Our trip to the circus...

John has been claiming that our home is a circus of love for quite some time now and I can't think of a better way to describe it. That is what inspired my blog's name change and new look a while back. John also loves to go to the circus. Before I met John, I had only been to the circus one time. I have been 3 times with John. Once even before we had kids, he surprised me with a trip to the circus. He has fond memories of going to the circus with his Mom. So we are continuing the tradition with our family. On the side bar over there, I posted some pictures of our most recent trip to the circus. It was on January 13th. Nathaniel was one month old. He nursed and slept through the entire event. We ent an hour before it started and got to see the elephants, tigers, lamas, and ponies outside. Then we got to go down on the floor and walk around with clowns and try on some outfits and get very close to some small shows by acrobats and animals. Apparently, I forgot to get anyone to take a picture that included me and Nathaniel. We had a great time at the circus though.

Here is how my children summed up their trip to the circus when asked what their favorite part was...
Layton - the girl clown
Elijah - the guy that rode the motorcycle up on the wire
Cheney - the elephants' POOPIE!!!
Yes ladies and gentlemen while the elephants were out on the floor they deposited immense ammounts of...well...yes...POOPIE. And that my friends was my youngest daughter's favorite part of the circus. Now even over a month later if you ask her what her favorite part of the circus was she will very excitedly and determinedly say "the elephant's poopie. "

Ode to 11 years of marriage on February 15th!

The many faces of Nathaniel!

Blog thinking...

I live my days out in this crazy household we call the Circus of Love. I go through my days with thoughts running through my head like...this is how I would tell about this on my blog. But by the time I actually get to sit down at the computer I can't even remember what it was I was thinking about sharing.

But here is what is going on in the Evans household.

• Layton lost her first tooth yesterday and I played the tooth fairy...even though she said..."Mom, you're the tooth fairy". She was amazed however at how I could have gotten her tooth out from under her pillow and leave a baggie with 4 quarters in it's place while she was asleep. A tooth fairy never shares her secrets. How fun!
• Elijah wants to share his room so badly that he and Layton completely traded rooms last Sunday morning so he could share a room with Cheney. This all took place while I dozed nursing Nathaniel. Everything but the beds. REALLY!!! NO more dozing unless I am in the same room with the kids. They moved everything...Clothes, toys, wall hangings, sheets, blankets...small tables...UGH. It took us half of our family day on Tuesday to get everything back to its original room. Thanks John for helping!!!
• Cheney keeps saying that she is going to get bigger. It sounds like " bigguh." And then she says when she gets "bigguh," she is going to get married and have a baby in her belly. While we hang out in the backyard she gathers all the flowers (a.k.a weeds) and walks around holding her bouquet singing, "dum, dum, da dum." And if you ask what she is doing she says she is waiting for her husband.
• Layton and Elijah weigh exactly the same amount down to the tenth of a pound. They are even growing at the same rate...2 weeks ago they weighed the exact amount and they had even gained the exact same amount of weight. They are the same height, too. Everyone asks if they are twins... I think I am just going to start answering with "Yes, they just different birthdays."
• Nathaniel is not as fussy as he was a few weeks ago. Evidently getting completely off of dairy was the trick. I have to say I am missing milk, cheese and sour cream to name a few items. But I have found chocolate chips that do not have milk protiens in them and made chocolate chip cookies yesterday. Woohoo! Nathaniel weighs at least 11 pounds. He is so cute.
• Did you know that there is a Dude Ranch in Central Florida?...well, Lake Wales to be exact. John spoke there today.
• Everyone else in my house is currently asleep and I should be asleep or cleaning something.
• I only seem to be able to get a total of 5 and a half hours of sleep a night, no matter when the kids get to sleep. But I am proof that you can live through sleep deprivation. All moms know that. But I haven't been blogging lately so I can use the time to either sleep or clean something.
• I guess there are some serious hazards to sleep deprivation though...especially while driving. I haven't even told John this yet...he may ban me from driving. I hit a mailbox today because I sort of dozed off while driving. It was a split second nod...Fortunately it was exactly one block over from my house while I was on the way home from Kissimmee. I heard something bump the truck and the mail box looked crushed...which I couldn't figure out how I had done that much damage but I thought I must have because it sounded like I had bumped the mailbox. So, I got out of the car and went up and knocked on the door and told the lady I needed to replace her mailbox because I just bumped it. She said not to worry about it because it was already broken and they had already been planning on replacing it anyway. I am very blessed that she didn't just tell me to go ahead and pay for it and not tell me it had been messed up previously. But anyway...this was a wake-up call literally. I am going to have to chew ice or something from now on when I drive...just to make sure I stay awake. Most of all I am blessed that I didn't doze off and drive off the road or into a car somewhere on the 35 minute drive home with my four beautiful children. I guess people can die from sleep deprivation. It's a funny story until you think about that.
• Oh...I got my sling from slinglings.com. It is a real simple stretchy tube of fabric. I picked out a black and white floral toile (sp?) print. I really do like it. I can't nurse "handsfree" but I can nurse one handed. So I can be outside in the yard walking around somewhat playing with the kids while nursing. It takes the fear of dropping Nathaniel out of the way and keeps my arms and back from aching when out and about trying to carry Nathaniel. Now for some crazy reason I want a some kind of black and white diaper bag and white burp clothes trimmed in black ribbon and white polka dots. I never did the cutsie diaper bags or burp clothes with the other kiddos. Don't you think the letter N would look cute embroidered on a brup cloth. Or maybe I could do E for Evans just in case there end up being more babies in our family.
• Layton told me the other day that she loved Nathaniel and that our next baby should be a girl and after that we could have another boy after that. This is the child who doesn't like sharing her room. Where does she think we would put more babies? Not that I am thinking about having anymore right now. 4 sounds really good. Really Really Good. All I seem to be able to handle at the moment.
• Nathaniel has started smiling. It is so cute. Layton has figured out how to make him smile and she just loves it!!!

I have 2 Cinderella's, how about you?

You have to go to this site and play the video of Steven Curtis Chapman's Cinderella.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfxL0S-7yVo&feature=related

I may be the last one in Christian circles to have heard this song but I still had to share it... Steven Curtis Chapman's song, Cinderella. Our dear sweet Carrie-friend sent it to me today along with this pic of Layton from a couple Halloween's ago. (2005)Even though it is from the Dad's perspective, I cried. It inspired me to just play with my kids tonight while I nursed Nathaniel in his sling instead of planting myself in the recliner. So we had a "slumber" party before bed...all of us in our PJ's. We played Connect 4 and Simon Says. We sat in the kids sleeping bags and read books. I needed this reminder to soak up my kids. This pic was from Halloween 2007. Don't they look like fun!!!

Thanks Carriann!!! You know my kids love you. You only come after Grandma when it comes to being their favorite babysitter!!!!

To laugh, cry or....YELL!!

I have to admit that my children have been sent to their rooms quite frequently lately. Not as a punishment, but to get them to stop asking to watch T.V. or sit on the arm of the recliner and rub Nathaniel EVERYtime I nurse him. Sometimes is OK... but just not EVERYtime.

This morning after playing quite some time, they were supposed to clean up so we can cut out snowflakes after lunch. Anyway we are trying to focus on playing with one toy at a time but somehow my kids seem to dump out every rubbermaid container in their rooms and then play in them. Forget the toys. I think I am going to put their toys in the attic for awhile and just leave them with the containers. Ha, Ha!!

After finishing nursing Nathaniel, I walked upstairs to check on the kids' rooms to find this...

TADAAAAA!!!!!

They had taken the Christmas tree lights upstairs (they were still on the floor in the living room from John taking them off the tree last night... do you suppose my kids have issues with putting things away because their Mommy leaves things out for a while before putting them away...NAH)

They had draped them over Cheney's bed and really said "TaDaaa!" as I entered the room. Of course, their rooms had not been cleaned. But they sure were proud of their Christmas display. Honestly, I had to stop and take a deep breath, frustrated because the rooms were still a mess and then I thought....

They are only 6, 4 and 2, what would Kitty do? So after a small giggle, I took a picture and wrote a blog about it.

I told them the lights were pretty but not a good idea to play with since they were glass. I put the lights back downstairs and they cleaned their rooms. I didn't yell or cry and their rooms did get cleaned.

Kitty- thanks for the inspiration :)

The sniffles and coughs

Finally the sniffles and coughs have made their way back into my home. I was just thinking the other day as I read my friend's blog about how her daughters had been cold free for a long time now that it had been a while for my family, too. Now, I don't think I went as far as to say it out loud. I really thought I better not say it or those germs will hunt us down and find us. You know how they talk about how we have created super-bacteria and viruses because of all the cleaners we use these days. Well, the ones in my home have taken on another super power - mind reading. Because they came and found us.

Unfortunately, our family is prone to the sniffles. John and I seem to be allergic to everthing that grows in Florida. And with the never ending growing season in Florida...what might have been seasonal allergies in another state are just year round ones here. Woohoo!! Generally we start with allergies and end up with infections. This time it feels more like a cold. John started out with his normal chest congestion issues. He has already started his normal regimen of antibiotics and steriods. We can't seem to find the true cause of his battles with this type of infection. Last time they did a chest x-ray and nothing showed up.

The kids started with the post-nasal drip and coughing and clear runny nose. Now I have the post nasal drip with the sore throat. I have turned into the Germex queen and "the Don't Touch Nathaniel Nazi. " I hate telling the kids they can't touch him or rub him or hold him or kiss him but I just don't want to have a sick baby on top of everyone else.

Next time I am going to the store I am going to get stuff to make some good brothy chicken soup with lots of garlic. We are making sure everyone gets their vitamins and even echinacea.

It's funny because the kids and I have basically stayed home from everywhere except from the grocery store or a resteraunt or two. Thinking we were avoiding sick germs at least for the kids in nurseries and stuff. Trying to avoid getting a cold in the house with a new born. Oh well. So far Nathaniel only seems to have a few more sneezes than normal. He has been sneezing pretty frequently since day one. Hopefully he won't get all stuffy.