The Running Boy

Evan has so much energy and sometimes he just has to get it out, so he runs on the spot. He is just too cute for words!

Evan is 3 months old!

Evan is now three months old. He is growing quickly and is cuter than ever! We love our little babe so much, he brings so much joy into our life! His eyes are changing color, he has a brown burst around his pupil but the rest is still a dark bluish black. He's also losing more of his newborn hair and just has the short hair that has grown in recently. He has started grabbing his toys and even trying to put them in his mouth. He likes to sit up and when we try to lay him down or recline him he is always trying to lift his head to sit up. The other day I was giving him a bath in his little tub and he was reclined on the newborn side (reclined) of it. He was lifting his head forward to sit up and so I tried to put him on the infant side (sitting) but he kept falling over so we had to go back to the little boy side, he's just not as big as he thinks he is! He also is very strong and loves to stand. He will even stand up in his bath tub with we lean him forward to wash his back, he is so adorable! Evan is very happy and smiles lots and is very talkative, especially when he first wakes up. He likes to take part in conversations when other people are talking, like when mom and dad are talking in the car or when we are in Sunday school and the teacher is trying to teach. He loves to play "super baby" with daddy, but he's always a mama's boy. He's very active and likes to kick his legs and squirm around. Evan likes to suck on his fists and inevitably finds his thumbs, he will even suck both thumbs at the same time! He likes to show us he's a big boy now by spitting out his pacifier and sucking on his hands or falling asleep without anything. Evan sleeps in his crib now instead of in his carseat in mommy and daddy's room. He's getting used to sleeping in such a big bed and in his own room but he's doing really well and sleeps in it all night long. Evan doesn't do rocket poops very often anymore but he makes up for it by peeing on mom and dad all the time.

Evan sleeping in his crib without his pacifier

Evan sucking both of his thumbs at the same time.

Happy Evan on his 3 month birthday

Evan loves going for walks, he often falls asleep though!

Evan, the little international traveler

Evan and I recently took a trip to Canada to visit my family and do some canning with my mom. Evan did not enjoy the ride and cried for a lot of the 5 hour drive. We canned spaghetti sauce and peaches (yum!). Evan met his Uncle Phil and my best friend from high school, Amy (affectionately known as Aunt Flat). She gave him a stuffed lambie, a blanket, a Tofino Beach Surfer onesie, a quilt her mom made and some shoes.

To make the spaghetti sauce we blended up lots of onions, bell peppers, field and roma tomatoes and added lots of spices (garlic, basil, oregano), sugar and vinegar. The vinegar counters the acidity of the tomatoes. We ended up with a really mild, smooth sauce. We canned them with a water bath on the stove.

To can the peaches we blanched the skins and cut them into a brine to preserve the color. Then we put them in jars and poured a hot syrup of sugar water on top of them. To can the jars and lids have to be clean and hot. We sealed these in a water bath as well.

Evan did not like the long drive, as shown here with his grumpy face

Nana working on canning spaghetti sauce

My mom, "Nana"

Our jars of spaghetti sauce

Our yummy canned peaches

Evan with his "Aunt Flat" in Tim Hortin's

Evan in his Surfer onesie from Amy

Evan and his lambie, don't they look alike?

Evan's First Roll-over

This past Saturday Evan rolled over for the first time! I was changing his diaper after just arriving at Nana and Papa D's house. He was laying on his back and I was letting his soggy bottom air out a little be for wrapping him up again and he had his legs curled up in the air. Gravity helped him fall onto his side and from there he just straightened out and ended up on his belly! It was so cute because he was still bare-bottomed and he had his little cheeks clenched together as he tried to raise his head. Now we just have to get him to do it again so we can get it on video! Until then...

Talking Machine

Evan loves to talk and is very social and interactive when he wakes up in the morning and from his naps. It is so cute and I love to see him trying to get his mouth around all these new sounds.

Baby Evan: 2 months old

Evan is now 2 months old, its amazing how fast time passes! It feels like just yesterday that we brought him home from the hospital. He is so sweet and so smart. He is a very active baby and loves to kick, sit, stand and jump. He loves to look at shiny and bright things and stares at himself in the mirror when he takes baths. He is also very interactive and loves to smile at and talk to mommy and daddy. He has started sucking on his fists and sometimes sucks his thumb, although he usually prefers his pacifier. He also likes to stick out his tongue and blow bubbles. He is the sweetest little guy and we just love our wee babe so much!

He had his 2 months appointment and he is very healthy and growing well. Here are his stats:

Weight: 11lb 15.5oz (50th percentile)

Height: 23.5 inches (50th percentile)

Head Circumference: 15.75 (50th percentile)

He had 3 shots and was very brave, he was sad and cried for a while but was quickly back to his usual self after having a little cuddle with his mama.

Some fun things that have happened recently with Evan:

- The other night I went upstairs to check on Evan. It was too dark to take a picture but I found him with his binky pushed to one side of his mouth and his thumb stuck in the other side of his mouth. What a little addict!

- Evan often smiles in his sleep and sometimes sounds like he is laughing. One night when I put him back to sleep after a mid-night feeding he distinctly giggled and sighed three times as he drifted back into happy milk dreams.

- I was changing Evan's diaper when he started fussing and squirming like something was making him very uncomfortable. I looked up to find him looking very distressed and with an iron-grip on his own hair. Poor babe!

Smiling happy boy

Hanging out with dad

Bath time

Sucking his thumb

Sleeping with his binky falling out of his mouth

Sweet baby with beautiful eyelashes

Cute smile

Evan loves to sit in his elephant chair and play with his toys.

Church boy

Standing tall

Northcott Family Reunion

Every two years my family holds a family reunion and this year it was at the end of July on Echo Lake near Big Fork Montana. Last time we couldn't make it because we were starving students living in Georgia but this year we were able to make it, even though it was only for a day. We drove out on Saturday in time for some visiting and a bonfire on the lake. We got to visit with a few people and Evan got to meet some of his relatives, the most important being his great-grandma Northcott. She was very sweet, commenting that it had been many years since she had held such a tiny baby. She has macular degeneration and can see very little so I'm not sure how much she could actually see of Evan but she was very concerned about him being cold when she felt his soft little hands. One thing that she said that I thought was particularly special was about my Grandpa Clive, her husband who died when I was about 3 years old. She said that he loved babies and would hold them on his chest, close his eyes and just rock them back and forth.

We stayed the night in this awesome lakehouse circa 1976 that was completely preserved. The next morning we all went to church and then everyone went on a hike and we drove home. It was a very short visit but I am so glad that we were able to go. It was so nice to see my family and I was sad to leave them. I'm excited for the next reunion, wherever it is, especially because Evan will be 2 and he will have two cousins the same age as him to play with: my cousin Jacquie's baby Jared, who was born in May, and my cousin Shanna-Lee's baby boy who will be born in September. The family reunions have always been the highlight of my summer and I hope the tradition continues to live on and that we'll make many more wonderful memories.

Baby Evan with Pappa D on our way to the reunion

Baby Evan with his great-grandma Dorothy

Baby sings cougar fight song

Here is baby Evan at 6 weeks-old and his daddy singing the Cougar fight song. Train'em young! I love his little mouth when he talks! He is so sweet and so smart, I can't believe how interactive he is and how many sounds he makes!

Blessing day

Baby Evan was blessed by his dad on August 1, 2010 in the Five Mile Prairie Ward. Both baby and daddy did really well, baby didn't make a peep the whole time. We had lots of family up for the occasion: my parents, sister Shannon, brother Geoffrey, John's parents, Grandma Stephen, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kim, and Cousin Brian with his wife Ariel. Afterwards we had a picnic in the park. We had a great time visiting with family. John's family was able to stay for a few days and we visited Coeur d'Alene while they were here.

Baby Evan, unhappy about getting all dressed up

Mommy and baby (tired after getting all dressed up) dressed in his blessing outfit

The Colvers: John, Victoria, baby Evan, Grandma Shannon and Grandpa

Great-Grandma Stephen, John, Victoria, Grandpa, Grandma, Ariel and Brian

The Northcotts: Papa D, Nana, John, Victoria, Evan, Geoff, Shannon

Daddy and baby Evan, stretching or victory cheer?

Great-grandma Stephen with her first great-grandbaby

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kim were there

Handsome baby Evan in his blessing outfit

Meeting the Family

In honor of Evan's baby blessing we had lots of family in town and lots of new people for Evan to meet.

Evan and his great-grandma Stephen

Brian made french toast for the masses two mornings in a row, yum!

Evan sleeping with his Grandpa

Evan window-shopping with Grandma Shannon in Coeur d'Alene

Evan and Ariel, she was the baby whisperer, he went to sleep in her arms every time!

Evan and his uncle Geoff making a little eye-contact

Tummy time with Evan

Here is Evan having a little tummy time. If you can't tell, this consists of lying on the floor. And that's it. He's starting kicking his legs and trying to lift his head but mostly he just lays there and looks cute.

E is for Evan

I wanted to make a posting about Evan and how he got his name. John and I have had the name Evan on our list of favorite boy names since we first got married, in fact our list was about one name long, we couldn't agree on any other names. There are so many reasons why Evan is the perfect name for our little boy and why we picked it for him. Here are some of them:

-Evan is welsh for John

-John's great grandpa Jacobsen (Grandma Stephen's dad) was named Evan

-My great grandma Cluett's (my mom's grandma) maiden name was Evans

-John's dad's name in Kevin, which is close to Evan

-Evan's middle name is Geoffrey, after my dad whose first name is Geoffrey, spelled the english way

-I also have a brother named Geoffrey, a great-granddad, and a great-uncle who flew planes in WWII named Geoffrey

Bath time with Baby Evan

These are pictures of Baby Evan's first bath at home. He didn't really like baths at first but now he seems to like them, except when I wash his hair. He is so much fun and we love taking care of him! Here's a more recent picture of a much happier baby at bath time. He is too cute! And yes, he is balding. He was born with all this downy-soft, dark hair and it's falling out! I hope it grows back soon but he's adorable either way. We love baby!

Eat, Poop, Sleep

It's a tough life for a baby, all that eating, pooping, and sleeping. Evan loves his milk and we say that he is milk-drunk after he eats because he gets all floppy and happy and often falls asleep. He sleeps a lot and we love to take pictures of him sleeping (and all the time, he's cute no matter what he does!) He also poops a lot and has from day one. In fact the first thing he did when the doctor put him in my arms was poop all over me. He has these amazing rocket-powered poops that fly across the room and he waits until you take off his diaper to fire.

This is what Evan looks like after he eats, here he is milk-drunk and being burped.

Sleeping...

Smiling in his sleep

I love this picture of Evan and his daddy. We don't have any pictures of rocket poops, although I'm sure a video would be entertaining but right after this picture was taken Evan did one of his famous rocket poops and was no longer as sweet-smelling and clean as he is in this picture.

Sleeping again and showing off his finely-formed nostrils that he got from his dad

Sleeping with mommy

Buddha belly baby after a good meal