AN OVERVIEW OF NOVEMBER

My beautiful baby girl.....CUT HER HAIR!  Now she is still beautiful.  I told her that is looked cute and sassy.

This is her before picture, at her apartment in St. George.

A couple of Allison's great friends, Shelby and Kassi

This is Polly's first basket ball game.  She is a starter and she also got to dribble the ball out of the locker room and lead the team out onto the floor, they ended up in the middle of the court, for some shake it up get excited noise.  The first play was to have the first jump ball be thrown to her and then she would take the ball down for a lay up.  It happened just like that, it was so exciting.

DeWitt with his good friend Seth Ward.  They were both asked to frolic by the Knoll twins.  DeWitt went with Amanda

DeWitt showing his style.

Meet the KING of the FROLICS, as Dallin called him.  DeWitt was voted by all of his peers to be the Frolic King.  When he woke me up to check in he told me, and I couldn't get myself out of bed to take a picture so I told him to take one.

This is the picture I took the next day.

Oh what a story we have to tell.  This little one wrapped in swadlling clothes, looks so sweet and mild.  Haheeem.  We have 5 big people living in this casa and this little man right here ruled them all.  Here is where it begins.  My baby sister Mary kind of likes to hang out at hospitals.  I told her that it would probably be cheaper to rent a resort for a week, but she insists on the hospital stay.  So this time around, she was attacked by her appendix.  They couldn't locate a doctor here in Safford, so Tyson and Mary drove down to Mesa for surgery.  Mom was keeping all of the kids, and I thought it would be fun to play "house".  So I called mom, and told her that I was going to take Jared, Zonko, home with me.  Scott just smiles at me, when I'm like this.  I guess he figures, it's better to play house with somebody elses baby.  So we get Jared home, and we set up all of the little areas that we would need for one little boy for the next 2 days or so.  A bathing area, a changing area, a sleeping area, and rocking area, and one that we didn't even know we would need and that is a soothing baby area.  So here we are ready to play house.  We bathed Jared, to get him ready for bed, and he hated it.   And this little boy is strong.  I had to use my muscles to keep him from pushing his head against the sink.  So he was all bathed and dressed, and bundled, (tight) so I took him to the rocking area, so help him fall into deep slumber.  Nope, not his idea.  He and I played for most of the night.  I watched an entire movie, and I sang a lot of songs.  So the next day was Sunday, the kids were excited to take this little visitor to church.  We got him all ready and off we went.  We had lots of quizzical glances, wondering where we might have gotten this little fellow.  Lillian and Polly were holding him for the first little bit.  Jared decided that he was hungry, so I quickly started to make a bottle, but as I shook the little container that holds the formula,  the formula came out oh so slow.  I kept chuckling, and Scott next to me kept, containing his laugh, and encouraging me to hurry, DeWitt was laughing, and Polly and Lillian were frantically waiting the bottle.  Some of the ward people said afterward that they liked watching an entire family being so frantic about one little boy.  It was a fun sacrament meeting, and entertaining for the congregation I'm sure.  The rest of the day went well, as long as Jared was being held, with the holdee standing up, and bouncing in rapid succession, with the knee bend of exactly 90 degree angle.  When he would fuss, we discovered the soothing area, which was under the Christmas tree.  Jared loves to look at Christmas lights.  The next night I was hoping that Jared would sleep well.  When we got him to sleep, I was hopeful.  At about 3 am when he woke up, I didn't hear anything, until later when I heard small noises in the kitchen.  There was Scott in the kitchen, holding Jared superman style, making a bottle.  Wow, I was impressed.  I took Jared, and Scott and I sat down for our midnight movie.  Jared fell asleep again and slept like an angel.  To this little man's credit, he had to be fed straight formula, and it was not agreeing with his tummy.  We really did have a lot of fun with him, but I have a new appreciation for young mothers.  I forgot how much attention a baby needs.

Polly getting Jared ready for church

Now, Polly and Lillian getting Jared ready for church.

DeWitt enjoying a quiet moment with his baby cousin.

Here he is in his favorite superman position.

I actually didn't recognize Allison when I first saw her, because I wasn't used to her cute, short hair

The Return of the Chica, is what we gave the subject line of Dallin's weekly e-mail.  Allison came home for Thanksgiving on November 22, 2011.  Scott and I picked her up at the Sky Harbor Airport.  She took a shuttle from St. George, to Las Vegas, and then flew to Phoenix.  This seems to be a pretty good system.  We'll do it again for Christmas.

One of the kids favorite things to do, hang out with each other and chat.   Polly was still at basket ball practice.

Just chillin with Grandma Sherry.

Ahhhh Lillian and her beautiful teeth.  She got her braces off this month.  She was so happy and excited, she couldn't stop smiling.  DeWitt didn't notice right away, when we were eating dinner, and so she started to tell a joke, so she would have some reason to smile big, she didn't even get to the punch line before she broke out in laughter.  DeWitt noticed, and gave her mucho compliments.

The kids have discovered this website where people make spoofs of great movies, like Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter.  They were showing Scott and he was loving it.  He actually stayed inside of the house in the middle of the day, and kept watching and laughing and asking for more.  The kids loved it.

This is our Thanksgiving group.  Not all of my siblings were able to come, but these are the ones that did.  It was great weather, great food, and even better company.  We loved Thanksgiving at Grandpa and Grandma Susan's house.

Mom, grandma, with us girls

This is Polly after the feast

This is DeWitt in his "food coma"

Typical Lil.  She actually got a lot of amazing pictures, this is what she does after the feast.

Thanksgiving day, Levi, DeWitt, Allison and Grandma

Polly and Grandpa hovering over the food.

The dessert table

Thanksgiving day.  Checking out Scott's project....the apartments

The apartments

Our little family, on Thanksgiving, without Dallin

Thanksgiving day with some of the cousins

Allison with Jared, doing the 90 degree knee bend.

Ah, this is funny.  Polly and Allison were playing speed.  Polly totally won.  I didn't have my camera ready so I asked them to recreate the "win"  Notice Polly with the card in her hand.....and none in Allison's

I showed Polly the previous picture that made it look like Allison won, because she was the one without any cards.  So here is a picture of Polly being  a little ticted off!

So I said, ok, recreate the picture again, so here is Allison being so sad that she lost and Polly, with an "in your face" face.

Yeah, putting up Christmas lights!   Once the girls got up on the house they were way too scared to come down.

I like to have each kid have a turn driving down to Mesa so that they can practice without too many people in the car.  It's DeWitt's turn, and we're taking Allison back to the airport to go back to St. George.  He is driving the mustang and being exteremely excited.  He had Allison and I laughing with side aches most of the way to Globe.  Someithing about "Glenn Bar"  said with an old English accent.

The drop off, this one was super fast, because we just stopped by the sidewalk.

Yep fast.  Can't wait to have her back for Christmas!

Lillian's letter to Dallin, she is notoriuous for drawing cool pictures on the back of her envelopes.  Dallin says that everybody loves to look at Lillian's envelopes.

Dad and I got together one day and made tamales, it was very cool.  I was so impressed that I felt like a true Mexican, and these are a couple of those tamales.

Dallin's Life With Penguins November 2011

Wow, it is so cool, for us as a family to be able to watch, Dallin's adventure while he serves the Lord in Argentina.  He had the chance to go and see the penguins on P-day.  I'm going to add his letter, because he describes everything better.

Scott and I watched a Nova special about this area, Patagonia.  It showed exactly what Dallin is looking at right now.  Complete desert and then penguins and penguin huts built under the desert brush, strange, very strange.  Hmmmm, but AWESOME!!

I'm thinking these are the people he went to see the penguins with.  Elder Evans and Elder Nelson are the only ones I know.

Elder Evans and Elder Nelson after their service project with the Bolivians

Dear Famyfam

I included the letter that I wrote to the President again. I hope you like those; I´m going to try and answer some of the questions. Yes I saw many a little, squawking, waddling penguin and it was well with me. It was crazy how close we got. We walked out into the desert and then all of a sudden there were penguins at my feet, then as we walked a little farther there were hundreds of them. They would make little nests under the desert bushes like we have there in Arizona. It was funny to see them under the little desert bushes. We were lucky to have seen them; they are migrational and only live here for a few months, but what I learned is that they are very family oriented and would make wonderful, "Mormons."

Yes I get all of your hand written letters. It is so great to sit down and read those at night. Sometimes its hard to read them, because E. Nelson is always laughing and reading me his letters. He is such a funny guy and we get along so well. I don´t have the ability to tell you all about him, but remind me in a few years. Actually time is going by so fast. I have actually been here for a very long time. It is sad to think about. I become sad every time I think about leaving this place. It is going to be harder then it was to leave you my beloveds. Back to the letters that you have written, I just got the Christmas chain letters, oh what joy filled my soul to have read all of the little notes. Mom you are right, notes are the best present that has ever been invented. Please send my regards to all of the participants among the coaching kiddies who wrote the letters. Thank you for having them write on them momma and to all of the families as well. 

I would like to send a letter to Stetson if you could give me his address that would be wonderful. I recently realized how close we are when a family of mine went up there to visit some people. I have heard that they have a funny accent. So we will see how that turns out. This past week we did not have time to go shopping, because we got back late from seeing the Penguins, so we didn´t have much to eat this week. It was mostly flour and oil, but you can get pretty creative, when the food is diminishing and I made many experiment this week.

Dewitt and Polly this one is for you, people general everyday walk around shoes, similar to our tennis shoes that we walk around in everyday, are soccer shoes. Only without the spikes that way they are always ready to play. Oh momma I have a request for Christmas: could you send a few recipes for some basic things. Things like cinnamon roles or cookies so I can add on to the list Lillian made, but they have to be really basic, without fancy things like shortening, completely from scratch.

As you fine little people know the power was out for a day and a half and we were in the middle of a lesson with a less active family right when it cut off. So they whipped out the candles and we continued with the lesson. It ended up being one of my favorite lessons as of yet. E. Nelson said that it was one of the best lessons that he has ever had. It was on the Bread of Life, but what we did in the beginning was brought some flour and made bread with them. Then we went to John 6 and read of the bread of life while the dough was rising, then we went over to 3 Nefi and Matt where the Savior teaches about the sacrament. The best part was that we had the objects and the scriptures then asked the questions and allowed them to teach themselves. The hermano taught the doctrine and the heremana provided the desire to come back to church. We didn´t do anything and they arrived at that conclusion, while she was crying because she missed church and they knew that they are not completing with the commandments of the Lord. Then we left for them to continue the discussion and decide as a family what they were going to do. It was great.

Querido Presidente

Tuvimos una linda semana este semana. I have come to realize how much I have developed as a person so far in the mission. I have grown in my knowledge of the fundamentals of this doctrine and many other areas. As a person I have seen changes in my self. I have become more confident in talking to people who I don´t know, or teaching a big group of people. I think that doing everything in Spanish has made me focus so much on that, that I forget everything else and just focus on the basics. That is something else that I have learned; the fundamentals are inexhaustible. The basics never end in bringing new light, new insights, new perspectives. Before the mission I was hesitant to learn about something such as repentance, because I had thought that I knew all there was about it, but from the mission I have learned that learning from the fundamentals will never end unless we end it.

I have taken your challenge to heart and am reading the Book of Mormon. I had started in Spanish and plan to finish it in Spanish first, but searching the doctrine has brought an apreshiation, that is often not realized until expressed. Every time I read the Book of Mormon I am amazed by the cantidad DE Consuelo y consejo que sale allí.

Our ward has definitely become excited in the work of the Lord. It is fun to watch as we are becoming servants together in this work. We have members that are willing to let us talk to their friends, and will even come with us to teach them. How effective it is when we work together. It is wonderful to see. We are working hard, trying to be creative and find as many people in as many different ways, but we have not seen any fruits of our labor for a very long time, and I don´t know what we can improve. What we need to do better, because we both want to do better, but in what direction we need to go; that has been my question for the past few weeks. There are a few that are really close, but we can´t seem to get through to them for some reason. Even after all of the great lessons that we have had and all of the things that we have done. That is one of the most frustrating things to see. Is someone who knows that it is true but won´t change, or someone who knows how to figure it out but won´t do it.

We have had many opportunities to serve lately. Recently I have relearned the benefits. If nothing else we win a friend and show an example. From this concept I realized that if we want a friend the best way is to do something nice for them; something that is out of  your way that you would not normally do. Although it might be weird at first, the end result is amazing. This Saturday we helped a Bolivian family hacer Una losa, or put the cement roof for the second story. It was great, terrible hard work, but at the end the best feeling of accomplishment and contentment envelops you. He did not have many words to thank us, but as we were leaving I could see the sincerity and love in his eyes. We won the confidence of many people that day.

President I love you, we will be seeing you soon for interviews.

Love Elder Evans

Love you family

It's Fun Being an Evans!! October/November 2011

It seems that we have to have at least one blog a month that just has some pretty random things happening.  Too many fun things happen in this family, and they really should all be documented.  So lets see what random things we come up with....

This picture leads the way into randomness.  Enough said.

Oh, grandma Sherry.  The only way I got her to smile was to tell her that I was going to send this picture to Dallin.  Bam!!

This Lillian, likes to come out on the court and hit on the wall or practice her serve!  What a girl.

Allison, Lydia, and Fish, taking a hike somewhere around St. George.

Wow!!  Breathtaking!

This was super hero day at school for Homecoming.

Dinner outside

Yep.

DeWitt trying on his cowboy clothes for Homecoming week.

The final product of Cowboy day.

Here he is....my "sexy carpenter man"  Isn't he just so dang cute??

The time this man spends on this roof is amazing.  He is really working hard.  He even stayed up there working while it was raining.

That's my man.

So, I've never had a yard sale, but with our storage trailers over flowing, and Christmas right around the corner.  I thought it would be a good time to try one out.  So good ole Lil, stayed home from school and Sherry substituted for me at the temple, and we had ourselves a yard sale.  It was busy and fun, and funny to see what people would actually buy.  We were very successful though, so it was all worth it.

I didn't have time to take a photo before the sale actually began, because people started to come before the sale actually began.  I only had about two small boxes when it was all over with.

Thank goodness Rachel came and helped out, she just knew what to do.  Mom also came by to do a little shopping, and helped out a bit.  It was fun to have them there.

Oh love this,  The weather has been turning cold, and so for breakfast on Saturday, we had waffles, and hot chocolate under the pavilion with a beautiful, warm fire.  What  a life.

Ooooo, can't you just feel the heat??

A good time for snuggling.

• Polly had her 7th grade Fall choir concert.  She was very excited and it was a great program.  I'll add here that Polly has been trying out for the Safford Middle School basket ball team.  She has been fighting a cold, but has been working hard nonetheless.  She was so happy and relieved to find out that she made all four cuts.  She was 3rd to be called when they announced the team.  Boy howdy was this girl excited!!

Polly and I got to go to the Mountain for Rylie's birthday part.  It was so nice to get away from the heat and enjoy some real mountain air.

Polly, playing on the swing, being adventurous.

Polly and the mama

 

The apartments as of November 9, 2011.  The windows are in, the electricity is ready for the dry wall, the roof is almost completed.  My 'sexy carpenter man" has been working such long hard days, getting that roof shingled.  It's beautiful and Scott has done it all by himself.  He has PJ and Fred building cabinets.  AMAZING!

This picture was taken on November 9, 2011, just so we can document what happened on what day.  This little truck of the "Boys" has been used and it has been worked.

So, I'll end off with the most random of all.  A Brother and Sister Marcum, we visiting their old mission of 12 years ago, in Puerto Madryn.  They saw 2 Mormon Missionaries, walking the street, and they stopped them to talk and they said "hey give me your mother's address and we'll send her a picture."  Oh man, oh man. was that a happy surprise for this missionary momma.  It made my whole week.  I still can't believe, how happy I am that this happened. 
 Oh the Joy.