Happy Easter

Our Easter Sunday started off with giving the kids a little Easter basket and then it was off to church to celebrate Christ's resurrection! Benjamin wasn't a happy camper at first (don't recall why he was crying!) but soon turned his tears into laughter when he saw the gifts in the basket!




We invaded Oma & Opa's house for our Easter lunch even though they were still out of town (a big thank you for graciously letting us do that!). We had our Easter feast with Tom & Sarah (Elisabeth & Emily), Darren & Kimberly (Kora & Celia), and Jeremy & Amanda (Dylan & Laurel). We had a wonderful meal: honey baked ham, salad, asparagus, cheesy potatoes, rolls & fruit. And then another course later in the afternoon - Amanda's amazing banana cream pie and apple cobbler. Oh my goodness was it scrumptious!

The kids played & played their little hearts out - running around the house and playing with every toy in sight. The Easter egg hunt was a success - candy, stickers, and money filled the plastic eggs. Because it was raining, we did the hunt inside, but that didn't deter us from having lots of fun! Thankfully the rained stopped just in time to ride bikes & scooter together - we even got to see Jack the wallaby (a neighbor's pet!) It was a great Easter spending it with great friends and family!!

This was a super sweet comment from Jaelyn on the way home from our Easter celebration:

Me: Jaelyn, wasn't that a super fun day?
Jaelyn: Yeah - Christ is alive!

Yes - she gets what Easter is all about! It's been fun to hear her talk about Passion week and all the little details in the story. It's amazing what she has picked up already - awesome!

Egg-tastic morning!

We had our annual egg decorating morning with cousin Elisabeth and our awesome aunties! We dyed our eggs beautiful colors and put lots of stickers on them too. We had a cool crayon that we could use to write on the egg and the dye wouldn't go over it...so we made some cool lookin' eggs this year!

The kids concentrating hard to make the perfect colored eggs!

This was Ben's first year decorating the eggs - he wanted to do it all.by. himself! He didn't make too much of a mess! A big thank you to Auntie Karen for "assisting" Benjamin!

Hammin' it up for the camera. I think she was sick of me taking pictures at this point!

What a fun morning shared with cousins!

gymmastics birthday party!

Jaelyn had her big birthday celebration with all of her friends at the place she takes gymnastics every week. She was SO excited to have all her friends do gymnastics with her - she couldn't wait for the party to begin. They tumbled their little hearts out for an hour - 2 coaches put them through a bunch of different activities and then we had cake/presents in the party room. It was a super fun afternoon and Jaelyn was on cloud nine the entire time. By far the best part was jumping on the tumbling trampoline and also jumping into the foam pit!

happy 4th birthday!!

Our baby girl is 4 years old!!

Jaelyn's day started out with a special "breakfast" - doughnut with sprinkles. I wouldn't call that a well rounded breakfast, but for the birthday girl we grant all wishes! She also got to open up her first birthday gift: goggles...for her swimming lesson. Since she can swim the long way of a pool without assistance they have the option to wear goggles the entire lesson. Of course Jaelyn LOVES wearing them, so we decided she could have her own special pink ones!

After breakfast we got ready to head out to Jaelyn's swim lesson but got a phone call right before we were supposed to leave saying that the pool's heater was not working and therefore her lesson was canceled. Jaelyn was so sad - she was looking forward to sharing cupcakes with her friends at her swimming lesson! So mommy had to think of a plan b really quick! We decided to hop on our bikes and ride to see some or our neighborhood horses. It was perfect timing because the owner was in the barn - so we could watch her feed them and bring them out of their stalls. The kids loved seeing them up close although they didn't want to pet them.

Next up for the day - a special delivery for the birthday girl! Auntie Nancy & Auntie Karen delivered a balloon bouquet from Oma & Opa who were still on vacation. What fun - we LOVE balloons and our special Aunties!

Then it was off to meet Daddy for lunch at Chipotle (Jaelyn's choice). Yummy! We scarfed down our burritos and tacos and then headed home to open up presents!!

Patiently waiting (with her eyes closed!) for her presents to arrive

Seeing her bean bag for the first time!

So thrilled to have a bean bag!

...and her very own grocery cart to help her play store, garage sales, or simply to stuff it with oodles of odds and ends!

For her birthday dinner, Jaelyn decided that she wanted salmon, rice, & beans...and so that is what she got! What 4 year old asks for that kind of a dinner?!? Only mine! Ha.

And then what is a birthday celebration without a cupcake & singing happy birthday?!? Wow...4 candles! You are getting so big, baby doll!! We love you oh so much!! You amaze us with how much you have grown over this year and we look forward to what this next year holds for you!!

preschool birthday celebration

Jaelyn got to celebrate her birthday at preschool a couple days before her actual birthday because she won't be at school on Friday. It's confused her a bit that she gets to celebrate today, on the 15th and then again with friends on the 16th...but I call it her "birthday week of celebration!"

We made cupcakes & icing together and she decorated them with sprinkles all by herself. She also picked out the birthday plates/napkins that she wanted to have for her little party at school. The girl knows what she wants! When she got to school, Mrs. Pitts had her birthday crown and sticker waiting for her...she felt special all morning long!

All of her friends at school enjoying their cupcakes & juice boxes - and maybe getting a little sugar high!!

Benjamin brought Jaelyn a special balloon - Jaelyn loved it!

A little photo op of Jaelyn with all of her friends from school
(Lara, Sasha, Amanda, Ryder, Ellie, Jaelyn, Gloria, & Paige...and can't forget about Ben)

scooter fun

Ben's getting the hang of Jaelyn's scooter - we may need to get him his own!



Love that we get bouts of sunshine...however I'm tired of getting sunshine in the morning and then hail in the afternoon! Summer can't come soon enough!! :)

Thatching

Today's endeavor was to thatch our lawn. Um...it was a bigger endeavor than we could ever imagine! We borrowed a friends thatcher that we could attach to our mower, however we soon realized that we needed more power. We ended up renting a thatcher from HD and the rest is history! The sad thing is that we will have to go over places more than once to get the result we want! So much moss. I don't think this lawn has ever been thatched before. Neighbors told us that our yard has never looked so good. Lots of hard work...hopefully it will pay off!

It was so deep that Ben had a hard time walking in it!

After Benjamin woke up from his nap, he immediately found his ear protection and walked to the mower. He would ride this thing all day if he could! Much different than Jaelyn - she still freaks out at the sound of it!

just because

He's adorable!

monkey

Jaelyn enjoying the world upside down - her dismount of choice is a flip!

rain, rain, and more rain

With all the rain we have had lately we had some cabin fever going on - and needed to expel some pent up energy! So, we put on our rain gear and headed outside. Of course Ben found every puddle on the street and managed to get his pants soaking wet from jumping in them all!

Jaelyn enjoyed finding worms!!

big milestone!

Do you see something missing in this picture?

NO MORE TRAINING WHEELS!!

Jaelyn got a strider bike for Christmas and in 3 months time she's riding her bike without the training wheels. We probably could have taken them off way earlier, but just got around to doing it on Sunday! It was super cool to see how excited she was that she was riding her bike without them - she was beaming the entire time. Marcus & I were quite amazed how she jumped on her bike for the first time and took off like she had been riding forever--no falls...not even one! I ran along side of her and seriously had to run really fast to keep up with her - I was tired by the end! Wow...riding a two-wheeled bike before your 4th birthday is pretty amazing!! Go, Jaelyn, Go!

smoothies!

Our FAVORITE bed time snack is when Daddy makes us a smoothie! We have to cover our ears when he turns on the vitamix, but we love, love, love drinking our smoothies in our very own jamba juice cups! The new rule is that we have to sit on the steps while we have our smoothie because one time smoothie "mysteriously" landed on the walls! :(

more soccer fun

Our soccer attire for the month of March & April: Layers! It consists of a long sleeve shirt with short sleeve shirt over top, a sweatshirt, a fleece type jacket and rain coat! For her legs, she has leggings, a thinner sweatpants, and fleece sweatpants! Not the best season to be playing soccer outside - we may look into an indoor soccer experience...more fun/less tears.

Jaelyn & Elisabeth

Going to score on goal!

21 month update

Is Benjamin really 21 months already? Geez - the months are zooming by...soon he'll be two years old! I figured I needed to do a little update (more for me to look back on and remember)...so sit back relax and enjoy.

• Is picking up words like crazy. He says a bunch of new words everyday - and repeats a lot of the words we say (gotta be careful!). It's so fun to watch him get all excited when we understand what he is trying to say. Probably his favorites are "Yayin" (aka Jaelyn), NO!, me and Mine! It melts my heart when he says "tank-you" without asking for it or when he tries to say "I love you"!
• Gives kisses (complete w/ the pucker and "smack" noise) all the time - he's an affectionate one!
  
• Likes to watch movies and/or cartoons. At times he has a pretty amazing attention span. Cartoons of choice? Curious George or Cat in the Hat. Movies? Thomas the Train, Bob the Builder or Toy Story.
  
• Still is my snuggler...LOVE that!! Hope it never goes away! :)
  
• Has had 2 durabond incidents (1st incident: splitting his chin open on the stairs 10 minutes before we were to leave for Lynden for Thanksgiving, the 2nd incident occurred when he slipped in the bathtub and split open his chin again. Can we have a bottle of that durabond for the house or maybe get stock in it?
• Is strong willed/stubborn - he's going to give us a run for our money. Our parenting skills are being put to the test!
• Is a very joyful, happy kid
  
• Climbs on everything. I thought Jaelyn climbed a lot - but Ben has her beat! He will climb up onto the bathroom counter to grab his toothbrush or get a drink of water ("tirsty") without using a step stool and he's been known to climb up onto his changing table (no not to get his diaper changed, but to get a wipe to "clean" things around the house). It looks like we will need to remove the changing table from his room because it's not the most stable thing & I can't keep my eyes on him all.the.time.
  
• Is in a phase where he won't let me brush his teeth in the morning, but will let Jaelyn! Good thing she can brush her teeth pretty well.
• Favorite books: Any "choo-choo" books (Thomas the Train) or the Little People Lift and play book.
• Likes to have toys in his crib to fall asleep. Jaelyn never had anything in her crib - not even a stuffed animal...but Ben needs to have his sippy cup with water, a couple of books, a cell phone, baby doll, or any other random toy he has played with during the day.
• Is going through a baby doll phase right now - he has overtaken one of Jaelyn's dolls..thankfully Jaelyn has been a trooper and lets him have it. He feeds the baby and gives her something to drink from his sippy cup. He puts her to sleep during the day and loves to push her in the stroller around the house. His sensitive side/nurturing side is coming out - it's really cute to watch.
• Has all of his teeth minus one cuspid tooth on the bottom and his 2 yr molars.