Some More Christmas Pictures

The following are some Christmas pictures that were missed from previous posts.  Most of them are from my phone so the quality is not very good.  Sorry about that.

What we do on Christmas day when we don't have much else to do.

Kids Playing at the Toy Room.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

It has been a long time since I posted anything. That is because we have been on vacation, like Susan said. I was not a 3 week vacation, although it kind of felt that way. The last Sunday before we left I did not write for two reasons. First is that I was the only member of the Bishopric in town that day so I had to run a fair amount of church myself. That is not a big deal but it was time consuming. Second we left on our trip shortly after getting back from church. We had booked a cheap flight out of Indianapolis early Monday morning, but we forgot about the time change, and did not really factor everything in. There was just no way that we were going to wake up at 3 am to get to Indi on time so we stayed that night in a hotel. It was not ideal but it worked out.

We did a tone of things while we were out west. I cannot really tell you about all of them. But I will post the pictures and things that I can. I don't have a lot because I don't know where the camera is. We came home and there were a few people who wanted to look at the house, so we hurried and cleaned up. And I don't know where the camera got placed in all the cleaning. These pictures/videos are from my phone.

This is Alice sitting in a fake Chickens nest at a childrens part of the Idaho falls zoo.

This is Alice riding a horse for the first time ever. We have one of Robert too, but that is on the camera. She did this a Pioneer Village at This is the place monument in Salt Lake City.

Here is Alice and Robert Panning for "Gold." It really is fools gold so the banter that you hear in the video about how much per ounce is nothing. This is in the Pioneer Village at this is the place monument in Salt Lake City.

This out of this world looking video is actually Robert staring at a Monkey sunning itself (Again at the zoo in Idaho). This boy loves animals, this particular animal just looks like it is from another planet.



As for what happened this week. Well not a lot. It was a fairly normal week trying to recover from vacation. I read a lot of e-mail at work and everyone tried to catch up on their sleep.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well this week was some what normal, but also very long. Robert has been getting better at talking. Today I wanted to see if he would say the name of his friend Isizey (Susan's comment: Isaac shortened to I-zy). Instead he ran to the door and started yelling bo bo bo. Which we learned this week means go. Susan made me break the bad news to him that Isizey is in California, and we couldn't go play. He was mad. Alice got him to say her name though.

As for Alice she has been at Nature Day camp much of this week. I dropped her of once day at the Planetarium, which is on the campus of he local Community College. But it took me half an hour to find it, because the address has it sitting on a street next to the college. It appears that there are no real streets on the campus. Every building has an address on this same street, but no direct access to it.

Yesterday we went to the Library. When we got there they were having a Sister City thing. Apparently Urbana has a sister city in Mulaui, and we got to try some food from Mulaui and play some games from there it was fun, and Susan really liked the corn meal mush and cooked spinach.

But that wasn't the only unusual thing that we ate yesterday. We were invited over to dinner at a friends house and they served us a goat shoulder. It was good. There was not much of a goat flavor at all. Apparently most of the strong flavor is in the fat and this was a fairly lean cut I guess.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well there was really only one thing that stands out this week. On Tuesday we went to Nauvoo. Our nephew was in town from Utah and went though the temple there for the first time. It was a very nice experience to be able to do that with him and his family. The big thing about that day was that it was upper 90's with 100% humidity right next to the Mississippi river. With the heat index it was 117 that day. We went and saw some of the things. We made rope and saw how the people in Nauvoo made bread, but by the time we got to the bricks Robert was about done. All he wanted to do was to run around and play. So Robert and I spent 20 min out in the heat while he ran around and I doused him in water. Susan and Alice were in an air conditioned room listening to a lecture on how they made bricks.

After that we spent most of the afternoon in the visitors center watching some of the films they have and talking with family. It was a fun day, but very tiring. We got back at just after midnight. Sorry we don't have any pictures or videos.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well, this week was very busy, with the 4th of July and all. The 4th was a very busy day.

We had a ward Lunch/BBQ. There were lots of games.

Some of them were water games.

After that we went home, and invited another family in our ward over. They have three boys Alice's age.

Finally we went to see the fireworks. Alice was very excited to see the fireworks, but they freaked her out. We had good seats, and she felt like they were going to fall on us. Poor girl. So we came home early.

The next day we went to the zoo in Decatur. It is a little zoo, but it was fun. Robert loves animals and I was hoping he would get really excited about it. He liked looking at the animals and petting some goats at the petting zoo, but he didn't get as excited as I had hoped.

They also have a playground to play on next to the zoo, which he did like a lot, probably because he loves to climb.

Bobby's memorial day summary

Sorry I did not write yesterday. It was a very busy day. I had home teaching and we had some friends from out of town come over for dinner. It was a lot of fun. We had Julia over, one of Susan's friends from college and also some friends that used to live just through the block from us about 3 years ago. They have kids just a bit older then both Robert and Alice. So Alice had lots of fun playing with "new" old friends again, and Robert got to play with someone new. He actually played with them, which is a bit of a first. Susan also got to play with her friends too.

This past week was kind of busy anyways. Alice had a preschool commencement ceremony, but I did not get to go, because Robert was feeling sick that day. He has actually been sick quite a bit recently. He had a fever at the end of last week and the beginning of this week. Then yesterday he work up with a rash all over. I think it was something he ate, but we don't know for sure. The rash was mostly gone this morning, so we will probably never know for sure what happened, but he will not be eating any more fresh pineapple for a while.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

Well, This week has seemed kind of calm, which is good. Robert and Alice went to the doctor on Monday. It turned out OK, especially wen ALice learned that she would not need any shots. Robert, however, did need shots. He seamed to react fairly well, but on Saturday he developed a fever. We kind of think it may have been a reaction to the shots, but just to be sure we did not let him go out much. I stayed home with Robert while Susan and Alice went to a ward activity on Saturday night. Today Susan stayed home with Robert during church, and I stayed with the kids while Susan went to a later Sacrament meeting. This is the first time that we have had a sick child since I was called into the Bishopric. We had to think things through to know how I could still be on the stand and also let Alice go to church. We are very lucky with how obedient Alice is.

But this week was not all about Robert. Alice got to go on a field trip to the Nature center. She got to see snakes and turtles. She also found several mosquitoes, or perhaps more appropriately they found her.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been good. Robert has been growing a lot. I think he is an inch taller now then he was last week. He is also able to "eat" on his own with a spoon. Alice has also done a bunch of firsts. She tied her first knot this week, and also wrote her first capital R.

As for the rest of us we are slowly getting better from the cold/sickness that has kept us incapacitated recently.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

A lot has happened this week. Robert has started walking a lot more. He now walks short distances by choice. Before he would only walk a little ways if we stood him up and and encouraged him.

Robert also got his first real haircut yesterday. It was just clippers around hit head and some trimming over his ears. He looks different now, a bit like a crewcut.

Yes Robert's eyes are a little bit red. The whole family has been a bit sick the last several weeks. I think we are finally getting over it, but it is still not that much fun. Especially the lack of sleep.

This week we also made valentines. Alice had fun decorating them and writing the names of the kids in her preschool class on them.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

First of all I have to respond to Susan's post about Robert. Not that I am concerned about the boy at all of anything, but he is much more well rounded in his play then the post seems to indicate. He like to take cars and drive them around too. He also loves to hit things that make a sound. And one of his most favorite things in the world to do is to bob up and down to music. He seems to be a very well rounded boy.

As for the rest of the week, it really felt like most other weeks. Alice did get her picture in the local paper, as part of her dance class. But we have not even seen it yet, although we had several people tell us all about it. We will try to get a copy up as soon as we can.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week I have several videos. The big news this week is.

Yes that's right he is walking, sort of. Mostly he just needs more confidence that he is not going to fall over, so he is not doing it on his own without a lot of encouragement.

Alice has felt a little jealous. Whenever we applaud Robert for walking she wants to get applause for doing the same thing, or having her dolls do the same thing.

But for the most part their relationship is very good.

And another video of Alice playing/Dancing this morning just for fun.

And yes she wore the outfit to church. She likes to dress up fancy.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week has been a lot like last week. More home improvement. But much more slowly this time. We are trying to do some of the finish work on the floor which is a bit slower then just laying down the large expanses. Robert is betting bigger and more desirous to walk. Every chance he gets he will grab our fingers and throw himself on to the floor to try and finger walk. He also has an amazing reach. He will tuck his feet under him and lean forward until he is almost on his knees to grab something. he he will go back to siting. This leads to a few face plants, but he is surprisingly good at knowing his boundaries.

Bobby's Sunday Summary

This week was a bit of a busy one. At work I was finishing up a project. We managed to finish it up Friday at about 12:30, which was just in time. I spent the rest of the day cleaning up some things and passing off knowledge to other people on the project. That was a big stress reliever when it was over.

Friday night we drove down to St Louis to go to the temple. Alice was very happy to be able to stay in a hotel. We were initially planning to stay at a friend's house there, but their AC broke, so they all were sleeping in a single room together with a window unit. We decided it would probably be best not to add another 4 people to that room. It was kind of odd that night because both Susan and I distinctly hear Robert moaning in his sleep that sounded exactly like mmmmmmmmmohhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy. After the temple we went to hang out with our friends and in Alice's words, with some prodding we "played, and go to a nature center where we saw toys and fish. " It was a very enjoyable trip over all.

Introducing Robert Jerald Evans

We would like to introduce you to Robert Jerald Evans.