Long time, No post

Since the last time I posted so many things have happened.  I went to California twice to visit my oldest brother and his adorable family. His wife had twins! They are so adorable! She had her hands full, so I offered to go down for eight days to help. It was so much fun to be there and catch up with my sister in law. The second time was just a couple days later when the whole family took a road trip down to San Diego to go to the twins baby blessings. I would personally like to send a shout out to Apple for providing constant entertainment for us while in the car for what seemed to be a million hours! 

While driving down our sweet van started to act up and began to do something crazy. I don't know what it was because I don't speak car, at all. We got into Las Vegas and we stopped at this car place and this sweet man helped us out. We all got booted out of the car and we sat in the hot Las Vegas sun for almost and hour while he checked out the car. Its funny because there is never a dull moment in our family! 

My second oldest brother and his wife had a new baby! She is beautiful and growing up so fast! Just days later they moved from Idaho to Kansas to start a new job, and they are loving it so much!!

My younger brother Michael participated in a CrossFit competition in Cedar City Utah this past month! He dominated it! He got first in overall for men and first in the obstacle course. I am so proud of him! He has found something that he loves and is becoming amazing at it! He was the youngest of all the men there. At 17, he was able to compete against 30 year olds and win! I am so proud of him! 

My other younger brother Paul went to Hawaii with his basketball team to play in the Maui Invitational! They had a team full of 14 and 15 year olds, and they won the tournament for their division! I am so proud of him and all of his hard work! Plus, he got to go to Maui with all of his best friends for a week and a half! I am sure he loved having the freedom there. I called him late one night and wanted to talk, after a few minutes he said "Stac what do you need? I am in the middle of a FIFA tournament with my coaches!" He loved it and can't wait to go back next year! 

Those are the really big things that have happened since the beginning of July.

Being part of a big family is so fun because we each have something new happening and we love keeping up with each other! We have a family thread on our phones, and you can bet that during any given weekend we are constantly messaging, because everyone loves to talk! 

I am my parents nanny, because my mom runs her own business and my dad has his full time job in Salt Lake City. I am home for all the big events that happen at our house. This past week school has started up again for us and the kids are all growing up so fast! I can not believe that it was almost 10 years ago that we started down the adoption road. I think back on it and I am flabbergasted at how much love we have in the family. I wish that I could just film my family all the time to show how much love is in our home. Don't get me wrong, just like every other normal family we have our moments where we can't stand something another person is doing, but for the most part, we all get along so well. I can't imagine my life any different. I would do it all over again if I could. 

Joseph is going to a completely different school than the other kids. He was given the chance to go to a charter school and we couldn't pass up that opportunity for him! He is loving it there! 

I love writing about my family and sharing just some of our many stories!

xoxo

Stacey

4th of July Weekend

The 4th of July is our favorite Holiday!!

And pictures are worth a thousand words! Enjoy looking at our fun family weekend :)

Craig's holiday shirt was the best one I saw all day!! "Back 2 Back World War Champs"

Looks like dad was successful on putting Jaxon down for this nap!  

 Escaping the heat! Heading to the Pool!! 

 Saturday we went up and spend the day at our favorite lake! We always have a blast up there!!

Jacob is adorable! He couldn't resist showing me how strong he is! "Look at my muscles Stacey! I have better muscles then Michael!"

Being a basketball player Paul has a pretty bad tan line from his shorts! 

How cute is Mandie!? She is the perfect outdoors girl with her subway and camo hat! 

 First time on a canoe... I think like the house boat better. 

After a long fun filled weekend, you can see it was hard to stay awake! We have so much fun whenever we get together! The kids get so worn out that they can't even get into the car before falling asleep! Happy birthday America!! I am so thankful to live in this country and to have the freedoms I have! I hope everyone had a fun safe weekend! 

Xoxo

Stacey 

From AZ to Cali

One of my favorite parts about being an Evans is the fact that I can plan something for the day and it never turns out to be the way I planned it. It ALWAYS turns out better!

My mom is extending her business into Mesa, Arizona. We all get the chance to go with her whenever she travels out of town. It is an exciting way to spend some more time with our mom. It started out as being only a 4 day trip down there. A day to drive there, two days working with the new leadership, then a day to come home. Naturally it did not turn out that way.

I didn't learn till on this little road trip how grateful i was for my dad being willing to do all of the driving on trips! He can stay up for hours driving and he not even skip a beat the next day! It took my mom and I 24 hours to drive what should have been only 10 hours. How does that even happen?! We took Grace and Jaxon with us on this adventure and we had such a fun time! Swimming at our hotel for hours on end and going out and explored Mesa.

Then it was time to go; we didn't want to leave. Grace had taught herself how to swim and Jax was perfectly content just sitting next to me in the pool playing in the water. My oldest brother and his wife just had a set of twins! They are the cutest little things my eyes have ever seen! Being only 6 hours away we decided that going home the way of San Diego would be a smart idea... so we thought. We started Friday driving towards the coast, excited and playing the road trip music. My mom called my dad to let him know we were headed that way. With a question in his voice he asked if we had finished everything we came there to do. My mom looked at me... "Stacey we have to go back." Ugh. We were already 2 hours into the "6" hour trip. We turned around. It was a good choice on our part because we were able to get another day of swimming in and soak up more AZ sun!

We finally made it to California to surprise my brother. And boy he was shocked!! He had no idea we were coming and was so excited to see us! We loved being there, playing at the beach and getting to see the twins!

We love spending time together!!

xoxo
Stacey

 Soda Pop

 Beach Mermaids.