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!!

You're afraid of what??

Jake was quietly sitting in his chair with his nose in a book the other day when suddenly he stopped, looked up, and exclaimed, "I'm afraid of birds!" Joseph and I were a little taken aback, and didn't know quite how to respond seeing as he's never said anything like this before. We thought maybe we heard him wrong, so we responded, "You're afraid of what?" And he repeated, "I'm afraid of birds. Birds will eat me." I wasn't exactly sure where this all came from, but I tried to explain to him that birds only eat bugs and berries, not people. As much as I try to tell him that birds are friendly and don't bite, he seems to think otherwise. One day when we were trying to leave the house, he stopped cold on our front step. I tried to get him to move his little tush, but he wouldn't budge. I couldn't grab him and carry him since I had my hands full with Eli's carrier and diaper bag, so I just had to pursuade him to follow me. Then a big flock of birds from the bush outside our house raced passed us and Jake stood frozen and wide-eyed. All of a sudden it dawned on me. OH! He's probably afraid of the birds in front of our house. He probably thinks they'll run into him. Either way, I'll let him tell you about it:
P.S. This was the second take. During the first one I had to keep telling Jake to get his hands out of his pants. Boys...

Rebuked

My sister gave me a stern talkin' to today. I was told over and over again, "Angela, you NEED to update your blog!! I need to see your babies!" Even if no one else cares, my sister is dying to see my two chunks, so, see them you shall.

I wish I had more exciting things to blog about, but I suppose I'm in a little bit of a rut lately. Actually, that's a copout. It's not that things haven't happened. In fact, LOTS of blogworthy activities have occurred. We went to the Wisconsin Dells over Spring Break again, Joseph turned 28 (Happy Birthday, babe, love you!) I signed up Jake for preschool, and Eli is growing like a weed. In all actuality, the reason that I haven't been up to speed with my blog is that I'm simply embarrassed that I haven't taken pictures of any of these events. And, let's all be honest here, no one comes to my blog to hear my ramblings. You all want PICTURES!

So, consider myself rebuked. Also, if anyone feels the need to buy me a nice, beautiful, new camera for my birthday, I won't stop you. My birthday is in August. You can start saving right now. Just a thought. :)

Until then, or at least until the batteries in my camera are charged, a grainy picture taken on Joseph's iPod will have to do.

Thanks, Abby, for the matching pajamas, the boys love them!! And, I promise I will update again sooner than later. You have my word (get it? like blogging words? ok, that was lame...)

My new gig

I love books, especially children's books, and I love to read them aloud to my kids. One of my favorite parts of each day is sitting on the couch with Jake and having him bring me book after book to read to him. A few weeks ago my friend invited me to an Usborne Books and More party that she was hosting in her home. I went to it having never even heard of Usborne before. While I was there I fell in love with the company and the incredible quality of educational children's books that they produce. I was completely sucked in, and ended up leaving the party as an Usborne Books and More consultant!!

I am pretty much obsessed with these books right now. I want all of them!! I love how they entice the child to read, and are so much fun that the he doesn't even realize how much he's learning! The more I learn about these books, the more I love them. I really could go on and on, but at the risk of saying the word "love" one too many times, I decided to just make a different Usborne business blog where I can ramble to my heart's content.


My mom hosted my very first party while I was in Michigan. I really wanted people that I knew to be at my first party because I was SUPER nervous! It went really well, though, and I had a great time sharing different books with people. I also came away with lots of ideas to make things better for the next time around.

This is something that I've really gotten passionate about. The future of our country depends on the education and literacy of our children (I'm having a flashback of Miss Teen South Carolina right now.) I truly believe that every child should be surrounded by good books, and I am so excited to get all kinds of great Usborne books in my home and share them with others!

I also decided to work on getting my educational consultant license so I can work with schools and libraries on book fairs, pledge programs, matching grants, etc. If you'd like to check out the books, you can see my website: www.myubam.com/L3659. I also am putting a link to my new Usborne blog on the sidebar. It's a new blog, so there's not a whole lot on there right now, but hopefully I'll get lots of good stuff going on soon. Yay for good books!

We're back!

We just got back from Michigan, and first and foremost, I must shout from the rooftops and let you know that JAKE IS POTTY TRAINED!!!! WAHOOOO!!

As you all know, I was up to my witt's end with trying to potty-train Jake. When I went up to Michigan, my mom graciously decided to take on the enormous task with me - thank goodness for mothers!! Together (and with Grandpa's help teaching him how to pee standing up) we tag-teamed the effort and he is officially out of diapers!! I'm pretty sure Joseph is mostly thrilled that he didn't have to do any of it! :)

This picture was taken right after one of his successful potty attempts. I know you're all thinking, "What a cute kid...and is that a blue toilet?" Why, yes, it is. We're pretty sure it's original to our 1970's home. Don't worry, our bath is blue, too. We're living in style over here.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Michigan. I got to see some wonderful friends and family and witnessed my niece's blessing (she is 6 weeks younger than Eli and just a doll!) Originally, Joseph was going to come up for the weekend of my niece's blessing and take us back to Iowa, but the road conditions were pretty severe that weekend so we decided to fly home instead.

We happened to get our tickets on Jake's birthday, and he was beyond excited to fly in an airplane. The trip started off great. The pilot knew it was Jake's birthday so he let him sit in the cockpit! Then he made an announcement saying that it was Jake's birthday and he had the whole airplane sing to him. Jake was thrilled. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera (I know, it's a problem) but fortunately, we happened to be sitting across from a photographer who took pictures of the whole thing with his fancy schmancy camera! He is going to send them to my e-mail, so stay tuned.

Anyway, the trip started out well, but it just went downhill from there. You all remember this picture? It was taken when we were flying to Orlando a couple of years ago.

That's Joseph with the barf bag on the plane. He gets REALLY motion sick. As it turns out, Jake inherited Joseph's stomach. In the middle of the flight, Jake kept telling me he was really tired. I thought it was because we had to wake him up from his nap in order to make our flight, so I didn't think much of it. I just had him rest on my lap while I was holding sleeping Eli. Then, just as we started our descent into Chicago, Eli woke up and started crying, and Jake spewed. Big time. The plane emptied, and the flight attendants and the pilot all came over to help me clean up. Just when we changed Jake and had everything cleaned, he threw up again. All over. And, of course, Eli was screaming the whole time. And we were only halfway done with our trip!

By the time we got on the second plane, Jake's stomach had eased and he was completely excited to be on the plane again. Until it took off. As soon as it started to ascend into the air, Jake got very lethargic and I hurried and grabbed the barf bag and got it there ALMOST in time. This one made it mostly into the bag, so there wasn't as much to clean. To make a long story short, he threw up 2 more times for a grand total of 5 for the whole trip. And we were in the air for only two hours. Oy...it looks like our family may single handedly keep Dramamine in business from now on!

I just realized that this entire post revolved around Jake's potty habits and throwing up. Sorry guys...