15 Months

Evan is 15 months old today. Weighing in at 26.2 lbs and 32 inches at his check up earlier today. Every month - if not every day - he is more of a little boy and less of a baby. He is everywhere, into everything and absorbing it all. His favorite toy is any kind of ball to throw, kick or "catch." He loves footballs the most and gets excited if he sees them in a book or on TV. We have some highschool boys that play football in the street and he gets so excited to see them. They always stop and let him "play" along - it's really sweet. He loves water and will head for any sprinkler outside or any neighbor with a hose - most oblige him and he ends up soaked and laughing. He is starting to try to say words (not well but they are there) - he says bye bye, doggy, up, down, ball, mama, dada, no no, go go, woof woof and moo...among others that I think are words but I am just not sure. He understands so much it amazes me. If I ask him where something is that he put somewhere (ie sippy cups go missing a lot) he can go find it. He goes to his chair when asked to for meals. He signs eat, more, please, thank you and sing (he made up his own sign for that) and uses them well. I know he is right along with other 15 month olds, but it is just so fun to watch him take so much in and retain it. Toddlerhood has fully arrived and we are having a great time. We look forward to what month 16 holds for us all.

And He's Off!!!

Wednesday August 22nd started out like a normal day. However when Evan woke up from his nap he decided it was time to start walking - everywhere! You can imagine my suprise looking up from folding laundry to see Evan walking towards me from the kitchen into the Family Room. Since then he's been choosing to walk most of the time and is quite proud of himself. The first video he got so excited his feet got tangled. The second one he is walking up the driveway.

Shoes

We bought Evan his first pair of real walking tennis shoes from Stride Rite yesterday - he loves them! We go outside each evening after dinner to play and he usually walks around some and then just plays on the driveway - last night all he wanted to do was walk. We walked at least 6 houses one way and back and then he wanted to go again. He looks like such a big boy. He still holds one of our fingers to walk, but he is doing all the work.

Trip to Houston

Evan and I took a quick trip to Houston to see my sister and her family. Evan had a great time playing with his cousins, swimming and watching the rain (we went just in time for Tropical Storm Erin to hit...didn't even think to check the weather!) Evan will put his head on you as a sign of affection, it is very sweet. He was so tired at lunch so he loved on all his cousins who also doubled as head holders.

Visiting Small Group

Evan and I arrived in Houston just in time to visit my former small group. Many of the little ones came with us. We missed Parker, Jackson and Belle and can't wait to meet Little Crews!! It was so fun to be together again. My how we've changed over the years!

Playing with Brayden's football

Evan loves footballs and will "carry" them with him as he crawls and has a pretty good arm for a 15 month old.

Family Pictures

We took some family pictures right after Evan turned one, here are a few....

6 years later...

Jeff and I got engaged in 2001 at this very spot (that picture is on another computer so I will add that later to complete this post). The picture on the left is from 2003 and the right is from this past July (2007). What a difference 6 years makes!!

How to get through security with a 1 year old

Evan thought this was so fun and if he bounced he moved on the rolling part. Please always take out your children BEFORE the x-ray machine!! It works well for entertainment and handsfree in the meantime.

Future Plumber?

Evan loves anything to do with pipes, sinks and toilets...we may have a future plumber or home builder on our hands. This is under the sink in our room at the Reunion Cabin.

Reunion Pictures

We recently returned from the Holck Family Reunion held every 4 years in Colorado - this year there were 64 of us all together from Tues - Sat, it was a great time of catching up, reminicing and making new memories.

Evan (in the green) playing with cars with some cousins - thank you Joshua for sharing!

Alyssa, Christopher and Jeff playing cards

This the us trying to get 64 people in their coordinated "family" t-shirst in place for a picture. This did not always work well with a 1 year old who really just wanted to be on the move. Thank you to the whole group for the continuous "The Wheels On the Bus" singing as it made a great difference!!

Colin playing with Evan and his blocks - as Evan "eats" one.

Although you may not be able to tell by this picture, Alyssa was a great babysitter when Jeff and I's teams were both busy with either getting dinner ready or cleaning.

Bear Lake and Alberta Falls

To Bear Lake and Alberta Falls we go...it started out nice and then rained on us. You can't tell what Evan has in his mouth, but he figured out how to work the CamelBak inside his backpack which entertained him highly.

Braving the rain

The overly friendly chipmunks...this one was literally just in Colin's lap going for his piece of cheese - the chipmunks are quite brazen

The Hayride

We went on a family hayride. Evan had a lot of fun watching the horses and help drive has he has a tight grip on the reigns - they were also in his mouth a lot - good teethers? Don't tell me what's on them!!

The Alluvial Fan

A dam broke and created this wonderful waterfall area called the Alluvial Fan. We took Evan in the pack, but as you can see, he quickly ended up in the water in a diaper and a shirt - good thing we were in disposables!

Can I go in Dad? Please???

This is cool!

I can sit in the water and pass rocks to Mary - cool

Evan is trying out for the Strong Man competition. He moved the rock in his hand with utter concentration from the water to the big rock and back MANY times.

Evan loves music - he loves to "drum" anywhere he can and will on request. He also loves the guitar and will always try to "play" one if he sees it. Hopefully he has more Holck genes in the music category - I think Bernhausen (my mom) has some but that is it!

Playing the guitar with Jason

Here Evan is dancing to the guitar and singing - Mary in the top right leading the way.

Singing with Aunt Cindy and cousins Mary and Colin