A Merry Christmas Indeed!

This year we had Christmas at the Evans's household. It was a blast! There were 17 people crammed into a home made for two, but has had some modifications to help fit some more people. Six out of the seven Evans children were present for the holiday. It is understandable that Aaron & Kelsey did not make it because they just had a baby 9 days before. (Congrats again) Their absence was missed, but having a white Christmas helped us deal with it! It was great to spend time with so much family. For Christmas dinner there were 22 people total, crammed into the home!

It was so fun to see Kenya and her first Christmas! We want to thank the Evans & Drapers for helping to spoil us this year! We got way more gifts than expected or necessary, but we are sooooo grateful! Kenya already loves the many toys she got!

Here some pictures of my Christmas present from Don! He really is Santa because I never told him and Lois never told him how much I have been wanting a good quality Samurai sword. (Thank you so much!) It is quite sharp too! Santa is just that good!

Santa was definitely sharp this year...in addition to the sword he delivered a barrel load of knives this year! You heard it right...knives. I am pretty sure everyone that anyone over 5 yrs old that set foot in that house on Christmas got a knife!


Kenya loved her cousin Matt! Here's a video that shows how much!


He was getting her to laugh like this quite a bit over the holiday. I love his last closing comment!
I was laughing so hard that I accidentally stopped recording, but I got the goods!

The most important thing about Christmas this year was feeling the love of Christ as we all spent time together and received gifts from others. It wasn't the gifts that impressed us but the efforts, thoughts, feelings, and intentions that were put into giving the gifts this year. The gifts of togetherness. The gifts of love and peace. The gifts of the Spirit. It was an amazing Christmas! We hope you all had a memorable Christmas too! We wish you all a Happy New Year as well!

Christmas letter 2009.

Sorry, its late but better than never.
Here is a short update on us. We welcomed our beautiful baby girl Kenya Irene to our family on March 7, 2009. Wow! She sure has grown. She is almost walking and is started to talk a little bit. It truly is amazing what a baby can learn in less than a year. I think about what I learned in the last year and I sure as lagged behind Kenya on that one. She started so small and is now in the 50 percentile. We love her and now know why God made us wait 5 years for her. What a blessing and joy she is our lives.
Robert graduated in July from BYU-Idaho. He is now working in a call center in Kalispell. Its a job to get by and has full benefits, so he took it. I am living my dream and am able to stay at home with Kenya! Thank you, Robert, for allowing me to do so! What a man!
Life is great! We have our family and friends enjoying the ride with us. We want to thank all of you!
Remember the feelings you felt this Christmas season and recognize that it is the spirit of Christ! He lives and died for us. If we live the best we can and use the atonement to make up what we lack we will return to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to live with our families forever and live in true happiness. We love Him and thank Him for all of our blessings.

Christmas Fun.

Dad and Kenya decorating the tree.

Look how big she is. Kenya is almost walking. She stands by herself often now and has even taken a few steps toward something she wants. Most of the time it is kitty! This is another way she worn the dress I made her for Christmas.



So, this past weekend we made cookies and trimmed the tree. It was a lot of fun! The tree turned out really nice this year. We thought it looked great! Hope you enjoyed the pictures.
I am so excited to have so much family home! 6 of 7 kids and their families will be there! Aaron and Kelsey have less than 2 week old baby, so obviously they will not be coming. The house will be very crowded, but well worth it! I will be posting a Christmas letter hopefully in the next few days, so keep a look out for that. Merry Christmas! I hope all of our Christmas's turn out just wonderfully!

Newest member of the Evans clan.

Makhail Xavier Evans 8lbs 5 oz 21 1/2 inches

Mikhail Xavier Evans was born on Thursday December 17, 2009. Chris and Christine are proud parents. I just love how our family is growing so quickly.
Christine was amazing and such a trooper. She did three kinds of labor for just one birth. She started natural, then went to being induced because her progress had stopped and then when Mikhail became distressed it ended in a c-sections. What a women! Congratulations guys! Parenthood is amazing!

Now, I am sad to say that is the last of the family news for awhile. At least all that I know of. What a great 18 months it has been in my family!

Just Fun

This is the only Christmas tree that we had. Robert put together some of Kenya's toys to make it the other day. Yesterday we did go to visit Great Grandpa Stevens and there was Christmas tree there with lights and decorations. She LOVED it! She kept walking over to it and just looking at it. Can't wait to decorate one at mom and dad's house this weekend. I am so excited to see all the family coming into town next week.





So, Kenya and I had some fun yesterday. We played with our cat, This. For those of you who don't know This' favorite game to play is fetch with my hair ties. For the past month or so Kenya has tried to play too. She will crawl over to the hair tie and pick it up. She then dangles it in front of the kitty and then This will actually bat at it. It is so fun to watch them play together.

This video is of Kenya dancing. She really likes music and understands when we tell her to dance. What a girl! It is really short, but you get the idea.

Welcome Sammy!

This morning my new niece come into this world. My brave sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who they named Samantha Jane Evans. She is about 8 lbs 10 oz and 21 inches long. Boy, Kelsey sure can grow long babies! Congrats to Aaron and Kelsey. You are truly a trooper Kelsey. This is her second baby in just over 13 months and both were all natural, what an amazing woman.


I am expecting another nephew any day now too. My sister-in-law Christine is a few days over due and I am impatiently waiting to hear news about their little one.

Finished Christmas Dress

So, I tried to do all the sewing by myself, but I ran out of time. I was trying to finish the dress by today so that Kenya could wear it at least a few times. So, my mom came to the rescue and sewed the hard parts. The collar was harder than I was expecting. I tried it a few times and then just asked my mom to do it because she could get it done in just a few minutes and I had already spent more the half an hour on it. So, with mom's help I finished yesterday afternoon and Kenya was able to wear it today. It turned out beautiful!! I love it!! I made the "1/2" size from the pattern and it was still quite big on Kenya. Oh, well she stilled looked stunning.
I was trying to she how little money I could spend on the dress and ended up spending more that I wanted to, $9. The lace was a LOT more expensive than I thought it would be. Anyway... The fabric and thread mom had left over from other Christmas projects and the zipper I got from my aunt. So, the dress was still cheaper than buying one at the store and I love it!! Look at my cutie!!



Yeah, it is pretty long! Each Sunday she wears it, I am going to add something a little different, like changing the hair bow or adding a ribbon around the waste. I will post pictures of all the different ones if I get a chance. Mostly because she will look so darn adorable in the dress every time she wears it.




Kenya is doing a raspberry in the picture. She really enjoys that lately, it is a funny, but a cute face!

Domesticated

So, I am going to attempt to be domesticated over the next week or so and try to sew Kenya a Christmas dress. I want her to have one, but I could not see $20+ on a dress for my 9 month old. I was talking to my mom about it and she told me she had plenty of Christmas fabric and patterns that I could use. So, I looked through a it and picked a pattern and will try to make a dress. It will all depend on how independent Kenya wants to be and how much she can get into, if I when, I will get it done. I have very little sewing experience, but have always wanted to do more. I took a child's clothing class at BYU-I and really like it. So, I will hopefully, be posted pictures of that in the next couple weeks.
Sorry, there have not been many updates, but really we don't have much to share. I am waiting for my new niece and nephew to come into this world in the next couple of weeks. That will be fun too!