Evan is Blessed

During the holiday weekend we decided to bless Evan.  He looked adorable and was our first baby to be silent during the entire blessing.  I figured he would be, this guy hardly makes a peep.  I want to record here David's recap of the blessing and his feelings about it:

Evan's Blessing

Was blessed that he would learn of his miraculous birth and know that
he has a purpose for being here; that he is a son of God.

Was blessed that he would have a great testimony of the Savior and
that he would share that with others.  Also, that he would learn how
the Holy Ghost works; to listen and be guided in his life.

Was blessed that he would be a light and example to his family and friends.

Was blessed that he would know of his family's love for him.

I felt even earlier in the day that I would be emotional as I thought
about how I would bless our precious boy. I could feel of his sweet
spirit and know that he has a great purpose in this life.  My emotions
were obviously made manifest during the blessing.

Baby you're a firework!

We had a lovely 4th of July spent in the pool with family and food!  We are grateful for grandparents living close by and the chance to see family more often.

Evan's first time swimming--he was a fan. It just felt like bathwater

Summer photo dump

Since I am falling behind on my blogging I decided to dump all our random summer pictures in one post! You'll see in the pictures that our hair isn't always combed. We haven't accomplished as much as I would have liked but we've kept busy and enjoyed time together.  And in the end, that's what really counts!

Garden creations

This girl has learned to pose!

David and I completed this magnetic chalkboard project for our family room.  We created it to use for FHE but the kids have had oodles of fun with the colored chalk.

We've tried to do some official summer school but haven't been as consistent as we should be.  We hit it a couple times a week.  Here Cyrena is completing some story problems

I would tell Natalie "draw 3 birds" or 'draw 5 flowers"

Anna showing me some love across the table.  This is how she looks going in for a kiss

Anna is putting marbles into an ice cube tray.  She did this over and over again

Natalie is using pattern blocks to make pictures

Cyrena and I played "roll a hundred"

The girls (Cyrena in the lead) go through different imaginative phases.  A few weeks ago they were all pirates and now they are playing knights.  So the chalkboard got this roster on it.  At first Anna's said 'evil servant Anna' and I was worried that I was going to be added later as the 'evil witch' but luckily after a few days I got to be "good Queen Jenna"  However, I forgot to get a picture of that one.

For our nightly family scripture study we've been going through the old gospel art kit.  I had noticed Natalie wasn't listening to our regular scripture study and she seems to be able to understand and remember much more studying one picture/story at a time.  So after we talk about them we put them on our board and once we get 4 or 5 up there we have a little review game.  The kids seem to really like it (and I do too!)

Cyrena has also been very into signs lately.  I'm so sad I have not taken pictures of all of them because boy are they hilarious!  She did one for a jail they made, and one to protect the robot she made. The picture above is a recent one--her "kids club" complete with labeled cubbies and everything.  Kids younger than 7 are participants and kids older than 7 are the teachers.  I love that is closed on Sundays, just like chik-fil-a (I'm pretty sure that's where that came from).

One lovely, messy, fun play-doh afternoon the girls made me this birthday cake and sang to me.  It wasn't my birthday but I was touched all the same.  I loved it.

This summer there have been many proud Lego moments

David left for a week for scout camp  in June.  We all survived!  The last night I let these 2 goons sleep in my bed.  You would have thought they had died and gone to heaven, they were SO excited.  They could hardly sleep but finally konked out around 10.  We were very happy to get our dirty smelly Daddy back the next night!  I wish I'd snapped a picture of his beard!

Evan is 3 Months Old

Evan is an adorable little 3 month old.  He gives us full-blown grins and half cackles now.  And we are EATING. IT. UP.  Or as David would say "He's finally getting cute"  I had to disagree since I think he's always been cute but Dads seem to need babies to make obvious responses to them.  

Evan is gaining weight nicely.  I took him in for a weight check and he weighs 12 lbs 3 oz (20th percentile). He is sleeping about a 9 hour stretch at night but still wakes up for a cuddle a couple times during that time.  He doesn't want to eat, just wants to cuddle for a minute--not sure what that's about!  He only eats around five 4 oz bottles each day.  I think he needs more but he just doesn't enjoy eating, it's a chore just to get that much down him.  He still throws up about once a day--like a fountain.  Right now Evan still takes 4 naps a day of about 2 hours each.  He can only stay awake for about 60 minutes--he's still very sleepy.

 

Evan is most smiley right when he wakes up

He likes to look at lights

The girls LOVE making him smile

I am pretty much in love with this picture

He loves his friends in the swing mobile

My attempt at getting a picture with me and Evan.

Good-bye First Grade

It was time to say good-bye to Cyrena's first grade year. She had a wonderful year and seemed to mature quite a bit.  I had major guilt this school year with being pregnant and working around 20 hours a week with prepping and teaching 2 preschool classes.  I did try to get in her classroom a few times but of course I would have liked to do more. 

 She had a wonderful teacher who was very supportive and sweet with her, especially with all that was going on before and after Evan's birth.  

At her class awards ceremony Cyrena received 5 certificates!  She was ecstatic.  Her teacher handed out awards in groups so most of the kids got at least 3, it was cute.  Cyrena's awards were:

-"Word Whiz" award for knowing over 600 high frequency words

-Outstanding classroom behavior award (along with 6 or 7 sweet friends)

-'Bookworm' award for reading 242 books throughout the school year (the most in the class!)  I guess signing her reading log every night was worth her getting this award. :)  David's comment was that he hasn't read that many books in his entire life!

-Excellence in Reading for reading above her grade level all year.  

-Outstanding achievement in Math

She will miss the routine and rigor of school but I am glad to have her home for the summer!

Evan is 2 months

 Evan is really almost 3 months now- this is a little late but that's ok!

 Evan's hair has started to recede a bit, revealing his large forehead (or 'fivehead' my brother would say).  He is still very sleepy and just giving me about a 4 hour stretch at night.  There are still no full on grins but definitely the beginnings of them.  He still has spit-up gushers about once or twice a day.  I think he won't sleep more at night until that gets a little better.  He loves bath time; the running water makes him sleepy.  He is mostly only awake as long as it takes to feed and change his diaper, any longer than that and he gets cranky.  However, he is so easily soothed, it's amazing. We love our little Evan.

Here are his 2 month stats:

Weight: 10 lbs 1 oz

Height: 21 1/4 inches

Mother's Day

There wasn't one picture with all of us looking our best, but here we are and I know I'm blessed!