Colds in July???!!

Everyone in the Ling Household is down with a cold. It is a strange thing to be sick when it is warm out but I guess colds are not really weather dependent. Poor little Evan looks so miserable but he is still his cute, happy self. He spent part of the morning and afternoon playing catch with our dog, Alex. He was laughing hysterically while doing it, it was so adorable. She is great with him, she drops the ball for him and waits patiently for him to throw it. She was our first baby so I was nervous about how she would adjust to not being the focus of my attention but she has done really well. (Here she is with her new John Deere hat courtesy of Mona. She hid for an hour after this picture, I think she must have known how ridiculous she looked!) Now that Evan is walking he chases after Alex constantly. She doesn't seem to mind, he leaves a trail of food wherever he goes so I know she loves that. Evan started saying her name this week. Only we would know what he is saying because he just pronounces the 'A' and the 'X' but he is definitely trying. His vocabulary is up to 20 words now - I am a proud Momma!

Weekend in Leavenworth

We spent last weekend in Leavenworth with a big group of our friends. We had a great time despite the fact that Evan kept us up almost all night during our first evening there. Fortunately Jack is a sound sleeper so it did not seem to wake him up (we shared a cabin with the Devereuxs - see picture of Gwen reading to Jack below). I obsessively applied sunscreen to Evan and as you can see from the picture of him in the cabin, I went a bit overboard (his skin is and hair are NOT that white)!

Evan seemed to have a blast playing with his friends Carter, Jack, and Clara. I just wish I thought to take some pictures of them playing together! Heidi made some amazing desserts, cinnamon rolls, and dip that I know expanded my waist over the course of the weekend! Some of the adults took a leisurely tubing trip down the Wenatchee River which was gorgeous. The tubing company (Osprey) we used was ridiculously unorganized and we ended up having quite an adventure trying to determine which direction to take on the river and when to get out. We ended up spending a total of about two hours waiting to be picked up with our tubes and then waiting to be picked up from the tubing company to return to our campgrounds. The woman who finally came to meet us at the river was just going to take our tubes and send someone else to get us but we convinced her to take us in her delivery truck. We all jammed ourselves into this truck with nasty smelling lifejackets and sandy tubes (standing room only) and hung on for dear life as she whipped around corners. It was fun nonetheless!

Does He Remind You of Anyone?

Hint: "The Human Head Weighs 8 Pounds"

Weekend with Amy & The Boys

We had a fun and busy weekend with Amy, Jared and Harrison last weekend. We went to Coulon Park and the kids had a blast playing in the sand. We did some shopping and hit our neighborhood pool as well. Evan adores his cousins, they can make him laugh like nobody else can! It is so fun to watch them play together. Jared and Harrison are so good with him.


As of last weekend Evan is walking EVERYWHERE now, he hardly crawls at all. He is so proud of himself too when he does it, it's adorable!

This one's for you Joy

Mom's Night Out!

Oh, the horror...

On his way out the door this morning Aaron went in to greet our little angel before he headed out for an interview. He (Evan that is) had been making cute little noises for the previous 15 minutes or so as I lay in bed still half asleep hoping that I was just dreaming he was awake. My half stupor quickly turned to horror as Aaron yelled out to me from the other room.

Because it was so hot the night before we had put Evan down for the night in just his diaper which apparently was a HUGE mistake. Never leave a toddler alone with full access to his diaper.... (To protect my child from complete humiliation I will not go into details, you can draw your own conclusions...think monkeys.) And wouldn't you know that my darling husband had to leave for his meeting immediately and could not help at all with the aftermath. Ugh, I am still nauseous...and poor Evan's skin is almost raw from me trying to scrub it clean. (Those of you that know me know what a germ freak I am, so I am certain you will find this particularly amusing.)

Thank God for Ketchup

We took Evan in for his one year check-up last week and he is a little peanut - he only weighs 18 lbs 12 oz which falls in the 3-5th percentile. He is finally starting to eat a little better the last couple of weeks (just as I backed off a bit...) so I am hopeful that the weight will starting piling on. He still is pretty picky however and it has been a challenge getting protein in him other than cheese. Fortunately I have found that if I dunk things in ketchup he'll eat it! Thank god for ketchup!

Evan 's New Ride

Aaron and I bought Evan a tricycle for his first birthday (okay so it technically has four wheels so I guess it is not accurate to call it a tricycle...). I was not sure he was old enough to enjoy it but he loves it! He figured it out by the second time he sat on it and he now scoots along with his feet. He has gotten really good at getting off and on the bike and has a ball pushing it and running beside it too. He's even learned to ring the little bell! So cute!

First Birthday!

Today is Evan's first birthday but we celebrated yesterday at the Kristoferson Farm on Camano Island. It was a perfect day! I was really nervous because the weather forecast looked bad but it turned out to be a beautiful day. We had a hayride, fed the goats, blew giant bubbles, and stuffed our faces with Melissa's awesome cupcakes. The kids had a blast just sitting in the tractor. We even had a deer and coyote make an appearance. And thanks to Colin we had a fireworks show before we headed back home.

Thank you to all of you who came and celebrated with us!