We've been busy!

We've been busy! I enjoy blogging but I am so far behind. Instead of trying to take the time and energy to catch up I'll do it quick instead!

September

• I took an Institute class for the first time in my life. My old seminary teacher from Cardston was the instructor and I went with my good friend Brooklyn. I was really scared and intimidated to go at first. I was afraid I was going to be the "old" person but in reality there where quite a few people my age and some had children as well. It was a great experience and I wish I could fit it into my schedule to go again this semester!
• We enrolled Wyatt in "Sportball" classes at the Trico. It was a 12 week program and each week the instructor taught them a new sport. It was a parented program meaning that daddy got to go with him and play with him. I can definitely envision sports in his future. I would have to say his favorites were hockey and golf.
• Wendell turned 29! I surprised him by decorating his cubicle at work! I'm already planning his 30th in my mind! I hope it will be great!

October

• Wendell's nephew Derek Redford got married to Maddi. They are both so cute and it was fun to talk to Wyatt about getting married in the Temple. He told me Maddi looked very pretty in her wedding dress.
• We volunteered at the Calgary Temple Open House. Wendell worked in Parking and I was an Usher. It was an early morning and a long day on our feet but so worth it. My parents came up to watch the boys and my sisters family came up as well. The plan was for them to come to the open house after we were done our shift. My dad got really sick and my Grandmother was really ill back in Cardston so my parents left to go back home. Luckily Primrose's were here and able to get the boys dressed and up to the Temple.
• I went to Time Out For Women in Salt Lake City with my mom and 2 of my sisters. We also spent time with my Aunt Brenda and my cousin Chelsey also came to TOFW with us. We left early in the week and spent a few days shopping and touring SLC.
• Jakey turned 18 months and started going to nursery. He did not like it then and does not like it now. They say he is getting better. We've discovered he likes men better than women so luckily there are some men in Nursery and they can usually calm him down.
• For Halloween the boys were a Pirate and a Parrot. I thought long and hard about what I wanted them to be. (it's all about what I want right??) I loved their costumes from last year and felt like I needed something just as great. So Wyatt actually said he wanted to be a Pirate and then I found a cute Parrot costume for Jake. I thought I was so original. But I was Visiting Teacher one night before Halloween and I commented on some pirate swords she had on her stairs. She says, "Ya my girls are going to be Pirates for Halloween and my son a Parrot." My jaw literally hit my chest. So much for being original. The actual night of Halloween was freezing. We bundled them up the best we could and I sent them out with Wendell. Jake was not impressed with is costume. He cried and cried. I kept imagining him saying, "I'm a bird. He gets to be a Pirate and I'm a bird!"

November

• We spent a lot of time sledding and skating. Wyatt is fearless when sledding and will go down practically any hill. Wendell built a skating rink our in our backyard. Wyatt and Jakey like to go out with daddy and skate.

December

• Was your typical busy month. We saw Santa twice.  Once at our ward party and then at our Prete Family Christmas party.
• We went to the live Nativity Pageant with our friends the Wilde's.
• We had a FHE night and invited over the Capps & Wilde families. We made gingerbread houses and ate popcorn & hot chocolate.
• We went to Cardston for Christmas. We had a Prete Christmas Party (my mom's side) at my Aunt Ruby's house. The kids had a lot of fun playing with a few of their cousins and getting spoiled Christmas Day.
• After Christmas my family came to Calgary and we spent 3 days at the water slides. Growing up we went to Medicine Hat for the water slides practically every Christmas. It was fun watching all 20 grand kids go up and down the slides for hours. It definitely brought back memories of going with our cousins when we were little.
• Wendell's niece Tenelle Card got married to Mat Richards in the Calgary Temple. It was the first wedding I had go to at the new temple and it was beautiful. Tenelle looked gorgeous as always!
• We spent New Years Eve home with our good friends Brook & Travis Quinton. We had way too much yummy food and had a nice relaxing New Years with our friends.
• New Years Day was the Walton get together at Wendell's sisters house in Okotoks. They have a skating rink and snow mobiles so most of teenagers/younger kids spent the day outside. Again we had sooo much food! 
• I got called to the Primary Presidency in our ward. I love Primary and the girls I work with. I already somewhat knew all of them and feel comfortable with them. I look forward to the next 3  years!

January

• I started online classes at Red Deer College for my Early Learning and Child Care Diploma. Mount Royal University (here in Calgary) doesn't offer online classes for the 2nd year. So I was easily able to transfer to RDC.  Our textbook is a book by Stephen R. Covey called, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." It's a great read with a lot of useful information. I think everyone needs to read it. It blows my mind that I'm taking classes through RDC and my instructor lives in Vancouver BC. Gotta love technology!
• Wyatt started Sunbeams! The first week was pretty crazy. Wendell was out of town and I had to conduct and teach sharing time. I had to quickly drop Jakey off at Nursery and take Wyatt to Primary with me. I basically threw him in his chair and ran to the back to get things started. He was pretty whiny and kept coming up to the front with me. I feel bad that that was his first experience in Primary but he's doing pretty good now.
• Wendell went to California for 3 days for a work conference. One night him and some people went to Disneyland since they were staying practically next to it. Seriously he went to Disneyland and I was at home with the kids......
• Somebody turned 4!! Mr Wyatt had a Birthday on January 19! I am going to do that in its own post since I'm all caught up!

Now do you understand why I didn't want to start blogging since I was so far behind! I'm pretty sure I missed a ton but now that I'm caught up I can just start from here!

Annual Bevans Okanagan Trip 2012

Every year we look forward to our week at Lake Okanagan Resort. We go with my parents and siblings. The kids have a blast and it's a great time for us all to get together. We swam, jumped on the trampolines, ate, went jet skiing, ate, and played in the sand. It was a great week!

 

Wendell loves building sandcastles or at least partial ones

 

I love both of their faces in this picture. This is exactly how each of them smile. Wyatt's smile reminds me of the Grinch when he was a boy on "How the Grinch Stole Christmas." And Jakey's smile is just adorable!

 

This is quite remarkable for Wyatt to be swimming on his own. It took a couple of days but eventually he would jump into the pool and swim all by himself.

 

Aja & Jakey - Best buds! They always seemed to find each other 

 

So I had my camera set to take continuous shots. I love these next pictures.
Jon pushing Wendell in.....

 

Then Salesi pushing Jon & Wendell in.....

 

Then Nate giving Salesi a good push....

 

Then finally Casen & Shayde beaming as the big boys are all in the water and Nate looking quite pleased with himself for not falling in too!!

16 out of 21 Grandkids all 8 & under! With 11 out of 16 being 4 and younger!

We were quite the spectacle. We were playing at the beach one day and the family beside us asked if we were all related! They couldn't believe it and kept trying to count them!



We love going to Okanagan and can't wait to go again next year!

The Enchanted Forest

This year on our way to our "Annual Bevans Okanagan Trip" we decided to stop at THE ENCHANTED FOREST just outside of Revelstoke. I had been there before when I was a teenager but this was the first time for Wendell and the boys. Basically this lady created these fairy tale figurines by hand and then her and her husband bought some land and over the years they made paths and made it into a tourist stop. It was fun for the boys because they got to get out of the car and stretch their legs for a bit. I don't think we'll stop very often as it was quite expensive. Luckily we happened to run into my sister & her family in Revelstoke at McDonalds so we all went to the forest together!

 

The Walton & Takahashi kids

 

Wyatt loves pirates. This is his ARGHHH face

 

Our Family

Calaway Park

One of our FAVORITE things to do this summer is go to Calaway Park. We purchased seasons passes so every weekend we are in Calgary we go there! At first I wasn't sure if there were a lot of rides the boys could go on but there are a ton. Wyatt definitley loves the kid bumper cars & kid roller coaster. He constantly asks if he can go on the big roller coaster so everytime we have to take him over to the measuring sign and show him he's too short before he'll stop asking. The seasons passes (on sale) were definitely worth the investment.

Unfortunately Jakey does a lot of this. I can't wait for next summer when he can go on more ride and have more fun!

A couple of weekends ago my sister and her kids came up for the weekend and we went to our FAVORITE place! Wendell was happy because he finally had someone to go on the log ride with him. I serioulsy dislike getting wet!

Trip 2 of 2 to Cranbrook

Trip #2 to Cranbrook was in June. We didn't end up stopping at the "World's Largest Truck" in Sparwood.
(Apparently it's not the largest anymore anyways!!)

We went camping at Moyie Lake just outside of Cranbrook. It was a beautiful campground and you actually felt like you were camping. We spent Saturday jet skiing at the lake. I'm actually really starting to enjoy camping now that the boys are getting older. I think in the next couple of years we will have to get some sort of trailer. Here are some pictures from our fun camping/jet skiing weekend!



There are 6 kids on the tube with Wendell!!

Jake's first time out on the jet ski. Mommy was a little nervous while they were gone.

Wyatt's first time on a two wheeler. He decided he wanted to try out his cousin's bike and was doing pretty good on it too!


 Me with the 2 Owen's. Jake Owen & Cole Owen!


And I had to add this picture because it shows Wyatt's "classic" cheese face while enjoying some yummy desert with cousin Teegan.


Trip 1 of 2 to Cranbrook

For the CANADA DAY long weekend we were guilted into going decided to go camping in Cranbrook with my parents and sister. (not that we don't like Cranbrook I just don't  like camping. Read THIS post if you need a explanation) Luckily my bro let us use his 5th wheel for the weekend and luckily my sis in law had her baby a few days early so we got to meet the little guy! That's GRANDBABY #21 on the Bevans side! Of course auntie forgot to take pictures so when we go out for his blessing in a few weeks I'll get some!

We loaded up on Friday after work and made the 4 hour drive to Cranbrook. We bought a roof top carrier and squished into our car! It worked out perfectly.

On Canada we went to Fort Steele for the day. We had fun on a real train ride, seeing the animals, eating cake & other baked goods and walking around a historic little town.

Wyatt with cousins Casen, Malia, Grace & Georgia and Grandma B.

Do you see that massive bump on his head? He definitely inherited his momma's sensitivity to mosquito bites. Luckily the swelling went down just in time for a few other scratches and bumps to the head!

We are going back out to Cranbrook in a few weeks for baby Cole's blessing! I'm hoping we'll be able to stop in Sparwood on the way & check out the World's Largest Truck!!