Happy 6th Birthday, Evan!!

Evan showing off his Razor Scooter from Mommy and Daddy.

Evan and Daddy sword fighting with sparklers.

Total accident picture...but looks cool.

I've got some catching up to do on our blog...we've got the beach, father's day, and Evan's birthday all to cover. I think I'll go in reverse order just because I'm so touched that we just celebrated Evan's 6th birthday!! I'm so thankful to God for all of the many blessings that he has bestowed upon our family and I'm reminded how I am truly unworthy of it all. It's hard to believe sometimes that this is the same little boy that we brought home from Russia over 4 years ago. The little boy who was terrified of his first bath now does backwards flips off the diving board!!


In the years past I've steered him away from things like Pokemon and of course Sponge Bob Square Pants, but this year, there has been no escaping Bakugan! That is unless, I wanted Evan to be the only boy in his school who isn't allowed to play with them. Besides, I really can't find a reason why he shouldn't be allowed. Bakugan is actually a game that we don't even know how to play, he just loves collecting the pieces because they are small balls that turn into crazy animals when you put them on something magnetic...so there ya go...science! lol He wanted a Bakugan party so I created a cake that looks like his magnetic cards, he loved it and thought it was super cool! Thanks to Clay's aunt, we celebrated with a pool party next door. We ended the night by putting the babies down and enjoying some much needed time (as we were formally called) as the Hodges...family of 3!


I love him so much! I stumbled across this post very randomly from our blog and thought I'd share it here.

Thursday, September 15, 2005
Such a joy...
We have now been home with Evan for 133 days. The scared little boy that we picked up at the orphanage that day has transformed into a tireless two year old, with limitless energy and enthusiasm that begins every day when he wakes up and doesn't subside until bedtime. No longer do we get the little baby cry when he wakes up in the morning. Instead, we get "mama...tu mere", or "daddy...I want out". His tantrums are extremely rare now and lead him to "time out" where he sits (as if his behind is glued to the floor) until we let him up. He wipes his eyes and says "no cwy", and then we get back to our activity as if nothing happened.


He enjoys Thomas the Train, and he also understands that with TiVo, Mama and Daddy can never give the excuse that "it's not on right now". He loves to swim, ride in the golf cart, and go on walks with Mommy. He explodes with excitement every time we go by a construction site. He loves anything that makes noise. He is almost completely potty trained now, with only the occasional accident, and even though it is an occurrence that happens several times daily, he never hesitates to give himself a round of applause after a successful trip to the potty. We were warned throughout this process of the rough adjustments that many families face while the child becomes acclimated to his new surroundings, and while Evan is a two year old boy with a strong will and a hard head, he is such a joy to have home, and is completely adjusted.


My new favorite Evan story happened just a few days ago. He is recently recovering from a bout with strep throat. He woke us up crying late last Saturday night. Brandi and I got up and gave him medicine, sprayed his throat, and then put him in bed with us for a while. He cried and coughed pitifully until his medicine kicked in, at which time he became playful. Then, without any coaxing from us, put his hand on each of our faces and said "thank you mama, thank you daddy." as if to say...you fixed it.He is beginning to put words together to form sentences.


His newest sentence is "I want____" not at all in a demanding way, just a sweet little boy telling you what he wants. He is loving school and looks so cute in his new school uniform.

Happy 1st Birthday, Elijah Day and Ella Sofiya!!

The Party... A few pictures...

Happy 1/2 Year Babies!!

The Babies were very excited to celebrate their 1/2 year birthday, but not nearly as excited as Evan and I were. Especially Evan, he couldn't wait for them to wake up from their nap so that we could begin. We celebrated by making 1/2 Year bibs, buying high chairs, and by introducing their first real solid food (other than cereal). Evan chose pears! Organic pears that is...did you know that over 16 different types of pesticides can be found in an average jar of regular baby food? That's a little scary to me, but that's another post. lol.

Daddy was at work so he missed out of the fun, but hey, someone has to support us. lol.

Anyway, we began the celebration by setting up the high chairs and putting on their

Mommy-Made Birthday Bibs. Evan started the Happy Birthday song and as I joined in I tried to video a bit of it. Then the fun began, yum...pears...or do I mean ... yuck ... pears? They weren't really sure what to think. It began pretty well, they made some funny faces but ate it for the most part. Elijah did great, he ate his whole container. Ella ate about half of hers and a little cereal which she certainly preferred over the pears. The first several bites she was okay but then started making some bad faces, which disappeared when I gave her the cereal. Overall, it was a good experience for them, they never fussed and seemed to enjoy it pretty well.

Happy 1/2 year babies!! I can't believe that in another 6 months you will be 1!!

A Few Elijah Faces... and his preferred method of eating.

Everything taste better with a little toes.

Hummm...That taste different than usual.

But it's pretty good. Yummy...Give me more!!


A few Ella Faces...

Okay, That's not too bad.

Oh, wait a minute, yes it is!

What was I thinking, IT'S HORRIBLE!!

Happy 5th Birthday Evan!

Wow! I can't believe that my baby is 5 years old!! We celebrated Evan's birthday Saturday, Pirate Style, by the pool! Evan wanted a Pirate Party so that's what he got...complete with a Treasure Map Cake that Mommy made for him. (Thanks Amber for the inspiration)

Celebrating birthdays with Evan are extra special for so many reasons! Happy Birthday my big 5 year old boy!!!

Thanks so much to Sister and Grand Don for allowing us to celebrate in your backyard!

FYI: I'm thinking of going back into the cake business (if you can call it that, LOL) now that the babies are getting bigger. Brandi's Cake Blog.

Happy 4th Birthday Evan

Wow, am I behind on our blog. It's October and I'm blogging about Evan's birthday...so sorry.

Happy 4th Birthday, my big boy! I can't believe that you are 4 years old now. You are growing and changing so much everyday. You are the love of my life and I am so proud of you.

You wanted a Diego cake, so that's just what Mommy made for you and we celebrated your birthday by renting a HUGE blow up water slide for our backyard. You were so excited about it and could not wait to slide down. You were so funny doing flips and cart-wheels instead of opting to just slide on your bottom, after all, where's the adventure in sliding down on your bottom. That's exactly you...seeking adventure and thrill in all that you do...always thinking, What can I do to make this more interesting? You are all boy and I've said that about you from day one and it is so true. You still love to wrestle and play ball...you told me the other day that "boys like to get dirty". Everything that you do, you do it at 100 mph...I've always said, "You make Mommy tired" but it's so wonderful to be tired from chasing you.

Mommy and Daddy decided to surprise you with a "big boy" bike...a Spiderman bike... for your birthday. Your actual birthday was a few days before your party so we gave you your bike on June 28th. Amma even made you a small cake. We wrapped up a new spiderman helmet for you (even though you already had 2) You were so thrilled to be getting a new helmet. You were so excited, you yelled, "I needed one of these" Even though we all knew you didn't. You are always such a sweet boy, many 4 year olds would have been disappointed. You knew Mommy and Daddy were excited about the helmet so you were too. Then we took you outside for the real surprise....your bike!!! Oh, how your eyes lit up. You were thrilled! You hopped on and zoomed down the driveway!

I love doing things like this for you, just to see the look on your face. I think that deep down inside you remember what it was like for you not to have anything of your own which makes you always so thankful of the things that you receive. You always say thank you with a smile on your face. I remember when we first brought you home and people would give you gifts, you would look at them, sometimes play with them but then always hand them back to the person that gave it to you as if to say, thanks for letting me see that, I know it's yours. People at Amma's bank loved to give you stickers and you would always hand them back. When we explained that you could take it home, that it was yours, you would only take one, and hand the rest back to them. I am so proud of the big boy that you are growing up to be! You are the joy of my life and will always be my first little boy and nothing will change that. You are my first favorite, forever!! I love you!

Go, Diego, Go!

Us in front of your waterslide.

Blowing out your candles.

School, the beach, and the big 50!

August was a busy month. Evan started school and loves it! He is still at Social Circle Christian School and has the same teacher as he did last year. He goes 3 days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I so enjoy taking him and picking him up from school because he is so fun to watch. He is Mr. Cool at 3 years old! He gets out at carpool and marches up the ramp into the building with no assistance. I often I have remind him that Mommy needs a kiss before he gets out of the car. When I pick him up, we pull over into the parking lot where he shows me his work that he is so proud of and he tells me all about his day. Clay picked him up one day last week and he got there early so he decided that instead of waiting he would go ahead and get Evan about 30 minutes early. Clay thought that Evan would be so excited to see him walk into his room instead he looked at Clay with a funny look and said, “I workin’ hard” like I’m not leaving yet. Clay asked Evan if he was ready to go and he said that he had to finish his work so Clay waited in the car. LOL!!

We went to North Myrtle Beach with Clay’s family and the Schattes met us there. We had such a wonderful time. Evan is such a joy and just loves the beach. He worked hard on teaching Hannah to enjoy the ocean and pool and boy did she ever enjoy it!! We really enjoyed spending the extra time with Uncle Brent since we usually only get to see him on the weekends with limited time. Amma and Ampa bought Evan a dump truck for the beach and he must have ran and pushed it for miles over the beach. If you ask Evan why his Ampa bought him the truck, Evan will answer, “Ampa love me.” We celebrated Hannah’s 3rd birthday by going to the Pavilion which they are tearing down to build high-rises. We enjoyed eating out (and blowing our diets), and just taking it easy. Our last night there we went to eat Japanese with Brent and he convinced me to try sushi…a crazy roll. It was pretty good. Of course, I took lots of pictures to remember the trip. The Schattes will be coming back to Georgia in January so we can celebrate Russian Christmas together on January 7th.

Mimi turned the big 5-0 this month! We had a great time celebrating her birthday. We all went to eat Japanese food and I even called Brent to ask him what kind of sushi to order but it wasn’t that good this time. I hosted a surprise brunch for Mimi and her closest girlfriends on Saturday and it was wonderful. I was so afraid the Evan was going to spill the beans b/c he kept talking about her cake...luckly she didn't pick up on it. She was so surprised, it brought her to tears!

Now that summer is drawing to a close I am looking forward to the fun of fall and all the joy that it brings. I can’t wait for pumpkins and hayrides.

The Hodges...family of 3!

July and still going…

Evan’s birthday was June 28rd. We celebrated Evan’s birthday on July 2nd with a big Thomas the Tank Engine party. He had so much fun. Mommy made him a 3-d Thomas cake which was very yummy and we had Train shaped PB&J sandwiches thanks to the cookie cutter that Aunt Carol gave Evan on our visit to PA. Mommy painted a choo-choo train on paint cans and filled them with sidewalk chalk, crayons, a Thomas cup, Thomas stickers, and a conductor hat for everyone to take home. Evan’s favorite gift was his guitar from Momi and his fishing pool from Mark, Paige, Abby and Anna.

Typical Boy…rough and tough...
July 13th…Evan is curious about everything that he sees and has no fear at all so when he saw a wasp he thought he should check it out even though we have warned him many times about bees. The wasp didn’t think it was such a good idea and stung him on his arm. Evan cried hard for about two minutes and then was back to playing like nothing had happened. Of course without us knowing family history, I was very nervous about the possibility of him being allergic.

July 16th…We took a trip (and hopefully our last, though I have been told by many experienced Moms of boys that it probably will not be) to the ER on Sunday. We were at church and apparently, Evan was running full speed and ran into a Mag flashlight that was in someone’s hand. With Evan screaming Andy, who was holding the flashlight brings him to me and says, “Don’t flip out” just what every mom wants to hear, right? He was holding Evan so that I could not see his face and then he turned Evan for me to see…YIKES! His head was bleeding badly. A nurse at church told us to take him to the ER so we did, by the time we got there was so much blood even while applying pressure that you couldn’t tell where it was coming from. They took us back immediately and a nurse looked at it and said that he would probably need stitches. Our wonderful friends Chad and Lori went to McDonalds (Thanks Y’all!) to get Evan a Happy Meal and after about 20 minutes he seemed fine. The bleeding had stopped and he was busy playing with his sword that came in his Happy Meal. His friend Chandler came to see him and gave him some cookies which helped too. Thanks Chandler! We waited for about an hour and a half and started thinking about leaving since he seemed fine. A friend of mine from high school is a nurse in the birthing center so Clay went to see if she was working. Stephanie came and looked at it and we decided that he would be okay to go home. We went to the counter and told them that we thought we were going to leave, but they wanted the nurse to look at him again. She could not believe that we were thinking of leaving. When she looked at it again she said that it had started to close and was healing on it’s own that fast.

Swimming…
Something magical happened this month, Evan learned how to swim. I mean really swim with no floaties…underwater! He is so funny kicking his feet, and doing “big arms” with his face under the water, swimming like a fish! He took some lessons at the YMCA but really didn’t learn a lot there since he was already the top of his class. Yes, the top of his class! HA HA. He was the only 3 year old (who turned 3 the week before mind you) the others were 4 and 5. We played “swim lessons” in Mimi’s pool everyday and one day it just clicked and across the water he went! We couldn’t wait to show Daddy! Now he doesn’t even want to use his floaties. His favorite thing to do is to jump off the diving board and swim to the ladder…all by himself!

Love,
The Hodges…family of 3!