Evan's Birthday

Evan turned 5!  He's such a big boy now.  It's strange to think of myself having a 5 year old.  I love the kid, but oh man, he can be a hard little guy to get along with.  

I love him so much, and we're so grateful for him.  His speech delay is getting a lot better.  He talks more and more each day.  We're trying to get him as caught up as quickly as possible.  

Evan got a bike for his birthday, along with a helmet and a light to supe it up. 

Evan with his lego cake.

He loves riding his bike.  He's such a big boy.

Wrapping paper love.  This girl loves paper.

Logan liked the lego cake as well.

Lego kit from his Nana and Papa.

Such a natural on the bicycle.

Holding his Rubble from Nana and Papa as well.

Getting ready to open up gifts.

My sweet little man.  So happy to have him in our family.

Chasing each other on the bikes.  

Cute little Logan, now he wants his own big boy bike for Christmas. 

Random September/October Pictures

Mini golf with Rick's squadron.  

Logan was so very distracted.

Evan enjoyed throwing the balls in the hole.  Thanks for that buddy. 

We also went bowling as a family.  What an experience.

He had a lot of fun pushing it down, and then it went a mile an hour. 

concentration

Their favorite part was watching the balls come back.  

Logan was a lot more forceful pushing the ball down. 

Playing at the Air Force Museum.

Logan pointing out the plane.  His favorite place in the whole world.

Evan feeding the animals at Young's Dairy.

Keeping Sadie out of their fort. 

Sadie found Logan's pile of M&Ms.

Logan's psycho face (of Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" face?")

Someone got his blonde locks cut.

Sadie loves eating real food.  Peas are her favorite.

Logan's been watching Project Runway with me too often.

I don't know where we are here, but this has to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Evan.  

Logan got us kicked out of Evan's speech/occupational therapy waiting room office (just kidding, I kicked him out).

Sadie's sassy face.  She really wanted that gelato. 

Renaissance Fair and September

We went to the Renaissance Festival one Saturday in September.  We had a great time, even though the boys got upset after a couple of hours because we ran out of money for them to use to go on rides.  Ha ha.  Oh well.

I have to say, the one thing I don't get about the Renaissance Fair right now are the raccoon tails.  What?  People wearing raccoon tails.  I just don't get it.

Rick and the boys on a ride together.

Curmudgeon Rick

Evan the waif.  Look at that smile. He's got the best smile.

These two were so proud of getting on the ride all by themselves.

Evan and Logan ready with their swords. 

Logan the waif.  

Sadie was there too.  She slept most of the time, so she wasn't all that impressed. 

We had a fun time.  The Renaissance Festival is so a Rick thing though.  I get so bored after an hour or so there.  And it's always the same stuff each year.  blah.  The kids have fun, so that's more important than anything else.

DC Trip

Rick had a TDY back in August around the Dulles area of Virginia/DC.  We stayed with Rick at a Wingate hotel.  It was super fun.  I planned a bunch of meals to do in the hotel room, and we had a great time.

On Thursday night, we spent the night with Sarah at her and Kristina's house in Arlington.  We had a grand time.

Here are a few pictures of that trip.  Sarah was so happy to have us come and visit.  And Evan and Logan (well, at least Evan) enjoyed seeing Sarah and spending time with her!

Aunt Sarah holding Sadie. 

Logan swinging at the playground by Sarah's house.

Evan pushing Logan in the swing.

Sarah and I with the littler ones. 

Logan and Evan fast asleep. 

Sadie swinging as well. 

Aunt Sarah holding Sadie at the mall.

 We also went berry picking.  I don't have many pictures of the actually picking process, which didn't last long.  It was pretty hysterical to see them.  At the end, Logan was sitting on the ground and eating all the blackberries that he could.

All of our rapsberries, golden raspberries, and blackberries.  I had to freeze several pints so that we would have some for the jam I am planning on making.    

Anyways, a little bit more about our summer.  Still working on catching this blog up.  Yikes, taking forever!

Maria's Wedding

This summer has gone by in a total blur!  Evan had some evaluations to do before preschool started.  He missed the first two weeks of school this year because we went on our long planned vacation.

We drove out to Phoenix the end of August for Rick's sisters wedding.  We originally planned on stopping three nights each way, and getting home on the fourth day.

Picture by Maria's Photographer.  She did a fantastic job.

All of us looking in this one.

The whole Chappell family all together.  What a great picture. 

But on the way out, we got to Albuquerque (our stop for the third night) before 3:00, too early to check into our hotel.  Instead, we powered through and got into Phoenix that night.  It was totally worth it, because we got an extra day with Rick's family before the wedding.

The time on the road wasn't too awful.  In fact, it was actually pretty good.  Sadie wasn't completely on solid foods yet, so we had to stop every three hours to feed her.  Evan does not like going potty in public though (this excludes Target restrooms;  I guess we're there so often it's not considered a strange place any longer).

Rick and Sadie together.

Reception area set up at the church

Another look at the Cultural Hall

Evan trying to figure everything out. 

Uncle Brad fast asleep in the car on the way back from the temple.

Rick and Logan out to eat after the sealing

We got pupusas one day while visiting!  So good.

Aunt Glenna asleep at the same time as the boys. 

Logan was in a bad mood for the first part of the reception

The quilts as gifts for Maria and Scott.

It was so lovely spending time with family.  Rick and I went to the temple together, which we haven't been able to do for a while.  We ate yummy Mexican food and In-n-Out, of course.  The boys also got to spend a lot of time with their cousins, which is always nice.

We got back a day early as well.  We enjoyed a lot of fun---and the heat wasn't too bad to handle, either.  Probably because it's dry.  I mean, living in humid places makes everything so much stickier.

But this past summer in Ohio has been pretty cool, so it was almost a nice change of place to go somewhere a lot warmer/hotter.

Anyways, we're glad that Maria and Scott live so close to us in DC.  Sarah lives there too, so it's very nice we now have more family in the DC area and so close to us.