Easter

The past few years we've gone to a community Lutheran church, the same church Emory went to for Bible School over the summer, for their Easter egg hunt. They always have blow up houses, food etc. The kids love it. This year Jeremy's friend from work, Josh, came with us which was fun.

Our ward also had an egg hunt. We were, however, a bit late getting there so the hunt was pretty much over. McKelle started crying when I told her I think we missed it. Fortunately, the ward kids were awesome and "dropped" some more hidden eggs for the two kids to find. They had a good time. The primary kids also sang a few songs afterwards and did great! McKelle was nice and loud and gave me a sweet thumbs up during the performance :)

I spoke in church for our Easter sacrament meeting and had a great response afterwards. It was a neat experience to see how the spirit directed me when preparing the talk the whole way. One night, after attending our adult stake conference session, basically my whole take just came to me! I've never had that happen before. It was pretty cool.

We've been taking a quick 15 minutes or so this week to do something small to remind us of Christ last days here on earth. We reenacted His triumphant entry, visited the temple, died Easter eggs, had a special passover dinner etc. I think the kids have really enjoyed it and it has helped make this season special.

Harrison is 9 months

Harrison had is 9 month check up yesterday (even though he's closer to 10 months now). He was 18 pds, 18% percentile, and 29in long, 66% percentile. I feel like he's not nursing anymore. He'll get one or two good feeds a day which are like 6 minutes total, that's it. I can't get him to stay on for more than 30 seconds! It was the same with Emory too. I always thought it was because I got pregnant that Emory stopped but going through it again with Harrison made me remember that he was just too busy to nurse and it was a wrestling match to keep him on long enough to get any milk! Same with Harrison. Ever since he got those fevers a while back, his nursing has gone way down! He'll take a 6oz bottle of formula before bed and he'll eat 3 good meals a day of baby food/finger food but as you can tell, his weight is pretty low for the average (which is exactly how Emory was too).

He is, however, finally sleeping through the night. We dropped his third nap so he'll take a morning nap from 9-10:30/10:45 and then an afternoon nap from 1/1:30-3/4. He'll go down for bed around 7pm and wake up usually after 6am.

He still has no teeth (the other kids got their first at 9 months I believe), but they'll come in soon. He loves clicking his tongue and is babbling all the time. The most noticeable syllable is "mama" of course. He has also figured out how to scream! We're constantly reminding him to talk instead. He likes shaking his head "no," playing the piano, swinging, bath time, his walker and oranges. He is eating all kinds of food and usually prefers finger foods to baby food. When sitting on the stairs one random day, he started to climb them! He can pull himself to a standing position. He's still practicing crawling on his hands and knees. He'll get up on all 4s and sometimes will move a leg or two while still on his knees. He actually does it best in the bath tub which is kind of funny. He has the cutest facial expressions and will often wrinkle his noes and squint his eyes, too cute!! The other thing he does that is so sweet is when he is on top of something soft or fluffy, he'll bury his face in it and shake his face and hips back in forth while screaming. Its too funny.

He's just the best and everyone loves him!

Emory's Music Class

I continue to be so impressed with Emory's music class. He is learning so much and doesn't even know it! The teacher will play three different cords on the piano and he's able to identify which ones they are which I can't do! He is also able to look at a piece of paper that I'm holding and play the coordinating color cord on the harpsichord while strumming too. He loves playing the harpsichord best and takes a lot of ownership in "his" bells. I love it! He's going to have such a strong musical foundation from this class.

It has also inspired Jeremy to start playing music again. He's really spent some time playing the piano lately. I love having music in our home!

Emory & McKelle Play Legos

Harrison got some big legos from Santa for Christmas. The last several weeks, I'll wake up to Emory and McKelle playing "house" with their legos. They love it and will play for a long time. They always rebuild and make a new house with a garage or kitchen etc. It's really fun to see them playing so well together.

McKelle Playing "House"

McKelle and Emory love to play "brother and sister" or "mommy and daddy" or what my brother and I used to call, "house." When McKelle and I play together she'll say, "Do you want to play Mother and sister?" Then we take turns playing the different roles. When she's the mom she'll always call me "sweet heart" or "honey." It's too cute!

-->

Harrison is 8 months

Our baby boy is 8 months now! He is clapping his hands, always sticking his tongue out (I think he's starting to feel his teeth coming in), pulling himself to his knees or even a standing position! He is getting much busier now. Changing his diaper is a wrestling match (to say nothing of getting through church). The only hope I have of getting through it is to make sure he has something in his hands to entertain him. I'm pretty sure he can say "mama," which melts my heart! He had a weekend with several back to back high fevers. I think it was just from teething, poor thing, but we had to keep pumping medicine in him in order to keep the fever down. He was also pretty congested during it too which meant he had a really tough time nursing. Ever since then my supply and his demand have gone way down :(. He is still taking 3 naps and is sleeping through the night! Hooray!


-->

Hotel Pools

One good thing about having our kitchen a mess from the water leak, was the hotel they provided us with for a few days. We never actually stayed in the hotel because it was too far from the kids schools etc. But we did take advantage of the amenities and pools they had available. It was a bit cold at the time but Emory still ventured down the water slide. We all enjoyed the hot tub best!

Emory's Pre-K Parent-Teacher Conference

We had another parent-teacher conference for Emory today. His teacher had nothing but positive things to say about him. She said he will do great in Kindergarten and she has no concerns for him. He's ready academically, socially etc. She said he has improved during circle time and just the last week he got up and started dancing during circle time. He's come along way from sitting there all pouty not wanted to participate. She said he knows how to model good behavior but sometimes if he thinks no one is watching will try and get away with taking a toy etc. She said he likes testing that line and probably will always test his limits. She said he is always asking questions and thinking things through. She said its not very common that you can have a 20 minute conversation with a 5 year old, let alone one that actually makes sense but you can easily do that with Emory. She said he'll do great in STEM (science, technology, engineering & math) and loves that he asks questions because that's how great things are discovered. She also loves how into art he is. He enjoys learning about the artist and then takes great pride in creating his own masterpiece.

I just love hearing all these great things about Emory. It's easy for me to forget how great he is when I'm around him all the time and trying to discipline him but he really is a great kid!

Mom's birthday

I made sure to celebrate my birthday all week this year :) I treated myself to an evening at a float spa. It was a really cool experience. You float in this little capsule with 1000 pounds of epson salt so you float effortlessly. The water is the same temperature as your skin so after awhile you don't even feel the water anymore and it feels like you're floating in outer space because you can't feel anything touching you. It's so cool. I was in a pretty deep meditative state and loved it. It has also helped me sleep better at night. I also had a fun night out with my girl friends and finally got to see an awesome musical movie called "The Greatest Showman." I loved it! The music is fantastic. The kids and Jeremy took me out for pizza at a fun restaurant. They had corn hole outside that we played with the kids. They had a good time. It was a fun birthday! Crazy to think how fast time flies.

McKelle's Preschool Field Trip to the Zoo

This past month McKelle's preschool has been learning about dinosaurs which I love because it's a class entirely of girls. The Phoenix Zoo has a dianosure exhibit right now so they took a little field trip there. McKelle had a good time! I love that he's making friends at school and takes ownership in her experience at school. She's so proud of all the things she learns at "her school."