Decorating the Christmas Tree

Evan has been so exited about Christmas this year. He has been waiting all week to put the "jingle bells"(sparkly glass balls) on our Christmas tree.
















This was our first year having Evan decorate the tree with us. He was very good about making sure that all the ornaments we owned made it on to the tree.
We had a lot of fun decorating the tree as a family and we only broke one glass "jingle bell" in the process.








After we decorated the tree, we made yummy Christmas gingerbread cookies with daddy.

Evan was in charge of making sure they had lots of sprinkles and red hots.

A Visit to the Fire House

For playgroup this week we went to the McLean Fire House to see real firemen and real fire trucks. Evan and I had a lot of fun. They gave all the kids little fire hats and let them climb all over the fire engines.

Evan thought that ringing the bell on the old 70's engine was great fun.

It's a Baby Brother!

Even though ultrasound pictures are quite blurry I was surprised how much Evan looked like his ultrasound picture. I wonder how close this little one will look to his.

little fingers...

And little toes.

Happy Halloween and a Hurricane

Evan has been very excited about halloween this year, especially the part about getting to be a trick or treater.  While Grandma Heather was here on her way back from visiting Papa Saunders in Kurdistan, we took her to a local pumpkin patch out in the country to pick the perfect pumpkin. We looked at lots of different pumpkins and had a great time. In the end, Evan decided that the biggest one at the bottom of the hill was the pumpkin for us, so Mommy got to pull it and Evan all the way back up the hill in a wagon to our car.

The day before Hurricane Sandy was scheduled to hit, we decided it was a good time to get our pumpkins carved. The tools Daddy bought for pumpkin carving all got claimed by Evan, but we were able to carve some happy smiles on our pumpkins anyway using stuff from our kitchen.

We finished carving our pumpkins just as it started to rain. Although Hurricane Sandy did the most damage in the New York/New Jersey area, it left its mark on the D.C. metro area as well. We were expecting to lose power, and though quite a lot of people in our area did, we never lost our power. We did however get a leak in our roof about 1 inch in diameter. Paul had to go up in the attic every few hours to empty the bucket we put up there to catch all the water.

We were afraid that the hurricane would mess up our Halloween, but it turned out to be a great night for trick or treating. Evan got a lot of candy and was determined to eat it all in one night. He probably would have done, if Mommy hadn't made him brush his teeth and go to bed. He made up for lost time by eating the rest of his candy instead of breakfast the next morning. 

Introducing Baby #2

It may not look like much but this fuzzy blob is going to be the newest member of our family. The due date is set for April 12 2013. Here's hoping this one shows up on time.

Utah Summer Vacation (Part 2 with the Kraczek Family)

Our second week in Utah was spent with Grandma and Papa Kraczek and all the Kraczek cousins.

On our first day we went to Lagoon. While the big kids went on all the big scary rides, Evan and his cousin Kaitlyn had a blast riding all the rides they were big enough for. Even though he was very brave and had fun on all the bigger rides too, his favorite ride was Bulgy the whale.

We were there all day. By taking just a little nap in the picnic area under some trees after lunch, Evan was good to ride the rides till closing.

The Kraczek Family 

While in Utah we were able to go to two family reunions, one for the Kraczek family and One for the Western Family (Grandma Eileen's side) It was a lot of fun to see everyone and get caught up.  It is always exciting to see how much all the kids have grown and get to know the newest members of each family that we hadn't met yet. Evan loved being around all the cousins and would assimilate immediately into the kid collective wherever we went. We will miss everyone and can't wait to get together again when we come back.

Utah Summer Vacation (Part 1 with the Saunders Family)

"That's Evan's Plane!"

Our summer vacation started with a 4 hour plane trip from DCA to SLC airport. Evan was very excited to ride on a plane and he was very good for most of the trip.  Toddlers are just not built to sit still for that long.

Papa Saunders picked us up from the airport in Salt Lake City and Evan was so happy to see Papa and to tell him that he flew in an airplane way up high in the sky.

One of the fun things that we did in Utah was go to the Hogle Zoo with Uncle Alec and Uncle Chris. Our D.C. National Zoo pass got us in for free which was a nice surprise for mommy.

"Uncle Chris is a elephant!"

The Hogle Zoo has African elephants with saggy baggy skin and big ears instead of the Asian elephants at the D.C. Zoo.
The D.C. Zoo is bigger but the Hogle Zoo has more big animals like Giraffes, a Camel, Rhinoceroses, and...

A Polar Bear that has been trained to swim right up to the glass turn around and swim back to the glass again. It was a lot of fun to watch. You can just see Evan's head right up against the glass in this picture.

One night Grandma and Papa Saunders took us to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum.

"It's bones mommy"

Evan is really into the kids show Dinosaur Trains on PBS and knows more about dinosaurs at age 2 1/2 than I ever have.

"A shark called Cretoxyrhina"

We had a lot of fun running around the museum naming all the dinosaurs we could recognize. They look a lot different as bones as opposed to cartoons on TV.

The best thing we did in Utah was hang out with our family that we don't get to see very often. Evan had a lot of fun playing with his cousins Jonny and Tommy; they share a love of all things trains.

They have a great pool at their apartment that is just the right size.  We can't wait till our next Utah vacation to play some more.

We all scream for Ice Cream!

This summer Evan has discovered the joys of an Ice cream cone.  He especially likes chocolate ice cream in his ice cream cones. He won't eat ice cream in a bowl with a spoon that is just too much work, but ice cream cones are a favorite around here.

Gotta love that happy ice cream face!

Evan's New Bed

Early one morning a week or so ago Evan came in and woke up Mommy and Daddy instead of the other way around. It was quite a shock because we didn't know that he had learned to climb out of his crib.




With his new found talent of crib diving, aka diving head first in and out of his crib we decided that it was time for a big boy bed.

So off to IKEA we went. We told Evan that we were there to find his new bed. He was very excited and as we followed the arrows around the store he was trying to climb into all the adult beds. We had to keep telling him that those beds were too big and that we needed to keep looking. When we arrived at the children's beds we said "okay Evan which one is Evan's new bed?" Before we could catch him he ran over to one of the floor models, striped down to his diaper, got into a bed, pulled the covers up, and declared that it was Evan's new bed while leaving his shirt, pants, and shoes on the floor. Coincidentally, the boy has good taste as that is the one that we ended up purchasing.

Grandpa comes for a visit

Grandpa Saunders came for a visit this week on his way back from Kurdistan where he will be building luxury houses for the next few years. It is a long story, but the good news is we will probably get to see him more often when he takes a layover here for a day or two on his way back home. Yea!! we love Grandpa!

On this visit we took Grandpa to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport. The building opened in December, 2003, and provides enough space for the Smithsonian to display the thousands of aviation and space artifacts that cannot be exhibited on the National Mall. The two sites together showcase the largest collection of aviation and space artifacts in the world.

There are lots of plaques that tell you all about how cool the planes are but we didn't need that because we had Grandpa who loves planes and could tell us how cool all the planes were all by himself.

Evan spent the day running around like a lunatic telling Grandpa "I found the airplane! Come this way Grandpa, how about this airplane!" It is difficult to keep up with a two year old's energy level.  He was very excited to be spending the day with his Grandpa Saunders and it showed.

Mommy's favorite part was seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery. It is about 4-5 times bigger than I thought it was going to be no wonder it needed all those huge rockets to get it into space.

We are so glad that Grandpa came to visit and can't wait till we get to see him again.

Flowers In our Garden

Its spring here in Virginia and the flowers are out. Evan and I have been working hard getting our garden ready and planting lots of flowers.

Evan has been a great little helper. He loves to dig in the dirt and show mommy where all the flowers should go.

He takes digging in the dirt very seriously. My trowel is now Evan's Shovel and he will tell you all about it.

Our hard work has paid off and we have lots of pretty flowers in our garden. We love to go out side to smell the flowers but no touching. I got too close to some of the flowers the other day and Evan pulled me away and told me "no mommy, no break it". So we take our flowers very seriously around here.

Happy Easter

This year for Easter Evan participated in not one but TWO Easter egg hunts. The first one we went to was put on by the city of Falls Church. They had it divided into age groups to avoid trampling. We were in the three and under group. There were a lot of kids there and Evan was very excited. It was over in about 1 minute. That is about my child's attention span so it worked out perfect.

 Considering the amount of time he had to collect eggs and candy before it was all gone I'd say he got a pretty good haul. The apple slices were mom's addition hoping that he wouldn't just fill up on chocolate eggs before lunch.

Mmmmmmm... chocolate!!!
Evan had a lot of fun running around with chocolate all over his face and he even got to say hi to the Easter Bunny. We will definitely be back for the fun next year.

We also participated in a Easter egg hut at our friends house where the eggs were empty but there were a lot more of them and no elbows were needed in the search.

        HAPPY EASTER!

Cherry Blossom Festival

Just in case you were wondering...
The National Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration in Washington, D.C., commemorating the March 27, 1912, gift of Japanese cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo City to the city of Washington. Mayor Ozaki donated the trees in an effort to enhance the growing friendship between the United States and Japan and also celebrate the continued close relationship between the two nations.

The Cherry Blossom Festival is a big deal around here and although we have lived her for 5 years this is the first time we have gone. We are so glad we finally went out to see it we will definitely be going back next year. It was such a fun family outing. It took us around 3 1/2 hours to walk around the Jefferson Memorial tidal basin to look at all the trees in bloom but it was worth it. The weather was just right for a stroll in the park.  We brought a picnic dinner to eat on the grass as we watched the paddle boats go by on the water. 

Evan REALLY wanted to get in the water. If we had let him he would have run right of the 5-10 foot ledge and dove right in. Don't worry I've already bought him a life jacket for when we go to the beach this summer.

A day at the Zoo

Follow the Tracks!

The conversation that morning went something like this. 
Mommy: "Good Morning buddy do you want to go to the Zoo today with our friends?
Evan: "Okay"
Evan: "Hey daddy." Paul: "What buddy?"
Evan: "A go a zoo!" Paul: "That sounds like a lot of fun."
Evan: "Hey daddy." Paul: "What buddy?"
Evan: "A go a zoo, monkeys! OOEEAA" Paul: "There are monkeys at the zoo, you're right."
Evan: "Hey daddy" Paul: "what buddy?"
Evan: "Hey daddy" Paul: yes?" Evan: "A go a zoo!"
It went on like that for about an hour till it was time to take daddy to work. Needless to say he was excited.

 We saw the Elephants.
Mommy: "Where are they Evan?"
Evan: "I found it. Right there!" "Elephants!"

And the Monkeys "OOEEAA"

This one looks a bit grumpy.

 

Shhh.. Monkeys sleeping.

In the Reptile House Evan challenged a turtle to a race.

and in the discovery center we saw how many two-year-olds can fit into this snake's tummy.

We had a great day at the zoo, and now that we have the zoo pass we bought Evan for his birthday we will be coming back often.

Mommy and Evan: "Bye Zoo!"
Evan:"Hey mommy."
Mommy: "Yes buddy?"
Evan: "A take a nap?"
Mommy: "Sure buddy mommy thinks that is a great idea."