Today was the last day of school for Catch before Christmas break. His preschool does a little Christmas program with the 3k, 4k, and 5k classes. They all learn some songs(which are taught by our friend, Mrs Justine Hogan). Catch loves music class and has been very excited about the Christmas program he was going to be in, or rather, in his words, the concert he was going to be in. Ha! He would tell me about the stage he was going to stand on, and the songs he was going to sing, and the surprise he was going to say at the end. This morning, Catch had asked me if I would call Daddy at work to see if he could come to his concert. I called, but no answer, so I thought he wasn't going to be able to make it due to exams, but to our great surprise, Daddy was there and Catch just lit up, which melted my heart to pieces. I think I am too emotional to be a parent. I continue tearing up as the class walked into the sanctuary(they were doing nothing special, just walking)...then I got misty-eyed when Catch looked out into the crowd to find us and gave a big wave. After that, I got all emotional when they were singing and the big tears came rolling down my face came at the end when he and his classmates threw up their hands and said "Happy Birthday Jesus". In all the frustrating moments there may be in parenting, nothing is better than knowing what a priveledge it is that God has entrusted these two children for me to take care of and enjoy moments such as these with. I will be forever grateful. Grandma, Mimi, and Kate got to come enjoy the concert and Catch really loved having them there!
So, as much as I would love for the sun to come out and for us to be outside playing, that is not happening in Macon too much these days. We have seen a lot of the inside of our house and as much as I love our house, I was going crazy. Today I decided we needed to do something a little different to liven the mood around here and get some energy out of the kids. So I vaccumed and told Catch to find all the pillows he could in the house and pile them high on the living room floor. Well, wouldn't you know, Catch and Kate had the best time ever and were occupied by that pile for hours, I mean hours. Catch loved throwing himself on top of the mountain. Kate loved climbing over and back over and back over, but she also was thrilled with the fact she could now get up on the couch by herself since all the pillows were taken off and laying in the floor. We had the best indoor play day we have had in a long time and will definitely be doing that again. Thank you Lord for the rain, and thank you that kids love to climb "mountains" of pillows.
Happy Birthday Grandma. Today we went to McDonough to celebrate my mom's(grandma's) birthday. We love birthdays in the Evans family. Before leaving, we made a chocolate mousse tart from her. Honestly this was the most fun I have had in the kitchen with the kids ever. Kate had the best time helping me make the crust and part of the mousse. She did a little dance every time I gave her a little taste of chocolate(just like her mama). Catch helped me with the rest of the mousse, making the whipped cream for me to fold into the chocolate. He loved every minute of it, knowing he was going to get to lick the spoon and the bowl in the end. It was a fun day for the kids at Grandma's. Catch loves getting to see all his cousins and play with them. It really is such a joy to see what family means to him. He is the youngest(besides Kate) of all the cousins, so he spent the whole day trying to keep up with everyone else. He would have had it no other way though. I think Grandma enjoyed seeing everyone and loving on sweet baby Kate(who, because of age, is the only one you can get a hold of long enough these days to love on, as you can tell from the pictures below. She's working on getting fast enough though to get away from us.) Anyways, here are a few pictures from the day. We love you Grandma. Happy Birthday.
I think it is so funny that the two boys will not take their eyes off the cake while everyone else is posing for a picture. Uncle Chris and Baby Kate Chloe, Taylor, Brooke, Christopher, and Catch The dreaded kitchen cleanup.
Ok, sorry it has taken me over a month to blog on anything. Seems sickness keeps being passed back and forth between the two kids and I am just now recovering from that, finally sitting down to blog on our last month. I actually can't remember much of what has gone on this past month, except for our fun week out of town for Thanksgiving. Matt had the whole week off(Yeah!). We so needed some good family time together, so we went down to Tybee for a few days and then to matt's parents house(in Savannah) for a few days. The weather wasn't what we had hoped for, but honestly, we had a great time. Matt's parents actually kept the kids for us Friday and Saturday night(which was the best gift ever) and then we brought them down to the beach until Wednesday. We had the best time. The weather was cold and wet, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the beach and the great playgrounds Tybee has to offer. It is so fun to just let the kids go run free on the beach, no worries of destroying anything, no worries of anyone getting hurt, just a good time to let lose. Catch ran himself silly, loving every minute, while Kate tried to just figure it all out. From there, we went to Matt's parents house to spend Thanksgiving with them and see Uncle Jason and Aunt Tina. Thanksgiving day was a fun day of cooking and looking forward to the dinner that was ahead of us(I love holiday food!) Pam and I took forever to complete anything because we stopped every few minutes to do something for the kids, but it was really enjoyable and laid back. As a matter of fact, after Pam spent about 2 hours(due to the kids loving mimi's attention) on her sausage dressing, she walked away from it for 30 seconds and Dagz face planted himself right in the middle of the pan and ate the dressing! Memories, and another sausage dressing to prepare! Even though we had planned on eating dinner around 5pm, we didn't end up actually eating until around 8pm. I will have to say it was probably one of the best Thanksgiving meals we have had though. Catch had had such a full day that in the middle of dinner, Matt was talking to him and he looked up and said "Daddy, I can't even concentrate on what you are saying, I am so tired!". Lots of laughs, but I love for my kids to have enjoyed themselves so much that at the end of the day, they can't even concentrate on what we are saying anymore....to me, that is a good day! Then on Friday, Uncle Jason and Aunt Tina came over for an oyster roast and some wii time with Catch. Catch could hardly wait until they got there. The entire time we were doing the oyster roast(which for the life of him, he couldn't figure out why we would eat something that looked and smelled as it did), he was trying to be so patient for us to finish so he could "dominate" anyone who challenged him in any wii game. He is the biggest trash talker, well, right behind his father, of course. Overall, it was a fun time visiting with family and being able to spend time together as a family. Happy late Thanksgiving!
Wow! What a busy month for us. Of course we celebrated Kate's birthday, we had lots of fall festivals to go to, and Halloween. Here are a couple of pictures from this month. The first is of Catch's 3K Class trip to the pumpkin patch. It is always hard to get kids this age to look at the camera. The next three pictures are of our church's Fall Festival. It was so much fun. One of the games they had was pop the balloon game, but Catch didn't like that, so he took his balloon and made up his own game. We just hit it around without letting it hit the ground. Funny thing was as Catch and I were playing, this little girl came up and caught the balloon mid air, put in under her foot on the ground and smashed it right in front of Catch. It was so funny and so sad to me all at the same time. Catch literally just couldn't believe someone would crush his fun like that. The look on his face was priceless. Thankfully, there was one more balloon left for us to finish our game with. The next picture is of Kate and her little friend Millie. They were born 4 days apart from one another. Finally, the last picture is of the children of the ladies in my bible study group. Between all of us, we have 15 children under the age of 4 with 2 more on the way. Crazy, but fun. Catch was a lion this year and Kate was a love bug. What a fun but busy month we have had.
So today we celebrated Kate's first birthday with the extended family. We have actually been celebrating since Friday(her actual birthday) and it has really been so much fun. Anyways, she had a great day today. She got to see all her family she loves and she got to have her own birthday cake(which btw was so pretty thanks to Mimi taking care of that for us). But the best part of the day today was Kate started walking. She was so proud of herself, and giggling the whole time and I was so proud too, until I realized my life just changed. : ) Well, here are some pictures of today, friday her real birthday, a video of her blowing out her candle and a video of her walking.
Well, I don't even know where to begin. First, I guess, is Happy Birthday baby Kate! Whew, what a year it has been. I know you all know Kate's entrance into the world was a little different than we had hoped, but what a treasure this past year has been. We are so glad to have baby Kate here with us celebrating her first birthday. She has been such the trooper over the past year enduring countless tests to see what was causing her breathing issues and putting up with that monitor she wore for the first 10 months of her life. Well, we are happy to say, nothing seems to be wrong and she is now 2 months free of that monitor and doing so great. Kate has been such a blessing to us over this past year. She has taken us on a journey of understanding and knowing how to fully put our trust and hope in Christ and Christ alone. How He is faithful in giving us the grace and peace and rest we need when we seek Him and only Him. I will be forever thankful for this past year and the emotional ups and downs of it solely because I now have a firmer foundation in Christ, confidence that He is in control, and what a peace that brings.
Well, back to Kate, she is the greatest little thing that could have been added to this family. I am not sure I can even describe her, but I am going to try. The movie line that always comes to mind when I want to describe Kate is the line from the movie Shrek: “Ogres are like onions! Lot’s of layers.” Not comparing her to orgres here, but onions. She is much cuter than an orgre! Like an onion though, my sweet girl is full of layers. She is so sweet, mild, not too talkactive but when she gets her mind set that she wants something, those things go out the window and she is full force determined to go for it, nothing stopping her. She will not take no for an answer, and when she wants to be heard, believe me, you will hear her! : ) She is mysterious in such a great way...I think. She doesn't let you in upon first meeting(or maybe 100th meeting for that matter), but when she does, oh what a blessing she is. She really makes you work hard to even get a smile out of her(which to me is so hilarious because she really loves to smile and giggle.) She loves Catch and thinks he hung the moon, but she still gives him a hard time and tries to purposely drive him crazy by getting into his beloved red chair. Sometimes she does it while he is in it and just trys to squash herself right in beside him, but sometimes she waits so patiently till he gets out of it and then she makes a dart for it and giggles the whole way there and the whole time we are trying to tell her that is Catch's chair. The giggle there is the best ever, such a loving "I am just trying to get your attention because I love your attention." type giggle.
Kate is competitive already. She and Catch have crawling races and when he starts to win, she pulls back up and sits on her legs and waits for him to come back to her and right when he gets to her, but is stilling facing the wrong direction, she throws herself back down into crawling position and takes off, trying to win. If you know baby Kate, you know she does not like kisses(as I have been told, her mama was just the same way as a baby), but she can be so cuddly and loving with her hugs and touches. The other thing I find so great about baby Kate is...she loves loves to dance. It is the funniest thing ever, but if she hears music with a good beat, she can't control herself, she just breaks out in a dance. She gets a little embarrassed by it sometimes(like if we are in the store or something), but she just can't control herself. She loves music and it makes her move! : ) We frequently have dance parties in the office.
Other things...Kate loves animals. Dogs mainly. She has loved dagz from the moment she could move anywhere near him. Um, she is the best eater. The joy she gets from food is contagious to me. She loves all kinds of food(really good for you food, which is the best! It makes her mama so happy) She loves for you to get her bottle ready in front of her, she just squeals with excitement. I call it the bottle dance! : ) She has such a sweet sense of humor that I look forward to enjoying even more as she grows. So, as you can tell, I have soo soo soo enjoyed this past year getting to know this incredible little person that I actually get to call my daughter. She is just amazing to me. I am so blessed to have her and Catch. They have really been great joys in our lives and I do look forward to getting to know them both more and more each day. So with that....Happy Birthday again sweet girl. Mama loves you sooo much! Below is a video of her first year of life. Hope you enjoy seeing her grow!
I am a wife, mother, daughter, and friend. I love my family and friends and want to keep them updated and connected to our lives as best as possible. So here you go. Come and enjoy our lives with us.
Grandma, Mimi, and Kate got to come enjoy the concert and Catch really loved having them there! 
