Easter Photos

These photos are mostly from Easter. The ones at the end are especially for the Pences. They recently held a Sesame Street birthday party for their daughter Joanna and the party favors were these buckets (like Oscar the Grouch's trash can). These have given my children endless joy. Jacob pretends they are hot air ballon baskets and takes all his cars and friends for hot air ballon rides. And Bella puts them on her head. These buckets are played with DAILY and enjoyed by all! Thanks Pence's!!!

And P.S YES, I know, it's the 11 o'clock hour and I'm blogging and not at church. That would be because I have a sore throat and Bella's nose is still VERY icky, my poor girl, I just can't seem to get/keep her well these days. We are on day 6 of an antibiotic and if anything I think she is getting worse - my poor sweet baby, it is so sad.

Photos of the New House

That's Just How it Goes

Sometimes you wake up and the day just seems so full of promise... the sky is blue, the birds are singing, it is as if joy and wonder await you around each and every corner. Then there are those other kinds of days when the most you can hope for is that everyone in the family will finally stop vomiting.

Our Easter started out well, we went to sunrise service at Town Center (which is like a community park) came back home for pancakes, naps and Easter egg hunting. Will had a cold, so Will's parents and my Dad both decided to visit another time, so things were quieter than we had originally planned but we've been on the go so constantly that it was nice to take a bit of a break. Then Will got stomach virus, on Monday Jacob got it, after his third bath we got him to sleep around 1 AM, I woke up about an hour later with the same thing. Yuckarama. Finally, we are all feeling much better. I have some pictures from the Easter egg hunt I'll throw up (ha ha, pun intended) a little later.

Random Stuff

We are deep in the process of packing. Of course we will be moving twice - which means that everything has to be put into two categories - things we need (or might need) and things I know we can do without for three or four months. This is harder than it sounds. Toys, - we need. My collection of cookbooks from the 60's can go to storage. Clothes & towels - we need. Sewing machine - storage. Wedding photos? - Storage. But some things are harder - how do you possibly know which books to leave out and which to pack? Raising a Puppy for Dummies? Pack. The Iliad - Pack. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare? - That's a hard one but I ended up packing it, mostly because it is huge. So, what made my summer must-have reading list? The Baby Book by Dr. Sears. Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Job Interviews for Dummies, all three books of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer (last one is coming out in August so I need to be ready), and a St Francis of Assisi devotional. The exercise really gave me pause - of all that we have, how much of it do we truly need? What separates a want from a need? How does what we choose to keep close, those things that we cannot bear to be without, define us?

Little things that Jacobs says lately really crack me up, for instance Will's mom has a birthday this weekend. I asked Jacob how old did he think she was and he answered - "She's real old, like maybe 7." Will took Jacob to pick out a little toy and he came home with a sea turtle. I said Hey Jacob did you get a Sea Turtle? He looks at it for a moment and says, no maybe it's an "A" turtle. I took Jacob to see his first movie in the theatre today. We saw Horton hears a Who. He really enjoyed himself but it ran a little long for him, the last 20 minutes or so he was fast asleep in my lap!

In addition to crawling, Bella is now able to move up into a standing position - of course she has to hold or lean on something. I would need to look in the baby book but this seems way ahead of when Jacob did these things. I think she's moving fast to try and keep up with what she sees her big brother doing. It is good timing in several ways though - first off she is into EVERYTHING but everything breakable is packed so it works out. Secondly, it might mean she will walk early. This would be great because the main rooms of the new house downstairs are all tile and the steadier she is on her feet when we move in the better. Being a seasoned mom I know tile is the right choice for us in the long run but I worried about her taking a tumble while she was still learning.

I'll end with two recommendations for great services and products that we've had recently.

I ordered and received a grocery cart cover for Bella from this site: http://www.angelynrose.com/servlet/StoreFront it is so well made and there were such cute fabrics to choose from. (Aunt Shirley on Will's family' side - if you are reading this thank you because this is what we did with the check you sent for Bella!)

On Friday morning we took the kids to have some family photos made. I whole heartedly recommend Portrait Innovations up at the front of Kingwood! It was quick, fun, inexpensive and we got really great casual pictures.

These booties are made for crawlin'

As I wrote previously, Bella has been spending a lot of time lately up on all fours just rockin' and she gets mad because she so wants to crawl but can't quite figure it out. Even at night if she wakes up she'll start trying to crawl in her bed and she gets all up in the corner by the headboard and she is just so determined to GO. But she can't. So then she starts making this grunting sound. Bless her, it really isn't the most attractive thing and she does it all the time. We always tell her, "Today may be the day Bella!" and it turns out that today really WAS the day and she now officially crawling around. It is sort of a sideways crab crawl but it is a full on crawl, up on her hands and knees.**********Whoa, Will just walked in with a Haagen-Daz bar for me, have I mentioned lately how very much I LOVE this man?!!!***********Anyway, now she is apparently at peace with the world and fell into a deep sleep right after supper tonight. It seems that we may have a bit of a respite from the constant grunting.