Summer Fun

What a silly little boy!

Bath time with Isaac & Lily!

Waving his flag at the 4th of July parade

Hanging out at Noah's Ark with Kirsten

His new potty chair from Grandma & Grandpa Pasche

Fun in the pool with Maddy & Hailey!

Really wanting to climb the steps!

We have been having so much fun that I haven't even had time to update the blog! Actually, we have been gone quite a bit and when we're home we have just been too busy. The summer is going by quicker than I would like, but we are having a great time!

I can't believe how much Evan has changed, even in the last month. He is now crawling like crazy and can get into things before we realize it. His favorite things are cords (especially lamp cords and my phone charger cord), remotes, phones, registers, the dog's water dish, and anything else that he really shouldn't get into. Child proofing has begun!

He has started to pull himself up and is working really hard to figure out how to get up the steps. (See the picture below) He likes to throw things and then crawl after them...we think he is learning from the dog! We have noticed that he is mostly using his left hand to throw, so maybe he'll be a great left-hander like his mom, Uncle Matt, and Grandpa Marv! He loves to eat Cheerios, crackers, cereal, bananas, squash, and pretty much anything else we give him. He has 2 teeth on the bottom and his top 2 just came in!

We went and stayed with Theresa, Isaac, & Lily last Thursday while their dad was on a mission trip. My friend Carrie was also there and we had a great time. We played in the sandbox, with bubbles, in the swing, and with Isaac and Lily's fun toys. The kids took a bath together, which was very entertaining...three kids in a tub is wild! On Friday we went to Eau Claire and got together with my college roommate Brenda, who I hadn't in a long time. She lives in Colorado Springs and has two beautiful children that they adopted from Guatemala. It was so fun to meet them and to have them meet Evan. Hopefully we'll see them again soon! We went to a little neighborhood parade and a train ride on the 4th, and had some good family time during the weekend. On Tuesday my mom, Evan, and I headed to Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells. My cousin Kirsten works there, so we went to visit her and spend the day in the water. Evan loved the water and we took turns watching Evan and going on the wider slides. It was a great day and Evan was very silly and giggly on the way home! We spent some time with Great Grandpa Dewitz and then headed home on Wednesday. On Friday we headed to Burnsville to my friend Jane's house for a play date. There were four 2 year olds, three babes, 5 mommies, and 1 soon to be mommy. The kids had a great time and seemed to really enjoy playing together.

This weekend Aaron's parents came to visit and brought our 2 nieces with. We went to the MN Zoo, played video games, swam in Evan's pool, and had a great time hanging out. Grandma and Grandpa Pasche brought Evan a potty chair, complete with a TP holder and a magazine/book holder. We won't need it for awhile, but with his own toilet paper and some good reading material, training should be a cinch!

We have more fun things planned in the weeks to come and are really enjoying summer with our sweet little boy!

8 Months Old

Who needs water to have fun?!

Loves the remote...just like his dad!

Happy first Father's Day!

Pickles from Grandpa Marv!

Looking at the boats in Bayfield

Silly boy!

Evan's last day with Betsy and Lars...until the fall!

Evan turned 8 months old on the 21st. He is definitely turning into a little boy...not a baby anymore! I am really enjoying being home with him this summer. I love my job, but it is nice to just be able to spend the day doing whatever we want! We are very fortunate to have Betsy taking care of Evan while we are at work. She has a little boy named Lars, who is 2 months older than Evan. We are very happy that she will be taking Evan again this coming school year! She is great and Evan loves her!

We had a great, relaxing time in Bayfield. We rode the ferry over to Madeline Island, stuck our toes in Lake Superior (too cold to swim), played in the sand, shopped, ate, went to Duluth, spent lots of time in the car (yuck), and just had a good time hanging out. It was a much needed vacation!

This week we have been hanging out at home, playing, swimming, and doing a little cleaning. We got Evan a little pool and he has been having fun in it, even when it didn't have water in it! I realized that an empty swimming pool is a great thing to have. We had it sitting in the living room for a couple of days and could put Evan in there with a bunch of toys. Now that he can crawl, he is all over the place! Today he realized that he can climb out of the pool, so not such a great way to keep him contained. We put water in it today (I had to put a little warm water in) and he LOVED it! He splashed and played with his water toys...I think he will be a swimmer! We had him in my aunt Kim's pool last weekend and he liked that too. My cousins' kids were splashing around and Evan wasn't even phased by it. We plan to do lots of swimming this summer...although I'm not excited about wearing a suit!

We have a lot going on in the next couple of weeks...the summer is already flying by!

Evan has mastered the crawling and is on the go! He is still just as sweet as can be and is quite the charmer! The pictures tell it all...

On The Move!

Pulling his socks off...again!

...and in the mouth...yum!

Grandpa Stan showing Evan the big fish

Watching cousin Hailey play her DS

Cute crib pics...

Trying to grab the grass....

BIG NEWS...Evan officially crawled for the first time today! He has been rocking on his hands and knees a lot, but actually moved today! He did it at daycare and then did it again at home tonight. He can now get to whatever it is that he wants...we'd better start child proofing the house!

We have been busy and I am looking forward to being done with school on Friday. Summer vacation is almost here! We drove up to Alexandria this past weekend to hang out with Aaron's family. We hit Pizza Hut when we got to town (a requirement for Aaron!) and then went out to Laura and Dave's lake lot. It was rainy and cool, but we had a good time. Aaron's aunt, uncle, and cousins were up, so it was nice to see them. Luckily Laura and Dave have a trailer, so we were able to stay out of the rain and keep warm. Hailey and Maddy are great with Evan and he loves seeing them!

I took Evan with me to get flowers a couple of weeks ago. He enjoyed watching all of the people and trying to eat the flowers I was putting in the cart. On the way home he was mesmerized by the grass that was on the seat next to him in the car. He would touch it and then try to put it in his mouth...very funny!

I realize that I have posted quite a few pictures of him in his crib, but he is just so funny when he is in there! He loves to roll around and chew on his little "blankie" and "taggie". When we go in to get him he is usually up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth. We often hear him squealing when he is in his room...very funny! He also likes to ride in the car and is quite the talker when we are on our way to and from daycare.

Theresa called me at school today and said that she was headed to the cities and was going to our friend Jane's house. Evan and I headed over there after school and had fun hanging out with Theresa, Jane, Isaac, Lily, and Cole. We can't wait to spend more time with our friends this summer!

We're heading to Bayfield next week for a mini vacation...hopefully it will be relaxing. We rented a condo in the same building where we stayed on our honeymoon. We'll have a kitchen, a bedroom, loft area, and living room...lots of space for Evan to move!

Sweet Boy

SO cute!

He loves chewing on his little "blankies" when it is bedtime!

"Clean plate" club! (Sitting in his high chair that Grandpa Stan made)

Playing outside and watching Maddux run around the yard!


I always figured that I would enjoy being a mom, but I never realized how much. I swear that Evan gets sweeter and more fun everyday. I just can't get enough of him! He has quite the little personality and it is so neat to watch him discover new things. We think that Evan is going to be just like his mommy...a big talker! He is VERY vocal and always seems to have something to say. He keeps us very entertained!

He loves to stick his tongue out and blow bubbles, which we think is hilarious! Probably not so hilarious when he's a little older, but for now it's a hoot! He likes to do it and then see what kind of a reaction he gets.
This past weekend we were in Eau Claire for Memorial Day. We had a good time hanging out with family and Evan went to his first parade on Monday. I wasn't sure how he would react to the loud bands and the rifle shots, but he did well. Seeing the band kids in the good ol' uniforms brought back memories from high school. I remember marching in the parade and being so hot in those gross uniforms. Sadly, the kids are still wearing the same uniforms, which were ancient when I was wearing them 15 some years ago!
Evan had a great time with grandma and grandpa as usual! They even bought him a little swing...I'll post a couple pictures of him in the swing later. We also got hang out with Uncle Matt and Aunt Hannah which was great. Evan loves them!
Evan is sitting up, rolling all over the place, noticing everything around him, starting to "army" crawl, and LOVING his big boy food!
We are excited for summer vacation, which is less than 3 weeks away. We are planning a little getaway for the 3 of us the week after school gets out, which will be nice and relaxing. I'm excited to spend the whole summer just hanging out with my sweet little guy!

Growing Up Way Too Fast!

So big!

In his big boy carseat on the way to daycare

I forgot to add that Evan is starting to get the hang of sitting up. Before when we would try to get him to sit, he would grunt...guess his little belly got in the way! He has been doing a great job of sitting for long periods of time. I even had enough time to take some photos!

Our Sweet Little Guy

He loves to touch his toes!

Going to bed with his little pup...

Not so sure about the cereal...

I am far behind in my blog postings, but we have been busy!

It was my first mother's day today and it was a great one. It's also our 6 year anniversary, so we had a fun weekend celebrating both. We went to the Mall of America yesterday and did some shopping and eating. Evan was mesmerized by all of the people, lights, and especially enjoyed Lego land with his daddy! We stopped at REI on the way home and bought a new jogging stroller. My friend Jane recommended one and we LOVE it! It folds down really easily and is easy to push. We went down to the lakes today to try it out and it was wonderful! We had lunch and went for a walk...Maddux enjoyed swimming in the river!

We tried feeding Evan cereal a couple of weeks ago and he wasn't very impressed. We tried again on Friday and he loved it! He had some more tonight and then had to have a bath, since he was full of cereal! We also had to put his big boy carseat in tonight because he has outgrown his baby one. He is 21 pounds and 29 inches...his feet hang over the edge!

A couple of weekends ago we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Pasche in Alexandria. We went to our niece Maddy's dance recital and had fun hanging out with the family. Maddy and Hailey were great with Evan and he found them very entertaining!

Last Sunday my mom, dad, Evan, and I headed to Brainerd for a school counseling conference that I go to every year. We stayed at a hotel in town and my parents watched Evan while I went to my conference. It was a great, relaxing time and Evan even had his first experience in a pool! We dipped his toes in, but he wasn't amused. Hopefully he'll enjoy it more this summer. He also got his first tooth on Sunday and figured out how to roll back over onto his back!

Aaron's grandma passed away last Sunday, so we went to Benson, MN on Wednesday and Thursday for the visitation and funeral. We will miss her and are so glad that she was able to meet little Evan. She was a wonderful grandma and great-grandma!

Evan continues to make us smile everyday! He loves to babble, stick his tongue out, roll around, splash in the bathtub, play with his toys, read books, grab his toes, and squeal!

6 Months Old!

Sticking out his tongue...

Looking cute in his firetruck pj's...

Playing airplane with Uncle Matt...

Feeling daddy's whiskers...

Matt & Hannah are engaged!!

Our sweet little Evan turned 6 months old yesterday. Seriously...where does the time go?! I can't believe that it was already 6 months ago that he was 6 lbs. 10 oz. and in the NICU hooked up to machines. Now he is over 20 lbs. and is such an active boy!

We have been having a good time hanging out and enjoying our family time. It is so nice to have Aaron home at night and on Saturdays. We had a good weekend and spent some time with Matt and Hannah. They got engaged on Friday, and we are VERY excited!! Matt came to hang out with us for awhile on Saturday and Sunday while Hannah was at work and we had dinner with them on Saturday after Evan's pictures. We had Evan's 6 month pictures taken, but he was not amused! We had to wake him up when we got there and the photographer was a little "wacky". I think he was frightened! We got a couple cute ones, but he was very serious in most of them. We are so used to seeing his big smile, but maybe we'll have better luck for his 9 month ones!

He LOVES Maddux and is always on the lookout for him. Every time he hears the dog bark, he smiles...I guess he thinks it's funny when his puppy is naughty! His new things are sticking out his tongue, playing with our faces, grabbing his toys, and getting wedged in the corner of his crib on his stomach. The last one is not so fun for mom and dad, who have to go in and turn him over when he gets mad!

We go to the doctor next week, so it will be fun to see how much Evan has grown!