Easter

Easter fun always includes our ward Easter party. Face painting, cookie decorating, egg hunt and more! Ethan has talked about this since last Easter. He’s always asking, “When do I get my face painted at church again.” I’m so happy to know that this is his most memorable church experience. J Anyway, we were lucky to enjoy some beautiful spring weather so we rode our bikes to the church house with the kids in the chariot, which I must say has been a lot of fun with the kids to be able to take them on runs and go on bike rides.

This year Ethan chose a little yellow chick for one cheek and a motorcycle for the other cheek.

Ethan was able to get plenty of eggs for his bag. Our ward had about 3000 eggs and about 130 kids.

So it was nice and easy for the younger kiddos to fill their bags.

As usual with face painting, Ethan did all he could to try and get out of face washes and baths to allow the art to linger longer. Here he's showing off his motorcycle. His little chick rubbed off during a nap on the ride home. He was quite disappointed about that!

I had to work Eater Sunday so Jairo had the job of getting the kids into their Easter outfits and taking pictures. As you can see the photos were an after thought as he only captured Ava in her dress. On Easter Ethan and Dad dyed eggs, played spelling games with pretzels (dad is much more creative than mom) and ate fun Easter candy.

Jairo remembered to get the picture after Ethan had already changed. So we have the Easter wrestling photo. Lovely!

Ethan enjoying the eggs after dying them.

Doing spelling games with pretzels.

Enjoying candy as you can see. This year the East bunny brought some Sees chocolate Easter eggs that are hollow and when you break into them there is a little yellow chocolate chick inside.

While it may seem Easter is all-commercial, we did take time to remember the sacrifice of our Savior. We are grateful for this time of year that we can give more focus and attention to remember the love of our Heavenly Father and his son, Jesus Christ.

Ava at 6 months

Little Ava is such a sweet smiley girl! She just turned 6 months and weighs 14 lbs 6 oz and is 25.5 inches tall. She's quite petite compared to Ethan at this age. She rolls and scoots around and makes many attempts at crawling. She can almost push herself up to sitting on her own and still adores her brother who keeps her attention and makes her smile!

Going Green for St. Patrick's?

(Ethan before he discovered I was taking a picture)

Ethan had a rough evening the other day and I had to take some pictures because, while I was upset, it was kind of funny. I guess he had a little too much time to himself while I was trying to get dinner prepared and attend to Ava. I was starting dinner when I noticed things were hauntingly silent in the other room where Ethan was supposed to be playing. As most parents know, unless kids are sleeping, silence usually is not good. When I walked in he was happily coloring himself. I told him I was taking pictures to show Dad what kind of trouble he had gotten into. He decided he’d better wash things off, but wanted to do it himself. I got back to cooking dinner only to have him come into the kitchen with his hair full of soap. I told him he was only supposed to be washing his hands and face, not his hair. He thought it was fun and wanted to continue, even with my warnings that if he gets the soap in his eyes it would burn. Still, he wanted to do things on his own. As predicted, he was soon crying as the soap was dripping into his eyes, so I came to help finish the job. I tried to get back to dinner, but now Ava needed attention so I sat down to feed her. Next thing I hear Ethan saying what a good hot dog I was making. I told him to leave things alone in the kitchen and when I returned I found a lovely little Ethan bite taken out of my sausage with a little green fingerprint to go along with it. We obviously missed some of the marker on his hands.

(Ethan after he realized I was taking pictures. I can just read his mind ... Oh no! She caught me.)

(Ethan after I told him to show what he had done cause when dad comes home ... )

(Ethan washing his hair as well and as you can see, getting soap in his eyes ... I tried to help)

(This is a bit blurry, but it cracks me up. As you might guess, this is after soap in the eyes)

(The chunk Ethan took out of the sausage I was getting ready to cook ... and that's not mold next to the bite, it's a green finger print indicating the culprit)

Runnin' with kids

The other day Jairo and I had an afternoon together and decided to take a run. Although it had been snowing that morning, the streets were decent for a run, but the temperature was still quite cold. We figured the kids would do fine all bundled. So, here they are dressed all cozy for the ride. We just started taking them out together in the double stroller and Ethan thinks it’s such a fun thing to do with his sister. The stroller also has a clear plastic cover, which we pulled over them to keep the wind out during the run. As you can see, they must have had a comfy ride because about halfway through the run they were both zonked. It was too cute!

I'm not quite sure how Ethan was breathing with his face smashed against his coat. To our defense, we did try to tilt his head back during the run but it just kept flopping forward. It's a wonder how kids sleep in such seemingly uncomfortable positions!?

Ava's play date

Ava had one of her first play dates with little Kate. Ethan had a few friends over to play and make pizzas and little Kate came along since her big brother Jack is one of Ethan's buddies. Kate is about 3 months younger than Ava. Of course Ava has been around other kids and babies, but I think this was one of the first times we laid her down with another baby and she actually took interest and wanted to interact.

I think Kate's done with Ava!