Easter!

Yay Easter! We were afraid we wouldn't get to do much for Easter this year, but it actually turned out pretty fun!
We found out that there was an Easter Egg hunt in nearby Faith...but it took forever to find out when! There were signs posted outside all the businesses saying "The Easter Egg Hunt is in City Park", but none of the signs had a day or time. After asking at least half a dozen people, we found out it was on Saturday...one of the few nice sunny days of the week!
I learned later that the high school 4-H club was in charge of it, so I guess I can be more forgiving about the lack of info on their posters, if they were just high school students. Even though most high school students probably would have caught that. I'm just sayin'. Also, it is usually held at their rodeo grounds, which were swamped, so I supposed the signs were just informing of the change of location?
They had three age categories (the BEST way to have an egg hunt); I was with Elora in the 4-8 year old group that covered most of the park.
She had fun running around, but she kept flipping her basket as she ran, and three times I had to stop her so she could pick up her eggs, or she would have had none at the end!



After I shot a few pics of her (and got her to hold her basket straight) I rand down to the 1-3 year-old section, where Joseph was helping Josh and Jonah. This was in an enclosed horseshoe area, which was perfect for the little ones. I was afraid they'd be all done, but they were taking their leisurely time picking up the abundance of Easter treasure. Jonah thought finding eggs was awesome! He was so excited the whole time.


In the end, the boys both got around 15-20 eggs each, while Elora only got six. A lady told me they usually have way more kids in the younger category, but there were only six kids there this time. Hmm...maybe they were all waiting at the rodeo?

In each age category (the third group was kids age 9-12) there was also one egg that contained a prize slip, saying they'd won a big chocolate bunny. And our Jonah won one of them! I think he thought it was a toy, not food, and he refused to smile for the group picture, but they said he will be in the paper. So I hope someone at church saves us a copy of Jonah's first brush with fame.



Later that afternoon, we decorated our eggs. Daddy was concerned about dying his hands, thus the gloves.



However, Jonah wasn't concerned about dying his hands at all! Especially if it's green, his favorite color. He also wasn't concerned about breaking his eggs, as he wouldn't let anyone help him put them in the colors, and he invariably dropped them with a loud crack to the bottom of the bowl.
Eventually, we gave him a plastic egg to dye so he wouldn't break all of the eggs! He had a great time.


And there was only one crying fit for the afternoon, which resulted from Elora dropping her special egg where she'd drawn herself and mommy, with the word "friends" written on it. Oh, and she didn't like how the purple looked. So we did yellow, and she eventually calmed down.



In the end, we got a good looking bunch of eggs.



Then there was Easter morning! Jonah was ecstatic to find eggs again; this time he knew what was inside, and he wanted to stop each time, open the eggs, and eat the candy on the spot. It was hard to keep him moving so he could find all of his.

After church that day, we wanted to take some Easter pictures, since we didn't really do any last year. I had wanted to take some pictures at this spot every time we pass it, and we had the camera anyway because I was due for another "belly" picture this week.
I knew the time of day wasn't very good for taking pictures, but there was no way I'd try to get everyone back in their nice clothes later in the day.
The kid ones turned out pretty cute:




Though all the family ones left a little to be desired! We took six pictures, and in every one the kids were squinting or making annoyed faces. The light wasn't that great either. Oh well...we'll take a new family picture in the Fall with the new baby anyway. Maybe we'll come here again?



However I was very happy with my pregnancy picture, it turned out just like I wanted!



Maybe it helped that I had Joseph pose first so I could get the camera just how I wanted it. (Don't tell Joseph I posted this...he wanted me to delete it. Shhhh!)



All in all, a great Easter weekend!

First Picnic of Spring

All this week it has been alternately raining and snowing..as it has in much of the country. I think it's funny when I read weather comments on facebook, that no matter where people live they bemoan the unusual weather in their unique area, even though it's pretty much the same everywhere!

Anyway.. last week, there were some beautiful days, particularly last Monday. That's why it was such a pleasant surprise when Joseph came home from work that afternoon and announced we should have a picnic for dinner!

Luckily we were already in the process of making potato salad, so we just had to throw together a few sandwiches and our water bottles and we were off! There is a little area with picnic benches not far from our house; the kids and I went there quite a few times last fall, but daddy had never been there before.
Doesn't he look so excited? ;)





I thought it was funny to compare these pictures to our first outside dinner last spring, as I discovered that Elora was wearing the exact same shirt, and it was the same time of day, with the same dishes. I guess it's tradition now?




Some of us had to take a break from eating to explore the area. We were lucky there weren't any snakes about, as I guess they are common here in the springtime.



Jonah enjoyed stomping around, except for the grassy areas that were high enough to get in his face. Which was pretty much everywhere.



Pretty soon it was time to head home from our fun picnic.



Oh yeah. And that cute picture of Jonah with his curly hair? Sadly its all gone now,as mommy cut his hair a little too short this week. Oh well, at least he's still cute, right?

Baby Boy!

For those who haven't heard yet, yes we are having another boy!

We got to go into town where my appointment is the night before , as there was a big snow storm which might have prevented our driving there the next morning. The kids found this very exciting! Well, except when Jonah cried for an hour at bedtime because he wanted us to leave the light on in the hotel room. At least we got to order a pizza and bread sticks (an impossibility where we live) and had the continental breakfast provided the next morning.

After breakfast we went to the ultrasound appointment. I was afraid they'd get upset at us because the paperwork I'd received clearly stated that only one person could come with me. I was kind of glad for the snow the night before, so if anyone questioned me I'd have a good excuse for having everyone there! Thankfully, no one said anything.

Elora had a great time viewing the ultrasound readings as the technician pointed out body parts, the baby's position and other things. Before the end Elora was an expert at pointing out all the baby details herself, much better than many adults! She didn't seem too upset about it being a boy either, maybe because she'd been disappointed last time and had steeled herself against the possibility this time?

Joshua and Jonah weren't quite as thrilled and were ready to go long before it was over. Neither of them got unruly, they were just a little restless, and every thirty seconds Josh would ask, "Can we go now?"

They took tons of pictures of the baby, which of course look just like the sonograms we got of our other kids, for the most part. In this one you can see the lens of their left eye, and their heart:




In this one he might be sucking his thumb:




And here is a nice profile that looks just like Elora's ultrasound profile:



They also did several 3-D pictures. These are always a little weird. If the baby is moving, it might look like it's face is smeared or something. Sometimes if the depths of the scan are off you might see shapes like their brain is showing or a limb has no flesh on it.
These ones aren't too bad; this first one is odd because it looks like the baby doesn't have a nose yet, even though at this stage it should look like a normal baby with hardly any body fat. Maybe the cartilage wasn't scanning well or something? Also see the bony arm and brainy-looking head? Hello alien.



Here is a profile; I think he was moving his hands when it was taken, so it looks like there are a few extra fingers. And his head is falling apart.



So...right now we still like the names Jude and Eli, though we're leaning toward Eli. Joseph thinks it'd be reeeaallly funny to give them a middle name starting with G, just so their initials would spell "Egg". HILARIOUS. (Read with sarcasm).

Actually, my grandpa's name is Gary, which I could use, so that might actually be a possibility. I know tons of people are scandalized when kids' initials spell something, but really it doesn't concern me unless its a swear word or especially derogatory. Because really, how often do you tell people your middle name?

Sunny Spring Days

Last week, some of us got our first sunburns of the year! Joseph got his going out for ten minutes with his school class without a hat. The rest of us were outside picking up trash. How exciting is that? Every time it's windy for more than a day (which is often) we find the grass around our house (and everywhere else) littered with trash.
There is always some degree of garbage from litter-bug school kids : pop cans and bottles, pens, papers, etc. But after a windy spell, we can also find bits of random plastic, roof tiles, insulation, and other random garbage. My guess is that some of it comes from the open garbage bins, while the rest blows out of people yards and houses.


The first time I witnessed this phenomenon, I thought maybe the full time maintenance people might pick it all up eventually. But I learned that nope, everyone just waits for it to blow on across the prairie.
We soon adopted the habit of picking up any trash we find on the way to the mailboxes, and on these especially messy days, we take bags out and go around gathering up everything we can find. For some reason, Elora and Josh actually ask to go pick up garbage, and find it rather enjoyable. Maybe because it's such a fun family activity?

The next day it was actually sunny again, so we decided to go on a little walk about.



This is a little rodeo-type area nearby that hasn't been used for years, by the look of it.

Elora and Josh have come here with me before, but I was a little nervous with Jonah climbing around! When we were going back down the stairs, he went to go backwards like babies do...but he almost backed up over the edge instead of toward the stairs! I was glad I was right there and able to stop him.


Then Elora decided to bring more adventure to our day by falling on a big ream of barbed wire just laying on the ground. She totally freaked out (and hypochondriac daddy freaked out later about her needing a new tetanus shot) but she just got this big scratch on her leg, and a few smaller ones on her arm. Mommy wasn't too worried...I'm all about up-to-date immunization.



We spent the rest of our adventure exploring familiar areas around the perimeter of our little community...you know, like our favorite piles of dirt.




And I was glad we had, because that night the rest of the clouds rolled in, and we were inundated with rain all weekend!



Yay for Spring!