A Little Too Much Fun

James' mom, Kathy, his little sister, Amy, and Amy's daughter, Emma, came to visit this past week. We had such a great time while they were here. Tyler played so hard this past week that when we went to lunch at Panera at the end of their trip here, he didn't even make it long enough to order lunch. We sat down and he promptly fell fast asleep. What an amazingly peaceful lunch for James and I!

I am guessing that Amy didn't have quite as much fun as the rest of us. The whole trip was planned around Amy getting her wisdom teeth extracted. James took care of her anesthesia while one of his attendings did the actual extraction. James must have done a great job, because while Amy was in the recovery room (and still a little loopy) all she could talk about was how much she loved the anesthesia.

While Amy recovered the next few days, the rest of us played and took care of a few projects around the house. I realized today that I was so terrible at taking pictures this week while they were here. I didn't even take one of Tyler with his Nana (aka Kathy). However, I did get one of Tyler, James and Emma. What a cute little girl she is! She is super social (wonder where she gets that from!) and is so sweet. Tyler grew quite fond of baby Emma. Luckily, Nana will be back in town in a few short weeks (but not soon enough!) to help out when I have this baby, so I'll make sure to take some pictures then.

Halloween - Finally

Now that it has already been two whole weeks, I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our Halloween. We had a really fun night – once we convinced Tyler to wear his costume! He dressed up as Woody from Toy Story.

At first, he would only wear his cowboy hat.

After much pleading, wrestling and finally bribing, I got him into his costume. (Can you tell how relieved I am that he is finally in it from this picture?) He hates shirts with collars, and would really prefer to wear anything that doesn't touch his neck - maybe I should start buying him deep V-necked shirts, then he'd be happy. Each morning when I get him dressed, he holds his collar way out from his neck and tells me, “I scared that shirt.” After a while, he’ll let go of his shirt and forget about it. As you can tell from this picture, he had not yet forgotten about his collared shirt or the bandana around his neck. But he did enjoy the Laffy Taffy I gave him to distract him!

Our friends, the Elison’s, came by our house to Trick or Treat, and Tyler’s cute little friend, Nathan, was dressed up like Buzz Lightyear! This was not at all planned by Jamie and I – in fact we didn’t even discuss costumes until Halloween afternoon when we were making plans for that night. These two love each other and Tyler is still talking about how he was Woody and “Nay-Nay” was Buzz. What a fun night!

Grandma and Jill come to visit

I never thought it would happen, but my mom and my little sister, Jill, came to visit a few weeks ago. My parents live in Tokyo, Japan so it's a little difficult for them to come see us here in Ohio. When they do make it back to the States, they usually have a million meetings and things to do in Salt Lake City (where my family is from). Tyler and I had just gone to Salt Lake in July to visit with them while they were there, so we opted not to go again in October. Plus my parents are busy remodeling a house they just bought and really busy with all the projects that entails. Jill wanted to come hang out with us for a few days and managed to drag our mom away from her many projects to come visit. We were all so happy they both were able to come out. We had a very typical Evans girls trip - lots of eating out and shopping. We had so much fun and were so glad that they were able to come visit. Here a picture of my mom and Tyler watching a show together. My mom is always up for a good snuggle with her grandkids - whether it involves watching a movie, reading books or just some time together. Jill is the beloved aunt of 12 nieces and nephews. She is absolutely adored by each and every one of them. I love Tyler's "cheese" in this picture and the fact that he's hanging on tight to both Lightening McQueen and the package that it came in. He has played with the packaging almost as much as he has played with the cars!

One of my favorite Tyler moments

When I really need to get Tyler’s attention, I’ll hold his face in my hands and make him look at me while I’m talking to him. He, of course, now does this to me whenever he has something really “important” to tell me. Tyler is currently obsessed with the movie, Monster’s Inc. We love Mike (the little green monster) and Sully (the big blue monster) at our house! A few nights ago, I was saying prayers with Tyler (James was on-call) and prayed, “Please bless Mike (my little brother) on his mission in Japan…” Tyler got up, put his little hands on my cheeks so I would have to look at him, and very clearly and seriously said, “Mom, bless Sully too.” I guess he thinks that we’ve been praying for a little green monster for the last few months, and that it was only fair that we started to pray for Sully too!

Summer's Over???

I can't believe that summer is already over! I feel like we didn't get out to play as much as we should have. Luckily the nice weather (warm, but not humid) is holding out, so we should be able to go do a few more fun things. Here are some of my favorite pictures we took this summer. Enjoy!

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day...Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.

James and his fellow resident, Mark Elison, went to Tampa Bay, Florida this last weekend to attend an implant conference. I'm sure they learned a lot about implants during the 4 days they were there, but they also managed to squeeze in some time to go deep-sea fishing.

Here's the fish that Mark caught...

Here's the fish that James caught a few hours later...

When James arrived home a few days later (at midnight) he woke me up and proudly proclaimed that he had brought some fish home that he had caught himself. Here's how the rest of that conversation went:

Lisa: Great! What kind?

James: Ocean fish

Lisa (thinking this information would be pertinent when I cooked it): No, what kind? A grouper, a snapper?

James: I don't know, a fish that came out of the ocean.

The next day we talked to Mark and determined that it was indeed a redfish. I'm not quite sure how to cook it, but I'm thinking some lemons, garlic and a grill sound great.

Finally caving in

Dear Friends and Family,
I have been contemplating joining the blogging world for some time now and am finally getting around to doing it. I can't imagine that I'll be like some of my amazing friends (where do they find the time???) who update their blogs just about every other day, but I'll aim for once or twice a month. I hope you enjoy seeing what our family is up to!
Love, Lisa