Merry Christmas to...

YOU!

This weekend was busy but loads of fun. I partook in the Black Friday festivities, which for me began at 4:30 am. We ended up in Rochester and purchased our family Christmas gift for this year: a 52" flat screen. Evan and I went to the Holiday Stroll downtown while Jeremy and Justin hung the new TV on the wall.

On Saturday Jeremy, Justin, Noah and Evan went fishing at Pottery Pond. Justin caught a nice trout (catch and release, of course.) I picked Evan up from fishing to go swimming with Beth and DJ, and after that we went to Emma's 3rd Birthday Party. I can't believe she is already THREE!

It was fun shopping for a girl for a change - I loved playing dress-up when I was Emma's age, so I thought we would get her a princess get-up for her 3rd Birthday present.

Little did we know that she would prefer to dress Evan up instead. He was a good sport and even let her put on the clip-on earrings. He put a stop to it after she tried to make him wear her princess shoes.

Today Jeremy went to the Vikings Game with his Mom, Aunt, and Uncle, so Evan and I spent the day with DJ and Beth. We went to see Santa and got our pictures taken (at Walmart - hence the photos of the boys playing Rock Band and riding on Tigger's boat) and then went bowling. Jeremy is a little sad that he didn't bring the camera with him to the game - he was in row 14 and had great seats!

After we got home all Evan would talk about was "bowling" and how he wanted to go again. For $2 I think this may be a regular winter time activity from now on...!

Evan's favorite phrases this week:

• "No way!"
• "Oh, MAN!" (still his favorite way to show exasperation)
• "No, Momma, YOU pick it up."

And for those of you who didn't get a chance to hear the "dozen eggs story," I'll sum it up for you:

Evan now knows how to unlock and open the bedroom door. We know this because he woke up last Friday while Jeremy was still sleeping and decided to make himself some eggs for breakfast. He broke half of them on the stove and the other half in the living room. He also opened up all of his Christmas presents (under the tree and in the closet), colored the couch like a rainbow with his Crayola markers and drew some cave paintings upstairs on the walls with his crayons. Its days like that we are truly thankful that we don't have twins...!

Turkey Day

This Thanksgiving we were able to enjoy delicious food at three places - Jeremy's Grandma's, Jeremy's Mom's, and my Mom's. All three made a delicious spread and we came home with bellyaches and lots of leftovers. Evan and Petey enjoying some quality time together

Sorry the updates haven't been coming as easily lately - I (Emily) received a temporary promotion at work (which is great) except that I still have to get my old job done as well as my new job. I am really enjoying this new opportunity but I haven't had much time to spend with my wonderful family lately. Hopefully things will calm down soon and I won't miss too much during the next three months.

We have hit some milestones this month - Evan's first dentist visit, for one. He did an amazing job for the dentist and even let the hygienist floss his teeth! (Evan will do almost anything for a sticker.) His teeth all looked great, but he will most likely need braces when he gets older to fix his bite. Guess we better start saving!

As for Evan's talking - I think we have a runner-up for the title of "Jabbermouth" in our household. I used to have this title in the bag, but Evan is giving me a run for my money lately. He is speaking in full sentences and his pronunciation has improved a lot over the past few weeks. My current favorite exclamation of his is "Oh, man!" which he picked up from his pal Dora.

As are the rest of us, Evan has been bedazzled by all of the Christmas lights and decorations everywhere we go (and its not even Thanksgiving yet!) I am so excite for Santa to come this year I can hardly contain myself. This year is going to be fun...we are getting Evan a big box of bubble wrap. He has never attached himself to a blankie, nuk, or lovie - but he LOVES bubble
wrap. He sleeps with a piece of it at night and during nap times. I'm not really sure what this means psychologically speaking, but I have to admit I find it pretty funny.

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Evan decided that his hair needed brushing tonight. For any of you that have seen his hair, you know that it is fairly curly...so when as he brushed it it got bigger...

and bigger...

and bigger!

And this photo brings me back...since Evan was barely a week old one of his favorite things has been to be tossed in the air by his daddy. Weighing in at 34 pounds, I wonder how Jeremy can still do this - what you can't see here is the HUGE smile on Evan's face (obscured by his sleeve) and the "I'm laughing so hard I can't breathe" giggles that Evan breaks into every time Jeremy does this.

Better late than never!

Happy belated Halloween - or "Hoppy Wada-heen" as Evan would say.

We headed downtown on the 31st to participate in "Trunk or Treat." The best part of the experience was the small petting zoo they had set up in the middle or the street. Evan is fascinated by chickens, and was very excited to pet one (although by the look on his face he looks far from excited.)


Despite in the sea of 1,000 children flooding the downtown, we managed to find DJ and Beth! Beth made DJ this awesome train costume! So creative.


The cutest monkey butt I've ever seen.


DJ and Evan ready for some serious Trick-or-Treating! It took Evan about 15 houses before he got the hang of what was going on. For a few days after Halloween still said "Trick-or-Treat" wherever we went.

Oh yeah, and the first substantial snowfall of the year came a few days before Halloween. Here Evan is eating some of the snowflakes.

Only in Minnesota...would someone be mowing their yard in a muscle shirt while there was still snow on the ground. Way to go Jeremy!

Emma and Jonathan come to play!

We had the pleasure of babysitting Emma and Jonathan a week or so ago. Emma and Evan were inseparable the entire time. It was so cute!


They snuggled together to watch a movie...


They rode horsey together...


They had snack time together (Emma insisted Evan sit on her lap)...


And they lounged together (I guess Evan got a bit heavy and they decided to share the chair instead)...


And here Emma is cooking everyone "dinner" while she talks on the "phone."

We all had a great time and are looking forward to our next play date!!!