Newsletter: May 2006 Archives

5-7-06

This has been a fun month. We have spent a lot of time with family and just enjoying the nice spring weather.

Easter was a fun weekend. We spent Saturday at my sister's house and had an Egg Eggstravaganza. We dyed easter eggs, had an easter egg hunt, ate egg salad sandwiches, and had chocolate ganache eggs for dessert. My dad and I hid the eggs in the backyard for the egg hunt. We hid some really easy to find for the younger kids and harder for the older ones. Seth had a blast once he figured out what was going on. He was quite the intrepid egg hunter. He even picked up a few of the "hard" to find eggs. I found a train shaped easter basket for him at the DI and he carried that thing around all day long. He also had a fake flower that we had made at the Treehouse museum earlier in the week secured in his hair. It was so funny to see him carrying around a train easter basket with a huge paper flower in his hair. There are pictures of it so you can all get a good laugh too. Easter Sunday we had a nice dinner at my parent's house. James made the Easter ham and it was so good that he has been dubbed the Ham King and must make all the Easter hams from here on out. It was a really tasty ham.

I bought matching outfits for the boys to wear on Easter Sunday. I looked at lots of stores, but it's hard to find toddler sizes and infant sizes that match. I lucked out finally and found outfits in the right sizes that were on sale and they had a cute train engine on the front of them. I couldn't have gotten a more perfect deal. Seth saw the train and wanted to put the outfit on right there in the store. The boys were so cute in church that Sunday and Seth was showing off his engine shirt to any one who would pay attention to him.

James and I both celebrated our 30th birthdays this month. I think I feel a little bit older just because 30 is one of those taboo birthdays. I'm not in my twenties any more. We celebrated with my family on Easter Sunday since my birthday was the next day and then celebrated again on James' birthday. James gave me a treadmill so that I can get some exercise while I'm watching the news after the kids go to bed. I gave James a oven probe thermometer and some stands for the new laptop he has. We both had nice birthdays.

James' mom, Debbie, came to visit us and to see baby Jacob. I think James was despairing that she might not make it out here since her schedule is dominated by so many things that she can't control. We are so glad that she was able to come and spend time with us and the boys. We went to the zoo with her and Jenni and Justin on James' birthday. All Seth wanted to do the whole time we were there was ride on the little train they have there. It was torture to have to look at all those animals first.... That night we headed over to my parent's house for Caleb's blessing. Marrisse and Aaron decided to have the blessing on a Friday night so that all of his family who were in town for BYU graduation could be there. There were a lot of people there and it was fun to see everyone. Saturday we cleaned the yard in anticipation of Jacob's blessing and then we went out to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Baerwaldt.

Sunday we blessed Jacob. We had lots of family and friends around us and it was a great occasion. James gave Jacob a beautiful blessing. He was blessed to have strong friends and family, to be an instrument in the Lord's hands, to serve a mission and to be married in the temple. I pray that Jacob will live worthy and want to have these blessings come to pass in his life. After sacrament meeting we had everyone over for a continental breakfast. Of course since we planned to have the breakfast outside it started to rain just as we all got home, so we moved everything back inside. It was still nice, but it would have been quite crowded if everyone we had invited showed up.

Tuesday was Debbie's last day with us and also her birthday. We all went out to dinner at the Bombay House restaurant. After gorging ourselves on the good food we came back to our house and had a rice crispy square birthday cake. Then we said family prayer and then said our goodbyes. I am glad that Debbie was able to come and see us. It was good for Seth to get to know his other Grandma a little more and for her to spend time with her grand babies.

James received a promotion at his job this last week. He is now a Senior Programmer. He will be in charge of the programming for a new acquisition his company recently made. We are excited about the promotion since it will give James a more prestigious standing in the company and also came with a nice raise. The raise will greatly help us in paying down our few debts and making more improvements on the house and yard.

Seth was finally exposed to Thomas the Tank Engine. It came on PBS while we were watching one afternoon and then Grandma Debbie brought him two books that feature Thomas. He is now addicted. He's told me several times that he is going to have a Thomas birthday party. Unfortunately for him, I already bought Bob the Builder stuff for his birthday. I guess we'll see how insistent he becomes... Seth's favorite new phrase is "What are you talking about?" and he likes to call James and me by our first names instead of mom and dad.

Jacob is growing as fast as he can. He loves to be upright and stiff and is sometimes hard to hold because he is always leaning away from whoever is holding him. He is laughing more and more and really likes to babble "stories" to us when he is happy. He is also getting close to rolling himself over. He is starting to grab things and wants to play with toys. Seth likes to help him get his toys and has even let him play with Lion a few times. I can't believe he is almost four months old. Time flies when you have a cute baby I guess.

I think that's it for this installment. We love you all.

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob