time. Being a mom is such a roller coaster of emotions. Sigh.

Okay so back to life lately... We are on the home stretch of school and the countdown to summer has officially begun! I am so excited I can hardly contain myself. This will be the first summer we have a pool in the backyard and I can already hear the giggles and splashing and smell the hamburgers grilling. CAN NOT WAIT.

Luke is enjoying his first season of lacrosse. It's such a fun game to watch and we've all enjoyed learning the rules. Olivia is in the middle of her second season of soccer with the Sparks. She is consistently getting "a foot on the ball" and gets in there and fights with the other girls. She has come so far since last season. Emily is doing swim class once a week to prepare her for summer and she is doing so well. In the last two weeks, I noticed a big difference in her ability and she even goes under and swims for several seconds by herself. She has two little friends doing the class with her which makes it even better.

And finally, the last and probably BIGGEST update as of late...OLIVIA GOT HER EARS PIERCED!!! I'll do an entire post on how that went down later, but I will say I was quite impressed with this little girl.

SATURDAY - Chicken Nachos with left-over Chicken Verde

SUNDAY - Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

MONDAY - Slow Cooker Jambalaya

TUESDAY - One Pot Pizza Pasta

WEDNESDAY - Bacon, Avacado, Apple Grilled Cheese and Creamy Tomato Soup

THURSDAY - Cheesy Avocado Quesadillas

 

 

Our little Valentine's baby turned 9 on Saturday! How did this happen? NINE! And so we begin the last year of single digits for my baby boy. I know people say this all the time, but it really does seem like just yesterday that we were welcoming our little Lukey into the world...and today he is NINE years old.

Valentine's Day/Lukey Day started quite early this year. Luke came into our room at 4:30am rubbing his eyes, holding his blankie like he has for the last nine years that he's woken us up in the middle of the night. He said, "Mom, something weird is happening in my room". I get up to investigate and walk him back to bed. He tells me "the birthday fairy hasn't come yet".

PANICK!! It's time to PANICK! TOTAL MOM FAIL! HOW DID I FORGET??!! I'M SO TIRED.

For the last nine years, the birthday fairy makes a visit during the night and fills the room with balloons. Without fail, every year...if you are an Evans' you wake up to a room that has been magically filled with balloons. If you are an Evans' girl, in addition to balloons, you also wake up to the "Happy Birthday Princess" CD on full volume.

Think quick. I can do this. I'm sure I have a package of balloons lying around the house somewhere. I wait an agonizing 30 minutes for Luke to fall back to sleep. I hurry to the kitchen and start rummaging through the cupboards and junk drawers for balloons. No luck. I start thinking of ways to explain to my baby faced nine year old that the birthday fairy stops coming when you turn into an official "big kid". No, I can't do it.

Think, think, think.

And then I have an idea. Brillant! TOILET PAPER! I will TP his room while he sleeps. He will love it!

Only problem...we are down to our last roll of toilet paper.

This will have to work, I think. I sneak into his room and carefully drape toilet paper around the room, across his bed, around door knobs, and finish by taping pieces across his doorway.

I stand in the hallway admiring my super mom skills (even at 4:30am) and then BANG!!! I drop the tape dispenser onto the hardwood floor. Luke jumps awake.

I threaten his life if he even thinks about getting out of bed. Explain that it is still the middle of the night and to please GO TO SLEEP.

I head back to bed and lay my head down on my pillow. Just as my eyes close, I hear the noise of three excited kids having what sounds like a frat party in Luke's room. And in lie of music, Luke has turned his noise machine on full blast. The sound of RAIN on full blast is enough to send me over the edge.

I threaten them all...I must get sleep or I will never survive the day.

I don't think anyone went back to sleep, but at least they turned the volume on their party down a few notches and I was able to sleep another hour.

And that was just the beginning. The rest of the day went like this.

Birthday pancakes
Lacrosse game
Freebirds for lunch
Gat Splat Paintball
Mooyah burger for dinner
Birthday cupcakes
Sleep

And since the day ran out before we got around to giving Luke his present...this birthday spilled over to day two.

IHOP with PawPaw
And finally a birthday treasure hunt with 10 clues leading to his NEW BIKE.

I'm exhausted. But what a great day we had.

Happy Birthday Lukey!!! We love you so much!

Unfinished pool + fireworks = FUN ;)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!




A quick Christmas update...

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day here, as usual. Pawpaw made the drive all the way from Austin to be with us while Grandma spent Christmas with G Mummaw. We started the evening off by opening presents from G & P. They were so excited and kept asking if it was 4 o'clock yet as that's the time we told them they could start opening. Luke got a pair of brand new Vans, a gum ball machine, and a shooting game. Olivia got clothes, a gum ball machine, and a set of Neverland Girls books. Emi got a tiny gum ball machine, a backpack with cute little disney princesses, and clothes.

Next, we went to a beautiful, candle-lit Christmas service at our church. They had glow sticks for the little kids, but you know that just wasn't good enough for Em. She insisted on holding my candle and insisted that I not touch it at all. She kept swatting my hand away, threatening to scream at any moment, wax running down the sides and a huge flame dancing around as she waved it excited. I'm just glad we didn't catch anyone's hair on fire. :)

After church, we headed over to Nana and Papa's for goodies and a gift exchange. Emily fell asleep on the way over, but woke up ready to go once we arrived. We ate way too many cookies and snacks and then when the kids couldn't stand it for a minute longer, we passed out gifts and let them go. Luke's gift from N & P this year was a skateboard ramp, skateboard shirt, and a skateboard rack for his room. Olivia got a pink tumbling mat, clothes, a "this is my handstand shirt" t-shirt, bath stuff, pjs and an Olaf necklace. Emi got the cutest hanging puppet theater, puppets, clothes, bath stuff, Frozen necklace, snow globe, and pjs.

We got back home about 11 o'clock and the kids were eager to get to bed. They didn't want to miss Santa! Christmas morning started about 5:30am with Luke waking up first, of course. :) Luke's big gift from Santa was an electric guitar, amp, and headphones. Olivia's big gift was an octagon back handspring mat, and Emi got her very own American Girl doll and closet.



STINKER!

Wow. 2015. How did this happen? Almost ten years married, mom to an 8, 6 and 3 year old. Dog. House. Yoga pants. Haha. Life really has happened quickly. So quickly, in fact, that I am finding it harder and harder to remember all the day to day moments with the kids. I looked back through the blog and read about things that I would have forgotten otherwise. I will admit. At times, I wondered if the blog was a waste of time. Would anyone ever read it? Would my kids ever see it? Would it get lost in the deep, dark internet? Would it really become a part of our family history? I felt silly, really. I would be filled with guilt at the sight of my kids nearly empty baby books. The thousands upon thousands of digital images stored away on numerous hard drives at the top of our closet. Literally waking up at night in a panic that something would happen to our digital memories and everything would be lost.

But then, after reading back through our lives as I had blogged it, I saw what a gift it was. I was so happy that I took the time to write down my thoughts. The little details of our life that seemed so mundane at the time, but now they are everything. They tell our story in real time, a story that I will not be able to accurately retell as the years go on and as my memory fades. And while I lost sight of this for a little while, I see the importance of it all too clearly now. So as we move into 2015, I am going to begin blogging our life again. For us. For my kids.

So who's with me?? Laurin? Amy? Sonia? LeighAnn? Friends?? Let's encourage and cheer each other on and let's make 2015 a year filled with memories!

Wow. I cannot believe it's been over a year since I updated the blog! So much has happened in the last year, but I thought I would take a minute to do a quick, cliff-notes style update. :)

Emily, 3

Emily is three years old! Not sure how that happened so fast. She is completely potty trained and has been for quite a while. She no longer uses her paci and has finally stopped asking for "milk babas". It's a little sad watching my last baby growing up into a little big girl, but I'm excited to enter this new phase of life. Emily does not nap most days. About once a week, she crashes in the car or while watching tv and will nap for a couple of hours. She could most definitely use a nap most days, but seems to be transitioning away from it and can get cranky in the evening. She goes to bed around 8:30p and wakes around 7:00a. She LOVES books! We read a book every night before bed (and several throughout the day) and then she sleeps that book. She insists it's comfy and if she had it her way she would probably sleep on a pile of hard back books. ;)

Emily goes to preschool three days a week and loves it. She loves doing "homework" with the big kids and love practicing her letters. She also loves ballet and gymnastics and can't wait to be a "big cheer girl". Emily is such a sweet little girl, loves to help anyway she can, and tries hard to keep up with the big kids. She loves to pretend play and uses the cutest little voices to tell stories. She loves playing dolls and is asking Santa to bring her a doll carrying case "like sissy's" to keep all her doll clothes in.


Olivia, 6

Olivia is six years old and is in the first grade. She absolutely LOVES going to school! She loves everything about it and sighs in disappointment on Saturdays when there is no school. Ha. She is still just the most nurturing, sweet, motherly sister and loves helping me around the house. She loves watching cooking shows like Pioneer Woman and Cupcake Wars. She is really becoming such a big girl and bring her purse everywhere. She played soccer for this first time this Fall and loved it. She also did cheer for the second year. Right now, she is enjoying tumbling and gymnastics and is quite good at it. Her best friend is Audrey and they are just the sweetest, sassiest little girls around.

Olivia does very well in school and loves to read. The biggest struggle with Olivia is keeping her room clean. Despite being so organized in so many other areas of life, the girl cannot keep her room clean to save her life!


Luke, 8

Luke is eight years old and is in the third grade. He is still our "spirited child". :) He brings us so much joy each day and keeps us on our toes, for sure. He loves to skateboard and brings it with us everywhere we go. He has taught himself several tricks, just from watching videos online. He loves going to the skate park and begs us to take him. He also started Parkour classes and loves it. I am amazed at what all he has learned in such a short time.

Luke says he would like to try soccer next and is on the fence about doing baseball this Spring.

there are so many things wrong with this image (technically speaking) that it may have very well been lost on my computer forever. but, when i gave it a second look today and saw that sweet little expression on her face, all the things "wrong" with it suddenly spoke to me. that's what this moment was all about...capturing that sweet little smile in the midst of all the chaos. seeing something perfect among the "imperfect". this perfect little moment of two year old silliness, captured by mommy but not really seen. this "imperfect" and "wrong" little image just taught me so much about myself and how I see the world.

Em came home from school the other day with this super cute little ponytail ringlet. I just had to get a pic...

This is Sissy right before her Spring Performance last week at MDO. She was SO excited to get up on stage and perform her little songs for us. Being the little sister, she has become quite good at sitting in the audience and cheering on her big brother. But this was her day. Her day to shine and to show us what a big girl she is. We loved watching her do all the little hand motions that went along with the song "My God Is So Big". She really did such a great job and we were so proud of her.

Buying and selling houses is just never fun. It stresses me out! Mama bear needs a home for her baby bears. Something about moving just hits a cord in me, it's so emotional.

This is the first time that we have attempted to by a pre-owned home. We've dealt with builders and with selling our own homes, but never with another family who is just as emotional charged.

The reason I feel sick is because I just emailed off our "best and final" offer. There is another offer that we have been told is better than our's, but for whatever reason they asked that we put our offer in writing. We have been told, in so many words, that the other offer is higher and is not contingent on selling another home. But they still want our offer in writing. I'm so confused, frustrated, tired.

I like this home, but it is not perfect. There are things that I wish were different, but it is the best option for what is available right now. Sure we could wait it out and hope that a better home comes up for sale. But I'm tired. I don't want to be packing up and moving the baby bears again. I don't want to live in an apartment or rental house. I don't want to store all of our belongings all summer. I want to be settled.

It's hard to hold out any hope after being told our offer is not as good as the other. But we don't have options. Crossing my fingers that they pick us, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

When Nick goes out of town overnight, Luke gets to be the "man of the house". This means (according to him) that he gets to sleep in my bed, so I'm not scared, of course. :)

Last night he went to sleep at his usual bedtime of 8pm. He fell right to sleep, in my bed. He did not wake up until his usual time of about 7am. He usually wakes up pretty happy and ready to start the day. Today, that was definitely not the case. He was so cranky!

He didn't want to watch My Little Pony with Sis. That's a girl show.

He didn't want to take his lunch to school. He hates sandwiches.

He refused to walk down to the bus stop. Instead, he hid behind a bush in the front yard.

He cried. He protested. He told me I am "so mean".

He ended up missing the bus. A first.

He cried in the car on the way to school. He said that everyone thinks he's a jerk.

Before he got out of the car, he apologized. He said he was sorry he missed the bus. He said he thought the bus driver would wait on him. He looked at me with his big brown eyes and tear streaked face and it just broke my heart.

What went wrong this morning? Why did something as simple as taking his lunch spark such a huge meltdown? Is he stressed about the move? Is he stressed that Nick has not been home as much? Is something going on at school? What am I missing?

Moving again.

This past year has been full of growing for our little family. Growing in number as we added our precious Emily to the family. Growing in faith as we trusted in our Lord and took on a challenge that most definitely took us outside of our comfort zone. Growing as a couple as we learned to rely more on each other. Growing as a wife as I learned that despite my own reluctance, my sweet husband knows what I need and what I want and always has my best interest at heart. Growing as a mommy as I learned what it means to truly do it all. No more Nana or Aunt LaLa's or Aunt Mamy's. No date nights. Just us. 100% us. And...I found my confidence as a mom.

Something else happened as well. I realized that I could be happy anywhere as long as I have my family. My kids and my husband are my greatest source of happiness, satisfaction, and inspiration.

I cannot believe my sweet Emily is almost six months old. She is such a happy baby and we are having lots of fun with her. She has just started trying her first foods. So far she has had bananas, pears, carrots, sweet potatoes, and peas. She seems to like all of the foods about the same. She is still learning how to eat from a spoon and makes lots of funny faces when we feed her. And she still does the gag, shiver, gag response to most foods. But then she smiles and kicks her feet and lunges for more :) And she is definitely working on a few teeth. She usually has two fingers in her mouth at all times, biting and chewing and lots and lots of drool. She is going this week for her six month appointment with the pediatrician so I will update with her stats then.

Luke was so proud of the little Indian hat and vest that he made at school. They had special Thanksgiving stations last week and he couldn't wait to show me what all he made. And, of course, he is still pretty proud of the tooth that he lost and the "big" tooth that is slowly taking it's place. I love this little guy so much...wish I could just bottle him up and keep him just like this forever :)