Easter FHE and house update

For Family Home Evening we had our Easter lesson since Easter is this coming Sunday. Of course for our activity we had to dye eggs. I'm pretty sure this was Easton's (and Blair's obviously) first time dyeing eggs. Easton definitely had fun. Blair tried to help out but we tried to keep her distracted with the plastic eggs instead of the real ones. This only lasted awhile so I'm glad I only boiled a few eggs for Easton to dye. Not only that but by the third egg Easton accidentally dumped over the green dye and it went all over the kitchen floor (luckily we were able to clean it all up). By the fifth egg Easton seemed to loose interest in dyeing the eggs and only wanted to play with the already dyed eggs. It all worked out great (well except for the green dye going everywhere).

Easton super excited about dyeing eggs.

Blair playing with the plastic eggs and trying to get to the real ones.


Easton took this picture of his finished eggs. You can't see the letters but the green one has a D on it for daddy (even though daddy is in Texas right now and won't be spending Easter with us-we are all sad), the blue one has an E on it for Easton, the yellow one has an M on it for mommy, and the red one has a B on it for Blair.

Blair really wanted in on the action.

Easton of course moved them because he didn't want to share.

If you look closely in all the pictures you will notice that the eggs are in different places in the carton. I would say that Easton had more fun moving them around in that carton than actually dyeing them.

Here is a video of Easton (and me) singing I Am a Child of God. He wouldn't sing it without me so you have to suffer through hearing my voice to hear Easton's cute little voice.

HOUSE UPDATE:

There really isn't much of an update but the first house on our blog (oak brook) gave us a counter offer. We also came back with a counter offer so we will just have to wait a few days and see what happens next.

Is it weird that I like to coordinate my kids' clothes for church? I don't do it all the time but I would say more times than not I do. I really can't help it. I think it is really cute and in a way it kind of bugs me the times when they don't match.

I honestly didn't think anyone noticed until one of my friends mentioned it yesterday. So now I'm wondering if it is weird. Even if it is weird I'm not sure I could get myself to stop doing it.

I guess it's a good thing that I know how to make ties and now bow ties for Easton because otherwise it would be too expensive to buy (not to mention very time consuming to find) ties/bow ties to match Blair's dresses. Maybe learning how to make ties/bow ties is what got me in this mess in the first place. Oh well. I really enjoy making them and I guess that is all that matters. Bow ties are so much easier and faster to make than ties so I think I might stick with those for a while until I get bored and switch back to ties.

Easton is still on his "take my picture" kick. He wants us to take pictures all the time of the most random stuff. I just wish that he would show his face while we take the pictures.

Nathan took this one.

I can't exactly remember what Nathan told me this picture was about but I think Easton wanted him to take a picture of his dinosaur tail.

Easton's "pack back" as he refers to it as.
I love it when he says things his own way (especially his shloclate-translation chocolate).
I think he watched Dora one too many times over Christmas break because he now goes around all the time saying, "Say pack back" or "say map".

I was sneaky enough to catch this one picture of him before he could cover his face.

Easton and his beloved Buck. He loves this guy from Ice Age.

He goes around saying, "My name is Buck!"

Easton loves his tools these days. He gets them out all the time to "fix" things. He'll even hand them to us to get us to fix things that are "broken". He is starting to catch on to I believe it is Bob the builder who says, "Can we fix it? Yes we can!" Nathan has recently been saying it to Easton and now Easton is starting to say it.

Recently I have been getting really frustrated while driving (i.e trying to find a parking spot at Nathan's school, finding my way to and from various airports with construction all over the place-have I mentioned that I have gone to all three of the major airports here in DC in the past week?-thank goodness for a GPS!) Like I said I have been getting really frustrated. Anyways, Easton obviously can tell when I'm upset because his newest thing he says to me when I get mad while driving is, "Mommy, be happy!" It always catches me off guard but I'm always thankful for the reminder. It definitely makes me laugh not to mention smile, which makes me happy.



While we were out in Cali house shopping (no we haven't found out anything new...) we of course had to eat out a lot. One of the nights while eating dinner Blair was getting a little antsy so I kept giving her different things to keep her busy. Eventually I gave her a lemon to chew on. Even though her face says something different, she must have liked the lemon because she kept sticking it in her mouth over and over again. I really wish I would have gotten her initial reaction because it was classic. The video I did manage to get (third or fourth try) definitely wasn't as good as the first time she tried the lemon but is still pretty funny.

Video of Blair chewing on a lemon.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned before how Blair likes to play with the fireplace and how Easton likes to tell her no. Well, this is now how Easton keeps Blair from touching the fire place.
.


Video of Blair attempting to get to the fireplace.

House Hunting

We just got home early this morning from our week long house hunting trip. First off can I just say how stressful this whole process can be? Yes, it was fun to go around and look at what might be our future home, but this whole process is so stressful. I flew out Tuesday with Blair leaving Easton behind with my brother, sister in law, and nephew (thanks guys! It was really a big help). My mother in law, Sue, picked us up from the airport and came along with us as we checked out about 30 homes in 3 days. Blair was such a trooper. Nathan flew into Cali on Friday and on Saturday I showed him about 10 houses. Right now we have narrowed it down to three houses and have put our offers in. We should find out by Friday what the banks say. Here's a glimpse of what the three houses look like:

Oak brook:

Right now we are 1 of 2 offers. We have a 50% chance for this one.

- smallest of the three houses but probably the most move in ready.

Carswell:

- largest yard and only a couple of miles from the hospital.

Ellis Godfrey:

- largest house with loft/bonus room upstairs.

It sounds as though the other two houses have multiple offers as well. Hopefully by the end of this week we will get some good news and have ourselves a house. Wish us luck.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

From:

your son who likes to steal your socks


and your daughter who loves to snuggle.
We love you and we hope you have a wonderful day!

Blair creeping

On Monday for FHE we decided to play mancala for our activity. Apparently we found what will get Blair moving. She really wanted to play with the jewels.

Guess whose 9 months?

Can you believe that this sweet little precious baby girl of mine is 9 months old already? I can't. In fact I didn't even realize it until I was looking at the calendar this morning and saw that it was the 8th today. I grabbed the camera and started taking some pictures for her 9 month post. After a while I decided to take Blair outside to get a few pictures since it was sunny and it felt pretty warm out today. She loved it. So much so that it was really hard to get her to look at the camera because she was so interested in everything around her.

Blair doesn't have her doctor's appointment until Thursday so I can't give any stats but I can definitely tell that she is getting heavy (especially carrying her carseat up and down the stairs outside our apartment).

Blair is basically a champ now at eating solid foods. I honestly didn't think that I would ever see the day. She almost always gets mad when her food is gone (who would have thought?) so I have to quickly get some more before she has a melt down. I'm quickly starting to figure out how much she will eat at each sitting so we don't have as many melt downs. She loves her sippy cup (another who would have thought? Since she would never take a bottle). She hates it if anyone ever tries to take it away from her. I caught her this afternoon drinking Easton's chocolate milk (oops!) Nothing is safe from her now.

She is creeping a little more each day but still prefers to roll everywhere. If something is in front of her it had better be no more than 6 inches because otherwise she won't even attempt to creep after it. She loves the fireplace and one of the side tables. These two places are usually where you will find her. I've started telling her no when she ends up at the fireplace but she will just look at me, smile, and then continue to play with the sliding screen in front of the fireplace. I think Easton loves it that I have started to tell her no since he is used to being the only one told no. He takes it upon himself to tell her no as well, stand between her and the fireplace, and when that doesn't work he will roll her away from the fireplace. I haven't figured out if he is trying to be helpful or just trying to be the boss of her.

She loves to stand and walk around holding onto fingers but she isn't cruising by any means. She really won't let go of anyone. I think she is afraid of falling.

Blair is still my little cuddle bug. I think my favorite time now is right when she wakes up from a nap because all she wants to do is snuggle. She will just sit in my lap facing me and put her head on my chest.

So I thought that Blair was getting her two bottom teeth because I could see little white things and I could feel some bumps but now they are no where to be found. They just disappeared. A little weird but I am definitely okay with this. I love her little gummy smile.

Blair still has blue eyes but some days I swear they turn a greenish color. It will be interesting to see what color they end up as.

Blair still has trouble sleeping through the night. I cut out her middle of the night feeding about two weeks ago and she wasn't very happy about this. At first it took a really long time to get her to go back to sleep but that last couple days haven't been too bad. Most of the time I just have to go in, put her Binky in, and then she rolls over and goes back to sleep.

I just love these two

I updated two other posts today. Check them out.

Easton's Modeling Session

Easton's nursery teacher wanted an updated picture of Easton for their name tags. I couldn't find one that was #1 updated and #2 where Easton was by himself, looking at the camera, and/or didn't have something in front of his face. I decided I would take on the challenge and try to get a semi decent picture that fulfilled all the above requirements. I must say it was a hard challenge especially since my model was being extremely difficult. But I think I got at least one that will work. Here is what I had to deal with:

Not sitting down.

Not looking at the camera.

Hiding his face.

Silly faces.

Another silly one.

This reminds me of the "I Want You!" poster.

His "I thinking" pose.

and lastly his monster pose.



I did manage to get a few good ones...



...but I ended up going with this one.

I was telling Nathan all about this and we both agree that it is a good thing that we live in a time where we have digital cameras. No wonder the few baby pictures I have I look really ugly. You couldn't take a million pictures way back when and sort through them until you found one you liked. I'm definitely grateful for digital cameras.

Mr. Potato Head

I finally finished Mr. Potato head for Easton to play with during church. I got the idea from the blog make it and love it. It took me a couple of weeks to finish it because I had to make sure Easton was asleep to work on it (he was too helpful). I will probably add some more pieces here and there (probably more girl stuff for when Blair gets older and can play with it too). Hopefully this will keep him entertained and quiet during sacrament meeting.

Easton's newest sayings

Easton has been saying some funny things recently. It is kind of interesting to see/hear what kinds of things kids pick up on. We are assuming that he picked them up from us but we aren't entirely sure which one of us he got it from (probably both). I prompted him to say them for the camera so it's not as good/funny as when he randomly says it himself.

Video: Oh my gosh!

I know it doesn't sound all that great. We might have to change it to oh my goodness (that sounds a little girly to me though) or oh man (that sounds better and cuter to me).

Video: dang it!

Again it doesn't sound all that great. At least you can for sure tell what he is saying unlike the word fort. His fort definitely sounds more like a different f word. Trust me we don't use that word in our home.

Video: I thinking...I know!

This is by far my favorite when he just randomly comes up to me saying, "I been thinking" with his pointer finger taping his bottom lip. And then to see his face light up a few seconds later because an idea popped into his head is classic.

Video of Easton dancing with his bear to a song he made up. It's called "little bear" in case you couldn't hear him.

Easton and church

Easton decided he was going to pick out his church outfit yesterday. This is what he came up with. Did he wear that outfit to church yesterday you ask. No, sadly I admit I'm too prideful to let my child out of the house looking that way (especially at church). It was pretty cute though watching him parade around the house showing off his cute little outfit that he was so proud of. He even came up with his own cute little dance moves which unfortunately I wasn't able to get on camera.

Although this little boy is pretty cute and funny he is breaking my heart when it comes to his behavior in nursery. I knew his behavior wasn't the best but I guess I didn't realize how bad it was. From what Nathan tells me (told to him from one of Easton's nursery leaders) it sounds as though Easton is the bully of his class. I could make a bunch of excuses as to why I think he is acting the way he is but when it comes right down to it he knows what is and isn't acceptable. We have taught him right and wrong and he knows (at least at home with his parents) there are consequences for his actions. I know kids will be kids and that problems will arise but I believe kids should be held accountable for things they know are not right. How do they learn otherwise? We were told that Easton apologizes after he hits (which is definitely a plus) but I wish that he wouldn't have to say sorry because he wouldn't be hitting in the first place. Is that wishful thinking? The main concern I have is it seems as though in Easton's mind he can hit as much as he likes as long as he says sorry. There are no consequences for his actions. He is definitely not remorseful. I'm not saying the nursery leaders should put Easton in time out (unless they want to) because they shouldn't have to. It isn't their job. So in order for Easton to get the consequences he apparently needs Nathan or myself will be spending the next couple of Sundays in nursery teaching Easton that the same rules at home apply to church as well. And if this doesn't seem to work then I guess we might have to take drastic measures and "ground" Easton from nursery until he decides to behave appropriately. He loves nursery so this might be the best type of consequence for him.

As a side note: I would like to apologize and say sorry to all those parents out there that had "naughty" kids in nursery because yes I judged you. I guess what goes around comes around. I know now that despite what you teach your kids they have their own free agency and they will act however they choose to.

Hopefully with our little intervention our child will no longer be labeled the "naughty" kid. We will keep you posted. If anyone has any ideas we are definitely open to suggestions.