Lucas Turns 3!

For Lucas's birthday I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch. Lucas invited his friends Michael and Brent. We had a fun afternoon eating pizza and playing games! Actually, Lucas's birthday isn't until tomorrow, but we just had to celebrate today! Every one of Lucas's gifts was something Spiderman. It was crazy fun for him!

Check out my Slide Show!

Thanksgiving Day at Grandpa & Grandma Evans

Well, the weather was beautiful and all the grandkids were able to eat outside on the patio. Dinner was delicious and everyone contributed. Here is Luke, Lucas, Anna and Eleanor. Aren't they just the cutest?
Next we have Benjamin, Luke and Eleanor. Eleanor loved holding Luke. I think that the motherly part of her was coming out like it does in all us females.
After the dinner table was cleared all the grandchildren gathered around to make photo frames out of foam art. They used their imagination and make some really adorable frames. A perfect ending of a perfect day!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving was great this year! Although, we were terribly disappointed when we heard that David and Sharilyn and the kids weren't going to be able to make it from Utah. They actually got to go to Disney World for Madeline's Make a Wish. I heard they had a great time! So, this year we had Gary's family, Rachael's family, Chris's family and Leah's family all over for dinner at Mom and Dad's house in Visalia. It was great. The kids had a wonderful time together as well as the adults. Of course, Dad carried on his yearly tradition of carving the turkey for everyone and boy was it YUMMY!!

We love our cousins!

Eleanor and Lucas love their cousins! They get so happy when Uncle Chris and Aunt Mimi come to visit with Luke and Anna...and of course Roxy too! Thanksgiving was really a great weekend!

Britton's present

Ever wonder "So, what does Britton want for Christmas?", well now that question is answered. You see, the latest thing on the market for the Nintendo Wii is the "Wii Zapper". I don't really have to go into much detail on how awesome this is, since you can pretty much see for yourself. Oh ya, they are also $19.99 and will be available starting November 19th.

Gary & Marena's Mission Call!

This time it really came. On Friday, Nov. 16, our mission call came in the mail. Rachael came over as soon as she knew we had gotten it and asked us to wait until she came to open the large white envelope. Leah was on the speaker phone listening to everything happening. Rachael took these pictures of us with the envelope and then reading the letters that came to each of us individually. It was so exciting. I didn't think I would be as excited but I am. I was reading the letter out loud and got kind of choaked up so Gary had to finish reading it. We are going to report to the Family and History Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on February 1, 2008. We have so much to do to get ready and we will need to take a trip up to Utah soon to find a place to rent for the year. Leah and Rachael say they are coming to spend the whole summer in Utah! haha! We will see. We will miss our family here in California but will also love being close to David and family in Utah for a short time. We love all our family and spouses and grandchildren. We have been so blessed and hope that this mission will bless our family even more.

Mission Call False Alarm

Our Mom and Dad are going to be going on a Mission in February of 2008. How will we survive without them? WE DON'T KNOW. So, yesterday they were really expecting their call to come in the mail and Mom saw an envelope from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" but it was only addressed to Gary Evans (and it was all scribbled in pen.) She and I actually thought it was their Mission Call. However, Mom was already set up to decline since it was only addressed to Gary Evans, and not to the both of them. Anyway, She and Dad got all ready and I got the camera out to catch the moment on film...and as Dad looked closer to the envelope, the return address was the Visalia Stake (which meant it clearly was not from the Church Authorities in Salt Lake City.) Ha! We had a great laugh and still caught it on film. Hopefully their call will be coming tomorrow!

Our Sweet Madeline

Isn't she a doll? Madeline is a beautiful, fiesty little girl and we love having her around! Unfortunately we don't get to see her that often since she lives in Utah. Oh, and she must get the award for the very best wheelchair driver in the world! Watch your toes everyone!

Our dream....Dad's Reality!

Ever dreamed of owning a Corvette? Well, Dad's dream came true! He finally bought himself a Corvette. This is Andrew and Gary this summer after taking it for a spin. As you can see, Andrew has a cane. He was in a terrible accident this spring and is very lucky to be walking. He is recovering so well and we loved having him here this summer! We love you Andrew!

Evans Blog Stalkers

Calling out to any Evans "blog stalker" This blog is the Evans family blog! Not the Rachael and Leah family blog! Please, we'd love to have people know we have brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews out there that don't live in Visalia!!! Please post pictures when you have the time! We'd love to hear from you!!

Concert

Yes! This IS who you think it is! It's Rebecca and Miley Cyrus!! Ok, it's not actually Rebecca and Miley. It's Rebecca at the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert!! This was the best concert I've ever been too! It was Rebecca's second concert. We had so much fun having a mother/daughter night. We look forward to the next concert with Leah and Eleanor!

Fresno State Game

Ok, here are my school friends that I'm with every single day! We decided to do something outside of school for a change so we went to a school game!! We all look forward to graduating next semester! Yeah!!!

Halloween

Rebecca and her cute,adorable cousin Lukie!!! We took our little "Lukie Pookie" to our ward Halloween party and had a blast! We love Halloween!!

Ahhhhhh....Halloween

I have never been a big fan of Halloween. In fact, I think it's my least favorite holiday. But, now that I have children, I must put my feelings aside and make sure that my kids have an enormous amount of fun! This Halloween we went to the Ward Halloween Party which was out in an orchard of trees. The kids ate chili and corn bread. After Dave took them trick-or-treating around our neighborhood while I stayed home to hand out candy. The kids had the most fun handing out candy and opening the door to all of the ghosts, witches, and goblins.....

We love Build a Bear!

Eleanor and Lucas love the Build a Bear Workshop. They just put one in our mall about 6 months ago. We used to visit the one at Downtown Disney when we'd travel that way, but now we don't have to go far! These are Eleanor's bears. Lucas too just made a new one (not pictured). It is a dog wearing Superman pajamas. And of course, he named the dog "Superman." Eleanor's latest is the Winter Bear who she named "Stellaluna." She asked me if we could name our next baby Stellaluna....Um....don't think so Eleanor!

Dave's parents just came in to Visalia for a visit with us. They are from St. Louis, which is where Dave was born and raised. My kids have been blessed with not only one set of wonderful grandparents, but two! They love and adore all of their grandparents, as do Dave and I! We had a fantastic time here with them. Lucas was so sad to see them leave that he wouldn't get out of their van. When I finally dragged him out he cried and cried! I had to cheer him and Eleanor both up by taking them over to visit their Grandma and Grandpa Evans. That did the job!

Ultralight Plane at Kauai

I cann't believe I went up in an Ultralight Plane. I thought I would be so scared but it was an awsome adventure and I wasn't scared at all. We dress in a warm oversuit and wear a helmet. Inside the helmet is a microphone so I can talk to the pilot when we are up in the air. It was like being on a motorcycle up 3,000 feet in the air. It is an experience I will never forget. Sydnee, Robert, John, and Dorinda also rode the ultral light plane. Of course all at different times since it was only a two seater! What a great experience.

Kauai, Hawaii Trip, 2007

This picture is taken from our timeshare at the "Point at Poipu" resort. This is on the south end of Kauai. I flew over on Oct 11, 2007 with Jim and Dorinda Judd. Gary came down with a viral infection the week we were to leave and he postponed his ticket to come on over on the 14th. Unfortunatelly he did not feel well enough to go to Hawaii at all. I missed him so much and would have had a much better time if he had been there. However, I managed to have a pretty good time anyhow. Robert & Sydnne, John & Glenna were at Kauai also. This picture was taken after Church on Sunday on our balcony.