Walking feet!

Yesterday Evan took his first real steps!! We have been certain this would happen anytime now for weeks and yesterday was the day!

Here he is in action.



Isn't that great! Already today he is much more sure of himself and walking three times as far. His default mode is still crawling, but it won't be long until he's chasing Alyssa around. Could you tell the attention Evan was getting was just about to kill her? Oh they are fun.

Winter Blues...

I'm officially ready for winter to be over.  I'm longing for the days of throwing the kids in the stroller and heading to the park.  I'm longing for no more bulky winter coats.  I'm longing for the sun...oh the sun... But alas, it's February in Michigan which means we have at least one if not two more months of this...  Here are the latest pics and we try desperately to be entertained inside for just a little longer.

Put the toys in a new basket and they look like new toys!

Thank goodness they're easy to entertain!

See the two new teeth!!  There are four more coming through on the top this week!!

Nothing like a good book.

A package arrived in the mail yesterday from Uncle Brian and Aunt Kim and saved the afternoon.

Alyssa doing what she does best...lining things up!

Thanks guys!!

Here's to spring...come soon!

Evan's First Birthday

I still find it amazing that in the course of a year babies go from this...

to this!

I had so much fun preparing to celebrate Evan's big day.  Who he is and what makes him tick has really started to show in the last month.  Because of that, picking out presents was easier/more fun than even at Christmas.  Toys that play music/flash were the big hits this year!

Alyssa picked out this star toy that turned out to be the fav.  

He also got several leap frog toys, a Thomas train, a puzzle and a chair for his room!

Cute, cute cute!

I had started out the day with Alyssa baking Evan's cake while he was napping.  I checked it, thought it was done, pulled it out of the oven, flipped it over to release from the pan and...

oops!

Luckily, I had enough of all the ingredients and had started early enough in the day that I just whipped up another one.  (Thanks mom for helping clean up!)

Take two...

The finished product...always worth the effort!

What is this?

are you sure??

I think there's more in here...

Hello?!

This doesn't work like the phone...

So much fun!  I'm so thankful for this little boy.  He is such a sweet little guy.  He lights up when he sees you in the morning and loves his big sister.  Oh the conversations they will have.  I can't wait to see what the next year brings...