What were we thinking?!

After a fairly stressful day full of midterms, lack of sleep, and overall crankiness, we decided to brave the semi-cold weather and head over to a park for a little while. We realized very quickly that it is definitely not park weather yet, but we still managed to have a little fun before heading home.


Will spent most of the time running around the park with a cookie in his hand (we had given it to him to calm him down after one of his lovely tantrums)


This was one of the few times that Bill could get Will to actually look at the camera, or go on any of the playground equipment.

And, for your viewing pleasure, a fun little video showing just how much energy one little boy can possess.

Yay it worked

Please forgive these last two lame posts. I'm just so excited that I got this to work. Thank you Sarah for giving me the link. I love my new cute blog :-)

Ok? Not ok?

As you can see, I just changed the look of our blog again. I am having the hardest time figuring this stuff out. There are so many other people out there (Aubrey, Calley, Mandy, etc.) who have the cutest blogs, and I can't figure out where they come up with them! So until I figure it out (or some kind soul decides to help me), this is what our blog is going to look like.

Couldn't pass this up!

I just had to take a picture of Will in his new jammies (thanks Grandma Phyllis!) Don't I have the most adorable little boy?

And here's a really nice thought that I got in an e-mail earlier today. I thought the first part was something good to remember, especially when raising children.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Movie time

After getting a request for more movies of Will, I decided to tape a couple of our activities this afternoon. They pretty much explain themselves, so enjoy :-)

Easter

We had a pretty low-key day as far as holidays go. We went to church in the morning, of course, and heard some really good talks about the Savior and a couple of nice songs from the choir. My Sunday School lesson was, um, interesting...and Priesthood/Relief Society was really good. We took a nice family drive after church before heading home and having a leisurely afternoon. Later on, Bill put together a nice kid-friendly lesson on the Savior, then we presented Will with his Easter basket of goodies. He dug right into the chocolate, but was unimpressed by the cute little bunny.




In the evening we had Bobby and Susan and Alice over for a yummy dinner of ribs, salad, and fruit, with brownies for dessert. We spent the rest of the evening being together as a family and enjoying our last few hours of family togetherness before Bill has to go back to school tomorrow. It was a great day. We hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Fun times

This past week Bill was on spring break, so we took advantage of having him home a little bit more and did a lot of fun things. At the beginning of the week we went to a local church that has a really neat indoor playground. It was really hard to get good pictures here, but I did my best.


Here's Will riding a whale. He never stayed at one thing for very long, so I had to be quick with picture-taking.


This was a fire truck (I think). Will liked this most out of everything else there.



Aside from the playground, they had some really interesting murals on the walls representing different stores and things you'd see in a regular city, with a Christian twist. This was called "The Mary and Martha Tea Room" and the other one is the "Good Samaritan Hospital."

The highlight of our week was taking a day trip down to St. Louis. We got off to a rocky start, but it ended up being a great day.


First of all we drove by the St. Louis arch. Not the most spectacular picture, but that's what you get when you're taking it from the car. (Bill's note: I thought it was a pretty good picture, but I'm biased.)


We started out at the St. Louis Science Center, which had a lot of fun little exhibits and hands-on things that kids of all ages could do.



One of the first sections we stopped at talked about different structures. Will really liked their building block collection. In the second picture, Bill is showing Will a fan setup which shows how wind flows around a building. Bill had as much fun here as Will did.


Will also had a lot of fun in the mathematics section of this museum. (Yes, this museum even has math exhibits!) This is a big Tower of Hanoi puzzle. Will just enjoyed playing with the big foam disks. Bill kept trying to teach him (and me) how it was really supposed to go. (It didn't work.)


Some exhibits were a bigger hit than others.


Both Will and Bill really liked the sound visualizer. This microphone was hooked up to a computer and showed you what your voice "looked like." (Bill's note: It displayed the frequency spectrum of the sound from the microphone.)


The lobby of the science center had a big two-story ball maze type thing. Will really enjoyed watching the balls go around and around and up and down different elevators and funnels. It was really neat to watch.


By the end of the day, Will was pretty tired. (The whole lack of nap that day also didn't help much.)



After a quick wake-up play on the playground and a brief doze in the car, we went and had dinner with Paul and Sarah, some of our friends from Provo.



Will was really excited about seeing his friend Benjamin again.



They had a really great time together and kept the rest of us entertained.


We finished our trip going past the St. Louis Temple. It was a really neat experience being able to go up to the temple grounds after a fairly long and hectic day. There is real peace there at the temple. We are really grateful to have it as close as we do.

All in all, we had a really great week. It was nice having Bill around more and being able to get out and do things together was a lot of fun.

Tantrum, anyone?

Being the mother of a two-year-old is an interesting experience. He's old enough to talk in full sentences, take off (and occasionally put on) a few items of clothing, and recognize basic colors and shapes. However, you also get to experience the wonderful phenomenon called the temper tantrum. He's had a number of them over the past few months, but tonight was probably one of the worst ones in a long time. By the time it was over, Bill and I were emotionally drained and I was at my wit's end trying to figure out how to prevent them or help them be over more quickly. We've tried calmly talking to him, hugging him, leaving him alone, rocking him, and a few other things, and they either only worked for a few minutes or not at all. So I'm seeking the help of any of you mothers who have experienced this or know of people who have, and asking if you have any advice. I know every child is different, but I'm willing to try anything at this point!

Too Cute

I felt like the blog was lacking in cute pictures of Will, so here he is showing off his hip-hop look.

Six things everyone should accomplish before they turn 18

I was blogtagged by my sister-in-law, and this is probably one of the hardest ones I've done before. It actually made me think for a few minutes about what I would say. I also decided to take the angle of "things I wish I had accomplished before I turned 18", because I found that to be a little bit easier.

1. Know how to cook, do laundry, and wash dishes. I still to this day feel a little embarrassed when I admit that I didn't know how to do these things until I moved out on my own. Luckily I am a pro at all 3 now, and I plan to make sure that all my kids know how to do them long before they graduate from high school.

2. Be able to manage money, save wisely, and balance a checkbook. Again, things I was never very good at while growing up, and even now I still have a hard time with most of them.

3. Become CPR certified and know basic first aid. You never know when you might come upon a situation where you'll have to help save someone's life.

4. Go out on a limb and do something you don't think you'll like, because you might regret it later. I have to tell a little story for this to make sense. When I was a junior in high school, I was taking a beginning drama class. There was a boy in my class who I always thought of as a little nerdy and weird. That year he asked me to go to Homecoming with him, but I said no. Our senior year he asked me to Homecoming again, and again I said no. Now, not only do I regret that I was mean to him and I didn't give him a chance, but I regret that I never got to go to Homecoming.

5. Get out of your comfort zone and try out for something like a play or a musical competition.

6. Do some sort of community service for your church, neighborhood, school, etc. Volunteer at the library, hospital, nursing home, wherever interests you. I actually did do this one summer. I was a candystriper (I have no idea how to spell that) at the hospital. I worked mostly in the pediatric unit, and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had.

Ok, I tag Jesika H., Mary P., Kate B., Sharon P., and Sarah C.

Simplicity

I made an interesting observation today. Will and I went to the library this morning, which is a great place for a child like him to get his wiggles out before nap time. Usually when we go, he goes straight over to either the big plastic house or the mini car track and can be entertained for quite a while. This morning, however, he was perfectly content to do one thing for the whole time we were there - run up and down the ramp next to the stairs. I couldn't believe how much he enjoyed that thing. He played with the house for a couple of minutes, let me read him about half a book, and then spent the rest of the time running up and down the ramp. I am amazed at how the simplest thing can entertain a child. It made me think about how I always have to have something to do, watch, listen to, etc., in order to be happy and entertained. If only I could be like Will and be content running up and down a ramp for half an hour!

Update

I blame this lame post on 1) the fact that I don't feel like folding the mountain of laundry I did earlier today, 2) the fact that nothing really interesting or exciting has happened to any of us lately, and 3) the fact that I have a captive audience, it's my blog, and I can't post about whatever I want! So here is a quick update on what's been going on at the Evans household lately.

Bill-He's diligently working on a PhD in Physics (almost 2 semesters done...about a bazillion to go! :S), as well as being a T.A. for an undergraduate class. I have been appointed his assistant grader. We have what we call "grading parties" (yes I know, we're dorks). He also teaches Elder's quorum once a month, and seems to be enjoying it. I often want to be a fly on the wall to see him teach, but I'm sure he does a great job. When he's not at school or at work, he's being a wonderful husband and father. He runs errands for me, takes care of Will more than he probably ought to, and manages to stay optimistic about life in spite of the daily challenges of being a PhD student.

Kristin-My days consist of laundry, dishes, vacuuming, making meals, going to endless doctor's appointments, preparing my Gospel Doctrine lesson, and taking care of the cutest kid in the world. Definitely not the most glamorous job in the world, but my heart melts when I see how happy Will is to be spending the day with me, or when Bill comes home at the end of the day and thanks me for doing what I do. I admit, I have really bad days sometimes, and I feel like throwing in the towel and letting someone else take over, but when I really sit down and think about it, I realize just how lucky and blessed I am, and I pick myself up and make the most of my day (wow, that was a really long sentence!)

Will-He has grown so much in such a short time that it's hard to believe he's only 2 1/2 years old. He's talking up a storm, sounding more and more like a little boy, and lately we've started calling him our "tornado" because he's constantly on the go from one activity to another. I think he might have inherited some of the Bestor musical genes, because whenever he sings, he's actually on pitch some of the time! He's also got an amazing memory. I often catch him quoting lines from movies or books, and he's pretty dead-on. He enjoys playing the piano, playing with Mom's guitar, reading books either with Mommy or by himself, and getting into as much as he can without getting caught. He can throw a mean tantrum at times, which can be stressful for all three of us, but for the most part he's a very calm, happy, energetic little boy who makes life very exciting.

So there you have it. A little glimpse into our lives. Life has thrown us curve balls and given us some unique challenges, but we're doing our best to make the most of it, and continue on the path that will lead to ultimate joy and happiness.