There be dinos...

A quick note: Eric, spouse of Tina, is posting this entry. Tina has done a good job of showing the antics of La Famiglia Dutton (a little Italian lingo there), but after the sun sets and Evan is asleep, many daily activities begin. Here is my story. And it's all true.

Evan received a bag of small dinosaurs for his birthday. It wasn't very expensive, but there were about 23,000 dinosaurs of various shapes, sizes and species. He loves these little suckers and cannot wait to dump out the dino bag each day. Between playtime, snack time, meals, errands, housekeeping and prime Daddy-time, the dinos get scattered about. Once Evan is asleep, one of my jobs is to round up each of the 23,000 dinos.

This is not an easy task. First, these creatures are small. Second, they blend in quite nicely against our multicolored oriental rug. Fortunately, nature provided me with adequate nerve ending on my feet to find the sharp pointy teeth, claws and spikes. But most of all, Evan carts dinosaurs throughout the house and leaves them about like a trail of breadcrumbs. Evan is getting older and smarter, so he now makes my task of the great dino round a bit more challenging.

A common place for finding the remote, loose change or last week's burritos is between cushions, so this was the first place I looked after prying any creatures from the soles of my feet. Note the oriental rug in the background.

This guy was probably here for weeks because it only seemed natural to have dinos among the family pictures at this point.

You've probably called someone a "snake in the grass" before, but here is Evan's interpretation.

Having segmented flat surfaces screams "put something here" so Evan complied.

But sharing an endearing moment among Tina's figurines was unexpected.

Now I'm stumped. He likes sticking objects into the peephole, but it's 5 feet from the floor...

Tina enjoys keeping her Nativity scene up year round. I'm not exactly sure the shepards were keeping watch over a flock of T-rex's. Or maybe they showed up with the wisemen because they say "murrr, murrrrr, murrrrrrrrr". (for you Obama voters...gold, frankincense and myrrh, get it? Sheesh!)

Enroute to the kitchen, I spotted a potential escapee. Evan likes to go into our pantry, close the door behind him, then wait for someone to notice he's gone. This guy almost got away...

...but ending up in the toaster is just plain cruel.

We constantly remind Evan to not put the dinosaurs into his mouth because they're dirty. Apparently, he listened because the dishwasher had a platoon of reptiles in it.

Cold dino... I was getting something out of the fridge when I saw a red dino next to the milk. He blended in nicely with the peppers behind him. Note the jar of Evan's Front Range Salsa below the dino.

With the lights on, I never noticed this, but after I turned the lights off, another T-Rex was found suffering from radiation burns and chronic dizziness from the rotating turntable.

The fire was warm for us, especially for the big blue dino. Not officially part of the sack o' dinos, the guy seems to follow the pack nonetheless.

I have no idea how Evan did this. Mental note: clean the fan's blades.

This is usually a bad sign, or possibly the dinos are trying to run for cover while Evan sleeps.

Over the many nights since our house was invaded by dinosaurs, a few have gotten away. I admit that I could have recovered a few, but I didn't want to dry them off and flushing them seemed the right thing to do at the time. I try my best to find them all, but Evan is a sneaky little guy. I just finished counting the dinos and we're down to 21,477. I guess it's a sign that Evan is growing up and has outsmarted his old man about 1523 times...

And I look forward to being outsmarted 21,000+ more.

Evan's Fun Morning at the Zoo

Lions, Tigers, and Bears..O MY....OH and a CHOO CHOO Train!!!
Momma and Evan riding ( we had the train all to ourselves)

Evan and the ostriches

Evan and the baby elephant you have seen pictures of him on before

WEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! is what he said everytime he went down the slide with a BIG grin

We went to the Zoo today and had a blast. We saw all kinds of animals, took a train ride ( which Evan kept calling the guy driving it SANTA because of his long white beard!! : ) ) And ended the morning at the Zoo play area where Evan LOVED to go down the slide. He is really growing up because he didn't even need my help!! I was able to sit back and relax!!! Then we went to Bojangles for lunch and then home for a much needed nap, for BOTH of us!! ; )

Some Snow is better than No Snow!!!!!

We woke up to a light dusting of snow. The snow continued to come down til about noon or so but never stuck much. We went out and enjoyed what we had.......

Evan says "I am cold!!!!"

What IS this stuff!!!!!

I kinda like it....

YEA!!!!!

Wish we had more!!!!!

It's Alot Of Construction Equipment!!!

Evan is growing out of his baby blankets and required a bigger blanket. So, his multi talented, wonderful, father made him one. It is plain yellow on one side and of course, COVERED in construction equipment on the other. Eric hard at work to get it precisely right, you gotta know him!!!
He is a trained professional, folks!!

.....and this is the outcome!!!! Pretty cute if you ask me!!!!

And Evan is here trying it out, eyes closed and all.

Modeling it in his bed......

...but then got worried because it wasn't quite bedtime. : )

Eric is taking orders........J/K!! : )

Evan's Artwork from Sunday School.....

These are just a couple Of Evan's projects from Sunday school. I mean really what more can a two year old do?? Of course I am proud as pie of my little one and immediately display them on the fridge for all to see. But for those of you who don't come visit ; ) here is a glimpse:

This was around Christmas time
This was on the inside

Hmmmmmmm......this one....well....not quite sure the point BUT we'll go with you should always be thankful for the food?? : ) Really, I am always excited to look in his bag and see what he did that Sunday.

Varoooom!!!! Varooom!!!!

Look out on the road folks!!!! Speed racer is in town!!!! Evan with his new Hot Wheels trike

Evan showing daddy how it's done ( because daddy hasn't been on HIS bike in over two years!!!)

But then of course we would rather PUSH it!!!!! Because that's what we would rather do with everything!!

I LOVE YOU this much mommy and daddy for buying it for me!! ( OH, and to Grammy too for helping mommy find it!! ; ) )

Evan is sure to have a blast with his friends and his new trike. Just remember to be careful while driving down Cedar Field Court!!!!!!!

A Big Boy Gets Bigger!!!!!!

We are celebrating with Evan as this week he gave up his pacifier that he would only have at night time and nap time. He wasn't all too thrilled with the arrangement at first and quite frankly I didn't know if I would make it either!! : ) But after a few nights of crying I believe he has conquered it.

Now before nap he can be in his bed with a few books and he seems to like this and today went very well.

YEA EVAN!!!!! We are proud of you!!!!!!

Clean Up Crew Please!!!!

This has been a slow blogging time so I thought I would show you what supper's here are often like, or rather the mess.... Evan enjoying what was at first Ravioli and corn which ended up all together. OH, and he saw me getting out sour cream for my chili so had to have some of that in there too. And then had to have some Frito's ( which was also to go with MY chili, which I would have given that to him but I like it hot and well if you knew what we had been through with him this week and his digestive system, you would have refrained also.)

Then of course we had to have Tangelos for desert.

Look at this face, well, it is far better than his hands!!!

Back to Life, Back to Reality.....

We kept so busy during the holidays. And Having Eric home for a week and a half was so much fun. Afterwards always seems like a let down. You kinda have to regroup and get back in your routine. Evan "hanging" out!!!
Pretending to be Amish ( even with the tractor) : )

Playing with his pretend ice cream

And even resorting to wanting to wear daddy's shoes!!! Well, we are getting back to reality and I am trying to plan some special trips for Evan and I during the week to break up the monotony of just sitting at home. So hopefully I will have some interesting things to blog on but right now life is kinda boring BUT I am sure with a now two year old it will stay interesting!!!!