Fall Family Photos

Our friend, Shannon Van Zyl, took pictures for us at the local park.  She did a great job, even if the children weren't the most cooperative.  (Seriously, Meghan barely smiled that day!)  These are just a few of the pictures, but I had to stop.

Evan's Birthday

For Evan's second birthday, Derek's mom came to visit.  She made this cake for Evan.

Since Janice had to leave Sunday evening, we celebrated Evan's birthday after church on Sunday morning.
We made the mistake of not practicing blowing out the candles, so Evan needed a lot of help, but it was still fun for him!

Eating cake and ice cream was even more fun.

He opened the wrong present first.  He couldn't get enough of this take apart bulldozer.  Both kids love it.   

Meghan and Evan both have piggy banks now!  (They were actually from their bank, but I like that they are plastic.)

The birthday celebrations started October 9th!  Three parties total for two children!  WOW!

Some Funny Thoughts

You might remember that we got to visit with Derek's cousins from California earlier this month.  While visiting, Mindy was inspired to feature us for Meet the Family Monday series.  Hehe!  Since I'm a blogging family member, she asked me to do a guest post.  Feel free to check it out and you'll understand about our wedding night hayride (and if you look earlier posts you'll see lots of October fun with us, too).

I think Derek and I were the only ones with mouthfuls of sunflower seeds.  Oops.

Happy Second Birthday, Evan

Our little guy is not so little!  Evan is now two years old!  Amazing!

Evan, God has a plan for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you a hope and a future!

2 days to 6 weeks 

 2-4 months 

8 months

9 -11 months

1 year old

Evan, you make us smile all the time.  Mommy and Daddy love you very much.  We are very blessed by you!

An EEG

Wow, can you believe it's been a full year since Evan's seizure?  (If you are new to reading about our family, Evan had a three hour seizure on October 22nd of last year.  You can read about Evan's seizure under the label "seizure" which is for all seizure-related posts.)

Evan did a great job not messing with the nodes.  The television was incredibly helpful in that matter.

It was time for another sleep-deprived EEG.  (An EEG just measures the electricity in the brain.  It looks pretty scary, though, huh?)  Though he was definitely sleep deprived, he did not sleep though he was prepared to with his blanket, pacifier, and a dark room.  Since he didn't sleep, they are hopeful it was accurate.

We're hoping there was no seizure activity within his brain.  (There can be seizure activity without a visible seizure.)  However, we have not yet heard the results of the EEG.  Even though Evan has been seizure-free for one year, his seizure was severe enough that his neurologist will likely keep him on his medication even if the EEG showed normal brain activity.  It is impossible to know if Evan is seizure free due to medication or if he just is seizure free.  But God knows, and God has plans for Evan!

We are praising God for both of our children's health.  

If the Shoe Fits

This picture just makes me absolutely smile because it seems to me that it represents a change in Meghan's behavior.  Recently (and I mean in just the past week or so) her behavior has drastically improved!  She is showing more kindness and tenderness.  She is loving her brother so much more!  Daily we still have some issues, but I suspect this is normal.  Some of the awful tantrums and episodes seem to be a thing of the past!

Meghan shared her Easter shoes with Evan by placing them on his feet!

And Evan didn't mind (though his daddy may have).

We've been learning this verse, and it has been wonderful to keep encouraging Meghan with Scripture.


Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. ~ Ephesians 4:32

Meghan's Fourth Birthday

We had a great day celebrating Meghan's birthday!  Meghan chose to have oatmeal with raisins for breakfast.  Our morning was fairly low-key, but we made some foam princesses (from stickers) that arrived in the mail today.  That was followed by a walk.  For lunch she wanted eggs.

By the time Meghan awoke from her nap, she was ready to take off her dress and put on play clothes to help Derek plant our new trees.  She loves to be outdoors working!  Pictured below is her adding dirt to the dirt pile-all by herself!

We bought four trees to plant.  This is one of the maples.  (With 70% off, there wasn't a large selection, but we did get two maples, one oak, and one blossoming cherry.)

After helping Derek, it was time for dinner.  Meghan's choice was spaghetti and meatballs.  For dessert, we had cake and ice cream.  

(Can I just tell you that it seems strange to sing "Happy Birthday" when only two people are singing it?)

Even though I practiced decorating a cake, the frosting turned out poorly enough that I should have just started all over again.   But by then it was too late. The best part was that Meghan told me she loved it!  Meghan thought it was beautiful, and that is what matters!  It was a pink and purple heart with silver balls on it.   To limit our cake consumption this month, I only made one layer of a small cake.  By next week at this time we will have had three birthday cakes for the children!

Happy Birthday, Meghan!

Meghan, you were fearfully and wonderfully made.  We love you so much!  

Happy birthday!

Age: 2 days to 2 months

Age: 3 months to 5 months

Age: 10 months to 14 months

Age: 1 1/2 to 2 years

Age 3

Bag o' Leaves

Triumphant

Everyone needs to have a leaf pile, right?  When the Swenson girls told Meghan that they didn't have leaves like this in California, Meghan took it upon herself to share.  She dragged Betty's (another lovely CA relative) bag from the driveway to the leaf pile and proceeded to fill it.  And then she told Betty that she could now have her own leaf pile.

Thankfully no one told Meghan that she didn't have any trees taller than her brother at home!  As fun as leaf piles are, we didn't have any nooks and crannies left in our car to fill with leaves for the return trip.   

The Wedding

Yes, folks, that is Derek dancing.

We are definitely not dancers, but there is something about those Swenson girls that is just persuasive.  They can make us do just about anything, even dance. They can't however, talk us into going to California this Thanksgiving.  Right, girls?  But we did dance...even me with a stiff neck!

Kasey is the bride...and the rest are cousins (and spouses).  The groom, Adam, is missing from the photo.

Look at these smiles!

Here's Brandon, too!

An Autumn Walk

While Derek was out golfing with some family after the birthday party, the rest of us young ones went for a walk.  (And yes, I was the oldest by five years!) Oh, and I got to go child-free since Meghan and Evan were both napping.  They would have enjoyed it, but it was nice for me to just relax and enjoy the beauty of God's creation.

Kristina taking pictures Grandma and Grandpa's house and farm in the background.  The California girls were in awe of the beautiful foliage.  The fact that this year's foliage isn't nearly as vibrant as some years did not disappoint them...they don't have autumn like this in southern California!  That blue sky was gorgeous!

Oh, the joy of being able to take up a whole road to go on a walk!  Notice the lack of lines.

Then we went up the dirt road.

A white van came charging at us with Shirley driving!  (Shirley is The Girls' mom.)  Some of the others who were too lazy to walk wanted to join us for a photo.  

Mindy's pictures from the afternoon stroll can be seen here.