Easter

We had a very mello Easter weekend: Egg dying, Easter Egg Hunts, Church and of course a Ham dinner.

Here the kids are posing infront of their Easter eggs after Church on Sunday. We didn't actually get to see them find all the eggs Easter morning, but we heard their feet running all over the house while yelling, "I found a blue one" or "I found a yellow one!"

On Saturday morning some friends invited us to an Easter egg hunt at one of the local Country Clubs. It was a lot of fun and the kids were split up according to age group. The kids were both in the first age group (under 5). Their were two special "golden" eggs hidden with a prize inside. So we told Cameron to find the gold egg. What did he do? He only picked up yellow eggs off the ground and bypassed all the others....that's the reason he only collected 3 eggs.

And here is Anna running to the eggs!
Anna was one of the older kids so she was really able to clean up! After the egg hunt they had donuts and cookies inside....needless to say the kids left there on a sugar high!

Happy Birthday

I know this is a day late but.... yesterday was Jeanna's birthday! Yes, one more glorious year as a twentysomething and then next year a much more mature 30 year old lady. I would like to borrow an idea from our friends, the Hoekzemas, and list ten things you may not know about Jeanna.

#1 She is deathly afraid of scary movies. In fact, if a preview comes on the television she will mute the TV and hide her eyes. She then will ask me shen she can start watching again making sure the commercial has passed.

#2 She is a great cook. She didn't start out that way but has become a great chef. This week she made one of my favorite meals... pancetta, arugula, and mozzarela panini with a basal-herbed mayo. As Cameron would say... "DELICIOUS!"

#3 She loves video games. We intentionally do not have a gaming system because otherwise the kids would starve, I would starve, the house would be a mess and we would all be fighting for mommy's attention ... and the video game would win everytime.

#4 She hates all kinds of seafood except crab legs. Otherwise if it comes from any source of water she will not touch it.

#5 She is a great piano player but she doesn't like people to know expecially at church. She does not want to be asked to play because whe gets very nervous in front of others.

#6 She loves massages. Mostly her feet and back. We have a deal in our house. I rub her feet and then I can watch any sporting event I want. Not a bad deal for both of us.

#7 She has grown to like country music.

#8 Her favorite restaurant of all-time is an Asian noodle place in Cincinnati named Shanghai Momma's.

#9 If she could take a vacation anywhere she would choose a beach location everytime. She loves the sun, sand and ocean.

#10 She has a good basketball shot. We have a basketball court in the park behind our house and sometimes we will shoot hoops. She has good form and is accurate. I am quite impressed.

Anyway... something you guys know.... she is great mom and wife. We all love her very much. She is very loyal and loves her friends and family. Happy 29th Birthday!!

Trash Collectors...

The kids have a new hobby...trash collecting! We have a great park behind our house and have taken it upon ourselves to keep it clean. The kids drive their car to the park and then drive around the entire park looking for trash.
Here they are posing in their Monster Truch....which Justin has renamed the "Garbage Truck". There is a walk path that goes around the park and we use that as our route.

Yesterday we collected an entire truck full of garbage. Can you believe that someone actually left an entire box in the middle of the park?! Anna is so funny, she calls all the trash 'glitter' and I keep correcting her and telling her that it's called LITTER, but for someone reason she can't get it through her head......so it's glitter!

Parked the car and spent some time playing at the park.

They love it! During the days no one is at the park so it's their own personal playground.

Chicago

For Christmas Justin had boughten me tickets to see opening weekend of Mary Poppins Broadway tour in Chicago. So off to Chciago we went - not realizing it was St. Patrick's Day weekend there.........


To say that it was a little crazy in Chicago for St. Patrick's is an understatement. At 10 am people were already walking down the street drinking and yelling. Here is a photo of Justin infront of the infamous green river.




On Friday night we went to eat at Shaw's Crab House before the play....thanks AJ and Stephanie for the great restaurant recommendation!

Here we are at the Palace Theatre getting ready for the play. I usually avoid full body photos when 8 months pregnant, but here it is.

No we did not go see Dora, but here is Justin infront of a well known Chicago sign.

We were able to do a little bit of shopping on Saturday before heading home to pick up the kids. Justin's favorite store had to be the American Girl Store where he was overwehelmed by 8 year girls, their dolls, and their mothers. After much debate we finally chooose what we thought would be the perfect outfit for Anna's doll.....came to find out it wasn't her favorite outfit she had seen in the catalog, "but she still liked it". We can't win them all!

Still Alive

Two and a half months since my last post?! I know, I know - here's what we've been up to....

I went with Justin to his annual Orthopaedic Conference which was held in Las Vegas this year. His mom came out and watched the kids for us and we spent five days together! We had lots of fun meeting up with old friends, shopping, eating, and even catching a show! By the time we got home we were exhausted! (sorry no pics of my own, I realized on the first day of our trip that my Camera's battery needed to be recharged...oh well) (also, we stayed at the Paris hotel pictured here)









Building snowmen in the cold Iowa winters!



We bought this blow-up bouncy thing for the kids for Christmas...I thought it might use up some energy during the winter "indoor" months.

Anna got her ears pierced, AGAIN! Third time is a charm...and it's true. All went well and she has already started her earring collection.

The kids and I also took a trip back to Minnesota for a friend's baby shower. It was a quick weekend and we got to see a lot of friends that we've missed.....

And that's what we've been up to! Justin and I are headed to Chicago this weekend and this time I'll have some actual photos to post! The baby is due in six weeks and counting which we're all really excited about and we're excited to have lots of famiy coming to visit us this coming summer. Whew, it all sounds like a lot - but you know me, I like to be active!

Christmas

I'm finally getting around to this, but we are here in Utah for the Holidays. We braved two snowstorms and an icestorm to get here, but I should say that we are fortunate to be here at all. Here is a quick recap of our holidays.................

We did a nativity pagent one night with some family and friends. Here are all the cousins in their costumes. Cameron was Joseph, Olivia was Mary, Ian was a wiseman (bearing a lethal looking gift!) and Anna was the Angel.

My whole family (minus the two little boys) went to see Ballet West perform the Nutcracker. Anna is in ballet and tap this year and was really looking forward to seeing all the ballerinas. The performance was wonderful and the set scenery was fantastic. Afterwards we bought tickets to the party with some of the cast and the girls were able to get pictures taken with the sugar plum fairy and mouse king. (you can see my mom in the background there)

Here are all of the cousins posing with Santa Clause on Christmas Eve. Just for the record this is Cameron's third time on Santa's lap this year and every time he had smiled and posed nicely for the camera, however......on this occasion we had waited 2 hours in line to see Santa and when Cameron sat on his lap he started to cry!!! I couldn't believe it! I was so mad! So our photo didn't turn out too well.

This was taken on Christmas morning. At Anna's preschool she went "Christmas Shopping" and picked out a gift for each family member - then it was wrapped there and sent home as a surprise. So Christmas morning Justin opened his gift and it was this angel pin (meant for a girl to wear). I laughed so hard that I was crying, but reassured Anna that I was crying because it was the most beautiful pin I'd ever seen. She was so proud of herself and Justin wore it the whole day!

Here are Cameron and Ian (cousins) posing nicely for a picture. This is one of the few times that you'll see them nicely smiling and posing together - usually they're wrestling or running around together.

It's a.......

We found out today that we are having another girl! It's so exciting! Cameron was at the ultrasound with Justin and I, and when we were told that it's a girl he said, "NOOOOO!" -and then asked if we could have a boy next week. Oh well, I could only please one of the kids....at least Anna got her pick! Anyway, the name will be Emme Rose and we are so so excited! Love to all!