All Night

Jackson managed to sleep in his crib all night.

This was a huge shock to me. I think I woke up every couple of hours to check on him, making sure he was still breathing. He went down around 10 pm and didn't wake up until 8 am. He probably would have slept even longer, but Zoe was a little too eager and couldn't stay out of his room.

I'm sure this was just a fluke, but wouldn't mind if this trend continues.

May Day

When we got home from our week at Grandma's the kids were really eager to see their friends. Erik (Dude) and Kysha went to Utah during Spring Break. They left a few days before us and got home a few days before us. The kids were going through major withdrawals.

We found out that the Christensens were stuck at home without a car and the kids were pretty bummed that they would have to go without their traditional Pizza Night while daddy did his guard weekend.

Well Dan decided we were getting a pizza for dinner that night at Papa Murphy's, so I called and offered to pick them up a pizza. Jalyssa and I got talking one thing lead to another and some how we ended up having dinner together. The kids were thrilled, we all got a chance to catch up, but I guess Erik was a little disappointed that he missed out on the fun again. We always seem to get together when he is not around.

Some how the discussion of May Day came up. I remember as a kid we would make paper baskets at school, fill them with flowers, and then secretly leave them on some one's front door. Dan remembered something about the May Pole Dance. The kids overheard us talking and insisted on doing something. So, we celebrated May Day a day early this year. Actually this is the first time we have ever done anything for May Day.

Dan constructed this make shift May Pole.

He had a lot of fun trying to give instructions to all the kids and get them to do exactly as he said.
Jack hung out in the house during the May Pole experience. He managed to crawl from their living room to the sliding glass door in the dining room. He is one determined kid.
Almost done.
The finished product.
I figured out where we went wrong. It would have worked better, if the boys and girls walked in opposite directions. At least the kids had fun and hopefully a memory was created.

Spring Break

Here are a few highlights from our week at Grandma Sandi's house:

This was are sleeping arrangements. Noah and Zoe both refused to sleep in the other bedroom with their cousin. It was hard sharing a bed with all 3 kids.

We helped Chelsea with a school project about nature. She decided to do a scrapbook about the local Duck Pond. I remember visiting this pond often as a child and feeding the ducks. Here is a picture of the explorers.

A view of the pond.
These geese came running from up the street when they realized we had bread for them. Chelsea was afraid of them, Noah too to a certain extent, Zoe was fearless.
This duck let us get extremely close, we later discovered it had a hurt foot.
We introduced everyone to Peanut Butter Popcorn. I'm still trying to perfect my skills, mine doesn't taste as good as Jalyssa's, even though I follow her recipe.
Chelsea and Zoe all dressed up in matching dresses ready to go to Chelsea's Spring Sing. Chelsea, along with all the first graders at Schnell School, learned several patriotic songs and songs about the Earth. It was there end of the year program.
The kids spent the week raising Granny's spirits. She was supposed to have had hip replacement surgery, but it was canceled at the last minute when they discovered a heart problem. Needless to say she was a little down about the possibility of spending the rest of her life in pain. So, the kids took dinner to her and ate with her every evening. We even helped take her to a few of her doctor appointments. They loved checking in on her any moment they could.

Noah and Zoe also got to cross another wish off their list. They have been begging me to take a walk in the rain, but I never had anyone to leave Jack with. Grandma was willing to keep him one morning so we walked in the rain down to McDonald's to have breakfast.

The week sure went by fast. We ran out of time. We didn't see or do everything that we wanted to do. But, we still managed to have a fun week.

Happy Easter

We had a fun and interesting Easter Sunday.

Noah and Zoe woke up super early and were hunting for their Easter Goodies before Dan, Jack, and I were even out of bed.

Daddy didn't have any morning meetings, so we were able to celebrate and go to church as a family. Noah and Zoe were pretty wound up during Sacrament Meeting, making me think that next year we need to ask the Easter Bunny to come on Saturday. I can't really blame it on the candy, I only let them have 1 piece before church.

The funniest thing was Noah's reaction when the choir started singing. We have a small choir with a director who likes to think big. You have to give her credit for attempting such big arrangements. Most of the time it ends up with her singing louder than anyone. As soon as they started their number Noah blurts out (hopefully no one but myself and Sister Egbert heard him): Why are they singing? They sound so horrible. Why don't they just stop? Doesn't it sound horrible? I was caught off guard and tried to stifle my laughter, but I honestly had to agree with him. It was not good at all. However, I tried my best to explain to him that what he said wasn't nice and we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I'm glad others found the humor in it too. You got to love kids and their lack of a filter.

After church we packed our suitcases and headed to Reno. Dan was catching a flight to Phoenix for Boat Training and the kids and I were meeting Papa Tim, so we could spend the week at Grandma Sandi's house. I wasn't up to spending all day and night at home with the kids. Plus Noah didn't have school due to Spring Break. I would have gone to Phoenix with Dan, except that Granny Milkshake was supposed to have hip replacement surgery the week before and Grandma Sandi wouldn't be available to watch the kids.

We made it to Grandma's just in time for a nice Easter Feast of ham, funeral potatoes, green Jello salad, asparagus, and home made rolls. There were even two choices for dessert: a bunny cake or a pineapple lush cake. The kids also got a second round of Easter goodies. Dan ate Easter Dinner at Red Lobster.

Here are a few pictures from the morning events:

Noah found his basket under the bathroom sink.

Noah trying to figure out which one was his. He was a little confused, we bought the bigger blue basket this year, but it ended up being Noah's and not Jack's.

Zoe found her basket in the kitchen cupboard where all the pots and pans are kept.
A closer look at Zoe's loot.
Jackson crawling towards his basket. Noah and Zoe found it under the end table.
Jack very excited about his plastic Easter egg. We had to fight off his brother and sister who were more than eager to help him explore his basket.
Jack was not to sure if he liked the plastic grass. He got this very confused and concerned look every time he touched it. It made me laugh.

The Egg Hunt

One of Dan's coworkers throw this huge Easter Egg Hunt every year. They hide over 1000 candy filled eggs, have a bounce house (that they own), Foosball, ping pong, and a ton of food. This is the first year Dan didn't work on the Saturday before Easter, so we decided to give it a try.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate this year, so the eggs weren't hidden as well as the previous years, and it was too wet and muddy for the bounce house. But the kids had fun gathering the eggs anyway.

Here are all the kids waiting for the starting signal.

Noah went right to work.
Zoe needed a little help.
Here they are working together.
Noah proudly holding his loot.
Its always great to try new things and the kids are already talking about next year.

Easter Treats

The holidays are becoming more and more popular and important around here.

Noah gets so excited about celebrating them, decorating for them, cooking for them, and making gifts for them. Easter was no exception. We decorated the house early in the month and he started thinking of a treat to take his class. This was really important to him as his friend Erik does it every holiday. Zoe also wanted to make a treat for her class. Then we discovered that it was Sister Egbert's birthday the week before Easter. She is my lifesaver in church, my kids absolutely adore her and wanted to take her something. So this warranted for some creativity in the kitchen.

I came upon this cute idea on another blog - chocolate covered peeps. It seemed easy enough, I had a few of the ingredients on hand, (dipping chocolate and sprinkles) plus Peeps are so cheap.

We started out with three colors of bunnies.

Here is our assortment of sprinkles.
We ended up dipping them in milk chocolate and white chocolate. I did the dipping, the kids did the sprinkling. Here is our finished product.
I think they were a big hit. They were cute, easy, tasted great, and were enjoyed by all. I can't wait to make them next year.

7 Months

Jackson is already 7 months old. I don't have any weight or length updates. That won't come until his 9 month well child exam in June.

But here are some other updates:

He is a crawler. Not the conventional crawler, but a crawler non the less. He has mastered and perfected the army crawl. He is super fast and doesn't stay in one place for too long. As you can see he loves to crawl under the table.

He loves the TV remote. Everything goes in his mouth these days. He can even crawl while holding the remote.
He loves to eat. He is the only kid of mine who will eat rice cereal. He also likes the baby oatmeal and the baby barley cereals. He is also the only one of my kids who have liked the baby food jars of meat.

He is improving on sitting up, but would rather be in motion than just sit around.

He prefers to be on the floor crawling around and not in his jumproo.

He thinks his sister is the funniest thing in the world. She doesn't have to really do anything to get him to laugh.

He is still wearing 3 to 6 month clothing.

He still sounds congested most of the time.

We are working on becoming a better independent sleeper.