Project Make our Backyard Awesome= Complete

What a difference two years makes! We have lived in South Jordan a little over two years now and the biggest project is now complete. I've mentioned it before, but one of the things we loved and hated about this house was the back yard. It was huge, but it needed so much work. We (and by we I mean Tyler) have made it our goal to make our back yard awesome. So here's a look back at our house when we moved in...

And two years later, here's our awesome backyard!

One of our favorite things to do this summer was to sit out on the patio and watch the sunset. Seriously, can you beat that view?

 Since Craig is now retired, he works part time at a nursery. He made these planters for us for our Christmas present, and by the end of the summer they were huge!!

Whelp, you might think that with the biggest project done we would be done too, right? Nope, we already have plans for our next projects: adding a kitchenette to the basement and turning the bonus room into a home theater! Projects at the Evans' household are a never ending thing!

18 Months

I'm only two weeks late, but this handsome little boy just turned 18 months and had his check up at the doctor's. 

Here's his stats: 

Height: 32.25 Inches (50%)

Weight: 21.7 lbs (15%)

Head: 18 inches (15%)

At 18 months Caden: 

-Is talking more and more every day. He is up to about 15 words. 

-His favorite word is "DOON" (Don't). 

-He takes FOREVER to eat. Seriously he could sit in his chair for 45 minutes and eat if it is something he likes. 

-If the food is something he likes, he is very protective of it. You can move the plate or else he will freak out. 

-He is one of the pickiest eaters. If it is not eggs, toast, PB and honey, cereal, or bananas he won't eat it. 

-Just recently (as in 3 days ago) gave up the binkie. We went cold turkey and he is doing really well without it. 

-Would rather play with Kayla's toys than his own. 

-Loves to read books, especially anything with animals. 

-Hates watching t.v. He maybe has an attention span of about 5 minutes, then he is done. 

-Can fully communicate by grunting. 

-Loves his blankies. 

-Loves to snuggle with mom or dad

-Follows Makayla around every where. They can either be so cute together, or they can fight like cats and dogs. Caden is getting pretty good at holding his own.

And how did Caden celebrate his 18 month birthday? By getting into his first car accident. He was fine (because he is still in a rear facing car seat), and luckily there were no injuries. Mommy just needs a good reminder to pay attention while driving!

Bedtime Routine

Our kids love bedtime routine. They don't love going to bed, but they love everything leading up to it. It really is the highlight of their day, so I thought I would blog about our nightly bed time routine. 

It all starts out with us telling the kids that it is bath time and they literally RUN to the tub! If we don't watch Caden close enough he will jump right in the tub fully clothed. 

 The kids love bath time because they get to play with all their toys. Their favorites are Spot, Bubbles, and Addy (the dogs). We only have 3 rules in bath time:

1. No getting water out of the tub.
2. No getting Daddy or Mommy wet
3. No drinking the water.

If the kids break any of these rules, Daddy squirts them with the squirt gun. They pretend to hate it, but really they love it.

 And sometimes in the middle of bath time Kayla needs to take a potty break.

 After playing in the tub we finally start to wash them. Makayla insists that I wash her, and Daddy washed Cader-tot. We like to experiment with crazy hair styles.

After baths, we get them all snuggled in their towels and then take them to get dressed in their jammies.

Part of the routine is for Makayla to pick out her pull-up. It takes her quite a while to decide among "nice monsters, Ariel, or Minnie Mouse". Seriously, don't you wish you were a kid again and that picking out your pull up was the hardest decision of your day? Makayla insists on picking out her jammies which takes another few minutes for that tough decision.

 Once the kids are in their jammies, we start cleaning up, while singing the clean up song from Barney. Caden is not the best at cleaning up. In fact he tends to make more messes along the way.

 And sometimes the kids fight over baby. We don't stop them, we just take more pictures.

 Then it's time for milk. The kids used to drink bottles, but now they just take little sips of milk.

 We ask them if they want to brush their teeth and they both scream with excitement. Seriously, our kids LOVE to brush their teeth. Sometimes we have to hide the toothpaste because they love brushing so much. Sometimes in the day they disappear and I find them in the bathroom brushing. Daddy helps them get toothpaste and Kayla tells him, "I want a big one" every time. If it is too small, she cries until we give her more.

 The kids are pretty good at brushing on their own for a minute.

 Then we step in to finish.

 Makayla is the cutest when she finishes brushing. She rinses her tooth brush and then taps it twice on the sink... just like Tyler and I do. It is so funny to notice the little things we do that they pick up on.

 Recently she has tired to rinse her mouth and spit, but she doesn't quite know how to do it and ends up just swallowing the water. It cracks us up every time.

 Then it's time for the first round of kisses. This is my favorite part of the night because the kids give each other a big kiss on the lips.

 After kisses, Caden waives and says, "nigh nigh sis-a"(night, night, sister). Nothing can melt your heart faster than that!

Kayla gets her hair dry while staring at herself in the mirror and the other one takes Caden to his room to start reading books. We trade off nights, so this particular night it was my turn to get Caden to bed and Daddy got Kay-bugs.

 The kids always get to pick their own books to read that night and they certainly have their favorites.

After a few minutes Kayla comes rushing in to give the second round of kisses. 

 We finish reading books, I give Caden so many kisses that he pushes me away and says, "don" (don't), and then I tuck him into bed. He has to have his binkie and blankie with him to fall asleep.

Meanwhile Daddy  is reading Kayla books. Makayla is getting so good at recognizing all her letters because Daddy is so good to review them every night before they start books. 

After books we usually ask Kayla to tell us about her day, and her favorite part of the day. Her favorite part usually involves Addy (her cute little friend at daycare). We kiss her good night and tuck her into bed with her blankie. Kay bugs still has to suck on the corner of her blankie to fall asleep. 

Then Tyler and I have a few hours to relax and watch tv before we head to bed. But before Tyler and I go to bed, we sneak in to check on the kids. We give them one more kiss and then just stand there and wonder how we got so lucky!

It really is the simple things in life that mean the most. 

September = Picture fail

Well let's just say that September is crazy for me going back to work and all, so needless to say, I failed at taking pictures this month. The kids are back at daycare at Brooke's and they seem to love it. Kayla loves playing with Addie and Audrey. When I pick the kids up from Brooke's Makayla  tells me that, "Addie come over to pay wif me!". Brooke tells me that Caden loves the little babies at day care and is very attentive to them. She told me that one day one of the little boys was just crying and wouldn't stop, so Caden went over to him and gave the little boy his blanket. If you know Caden, he loves his blanket more than anything and does not let go of it, so for him to give it to the little boy was just so sweet! Then Brooke said that Caden went to go find a toy for the little boy to make him feel better. Our cute little guy is just the sweetest little boy! 

As for me and Tyler, we are just busy as ever at work. I'm teaching the Honors and ALPS students, which is really nice, but challenging at the same time. Tyler has been busy with bids at work and projects around the house. 

A few fun things we did this month that I failed to get pictures of: 

-We went to The Land for Labor day. We had so much fun playing outside, going for 4 wheeler rides, and hanging out with our family. 

-Tyler and I ran another 5K. It was a tough race with a lot of it up hill. Tyler did great and ran it in 28 minutes. I didn't do as well and ran it in 38 minutes. 

Here's some events that I did manage to take pictures of: 

-We took the kids to Sheels for FFD. The kids loved looking at the fish and all the dead animals.  Makayla and I went on the ferris wheel and she was loving every minute of it. I, on the other hand, did not love it, but tried to put on a brave face.

We celebrated Craig's birthday at our house. It was the same day as the U of U vs. BYU game, so we turned it into a game day party too. 

Do you know why our family is so awesome? Because we all played a game of dodge ball. Do you know how funny it is to see an 80 year old, a  2 year old, and everyone in between running around throwing balls at each other?

 Craig opened presents

 And we had our fantastic cookie cake.

After everyone stayed until almost midnight watching the Utes crush the Cougars!!

As far as our two adorable kids go, they have their moments when they are so cute together. They are getting a little easier because they will go play together, and it gives me a few moments to catch up on cleaning one mess while they are in the other room making a whole new mess. 

Sometimes I catch them being cute by lying on the couch together. 

 Or enjoying cookies and milk on the floor.

Or sharing the school bus

Our kids also love bath time... like it is the highlight of their day. They have so much fun playing with all the toys and trying to avoid Daddy spraying them because they are drinking the water. 

And who doesn't love a clean naked baby that smells like baby shampoo? 

We were going through baby clothes to give to Tracy and Makayla found a lot of clothes that she can fit into now. She thought she would try them all on at once. I love the flip flop slippers with the winter coat, gloves, and hat!

 Yesterday we decorated our house for Halloween. Both kids were having so much fun helping us to decide where all our decorations should go. Makayla is going to be Belle for Halloween this year and she was so excited about her outfit that we let her wear it while we decorated.

 And this handsome boy loved his pumpkin so much that he carried it all around the house.

We had some extra decorations, so we let the kids put some in their room. Makayla loved showing us all her "pumpkins".

Some cute sayings of Makayla this month include:
-Makayla tells us that Caden is a "hatching boy" (handsome boy)
-It has rained a lot this month, so Kay bugs has been singing "Rain, rain go away. Get another time!"
-She tells me everyday that she "only want one pony tail, okay mom?"
-She loves to sing. We have the cutest video of her playing the piano and singing "itsy, bitsy, spider" and the birdie song.
-Every day when Tyler gets home from work, she gets this surprised look on her face, then runs to the garage yelling "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!"
-Makayla doesn't like Caden playing in her "play room", so she pushes him out then closes the door. Other times she does want him to play, so she says in her nicest high pitched voice, "you want to play in my play room, Caden. Come on Caden"
-The other day Makayla wanted to watch a movie and I told her she had to wait until my visiting teachers left. She got two movies and came to me and said, "okay mom, I'll let you choose. Do you want to watch Belle or Ariel? You choose." It cracks me up the things that we say that she picks up on.
-We have a pumpkin decoration that has a scary face and Makayla thinks the pumpkin is crying. She went up to it this morning and said, "Aww, pumpkin. It's okay, don't cry."
-Makayla is very independent. She likes to do things herself. If you try to help her do somethings, she gets so mad and yells, "no, I doin it!"

As for our adorable Cader-tot at 17 months:
-Caden is starting to talk more. He can say about 10 words now.
-If he is in the other room playing and one of us says, "Caden", he answers back with "wha?"
-Or if you ask him a yes or no question he yells, "ya!"
-One more tooth poked through this month.
-He loves to brush his teeth.
-He loves to sit in the sink while we get ready in the mornings.
-Caden can fully communicate with us and let us know what he wants or needs by grunting.
-When he wants a taste of something he points to it, nods his head really big, and smacks his lips together.
-Caden loves playing with Makayla's dolls, little people, and most of all her kitchen set.
-He is still the best snuggler. The other morning he woke up extra early and I just sat in his chair and held him so close for at least 15 minutes. He just looked so content sleeping. I just sat there smelling his hair and thinking I didn't want to let him out of my arms. I know in a few years he won't want to snuggle, so I have to savor those times when he does.

Well let's hope things settle down now that we're back into the work routine. Hopefully I'll take more pictures in October!