My trip to California

My littlest cousin Acacia, got married on April 11th. I wanted to go to the wedding, but the headache and cost of flying out there with all five of us was overwhelming. Luke suggested I just take the baby and go by myself. I contemplated this idea for a couple months. I had never been away from the kiddos except for giving birth. It was a big deal for me. But I went ahead and decided to go for it. 

Friday morning (April 10th) I went on a 13 mile training run. Then I packed my bag. It was amazingly easy to just pack for me and Josie. Then I headed over to say bye to Jack. He was eating lunch at school and when I hugged him, he started crying. Then I almost started crying. I reminded him that he would have fun while I was gone and that Luke would take him to Ft. Fun. That was all it took and he was happy again. Then Luke dropped me and Josie off at my moms house and we said goodbye. 

My mom and I headed for the airport and everything was so smooth. Even the airplane ride was great and Josie slept the entire time. Friday night we got settled into the hotel and I was amazed at how easy traveling was with just one baby. 

Saturday morning Luke's family came and picked me up at the hotel and we went to breakfast and then back to Grammie's house. It was their first time meeting Josie so they were all excited. 

Then I headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. It was great to see all my family again and for them to have a chance to meet Josie

After the wedding we had a reception dinner at a nearby restaurant:

And then we headed back to Kristi's house for a while. 

Sunday morning it was off to brunch: 

Then to my grandparents house:

Then to the airport:

Things on my side went great. It was by far the easiest vacation I have taken since before kids. I was even able to find time to read an entire book... something I haven't done in years sadly. 

Back at home, Luke and the kids were super busy. Friday night Jack and Lily both had soccer games. Then Saturday morning they both had swimming, followed by Game Day at Jack's school and then a birthday party at night. Sunday was less scheduled and they went to church and Ft. Fun.

 I got home Sunday night and the kids were alive, house was clean and laundry was going. Luke had done a great job... guess I need to go away more often :)

Easter

The kids were really excited for Easter. They always go to bed super easy the night before Easter and Christmas knowing that the gifts won't come until they are asleep. Easter morning Jack came and woke us all up ready to go downstairs. I was really surprised that he took the time to walk around with Lily and help her find her eggs and basket which were hidden in the kitchen. She was truly surprised to find her basket. And Jack was suspiciously kind and patient...

After Lily found her basket, Jack announced that he had no idea where his basket could be and started walking around the house looking for it. When he finally found his basket, he didn't seem surprised that he found it or even surprised to see what was inside. Upon further inspection and prodding I noticed that all of Jack's treats and his main present (Pokemon cards) had already been opened. 

It turns out, our sneaky little boy had gotten up in the middle of the night, or early in the morning and had snuck downstairs. He had found all the hidden eggs and opened them and then put them back together again. And he had even found his basket and opened his pokemon cards and eaten his chocolate egg. He then put everything back together again and tried to act surprised in the morning to rediscover everything. It finally occurred to me why he was so helpful and kind to Lily by helping her search for everything versus how he usually is so competitive to be the first to find everything.

After that morning fun, we went to church and then came home and painted some eggs. The kids had wanted to dip eggs in the dye and we had picked out a couple dye packets. But the eggs I got them (fake white eggs) didn't dip. The color wouldn't stick. So instead I had to bring out the paints and the kids painted them.

It was a beautiful, warm day so Jack set to filling up water balloons.

Lily played with a bucket of ice water


You wouldn't believe how much fun a bucket of ice water can be.

I water over the head:

Ice down your shirt

Dancing with ice

And water balloons are always great

Jack will spend hours filling up water balloons so Papi will spend 10 minutes throwing them all at him

It wasn't until the end of the day that we got a family picture. They were dressed cute when the day started and by the end of the day Josie lost her cute skirt, Jack was wearing the pants of a dragon costume and Lily was running around in just undies (thankfully she had a dress nearby we made her wear for the picture). Life behind the scenes of these pictures is always more entertaining.

Luke with the girls

Time with Josie

Josie is the happiest baby on the block. She rarely cries and everything about her is easy. She is a tiny little peanut, only in the 4th percentile for her height but she is perfect to us. She rarely gets put down so it took her longer to learn how to roll over and will probably take her longer to learn how to crawl, but I am fine with that. I was happy to put her on the bathroom floor while I take a shower knowing she can't go anywhere. Until one day I was in the shower and I heard her screaming. I looked out of the shower and she was no where in the bathroom. Frantically I started searching and found her in the closet under the dirty clothes basket crying. I couldn't figure out how she managed that since she couldn't even roll over yet. Then I started noticing her back flops when I would put her down on the floor. She is amazingly good at back flopping clear across the floor... 

Josie is a talker. She is babbling non stop. If she is not eating or sleeping, she is talking:

Josie is a ball of happiness. She is very energetic and always moving around. Her eyes and smile light up the house. 

Time with Lily

Lily is our sensitive, caring little princess. She is attracted to all things girly including nail polish, make up, jewelry, shoes and pretty clothes. She spends hours every day deciding what to wear and changing outfits. She has such a sweet, easy going disposition. And as a typical little sibling, she follows Jack around and obeys his every command. 

She also loves to dance. She just finished two rounds of dance classes at a local studio and soon she will start ballet. 

Lily is also a natural singer. She loves to sing and even make up her own songs. She is so caring towards Josie and will hold Josie's hand during car rides and sing to her when she's crying. She even said that she would share her most valuable treasures with Josie (her clothes and makeup). I had to get that on film: 

Lily's favorite things are playing with Jack and coloring. She is a natural at all sports and has the endurance of a 6 year old... probably directly related to keeping up with Jack. She is taking a music class where she gets to practice singing and playing the bells. She is also taking a month long farming class at a local farm where they get to milk the cows and see all the baby animals. This week Lily starts a soccer program and I know she will do amazing. She can even outrun Jack. She will be starting preschool this fall but is already very advanced in terms of reading and writing. Lily has the sweetest, most sensitive disposition so she rarely gets into trouble. She is quick to apologize even apologizing for Jack when he does something wrong (Jack hates apologizing). I think that saying "Little girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice" is the perfect description of Lily.

Time with Jack

Jack has matured a ton this past year. He is excelling in first grade and has grown out of most of the immature behaviors that he got in trouble for last year. Reading finally clicked for him as well and he has astonished us by how amazing he can read now! He won't really speak French with us at home but his teacher says he is doing great in school. She does send home books to read in French so that is when we get to see his progress: 

Here is Jack's first grade class:

Jack is also in his first year of piano lessons. He is reading music and playing chords. He is doing amazing and though he complains about practicing, he really seems to enjoy it when he masters a song: 

Jack excels the most at swimming. He is in swimming lessons with kids much older than him and he will be joining the swim team this summer. He is a little fish in the water and he says it is his favorite sport. When we went to the pool with friends over spring break there was a diving board but the lifeguards wouldn't let him use it unless he passed a swim test. He had to swim the entire length of the pool and back with no assistance and both lifeguards were astonished when he made it. He was so happy to be able to use the diving board and he even got a little daring and tried doing flips:

Jack's favorite things right now are playing Wii with Luke, doing search and find books, and playing tent with Lily (taking all the chairs in the house and covering them with all the blankets in the house and then stuffing all the toys in the house underneath... a huge headache for me). He is the typical first born with a strong desire for control and leadership. He approaches every situation head on and never cowers. We have been working on his aggressive tendencies because they get him into trouble, but they also are an advantage in some areas. One day at the park a little boy was being mean to Lily. Jack waited next to Lily until the boy's dad came. The boy's dad was a very scary looking guy, I was even a little afraid of saying anything. But Jack went right up to the man and said "your boy hit my sister" in a firm voice. The man apologized and made his son apologize and Lily was instantly happy. It was great to see Jack stick up for her like that. 

As for classes, Jack is doing piano lessons, swimming lessons, soccer, taekwondo and boy scouts. It has been a very busy spring for him but he has had no problem keeping up. His energy is limitless.