Goodbye 2007...it's been fun!

Being New Year's Eve, I decided to post a "Year in Review" for your reading pleasure. We started out 2007 in Provo, Utah, living in Wymount student housing and having a great time. Both Bill and I were working on finishing our degrees at BYU, while Will got to spend his days with Grandma Phyllis. When Bill got accepted to the graduate programs at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana in the spring, we spent a good deal of time deciding where to go. Thanks to Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Rollie's willingness to watch Will for a few days, we were both able to visit Colorado for a school tour. Bill then flew out to Illinois and stayed with his brother's family while looking at that school. After a lot of talking and praying, we decided that Illinois was the best place for us to be. So for the next few months we spent our free time looking for apartments, packing, and getting ready to graduate. In June we both celebrated our 26th birthdays, and in July we celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. Before we knew it, August had arrived, and that meant graduation and moving. Since both Bill and I were graduating, we made it possible for us to get our diplomas at the same graduation. A lot of our family was able to be there, so we had a great couple of days with everyone, then we packed up the U-haul, said our goodbyes to family and friends, and headed toward our new home. Once we got there, we barely had a day or two to catch our breath before Bill started classes. It was a little hard to be alone in a new place, but we had Bill's brother and his wife to help us get to know the area and meet some new people. Now that I was finally done with school, I could focus on being a full-time mother and playing with Will. We spent our days at the park, at the library, and getting to know our new home. The only downfall to our year was when I got an infection in my leg and had to spend a few days in the hospital. Luckily we had some great people who were willing to take care of Will so that Bill wouldn't get too behind in school. In October, Will celebrated his 2nd birthday with a few of his new friends at a puppy-themed party. For Thanksgiving, since we were away from the majority of our family, we decided to take a trip to Cleveland, Ohio and spend a few days with my cousin Jesika and her family, who were there for a job interview. We had a great time visiting Kirtland, which was just a mile or two away from our hotel, then having a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at a local restaurant. We also made the most of our first Christmas in Illinois. Bill got a whole month off from school, so we had fun decorating our tree, sending out Christmas cards, making treats for friends, and getting gifts for each other and our family. We had a small Christmas Eve celebration with Bill's brother, then a quiet Christmas morning at home opening presents and enjoying the time together. Needless to say it's been quite the year for the Evans family, and we're looking forward to seeing what 2008 has in store for us. Happy New Year!

My Celebrity Look-Alikes

I don't know what is more sad...that my son looks like a bunch of girls, or that I have no idea who half of these people are! My only comfort is that he looks a little bit like one of my favorite new actors (William Moseley...Love Chronicles of Narnia!)

Random Video Fun

I love the video feature on our camera. Here are a couple of fun little videos I took yesterday of my two favorite guys.




One of Will's favorite things to do is swing up and down with Daddy. I took this video solely because I love hearing Will laugh.




My son is the smartest little boy. Only 2 years old, and already bilingual!

Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was quiet and peaceful and fairly stress-free. Here are just a few highlights.



We spent Christmas Eve night with Bill's brother Bobby, his wife Susan, and their little girl Alice. We had a great dinner, then we read the Christmas story from Luke, and sang a few hymns while Bobby showed off his talent on the guitar.


Christmas Morning Part 1
Not the most flattering picture of me, but this is me opening one of my gifts from Bill. He fooled me by giving me a big box that had a small present in it. Luckily it was something I really wanted (Keith Urban's greatest hits), so I wasn't too mad at him.

As evidenced by this picture, Will wasn't too interested in opening his own presents at first, so we took a small intermission between gifts. After about an hour or two, he got a little more into it.

Bill was pretty excited about his new slippers, because he's always complaining about his feet getting cold in the mornings.

While Mom and Dad took showers and cleaned up, Will wasted no time in playing with some of his new toys.


This was our living room after part 1 of gift-opening.

I have to show off my favorite present this year. Bill hid this in his brother's garage for a week or so, then sacrificed a few hours of sleep to put it together and have it waiting for me Christmas morning. I love my husband!

Christmas morning part 2

After taking a break to get showers and stuff, we headed back to the living room to open presents from other family members. Will got a little more excited, especially when he got a bunch of new toys and books.

Will got a new book from Bobby and Susan, all about Clifford the Big Red Dog, who is one of his favorites. Also, he loved his new set of Legos from Grandma and Grandpa Evans.

Grandma Phyllis gave Will some ABC stacking boxes. He let me build this tower just long enough to take a picture before he knocked them down again.

One thing Will got a lot of this year was long-sleeved shirts. It can get pretty cold in Illinois during the winter, so these were much-needed and much-appreciated.

After all the gift-opening was done, it was time to clean the house to get ready for Bobby and Susan and Bill's home teaching companion and his wife to come over for Christmas dinner. Will was such a good helper. He actually enjoys sweeping and vacuuming, which Mom is very glad about!

Ahh, the life of the poor college student

Even though we may not have a whole lot of money right now, we still manage to have a good Christmas.

I bought this tree with my roommate Heidi about 5 years ago, and it's still holding up really well. The majority of the ornaments we use were given to Bill throughout the years. We've continued the tradition by giving Will an ornament each year, as well as buying ourselves one. The nativity was given to us as a wedding present, and I think it's one of the best I've seen.

Thanks to the generosity of grandparents and great-grandparents, we will have a lot of fun opening presents tomorrow. We love you guys!

Merry Christmas!

There will be more pictures and videos coming in the next week of all the fun Christmas festivities, but I just wanted to say a quick Merry Christmas to all of our family and friends. This year has been a little harder on us (especially me), since we are now away from all of our family except for Bill's brother and his family. We will miss getting together with parents, grandparents, siblings, neices, cousins, etc., but we are so grateful to have each other, and of course, to be the parents of such a wonderful little boy. We are blessed in so many ways, and continue to feel our Savior's love through the little miracles that happen every day. I hope we all take a minute to remember why we have this wonderful holiday and to thank our Heavenly Father for giving his son and blessing our lives eternally. We love you all. Merry Christmas!

Will singing

Since Will comes from a highly musical family, he has developed a lot of his own talent. He recently picked up this song almost completely by himself. Enjoy!

Being the proud mom that I am, I had to share one of Will's latest accomplishments.

Thanksgiving Trip

We had a wonderful vacation in Ohio with my cousin Jesika and her family. It wasn't quite like having Thanksgiving with everyone at home, but we made do with what we had, and had a fabulous time.


The weary traveler

The whole gang in Kirtland. Our hotel was only a mile or two away, so we had a great time here

The original Newel K. Whitney store

The main area of the store

This was the Whitney's home. I thought it was so cute.

One thing I love about the midwest is how beautiful the trees are. We saw some great scenery while we were driving and walking around the area

The whole gang at the restaurant where we had Thanksgiving lunch. It was called Mapleside Farms, and it was a really nice atmosphere and good food.

Will hamming it up for the camera

Jesika's really excited to dig into all the yummy food

Newest Craze

We've recently had a climber on our hands, so we invested in the Cozy Crib Tent from Walmart. It's supposed to keep kids from climbing out of their cribs as well as throwing their toys on the floor. Will was afraid of it when we first put it on, but he's slowly getting used to it.

New Addition

After 2 wonderful years with "The Mexican" we have finally bought our first new couch. We found it online for a great price, and we're really enjoying it so far.

Graduation

Ok, so I know graduation was a few months ago, but better late than never I guess! We were able to work it out that we walked at the same time, along with my mom and my cousin Lizzy.


Bill graduated with a master's degree in Math, and I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Psychology

We decided we wanted to take a picture in front of this sign, because not only was this where it all started for us academically, but BYU will always hold a special place in our hearts because that's where we found each other. Awwww!

Bill and I with my cousin Lizzy, who graduated with a bachelor's in Marriage, Family, Human Development. She was also valedictorian of the college.

One fun thing about having so many of us graduating at the same time was that there was lots of family there to celebrate. This is my cousin, Jesika, who is also Lizzy's sister.

Me with my dad

Everyday occurences

Since we are now many miles away from our family, I figured I'd share some of the things that Will and I do during the day.


Will enjoys looking at his many books, especially photo albums. He's really good at pointing out everything and everyone in the pictures.

Will is turning into quite the musician. He loves to sing songs and make up little songs on the keyboard. He takes after his Grandpa Bestor!

Dinner occasionally turns into Mom and Dad watching to see how big of a mess Will can make of his food. He does a great job!

Happy Halloween!

Will looks super happy to be in his Halloween costume, doesn't he?

You can't see it very well in this picture, but I patterned his costume from his stuffed doggy that Grandpa Evans gave him. It's his favorite, so I thought I'd make them twins. The dog on the wall behind him was what we used for "Pin the Tail on the Doggy" from his birthday party earlier that day.

Will's Birthday Party

Will recently turned 2 years old, and we threw a doggy-themed birthday party for him, complete with "Pin the Tail on the Doggy" and "pupcakes". It went well (or as well as a party full of tw0-year-olds can go), and I can now say I have successfully thrown my first birthday party.


These are the "pupcakes" that I made as part of the theme of the party. Aren't they cute!

Will wasn't quite sure how to blow out his candles. It was pretty funny