Family Updates

Evan had his 4 month well checkup on Wednesday. Everything is going well and he is growing like crazy. He is now 25.3 inches long in the 62% up from the 23% only 2 months ago. He is going to be tall. He is going to put Uncle Jason down with the rest of us!! He weighs 14 lbs. 10 oz. in the 45%. She was really pleased with his growth and is right on track. I guess all the eating is going towards all that energy at growing taller! Developmentally he is at age level. I have noticed a big change in the last week with his motor control. He isn't as jerky when trying to reach for things. And he is actually trying to reach and pick things up. He plays with everything on his exersaucer and was even getting mad today when he couldn't get to something he wanted. He recognizes his bottle and is even trying to grab it and pull it to his mouth. Very cute. This morning (Sunday 1-17) he found his toes while sitting in my lap. He was able to get to his left toes no problem but had a little trouble getting his hands to his right toes. He is such a doll and such a smiley little guy. I just can't get enough of him!





Madi is doing great at school. I think she just enjoys playing and being around all the other kids. I ask her what she did at school today and she will say, we didn't paint. What else did you do, I don't know. But she is doing a really good job at writing her name and she can tell you almost any letter in the alphabet and her numbers. Very pleased. She loves playing with all her new toys from Christmas and has even started going to her room and playing by herself for periods at a time.

On January 2, we went bowling with my parents and Jason and Tabatha and Jaxson. We had a great time. Madi has been asking to go bowling for a long time and was a great way to spend some time together. She has never been bowling but she knew exactly what to do. She was the first bowler, picked up her ball and threw it down the lane. First roll she got a strike!!! (With the aid of bumpers of course!) But we couldn't believe it. She did great on her own until about the 5th frame and she went out too far and hit that slick lane and went straight down on her back. We were so surprised the ball didn't fall on her. She was a little afraid to go back out and she sat out for a couple of frames and was nursed back to health with the help of nachos and a vending machine game!! But Daddy got her back out and she enjoyed the rest of the game and finished with a 125!! We will be going back and hopefully taking some little friends along next time.

Madi is still totally in love with Evan. She wants to do everything for him. Feed him, help give him his bath, she can't keep her hands off of him. And she gets the biggest smiles from her when she sings to him, so very cute!

Madi also loves to perform for us. We have to introduce her and then she comes and sings for us. It is quite funny to see. I will have to check into getting her signed up for acting and singing lessons this summer at the Community Theatre. I think she would love it.


Here she is from one of her latest performances with the beautiful and unseasonable ensemble she came out in!! I think she is ready for summer. She has been pulling out the swimsuits a lot lately!

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Chris has been busy with work the last couple of weeks. It seems that he gets a little break with not much to do and then everyone wants something done all at the same time and it takes a couple of really busy weeks to get caught back up. Which is a good thing right now. He is getting ready to hit his typically slow period from February to May. So we will see how it goes. With all the layoffs and closings around Salina in the last several months, we are afraid we might finally start feeling the effects. So far we have been lucky and have not experienced any of the down turns from the economy. Hopefully our luck will continue.

After our poor turnout with the Flywheel's Fall Show and some bad attitudes from some of the member's, we were going to walk away from our involvement with the Flywheel's. But after talking with some other members and a good friend of Chris' he decided to stick with it and ran for a board member spot to try and make things better. So, in November, he was elected as a board member. Our good friend Jerry May is now the president and we are all working together to try and get things turned around for the best. The best news of all is that the Flywheel's was finally able to buy the land that they have been leasing for many, many years and are able to move forward with bigger and better plans. They started construction of the Boys Scouts of America Museum which will be built on the same grounds. I'm not real sure how that is going to tie in together but will be a great addition.

Chris also found two International Harvester tractors for sale and bought one and got the other one to be donated to the Flywheel's. The donated tractor has some fixing up to be done and they have already lined up the diesel mechanics class at the Vo-Tech to donate their time at getting it running. Brian's Paint Shop is donating the labor to repaint it. So we are really excited about this. We are hoping to have it done and ready for the Farm Show coming up in March. The Flywheel's have a booth every year and we will have the tractor there on display and will be selling chances to win the tractor at our Fall Show. This should be a great money maker and if it works out like we want to, we will try and get a new tractor every year. The goal is to get the feature tractor for the year. This year's feature tractor is Minneapolis Moline but just not enough time to find one and get it done this year.

Chris has been busy with his hobbies this winter. He joined the Kansas Chapter of the International Harvesters Club this weekend. They had their annual meeting at the Flywheel's so he went over and spent Saturday there. He also joined a group of men through his accountant that get together and talk and learn about investments. He enjoys meeting with them once a month. He also got his stove going out in the shed so he spends a lot of time out there and Madi loves going out with him and playing and riding her bike. But he is ready for spring. It's already been a rough winter and having to juggle and push outside jobs around has not been fun.

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I have just been busy with the kids at home. I don't have a lot of free time to do anything. I do get away once a month on the first Monday for Truancy Review Board. I enjoy doing it. It does get a little depressing at times but we also have some families that make good turn arounds also. And I have a wonderful group of board members to work with.

I am still battling with my back pain since the middle of November. I have been seeing the Chiropractor twice a week for the last month and it is helping some. Usually it only takes two weeks to get it back to feeling good, but not this time. Hopefully soon, I am tired of the pain.

I have started planning for Chris' cousins baby shower that I will be hosting. I'm having fun finding some really cute ideas and look forward to getting my Cricut out and getting invitations done.

Well, we are headed to the library as soon as I get everyone up from naps and then Madi has a skating party tonight with her school. Chris doesn't really want to go, but I am ready to get out of the house and go do something fun. Plus, Madi has been asking to go skating every time we drive by there since a year ago September when we were there for Wyatt's birthday party. Hopefully she will do better this time. I'll have pics to share!!

Take care and for those of you with Monday off, hope you have a great three day weekend!
Love, Amy

4 Months

Where have the last 4 months gone? I can't believe how fast time goes and Evan is growing so much!! His next appointment is on Wednesday and I am anxious to see how big he has gotten.

Evan is eating great. Sometimes I think he is eating too much, it seems like I am always sitting down and feeding him. I have been trying to get him into a better routine of nap, eating and bed time. But it is so hard. With Madi, it was just us and I could do whatever I wanted or needed to without interruption. But poor Evan, it never fails, I sit down to feed him or get him settled in for a nap and Madi wants something or is out of bed when she is supposed to be sleeping. And then with school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, it throws off his morning nap because I have to get him up and loaded into the car to get her picked up. He is adapting well and it doesn't seem to bother him. I just need to take his approach and go with the flow :)

He is Mr. Smiles right now. It is so cute how his face just lights up. Especially after nap time, he is all grins. He is also very ticklish and lets out the cutest little chuckle when you hit just the right spot! Evan also loves it when Madi sings or dances for him.

Just this last weekend he has really started trying to grab things. He loves playing in his exersaucer and is finally getting some controlled arm movement to play with the toys on it. I was in the kitchen the other day and heard the wheels turning on the exersaucer and thought Madi was doing it when I realized she was in her room playing. He was really working at it!

Playing on his tummy is still not his favorite thing to do, but we do little short spells of it everyday. He does very well with pushing up and looking around. He hasn't done a lot of rolling over in the last couple weeks, but he will get there.

Evan started sleeping all night on December 18 and did well for about 2 weeks. But the last week or so, he has been getting up again. Sometimes it's 3:00 am sometimes he will sleep until 5:30, really depends on what time he goes to bed. I am hoping it is just because he has a cold and isn't sleeping as soundly. His little nose is just full of snot and we have to suck it out or otherwise he just has a terrible time breathing. So hopefully after that clears up, he can get back to sleeping all night.

We started using the Bumbo seat after Christmas. He sits in it pretty good. It is nice that we can put him up on the counter and he can sit with us while we eat supper. But it doesn't take long and he wiggles one leg in and he slumps over and chews on the side.

I keep looking for teeth to be showing up anytime now. He is a drooling machine. And he loves to chew and suck on his hand. He gets so many fingers and fist in his mouth he ends up choking himself. But, no sign of the teeth yet.

And unlike his big sister, he is still NOT loving bath time. He doesn't scream and fuss but when I get him out of the tub, his little hands are blue from clinching them so tight. I don't think he feels very comfortable or stable in the tub, so I am hoping that once he can sit on his own, he will like it better. For some reason I am just not loving our little baby tub either. I don't know what it is, but it seems so awkward and unnatural even for me. I've tried several different positions and places and something just isn't right. We'll get there!

Here are some pictures from this month so far.


January 1, Christmas at Nana and Papa's house. (I have more pics and another post I want to do from that weekend, but my pics won't upload, stay tuned!)




January 8. My little cowboy playing at home!


January 11. Sitting in the Bumbo!



I just couldn't be happier with our little family. I'm looking forward to this year and all of the changes for both kids.

Love,
Amy