Easter

Easter fell just after our family had been down and out with sickness for two weeks (Mama ended up falling victim last), so there was virtually no planning to this Easter, which meant I had zero expectations for the day, which made for a very relaxing holiday for me! I think there's a lesson here. 

Potluck breakfast at church, church on the lawn, and lunch at J's parent's house with an egghunt!

But first, the Easter basket, with new legos and a few snacks.

I always love our Easter family photos - they have become a tradition.

Although that one ended up being the second take, after this adorable picture featured what looks like BB coppin' a feel.

Some of my fellow Vineyard Mamas

I love how this family photo came out too!

Backyard egghunt.

We hid the eggs everywhere. Everywhere.

BB finding one of the hidden eggs

 

We like to make them really work for it. (Note: SS had a special Easter egg in his shorts when Auntie Seen lifted him up for this pic!)

Victory!

 

On the move!

Pensive B, growing up

Hunting and gathering. SS wasn't that interested in egg hunting until J opened one up and showed him the jelly beans inside - suddenly, SS was possessed by the spirit of his literal name and pursued eggs with abandon. Or at least, more interest than before.

  

After taking group photos, I constantly forget to change the setting OFF the timer, and I use a timer feature that takes five successive photos. So it's really annoying when I go to take a photo and hear the "Beep, beep, beep" that means the timer is going off. I did that about ten times after our big family photo on Easter. I wanted to get a pic of S and the (heaven-in-your-mouth) trifle dessert she made, and when I clicked we heard the beep beep beep and were at the delirious point so S decided to try to do a different pose for every photo, which was highly entertaining (and somewhat perilous for the trifle! Don't worry, it survived...until we ate it.)

When I Grow Up

This video has a little bit of real life with boys at the end, sorry about that! But, this is our life. It's always entertaining.

For those who can't watch the video, BB would like to be

1. "Ee"lympics

2. Basketball

3. Zookeepaw

Valentines and Other Lost Holidays

 

Do you know how much I love you? in a card!!! It's like it was made just for Jonah and J and I.

Monster and dino valentines for his classmates

In January my beautiful BFF gave birth to this precious baby girl in about 10 minutes flat. Okay, it might have taken a little longer, but it wasn't long enough for somebody who was invited to be in the room with her to actually make it to the hospital in time. A little different from my 26 1/2 hours of  first-time labor.

I settled for a lot of post-birth cuddling :) 

Baby G, 8 days young

Now Baby G comes over a few times a week and gets a lot of attention from these little men.

Some MLS teams came to Tucson to play some preseason games, so we got to go cheer on the Seattle Sounders here in Tucson! My sister and her fam are ardent Seattle Sounders fans, and thus are we, by proxy.

Silly faces! Can't get enough of Archer's silly face :)

It was such a beautiful night! 

I will say that I'm not sure what made me think the boys would sit and pay attention to an entire professional soccer match. I mean, they watch sports on TV with J, so I guess that's what gave me these optimistic expectations? Instead, the boys were normal preschooler and toddler and were antsy, all over the bleachers, requesting snacks every 5 minutes, etc. But we still had fun.

Couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous evening. Soccer + beautiful sunset = my happy place. The only thing that could have made it better is if they called me onto the field to play with them.

Playgroup mama's red lipstick night out!

Our first time at the Tucson Rodeo parade, an annual Tucson tradition.

A night out downtown for my friend's birthday

 

One of my fave pics of the boys, from Thanksgiving!

 

Anniversary dinner in January

Cutie pie buddies from the womb

BB's first and only (so far) non-mama haircut

One night SS and BB disappeared and instead we had dinner with a monkey and a fox.

aaaaaaaand publish.

Undies

A plague has decimated our household. One by one, all of have fallen. All except the mighty Mama.

First BB, then SS, and now Daddy have all suffered through this stomach bug's wrath this past week. Thus, we have been home bound for so. many. days.  Mama's losing her mind.

BUT, the silver lining of our cloud of quarantined illness for days on end has been that being home gave us the opportunity to keep SS in undies with immediate and frequent access to a potty for several days in a row, and SS has been very successfully using the potty with only had about one accident a day (usually #2, I don't think he has the sensation for that one down yet)! A few days ago I felt stumped and stalled out in his potty training process, so this has been such an encouragement! And today, while Daddy slept off his stomach bug, the boys and I re-entered society, and SS wore undies out in public for several hours for the FIRST TIME EVER! With no accidents in public! We went to the Farmer's Market for several hours, and then out to lunch, and SS rocked his little undies and dry shorts the duration of our outing. I am so proud of him!

Here are some photos of our first outing with both boys in underwear:

BB loves silly faces and poses

And SS does and says everything his big brother does

This week of illness is the third time SS has been sick in about six weeks, including our first ER visit, so I am really feeling it this time around, especially after being stuck at home for so. many. days. in a row. Our outing today was very refreshing, but things feel hectic and out of routine. Encouraged by the huge leap forward on the potty-training front, and looking forward to a new week!