Catch Up

Since we got back from Las Vegas, we have been keeping busy getting back into the swing of things. I love to go on vacation, but I also love to get back to regular life. Anderson is going to be 6 months next week and I can't believe it! His hair is starting to grow back, which I'm loving and he is finally eating solid foods. He has refused and refused for weeks, and has just decided that maybe they're not so bad. His favorite is sweet potatoes. :)

Justin and Jack have started having movie nights in the attic. They watch it in Jack's tent complete with popcorn, snacks, and candy. Jack LOVES having a "camp out" with dad.

Jack got to visit Justin at the school for his first visit to the dentist. As you can see he was a little nervous about it at first. I think this picture is hilarious!! Classic Jack whiny face. They give the kids those funny sunglasses which Jack now keeps in his car seat to wear while we are driving. He thinks they are so cool. Love it.

After Justin let Jack help with the suction, he decided maybe it wasn't so bad.

He even left with a smile.

The snow around here melted at rapid speeds which we were super happy about! We took full advantage of the big puddles and went out in our rain boots. (Notice the nice broken sidewalk in front of our house. Something I will NOT miss about Cleveland. Broken sidewalks and broken roads...grrr.)

Jack has been getting pretty bored around our house lately, or so he says, so I gave him some "homework" to see if it could occupy some time. To my surprise, he LOVED it and sat there for a good twenty minutes doing page after page of things I had made for him to trace. I told him to follow the black lines with his pencil and he kept asking me "Follow those black signs Mom?" I think he did awesome for his first time ever. He will be starting preschool in the fall and I think he is ready. Hopefully that will help cure some of the boredom.

Not bad for his first time! I'm so proud of Jack. He really is a smart little boy and he amazes me every day with the things he learns and remembers.

Working hard :)

I came across some awesome strawberries at Costco and decided it was time to replenish the homemade jam. Store bought just doesn't cut it for me anymore. YUM!

Since Easter falls on conference weekend this year, I had the boys wear their Easter ties to church today. I must say, we have some pretty cute boys. :)

For Easter weekend we are headed to DC to see Scott and Denisse and Shane and Holly. I entered into an online lottery for tickets to the White House Easter Egg Roll and won! Pictures from that when we get back.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Rolling Over

This video was actually taken 3 or 4 weeks ago. Anderson is now rolling from his back to his tummy all the time and with little or no effort, but still can't roll from his tummy to his back. (Now I don't have to lie to the pediatrician at his 6 month appointment when she asks me if he is rolling over!) I LOVE his laugh in this video. He has such a funny laugh. A lot of times, he just screams in place of an actual laugh. Take note of Jack's AWESOME listening skills. And, as usual, Jack is showing off his best whine. He's pretty good at it....learned it from his Auntie....Whitney Whiner. Ha! :)

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St. Pete's Day

Yesterday my Mom told us that Pete had died in the night. Everyone was pretty sad, especially my dad. He used to follow my dad around the yard while he worked. He was a good dog, and even though I'm not a dog person at all, it will be sad to go to my parent's house and not see him. He used to run around the yard at a million miles an hour pushing a five gallon bucket with his nose. He would run and run so fast until he ran into something, then change direction and start again. He also used to love to chase the hose water. It was pretty funny. My sister Angie decided that every St. Patrick's Day would now be known as St. Pete's Day. Poor Pete...we will miss you!!

Las Vegas!!

We had such a great time in Las Vegas. We had been planning this trip for six months, hoping no one would spoil the surprise for Ryan (that's a long time to keep a secret!) and it was everything we were hoping for! Warm weather, good company, and lots of laughs. We originally planned to stay in California two days and spend the first one at Disneyland, and the second at the beach. Well, the beach was supposed to have crappy weather so we cancelled our hotel and drove back to Vegas. The next day we decided to drive out to Hoover Dam. It was amazing to see. It is HUGE!! And the bridge they are building behind it is amazing. There were people working on it and it looked extremely scary. I would not want to have that job!!

Jack, not wanting to stay in the stroller....typical :)

I HATE this picture of me, but I had to share it. The boys are standing in Nevada and Stephanie and I are standing in Arizona! Two different states and two different time zones.

After Hoover Dam, we headed to the strip to go to m&m world. It is the cutest store with EVERYTHING m&m, and any color of m&m's you could want. Denise wanted to let the boys pick out their own bag of special m&m's. It's a good thing she wanted to take them there, because it was $12.99 a pound for these m&m's!! I am not that nice :) The boys loved it and were so excited to eat their special m&m's!!

Outside the store was this cute peanut m&m. :) Connor was so excited to go see him but not Jack. I asked him if he wanted to go up with Connor and he said, "No Mom. I don't want to. I want to get away from that Mom." I love how he calls him "that". I guess he didn't look as nice as Mickey Mouse and Tigger :)

Anderson was so good all week. The hardest part with him was the sleeping at night. The first night he woke up at 3:30am ... for the day!! And Jack came in around 4:30am. Finally we drug ourselves out of our room around 5am and started making waffles, hoping not to wake anyone else. The second day he woke up at 4:30am and every day after that, he woke up about an hour later each time. Finally by the last couple days he was right on schedule only for us to drag him back home to a 3 hour time difference again. Thankfully it only took him a couple days to get back into his normal routine. Justin and I were completely sleep deprived the whole week! It's a good thing we were having so much fun that we didn't notice it too much.

Jack has 2 Batman capes and brought them so he could play with Connor. They were having fun running around and showing us their Batman muscles!! Are they tough or what?? Haha!

Does it get ANY cuter than that little face??? Really?? Is that even possible?!

On our last full day there, we tried to make it extra fun. We drove up by the mountains to do a little hike and let the boys throw rocks in the lake and just run around having fun. It started off a little rough when the park ranger pulled Ryan over for having expired stickers on his plates. They had renewed the plates but just didn't get their new stickers because of their move. He was on a total power trip but needless to say, we had a good laugh! It probably wouldn't have been as funny if he would have given them a ticket!!

I love being outside and letting Jack just run around and have fun. I always feel so bad that we don't have a back yard and he has been stuck inside the house all winter long. I think Jack needed this trip just as much as Justin and I did.

Jack is "fishing" but unfortunately never caught anything :)

After our little hiking adventure, we headed to the bowling alley! Jack and Connor didn't waste any time picking which ball they were going to use.

Anderson hanging out with Aunt Stephanie (one of 3 Aunt Stephanie's! Every time I talk to Jack about one of the Stephanie's, I always think...that has got to be confusing to a little kid. How does he keep them all straight?)

Last night there...sad!

Cute little Anderson after we got off the plane. He slept 4 hours of the 4 1/2 hour flight home!

We did NOT want to go back home after our week was over! Justin was literally depressed that he had to go back to school after such a fun trip. We were so glad we were able to go. When we left Cleveland, we were worried we wouldn't make it out because of a snow storm we were having. But since we've been back, we've had 60-70 degree weather! Cleveland weather is so weird!! It's a good thing we brought the good weather back with us because it made it a little easier to come home.

Thanks for the great trip guys! We can't wait until you come out to our house now!

Playing at the Park

Ryan and Stephanie have a park right down the street from their house and we wanted Jack to be able to go outside and play there every day we were there. He has been cooped up in our house ALL winter long. I haven't wanted to go to the children's museum or places like that since Anderson was so little. So we took full advantage while we were in Vegas!

Is it just me, or does Jack look really funny in that first picture?

Anderson was so funny to watch because this was literally the first time he had ever breathed fresh air and been outside without a blanket or his car seat Bundle Me covering him! He could hardly open his eyes, it was so bright. That's what happens when you live in Cleveland and it is FREEZING all winter! His facial expressions were cracking me up. He kept blinking and squinting...trying to slowly let all the sunlight in!

Getting used to the fresh air and bright sun!

Even Bob had fun at the park :)

Jack LOVES to go down the slides!

Race you to the bottom!!

After, Jack and Connor thought it would be a good idea to run through the sprinklers. I don't think Jack thought it was such a good idea anymore after his clothes got wet :) I love their facial expressions in this picture.

And of course Justin had to have a little fun of his own at the park...

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The Happiest Place on Earth

We have been planning a trip to Las Vegas for 6 months for Justin's Spring Break. It was Ryan's birthday that week so we made it a surprise and boy was he surprised!! He had no idea which made it even more fun. We had planned with Stephanie to go to Disneyland for one of the days we were there. We volunteered in the "Give a Day, Get a Day" program and got free tickets! Which made our day even better. :) Jack had been DYING to go to Disneyland and even mentioned in several prayers that he was thankful we could go see the big castle and Mickey Mouse.

We got there right after it opened and who should we run in to?? Minnie Mouse, Eeyore and Tigger!! I was nervous that Jack would be scared of them, but he was in heaven. He ran right up to all the characters and gave them a big hug. Connor was so cute because all he could do was just stare with this huge grin on his face, like he could believe he was really seeing them. It was so cute!

Connor keeping his eye on Tigger!

Ryan would steal Anderson away any chance he could get. They were buddies for the week.

Mickey Mouse!!!

We took a tour through his house and he was waiting for us at the end. I loved seeing all the characters. There is something about being there and seeing all of them that just makes me feel giddy! I am already dying to go back.

Gotta love Goofy.

There's Connor staring with a huge grin again! He was cracking me up.

We spent part of the day at California Adventure. So much to do, so little time!! We were running from one thing to the next but it was a blast. I seriously cannot wait to go again!!!

Outside the Monsters Inc. ride.

These two are so cute! They played so well together. They haven't seen each other in over a year so it was really fun to see them together, acting as if they have known each other their whole lives (all 2 1/2 years of it! Ha!).

Did I mention I love this place?

One ride I did NOT enjoy was the Tower of Terror. You can see me in the bottom left corner holding onto Justin for dear life. Bob and Denise are to the right of us. Everyone pressured me to go on it which I knew would happen!! When we were in line Justin told me that the first drop is the worst and then there are just 2 more little drops after that. Well, that was not the case and I was screaming the whole time, "You lied to me!!! I hate this!! You lied to me!!! This is not what you said!!!!!!" Wow, I did not like it. Now I know that it was as horrible as I was imagining it to be and no one will ever be able to pressure me on it again.

Ryan and Jack on the bumper cars. I think this was his favorite ride. He was smiling the whole time and he thought it was super cool that he got to steer and crash into the other cars. It was a really cute ride.

Waiting for the Pixar Parade with Grandma and Grandpa.

"No, I will not smile or look at the camera for one more picture!!!"

This was past Connor and Jack's picture limit. :)

This parade was SO CUTE!!! I loved it. Jack is so funny because most of the time he was just sitting there in awe trying to take it all in. No smile (for most of it), no emotion, no nothing. Just watching. He says that he loved the parade but I think it might have been a little overwhelming? I don't know. He is just funny like that.

Here I caught a little smile as Buzz Lightyear was coming out.

Pretend you can't see my legs hiding behind Anderson :)

Bob and I on the Dumbo ride... we are GEEKS! Haha....love you Bob!

I have SO MANY pictures that I wanted to put up here but I decided I better keep my post from being a mile long. It was such a fun day. The weather was gorgeous and it was exactly what we needed to lift our spirits out of the winter blues. It literally made us so happy. I was laughing to myself when I passed a mom holding her son who looked about 3 years old. He was crying and she said to him, "You can't cry, this is the happiest place on earth!"

We stopped to grab something quick to eat on the road after we got out. We were pulling up to the drive through and we asked Jack if he wanted some chicken nuggets. I turned to get his answer and he said "Yes" right as he crashed and fell asleep, toy still in hand. He was pooped. We all were so tired but it was so worth it!!

This is a little clip from the parade. Justin said he wants to own a pair of these...

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