THE EVANS FAMILY: 2020

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Ember - 8 Years Old

Ember turns 8!!

How is it that my first born is now 8 years old!?! It seems like just yesterday I was holding her in her swaddle blanket or cheering her on as she rolled over for the first time. But now, 8? I am so proud of the young lady that she is growing into and pray that she continues to follow God all the remainder of her days and years on this earth.

At age eight, Ember weighs about 46 lbs and is 47.6 inches tall. She still has her own room with a full size bed. We usually put all three kids down around 7:30-7:45, but Ember is more of a night owl and usually unwinds in her room for thirty minutes to an hour by reading, playing, or writing by the light of her night light. She still without fail calls "Daddy, come touch my fingers." when she is ready to actually go to sleep to say good night one more time. She has quite a few things she does at this time as well. She tells Dustin to "tell Mom that she is the best mommy ever and I love her forever." Than she tells her Daddy the same thing. Then she says something like "Good night; nigh night; I love you; see you in the morning" in rapid succession. Then she requests a hug, three kisses and a nuzzle. Ember then goes to sleep and usually wakes up around 7:00 in the morning. She immediately gets dressed and makes her bed to start the day.

Ember surely lives up to her name which means "spark." She has a high and low personality - great things are amazing and bad things are awful. She is a born leader and she loves things a particular way and takes it upon herself to try and bring about her preferences. She is extremely bright and loves to learn. Ember loves to be around other kids and she greatly misses being with her classmates in school during this time of virtual learning because of Covid-19. She can be extremely responsible with what needs to get done but is also a little bit of a hoarder when it comes to nick knacks and small toys. She loves her brothers and usually plays really well with them and is willing to serve them. However, there are, of course, times when she puts her wants first and needs some space from them as well. Ember is usually brave at trying new things and it pays off. She just did the Flag Extreme Kids Adventure Course and the employee complimented how well she did - especially for her age.

Ember has many favorite things! She loves to be social and interact with other kids - whether at school, at the park or for playdates. She makes new friends almost wherever she goes. As mentioned earlier, Ember loves to learn and school. Her favorite subject is math but she also really enjoys reading and writing. She loves art, music, PE and Spanish at school as well. She still loves arts and crafts and is frequently creating things for herself or for others. Addi and her made or bought gifts for each other and gave them back and forth to each other about every week of the summer. One of Ember's favorite things still remains trips. When we have a trip coming up, she has the countdown going and knows how many days till we leave. She is also the one who gets the most sad when it is time to leave a vacation. Ember loves to eat and is a really good eater overall. Some of her favorite foods are: over easy egg on toast, cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwich or tortilla wrap, apple, grapes, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, pizza, and almost any type of sweet. Ember really enjoys one on one time playing with Mom or Dad when it is a possibility. Ember likes all things girly like flip sequins, sparkles, unicorns, rainbows and mermaids.

Ember is a very imaginative girl and is always coming up with games for her to play by herself, with Reece or with her friends when she is around them. She wants to be a Veterinarian when she grows up and will pretend to be one. She still enjoys playing with her baby dolls and accessories on and off. She is always creating things like poems, songs, and stories. Ember enjoys singing. Her favorite sport to play is still soccer. She is always doing cartwheels, the splits and working on her handstands. Ember loves to go sledding and build snowmen when it is snowing out. She loves exploring and playing in the green belt behind our house with Reece and our neighbor Mila. Her current favorite game is Charades when we all play it as a family.

Ember continues to grow and mature physically, academically, emotionally and spiritually. Physically speaking, she is really good at climbing, monkey bars, and doing flips while holding onto bars and chains. She also just realized that she can do a one handed cartwheel. She is doing really good on her bike and can now stand while riding and is practicing beginning mountain biking skills on the dirt trails in our neighborhood. As far as academically, Ember is becoming a really efficient writer and has written an entire opinion paper with an intro, reasons with support and a conclusion. She is also writing some really good poems. Her teacher said that she has a good number theory for math and understands it well. With much work, Ember is emotionally making strides as far as putting others needs and desires above her own. She is also working on communicating with a calm and respectful tone and responding to little issues with little responses. Ember enjoys reading her Bible and talking about many subjects related to God and Heaven. She is often thinking and asking questions about how it all relates to her personal world.

Being EIGHT can be challenging at times - especially with two younger brothers and with Covid-19 where some of the things that she loves have been taken away from her in part. It is such a learning experience for Ember to make the most of what she does have and what God has blessed her with. We are so proud of Ember's adaptability, hard work and growth during this challenging time. She is constantly wanting to improve and do better in all aspects of her life and I pray that she keeps that drive for bettering herself with the strength and help of the Lord. We love you, Ember!

BIRTHDAY ACTIVITIES:

Donuts for breakfast:

A few presents:

Trunk or Treat at Mount Calvary with pizza for lunch

Flagstaff Extreme Kids Adventure Course:

Taking a ride with Dad on his new dirt bike:

Chick-Fil-A for dinner

Trick or Treating:

Ember's 8 Year Interview:

Favorite color? Pink and purple

Favorite toy? Barbie's

Favorite food? Pizza

A food you don't really like? Paleo Shepherd Pie

Favorite thing to watch? Elena of Avalor

Favorite place to go? Mexico

Favorite book? Chronicles of Narnia

Favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle by Jewel

Favorite restaurant? Chick-Fil-A

Favorite thing to do each day? Play

Favorite thing to do with Mommy? Cooking with Mommy

Favorite thing to do with Daddy? Play games

What makes you happy? Going on trips

What is something scary? Fire

What are you really good at? Soccer and gymnastics

Who is your best friend? Addi, Evelyn, Evi

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

What do you think about before you fall asleep? Unicorns and Heaven

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

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Ember's 8th Birthday Party at Mortimer Farms

This year for Ember's birthday celebration we decided to take a few of her clostest friends down with us to Mortimer Farm's in Dewey, AZ. It is a family fun farm and it was having a Fall Festival during this time. The whole family of some of our good friends decided to come down too! We had snacks in the car on the way down, lots of time to play, dinner at the farm and then a little more time to play before heading home.

Some of the things that the girls got to do was: a barrel train, many different tube slides, two different blobs to bounce on, a corn maze, zipline, peddle cart race track, redneck swing and much more.

Here are some pictures of the highlights!

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY EMBER!!!

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Reece - 5 Years Old

REECE TURNS 5!!

We've got a *F*I*V*E* year old on our hands! And we couldn't be more thankful for the 5 years we have been blessed with Reece in them. He is unique and special in his own ways and it is so fun to see him grow and learn daily.

At 5 years old, Reece is 41.5 inches tall and weighs about 35 lbs. He shares a room with Kade and sleeps in a toddler bed. He goes to bed right around 7:30 and wakes up around 6:00-6:30 most days. He still has a quiet time every day and will occasionally take a nap. He is doing two half days of preschool at Mount Calvary.

As far as personality is concerned, Reece is more of a reserved and dependent kid. He is more comfortable following what others are doing than figuring out what to do or leading what to do. He often would rather stay home than go places and enjoys when days are slow. He is usually kind and willing to share although he does, of course, have his selfish moments as well. He loves to laugh and has the best giggle! He is extremely active and always running and jumping and climbing wherever he goes. Because of this, he also seems to fall and get hurt often. He is hesitant to try new things but loves things that he already knows he can do.

One of Reece's most favorite things is to be tickled! He loves being tickled to the point where he cannot talk and can barely breathe. He asks for it multiple times a day. He loves being outside where he can run and jump and be loud. He enjoys riding his bike and scooter and he loves parks! Reece is always looking forward to the next time that he can eat. Some of his favorite foods are: cereal (he eats it pretty much every morning), almond butter, honey, and banana in a tortilla, banana by itself, whole apples (which he eats everything besides the stem and the seeds), granola bars, pizza, hot dogs, chia pudding, and any kind of treat. Reece loves getting to play with friends. His current best friends are Micah and Sam. He enjoys having books read to him and sits very quietly for that usually with his hand on the readers leg or arm and leaning in close. When Dad or Mom get home in the car, he runs out to the garage and wants to give the horn a quick honk. Reece loves when he is able to help Dad or Mom with something. He loves cutting something for dinner, turning the blender or food processor on and off, helping dad with the lawn or with watering, or any other project we are doing that he can find a role in. He also enjoys getting moths or other bugs out of the house for us. He is braver than Mommy. Right now Reece insists on wearing a sleep mask to bed each night. And he still self soothes by putting his bicep up to his lips and making a sort of sucking motion. He also does this to fall asleep and needs a long sleeve shirt on to correctly do it - even in the middle of summer. And he has grown attached to a little bear beanie baby type toy that he calls Bear which also "needs" to fall asleep.

His favorite toys still are all things cars, trucks, and things that go. He loves monster trucks and Hot Wheels cars. He loves anything from the Disney movies Cars and he also really likes Paw Patrol. He loves playing with anyone in the family. He enjoys becoming a part of Ember's imaginative games and taking on the role she has for him. He loves chasing Kade back and forth around the yard or the house. He is really good at Perler beads. He likes coloring and practicing writing with colored pencils and than sharpening them. Reece likes to play Uno, Candy land, and Blokus. He really enjoys hide and seek. He loves going up and down Kade's new slide in the backyard and also running around and playing in the greenbelt. He enjoys playing a soccer game with Ember and just runs around the field giggling. He is also getting really good at hitting a baseball with a bat. One of Reece's favorite at home past times is riding different bikes and scooters from the front yard, to the back yard and then back to the front yard.

There are definitely some things that Reece does not enjoy. He can be very sensitive to Ember joking around with him if he is not in the correct mood. He doesn't like if anything is out of order from what the usual routine is. Reece doesn't like when Kade is trying to touch something that he is doing and he feels helpless about how to stop Kade.

Reece has grown and learned many new things this past year. He learned how to ride his two wheel bike without training wheels. He also learned how to ride his scooter that he got for Christmas this past year. Reece can now write his name and many other letters and numbers. He can identify pretty much all the upper case letters and is starting to work on knowing all the sounds that they make. Reece has always taken to numbers and patterns and can do some simple addition problems. He can get himself ready for the day completely by getting dressed and brushing his teeth and he does a good job and putting his toys and laundry away. He just recently learned how to pump on a swing and enjoys doing that whenever we are at a park. Reece is also able to make his favorite lunch - almond butter, honey, banana tortilla wrap.

We love our sweet Reece and appreciate his personality - both his strengths and weaknesses. He is a good friend, usually a good brother, one who is always looking for a fun time and wants to be hugged, cuddled, and tickled hourly. We love you Reece!

Birthday Fun:

Reece wanted chia pudding for breakfast

He got to open one present in the morning.

We did a small park party with some of his closet friends and Grandma and Grandpa around lunch. We picked up one of his favorites (Chick Fil- A) for everyone.