Annual Utah Trip!

The end of January we got a new minivan. Yes, we've upgraded to a larger family vehicle with another baby on the way and absolutely love it. I wasn't so sure about it when we first started looking, but know we made a great choice and even better...got a great deal! With the new purchase Matt thought we needed to take a roadtrip. We generally go to Utah in the spring, but he had a cousin leaving on a mission, so we headed up in February (too cold) to attend his farewell. As usual, it was a quick trip, but we had a great time.

Carson gets an A+ for travel. He was great! He got to test out the DVD player for the first time and I think he's a big fan. He watched Star Wars the entire way there and back. I brought prizes for him, so every couple hours he'd get to open a bag with a little Star Wars action figure or a new Bakugan. He loved it. Since we've been home we have been successful in not turning the DVD player on again. He doesn't even ask. I told him it only works when we go on long trips. After our eleven hour drive he knows a trip to Target does not count as a long trip.
Blake gets a C for traveling. I love this little guy, but he was not as happy as I thought he'd be and for the most part refused to sleep on the way to Utah. We planned on staying in Kanab to break up the trip, but the kids were asleep at 8:30 p.m. when we drove through town, so we decided to just keep driving. Blake woke up twenty mintues later and would only be happy if I sat next to him. He finally fell asleep at 12:30 a.m. We arrived at 12:45 a.m. Perfect timing! Blake thought throwing his blanket down on the floor for me to retrieve was a really fun game. On the way home he would fake cry and then bang his hand on his armrest and say, "No!". We couldn't stop laughing.
My pictures are not wanting to upload, so this one picture wil have to do for now. He went down to BYU on Friday afternoon. It was funny to be back on campus after eight years. Am I really that old? Yes, I am.

While we were there we got to see my sister, Natalie, and her family in Pleasant Grove. We went to the Dinosaur Museam at Thanksgiving Point with Brian and Gavin. We stayed with Matt's grandparents in Bountiful. Carson just loves his Grandma Renie! We took Matt's sister, Natalie, with us from Provo to Bountiful. It was fun to spend time with her and to have an extra two hands to help with our kids. She even watched the kids while we got some lunch at my favorite restaurant for Valentine's Day! We got to see lots of Matt's side of the family at the farewell and the gathering afterwards. Most of our trip consisted of seeing family, but luckily we got to see some friends too. Thanks Joe and Marci for letting us stop by to say hi! Thanks Mike and Jamie for meeting up with us for dinner. We always feel bad when we don't get to see everyone, but these trips are always a whirlwind and we try to cram as much in as we possibly can!


I'm already really looking forward to our Utah trip next year. Traveling eleven hours with three kids sounds like even more fun!! Can you sense the sarcasm?

Family Date Night

A few of us having been feeling a bit under the weather, but we decided getting out of the house for a bit was a nice option. First, we headed off to Pei Wei for dinner. I was sitting closest to Blake, therefore, I was in charge of making him be happy. That's always a chore at restaurants. He's not a huge fan of being strapped into a highchair. It was only a matter of time until he lost interest and started throwing rice and noodles. After I inhaled my food, it was off to our next destination...Bahama Bucks. I think I've been there three times this week. Can we just blame it on me being pregnant and it always sounds good??

As you can see, Blake, thoroughly enjoyed sharing a Bahamakazi with dad.
Carson enjoying his snowcone. He requested anything green. Surprise, surprise! We settled on Lime. Quite tasty!

Blake decided to get serious about the Bahamakazi and take the job of actually holding the cup.

Carson thought he'd put the umbrella to good use and keep the rain away. He was all smiles until the umbrella broke 30 mintues later at our house.

I love going on dates with just me and Matt, but fun family date nights are a good time too!

"Noodle"

I've always called Carson my "Noodle" and boy do I sure love him! He's got quite the personality and can always make me laugh. I saw on someone's blog that they asked their four year old a series of questions, so I thought I'd do it with Carson. Some answers I expected and others made me laugh.

• What's your favorite color? Green
• What's your favorite number? 4
• What's your favorite food? Strawberries
• What's your favorite drink? Orange Juice
• What's your favorite cereal? Pebble Puffs (Sounds like a mix of Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Puffs to me)
• Who's your favorite friend? I have two, Bridgon and Rome.
• What's your favorite thing to do with mom? Play games and when she eats with me.
• What's your favorite thing to do with dad? Play with his iTouch
• What do you want to be when you grow up? A superhero!
• What's your favorite scripture story? When Jesus is big and tall
• Why do we go to church? I don't like to go to church.
• Let's try this again. Why do we go to church? To learn about Jesus.
• Where do you want to go on your mission? To the dinosaur museum.
• What's your favorite movie? Star Wars
• What's your favorite treat? TicTacs
• What's your favorite song? I Am A Builder
• What's your favorite book? The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything
• What's your favorite thing about being four? That then I'll be five and then six.
  

Blake - 15 Months

Blake was officially 15 months on Monday. He went in for his appointment on Wednesday and here are his current stats:

• Weight: 22 lbs 9 oz (20%)
• Height: 31 in (40%)
• Head: 48 cm (75%)

A few things about Blake...

• He loves his big brother. He wants to do whatever Carson does.
• He loves to climb.
• He will eat absolutely anything! Finally! A kid who will eat.
• He has the cutest little toothy grin.
• He loves his blanket.
• He's not a huge talker...yet. His vocabulary consists of: da-da, uh-oh, whoa and nigh-nigh (night-night).
  

Little Peanut

Here's Baby Evans #3. 14 weeks. They did an ultrasound to check dates and size to make sure we were right on schedule. Everything looks good so far. They will do a more extensive ultrasound on March 1st and tell us for sure what we are having. Right now they just have an educated guess. I'll post that once we know for sure!

1/2 Monkey

I swear Blake is part monkey. The kids goal in life is to climb on absolutely anything possible! He loves chairs. When a chair isn't in use I have to lay it down on the floor so he can't use it to step to something higher - dining room table, kitchen table, desk, bed, etc. Today I even saw him trying to climb some filing cabinets. I'm thinking he gets this from his dad. Matt was a climber as a child too. Super fun. Sure he looks sweet an innocent in this picture, but he keeps me on my toes that's for sure!

I still have no clue as to how he got on top of the desk with no chair around. Kapri was over helping me put together our new desk. She caught Blake and snapped a picture. I think we'll have to start calling him Mowgli from The Jungle Book.

Even though he has monkey-ish tendencies...we still love him like crazy. Sweet little boy.

We'd like to announce...

We are adding yet another addition to the family!

Carson - October 2005

Blake - November 2008

Baby Evans #3 - August 1, 2010

Carson's Funny Question

Matt got a biography of Mao for Christmas. Carson asked Matt, "Who's that?" "Chairman Mao." "Who is he?" "A super mean guy. The king of all mean guys." "Is he alive or dead?" "Dead." "Was is by a gun or fire?" "Uh, old age." "Oh."

Nativity

Getting ready for the family nativity at my Grandma's house. My mom was incorporating Carson's beloved Buddy (his blanket) into his costume because he insisted on carrying it. Leave it to my mom to come up with a solution! Isn't Carson the most darling Joseph!

As you can see the head attire didn't last long. At least I got a picture of him while he was getting ready. All the little girls wanted to be angels this year which left us with no Mary. My darling cousin Brittney stepped in last second. Everyone was basically rolling on the floor laughing while Joseph (age 4) and Mary (age 24) took their places.

Christmas - Woolf Family

Once we finished up breakfast with Matt's family we headed over to my parent's house. I took lots of pictures but realized I was taking them with my dad's camera. This is the only picture I have from the morning. My parent's get the kids the cutest personalized items each year. This is a sleeping bag with fire breathing dragons on it. The older grandkids got these a couple years ago, but Carson was still catching up on the items he had missed. Blake got a rolling suitcase with his name on it. Perfect for carrying toys around the house or for a sleeping over with Grandma!

Carson showing off his new sleeping bag with Grandma Dana in the background.

Christmas - Evans Family

This year Christmas was with the Evans family. We switch off families each year which basically means we do the major Christmas traditions with one family rather than bouncing back at forth all day. Luckily both of our families are here so we get to see both of them on Christmas day!

Carson opening his presents at Grandma & Papa's house.
Carson checking out his big gift from Grandma & Papa - a sand table.

The highly anticipated Glow Station! He talked about this thing for at least a month before Christmas. Marci's in-laws spent Christmas in Arizona this year and got this for Carson. It was such a sweet gesture and Carson carried the glow stick around all day as well as slept with it that night.

Why is it that kids always love the cheapest gifts!? He was thrilled with this reindeer that pooped out Sugar Babies. Yes, you read that correctly. Happy as always with his Aunt Marci and Uncle Adam.

Getting his Moon Sand all set up. Moon Sand is just about the coolest thing ever! Dave & Gail got him a sandtable and he spends hours playing outside.

Merry & Bright

We started a new family tradition this year with our gifts. Christmas can get out of control with spending and I read a wonderful idea just after Christmas last year and we decided to go with it! Each family member gets four gifts: a need, a want, a wear and a read. Technically, I guess the kids get five gifts because Santa leaves them one gift too! It was perfect! It really made us think about the gifts we chose and kept spending under control. I love our new tradition.

Christmas Morning

It was fun to set up Christmas once our boys went to bed on Christmas Eve! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE our stockings. I didn't have a stocking growing up (we used my dad's socks) so it's fun to have these festive stockings! Matt's grandma makes them for us.

Blake and Carson checking out Carson's new race track. I love the little smile on Blake's face.

Blake looking thrilled about Christmas morning! Ha. Matt was thrilled. You can see his present hanging above his head to the right. He got a new TV.

Blake with his basketball/football/baseball combo.

Christmas Eve

Gail had planned an evening of fun for Christmas Eve. Full of games and a white elephant gift exchange. I love spending time with family over the holidays.

If you look closely at the whiteboard you'll notice Carson's "Frosty the Snowman" drawing for our Christmas carol Pictionary game. Carson is reinacting how he drew Frosty's face for us.
Carson got the game Operation in our white elephant exchange. He loved it.

I ended up with this very cool Jamaican hat. Carson loved that too!

Carson being goofy as always. Taking a ride on one of Grandma's reindeer. He and Blake tear these things apart every time we are at their house.

Christmas Eve Tradition

Growing up we always got to open a gift on Christmas Eve - pajamas! It's a tradition that I absolutely loved and have carried on with our family. Here we are Christmas Eve opening our special "Christmas jammies" as Carson would call them. Unfortunately, we didn't get a family picture. Note to self: do that next year!

Tempe Lights

Each year I love seeing the temple lights. Matt on the other hand says "I've already seen them" but is a good sport about coming along. Christmas Eve we headed out and had a great time.

The whole Evans crew!
Just the girls...and Blake.

Aunt Marci and Uncle Adam with their very favorite nephews! Carson was NOT in the mood for pictures. If you said anything about a picture he'd turn his head the other way. Blake complied as long as he could suck on his finger.

Uncle Adam + Carson = Best Buddies

These two kept each other entertained over the holidays.

Blake enjoying the Christmas lights at his level.

Major Bubbles!

Taking a bath at Grandma & Papa's house is always a treat for Carson. She puts in the bubbles and turns on the bathtub jets. Talk about a fun time for a four year old!

Santa Claus

Carson & Blake visiting Santa - December 2009

Carson was very excited to go visit Santa this year. Blake just couldn't get over his white beard - he sat and stared. Carson told Santa he has been a good boy and that he wants a Glow Station and a big boy bike. Santa asked what color bike he wanted, so Carson looked down to think, saw Santa's pants and then said, "Red." It was actually pretty funny because Carson wouldn't look at Santa at all! He spoke to him looking straight ahead.

2nd Annual Woolf Family Hayride

Last year my parents started a fun tradition for our family Christmas party. We go on a horse drawn hayride up and down the streets while caroling. So fun! All of the kids (minus Blake) absolutely love it. Blake pretty much screamed the entire ride. Oh well. Maybe he'll enjoy it next year! Christmas this year is considered the "off" year in our family, so we were short nine grandchildren and ten adults. Thanks Mom and Dad for an evening of fun! Any get together with my family is never dull that's for sure!

Conversations with Carson

I have funny conversations on a daily basis with Carson. My mom asks if I'm writing these things down.

• My Papa Snedigar recently passed away. When I told Carson he very seriously and sweetly asked, "Did he go on a space ship to another planet to meet Jesus?"

• Tonight we have a family Christmas party. I told him we need to hurry and get ready. He asked, "So we can go on a hayride!?" I told him yes and he then said, "Mom, but hay doesn't walk."