Cinci Trip for Joel's Birthday

We just got home from Cincinnati. Evie's cousin, Joel turned 5 years old, so we had a nice time visiting with family.

Here's Evie and Joel wrestling on the floor..


What a sweet boy!


Evie looking at the camera... Joel and Lauren talking about presents! (Zadee is hidden in that pic! Oops!)


Evie and Joel playing with Joel's new Transformers mask..



Okay.. this would be an awesome pictureif Evie's hair wasn't so in her face.. you can see Uncle David's look on his face.. you can only imagine what Evie's look was like LOL


Evie and Joel with Aunt Theresa


And Joe took this picture.. I thought it was hilarious how Joel is kind of a blur.. looks like he's really in motion!


We had a great time! The drive was long but Evan slept the whole way up and back, only waking once each time to eat and visit. The kids slept well at Uncle David and Lauren's house.. except Evie had trouble with coughing for her first half of sleep each night.. other than that, we really enjoyed our visit.
Thank you guys for being such great hosts and making us feel comfortable! We love you! Zadee.. Evie and I had fun rollerskating with you on Saturday!
Miss you guys already!

And my blog wouldn't be complete without pics of my boy! I took these in the morning when he woke up at Uncle David's... he is so smiley first thing when he sees his mama!

More smiles and hugs to the toys

Today I snapped some pics of Evie and Evan snuggling on the couch.. as usual, he was all smiles when he saw the camera..



And today I realized that he can grab his toys a little better.. hugging them and putting them in his mouth. I was cooking dinner and looked over at him in his swing and he was holding his butterfly up to his face..


and in the bed this morning, I laid a bear rattle on his chest and he got a hold of it and smiled while trying to gum it. Too sweet!




And my self portrait with Evan!

Annual Hayrack Ride

Tonight my Mother's group had our annual hayrack ride.. Evie had a great time with her friends, playing and riding on the hayrack ride. Evan was a good boy as well.
We had great food and great company!
SO we had a baby explosion the past few months... Evan is gonna have a bunch of playmates! (And it's cool that they all have siblings that are Evie's playmates)
And I have to say a big Thank You to Donita for taking the pictures and getting them online so quickly! Amazing as usual!

From left to right in chronological order:
Rhylan, Oscar, Evan, Olivia, Garren, and Sebastien (and there's Ava that I listed in a previous blog that was born the same day as Rhylan, but she lives in Maryland)


This one's cute, too


Here's the kids playing Ring around the rosey




And my Evan was ready to sleep at the end... Although he woke shortly after and is still not in bed!!!

Saturday stuff

Well.. I guess I have lots of topics to touch on with this blog...
First of all.. I woke up on Thursday with my terrible cough again (actually, it has never really gone away from before Evan was born) but it was tolerable.. I just knew that if I hadn't gone to the doctor on Friday, I would end up not being able to breathe and have to go in for chest x-rays on the weekend (meaning the insurance wouldn't cover it), so I went in.. on one of my only days of the week that I can actually go to work... meaning I had to miss a day.. that sucked. And low and behold.. I have bronchitis... again.. or maybe STILL.. who knows. It's not as bad as last time.. but it drives me crazy nonetheless. I also thought that I might have had a clogged milk duct, again.. I finally was able to nurse that out.. that seems to be happeneing alot lately as well.
So.. on to the kids!
Evie is having trouble with her coughing and breathing as well.. She's on antibiotics, too.. mainly for an ear infection that she had over a week ago.. her asthma has kicked into full gear.. yesterday, her doctor prescribed a nebulizer for at home. Since she has been using it regularly, (3 times a day), her coughing has all but ceased! It is amazing! I'm gonna hook myself up to that thing tonight! LOL
Here's a picture of my girl getting her breathing treatment..



About the boy...

The other morning was chiily.. so I put Evan in this cute little outfit.. He was quite the ham for the picture....



Just a couple of pics of the two together.. They both LOVE the camera.. Evan sees it and instantly smiles.. he's a silly boy!




Evie has been doing very well in school.. they are doing one letter a week, learning to write them in capital and lowercase, learning the sound, and of course what words start with the letters. She has homework every Tuesday night that needs to be done before Thursday morning.. so she has a couple of nights to learn it.. She just finished learning the letter "C" this week.. Tuesday starts "D" and she's excited about it.. she's doing fantastic writing them now.. Every night I make her write all of the letters that she has learned so far on the white board at home so that they will stay fresh in her mind with the new letters that are coming up. Her toughest letter is the lowercase "b".. anyway.. She has always been able to write her name... although if she's in a fantastic mood, her "E"'s have 4 lines instead of 3 LOL She has been drawing up a storm lately and drew the family.. tonight she drew me as Rapunzel.. I had beautiful long curly hair LOL.. but I didn't snap a picture.. Daddy took these last night.. Oh.. and yes.. those are wax lips.. courtesy of "Hallween Express" on Neil St... hilarious!




Evie took this picture tonight of her Daddy.. she is becomming a good photographer!


And I'll leave you with one last picture of me and my girl from tonight! I think we really look alike in the photo! Our chins, noses, smiles, hair... She usually looks like Joe.. but tonight, I feel proud that she lokos a little like me!




Wooh! That's enough rambling for one night!!!

New Portrait Studio in town! Fall/Halloween pics!

OMG! There is a new studio in town! They are called "Portrait Innovations" and they are awesome! Beautiful studio.. digital pics done with a handheld camera so that you don't have to be stationary and they can get several shots quickly! They take 80 some pics and you choose on their big plasma screen.. very cool! The prices are similar to The Picture People and they have lots of backgrounds and props.
They print your pictures in 20 minutes or less and they are stunning quality! I also got a disc of every shot taken (86 pics) The girls there are friendly and excellent with kids.. they encourage several outfit changes... Anyway.. I chose 15 here that I wanted to share with you.. I bought a 6 pose package complete with greetingcards, disc.. just a MESS of pictures for $99... I could have spent less but they were all so good!
But like I said, every shot is yours to take home with the disc!

Today is Thursday

So.. I just wanted to post a couple of pictures from today... no clever title.. nothing to really talk about.. so I'll just state the obvious... Today is Thursday.. OH! "Survivor - China" premiered tonight.. that was cool! (favorite show at the Hoctor house) But... I got a couple cute pics of the kiddos today.. Evan totally understand the camera.. he sees one flash and is ready to smile for the rest of the pics.. I had to get the Evester in on a picture, but she only wanted to make silly faces LOL What a goofball!

From 2 years to 4 years.. friends forever

I thought this was a "Wow" photo...
My parents absolutly LOVE this picture of Mariah and Evie from 2 years ago.. how they truly look happy walking together, how their feet are the same..

Then today, 2 years later, our little 4 year olds were shopping in the mall together, and I managed to capture almost the same shot.. Pricless!