Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone!  I know, we're a bit late, but we still wanted to send our best wishes to everyone reading our blog and share a bit of Evan's Christmas so far.  We were able to make it to Nebraska, despite the blizzard, for a few days to visit before Christmas day.  Then we traveled back home so Santa could visit Evan's house on Christmas Eve.  He'e enjoyed the holiday so much this year!  And it's not over yet:)  Grandma and Grandpa Turzynski roll in this weekend for another celebration.  We're happy we'll be able to see both sides of the family this holiday.  We hope everyone was able to be with family and had a safe and happy Christmas!

Driving the dump truck in the snow at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He later discovered it doesn't have snow tires and was quite frustrated by it's lack of traction.

Eating some Christmas dinner with his cousins.

Opening gifts at Grandma and Grandpa Stalder's house.

The adults needed some down time so insert an episode of Olivia.  They all 3 sat like that the whole time.

Helping Grandma Stalder fill the bird feeders.

Finding treats in his stocking.  Pretty sure it was 6 am at this point.

Excited about his peas from Toy Story 3.

Playing with some of his new art supplies while mom and dad cooked Christmas dinner.  

Real snow (finally!)

After a very limited snow season last year, we were excited to get some real snow this weekend. Of course we were expecting 3 maybe 6 inches based on the forecast, but ended up closer to a foot.  Evan didn't care.  He loved it!  He got to build a snowman (that he quickly asked to knock over), got to make footprints in the snow (until it was too deep for him to walk in) and finally got to use his new sled (new about 12 months ago).  Sunday was a great day!  No comments on the Monday morning commute.

Watching it snow in the morning.

Getting ready to go outside

Taking a ride on the sled - later in the day, 8 inches of snow later, we went to the park and hit the not-so-steep slopes....he LOVED it.

Pulling the sled is closer to what he enjoys doing with all of his trucks and trains

This is a bit happier than his face in the pictures from one of his first snows (see here)

Trying to build a snowman

Succeeding on a smaller scale - he even used a baby carrot for his nose!

Giving Thanks

Our November was a busy one; with a big final push on the basement Family Room and a Thanksgiving Feast to plan. We were able to have the Turzynski Family join us for Thanksgiving and a few other friends. Great Grandpa Ryan was even able to make the trip. Thanks to Adrienne and Jason for some the nice photos below.

Evan's waiting for Grandma, Grandpa & Great Grandpa to arrive

A little pre-dinner train time

Our 20lb bird

Our table

Everyone fit at the table... barely

Kid's Table



Kid's Table

 

This kiddos and their Moms



Buds

Evan enjoyed another sleepover with Cousin Grayson this weekend. They have so much fun together. Grayson is turning three this month and he's such a good boy. Very well-behaved and great manners -a great role model for Evan. The two had good times running around the house and playing in the new Family Room. It warms our hearts watching these two grow up together...

Eating dinner at the kid's table Friday Night

Good Times in the Family Room

We started Saturday Morning with Trains

Lots of Train Time

Since they were up at 5am, they needed a mid-morning cartoon break

"How much stuff can we fit in this bed?"

Sunday Morning: uber lounge mode

Happy Halloween

It was the first Halloween that we thought Evan would get into the festivities, and maybe he did, but a bit too early.  It's 8:07 pm on Halloween, and as I write this, he's been asleep for 20 minutes already.  The little guy wanted nothing to do with trick-or-treating and we ended up coming home after one attempt, 2 houses down.  Maybe next year.
He did celebrate with a Halloween parade at daycare today and immediately asked to eat his candy when he got home. He also wore his costume to the children's museum last week for a Halloween party.  So, maybe it was too much.  Either way, he was an adorable fire fighter and Jake was able to break out his mad costume skills in creating the fire truck from scraps of wood and cardboard with Evan's wagon.  Something tells me we will be crusing the neighborhood with the truck long after Halloween. 
Hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!

Firefighter Evan and his Fire Truck

Ted (the bear) had to come along.

Before leaving for trick-or-treating.  We should have known his cuddly shy mood was telling us something about how the evening was going to go...

Reading books with cousin Sophia.



Watching the garbage men.  Sophie with her arm around Evan.  Too cute!



At the Children's Museum Halloween Party.  We were much more interested in playing than trick-or-treating.



Building parking ramps for his match box cars with daddy. 



The New Family Room

We've made lots of progress on our basement project. Evan has been enjoying the new Family Room as you can see in the photos below. It's been nice to get the weekends back. We've been spending less time working on the basement, and more time hanging out down there.

Here's a VIDEO of Evan helping Mommy bake cookies.

He's watching for the delivery truck, that's going to drop off the new couch.



We got a tent playset at a garage sale and set it up in the basement.



Evan started a "tea party" in the new basement and brought
stuffed animals down one at a time to join the party.

Froggy..

Giraffe...

 

Everybody's here!



Our little helper

Evan continues to become more and more interested in helping out around the house.  Of course, there are times when he refuses to do the things that he can do, but then he'll want to load the dishwasher or water the plants.  We are especially fond of the times when he's interested in doing something we don't particularly enjoy, however we know that the quality of the work is sometimes questionable.  Still, with his cheesy smile, I'm still a sucker for any little help I can get:)

Helping daddy prep to caulk and paint the baseboard

At some point, Evan seemed to get off task....maybe his taping job was "helping" daddy?

Just being cheesy at breakfast - he's been loving eating at the kids table.  Mommy and Daddy also love to squeeze their legs under it to eat with him:)

Helping mommy bake cookies - this is a pretty motivating task I think.

Checking out the plants, wondering why mommy and daddy haven't watered them more.  Especially since he loves to water the plants.  Note the circa 1980's ET tshirt.  It was passed down in my family, but I'm pretty sure my sister wore it when she was five.  Evan's a big kid.

Never dull....

 Nope.  Never a dull moment around the Turzynski house.  Evan's vocabulary continues to explode.  He likes to ask a million questions, some of which are those that are just pointing out the obvious.  I wish I could include a clip of him here so you could hear his intonation, because he lifts his voice up higher, just so, when asking these questions that it makes us giggle.  A lot.  Probably too much.  Like when Jacob came home from work one night, and had happened to stop off at the liquor store for a 6-pack. Evan sees him and asks, "You got beer?"  Who knows what he'll ask next.

It's been a busy few weeks, with a trip to the state fair, a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Turzynski, lots of fun days/evenings with friends, and today a trip to a local festival.  It's been fun to watch Evan adapt to each activity and be himself.  Tonight he was cruising the kiddie games at the festival and was really shy at first - then after a few, he was walking right up to the game vendors to hand over his ticket and play so he could get a prize.  Too cute!

Here are a few shots from the last few weeks:

Favorite activity at the State Fair - sitting on every. single. tractor.

Nice smiley Evan.

Ridiculously over the top smiley Evan.

He would have driven off in this one, if they'd just left the key in it.

I don't know what he's doing here....

In one of his question-asking modes, he asked to see a peach from the fruit bowl.  Then, before I could cut it up (because I haven't let go of cutting everything up for him), he bit into it - he ate the whole thing. Seriously, no peach flesh left.  Just the pit.

Showing off a playdough sandwich he made.  He LOVES playdough!

Cruising at the local festival.

Despite his very serious face, he seems to love the kiddie rides.