Easter 2010

Better late than never ( I have so many pictures and so many things to post about). We enjoyed a great Easter/Conference weekend. Our Young Women hosted an easter egg hunt for the kids in our ward at the Bishop's house. In true Oregon style it was drizzly and wet, good thing our kids have great rain coats and rain boots!

Claire was excited.
Jacob needed his Daddy (don't worry, he did have fun once he was allowed to start hunting).
We spent our Saturday and Sunday watching and listening to conference at home.... look how grown-up my kiddo is.
Chris joined us for some of conference... this is pretty much how he watched the entire session (our kids are quite fond of him).
Chris, and Jim and Mel's family joined us for Easter dinner... it was delicious! It was also Chris's birthday, so we got to celebrate with him.
Here are this year's Easter outfits (thanks Nana).
She is looking grown-up too.
Happy (late) Easter everyone, I hope you all were able to remember the resurrection and life of our dear Savior. The messages shared through conference were so powerful and inspiring to me, I am so grateful for a living prophet and apostles.

Birthday Celebrations

Jacob and Claire were forever celebrating their birthday. Here is a recap of the celebrations. My mom and Grandma were here a few days before their birthday, so they had a little celebration opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa. They got Leapsters and could not be happier about the whole thing.

On the Thursday before their birthday they celebrated by taking cookies with an M&M number 4 on them to share with their class (it was also a field trip to the library day so they got to ride the school bus for the first time... very exciting).

On Saturday we had a little birthday party. It was an "UP" themed party (this mixed gender shared birthday thing gets more complicated as they get older). This was pretty much the decorating I did.
Here is the cake and cupcakes.
They were very excited to have everyone sing to them and blow out the candles.
Nana and Papa sent them their own cute luggage for when we take trips to visit.

On Sunday they got to eat breakfast in their bedroom (we don't have lap trays and they are kind of messy eaters, so we just put a table in their room). Daddy made them special pancakes and eggs with toast and juice.

In primary they got a special birthday song and a necklace made out of candy bars. They were so happy.

4 Years Old!

Today is April 18th, and that means that we have two children that are 4 years old. Wow! I can't believe how quickly that time has gone and how much they have changed, we don't have babies, or even toddlers, we have full blown kids. I wanted to share a picture taken on this exact day for the last 4 years.

April 18, 2006

April 18, 2007
April 18, 2008
April 18, 2009
April 18, 2010
We really love these two kids. They are so full of personality and we find ourselves laughing with them more and more everyday. We are so grateful that our Heavenly Father has allowed them to be part of our sweet family and we look forward to more birthdays with them. (Birthday party pictures to follow)

Little acts of independence

Since the time she started showing her personality, one trait that has always come out is that Claire will be independent, and she will let us know it. For some reason (and much to our chagrin), bedtime is one of her favorite times to be independent.

Recently, she's decided that pajamas are too cumbersome, or uncomfortable, or not the right ones, or too in line with what her parents want. More times than not for the past month, when we go in and check on her, she's either missing an article of clothing (see below), or she's changed her clothes.

Tonight (close to midnight), I headed up the stairs, and, upon turning the corner, I was met with this. Notice that the diaper is on backwards, which means that Claire put it on herself. Unfortunately, the reason she put it on herself, is because her other diaper was wet (as were her pajama pants - a sure sign she'd had the diaper off earlier and put it on herself).

She apparently had planned to stage some sort of rebellion, as she brought her pillow and blanket with her.

Favorite Words and Phrases

I love certain words that kiddos say! Claire's newest one is especially funny, I think.

"Forenoggin" - Claire (a new one!)

"Snoke" - both kiddos (smoke)

"Lasterday" and "Next Day" - both kiddos

"Nopes" - Claire (when she was younger)

The Tulip "Vegetable" - instead of the Tulip Festival

Monsters Versus Medians (Aliens)

Need a smile?

Okay, I may be being cheesy, but doesn't this picture just make you happy? I love Dani's smile - it just lights up a room and makes me smile!

And the chicken pot pie was a success, too!

Can't Wait for the Rain

Lately have had quite a few days like this....

Sunny, at the park, with friends. We love those days. But my kids have been pleading for a rainy day since they got a special package from Nana in the mail.
Today is a gray drizzly wet day and my kids could not be happier.
They have been playing in our wet backyard giggling,
splashing in puddles,
and playing umbrella tag. They finally came in when Jacob's little hands were just too cold.
Thank you for the umbrellas Nana... we love them! (the rainboots and raincoats you gave us earlier came in handy today too).

Everything has an identity

Jacob: "I did my poo-poos in the potty"

Dani: "That makes me happy. That's where your poo-poos belong!"

Jacob: "Yes, it's the poo-poo's home. And the pee-pee's home. And the Throw-up's home. The throw-up's is the kiddos. The pee-pees is the kiddos. And the poo-poo's is the daddy."

...pause...

Jacob: "And the toots is the machine!"

Spring

These pictures are actually almost a month old, but I am really behind. Spring is here, has been for awhile, but we decided to go for a walk on temple grounds on one nice Sunday to see the beginning of Spring. While we were there Jacob asked "Is Jesus going to come down or something?"

I think they were watching for him.
Both of them.
Claire really did not want to leave.

Valentines Day...a slightly new tradition

So, we moved since last V-day and Oregon has no White Castles. We had to change our Valentines plans a little bit. Here is the whole group ready for the occasion. Our friends Jim and Mel celebrated with us and our friends Julie and Jeremy came from Southern Oregon to join the celebration.

We started the night with roller derby... never had an experience quite like it! It was really fun and so interesting, I am only beginning to understand the scoring.

After roller derby we headed to Jack In The Box for a romantic dinner. We had to bring our own table cloth and candles and the guys working there even let us light our candles.
See... they could feel the romance that was created by the candlelight.
YUM!

After dinner we got gelato at my favorite place ever (Mio Gelato) and then headed back home to relieve our sweet babysitters. Happy Valentines Day, I hope you all enjoyed yours as much as we did. I am so grateful for my sweet Valentine who enjoys a good time just as much as I do!

Still needing to learn their numbers

A couple days ago, after dinner, I offered Jacob 3 or 4 cookies. Wisely, Jacob chose 4. I gave Claire the same offer - surprisingly, she took 3.

The next day, I made the same offer. Jacob chose 2. Claire chose 3.

I guess I need to teach these kids their numbers!

Here's a little preview of some pictures we took at the park on a beautiful sunny Saturday!

The Birds and the Bees

AHHHHH... I was not ready for this! These two are asking too many questions.

Here is a recap of the conversation we had in the car today...

Me: "Jacob and Claire, did you know that Lucy is going to have a baby brother?"

Kiddos: "Oh, a baby brother"

Claire: "Is her baby brother at her house?

M: "No, it is in her mommy's tummy" (short silence)

C: "Did she eat the baby?"

M: "uh, no, no she did not eat the baby... she uh, well the baby has to grow in it's mommy's tummy until it is big enough to come out"

J: "Is she gonna spit it out?"

M: "No, no uh... she, well the baby will be born."

(silence)

Anyhow, I was obviously not prepared to answer those questions and really surprised by some of them. Ten minutes after this conversation we were walking around Costco and Claire points to the really short lady behind us and says "oh, is that just a kiddo or something?" I told her no and sped up a little bit just to be sure she couldn't hear whatever came from my dear children next.

First Day of Preschool

Jacob and Claire started preschool last Tuesday... they love it. Yes, it is the middle of the year, we had to wait until we felt like Jacob was potty trained enough to send him. They go to the same preschool but have different teachers and they go 2 1/2 hours two days a week. I am loving how much I can accomplish with 5 hours to myself in a week... everything takes so much less time when I do it alone! Also, this really is the best picture I was able to get.

Six Years and Counting

On the 15th Jared and I celebrated 6 blissful years of marriage! Yes, I said blissful. Anyhow, Amber was in town and (with some help) she watched our kids for us so we could have a quick getaway. We drove to the coast and stayed in a little hotel in Lincoln City. Here is the view from our room balcony... (isn't he cute!)

We really enjoyed time relaxing, eating yummy seafood at a nice restaurant, laughing, watching movies while it rained all night and then taking a walk on the beach in the morning after sleeping in.
Our room even had a fireplace and we tried out some different settings on our new camera and tried our new mini tripod.
It was a great weekend for us both and we very much appreciate our babysitters, our kids were so mad when we got home because they would much rather have spent the rest of the weekend with their babysitters. Heres to six years, I love you Jared and can't wait to see what the next six bring!

I love him!

He has a very expressive face.

He is also wearing my rainboots. This is his "cheese" face.

I also love our new camera.

Checking the Mail

Today my kids and I went to check the mail in these... it was fun! We love them. (thanks Nana and Mom)

She's a princess, and she knows it!

Yes, it is a bride's dress, no, she does not know it. Yes she is a tomboy too, but a princess tomboy.