Travis & Stephanie Evans Family

Our first ever, family Monopoly game. The table was not upturned and there was no yelling... that I recall. We played for 2 1/2 hours and still no one had won or even gone bankrupt!

Trevor and Raylan came to Paula's house. I can count on one hand how many times I've seen this kid. Apparently he has a younger brother now, named Everett. I wonder if/when we'll ever meet him. Gretchen has cut us off for about 2 years now. It was nice to see Tanner playing with him. Made me kind of sad to think what kind of relationship they could be having if his mother wasn't unstable. Oops, was I too honest?

I cannot describe the happiness that these bowls give me!

FHE lesson. Sure wish I remembered what we were burning! Maybe negative thoughts??

Then we played the Cookie Face challenge. Collin whooped everyone.

I love my new Easter decor from Israel! I crown of thorns, clay oil lamp and the cutest little lamby you ever saw!

The Porters got a new dog! Binky! Not the biggest fan of her name. We always called pacifiers, binkys. But OH.MY.HECK she is the cutest little puff ball ever!!

If Weston won the lottery, he'd be buying a massage chair STAT.

Collin is obsessed with homemade chicken sandwiches.

Look! Look! I was domestic.

Spring break, stuck in town for Easter Pageant rehearsals. Tried to drum up some fun at this chocolate factory that "gives tours". Pretty lame tour. You stand off to the side while a worker points some things out and gives you samples.

Collin turned 15!!

His birthday is always during spring break and while it wasn't a "party" year, since he was spending his evening at pageant rehearsals, I took him and two friends out to lunch, shopping at Goodwill and to a parkour place to mess around. Later, I found him and his friends spray painting stuff at the Monahans. They claimed everything was fine because they had masks and googles.

I made him legit, homemade, deep-fried buffalo chicken sandwiches for dinner and invited his friends to eat with us too. It was a "stuff it in your face and get in the car" kind of dinner to get to rehearsals on time. Trav met us there and had to eat it "to go".

Oh Collin.

His friends call him ginger or leprechaun.

He is king of the teenager slang... rizz, tough, buns, bet, beefin', cooked, op.

He doesn't like academics, puts in minimum effort at school and claims he's not going to college. Just a trade school.

He likes watching The Office and Brooklyn 99.

He does not like doing club dive and constantly begs to miss practice.

His best friend is Lincoln Monahan but he has several other groups of friends he bounces around between... Caiden, McGuire, Josh, Jace, CJ, Rucker. The last four he refers to as "the boys".

He loves his showers and needs to be clean. Always has to shower before dinner.

Still a pretty picky eater. He'll get the minimal amount of whatever I cooked on his plate and claim he's so full. But if we're at In'N'Out he'll down two burgers and fries and say he's still hungry.

He LOVES Raising Caines.

His favorite teacher is Senor Hendrix.

He's got a major sweet tooth. Always in the kitchen sneaking a bowl of ice cream after dinner.

Cares about his clothes or "fit" as they say. Constantly borrowing/stealing Travis's clothes.

He's a counselor in the Teacher's Quorum.

He likes to tease about who's stronger with his dad and wrestle him.

His dad is his hero.

He is goofy and funny but not on command or if he's expected to.

He's very patient with his first-time mom.

I love Collin so much. He can try my patience like nothing else, probably because he's stubborn like me. But he is also humble enough to admit when he's wrong and apologize. I try to do that too.

I believe this is called mewwing.

Everyone else was busy so Tanner and I had a bike date to Chick-fil-a.

We carved out a few hours to do a family hike near Superior called Apache Tears Trail. It had been raining that morning so the trail was really muddy, but turned out so fun. All of the kids had a blast chiseling out the glassy, black rocks from the cave walls. The weather was beautiful and no one else was around, probably because of the rain. Sadly, Olive had a dance practice I had forgotten about so we had to leave earlier than we wanted. Collin said he found his career. Mining rocks.

I was doing visits with my counselors when all of our "Be Real" apps went off. So we took a picture!

I don't know... I can't explain.

Collin and Lincoln were wrestling at the Monahans and dented their wall. They have 6 boys so they acted like it was no big deal but I felt so bad! They patched and fixed the hole with Shawn's help.

With all our time going towards the pageant, I didn't think we'd do our other Easter activities, but as time loomed closer, how could we not?! We invited the Gardners, Halls and Palmers over to eat with us.

Once school was back in session, I took Collin out for his birthday lunch to Venezias.

I met Marcie and Leah at Boyce Thompson Arboretum. This is one of Leah's favorite places, but I've never been. Honestly, it was a tiny bit of a let down. I mean, it's ok. Nothing too amazing. But it was fun to be together. Weston caught a lizard. He's always catching things.

They found a random slab of concrete and commenced a dance party.

My kinda people.

Ever had Puppy Chow cereal? Leave it to these boys.

Weston's been growing out his hair for a while now, trying to get it long enough for a perm. That's right. A perm. The style for boys is to look like a poodle on top.

My counselor, Melanie, does hair out of her home and said she could do it for him.

Those chemicals took me right back to 6th grade!

I don't think it's quite like he pictured. And the curls only lasted 2 weeks, which prompted a buzz. *face palm*. I'll never see that $120 again.

I was visiting an inactive girl in our ward and she straight up had pet bunnies IN HER APARTMENT. And they were trained!! One started pawing at the carpet and the girl was like, "No Snowball. You know better than that Snowball." I was dead.

I just love when things have to be replaced. I swear we just got a new water heater. Alas, put in on our tab!

Weston was invited to go to Feed My Starving Children with his friend, Tate. Tate's mom text me afterward to compliment me on how wonderful Weston is. She said " Weston is such a great young man... he saw a need multiple times today and jumped in to help rather than waiting to be asked. He was positive and worked hard. What a fantastic skill".

My friend, Brinn, was in town and stars aligned in schedules for us to meet at the temple! I love love love any time I get with her!

Collin is taking lifeguarding classes so he can apply to work for Gilbert Parks and Rec this summer.

Elder Haws was in town to speak at an event and asked if he could come to our ward. We were honored and thrilled! He is our area authority and used to be our stake president in Gallup. Travis was his executive secretary and they formed a close bond during those two years. He presided in our ward and his talk was phenomenal. He has such a gift for speaking. Then he came to our ward council, which was really instructive as well. We were so happy he had a little time to have brunch with us before getting back on the road again to head home.

I'm not sure why this picture popped up again. I'm pretty sure it's from last year but it can have another place on my blog because I laugh so hard that Jefferson has a doppelganger at the Verizon store.

Palm Sunday! Our donkey's knees hurt more and more with each year and growing kids!

They love their sugar cube temples on Monday.

Isn't Tanner's legit?! I was truly impressed. He did the Mesa temple all on his own.

I wash their feet on Thursday when we discuss the Last Supper. It's messy.

Love one another, ya'll.

The half up basket is do dang cute!

Is this my 2nd acai picture for the month? I've got a problem.

What I found after the carpet cleaning guy left. All hail, King Tanner.

I thought this post was so poignant.

Our ward did a little egg hunt at the park on a Saturday morning. Easiest ward activity ever. Although, I feel like I always need to be "on" at ward events and constantly be talking to anyone who is alone or inactive.

We gathered at Joyride Taco for my parent's birthdays which was so fun!

The Shaheen's came into town to see us in the Easter Pageant and we met them at the temple the next day for a wedding of a mutual friend. We are more distant friends so we stayed outside to watch the kids and then visited with everyone as the couple came out of the temple. It was April and Cory Cash's daughter who married Jenni's Willis's nephew! Small world.

Then we got Ned's Crazy Sub for dinner and ran into a couple who ( I forget their names) but they accompanied Elder Kearon when he was in Gallup a year and a half ago. He is some sort of general authority or area authority. It was right after Bron's diagnosis and Megan was so grateful for him and all he did for them during that visit. To see them at Ned's was a tender mercy for her so we took a picture.

Easter Morning!!

Liquid Death just kills me. I hate that it looks like beer. But the Shaheens had it at their house during our last visit and the kids loved them.

The Easter Bunny even brings training bras.

Why didn't I get an "after" picture?! Duh, Stephanie.

I was just SOOOO excited for this to come off! Oh my goodness, you have no idea!!

He spoke in church on Easter Sunday and the bishopric counselors were teasing him that they'd pay him if he kept his beard and showed up in his pageant costume. Then they upped the price if he would call the ward out on some infraction or better yet, a particular person. They are jokesters!

He gave a wonderful talk. Looking like my husband again.

Olive and I sang in the ward choir. How's that for an Easter miracle? I can't sing, but the choir director was begging for people and we knew the song well because we've been singing it in the pageant for the past month! I thought I'd just quietly fill in space but not many came so I actually had to sing! The crazy part was, Cassandra acted like it was helpful and was so kind and encouraging. Now I'm in the ward choir. Pigs are just sailing by! I really loved getting to sing on Easter though. Music is so powerful.

The basket is backkkk!! Aren't you eggcited?!

Snuck in those resurrection rolls!

It was raining!! Boo. We set up camp in the road because the grass was sopping wet. I have been focused on memorizing The Living Christ this past month to prepare for Easter. I recited it for my family as part of our devotional. I was able to say the whole thing without having to pause and think. It was really special. Learning the words was powerful. I'd practice and recite them everywhere but especially while driving. So often, I'd get choked up and have to brush away tears as the Spirit touched me. I continue to say it to myself at least once or twice a week.... generally during the sacrament or in the temple. My very favorite verse of all time is in The Living Christ. D&C 76:22-24. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all that we give of him, THAT HE LIVES! I can never say those words without choking up. I believe and I know they are true. I love my Savior and hope my children always remember first and foremost that their mother is a disciple of Christ.

The timing worked out well to meet up with the Evans' at Joshua's grave after we visited all our grandparent's headstones. It was a cold and wet Easter.