Christmas Brownies

Evan and I made brownies last week to prepare for Christmas - just for fun.  I snapped a picture on my phone at Kroger and borrowed their idea.

I've created a little Baker Man in Evan.  He loves to help me make treats.  He even sees baking items on commercials and says, "Mom!  Maybe we can buy that and I can bake treats for my friends."  What a honey pie.

Snow Shovelin'

My dad got me a little shovel back when I lived in an apartment.  It was just the right size for digging my car out of snow if I needed it.  It's been so handy, that I kept it.  As luck would have it, it's just the right size for Evan Connors as well.  He LOVES helping Mike clear the driveway (and there have already been 3 opportunities to do so this December) when it snows.  Here's Evan and Mike doing their snow shoveling after work the other day.

Sick Days and Snow Days

The last week has been a little off of our normal schedule.  Evan got sick at the sitter's last Monday, so Mike left work and took him home.  I stayed home with him on Tuesday so he could be 24 hours fever-free.  He went back to the sitter's on Wednesday, but got sick again on Wednesday night.  I stayed home with him on Thursday and took him to the doctor.  It takes Evan a few days to work through the flu bug that is usually 24 hours for adults.  Luckily, he got some anti-nausea meds that let him sleep. (They were liquid and only a total of $5.  The last ones we had for his concussion last winter were $4 per pill. Yikes!)  Mike stayed home with him on Friday. 

He felt better by Saturday, so Evan and I ran up to Muncie to meet Mimi and Papa for a late breakfast at Bob Evan's.  We also hit the Jo-ann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby while we were there.  On Saturday night, we had a Christmas party to go to, but we were only gone for 2 hours or so because Mike managed to pick up the flu bug. 

It rained, froze, then snowed on Sunday, so we didn't go anywhere.  Mike was feeling lousy (he didn't even shovel the driveway!) too.  This morning my school closed (I work on a country road if that tells you anything), so Evan and I are hanging out on our snow day.  Evan is loving the TV show Caillou right now.  He's very fickle with his shows.  Every few days he changes his mind about what is his favorite.  Thank goodness for Netflix - we can watch it instantly since we don't have the Sprout channel.

Here are pics of Evan from the past week.  I snuck them in when he was feeling better.  He's taking care of his baby today.  The baby's name is Evan.  Very original huh?

SnOw!!!!!

We prayed for snow this week each night at dinner.  Prayers were answered for sweet Evan on Saturday morning.  Here are some pictures of the little guy playing in the snow.

Feast Day of St. Nicholas

On St. Nicholas's Feast Day we put candy in Evan's shoes.  We went a little overboard today (instead of tomorrow, the actual feast day).  He got some socks, a puzzle, coloring books and window markers in addition to some candy.  Evan didn't complain.

Ti's Christmas Party

Evan went with Andria to her work Christmas party.  It was a HUGE carnival-like event with Santa, bounce houses, movies, candy, games, food and more fun.  Big crowds aren't Evan's thing, so he had a nice time playing in Ti's office too. 

Getting Ready for Christmas

 Thinking about putting the star on top of the tree.

 Deciding maybe not this year - a little too scary to be just held by Dad with nothing to hang on to.

 Reading a book with Mimi about the 1st Christmas (one of the Hallmark recordable books - very cool).

 Playing (year 4) with the Snoopy snowglobe.

 Playing with the train around the tree.

Checking out the first big snow (4+ inches on Saturday morning)!

Coupons

Here is a pic of Mike and Evan looking through the "toy coupons" from yesterday's paper.  We're not Black Friday shoppers, in the traditional wake-up-at-3am-and-hit-the-ground-running sense, but Mike has been known to go out during nap time.  (I stay home and partake in nap time - my shopping- which means buying stuff for Mike since he doesn't approve of my timeline he buys for everyone else - starts about December 15 or so....)

Touchdown - all at once!

As you can probably tell, Mike and Evan were watching the Bears game last week.  They were trying to coordinate a touchdown picture, but it took a few tries.  (I just love the Oreo mouth Evan has here.)

The Baker Man!

Evan loves to bake all by himself.  This batch is for home.  I actually have to bake stuff after he goes to bed if I want to share it with others since he loves cooking and baking.

Coloring

Evan has taken to coloring a lot more these days.  Here he is on Friday night with Mike.  According to Evan, Daddy was doing it wrong, so he had to help out. 

HaPPy HaLLoWeeN!

Evan had a great time Trick or Treating tonight!  This is the first year it all made sense to him...kind of.  He originally wanted to be traffic.  I figured out a traffic costume.  (It was a black fleece with yellow tape and Hot Wheels attached to it.)  Once he got it on, he was over it in about 2 minutes.  He's never been a costume kid.  So we went with stuff we already had at home at that point.  Evan was a construction worker.  He was also sure to make that very clear to anyone who called him Bob the Builder.  (He's not a Bob fan.)  He went with Mike and Andria around the neighborhood.  I stayed home and passed out candy to the kids that came around.  They were gone for about an hour, and Evan was a tired boy with red feet when they got home.  We also baked some Halloween cookies this morning. 

4 Years of Pumpkin Patch

Look at how big Evan is getting!  We went and stood next to the growth chart apple at the pumpkin patch yesterday.  Evan is standing all by himself (nobody is making him stand there like in years past).  He's a little taller than 3 feet though - there's a little dip where the kids are supposed to stand.  :-)

 Fall 2007

 Fall 2008

 Fall 2009

Fall 2010