Easter festivities...or lack thereof

Jake woke up with a fever on Saturday morning, so that put the kaibosh on our Easter festivities that were planned for the day. Instead of going to our church's Easter activity, we held our own activity at home.

We decided to decorate hard-boiled eggs (albeit without using dye...probably one of the smartest decisions I've made in a while) and commenced in one of our favorite Easter traditions introduced to us by the Andersons: Easter Wars. I know, it sounds like an oxy-moron, and the actual activity is much less brutal than it sounds. All that happens is that each person decorates their own hard-boiled egg and then you make a bracket. Two people hit their eggs against each other and whichever one doesn't crack advances to the next round. Since we had a grand total of three people competing in our egg wars, it lasted a total of 5 seconds and Joseph won. It was a little anti-climactic.

After our egg wars, Jake wanted to eat his egg, so we let him peel it. He kept telling us he was hatching his egg!

The next morning, Jake found his Easter basket (as well as Eli's for that matter) and enjoyed the goodies he got.

Even though Jake was sick, we still had a nice Easter spent as a family and are especially grateful for the meaning behind the festivities - the resurrection of our Savior. What a wonderful day!

P.S. Did you notice that Joseph got his braces off?? I often catch myself staring at his perfect smile. He is so handsome!!!

The dandelions in my life

Jake gave me a flower today for the first time. It was a dandelion. When he saw it, he ran into the middle of the yard and excitedly picked up just the head. "Look at this flower!" he exclaimed, "It's so beautiful!" Then he instructed me to smell it and, in so doing, also appreciate it's beauty. Then he sweetly handed it to me and said, "Here you go, mommy." It made my little heart melt. What was once an ugly weed that marred an otherwise perfectly green lawn suddenly became a beautiful flower that was worthy of appreciation. It will always be remembered as the first "flower" given to me by my child.

I'm not going to wax too philosophical on you, but this experience did make me stop and think about the "dandelions" in my life. I thought about things that at first glance may be weeds, but if looked at from another angle are actually beautiful flowers. I thought about the lack of sleep that I've been getting thanks to Eli's frequent night wakings. I've been pretty tired lately, and have been looking at this as a "weed." But if looked at another way, it is a beautiful flower in my life. Even though Eli wakes me up, I love that I am able to nurse him and have that time to hold my baby without any other distractions.

I also thought about how sometimes I get frustrated that I don't get to see Joseph very often between school, his job that makes him leave before I wake up, plasma donations (his other job) and did I mention school? Sometimes this "weed" can be pretty frustrating. But I'm so grateful for his willingness to work hard for our family. I wouldn't have it any other way. This "weed" in my life is actually a beautiful flower in that I have a husband who is a hard worker and does all he can to help our family.

So, in short, I guess you could say I've stopped and smelled the dandelions. (Ok, I guess I did wax a little philosophical on you.)

Conversations

These two boys are absolutely adorable these days. Eli's very favorite person in the world is Jake. You can tell because his face lights up big time whenever Jake is around! Eli coos and talks to Jake more than he does to anyone else.

The two boys have started having "conversations." Eli will often coo something at Jake, then Jake turns to me and asks, "Mommy, what did he say?" And then I make something up such as, "He said you have big muscles, Jake." Then Jake turns back to Eli and says, "I know, Eli," or something of the sort. And it goes back and forth like that for some time, with me making up all kinds of stories. I'm not sure if Jake actually thinks that I know "infantese" or if he knows that I just make it all up, but it's fun either way!

Cute baby!

When Jake saw that I was taking pictures of Eli he promptly decided he needed to be a part of it!

These pictures reminded me of this picture I took almost three years ago of Jake right when we moved to Iowa. Time is flying!!