I love my kids!

I finally took the time to get these photos off the camera and it helped me remember (after a really long week) just how much I love my kids. Enjoy!




Meghan's first cookie - she sure liked it!


Jase wearing a potholder turned hat.


Meghan having a good snooze in daddy's arms.


I love Jase's hair, especially when it is wet and roughed up.


Jase thought he'd share his sucker with his sister and she seemed to like it...


Jase and his cousin playing during a visit with family.


Jase loving his ice cream cone...his skin was tinted blue even after "scrubbing" it clean.

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...

at least not just yet. I have been swamped at work, exhausted at home (moving rooms around and reorganizing can do that to a person), and tired in the morning thanks to a teething monster that I call my daughter. Oh, she also wants to sleep all night in mommy and daddy's bed; so she wakes up every 2 hours when she is in her crib - uugghh.

We are also getting ready for Jase's party in a couple weeks and working outside in the beautiful weather.

So, is that enough excuses for why I haven't been blogging? I know I have some cute pics that I will post after this weekend (we have busy plans for the whole weekend and sorry, but blogging isn't one of them...).

Also, stay tuned as my 1 year blogging anniversary is coming up on May 10th, and I plan on having something fun for my readers...

2 Weeks of giveaways...

A wonderful website that I enjoy perusing, 5 Minutes for Mom, is having 2 weeks worth of giveaways. Maybe Jase will get something extra for his birthday coming up...

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...

A day in the life of...

my kids - they have so much fun when I am gone. Here is what goes on at home when the mom is away at work:
Jase loves to play Jenga and he is really good too, nice and steady hands



And here is what I do when I need to do dishes and can't hold Meghan too...nothing like a roasted baby!And finally, here is Meghan sleeping (her favorite place to sleep is on any person).

A visit with friends

About a month ago we spent a weekend with our good friends in Detroit. It consisted of the guys playing whirlyball, the girls shopping, and most of the weekend in our pjs!

Here are some of the pics of the weekend:
Jase loved breaking the chains, Meghan loved sucking and chewing on cold soda cans, they both loved playing the drums, and Meghan was her normal self eating everything she could.

We hope to spend more time with them again soon. Thanks for the great time Pete and Bridgette!

We also got to see one of the sister missionaries that taught me. She has since married and has a son. It has been a while, but it was great to see her and visit with her and finally meet her family!

Celebration!

I have been working at Purdue for less than 2 years (just barely - May 8 makes 2 years) and I have been co-authors on 2 publications in big journals. Both of these have come out in the last month and I have done considerable cryo-EM (cryo electron microscopy) work (including sample prep, freezing, and data collection) for these 2 projects.

The first paper came out earlier in the month in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. The article is Binding of a neutralizing antibody to dengue virus alters the arrangement of surface glycoproteins.

The second paper just came out today in Science. The article is Structure of the Immature Dengue Virus at Low pH Primes Proteolytic Matruration.

I think we will be celebrating sometime this weekend with dinner out!

Now lets hope all the other projects I'm working on go as well as these did...