Easter 2011

This year Easter was really laid-back for us.... (get it? "laid"? like an egg? HAHA I "crack" myself up!) But seriously we had a lot of fun not really doing much at all. On Saturday afternoon Family Student Housing hosted an Easter party complete with an Easter Egg hunt. John STILL doesn't care in the slightest about stuff like that (and frankly I don't really care about Easter egg hunts either) and Josh was just excited to be outside. I, however, wanted my token picture of my kids with a basket and Easter eggs around them (don't ask me why, I just do!).

I got one....

John on the other hand wanted to be the one taking the pictures the whole time and enjoyed eating all of the candy from Joshua's eggs.
Joshua decided to choose this moment to start to crawl "for real". He has been army scooting everywhere for the past ever and while I was taking pictures of him on the grass he decided he didn't like the feel of it and pushed himself up and started to crawl away!All three of my boys had a blast running around the field playing tag. Daniel would make Josh "get" John and they would both start scream laughing and chase each other. It was so cute to watch.

John ended up winning one of the raffle prizes: a CARS book. He was so excited when he got it he came right over to me, sat on my lap and had me read it to him 3 or 4 times in a row. He read it all the way home until he was so exhausted he fell right asleep. We keep it in the car now so he has something fun to look at whenever we go anywhere. Plus this way it will be a novelty for longer and it's also a good bribing tool!

On Easter Sunday we went to church and I sat outside in the hall with screaming children while Daniel sang with the choir. Daniel actually took Joshua up on stage with him for a few songs while I wrestled John but then Joshua started getting a little squirmy and fussy so I took them both out in the hall. The rest of church was great and even John enjoyed the second half of nursery. When we got in the car to go home our battery had completely died! Thank goodness for Jeannie and Colin who came to our rescue and helped us break in our brand new set of jumper cables :) We watched movies and ate delicious burritos and caramel apples the rest of the night.

Hope everyone had a great Easter like we did!!

Flowers and Cake Design...Check

I finished my second cake decorating course...Flowers and Cake design. It was a great course and I had a lot of fun learning all of the different flowers. For our final project we learned to do the basket weave and our assignment was to make our flowers at home then bring them to put on the cake. Easier said than done! I spent all morning making Lilies and Daisies (the reason it took me all morning was because every time I would start to make a flower my boys demanded my attention. I had to keep stopping and starting over and over so yes it took ALL morning!) and took everything to my class still not sure what to do with my cake.

I started out making the basket weave...
When that was done I put a border on it...
Then the flowers...
I think it turned out pretty. I gave this cake to my good friends the Poland's because they were kind enough to watch John and Josh for me during my classes. John had a blast playing with Eli and I got my very needed cake/girl time!!

P.S- My friend Jo told me about this website called Cake Wrecks. If you haven't seen it yet you seriously need to check it out. This lady does a post a day about cakes (funny, ugly, etc) and on Sundays she posts "Sunday Sweets" and highlights gorgeous cakes. I really like this site!

Ayla's Visit

This is Ayla....She is one of our most favorite people on the planet....Last week she came out for a quick visit....

We had dinner at Kmart (Little Ceasars Pizza and breadsticks) and then spent a little bit of time trying to fly our new Buzz Lightyear kite.

The boys and their Auntie Ayla!

The wind was being really weird on us and kept going away then coming back strong suddenly then going away again. It made it hard to actually fly the kite for more than a minute but each time we got it up in the air John would exclaim. "Oh Wooooooooooow!" "Aaaaaahhh WOW!"

Ayla and I had a grand old time playing in the grass. It was the perfect length to roll around in and get lost.

...Joshua didn't seem to enjoy it as much as we did!Ayla brought out her fancy smancy kite but the wind was so unpredictable that we had a rough time getting that one in the air as well. Maybe next time we'll try flying them at the beach...

We love it when Ayla comes to visit!! :)

My Big Boy Johnny

On Saturday April 2nd John officially turned 2 and a half years old! Pretty crazy, I know. This is actually a pretty rough age for me to handle. John is such a rambunctious little boy with as much stubbornness as a viking! He always has his own agenda and flat out refuses to do something if it's not his own idea. He runs away from me (literally RUNS away from me) every time a door opens and climbs on everything occasionally breaking stuff (like the plexy-glass we had to put in front of the TV because he kept trying to pull the TV down on top of himself. Completely busted the plexy-glass and we had to spend another $15 to get it replaced). Both John and I are really working hard on learning patience with each other but it's been a slow process so far. I think one of the hardest things for me is not being able to really communicate with him. He has really only added a couple new words since my last update with is Speech Therapy so a lot of our communication usually ends in him screaming and having a melt down because I don't understand exactly what he wants or needs. It can get very frustrating at times to the point where I start to feel really weighed down and burned out. But on a happier note, John is seriously one of the sweetest boys in existence. He loves his brother so much! I love watching them interact with each other (even when they do start getting a little rough together). John is also a very cuddly boy. He loves to lay on me and pretend he's sleeping. The best is when he is pretending to sleep then he really falls asleep. He gives us hugs and big tongue-sticking-out kisses that are really funny. He loves jumping on his daddy and tackling him to the ground. I hit my head the other day on the corner of the cupboard (hurt like crazy) and he came over and patted my back and tried to wipe my tears away while I sat on the floor. He is great with other kids and loves to follow them around and get into mischief....or just watching shows with them.He loves his best friend Eli and relishes any opportunity to play with him (we are SO going to miss them when we move). And by the way, he had his first dentist appointment (April 4) and the Dentist said his teeth look fantastic and to try and keep them as clean as we can. I felt really bad because it was a small office and there were about 5 other kids waiting in the waiting room to be seen and John started SCREAMING his head off when the dentist held his head down to look at his teeth. Great for being able to see every tooth but not so great for the morale of the kids waiting. I'm sure there were a few traumatized youngsters by the time he was done with the exam.

Love you my little Johnny Cakes!

RIP Grandma Dolly

I found out this morning that my Great-Grandma passed away. She had been sick and her kidneys shut down and I really think it was just her time to go. The picture above is the only 5 generation picture I have and it was also the last time I saw her. I didn't really know her very well which is unfortunate because I'll bet she had some pretty cool stories about life. I mean just look at her hair!!...
There's gotta be wisdom behind those hair clips! I remember when I was little that she collected dolls (among many MANY other things) and she had hundreds of dolls so we started calling her Grandma Dolly even though to some of my family she is known as Grandma Meacham and to some Grandma Jones. She will always be my Grandma Dolly with the crazy hair clips and the amazing amounts of dolls and tea sets and thimbles!

8 months old

Who turned 8 months old today?...

I did! I did!!

Joshua is starting to get the cutest little personality. He's such a smiley little guy and loves his big brother so much. He's getting really fast with his army crawl. Just yesterday he started to get up on his hands and knees acting like he's going to "for real" crawl but he's pretty content with getting around pulling himself with his arms and pushing his legs at the same time. Whenever I loose track of where he is 9 times out of 10 I will find him in the bathroom. For some reason the bathroom is way more fun to hide in than any other room in the house! He's starting to get possessive of whatever he's holding and will start crying if something is taken away from him. I almost wonder sometimes if he does it just to get his brother in trouble (too early for that?). His favorite thing to do right now is to eat anything and everything that John drops on the floor. Recently I have caught him eating...

Strawberries
Corndog pieces
Wheat Thins
Macaroni and Cheese
Tuna fish sandwich
Frosted Mini Wheats
Oranges
Kiwi
BBQ chicken chunks
Kix Cereal
Spaghetti
Gold Fish crackers
and my favorite....a Baby Back Rib bone!

Those are just the things I can think of off the top of my head. So much for introducing one food at a time right?! Most of the time I try really hard to keep the floor de-cluttered enough so he won't find random things to eat off the floor but John will hide food sometimes or drop it and Josh will pick it up before I even notice, or John will bring Joshua food when I'm not looking!! I never know whether to be annoyed at that or proud that he's sharing with his brother. Joshua is definitely not a clean eater. My friend Clarise made me some long bibs for the boys and they are the best things in the world. Josh will spit out his food almost every bite...even if he likes it. Most of the time a bath is in order after his meal because of how messy he is. I can't wait to see what he will be like when he starts feeding himself. I'll have to put a tarp down first! He's also started to growl a lot at John who taught him to do it in the first place and he is starting to get more vocal mostly saying something that sounds like "At" or "Eit" or something.

We love our little guy so much and I seriously can't believe how big he's getting. Happy 8th month Joshua.... Kamu lucu sekali dan kami mengasihimu :)