Easter

We started our Easter festivities last week with Mike and the Bjarnason's. We colored a ton of eggs!! I'm not sure we will even eat them all. Jack was SUPER excited that he was participating in this activity. We had some stickers that he could put on the eggs and every time he would set it down on the table you would hear a "crack!" Good thing they were hard boiled.

These are some of Jack's eggs that he helped to decorate. Can you see a few cracks? :)

Then on Friday we had a little egg hunt at the church. We took Lily with us but I don't have a single picture that turned out of the two of them! They had so much fun and probably ate more candy than needed. It is so fun now that Jack understands and actually knows that we are looking for eggs and that there will be candy inside. He is at such a fun stage!!

And finally on Easter morning, we had a visit from the Easter Bunny. Between two grandma's and the Easter Bunny, Jack has had more candy this weekend than in his entire life! I am glad the next candy holiday isn't until Halloween. This should give us some time to get the thousands of grams of sugar out of his system. :)

Looking handsome in his Easter outfit.

He has been such a goober with his smile lately! Plus the wind was blowing so his hair is flying everywhere. I thought it was a cute picture though.

Monsters vs. Aliens

We took Jack to the movie theater for the first time. We weren't sure how he would do and figured we would probably have to leave part way through. We saw Monsters vs. Aliens and he was glued to the movie and his popcorn the entire time! We were amazed. He usually doesn't sit through a whole movie at home. He had so much fun and when it was through, asked if we could watch it again. It was fun to go out as a family.

Binkey Free

So we decided that it was time to get rid of Jack's binkey's for good. We wanted him to be way over them before this baby comes. We tried to prepare Jack and talked to him about how the Binkey Fairy would be coming to our house to collect all of his binkeys and take them to the little babies who really need them. And in return, she would leave him a special treat. So finally the night was here and he put all of them in a gift bag which he hung in the hallway for the Fairy to come and get. He was super excited about it until it was actually time to go to sleep without them. He cried and cried and cried! We put the gate up on his door so that he couldn't get out. (Otherwise, he would have been coming downstairs all night long!) He cried for almost 3 hours and finally fell asleep on the floor by the gate around 10:30pm.

The next morning he woke up bright and early and came running to Justin saying "Treat and presents and treats!!" He had not forgotten what we had told him.

He was super excited to see what the Fairy left him and didn't seem to hold a grudge about us ignoring him while he cried for 3 hours. He has asked for his binkey a few times since the long night of crying but we just remind him that the fairy took them to all the babies and he usually says, "Yeah! Big boys don't need binkeys!" And then he is fine. It was a lot easier than I was expecting. I am glad that we did it the way we did, but part of me is sad that he is such a big boy and doesn't need them anymore. The next step....Potty Training! Yuck.

Doesn't seem like a bad trade to me! That Fairy is pretty generous!

Stephanie in Ohio!

A couple weeks ago, we were able to have my sister, Stephanie come and visit us. It was a quick trip but we managed to cram in a whole lot of fun!! We headed straight to Palmyra and saw all the sites. The weather was beautiful!! I was so happy because there is a lot to see outdoors and it would not have been fun to be out in nasty weather. We were very grateful.

The Sacred Grove.
It definitely looks different with no leaves on the trees! There is still such a special spirit there though, even if it wasn't quite as pretty.

Having fun at the Peter Whitmer home where the church was first organized.

Jack had fallen asleep on the way there so Justin stayed in the car with him and Stephanie and I were able to take the tour in peace. :) It was great! He woke up just as we were coming out and had fun playing out on the grass.

The Hill Cumorah

The monument at the top of the hill.

We headed back to Ohio on Saturday. Sunday, Stephanie did a stake youth fireside which turned out awesome. There was such a good turn out too. The whole chapel was packed.

Then on Monday, we saw all the sights in Kirtland and the Johnson Farm. It was freezing that day!! But we managed to see everything and had a great time.

Hopefully Stephanie enjoyed her trip out here because we had a blast!! Thanks for coming out here! We love to have visitors and we can't wait to see you again!

Spring Break

First of all, I have to give all the credit for these pictures to my friend Denisse. I stole all of these off of her blog! Number one, they are way too cute, and number two, I am too lazy! :) So thank you Denisse and I hope you don't mind!!

The Jensen family family came from DC to spend spring break with us. We were lucky enough to have the same week off as Scott. It was such a blast!
We started out at the Cleveland Zoo Rainforest. The kids loved running around seeing all of the animals. It is nice to have such a great exhibit indoors that we can enjoy in the cold weather.
We also ran across to the outdoor zoo to see the lions. These little boys were in heaven! I love these pictures of them. Such typical little boys. :)

Jack loved having other kids around to play with. I think he was pretty bored after they left. It's just not the same when you have to play with your mom all day.

On Monday we headed over to Sandusky to the Great Wolf Lodge. It was so fun to put on our bathing suits and pretend that the weather is getting warm! :) It was actually pretty nice weather those days. All of the kids had such a blast. Jack was super nervous at first, but eventually warmed up to the water and had a great time...

...minus the time he went down a slide, fell backwards and hit his head. He wasn't about to get back on that slide after that!

We didn't take any pictures of all of the adults! This is about as close as we got. Love the face Justin. :)

These three sure are cute!!!

We always have a blast with the Jensen's. Lots of playing, relaxing, and late nights chatting.

Thanks again for coming out!

Guess What?

I'm going to be a big brother on October 5...I can't wait!!

Going Private

Hello everyone! In the next little while, we will be making our blog private. Please leave me a comment if you would like to be added to our list of readers!! Just leave me your email or send me an email to ... staceofbace@hotmail.com. If you don't have a google account, it is super easy to sign up for one. Let me know if you have trouble!

Thanks!

Hi Birdie!

Here are a couple little clips from the Rain Forest. In the first one, Jack thought this little bird was a flamingo. I think because it was pink. It was a good guess. :)

Fun With Grandma Heaton

Justin's mom was able to come and stay with us for the past two weeks. We had so much fun with her and were sad to see her leave!!! She came, crossing her fingers that she would be eligible for corrective eye surgery, which thankfully she was able to get. Everything went well and she is glad to have it behind her!

We crammed in a lot of fun stuff while still finding some time to relax.

We went to a bronze statue exhibit depicting the life of Christ at the visitor's center in Kirtland. It was beautiful. It will be here through May and we are definitely going back. We are so lucky to have Kirtland so close to us!! We also made a stop at the Kirtland temple to snap a picture of Flat Stanley for the Well's kids to see!! Stanley didn't like getting out of the car and taking a picture in 10 degree weather though!!

We went to the Rainforest, an indoor exhibit at the zoo. I wanted to get a picture of Jack in front of this huge monkey, and this was the best I got...nice. :)

We went to the Children's Museum. The water and the sand were Jack's favorite parts. It is fun to see his little brain go to work with all the new toys. I also love to see his reaction around other kids. It makes me laugh.

Jack and Grandma doing the weather forcast.

We also went to the Great Lakes Science Center. It was so cute! Very clean, and a ton of stuff to do. This ball pit was Jack's favorite. I think he played in it for over an hour! I'm sure we will be getting a yearly pass here. It was so nice to get out with the cold weather and have so much fun!
We made a TON of bread and homemade pizza, cinnamon rolls, and this yummy cream cheese braid. I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but just imagine it cooked with frosting on the top!! So yummy! We are all five pounds heavier after these two weeks of delicious food! It's back to the gym on Monday!! :)

We played Ticket to Ride almost every night, had Family Home Evening by candle light after the power went out, ate lots of yummy Super Bowl food, Denise got her teeth cleaned by Justin, and endured a lot of snow and FREEZING cold weather! We had a blast! Thanks for coming Denise! It is so nice to have family come out here. Jack has already asked for you a few times today. We miss you already!!

HAIRSPRAY!!

I have the best husband. Last night, I received an early surprise for my birthday. We were all just hanging out doing nothing, when someone knocked on the door. It was our good friend's, the Bjarnason's (who Jack absolutely LOVES!). Justin turned to me and said, "You better go change, the babysitters are here!" Not knowing what was going on, I went and changed and we left to go out to dinner.
Denise wanted a picture with all of us right before we left because it was the last time she would get to see Jack. She left early this morning before he was awake...Notice the tears in her eyes. :)

After we ate some super yummy Mongolian grill, we started driving towards down town Cleveland. We ended up at Playhouse Square and Justin informed me that we were going to see HAIRSPRAY!! I was SO excited!! I had no idea it was even in town. I couldn't hardly wait to get inside!

Here we are waiting for it to start.

I was a little nervous, because I love the movie so much and I wasn't sure if it would be the same or if I would like it as much. It was really cute, and the singing was great. The movie is good, but there is something about a live musical that I love. We had so much fun! It was the best birthday present and completely unexpected.

And then when we got home, Suzy and Spencer had made a cake while we were gone (I'm not sure how much Spencer actually participated...) and brought over some ice cream. They even sang Happy Birthday.

Thanks guys for being such good babysitters and for the YUMMY cake!!

We are lucky to have such good friends here in Cleveland. :)