Easter

I'm finally getting around to posting our Easter pictures.

A couple days before Easter Heather's parents sent an Easter box. In it were of course sweets, a big chocolate Easter bunny, coloring books, and stuffed animals.

Jase showing off his lizard...


Meghan going through her bag of candy...


Jase showing off his squirt gun...


Both kids eating their bunnies (I'm all for letting them eat (almost) as much as they want because I don't have to listen to the "I wants" and "why not".


As a side note I just threw out the remaining Easter candy (half of the bunnies, and the rest of the jelly beans).

The Saturday before Easter Sunday we dye eggs and have an egg hunt. A dozen eggs was not enough for the kids to color, so I'll have to remember to do at least 2 dozen next year.


After a nice warm week of spring, winter showed back up for Easter weekend. It was sunny, but frigid. The kids were bundled up and love the hunt!






Easter Sunday involved Joe teaching the kids how to do jumping jacks...


More eating of candy...


And Meghan dressed up with her hair done (doesn't she look like little Cindy Lou Who)?

4 year pics, 18 month pics, and Easter pics

I'm a month late getting these up, but thought the relatives would enjoy them.

Jase is 4 years old and Meghan is 18 months. Some of these were their Easter pics too.

Pumpkin painting

Jase was finally able to paint his pumpkin (Meghan's too). We decided on small pumpkins this year (partly because we had one growing in our front flower bed - we didn't plant any seeds...). Then we got another one with our CSA share a couple weeks ago. We are also so busy this month that we couldn't fit in a visit to the pumpkin farm like last year. We did go to a really nice pumpkin farm place during our visit to MI, but we didn't have room for any pumpkins to come back home with us (sad, I know).



It looks like he is growing out of his smock that I made for him 2.5 years ago. I guess I need to make a bigger one for him and hand this one over to Meghan - now just where to find the time...

Our Labor Day

Finally I'm getting a chance to blog about our Labor Day weekend trip to MI to see some family and meet our new nephew, Ian. Ian is an adorable baby and was already 5 weeks old when we saw him. I loved holding him (when Meghan would let me) and smelling that new baby smell. Here is a photo of the little guy:

Jase loves his cousins and asks to visit them constantly. So, it was a long car ride up and leaving is always somewhat tortuous for him. While we were there he held baby Ian, fell down some stairs (thankfully it was only the last 4 stairs and everything was carpeted), got dressed up as a gangsta, fought constantly with his cousin Katelynn who is also three years old, played outside on the playset, tree house, and trampoline, played Frisbee, baseball, and stayed up way to late (he was the last kid to fall asleep each night).

Meghan also loves her cousins, but easily gets overwhelmed with all the attention and love she receives. Here she is with her cousins, Lilly and Lena.
Meghan loves to play and crawl in the grass. She loves to eat it too. I love this series of photos as it reminds me of a wild cat stalking it's prey. Here, Meghan was the cat and the Frisbee was the ever elusive prey...

Labor Day

We were able to spend part of Labor Day with friends having a BBQ at a local park. The get together was in part because our good friends, the Weber's, came back for a visit (and to show off their adorable and squishy son, CJ). Also in attendance were the Ream's, the South's, and the Madsen's. We had a great time, having hot dogs, chicken, frog eye salad, bean salad, Maren's famous salsa, chips, and yummy cupcakes, and chocolate and banana dessert.

Badminton and frisbee were hits, as was the playground. The kids were passed around, cats scared off, wagon rides shared, spitting water, and some bullying. Here are some of my favorite pics (and I'm sure everyone else will post some too).

Changes are a good thing

I hope...

We've been rearranging rooms, since we have yet to find the ideal positions for furniture, etc. That is up until now.

Last weekend we talked about moving around our bedroom. We didn't start it until Monday night, so it is still being worked on (no pictures until it is complete).

We've also talked about moving Meghan into Jase's room and turning Meghan's "room" into a toy room. So this morning I woke up and decided to do it (after asking Jase Thursday night if he wanted Meghan to sleep in his room - and he excitedly said yes). It took most of the day (with many breaks to nurse Meghan, cook food, clean dishes, grocery shop, etc), but we love it! Meghan took her naps in there and is doing well. Jase doesn't take many naps anymore, so having Meghan in an actual room will be better for noise control during her naps.

And here is the toy room:


A funny story: when the kids were put to bed tonight, Meghan of course started to cry. We tucked Jase in with his 2 blankets (and long sleeved pj's and pants) and left them to work our going to sleep. They were both tired and after about 5 minutes I heard Jase start crying too. I went in and he asked me to make Meghan stop crying. It was cute and then he covered his ears when she started again...

This was after about 10 minutes:



And of course since it is Independence day, we grilled hot dogs, brats, and bacon cheeseburgers, had watermelon, and some lovely trifles in the good ole red, white, and blue. Hope you had a great 4th!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day Joseph!

We hope you had a great day - we loved spending the day with you and making some yummy food for you too. We are grateful for all that you do for us and for your love and support in everything we go through as a family and individuals.

On the upside I (Heather) decided to make a Strawberry Rhubarb pie to celebrate Father's Day (Joseph loves pies, so I thought why not). I hate making pies, more accurately, I hate making pie crusts and usually just buy the box of rolled up pie crust. But one of the things I wanted to conquer in life was to make a great pie crust (and have it look great too). I've seen pie crusts made in food processors, so I opted for that method (mixing up the dough and getting the right amount of water never worked for me). I used this recipe from Paula Dean and it made an incredibly flaky and yummy crust. Now I'll be a pie making fool! This time I made the mistake of thawing the rhubarb and the pie ended up being more of a pie soup (which Jase thought was hilarious), but hey, the crust came out darn near perfect and that was what I was trying for. Plus, the "soup" makes great syrup for the ice cream!

A week late...

So, I'm finally getting around to posting about our Easter. We had a great weekend. It started with the kids getting their Easter baskets from Grandpa and Grandma on Friday. Joe made them wait to open them until I got home and when I walked in the door, Jase said lets open it (the box).Jase ended up eating almost all his candy (including 2 hollow 12 inch bunnies) in 3 days. But at least then I don't have to listen to, "Mommy I want my candy" anymore.


Then on Saturday we dyed eggs. Jase loved it even more than last year. After dying all the eggs, we then put the plastic shrink sleeves on them. He thought that was great.

Here are the eggs...and Jase loves eating hard boiled eggs - he ate most of the eggs himself.

Sunday morning the Easter bunny left baskets (and hid eggs after church). Jase has been wanting letters and numbers for the tub and Meghan got some sippy cups and puffs.

Here are the kids dressed up in their Easter clothes (and summer wedding clothes)... Aren't they just adorable! I love how Meghan's dress and Jase's shirt match. I would like to get a lilac shirt and tie for Jase as well...