Evan - 21mths

Another month has flown by and our little Evan is now 21mths old. We've had a great summer watching him grow ... he's had lots of new words, lots of new signs, a few firsts, lots of fun summer stuff and lots of exploring. He is so curious and extremely observant.

He's had a major language explosion. He's using a lot of phrases and knows a ton of words and signs as well. Here are some that he uses a lot:
- airplane (his fave!  he loves airplanes, trucks and cars and always points them out), open, out, rain (wain), thunder, doggie, woof woof, cheese, orwinge (orange), sowi, woah, teeth, guys, hug (this is my fave - he opens his arms wide and says hug?), boo boo, school, morning, erfint (elephant), teacher, shark, you, bear, bus, walrus, milk, nack (snack)

Some signs he uses a lot:
elephant, milk, airplane, bath time, all done, book, read, shoes, socks, thirsty, sleep, water

some phrases:
- there you are
- here go
- come mere (come here)
- my turn
- bick up (wake up)
- oh gosh
- bless you
- Jesus amen
- come pay (pray)
- beep beep (if you're in his way and he needs you to move!)

Sleep
Just like his big sis, he is a great napper (usually 2 to 3hr naps) but night time sleep is a work in progress. Some nights he goes down and will sleep til about 5 or 6am, nurse and go back to sleep and then other nights he will wake at midnight, 3am and so on so ends up in our bed so we can all get sleep. He really loves to snuggle up CLOSE to mama when he sleeps!

Meals
Evan loves to eat! He will usually try everything. He loves fruit and apple sauce is his fave (he calls it appy saw!). He loves water and will only take milk at night time. He wont drink it any other time of day.

Things he loves:
Mickey Mouse (Micka Mow, mimmie)
playing ball - he loves to kick the ball and is pretty good at it too
reading - his fave books are Rhythm of my day, Polar Bear, Llama Llama books
Face time 
bath time
being outside

We sure do miss those itty bitty days of tiny baby Evan, but he is so much fun right now and keeps us laughing with his silly little antics.
~V

Sweet Little Cheeser

I snapped these few pics of Evan a few days ago while getting the kids back to school photos. He's at such a fun stage now and absolutely loves cheesing for the camera.

 He's like a little ray of sunshine{Evan at 20mths. 7 August 2015}

 Love those big brown eyes, long lashes and his curls

~V

Back To School!

Crazy how quickly 11wks of summer fun just flew by ... now its back to school for FIRST and FOURTH grade. Insane! The kids were really excited to get back, mostly to see all their friends. The first day was just for 2hrs so we had plenty of time to take some pics.

This is their last first day of school pic together in elementary

 We dropped off supplies, met teachers and found out who would be in their class. Once we got home, we had fun taking a few pics

Evan kept photobombing these pics!

Since Evan photobombed so many pics, the kids had a great idea ... this was definitely our fave pic of the day. I love that they wanted to include him in their back to school pictures.

~V

Enjoying Traditional Family Values

It's not every day you get to open the newspaper and see your family featured on the front page of the lifestyles section. Growing up, this was always my fave section to read. I loved reading about peoples lives, their travels, interests, etc. I spent years writing about people, about their work and happenings on the mission field. 

When Jermaine told me he got a call from the Cleveland Banner asking him to come in for an interview, my first response was why? What do they want to talk about? He had no clue of cos. I'm not gonna lie...it's strange having to read about my family in words written by a third party. I told Jermaine I don't know why anyone would even want to read about us. We are just an ordinary family leading a very simple life. What's exciting about that? His response 'I don't get it either but what I can say is we have the call of God on our lives and His favour is on us.' I am really proud of my husband! And I am really proud my little family.

~V

Summer 2015

Our summer was fun and relaxing (yet still busy!) and our main goal was to get in as much family time as possible. Last year summer we missed out on that with Jermaine being in school. We spent a lot of time at the pool, did a few camps, and enjoyed some fun outings in Chattanooga and at the Ocoee (a stay-cation of sorts!) Here's a few pics:

 {Evan is 19mths}

 {Soccer camp with daddy}

 we spent many evenings eating popsicles on the front porch

 At the Ocoee

Suzanne got to visit in July ... we had a fun afternoon catching up!

Evan is 20mths

Tea at The English Rose 

Downtown Chattanooga Fun

 More fun out at the Ocoee

Heritage Park with the Nalley girls

Daddy's little helper fell asleep on the job!

 Lookout Mountain

Point Park - our first time out there

A little bit nerve wracking with little kids and trying to keep them away from the steep edges

we went on a Duck Tour which was cool (the tour guide was really boring but the sights and the whole experience was great)

the kids were excited about going in the water. not about duck boat obviously, but thats what it looked like. and we had the chance to drive the boat too which was lots of fun

play time at the water steps

So that's just a little snapshot of a few things this past summer. Our fall is always busy so it was nice to slow down and take it easy these past couple of months.
~V