Easter '09!

I just have two posts left to bring the blog up-to-date. Hopefully y'all saw my "catch-up" post that seemed to be overshadowed by the cute baby post after it yesterday...  

Easter was fun. Friday night, we dyed eggs...

We only cracked one, I think (amazing!)

Chris was caaaareful, caaaareful....

Next year maybe Jon will join us!

Yeahhhh..... licking eggs?

They were so proud of their eggs- Chris even smiled and looked at the camera! They really wanted to eat one... only when they did, they were not impressed. The next day, we made some into egg salad sandwiches for lunch, though- and they loved that.

The crazy thing to me was that Ben kept mentioning things from last Easter. He remembered making "Easter egg sammies" last year too. It's crazy to me that he's getting old enough to remember past holidays and to associate traditions in his mind. Very cool, but also makes me stop and think sometimes- when they're young can be a little careless, thinking-- awww, they won't remember that, not a big deal... Now he does remember. Everything. Yikes!

Growing up, we always had Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. I loved it and think it's a great idea (Thanks Mom!) so we've continued that tradition in our home. Saturday is a time to have fun together, picnic, and enjoy candy and toys and games. That allows us to more fully reflect on the purpose of Easter on Sunday. 

So, Saturday morning, the Easter bunny had come! They were so excited, especially since the Easter bunny seemed to love SpongeBob this year. And chocolate, can't forget the chocolate. Ben, especially, is a chocolate fiend!

Note to self: Next year if bubbles are given, put them up somewhere so they 

don't get dumped out on your carpet by little hands. Twice.

I loved how Jon got right in on the basket action. He's getting so big and wants to do everything the other boys are doing!

The Bunny brought a SpongeBob Easter book! 

Jon wasn't quite sure what to think, but he loved the mess!

The weather wasn't very Spring-ish that morning, so the Bunny hid the eggs around the living room and they loved hunting for them. Ben, again, just wanted the chocolate. Whenever he found a real egg, he would say "that's just one of the ones we made", like it wasn't a "real" egg. He would tell Chris that if he found one, but Chris didn't care. He just liked finding them. Ben only cared about the plastic ones with candy. I don't think we had plastic eggs in our hunts growing up until we were a bit older. We would get loose candy in our baskets, but we would hunt for actual eggs. I hope he likes them more later, because real dyed eggs are so much more... authentic.

For breakfast, we had "Easter Nest bread" another tradition from my family. It was my first try for this one, so it wasn't perfect- hopefully next year's will be better!!!  It tasted good though. Next year since we'll have church later, this one will be for Sunday, rather than "candy day". We went to Dave's parents in the evening, and it ended up being a complete sugar overload for the day, which our kids are NOT used to ...

I forgot my camera for the evening, but we spent a fun night over at Grandma and Grandpa's, complete with another Easter egg hunt and a yummy dinner and LOTS of treats. 

On Sunday, we started out with a tummy ache from all the treats, but were able to get to church. Of course, they had adorable new clothes! I wish they would have cooperated for a better picture... 

I love matching them and will be sad when I can't do it anymore... probably in a year or so I'll  start just coordinating them rather than matching. I don't want them to hate me. But matching is so fun when you have three very small adorable boys! (I know I'm biased!) 

We enjoyed a relaxing day together with a yummy ham dinner to top it off (and lemon meringue pie!) Wayyy too much food that weekend!

Oops... how did I never post these?

These are from early March (pre-top teeth days obviously!) I edited them and had them ready to post, but never did. Couldn't leave them unposted, because they are sooo so cute!

(Can you tell I had a hard time choosing just a few to post?)

Catching up...

Dang, how time flies.  I feel like I have to catch up because I like to look back and have a pretty good record of what we've been doing... but that's a lot to do, especially because I always have to pick the best pictures and edit them, etc. ... why do I make this so hard? Not to mention I can't focus long enough to finish a post. Case in point, I started this one early this morning when Jon and I were enjoying the sunrise (not quite, but close)... and sat down like an HOUR ago to finish and have done about 10 other things besides finish it... [oh wait, now it is the following morning and I'm back to get this darn thing posted... See what I mean?] 

So, quick recap with (mostly) un-edited (and mostly iPhone) pics, then hopefully we'll be back to regularly scheduled blogging!

We had some nice spring weather before it decided to freeze us. I think everyone has been having this kind of weird, back and forth weather, right? It's been great on the nice days to enjoy the yard and the sunny days before we get the realllly sunnnnny (and hot, humid, sticky, yucky) days of summer!

(The Barrett pear blossoms are a common sight in these parts, I've loved having them at each of our homes in the Spring).

(The poor daffodils didn't stand a chance w/Chris around!)

Just before Easter, we had awesome tornado warnings, sirens going off, and HUGE hail. It was nuts. We'd never seen anything like it.

(I know, they look like garlic and crystals, but they are hail! And that is in fact, a quarter.)

Dave got a new trailer for the TRACTOR (mower) and now we feel like farmers out in our *field*. New fun family activity...

Before, they had to take turns riding on Daddy's lap, now they get to ride in the back. I just learned how to mow and drive the thing too (looove mowing!), so I took them on rides today. It's like Disneyland here, seriously. So fun :)

Early March, we headed up to Chattanooga. We went to the children's museum, which they LOVED. I think Ben's favorite place to go is "kid masims".

Ben climbed wayyy up this thing, and helped Chris climb up too...

Jon had so much fun he crashed...

Chris LOVED the art area (mah boy!)

Ben too... he loved rubbing the coins...

And oh boy, the dinosaur area had DRESS UP! Roarrrr!

Jon, just bein' happy...

The roof had the coolest machines where you worked the levers and stuff.

Jon has changed so much lately. He's been busy growing and cutting teeth... SIX and counting! He's jabbering a ton and pulling up on anything he can grab onto to walk around- He can crawl OVER anything, and he's even figured out how to climb the stairs (Mama needs to get that gate installed, oye). And he gets MAD when you are making him do something he doesn't want to do (diaper change, wait for his bottle, etc). He's got an awesome little sense of humor. Still always smiling and cute.

(Hangin' out, eatin' Cheerios with his friend in the baby corner of RS/ Sunday School at church. Thank goodness we have that corner for those two hours, we would not make it!)

(Sidenote: since Chris got this toy for Christmas, he has LOVED "Felipe" the screwdriver from Handy Manny- for a while it was his very favorite thing, so funny!)

Chris has changed a lot too. He's just exploded in the last month or so with so much more to say. Everything is a complete thought- he wants to explain things and direct people. Before every prayer, he has to say who is saying the prayer, and then individually-- who need to close their eyes. He is cracking us up soo much. He's been excited to be able to do more things that Ben can do....

Ben is just something else lately. He's got a definite 4 year old 'tude, but at the same time can be so sweet and just amazes us every day with the things he says and does. He's so imaginative. He really acts like a little adult. Where did my baby go? He just turned four on Sunday and I will save his birthday for it's own post.

Oh, and haircuts, we did that too....

Some videos for your wait....

I know, I need to blog. I have lots of pictures and stuff... but I also have a million "better" things I should be doing,  so until I get to it... here are some videos. I keep meaning to post more of them.

Today's video theme... music. We LOOOVE our music around here.

This one just makes me smile- it was about a month ago. Jon just LOVES his Ben:

And Chris' favorite song...

Ben with his newest fascination, Dave's old trumpet:

New Look (just in time!)

Another face-lift for the blog... just because. I went back to two columns too... it was getting crowded ;)

Aren't they handsome?

Here's one more. My favorite from today:

Oh yeah, there was that one snow day...

So, I'm a little late, but on the first we got an awesome snow storm. I woke up and went to feed Jon, not noticing this out the window:

until I was on my way back across to our bedroom... then I saw it and couldn't wait until the boys woke up. Not long after, I heard Ben through the monitor, "It's snowing outside!" The first thing he did when he woke up was peek outside his window.

This is what it looked like on our street. This was seriously the best snow since I've lived here. Not a ton, but it stuck for a while and was deep enough to gather up and pack.

Look close, you can see the snow falling!

We threw on coats, pants, hats, etc... over the pj's and ran outside to check it out. IT. WAS. FREEEEZING. We didn't last too long. Ben was so cold he didn't go far...

Chris was like, "what? come on guys!"

When we came in, we had to cheer Chris up with promises of hot cocoa...

Which was perfect... it tastes better on a freezing snowy day, I think...

After breakfast, I went out and scooped some snow into a couple of plastic bins and we played in the snow and made snowmen inside at the table where it was nice and warm...

And tasted a little too...

We stayed in our pj's all day I think. I ran outside once more to freeze my buns off and take some more pictures of the beautiful snow before it melted away in the afternoon.

I have more catching up to do, but I'm up wayyy too late tonight :)

Pay it forward...

Yay! Everyone out here was posting this, but everytime I saw it, they already had 3 comments... this time, I'm #3 on Alisha's (second time doing it)!

This is how it works..... The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. BUT, in order for you to leave a comment on my blog, you have to post this on your blog first. (That means that sometime during this year you will send a gift to 3 people as well.) Get it? So, the first 3 people to comment on this post will be the lucky ones!

How fun is that?

(ETA: If anyone reads this later... I actually only have TWO participating comments, even though it says there are three comments. So if anyone else is interested!)

{Promise I'll be back soon to catch up, I know I haven't blogged in a while!}