Happy feet

Jack was a dancing machine at the wedding! It was so cute. He told Ryan, "It's weird. Once my feet hit the dance floor, I just have to start dancing, and I just can't stop."

Here is a video of him getting down on the dance floor. It was awesome!

My baby sister is married!

Last night was my sister's wedding. It was great--full of lots of fun and good looking people! :) The boys were ringbearers and actually went down the aisle! We were not sure if they would since they had only gotten 7 hours of sleep the previous night. This concern increased as we saw Grant laying his head on the pillow and sucking his thumb right before it was their turn to go down. However, they did great! Everyone thought they were so cute, and of course they were right!

Here are the boys. This is a picture of them that we took last week.

Here is the weather on Melanie and Greg's wedding day. It looked beautiful, but we were not able to take pictures outside. My parents had about 5 inches of snow at their house.

my baby girl and the gorgeous bride, Melanie

our family--not the greatest pic of the kids, but Ryan and I look good.

getting down on the dance floor

sleeping beauty

Grant fell asleep right after dinner--with his cars. He slept through the whole reception.

the girls!

the newly married couple~Mr. and Mrs. Nichols~looking good!

Praise the Lord!

Before Jack was born my big prayer was that he would have a heart sensitive to the Lord. There have been times recently where I have wondered if I was trying to manipulate God, thinking that if my child had a sensitive spirit, he/she (we didn't know our baby's gender) would be an easy child. Hmmm...no such luck on that one. However, I think God did answer my prayer. Jack has always seemed to enjoy church, singing "church songs," and listening to Bible stories. It is a beautiful thing to see that his heart, even when disobedient, has seemed open to the Word and its Truth. So the other day (March 23), when we were driving in the car, we began talking about God's Book (aka the Book of Life) and how it's important for your name to be in it. He said his name was, and we talked about what was required for your name to be written in there: repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus as your Savior. He said he would like to do that. Now, when I thought about the moment when he would "pray the prayer" it wasn't that I would be driving the car and he'd be in the backseat, but then I figured God doesn't matter where you are, just that you heed the call. He said he'd wait until we got home, but I saw him mouthing words and could see that he said "heart" and could only imagine that he was asking Jesus to be his Lord. When we got home I went and talked to him and asked if he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart, and he said he already did--but was willing to do it again. I'm not so naive as to think that he had some radical transformation upon joining "Team Jesus" (Ryan's term!), but I'm also not so cynical as to think that this could not be real. I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was five and am so thankful that I did it as such a young age. I pray that this is the beginning of a life of devotion to our Lord.

Turn, turn, turn...there is a season!

I LOVE that it's getting warmer outside! The more children I have and the more coats I have to wrangle onto the kids (or try to convince them to wear!), the more appreciative I am for the warm-up. I have basically given up on putting coats/jackets on the boys since they don't want to wear them anyway--does that make me a negligent parent? I really do try, but sometimes I just feel like natural consequences are the way to go.

So, with my two boys having so much energy and loving the outdoors, we are thrilled to finally be able to spend some time outside--enjoying the sunshine, seeing and talking to our neighbors again, and playing in the yard (and, as you'll see in the second picture, the DIRT!). I know that if I lived in a warm climate I would enjoy it, but I wonder if spring would mean as much to me as it does here in the tundra. :) I'll have to remember to ask my sister after she moves to L.A. and has perfect weather year-round!

our first walk of the year as a family

The boys' new favorite thing is playing in the flower bed in front of our house. Given what a mess they make, we are HIGHLY motivated to plant flowers in there sooner than we usually do. (Last year I think it was the end of June--gotta love those BOGO sales!) Also, notice Grant's shirt. How perfect is that for what he's doing!

Crafty Aspirations

My sister-in-law is amazingly crafty. Basically she is a mini-Martha Stewart--and I am incredibly jealous. Here is what she made Caroline for Christmas:

This activity book was filled with snaps, buttons, beads, and other things to keep my kiddos quietly entertained.

The problem is that I just do not have that eye. I cannot easily replicate things I see. One year I decided I would sew some pajama pants and ended up sewing them wrong twice--and made the exact same mistake both times! Ugh!

However, each time I get a new issue of Family Fun magazine the first place I turn to is the back page where they have some sort of crafty idea (usually food, I think) to make. The March issue had some shamrocks made out of yogurt covered pretzels, icing, and decorators sugar. They just looked so cute that I had to make them and figured I would ask my "helpers" to assist. Let's just say that I ended up doing them myself, but I won't go into detail as to what happened so that I can remember this project fondly and imagine that everyone had fun together!

Here is how they looked in the magazine. Aren't they cute?

I realize as I look at this picture that it's hard to see them, but they did turn out looking sort of like the magazine picture. The best part is that they were seriously delicious! Yes, full of dairy and so tasty. I would recommend making them just so that you can eat them!

Daddy's Breakfast

One of the great things about Jack being in the pre-k class this year is that I get to see both the teacher side and the parent side of things. I have so much more understanding of and sympathy for those parents who forget to do homework or send in snack. (Been there, done that this year!) Another great thing is that I get to attend the Daddy's Breakfast even though I am not a Daddy! Last Wednesday Jack was able to eat breakfast with Ryan at school and enjoy a bit of alone (well, along with all the other kids and their daddies) time with Daddy. I have become more thankful for Ryan and what a great dad he is this year. I have several students whose parents are divorced/not together and do not get to see their fathers or have fathers who are not involved. Seeing how much these kids long for their dads makes me realize that God's invention of a family is such a perfect thing! Each year when this Daddy's Breakfast comes around I am unsure of how to approach it since there are always children who do not have dads at home, but I believe we need to acknowledge the fathers who stick around and do an awesome job of showing their kids what it means to be man. And now I'll step off of my soapbox!

After eating the kids sang a song to their dads. As much as Jack loves being the star at home, he is usually a bit more sedate at school. I promise he did sing!

Jack made a tie and picture for Ryan. I have not actually seen these, though, because they're hanging up in Ryan's room.

The End of an Era

Jack at 7 months (when he started sucking his fingers) and 12 months old

2 years old and 3 years old

4 years old and our last pic of him sucking his fingers

Saturday we celebrated the end of an era--Jack finally filled his chart that marked each day without sucking his fingers. This was such a well-established (and well-loved!) habit that we were not sure we would ever make it to Chuck E. Cheese for this party. However, thanks to our beloved dentist (yay Dr. Phillips!) and the threat of Mavala Stop being painted onto his fingernails, Jack stopped before his 5th birthday! Crazy!

And here are some pictures from the occasion:

Jack's chart filled with stickers (yay!) and him showing off his un-shriveled fingers

Caroline and Grant had fun, too. (Eventually we'll be able to celebrate Grant's potty training~but it may be a LONG time from now!)

Brothers! I love this! Grant was scared on the roller coaster ride so Jack comforted him by putting his arm around Grant. So sweet!