Santa's Sweetheart

This little Santa's sweetheart is now three months old! And I have to say that was the fastest three months ever. 

Brynnli is by far THE BEST baby ever. Tyler and I thought Makayla and Caden were really good babies, but they don't even compare to Brynnli. She is content to do whatever and go wherever. She is a really good eater and the best sleeper. I usually put her to bed about 7:30 and she sleeps for a good seven to eight hours straight. Even when she does wake up in the night, I just put her in bed with me and she eats and falls asleep again.

Brynnli loves her big sister and brother, and Makayla and Caden are really good to watch out for her and get her toys if she cries. The last three months have been a dream with our sweet little girl!

All I Want for Christmas...

Merry Christmas from the Evans Family

Love, 

Tyler, Kristen, Makayla, Caden, and Brynnli

Christmas Time is Family Time.

We have done a lot of fun things to get ready for Christmas! Here's some of the highlights: 

Decorating the Christmas tree: 

 Brynnli is the Angel at the top of our tree this year!

 Makayla and Caden had fun putting the decorations on our tree. We always let them decorate their tree downstairs, so needless to say all of the decorations are only about three feet high.

 Brynnie Bear was so excited about decorating she fell asleep, but she really is Santa's sweetheart.

 The next day Kitty the Elf came back to stay with us for the month of December! He brought the kids donuts, yogurt, and hot chocolate.  He watches the kids during the day to make sure they are being good, then he flies back to the North Pole to tell Santa how the kids have been, but he is always back before the kids get up in a new hiding place.

He also left the cutest note that said: 

The Kitty is back and so happy to see

the three little kids in the Evans family. 

First there were two, but now there are three: 

Makayla, Caden, and little Brynnli!

I brought you some yogurt and donuts today, 

but don't share with Brynnli... what would Mom say? 

Make sure to be good girls and good boys, 

so Santa will bring you Christmas Day toys!

Remember don't touch my soft little skin, 

and make sure to find me every mornin'.

Love, Kitty the Elf. 

 Since then the kids love to wake up in the morning to see where Kitty is hiding. We've found him in some interesting hiding places:

We've also made a Christmas countdown

and Santa ornaments made from the kids' hand prints. Makayla and Caden got to help paint them. 

We went to see the lights on Temple Square after Terry's retirement dinner. The weather was so nice and it was not crowded at all until the Christmas Devotional got out. Then it was packed, so we booked it out of there. 

 We picked Angels for the Christmas tree and the kids used their own money to buy their angels a special toy. Caden got his angel a Spiderman toy.

 Makayla bought her Angel some Legos.

 And we had to spot Brynnli some money, but she bought her angel a baby alive doll!

 Of course I can't wait for Christmas day, but I think getting ready for Christmas is almost more fun! Only 12 days left!

Makayla's Preschool Program

I LOVE Makayla's preschool! She has really excelled this year and has already learned her letters and sounds. Tyler and I have both been so impressed with her progress. Makayla loves to show us her projects she makes every time and we love to hear the songs they learn. They had a Christmas program to showcase some of the songs they have been learning. I have to say the program may have been the cutest thing I have ever seen. Ever. 

 Makayla and her friend Abby were the first on stage. I don't want to brag, but they were the best ones. They were the only two singing and doing the signs.

 This is her whole class.

 They had guitars for the "Days of the week" song.

 This may have been one of the funniest moments. The kids were supposed to go sit back down, and I think Makayla was supposed to sit by Abby, but there were other kids sitting where she was supposed to sit, so Makayla just wedged herself right in. I don't think the other kids were too happy with her. :)

 My favorite part was when the kids got dressed up as Christmas trees and danced around.

 During the show Makayla kept looking at us and waving.

 Makayla was especially excited for Grandma and Grandpa to see her show.

 And Grandma Kathy made it too!

Of course me, Tyler, Caden, and Brynnli were there to cheer her on, but we didn't get pictures with us. 

 This is Makayla with her teachers, Miss Aubrey and Miss Karly.

Loved this program and I can't wait for her spring concert.

I'm confused... Is it Winter or Spring?

The weather has been so good through December, like in the 60's! So we have been taking full advantage of the nice weather and went to the Zoo, this time with Grandma and Grandpa Evans. It was perfect and there were very few people there. I thought we would only last until 2 (nap time) but we ended up staying until it closed at 4! Here's a few pictures from our fun day. I promise we did look at the live animals, but it was more fun to take pictures with the statues of the animals.

November Highlights

Makayla: 3 years old

I remember being so excited when we found out Makayla was a girl. I dreamed of dressing her up in matching outfits every day, and doing her hair in cute ways with matching bows. Then I realized my little girl has a mind of her own. This is how Makayla dressed herself to go to dinner one night. The outfit somewhat matches, but she got it out of the dirty clothes. I tried to get her to change it, but she informed me it was "Elsa day." The socks obviously don't match and she wouldn't even let me comb her hair. But you know what? I might secretly think she looks cuter like this because she is so proud of herself. Regardless of how she dresses, I love this little girl... although I guess I can't really say she is little anymore because she is looking and acting so much older these days. 

Makayla is really coming out of the terrible two's and three's and is so cute and sassy all bundled into one girl. She is such a good big sister and loves to talk and play with Brynnli. She is hit and miss with Caden. Sometimes she can be so nice to him, and then a few minutes later she is so mean. Part of her frustration with Caden is that she is trying to protect him, or teach him the right way to do things, but he doesn't listen, so she ends up yelling or hitting him (or throwing him to the ground to stop him from running across the road... true story). She can be manipulative (in a three year old kind of way) too. One day I gave each of the kids a bowl of skittles with an even amount of candy in each one because I knew Makayla would try to eat more if I gave them the whole bag. They wanted to eat them downstairs, so Makayla said to Caden, "Here Caden, I'll carry your skittles for you." You're probably thinking, aww, that is so nice of her. Wrong. I watched as she ate half of his Skittles on the way down, then proceeded to eat her own when they were downstairs. See? Manipulative... or smart. If I let the kids play on my iPod, Makayla pretends to "help" Caden with a game, but before you know it, she has taken it over and poor Caden just has to sit there and watch her play. 

Makayla loves to pretend to do things that I do. She will bring her purse to the store and try to pay with her "credit card" aka hotel key. She also says the funniest things. My personal favorite this month was when Brynnli started crying and she said, "Are you serious, Brynn? That is the fakest cry I have ever heard!" Another funny thing is the day she saw me pumping milk for the baby, and later that day she said, "my baby is drinking juice from my boobie."

Here's some pictures of this cutie this month: 

I have tried changing the position of this picture so many times and it won't work, but she looks so cute in this outfit that I still had to post it. 

She loves dressing up her babies.

 Since we have been to Disneyland, Makayla loves to have "days" like "Elsa Day," "Cinderella Day", and "Minnie Mouse Day." Basically this involves her setting up every toy, outfit, and book around our house.

Caden: 2 Years Old

Oh Caden. Just when Makayla is getting out of the terrible three's, Caden is just getting into them. He can be so stinkin' cute, but he can also be such a whiny little stink sometimes. When he whines, he doens't give up. He'll just keep saying the same thing until you snap and get mad. Then he'll run to his room and moap. But he can be so sweet. He gives the very BEST hugs and kisses. Caden also says the funniest things out of nowhere. One day while shopping he told me, "that's too expensive. We shouldn't get 'dat." He also repeats things we say, like telling Kayla, "if you're going to suck on your blankie, you need to go in your room."

Caden loves to help me "nop," and let's face it, I love free child labor. 

 Poor Caden is stuck with girls all day long, so he thinks it is fun to do Makayla's hair.

Caden is also so sweet to Brynnli and such a good big brother. He is always looking out for her and making sure she has every thing she needs. Caden loves to share his toys and blankets with Brynnli, too. The other day he told me, "Her's doesn't have any blankies, so I should better give her mines." (P.S. I know I'm a former English teacher, and I shouldn't say this, but I LOVE it when Caden says, "hers." In fact I might actually encourage him to say it sometimes, because it's that cute.) 

Brynnli: 2 Months

Love this girl and her chubby little grin!

Brynnli puts up with the kids in her face all day and smothering her with toys. 

 But she did NOT like her shots at the doctor's office. She is one mad baby!

I have the cutest kids ever. That's all.