THE EVANS FAMILY: 2019

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Ember - 7 Years Old

Ember is *S*E*V*E*N*

Our girl just continues to grow up and it is such a bittersweet joy to watch. At seven, Ember weighs a little over 42 lbs and is 46 inches tall. She goes to bed around 7:30-7:45 at night and gets up at 7:15 - 7:30 am on school days. She will do about an hour to an hour and a half quiet time on the weekends when she is not at school. Ember has lost three teeth this last year.

Ember is a leader at heart and independent by nature. She also has a very sensitive and emotional side to her. She is energized by being around others and confidently loves to try new things. She loves growing older and being able to do things more and more on her own. She loves being silly and laughing with her family and friends. She is constantly making crafts, pictures, and gifts for others and gets great job from giving them as gifts. Ember is extremely smart and picks up on things quickly. She has a hint of perfectionism in her but a whole slice of wanting to be in control of her surroundings. In general, she is quick to obey and does so with a cheerful spirit. She does her chores to help out the family faithfully and with very little complaints. She is still a deep rooted Daddy’s girl and loves her brothers strongly. Ember is usually very helpful and nurturing to Reece and Kade but does struggle with inciting or patronizing Reece at times. Overall, Ember is a joy to be around and continues to grow, challenge, and make us proud as we learn and grow in our parenting of her.

Here are some of Ember's favorite things at the age of SEVEN! Thankfully, Ember loves school and everything about it. She loves learning, she loves all the specials with PE, art, and Spanish as her favorites. She loves getting to school early to play on the playground with friends before school and always has stories of playing with friends during school. She loves the field trips, the assemblies, and the class parties. And thankfully, Ember does well not just academically but socially and emotionally at school. She is the class representative for her class this year and we have had many comments from teachers, other parents, and classroom aides about how Ember is a joy and a kind leader to other students. As stated earlier, Ember loves doing things and being around people. She loves play dates, birthday parties, Lifegroup, and having others over for dinner. Ember loves many physical activities too such as swimming, riding her new bike, hiking, going on walks, jumping on trampolines, and playing soccer. She still loves The Summit and the computers at the library. She has enjoyed doing the rock climbing wall at the Aquaplex and gets better and better each time she does it. Ember loves vacations! She counts down the days for each trip we take and usually is teary eyed as we are leaving. Her current favorites are The Great Wolf Lodge, Mexico, and Disneyland.

At home, Ember spends most of her time reading, doing crafts, and playing with her brothers. Ember’s favorite book series this past year are “Ivy and Bean,” “Miss Piggle Wiggle,” and “The Magic Tree House.” She is reading “The Little House on the Prairie” with us after the Bible at night and is enjoying that as well. Ember enjoys drawing, painting, coloring, gluing, cutting, and using other random craft supplies to make creations. She still enjoys playing board games such as Uno, Candyland, and Zingo. Ember enjoys doing puzzles as well. She can be very good at using her imagination and will play school or house with her stuffed animals. She bought some small Legos with some of her money earlier this year and enjoys creating things with those. Ember loves writing and has kept a journal about her day for a few days to weeks straight at various times throughout the past year. Ember plays with Reece often. Their favorite games and activities are doing crafts together, Perler beads, wrestling, creating a play scene with Reece’s trucks and construction toys, playing “fair” outside and many other things. Ember’s favorite games to play with Kade are driving him around on the Plasma car, pushing him around in a box, building block towers for him to knock down or setting up an entire “daycare” for him filled with blankets, stuffed animals, and his toys. Ember loves family movie nights and her other favorite is when we play family charades. Ember is a very good eater and eats almost anything. Some of her favorite foods are: egg burrito, bagel and cream cheese, yogurt, bacon, hash browns, donuts, cheese crisp, macaroni, chicken nuggets, ants on a log, apple, cuties, watermelon, pizza, smoked salmon, hamburger, French fries, and of course most sweet treats as well.

As stated earlier, Ember has strong emotions – be them happy, sad, or mad. She loves making other people feel special and went so far as to plan an entire camping birthday party for her Daddy this year. She also made a sign and confetti that she surprised me with when I came in the door on my birthday. She is sensitive to looking like a baby or a little kid and doesn’t like when she is looked down on as too little (which seems to happen often because of her height). But at the same time she clings to some things that keep her innocent and young such as still saying “Daddy, come touch my fingers” often right before she goes to sleep, sleeping with Tickle, and sucking her fingers while going to bed. She has a strong sense of fairness and justice and often times doesn’t understand that fair and right aren’t always the same.

Ember has learned many new things this year as well. She is consistently getting better and better at reading and writing. Math skills are starting to click for her as well and she can count by 2’s, 5’s and 10’s to 100. She helps the family by feeding Maci and giving her water each day, putting her laundry away weekly, and keeping her room clean. Ember has also learned how to clean the upstairs bathroom (besides the toilet) and dust the furniture. She can get herself ready for the day and can help Reece if he needs help with a step in the process. Ember also learned how to swim by herself without her puddle jumper and she got to the top of the warped wall at The Summit in the American Ninja Warrior section.

Ember continued NAU ballet till the summer and was able to be a Marzipan sheep in the Nutcracker performance. Ember played AYSO soccer again this past summer and started doing Awanas at a local church this year. She is loving going to the meetings and earning jewels for memorizing Bible verses. Ember also did a coding club after school on Monday’s for a month and will ask to do that on the computer occasionally at home. The biggest thing this past year was Ember getting baptized as a profession of her faith. It was an amazing experience to witness.

It is incredible to witness Ember growing and maturing physically, emotionally, intellectually, and most importantly, spiritually. Ember is old enough to realize that life can be hard and because of sin making the right choice is difficult even when you know in your head the God-honoring thing to do. But she is learning and applying principles to help her make choices that line up with what Christ would want for her and we are thankful she has a heart to serve Him. We pray daily that she continues in this all the days of her life. We love Ember dearly and are so proud and in awe of the seven year old that God has created her to be.

Ember's Birthday Fun:

Chia pudding for breakfast

Mountain School has a Halloween costume parade at the end of the day

Then we made pizza for dinner and Ember opened a few presents

Then we went Trick or Treating around our neighborhood

Ember's 7 Year Interview:

Favorite color? Aqua

Favorite toy? Tickle and Ella (stuffed animal mermaid)

Favorite food? Pizza and smoked salmon

A food you don't really like? Jalapeño

Favorite thing to watch? Spongebob Sqaurepants, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid

Favorite place to go? Great Wolf Lodge

Favorite book? Mermaid Tales book series

Favorite song? “Halleluj, Halleluj, Praise ye the Lord” and “We are Sparks”

Favorite restaurant? Picazzo’s

Favorite thing to do each day? Go to school

Favorite thing to do with Mommy? Play charades

Favorite thing to do with Daddy? Daddy Daughter Ball

What makes you happy? Tickle, Ella, Mommy, Daddy, Reece, and Kade

What is something scary? Fire

What are you really good at? Soccer, Awanas, resting, and puzzles

Who is your best friend? Ella, Delilah, Lila, Addi, and Evelyn

What do you want to be when you grow up? Veterinarian

What do you think about before you fall asleep? Counting and what I am going to do the next day

Here are a few more pictures of Ember from the last year!

Sunday, November 3, 2019

The Great Wolf Lodge

A Great Wolf Lodge location recently opened up in Scottsdale and we decided to try it out in celebration for Ember's 7th birthday instead of a party this year. We all enjoyed our time and were very impressed with our overall experience! We would definitely go back again in the future.

We arrived and all the kids got wolf ears. Kade wasn't so sure about them at first.

The Great Wolf Lodge is known for it's indoor water park. There was a splash pad area with small slides, a huge play place with water slides and dumping water (pictured below), a wave pool, a lazy river, a pool with basketball and some moving logs you can try and walk across, and then the bigger water slides.

We went to Red Robin for dinner the first night and Ember got a special ice cream sundae for her birthday.

Ember had some money to spend and chose to do the ropes course. She was SUPER brave and didn't hesitate at all. I was surprised and impressed at how well she did.

Reece chose to spend some of his money on miniature golf for him and Ember.

Goodbye for now, Great Wolf Lodge! See you again soon hopefully!

Monday, September 9, 2019

Reece turns 4!!

Our sweet Reecey boy is FOUR years old! It seems like just yesterday he was a little baby but now he is turning into a little boy. It has been so eye opening to see just how different Reece is from his sister as he has gotten older. God sure is creative! We are very excited to see what God has in store for Reece as he continues to grow and mature.

Here is the big 4 year old!

Reece is currently about 31 lbs and he is 39 inches tall. Reece is sleeping in a toddler bed in his own room. We have experimented with putting Kade in the crib in the room with Reece a few times and Reece is excited for when he will always have his little brother in there with him. Reece goes to bed around 7:30 and wakes up between 6:30-7:00 most days. He has a quiet time each day which he spends playing with his toys and sometimes looking at his books or singing. He naps once every week to two weeks or if he is sick or we had a really late night.

Reece, from the depths of his heart, loves physical touch. He loves to be hugged and kissed. He loves sitting on our laps if we are available to sit. And when you sit next to him at the dinner table he will continue to hold your hand after prayer and then constantly rub your arm or link his arm in yours while eating. He hugs and loves hard - sometimes so hard that you think he might knock you over. He is the boy that randomly runs over to you and says "I love you!" out of the blue before running back off to play. Reece is loud and very active. We remind him to slow down and be careful countless times each day. Recently, Reece has been struggling with being thankful for the good things going on instead of always looking for the bad and using big boy words when he does or doesn't like something that is happening. But overall, he is packed full of sweetness and silliness.

Some of Reece's favorite things are his siblings! He loves playing with Ember (when they are choosing to be kind to one another). They wrestle together, do crafts together, make up games to play with one another, and just explore together. Reece also is enjoying being a big brother to Kade. He constantly is trying to get him to laugh or giggle and often comments on how cute Kade is. Reece's second favorite thing after his siblings is anything that moves. He loves playing with, pointing out, and looking at books/watching movies about construction trucks, airplanes and helicopters, and all emergency vehicles. Reece seems to constantly be hungry and is always excited for the next meal or snack. Some of his favorite foods are cereal, waffles, banana and almond butter wrapped in a tortilla, hot dogs, macaroni, pizza, grapes, watermelon, granola bars, veggie straws, french fries, and any kind of treat (except root beer floats). Reece is greatly enjoying preschool and talks about playing with his friends there, playing outside, and singing silly songs. He always tells me that he didn't learn anything new though. Reece also loves being outside whether we are going for a walk/hike, riding bikes, or playing at a park. He loves playing with his friends at play dates and school. He loves The Summit and the play place at the mall. Reece loves going on trips and has grown to greatly enjoy swimming and playing at the beach. Reece loves when he can help us with something and is learning to put his laundry away, help dad with the backyard landscaping, and put the silverware away. When he goes grocery shopping with Mom, he enjoys riding in the humongous car carts and holding the green produce bag ties until mom needs them. Reece also loves to help carry things in from the car after we get home. And when one of us comes home and he wasn't with us he runs out into the garage to greet us and always wants to honk the car horn if Kade is awake.

Reece has many favorite games and toys to play with. One of his long time favorite games is Hide and Seek. He also likes playing "tickle bridge" and chase the stretch strap (made up games by dad.) Reece enjoys playing Uno, Zingo, Weed the Woozle, and Twister as well. His favorite toys are all his truck toys. He loves pushing them around the floor and making them crash into each other. Reece loves riding the Plasma car around the house way to fast and jumping on his Fly Bar pogo stick. He loves riding his Strider bike and playing with his outdoor construction trucks in the dirt and wood chips. Reece is really enjoying his scratch art and loves to make Perler bead creations. Reece has learned how to do his 24 piece vehicle puzzle by himself and likes to do that often as well. He likes to practice cutting with his scissors and coloring and painting with Ember. He also enjoys playing with little construction trucks in play dough. Reece really looks forward to watching his show after quiet time each day. He loves Lightening McQueen, Paw Patrol, and PJ Masks. He enjoys playing on the computers at the library and getting Chick Fil-A for lunch. Reece loves looking for and picking up bugs - his favorites are rolly polly bugs, worms, and slugs.

There are some things that Reece doesn't like as well. He is very particular and likes things done in the correct order. He gets upset sometimes if things are mixed up. He doesn't always like to do things for himself and would rather have someone else do it for him. He is getting old enough to realize that he doesn't like Ember always telling him what to do or not do. He doesn't like Kade getting his things and getting them all wet since he still puts lots of things in his mouth. Reece also doesn't like being cold and seems to have cold blood. It will be the dead of summer and his room is probably close to 90 degrees at bed time and he will want long sleeve and long pants pajamas with his comforter over him and no fan.

Reece is a little more hesitant to try new things and some days just wants to stay home rather than going somewhere. He isn't very interested in learning his numbers and letters and would rather play. He has been liking working on his "homework book" and doing Tot School with Mom and little things are starting to click. Reece can color surprisingly well and is even starting to draw some simple things. He seems to get more overwhelmed by things where there are large groups of kids and little structure. He did go to VBS for the first time this year and greatly enjoyed it - although when I told him we were going to VBS on Tuesday morning (the 2nd day) he made a face and said, "What? Not again!"

And this boy sure is silly! He loves making silly faces of all sorts! He loves doing silly dances when he is excited for something. When we were potty training this past year, he would come to get a Skittle after successfully going and would dance and sing "Skittle, oh yeah!" He giggles like crazy when we tickle him and loves when we pick him up and swing him upside down. His genuine real belly laugh is the best!

Reece has learned a lot this past year. The biggest accomplishment was potty training and he is doing so well with it now. Reece also learned how to get his shoes and socks on and can get dressed by himself most of the time. He takes his dishes to the sink after meals and can brush his own teeth. Reece has learned how to count to 20 and sing the ABC's song. He knows pretty much all his colors and he knows the common shapes as well. He balances so good on his Strider bike and is very close to riding his new bike without training wheels.

Reece truly is such a special boy that you can't help but love. He is often telling us to be careful and asking us if we are ok if we hurt ourselves. His love and concern for others shines through daily. He is very self-less (definitely not all the time) for a four year old. He will let Ember go first for something even though it is his turn or offer to share his snack or food with someone just to be kind. Our family is better with Reece in it. He swings high and low often and pushes our buttons frequently but the hugs and the sweetness make up for it. God has big things planned for this boy and we are honored to be in the front row seats to witness it!

Birthday Fun:

Reece wanted blueberry pancakes for breakfast.

Then he opened a few presents.

We went to the Demolition Derby at the county fair and ran into two of his good friends and got to sit with them

We had pizza for dinner and then went to get a special treat for dessert.

The week before Reece's birthday we took a trip to Sedona to celebrate and got to go swimming and had dinner with his Mima and Pappy and Uncle Jared, Aunt Hope, and Cousin Harper.