Easter!

We ended up having a very low key Easter. A good friend of mine made Jack this super awesome Easter basket, and half way through the day he got a second Easter basket from another good friend of mine. So he was definitely spoiled. 

We didn't realize until the night before that we had no plans for Easter Dinner. Luckily we had some great friends that invited us over for ham and funeral potatoes. Overall a super great Easter. 

Easter Egg Hunt

A good friend of ours puts on an Easter Egg hunt every year in her back yard. Everyone brings a brunch item and her and a friend provide all the eggs. And then we visit and have a great time. 

Jack kept staring out the back window at the yard and saying "there's a hundred of them!" He had a very hard time concentrating on eating the food.

Here is the moment where they released the children. Jack was second onto the playing field. 

And then Jack surprised me. 

He only wanted yellow eggs. He would not pick up an egg unless it was yellow. He would just walk past them like they weren't even there. I have absolutely no idea why. 

He loved the egg hunt and loved sitting with his buddies to eat his findings. 

I'm 3!

Not many pictures from his birthday. It was an interesting day. Certainly, not everything went as planned. 

One thing that did go as planned however was his haircut.

Isn't he so handsome?

He requested pink cupcakes, so that is what he got. That right there is what pure joy looks like. Glad he is so easy to please. 

Jack has loved being able to tell people he is three. 

During the day, the thing under our sink that sends the water upstairs (because we are in a basement), stopped working, so the landlord sent someone to fix it. It smelled awful! 

So I decided to take Jack to McDonalds play place, which is about a twenty minute drive without traffic. We made it there just to find out the play place was closed for another 2 hours for cleaning. 

Poor little Jacko was devastated. He could see all the wonderful climbing potential, but couldn't get past the locked door. We had to turn around and come back home. 

I felt horrible and thought his birthday was ruined. But we opened presents when Tony got home and as Jack said his prayers that night, he said "thank you for my happy birthday." So I guess we did something right in the end.

I was able to take him back to Mcdonalds the next day with a good friend of his and they had a blast. Jack was sweaty by the end of the 2 1/2 hour playdate. 

Bounce House Fun

This is actually from back in February, I just kept forgetting to post it. 

While we were visiting Colette in the Baltimore area, she took us to this amazing bounce place. 

It had obstacle courses, Giant slides, bounce castles, the works!

My favorite was the Kraken eating the pirate ship. It was an insanely tall slide. Good thing Jack is brave. Colette and I took our turns on this slide as well. Pretty intense. 

And Jack loved staring up at the giant T-rex that guarded the beginning of one of the obstacle courses. 

Big News

Well, we have several big ticket, big news items to discuss today:

First of the lot: 

I got braces in January. We have an awesome orthodontist in our ward. I took this picture the same day. That's why I look sore. I was sore. But they feel great now, and I can already see my teeth straightening. 

Second item:

I am pregnant with twins! They were squirmy, so we couldn't get a good angle on both of them in the same picture. So this is what we have. I have been pretty sick growing two babies, so I have actually quit nearly everything I do. I spend a lot of time in bed or laying on the couch or the floor with my special 2 year old caretaker. 

They are due the first week of October, but expected in September.

(break for a cute story): Tony was out of town last week attending a funeral. I told Jack he had to go to bed without songs because it was past his bedtime. I told him I would go to bed without songs too. That prospect made him sad, so he tucked ME into bed, sang "I am a Child of God" and then turned off all the lights and shut all the doors and put himself to bed. He is growing up so fast. He will be a great big brother. 

Speaking of growing up so fast. Some of you know Jack has been halfway potty trained for months and months. He peed in the potty, but whenever he needed to poop he would ask for the diaper. He was too scared to poop in the potty. But this last month, he was brave and started pooping in the potty. So he is officially potty trained. He loves it so much he often poops in the potty 3 times a day. His reward of choice? A mint.

I was so sick on Monday, that I accidentally put him to bed without a diaper. In the morning, he woke me up and said he needed to go potty. I reminded him that he was in a diaper at night and he reminded me that I forgot. So he actually stayed dry the whole night and then got up to go potty in the morning. Quite the responsible kid. 

Also, my little boy turns 3 on Tuesday! I asked him what he wanted on his birthday cake, and he said "vegetables"

...not exactly sure where to go with that. 

Fortunately, with the pregnancy, my doctors have put me on a new medication that was made specifically for pregnancy nausea. On days I keep it down, I do pretty well. 

Tony's Blood Brother

We were just recently able to get in contact with Tony's Bone Marrow Donor. His name is Kevin Martens and he lives in Trittau, which is just outside of Hamburg, Germany. 

Kevin has told us that he was working on a school project when he signed up for the bone marrow donor registry (In German it is Deutsche Knochenmarkspänderdatei). He was contacted 4 weeks after  registering with a letter asking him to donate to Tony. He did so without question. This means so much to us. He truly saved Tony's life. We are so grateful to him and the wonderful person that he is. 

Kevin recently competed in the Final of an International Golf Tournament in Austria. Here is a picture of him playing golf. (He also enjoys soccer, just like Tony and he loved watching Germany win the world cup). 

Kevin has been applying to different universities and is considering being an orthopedist or an anesthetist. He has been thinking about flying out here to DC to see us sometime in the Spring or Summer. We are super excited about that. It will be really cool to actually meet him in person. 

Here is a picture of his parents at the Golf Tournament. 

We want to give a huge thanks to Kevin and the sacrifice he made for Tony. We would also like to ask everyone to pray for him to be able to get into Medical School as he continues his application process. 

Big Scary Snow Monster

For those that don't know, Jack is in love with the movie Frozen. He has no interest in any other shows, just Frozen. And his favorite part of the movie is the "big scary snow monster." And of course the song "Let it Go" just like every other child in the world. 

Anyway, on Tuesday, we actually accumulated quite a bit of snow. Jack begged me to go out and play in it, so we did. This is the first year he actually fits in his snow pants and coat outfit. Also the first year his boots fit. He was pretty excited about the whole outfit. 

Once outside, he started pretending to be the big scary snow monster and just stated yelling SNOW! over and over and over. 

We tried to make snowballs or a snowman (Do you want to build a snowman was sung). But the snow was just not packable. So instead we wiped off the playground and he played on the swings and the slide. 

Today and yesterday were freezing cold and there is a horrible wind. So we are going to stay inside for the next little bit.