Happy Third-iversary!

On April 27, 2010 we celebrated our 3rd anniversary of marriage.

We braved the wind storm of the century to celebrate at the Texas Roadhouse (our favorite) and by watching Date Night (pretty funny). Thanks to the Lustys for entertaining Evan with endless rounds of Zippity Doo Dah while we were gone.

I curled my hair for the first time in years, but you can see that the wind had them completely undone by the end of the night. Sigh.

This year has been one of the best and one of the hardest either of us have been through. Here's a couple of stats:

- I've spent 3/4 of the year pregnant.

     - I spent half of that on bedrest

     - I spent 1/4 of that in the hospital

- We spent the rest of the year learning how to take care of a newborn

     - Between that and the overactive pregnancy bladder, I haven't had a single full night's sleep all year

- Ryan waited on me hand and foot, doing all the cooking and cleaning for months (except for what our parents and neighbors contributed.)

- I've gained 25 pounds and lost 35

- Boys now outnumber the girls in this house

- We went from putting 350 miles on our car per week to about 35 per week 

- We blew our savings on hospital bills, but I was able to keep working through everything so we didn't go in debt.

- The furthest I went from home was to St. George to visit Kathryn. The furthest Ryan went from home was Lexington, KY.

- We discovered the best invention ever: steam-in-the-bag-in-the-microwave-broccoli.

- And of course, the best and biggest highlight of the year is that Evan joined our family. He's our little miracle.

I do have to say, I'm glad 2009 is over!

Here's some more pictures of our almost-4-month-old. He's stinkin cute and getting oh-so-fat.

Ryan was nice enough to get up with him last night when he just wouldn't go back to sleep. They both crashed just before it was time to leave for church.

I finally finished painting this shelf for Evan's room. He likes it. Wouldn't you?

Ready for church again a week ago. BTW, what is it about his Sunday best clothes that garauntee a major blowout? Every. Single. Week?

Another one with his dad. I've said it before. I'll say it again. Both of my boys are cute!

I'm Evan, and I'm Cute.

Blessing Day

We blessed Evan on Sunday. Congratulations, son. You're now officially a person! And an adorable little person at that.

I love the blessing outfit that I found for him with the little vest and tie. Too bad it was about 2 sizes too big. Oh well, he looked stinkin' cute anyway. Thanks to Sylvia for helping dress him at the last minute since his lame mother took too long to fry the taco meat and didn't get into the shower until 40 minutes before church. Yikes! I'm surprised we made it on time.

And of course I had to make sure the blanket made it's appearance in the circle. 100 hours of work for 3 minutes of use. Yep, totally worth it.

Let's just hope he's got his dad's height and not his mom's.

Though when Ryan tries to even out our heights for the sake of the picture, certain photographers (Kathryn!) like to zoom out and make us look like dorks.

Thanks to all our friends and family who came to support us. You really made the day special for our family. Sorry we didn't take pictures of everyone holding him (that would have taken forever) but here are the ones we did snap:

Blessings are very spiritual events (Ryan sure sent every Lusty sobbing with his testimony) and I know that I felt the spirit particularly strong.

I've come to rely heavily on Ryan as a priesthood holder. I've asked him for many blessings over the last 6 months and love the calming effect they have on my heart. It was a special experience to listen to him bless our son, especially with all the scares we had in getting him here. Here are a couple of highlights from the blessing:

• He has a family that loves him very much
• He came to Earth during a difficult time, but at a time when people need him
• He'll remember where blessings come from and feel the Lord's influence on his life

We love him so much and feel very blessed to be his parents. We'll try our best to raise him right so that he'll be worthy to recieve those blessings promised him. He's a joy to us. He's our little miracle.

  

The Awesome Blossom, Extra Awesome

My oh-so-talented sister-in-law Long-Jong-Joni-Kong took these beautiful pictures for us. Mostly he snoozed soundly through the whole thing, except to move his hands out of the pose we wanted. Ha! He's a cute little bug, if I do say so myself. Good job, me and Ryan. Anyway, since he's my first baby, I'm posting way too many of them because their all favorite. These are just a little more favorite.

Thanks so much Joni! You're wonderful!

Happy 4 Weeks Old AKA The Faces of Evan

In celebration of Evan turning 4 weeks old, here’s a little game for you all to play. Try to match Evan’s facial expression with what he’s thinking (or what I think he’s thinking :) You can find the answers in the comments, but no cheating! Hint: If the pictures are too small, click on the image and it should bring up a larger version of it.

A. Reaching AKA “Whatever might that rattling sound be?"
B. Thumb Sucking AKA “Thumb, oh precious Thumb, where have you been all my life?”
C. Tongue AKA “Phhttthhh”
D. Kisses AKA “What’s the deal? These aren’t giving me any milk!”
E. Chillin’ AKA “I could sit next to this heater vent all day long.”
F. Tummy Time AKA “Are you kidding me? I can’t lift this big old head of mine.”
G. Angry AKA “Let’s bet on how red I get this time.”
H. Cuddlebug AKA “Being held. Could life get any better?”
I. Monkey Stretch AKA “It’s too early to wake up.”
J. Tired AKA “Best way to chase away the fatigue: claw your face off.”
K. Peaceful AKA “Zzzzzzzzz.”
L. Just Pooped AKA “Ahh. That feels much better.”
M. Bath Time AKA “I’m wet and I’m warm. Hey wait, I thought I’d already left the womb.”
N. Grinning AKA “Sleep at last. These are some sweet dreams.”
O. Decisions AKA “To eat or to sleep. That is the question.”

Top 10 Reasons I Love My Son

1. We haven't fingured out where all his features come from, but his mouth is clearly from his dad. Same with with his long and skinny feet, toes and legs.
2. When he's waking up, he'll open one eye first to look around and see if it's worth it to open the other one.
3. He's a little sneezer.
4. When he fills his diaper, his farts rival his dad's. Sometimes I have to ask who was the culprit because I can't tell the difference.
5. He loves to lay with the heater blowing on him. After he's eaten, we'll put him on the floor next to the vent and he'll kick and roll for about an hour, just as happy as can be before drifting off to sleep.
6. He wants to suck his fist but can never quite get his mouth and his hand together. It's cute to watch him try though.
7. He makes a fist by wrapping his fingers over his thumb, just like my sister Lisa used to when she was a baby.
8. His left ear is pointed like an elf's and his right ear is crinkled at the top. I don't want him to grow out of it even though I know he will.
9. Loud noises don't phase him. He sleeps right through the vacuum, my wheat grinder, the garbage disposal, etc. He does, however, respond when he hears our voices.
10. And of course, he's just stinking cute. I'm so glad I didn't have an ugly baby!

Baby Evan, Sent From Heaven

Ahh. Both of my boys are so cute!

A really cute flower arrangement from my friends at work.

Here's Evan showing off the hat I made for him. Yes, it's tiny. Yes, it's much too big.

We put Evan on a blanket next to the heater and let him kick around for a few hours. Of course he was being adorable so I snapped way too many pictures. And of course, I have way too many favorites so I'm going to post way too many on my blog.

He loves his ugly hospital binky, so much so that we thought for about 24 hours that he would gladly starve himself to death rather than give it back to me for a second. We've had to take it away so that he would start eating again, but for this picture, he held it firmly in his little fist for a good half hour so we wouldn't steal it from him.

And when we did, he gave us a look to break your heart. My son is adorable.

Long skinny legs... long skinny feet... long skinny toes... He's definitely his father's son.

And a couple more of my favorites

My sister is wonderful. Kathryn risked her life driving through the storms of death to meet Evan... and then I didn't get a picture of her holding my son! I failed. So so sorry Kathryn! We did, however, get some fun pictures of him meeting his cousins for the first time. Grant and Annie were so excited and so gentle with them. I image so many fun reunions, holidays, visits, etc in the future.

We saw Jack (cousin #3 and destined to be great friends with Evan) over Christmas and thought he looked so small. Now he's a monster. He's enormous! Cute, but gigantic!

And, because I'm addicted to my adorable boy, I'm sure there will be far too many pictures of him in the posts to come. Standby for more Evan, coming soon to a blog near you!