Cowboy Evan

While in Nashville, Evan just had to find out what being a real cowboy was like. Auntie Chrissy took us to an authentic boot store, where Evan picked out his favorite black boots, a hat, and the horse to go along with it.  I don't know if Virginia is ready for this little cowboy!  

Jingle Bells

Merry Christmas, Everyone! 

More Nashville Christmas Fun

Mr. Football has invaded Franklin, TN!  Evan and his Badger uniform took over the house today, and Evan tackled everyone in sight.  Chrissy and Jeff were his favorite targets, and they kindly played the part of the tackl-ee.  Luckily for Evan they have a large living room with lots of tackle space!  I think in retrospect we should ALL have asked Santa for football helmets, because Evan has some muscle behind his tackle! 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Day!  Last night we drove to Nashville to spend the holiday with Auntie Chrissy and Uncle Jeff, and to surprise Grandma Barb.  She was shocked when the doorbell rang - she thought it was UPS, but Evan wandered in the door.  What a great Christmas surprise.  Evan was a rockstar in the car.  Charlottesville to Nashville is 9 hours, and he didn't complain the whole way.  He took little naps, watched some movies, sang songs, and counted the cows as we passed the fields.  Mommy and daddy were going a little stir crazy in the car, but Evan loved it - he even asked the next day to go back in the car!

We had a great time touring Chrissy & Jeff's neighborhood and new home.  They had odd weather while we were there, and it snowed most of the time.  Evan and the dogs though that was great, though the rest of Nashville wasn't so pleased.  We woke up to a snowy Christmas morning, and Evan was intrigued by the huge tree with boxes underneath.  He waited patiently in his Christmas stripey jammies until everyone was ready, then began passing out gifts... and helping everyone open them!  I think he ripped at least part of every gift that was there!

Santa and the family were great to Evan - he went home loaded with toys!  Santa brought a Wisconsin Badger football uniform and helmet, and Evan hasn't taken it off yet.  He got some new clothes, slippers, cars, and a flashlight, among other things.  This is one happy little Christmas elf! 

   

Come on, Ernie!

This morning during breakfast, Evan decided he wanted to take Ernie for a walk.  He didn't say a word, so when it was a little too quiet in the other room, Mike and I put down the newspaper to check out what the boys were doing. 

Basketball Games

 We love to attend the Virginia basketball games.  Evan has a blast watching the cheerleaders and dance team and is learning a little about basketball too.  We have seats next to lots of friends, and his buddy Connor almost always comes too.  At today's game, the boys snacked until they were stuffed, shared a seat to cheer (and color), and if you can tell in the first photo, hoping for a basketball to be shot their way.  Lucky them, tonight was the night!  Not one but two toy basketballs came right to the boys!  They couldn't have been happier. 

Christmas #1

Christmas #1 was today with the Clements (at least 3 are likely). Evan was super excited to see all the presents and that Santa had come early.  He hung some new ornaments on the tree and opened every box - even those that weren't his own, of course.  Ev also got some great luggage, one of his favorite things!  Thanks, Gramma and Grampa!

Playtime with Gramma K

Snow!

We finally had a measurable snow today!  It was a complete blizzard by Charlottesville standards... though only a couple inches actually fell.  Evan couldn't have been happier! To top it off, Gramma and Grampa Clement came to stay for the week, so he not only had snow to play in but two extra special playmates too.  (Mommy got a fantastic new camera as an early Christmas present so there are more photos than ever to sift through and hopefully better quality too.)

Evan played in the snow as long as he could, until his little fingertips got red and cold.  Then he came inside, warmed up, and went back out!  He slid on the slide, played soccer and football, and threw snowballs.  Gramma and Grampa even showed him how to make a snow angel!  They made a little snowman together - it was in the shade so it lasted longer than normal, and Evan checked every day to see if it was still there.   

 

Post It Fun

Post Its aren't just for making notes in school and at work!  They're fun to dress up and ride around the house in!

Bounce N Play Fun

While Grampa Chuck was here, we took the morning to go to the local Bounce N Play.  What fun!  It was Sunday morning right after they opened, so there weren't many people there and we had the place to ourselves.  Evan had a blast with Daddy and Grampa!  Here are a few highlights.

Cavman Breakfast

It's all Cavman, all the time!  Evan wears his shirt (lucky he has 3 of them!) at least 5 days a week, and his friend Packer Bear wears the other.  The two buddies might not like Cavman in person, but they love to wear his shirt!  Oddly enough, the shirt's almost the right size for Evan now. How did he get so big? 

Big day: snow, tree, party!

There was only an inch or two and it was gone by noon, but today was officially Evan's first snow of this year.  He couldn't have been happier!  He went out in his pj's to get a snowball, and refused to leave it outside.  Once inside, the snowball had a short but happy life in a bowl... until Evan and Ernie split it and ate it. 

Today was the perfect afternoon to decorate the tree!  Evan was anxious to help, and he actually did very well.  He hung some (his own face went smack in front, of course), and helped Daddy unwrap others and pass them to Mommy to hang on the high branches. We were a little nervous about the tree this year and wondered how much Evan would take the ornaments off, but he's been wonderful so far about leaving it alone.  (The glass icicles stayed in the box just in case.)  He has two ornaments that he can "push a button" on and they talk, so he plays with those constantly, but he's very careful with the rest.  He loves to turn the lights off and on - it's like magic!  Yay for Christmas!

We had our first Christmas party of the season today.  UVA Athletics put on a movie day for the kids with pizza and popcorn, and showed holiday flicks on the big scoreboard screen in the basketball arena.  Evan was super excited to "porrty."  He made a new friend and ate more pizza than I thought was humanly possible.  All the kids got reindeer ears and a stocking filled with treats - it was a great day! 

Evan Working

"Mommy, Evan working!" 
He was so proud to help Daddy change the air filters.  Evan's got a little plastic 3-piece tool set that came with a book of some sort, but it has a hammer, wrench, and screwdriver, which are all the tools he needed to help.  He was so happy!  And he's been "working" nearly every day since, banging his tools on the air vent.