Easter 2014

The night before Easter, Kherington woke up screaming.  First she needed to go potty.  Then on the way back to the bathroom she noticed her Easter basket wasn't where she left it.  Then she was afraid of the Easter bunny and informed me that Daddy put a note on the door when the Leprechaun came, so we needed a note on the door to tell the Bunny it wasn't allowed in the kids room either.  Done.

Well, a couple hours later, pre-sunrise, Kevin woke up and some how found their Easter baskets in the dark playroom then woke his sister up.  This year they each got a shirt (Jonathan's was just taken from his drawer...kinda forgot about him), an Ocotonauts toy to share and some eggs to hunt for with a note saying if they were good there would be more eggs to find.  They were so not impressed with the eggs.  They didn't want to find them, then told us they don't like rolos or smarties or snickers.  They were okay with the licorice.  I remember thinking any candy was awesome when I was their age.

I actually bought Kherington and Kevin a new church outfit for Easter.  Kevin wore his...really I just like the vest and tie.  Kherington decided she didn't want to wear her bright pink dress she picked out and instead opted for a grey one.  I guess Europe style rubbed off on her a little. 

We went to the Parente's house for Easter dinner and had a great time celebrating, relaxing, playing and chatting.  Jonathan was passed from one person to the next.  Aunt Marie (it was her 80th birthday) could calm him down without the pacifier or feeding him...now that is talent.  By the end of the night Kherington was asking to go home because she was tired.  This is pretty much unheard of but she really was tired.  I don't think we had started the car before both kids were out cold.

We did Resurrection eggs for Family home evening and the kids enjoyed opening them.  I'm not sure they really got much out of it, but maybe as they get older.  I really like all the make believe parts of holiday's but it is important to realize why it truly is a special day.

Easter Egg Hunts

Between last weekend and this weekend, we have taken the kids to 3 Easter Egg hunt.  I am thinking next year we will go to two hunts.

1. Grapevine - This hunt had 15,000 eggs.  The kids were separated by age group onto different baseball fields.  The nicest thing was that all their activities were free.  The kids saw the Easter Bunny, held baby bunnies, played on the inflatables, got their face painted, enjoyed popcorn and lemonade and more.

2.  This was the least favorite of the 3.  It was on a football field and separated into just 2 age groups.  They started the hunt 15 minutes late and limited the number of eggs you could get to 12 per person.   I turned my back for a minute and Kevin's basket was overflowing with 30+ eggs!  We let him count out some eggs for himself then made him give the rest away to another little kid who didn't get many.

3.  I missed this one since I was parking the car.  When I got there, boh kids had overflowing baskets of eggs and Ryan said if they had more space they could easily have gotten more.  The downside was that all the extra activities cost money.

Friends and School

We had school at our place a couple more times.  We are now working on numbers.  For the number 1, we played with the parachute.  I also taught number 3 which worked out great since it was right after Kevin turned 3.  Each kid got to decorate 3 cupcakes (one normal and 2 baby).

We also got to have Isabel play with us and attempted to dye eggs.  I was in the other room feeding Jonathan and could hear the kids discussing whether you are supposed to eat the 'crackely' stuff aka the shell.  Kinda funny conversation.

Kevin Turns 3

Our little Belg Boy turned 3 today. I can hardly believe it. Almost every night he either ends up in our bed or Ryan ends up in his bed. He love to be outside (a little sad right now since we don't have a yard). Somehow he makes everything into a sword or a gun. Not sure where that one came from. And 'poo' is his biggest insult. Like telling Kherington she smells like poo or her dress looks like poo. Not sure where that came from either. I really thing some of it is just a boy thing.

He can be the sweetest little boy out there...or the exact opposite of that depending on the day. Some things we will hopefully work on with him this year include listening, being obedient and telling the truth. The last one especially. He instantly replies with whatever response you want to hear instead of the truth. Not so cool.

For his birthday he had breakfast in bed since his sister told him that is what you do on your birthday. He chose eggs, toast and cereal.

In the morning we went to Urban Air and jumped for 2 hours. I let him pick one friend to come with us. He chose Isabel which I was happy about since both my kids love her and they all get along so well.

After the trampoline place we came home and had lunch and played for a little longer then headed out the door to take Isabel home and go to the Y. Well, Isabel's mom invited the kids to play instead of go to the Y. They ran around outside for a good 2 hours there.

Kevin chose Chick-fil-a for dinner where he ran around there for another hour or so. At home he had chocolate sheet cake decorated with toy cars for his cake, then finished opening his toys and presents. He got a bunch of dress-up stuff including a train engineer outfit, spiderman, shield and breastplate, ninja mask, and captain hook accessories. 

I would have thought he'd crash at night but was very wrong. By 10pm he was still going strong. I guess he wanted to make sure to celebrate his entire birthday.

A couple other highlights of the day: Kevin was really good about sharing his presents with his sister.  I totally ruined the first chocolate sheet cake by putting on bad frosting.  I thought I had 'fix' the frosting so I put it on, but when it setup it was like a brick. We still ate the inner part of the cake, but I quickly made a new one for his actual birthday cake that evening. Kevin and Isabel do joy school together and it is fun to see how they stick up for each other.  Pretty cute.

Jonathan - 3 Months Old

3 months old is a magical time for Jonathan...well, I guess I mean it's magical for me.  He sleeps, he poos, he coos, he eats and his crying has significantly decreased.  He is becoming more like the babies I remember Kherington and Kevin being.  Maybe I just blocked the first 3 months of their life out of my mind.

I needed to take a shower and I couldn't get him to go to sleep so I just put him in the bouncer and figured I'd be quick.  I came out to him asleep.  This is kind of huge for him.  The other night I went to sleep around 10 pm and didn't wake up to feed him until 4am.  That is a solid 6 hours of sleep.  How amazing is that!

I think part of this transformation comes from age. But I think another part comes from figuring out his eating.  He was super cranky and after reading a bunch of online stuff I though dairy might have been a problem but I really really didn't want to eliminate anything.  Then I read one post that said eliminating something from your diet should be a last resort.  Sometimes people think it's dairy or something else when in reality it is just a supply/demand issue.  I pump every morning so I can leave a bottle with him at child care at the Y even if he doesn't necessarily need it.  I wouldn't want to waste it so when he was ready I'd finish feeding that bottle to him plus nurse him.  What I read is that babies stomachs are so small if you overfeed them they can appear to have acid reflux and become super cranky.  So a week or so ago I stopped feeding him the bottle.  I still pump and send it but if he doesn't drink it there, I just throw it out and nurse him as normal the rest of the day.  It is working great.

San Antonio

Friday we did our normal YMCA workout and ballet class then hurried home to get everything packed up for our San Antonio trip.  It was really really nice that Jonathan slept the entire time I was getting things ready and I was even out the door on time.  Pretty impressive considering I had zero help...and pretty annoying to turn around and find mess after mess to clean up.  The clincher was when I asked the kids to put the bowl from the kitchen table into the sink.  They told me it was empty and put it in the sink. Well, I went out to find the contents of the previously full bowl dumped out all over the table.  So the older 2 spent the rest of the time in their room while I finished up (I can't leave a house messy because that is what you come home to which would bite).

We stopped for dinner.  We figured it would be good to actually get out so we got a buzzer to eat at Chuy's, but the wait was super long so while we waited we walked next door to Saltgrass and they could seat us right away.  Sweet.  I would definitely choose Saltgrass over Outback.  We got to Shalece's house in San Antonio late Friday night.

The next morning we met up with our friends Jacob and Jessica Bratt at the Zoo.  Jacob was Ryan's roommate freshman year and we did lots together throughout our college years.  We hadn't seen him since moving to Belgium, but his family is moving to Utah in May.  It just so happened that the zoo was having a special event so there were lots of extra activities like performances, games, touch and feel, fishing, etc.  I think all of us had a great time.

We had some time to kill before meeting up with some other friends so we headed to Longhorn for a hamburger.  I am not a big burger fan but this was pretty delicious...plus the kids were sleeping so we got to enjoy it in peace.  Then, we tried to visit the temple, but it was closed because of General Conference so we played at a blue playground.

We met up with Diane Thomas (now Smith, a friend of Ryan's from high school) and her new husband at Baskin Robbins.  Our kids enjoyed and ice cream and then roamed around, flipped through the cake book and tried to entertain themselves.  It was nice to be able to visit for a little while though.

After a short break back at Shalece's house we headed out to dinner at Chuy's which just happened to be down the road.  It was pretty good, but Cafe Rio is still my favorite.

Sunday morning we decided to stay and watch the first session of conference.  The kids loved playing outside for a little while.  Aside from that, I'm not sure that was very beneficial.  For the most part, the kids weren't acting very good and I didn't hear most of it, plus Ryan threw up (he was the only one of us to not get the stomach bug a week earlier)...not my idea of a good way to start a road trip home.

The drive home was rough.  Whenever we leave some place I wonder what we will leave behind.  We got about 30 minutes away before realizing we left the kids toothbrushs.  Those are easily replaceable, so not a big deal.  We also left a wallet.  Ugh.  We turned back around to get it.  I was pretty annoyed the rest of the drive.  We had added and entire hour onto our drive which wouldn't have been a huge deal except we were traveling with a anti-carseat 3 month old. After we were back on our way, we made a couple stops to feed and stretch.  Traffic, stops and backtracking ended up turning our 4.5 hour trip about 8.5 hours.

We Joining the YMCA

We joined the YMCA here when Jonathan turned 6 weeks because their childcare will watch kids 6 weeks -12 years for 2 hours a day while the parents workout.  When we joined I was a little unsure of what I would think about working out at a gym.  I have always worked out on my own, but now with 3 kids I had only gotten through a 30 minute workout video once without interruptions.

Well, the Y has been awesome.  We have gone every weekday since joining.  I try to make it in time for a class each day which means I have to start the whole process of getting out the door (pump, dress, feed, change, etc) 1 hour before the class starts. The days I don't make it to a class I run on the treadmill.  I started doing interval training on the treadmill because I read it was much better workout. It's true.  It is.  I am sore the day after every time I do it.

The kids love child care too.  Depending on what time we go they do crafts, play in the gym, play outside on the toys, do games inside or just chill and watch a movie.  Most days when I pick them up they are made that they don't get to stay longer.  It is an added bonus that there are often kids from our previous ward that are in the childcare at the same time so it's like a play date. Jonathan does fairly well.  I've gotten pulled out of a workout class twice because he had been crying for 20+ minutes and there were lots of other kids there (one day I know he was fussy the whole time but it was early afternoon and my kids were the only ones there so they kept him).

Every day driving home I wonder what I would have done if we hadn't joined.  It is so nice to have a built-in break from the kids.