"Lights!"

This was one of the happiest years we had decorating our tree. Evan was such a blast and wanted to join in on the action from Day 1. Here he is helping Daddy with the lights...

Once the lights were on the tree, he was amazed and really enjoyed just looking at the lights...Of course, playing in an empty tree box was tons of fun too!On to decorating the tree. Hmmm, is this where this goes?We showed Evan where the ornaments went and how to put them on the tree. He joined right in...After each ornament he put on the tree, Evan would say, "more" and run to the box of ornaments. He loved to say, "snowman", "Santa", "Baby Jesus", "star", etc. Every ornament was such a treat to put on the tree with him. If he could not put the ornament on the tree, he'd point to the branch and say "that one".Such a great helper!

Daisy enjoyed the festivities too...

A snapshot of Evan's awesome docorating ability...yes, the ornaments are right next to each other! Love it!

Da Tree!

Coming soon...da tree!

Leaves, how fun!

Yesterday the Mears family and Aunt Wendy (aka "Aunt Neeenee" to Evan) went to Arlington National Cemetary for a visit. The weather was pretty nice as the sun was out most of the time. We really enjoyed our visit! The Mears family at the top of the hill near Arlington House with DC in the background...

When walking though the cemetary, Evan found a big pile of leaves on the side of the road and was quite eager to trek through them...

He had a ball!

Whoa! Look at how deep they are!

They're Back!

Now that the leaves have fallen in our backyard, we have a much better view of the wildlife. Yesterday morning I looked outside and to my surprise and delight...they're back! Our friends, the deer, were back relaxing behind our townhome. We showed them to Evan and he was thrilled! He lined some of his stuffed animals on the window ledge so they could get a better look as well...Of course, Daisy was eager to see the deer too! Welcome back deer!Now that the frigid cold weather is upon us, we decided to get Evan some slippers. He loves to take his socks off when he's home, and we didn't want his little toes to freeze! So, we bought these hoping Evan would love them and wear them all the time. Yep! We were right! Evan was running around the house like crazy once they were on. Daisy started chasing either Evan or Elmo...not sure which!Daddy got in on the chasing action and Evan had a blast running around the island! He was a constant ball of laughter!

Playing around

The Mears family was back in Indiana last week for Grandma Mears's funeral. Evan really liked playing with all the "new" toys at his Grandmas houses. Evan found a fun hat - adorable, huh?He helped Grandma put up fall window stickers...Whatcha' think?Despite the circumstances, we had a nice visit home. Just think, we'll be back in a little over a month!

Alphabet Soup

Toddlers are always creative and last weekend was no exception. I'm not remembering why we gave it to him, but Evan got a plastic mixing bowl and a big plastic spoon. Soon after, he had fun emptying all the magnetic pieces to his LeapFrog fridge farm and alphabet games into the bowl. He would stir it and stir it and stir it. Evan had such a ball with it!Want a piece?Oops! The letters and animals went flying!Having fun mixing the alphabet soup...This kept him busy for hours on end. He had such a blast playing with his soup!

Happy Halloween!

Introducing...Yoda!

Evan dressed up as Yoda this year for Halloween. We practiced wearing the "hat" all week so he'd be used to it. We even got out our pumpkin buckets and practiced trick-or-treating around the house, with little cars, puzzle pieces, etc. It all was worth it!

He was ready to go after seeing the children trick-or-treat at our house...

On our way!

Evan's first house was a nice neighbor of ours who is a pediatric nurse. She was all dressed up and had scary music and lots of lit pumpkins on her driveway. Evan was taken aback at first and was scared and shy. But when she gave him a piece of candy in his pumpkin bucket and it made noise, he began to like this trick-or-treating thing!

We ventured around the square to select townhomes and Evan got more and more used to walking up the sidewalks, ringing the doorbells, and looking at the pumpkins. The neighbors would hand a piece of candy to Evan and he would put it in his pumpkin and wave bye-bye! He even told one pumpkin bye! Yoda was a hit! Everyone thought he was adorable. Well, of course!

After Evan's bucket was getting quite full (and Mommy & Daddy were tired), we headed back home. We set up camp in our driveway (something a lot of the people did in our neighborhood - very social!). Yoda handed out candy to the kids walking by. It was really cute! Our old neighbors from the apartments live in our townhome neighborhood now too, so we were talking with her. Evan gave the kids so much candy when we were talking! He would give one piece at a time and kept coming back for more. It was great! Yoda really likes Halloween!

Yoda is contemplating something...perhaps chocolate?!

After we came inside, we relaxed a bit. Evan got to eat his first chocolate. "Yum!" He was a bit wired afterwards and played with Daddy...

And Daisy...

All in all we had a great time trick-or-treating tonight. Evan's, oh, I mean Yoda's Mommy and Daddy were really proud of how well he did! He's such a good boy!