Cailyn and Evan

This post is an update on Cailyn and Evan, and everything that has to do with their little lives. Enjoy!!

Cailyn-29 months (almost)

Cailyn is a fiery, spunky little girl. She has all the sass and attitude in the world, but then a second later has the sweetest, most sincere heart. Within the last two months she has been potty-trained and been moved to a big-girl bed. Potty training went very well, but that can't be said for sleep training. Now that she has the freedom to get up, she is up repeatedly at night and loves to crawl into bed with mommy and daddy in the middle of the night. If it weren't so sweet snuggling with her, I'd put her back to bed every tim

e!

She also is obsessed with the cartoon character, Diego. She has a little plastic doll that we got from her dear friends, Emma and Abby, and she goes everywhere with this doll. She sleeps with him, takes him on adventures, occasionally bathes with him, and carries him throughout the house all day long. It is cute, but annoying. We've misplaced him a couple times, and that makes her obsessive need to carry him all day worse. I'm told this is just a phase...

Cailyn loves to watch cartoons, but I'm desperately trying to cut back on those. She loves t0 play outside, swim and play in water, and she loves her sandbox. She talks constantly and is almost always understandable (at least to the trained ear). She can count to about 14, has started saying her abc's, and knows all her colors and shapes. You can't always ask her directly what a color is or a

shape, because she loves to shrug her shoulders and say, "I don't know."

Cailyn is such a blessing to me, and I love when I get to spend special time with just her. She makes me laugh all the time, and I wish I could remember everything about the past 2 years. There are times that I wish that when we pass away, that the Lord would bless us with a special look back at our lives. I would love to look back at all of these times and remember what it felt like, and what Cailyn was like at this point. Just a thought...

Evan-6 1/2 months

What can I say about Evan? He is the sweetest little man, and such a momma's boy!! I just adore him and his cute little smile. I love the feeling of being needed by my babies. I spent the first year of Cailyn's life working, and so there were very few times that I felt needed by her. I felt like she was comforted by just about anyone, but not Evan! He wants me! And I love that!

In the past 2 months, I have been reminded of God's goodness. When we found out we were pregnant with a boy, we thought his name was going to be Brennan Madison. We both loved the name Brennan, but it means tear and sorrow. At house church one evening I started thinking about the little baby in my tummy and wondering if I really wanted to name him something that meant "tear and sorrow." Caleb had a dream/vision about 3 months into my pregnancy, where he felt the Lord tell him to name our son Evan. We didn't know we were having a boy, nor did either of us love the name Evan. I thought it was cute, but I have a cousin named that. Caleb had a friend from college that he lived with named Evan. So, we kind of ruled that out. That evening after house church I told Caleb that I was having second thoughts about Brennan, and he admitted he was too. So, we came back to Evan, which means "God is good." And his middle name, Thomas, is to honor Tom Miller for what a blessing and patriarch he is to the Miller and McNary family. I can say now, 2 months of being colic free, Evan is such a sweet reminder of God's goodness. I see Evan's smile and how he lights up when you talk to him, and I know that even through difficulty, God shows us His goodness.

Evan, of course, rolls over and sits up. He is starting to push up on his arms and legs at the same time, and I think that in the next month or so he will start crawling. His first tooth starting coming in on Memorial Day, May 30th. He was a cranky beast for about a day and a half. He has settled back down since then, so I think that his tooth has almost broken through and the pain is manageable. And, Evan is eating carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and green beans. He likes them all about the same! He also sleeps through the night, about 9-7:15ish, and naps about 5 1/2 hours a day. The napping schedule started around 5 months, and the sleeping consistently through the night started around 6 months.

Anyways, these are my babies!! I love them dearly and am blessed to be home with them every day!