Outakes

We tried to get some family pictures on Easter. Aren't natural shots great!

Easter Fun

Easter was a very busy and fun time for us. We began with an egg hunt on Palm Sunday at my parents' church, and then during the week we dyed eggs at home. So I asked James what was the point of Easter. He responded with, "eggs". I said and what else? He then said, "and candy!" We discussed a little more and by Easter Sunday he would answer with "Jesus rose!"

Attempting some family pictures.

Easter Sunday was spent outside blowing bubbles,

dying eggs,

an egg hunt and kite flying,

lots of sweets,

and horseriding.

It was fun and enjoyable day. James and Alyse were wiped out. As we were getting ready to leave James started asking where he could rest, since he went the day without a nap. He immediately fell asleep in the car on the way home. Happy Easter!

Update

Aside from fishing we've been keeping ourselves busy these days. Here's a brief update. Jonathan started a new job. He is settling in now and seems to be enjoying it.

Alyse is now eight months and growing quickly. She is busy and into everything. She will put anything and everything into her mouth (paper, dryer lint, dirt, grass, etc.) She is also pulling up on everything she can reach and begining to cruise.

We have been spending lots of time outside, enjoying the beautiful weather. We've been digging and trips to the park.

Alyse gets to ride in the stroller when I'm tired of keeping dirt out of her mouth.

It should be a fun and busy spring/summer.

"I caught a fish"

A few weeks, ago my parents suggested we take James fishing. Since then he had been talking about going fishing with Papa. So on a nice evening we went and had a picnic and then headed to the to try and catch a fish.

He jumped right in and gave it a try holding the rod, picking out bobbers, and reeling the bobber in. He had a few nibbles the first few times we cast, but no fish. So, we headed to the park while papa kept trying. It was getting later so we went back to the lake and decided to try a few more times. On the last cast into the water,
James got a bite, and reeled in his fish. He was so proud and excited!

Cars and More Cars

James is 3!!! And we celebrated with "Cars". He is really into the movies and has been talking for a month about having a "Cars" cake.

We decorated with a balloon. He saw this when we went to get some for Jonathan and knew he wanted a Lightning Mcqueen balloon for his birthday.

James was invited to a friend's birthday in December and has been talking about inviting him to his birthday. We heard about a family event that the movie theatre was having in the month of February, so we invited some friends to come with us and James went to his first movie. We saw "Winnie the Pooh". He said he enjoyed it. It was a good first movie since it was only a hour long, and he only got wiggly once at the end.

We headed home for pizza, cars cake, and presents.

Our friends that we celebrated with. All in their cars shirts.

We also had an ice cream cake to celebrate the evening with grandparents that couldn't be there earlier in the day. He had a great birthday and really enjoyed himself! The hard part now is explaining that this coming Saturday is not his birthday.

Chomp!

Last week Alyse had 2 teeth poke through. Her bottom center teeth. She can bite pretty hard now on your finger when she starts chewing.

Look closely!
She likes to keep her tongue on top of them making a picture difficult.
Here they are because I'm mad!

Snow Days!!

After the warmest January on record, we finally got some snow. After the warm days, it is now cold and there is over a foot of snow. James was ready to go outside in it right away. He was ready to shovel and was hoping there would be enough for a snowman!

It was a wet and heavy snow, so we all were busy shoveling while it was still coming down. (Sadly part of the snow blower broke)

Here's James on top of one of the piles of snow from the driveway.
Once it stopped snowing and was a little warmer we took Alyse out a few days later. She enjoys the outdoors!

Here's James with one of his snowmen. I think he wanted a bigger one, but it works.

This is his "basement" or snow fort. He plans to build the walls all the way up to the sky! He needs to borrow Papa's tall ladder to get it there!

I'm sure he will enjoy some more time in the snow since it seem to be sticking around.

Six Months

Our little girl is growing and growing, although she isn't that little. She is 18lb 4oz., 87% and 27 1/4" (92%). She is all smiles and quite the little talker. She has lots to say, including da-da. She is moving around more and more. She is rocking on her hands and knees, and will roll or army crawl a bit, especially if she is after something she shouldn't have.

Surprise!!

After a few weeks of planning, sneaking, lying, and his parents helping to get him out of the house, I managed to pull off a surprise party for Jonathan's birthday. I invited several friends over for the evening.

Here he is coming in. (Sorry it's blurry, it was the best I had.) He was completely surprised! I was glad it all worked because I was getting worried that he knew.

James helped to decorate the cake. He wanted cars, and this was the best and easiest way for him to help. He enjoyed doing it. James was also surprised by all of our guests. I was careful not too mention the party to him because I knew he would tell jonathan, since he had mentioned his present and cake previously. He had fun playing with all the kids (14) that were here!
Alyse was wiped out after the party. We all were. It was a fun time, and I'm glad that Jonathan enjoyed it!

First Food

Alyse had her first taste of food! She has been wanting food for some time and with her waking multiple times a night I thought maybe some solid food would help her sleep better. We started with squash. She made some bad faces, and most of it came out, but I think she was excited to have some "real" food.