The Mother Load of Posts!

Beware this is going to be super long. I know I am on my usual once a month posting but this last month was crazy busy, and well I am paying for it now. This may take sometime so bear with me. Someday I will be more proactive about posting and not procrastinate, but honestly in my life of appointments, schedules, and have to dos, the blogging gets put on the back burner. Oh well, I wouldn't have it any other way!

Abigail

Abby was evaluated for her speech and she was found to have speech problems. We then went to an evaluation this last week to see if she qualified for speech therapy through Mesa Public Schools. She scored 90-100% on everything but intelligibility of her speech, she scored 30%. So, needless to say she will be starting preschool sometime in September, maybe the 10th. She will have school 3 times a week for 2.5 hours, what am I going to do with myself? I think it might be nice. I am sad at the same time though because she is so young, but if I can nip this in the bud now then I am all for that. Plus, she is all about being big so I think she will like going to school!

This is just a cute picture of Abby. We were at my mom's and she was down in the playroom watching a "boobie" (movie). I went down to check on her or get her ready for a nap and found her like this. I just couldn't resist capturing it. How innocent and sweet she appears to be.

Update on Matthew

Just a quick update on Matthew he has gotten his second tooth on the bottom gums and he is working on both of the front top ones. I think he will look silly with those since he doesn't act like a baby who should have teeth. Also, round one of testing down and they all came back in the normal range which is wonderful. He doesn't have myotonic dystrophy or a disorder known as LCHAD, yeah! He was referred to AZEIP and DDD and was accepted, so he will soon transition to this program through the state. It is good because they will be with him for as long as he needs it, and they will do therapy at the house, yeah less driving. I am all about that! Also, Matthew apparently has lost weight. He was in the 25th percentile and dropped to the 5th, which is not so great. He no longer was getting all the rice cereal in his bottle that he used to because I found affordable thickener. Anyway, I was hoping to be done with the GI doctor, but with the dip in percentile, he will still be seen for weight checks, yeah! I just want him to get what he needs to be healthy and develop. I think that is all that is new with him. He is getting stronger, and he is doing really good about grabbing at things, especially when he is laying down. He still isn't rolling over or sitting, but he is using core muscles more than before. He has reached many of the goals his occupational therapist has set for him. I am pleased with the progress thus far. I just need to remain patient and focus on his developments, not what others are doing. It's just hard sometimes, I'm not perfect. I love him so much and I am grateful for him. Here is a video of him grabbing at toys and talking. Keep in mind he wasn't doing most of this 3 months ago.

Elder Evans is Home

August 17th my brother Trevor came home from his mission. It is crazy to have both my siblings home. It is so crazy how fast the time is flying. It was so fun to see him. He also looked really good. It's a good thing he had a nice hilly area after his time in the mission office. It is kind of funny, he has a bit of a Spanish accent. He brought some fun things home for his nieces and nephews. Waiting for Uncle Trevor to arrive from Tampico, Mexico! The group welcoming Elder Evans home.
The Neus Family posing with Uncle Trevor. Sawyer has been so excited for Uncle Trevor to come home, especially since Aunt Aubrey got home too. She missed them both and would tell me all the time.

Nacho Libre masks for each family.He also brought home little matching soccer outfits for all his nieces and nephews, so cute.

Kayda's 1st Birthday!

Kayda turned one on August 15th and so we had a morning party with donuts and slip-n-slide. It was fun to celebrate her birthday. After playing in the water we snapped this picture of Reddin and Abby. I just thought it was too cute! They were sitting at the table eating donuts and talking to each other.

First Day of 1st Grade

Sawyer has been looking forward to school starting. She loves school and was excited to get back. I had to talk up summer so she would be fine with school ending. She has been waiting for this day for a long time and it finally arrived. She was also so excited to start bringing her lunch to school and eat in the cafeteria. Here she is on her first day of school, so cute!

This is her all time favorite pose. This is one of the skirts I made for her. If you ask me I think I did a pretty good job.

Her bags are packed and she's ready to go!

I Chopped It Off!

I took Sawyer to get her hair cut for school and I was due for a haircut. I had been wanting to cut my hair shorter and shorter through time so I could have a bunch of hairstyles instead of having to grow it out to do something different. Well, I got a little annoyed with it and so I told Nat to just cut it off and here is the results!

Here is my before picture.I eventually was going to go this short just not this soon, oh well!

Flagstaff

The first week of August my parents have a timeshare in Flagstaff. So once again we escaped the heat and went up to enjoy the cool weather. It was definitely a time to relax and veg. We, me and my children and Aubs, went up Tuesday afternoon. I was exhausted so I took a nap right when I got there. Tuesday was school shopping day. I was totally frustrated because usually we score with lots of cute stuff way cheap, not this year. I was having a hard time trying to find Franklin dress code approved clothing. I finally decided it wasn't going to happen and so I ended up making some skirts up there. I also got to buy new tires because one of mine had a nail in it and the tread was gone. Not what I was wanting to do while on vacation. Marcus and his children came up Wednesday night and Brendon came up on Thursday with Reddin and Karen and their girls. So by that night everyone was there except Travis and his family, Megan and Adele, and Trevor. Swimming at the pool, one of our favorite things to do up there. They now have this kiddy pool which is wonderful, for those that aren't too sure of the water, AKA Abby and Liam.Sawyer, Payton, Neil, and Ruth playing with Marcus.

Another favorite of the children is goofy golfing, go Payton! Sawyer watching on and Ruth and Neil in the background.

The timeshare has a huge jacuzzi tub and the kids love to pile in it after swimming at the pool to warm up.

Abby shooting Uncle Marcus's pellet gun! The kids really enjoyed that, thanks Uncle Marcus!

The cousins playing T-Ball. Matthew was a spectator with Kayda, what a cutie! Doesn't he looked so thrilled to be there?

Surprise, surprise Abby wasn't into the game and kept running off. So, dad got to keep fetching her, she ended up having to come back early.

We also did a lot of this up there. We tried to relax and sleep whenever we could. My handsome men!

Abigail and I taking a nap at the pool.

Grandpa watching a movie with his grandkids.The gang before we all took off to go home!
It was a full house but a house of fun nonetheless!

Party Like It's 1999; Well 10 Years Later!

August 1st was my 10 year high school reunion! Crazy how fast time flies by. My friend Michelle was on the committee since she was in Student Council. As her friends we then became her committee and so we were in charge of the decorations. They turned out pretty good, despite all the stress over them. It was a pretty good time talking to people I haven't seen in a long time, some longer than others. I am just sad on all those that weren't able to make it, hopefully, next time. Here are some pictures from that night!

I forgot my camera so these are all the pictures I had access to. I wish I would have brought it and at least got a group picture or something, but life won't end because of it so I'm not going to stress.

This was the decorations for the stage.

This was a big sign that Michelle and Shalice made that was hanging in the back, it looked awesome.

These were the decorations I came up with. I was in charge of the top movies of 1999.

Neus Family Reunion

My mother-in-law thought it would be nice for the Neus Family to do a vacation together. So we did a staycation at a local resort the weekend of July 24th. We went to The Pointe at Squaw Peak. We went Friday night to Sunday morning. It was fun to go swimming and just get away from the house and veg at the pool all day long. Here are the only pictures I got: Camby, our cousin, and Sawyer waiting in line for the cannon ball contest.
Sawyer's turn, look at that awesome ball. If you ask me I think she won!

Camby and his try at the cannon ball contest.
I also got one candid shot of a few of us in the pool!

We went out to dinner at Aunt Chiladas on Saturday night with everyone. It has been a long time since we have done that and the family has multiplied quite a bit. I believe there was 26 of us! It was fun to be with everyone and enjoy one another's company. I know the kids had fun with their cousins. Thanks for the great idea Sue!

This was Sunday morning the girls got up real quietly and started watching TV. I woke up a bit later and found them sitting real close to the TV because it was turned down really low, as not to disturb us.

Sawyer and Ruth's Fort

Megan, my sister-in-law, was scheduled to have her baby Adele in the morning on July 22nd. The night before Ruth spent the night so they didn't have to worry about her the next day. We ate, played, watched a movie, made cards for Megan and Adele, and went to sleep. The next morning the girls decided to make a fort. They did a pretty good job, it was just really big and they didn't have enough blankets. Plus they were trying to keep the blankets together and they kept falling. I finally came and helped them make it a little sturdier. Too bad they didn't get to play long because soon it was time to welcome Adele into the family.

Ruth trying to keep the blanket on.The girls playing in their fort, I think they had a little too much going on. Oh well, at least they are using their brains and being creative.

Eagar

The next day after Aubs got home we went to Eagar. It was me and my children, my parents, and my sister Aubrey. We left Saturday morning because it was my mom's 40 year reunion up in Snowflake that day. We drove up ate and visited with my friend Carly for a bit. We walked around the craft and arts fair. We also had to do a drive by of my mom's old house. It looks nothing like the house I used to go to as a child. We were then off to Eagar to enjoy the beautiful weather. My mom and dad went back down for her reunion that night while we went to the park, ate, and watched movies. It was a relaxing trip to get out of the heat. It was also nice to spend time visiting with my sister. It rained and hailed on Sunday, it was almost cold. The girls also found a rabbit and the poor thing didn't know what hit him. They would not leave him alone, poor thing. For two days they kept catching him and holding him, and Peter Rabbit thought Mr. Macgregor was bad, he never met Animal Obsessed Sawyer and Crazy Abby!

Irma Evans is Home!

On July 17th my sweet sister Aubrey came home from her mission in Porto, Portugal. I missed her greatly and was so excited for this day to come! She looked great and for the first time in a long time her hair was longer than mine.

Her flight got in at 10:45 pm, not conducive to children. We put our children to bed at like 6:30 and they slept until about 9:00 and we woke them up and went to the airport in PJ's. It's a good thing we love Auntie Aubs. Here are they are waiting for Aubrey.

Waiting with our posters for Aunt Aubs to come home. I didn't recognize her walking down the ramp because her hair was blond and I was expecting it to be brown, oh well!

Here the group is welcoming Aubs home!

Babysitting Kellen

For the past few weeks I have been babysitting my friend Carly's little boy Kellen. I watch him while Brett, his dad, goes to school and Carly isn't yet off work. He is adorable and smiles when he sees me, love it. He is pretty easy to watch because he has a chill personality and is a cute little guy. Plus most of the time I watch him he is sleeping and it's only for 2 hours. I know tough job. The other day I had both him and Matthew lying on the ground for diaper changes. It was cute they kept grabbing each other's hands and they would look at each other every once in a while. Those were a bit hard to get on camera, I tried.I thought this one was funny because they both had their hands up in the air.
Here was a holding hands picture, so sweet. Even though Kellen's legs are tucked up Matthew is huge compared to him, I guess they are 4 1/2 months apart.

A Day Trip

To start off on Monday I went to Phoenix Children's to get Matthew's blood drawn. They poked him in both his hands, his foot, and his head. They only got half of what they needed. I was happy though because that was better than the previous times. I needed to go back and since Matthew has therapy on Tuesdays, Wednesday was the winner. That morning I dropped my girls off at my friend, Natalie's. I took Matty in and they got part out of his arm and the rest out of his head. So after 5 visits to the lab and 11 sticks mission complete. I am only going there for draws, they were wonderful. Not only is Matthew a bit of a hard draw but once they stick him his blood flows so slowly that it clots before they can get all that they need. Unfortunately this isn't the last of the blood work. Depending on what these tests say we may need more. Side note on Matthew, he is doing well and is improving slowly. Slowly being the operative word. I can't ask for more than that though. He is now batting things with his hands and he is better about grabbing things. I still don't think he's made the connection of, "I'm the one doing this!"

Anyway, on to my day trip. After Matthew was done we headed back to Natalie's and loaded up the cars and a group of us went to Michelle's cabin in Strawberry to surprise her for her birthday. It was so fun. We visited, played games, got pedicures, ate cake and ice cream, and did a music video. It was a fun and exhausting day! My girls did really well. Sawyer was off with Michelle's nephew all day long and Abby stayed in or around the house playing with others.

In the process of getting pedicures. And boy was I in need of one. I hadn't done a thing to my toenails in months. It was sick, thanks Nat.

Our cute toes after our pedicures.

Michelle's yummy Oreo ice cream cake.

Hanging out after the dance add-on game. I love Michelle's family. They are crazy and are willing to do anything. The party group, it was fun to drive up for the day and just again relax and have a good time. Me, Michelle, her son Michael, Bobbi, Stephanie, her baby Nevaeh, Becky, and Natalie.