3-28-07

NEW MINI-VAN

We bought a new mini-van this month. We had tax returns and some other extra money coming and we both felt like it was right time for us to buy a larger car for our family. We looked at three cars initially, the Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, and the Dodge Grand Caravan. The Odyssey was our favorite of the three, but they are quite pricey, so we decided to look a little more closely at the Dodge Caravan. We went to a dealership that had a great deal on a 2006 Grand Caravan and they showed us a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country that they had just gotten in. It had power doors and a power lift-gate, heated leather seats, and automatic Tri-area climate control and it was only 1800 more than the Grand Caravan we were looking at. Since it had everything I wanted in a mini-van and the leather seats that James really liked we decided to buy it. Its been nice to have all the extra storage that a mini-van offers and the extra seats so that John doesnt have to squeeze in between the two car seats when he wants to come somewhere with us. I think it will be a really good car for us.

DISNEYLAND TRIP

On Friday the 16th James and I were writing each other on the computer and he mentioned that he didnt want to be at work and I said I didnt want to be at home and so we thought wed go on a road trip to test out our new van. James mentioned Disneyland in the list of places that we could go and of course I latched on to that idea. We hemmed and hawed around whether to actually go or not and we called John who was in Texas with Jeffery to see if he wanted to go with us. I think the clincher for making the decision to go was that I found a hotel right across the street from Disneyland that someone had cancelled their reservation for so the rate for the room was about half the normal price. That and John finally decided to come with us too. So we packed up the car, bought a new plane ticket for John, booked the hotel room and finally set off at 9:00 pm. Less than 24 hours after James and I had the initial conversation about where to go, we were walking into Disneyland. It was crazy and fun to just make a snap decision like that. Seth was really excited when we told him where we were going. We picked John up from the Santa Ana Airport that night and we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying Disneyland together. John bought Seth a Peter Pan hat and himself a Captain Hook hat and there were many great battles fought between the two of them. Jacob loved the carousels and the play area in Toon Town where he could crawl around a little. The whole trip was a whirlwind and tiring but we had a lot of fun and it was a nice break for all of us.

SETHS UPDATE

Seth has been working on not wetting his bed this last month. Its been a little frustrating, because I dont think he even feels it when he pees at night. Weve found that if we can get him to drink more during the day instead of tanking up right before bed he tends to stay dry. We have a long way to go before he will really be night trained though. Its been fun to watch him get better at problem solving and using logic. One of his new favorite phrases is That doesnt make any sense. When we told him that we were thinking about going on a road trip, he automatically said that we should go to Disneyland. When James asked him if we should go somewhere else like Zion National Park, Seth said, That doesnt make any sense Dad, Disneyland makes sense. I wish I had had a tape recorder for the whole conversation because it was really hilarious. Seth also likes to dress up. He has about 6 or 7 different hats that he wears to be different characters.

JACOBS UPDATE

Jacob learned how to stand without holding on to anything. One day he just pushed away from the couch and stood there for a few seconds. He also took his first step by accident. He is still not very interested in walking, but learning how to balance is a good step in the right direction. He also has at least one of his back molars in and is working on the others. We found out that he has some springtime allergies when we were in Disneyland. When we walked out the first morning his eyes got all red and teary and his nose started running like mad. Luckily, we found out that the Emporium at Disneyland sells medication and we dosed him up with some Benadryl as quickly as we could. He spent most of that first day asleep because of the medicine. We also found out that he is not as good of a traveler as Seth was at this age. Jacob doesnt like to sleep in the car and would rather be crawling around than stuck in a car seat. He did pretty well, but we had to stop and let him out a few times. Thats something we never had to do with Seth. Another big milestone for Jacob is that he learned how to nod his head to say Yes. Its been nice to get some sort of communication from him about what he does or doesnt want.

FUNNY STORY ABOUT JACOB

We were getting ready to go to Hannah's baptism and I put Seth in the bathtub. Jacob had taken a bath the day before so he didn't really need one and I had him all dressed up in his Sunday clothes to go to the baptism. Jakes likes to be in the bathroom whenever anyone is in there and I let him play around in there while Seth took his bath. They were having a good time so I ran downstairs to get something. Pretty soon I heard Seth yelling at the top of his lungs that Jacob is in the Bathtub. At first I thought he was just saying that Jacob was in the bathroom, but then he kept yelling and laughing about it. I ran back upstairs to find that Jacob had pitched himself into the bathtub, fully clothed and was having a great time splashing and playing with Seth. He was as happy as a clam! I was laughing at him and scolding him at the same time. It was really cute, but it made us a little late for the baptism. Needless to say, I've kept a close eye on him in the bathroom since then.

JAMES AND MIEKKA

James has been working hard lately. His company is going through some rocky times and we dont know exactly what will be happening with this job in the next year. Several people that James works with are already jumping ship in the wake of some rumors that they might be closing the Utah office. We are praying to know when or if we should start looking for something different. So far we feel like we should hang on and see what happens. We are enjoying the warmer weather and James has been paint-balling and I have been working a little in the flower beds and taking the boys for bike rides and other outside excursions.

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob

1-21-07

Happy New Year everyone. We are way overdue for an installment on the website, so here it is (finally).

Thanksgiving

We spent most of Thanksgiving Day in the car. We drove up to Logan to see James' Grandma and Grandpa Baerwaldt and enjoyed hors d'oeuvres and desserts. Then we drove to Draper to have Thanksgiving dinner with my family. After stuffing ourselves with stuffing and turkey and yummy deserts, we got back in the car and drove home so we could roll ourselves into bed.

Sinterklaas

On December 5th we celebrated Sinterklaas with my mom's extended family. Seth, Jacob and their cousins gorged on candy and got more presents than they knew what to do with. On the 6th we woke to find our shoes filled again with even more presents. Seth got the airport that goes with his Geotrax train set. Jacob got an airplane that also goes with the set so that he could play too. James and John both got yo-yos. It was a fun day. There were so many yo-yo's flying around. Seth and Jacob even got into the action as you will see from the photos.

Henderson Christmas

Since our family was leaving to spend the holidays with James' Mom and Dad in Virginia, my family decided to have a gift exchange a little early this year. We had a nice dinner and then we all got to open presents from Grandma and Grandpa Henderson. Seth was in present heaven from the amount of gift opening he got to do this December. Every time I told him we were going to see someone he would ask if there were going to be presents there. The grandkids also put on a Nativity for us. Seth did triple duty, he played Joseph, a shepherd and a wiseman. I guess that's what happens when you are the only boy in the family old enough to be in the play. He had his hands in his pockets the while he played Joseph and the shepherd and was very serious about the whole thing. It was so funny because I'd never seen him put his hands in his pockets and leave them there before. All the kids were very cute though and did a great job.

Christmas in Virginia

We flew out to Virginia on the 16th and had two and a half weeks of rest and relaxation.

DC Trip with Seth

We took Seth to DC and enjoyed unseasonably warm temperatures, as we walked around the city without jackets on. We ate at Ben's Chili Bowl, which has been a dream of James' since seeing the place highlighted on a food tv show. Then we went to the National Botanical Gardens to see the model train displays. It wasn't as impressive as the last time we had seen it, but the model builder had been smart enough to have one of the trains pulling Thomas the Tank Engine on one of the flat bed cars and that made it all worth it for Seth. We also saw the Rembrandt display that the National Gallery had going on and we went to the Air and Space Museum.

Clay Oven Food

We throughly enjoyed making pizza, bread and other things in John's clay oven. The pizza's were awesome and it was definitely an experience to cook them in the oven. I'm not sure I'd be willing to put in all the effort that it takes to get the oven ready to go, but I liked the fact that it is possible to bake things outdoors if you put forth the effort.

Seth's Shows

While we were in Virginia Seth broke out of his shell and did several performances for the family. He would go around and give everyone a ticket and then he would go to the front of the room and say "Ladies and Gentlemen!! A New Show!!!" He would the proceed to pull a pretend rabbit out of his hat or make Lion disappear or something of that nature. When his show was done he would take a bow, which with his awkward 3 year old body was pretty cute all on it's own.

Hike for Breakfast

James and Seth went with the family on a hike for breakfast. They packed everything they needed to make a dutch oven breakfast in a bunch of backpacks and took off. The island they hiked to is the site of an old quarry and there was a big stone partially cut away from the bedrock which Seth dubbed his pirate ship. The cooked an awesome breakfast of biscuits and breakfast hash. Seth also enjoyed being Grandma Debbie's baby bird as she dropped orange sections into his open mouth. They all came home muddy and tired.

Christmas

It was so fun to have the Lance clan together as a family (all except Elder Lance that is). Seth slept upstairs with John and Jared on Christmas Eve. I hear they got up very, very early and Christmas morning waiting in agony for Grandpa Lane to wake up so they could get to the presents. This was Jacob's first Christmas and it was fun to watch him try to figure out what exactly was going on. He had a good time unwrapping his gifts and then playing with the wrapping paper after whatever cumbersome thing inside of it was out of his way. He was dressed in a red and white striped Christmas outfit and looked like a chubby candy cane. Grandma Debbie had gotten everyone a sticky slap hand to play with as one of the family gifts. Unfortunately, something about the slap hands triggered Seth's gag reflex and we had to make everyone put them away to stop him from throwing up. Later, Jana was showing Grandpa how the hands worked and Seth happened to walk in the room. His reaction was immediate and we ended up with barf all over the floor. It was hilarious and sad at the same time. For the rest of the trip we had to make sure there were no slap hands visible in any room that Seth went into. Christmas day was very relaxed and we spent most of the day playing, watching movies and enjoying the company of family.

National Marine Museum

We went with Grandpa and the boys to the National Marine Museum. It's a brand new museum and really impressive. We ended up going to it twice because James, John and Grandpa all only got through about a quarter of the museum the first time we went. There was a lot to see and do.

Temple / Arlington Trip

The day after Christmas the whole family took a trip to the DC temple. We left Seth and Jacob with Jeff and Jared while all the recommend holders in the family went to an endowment session. I think it was a dream come true for Mom and Dad to have almost all their children in the Temple with them. I know it will be a thrill for me when my kids are old enough. After the temple we headed to Arlington National Cemetery. It started pouring rain as we pulled into the parking lot. We quick-marched our way up to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in order to catch the tail end of the changing of the guard. We were drenched as we walked back down, only to have the rain stop as we reached the visitor center. Justin took the blame for the rain, saying that it has rained every time he has ever been to the cemetery. I would like to go back one day when it isn't raining and wander around a bit more.

New Years Eve

We decided to have a small party for Jacob's Birthday on New Years Eve so that Grandma and Grandpa could watch him get cake all over his face. The cake wasn't quite as gooey as we would have liked, but he managed to get pretty messy even so. The highlight of the evening was ringing the big New Years bell. Seth thought it was the coolest thing and was very sad when we had to put it away because it was so loud. For the rest of the trip he kept asking me if he could have the big bell in order to ring it and be a train conductor.

We had such a great time being with family. Seth was really sad to have to leave his punkles, especially his "best friend, Jared". Jacob loved snuggling with Jana and playing with grandma. James had a great time with all the members of his family, but I think he was most excited to get to spend time with his dad. And I have never had so many ready and willing babysitters and was spoiled to be able to leave the boys whenever I needed to. It was also especially fun for me to get to know James' mom and dad better and to feel more a part of their family.

Jacob's Birthday

Can he really be a year old already? It has absolutely flown by. We had cake for him on his actual birthday, but his party isn't going to be for another two weeks so that John can be there when he gets back from Germany. We love having Jacob in our family. He is growing so fast and learning new things all the time. While we were in Virginia he finally learned how to clap. It was funny because he learned how to say the word clap before he learned how to do the actual clapping motion. He also learned how to say "hello" and loves to pretend he's talking on the phone. In the last month he has gotten four new teeth and now has four on the bottom and four on the top. He can stand for a few seconds on his own. Much to Seth's chagrin he loves to follow his big brother around and play with whatever Seth is playing with. He has gotten very chatty and will babble on and on. He says, ma ma, da da, done, clap, hello, bye-bye, and loves to sing yo-ho yo-ho a pirate's life for me and twinkle twinkle little star (both mostly babbling to the melodies). He is also very protective of things in his possession and if you take something away from him, he will definitely let you know that he is unhappy about it.

Seth's Update

I took Seth to the doctor this week and he weighed 32 pounds. He had gained 2 pounds in a month and it must be mostly in height because he hasn't chubbed up at all. He is still a train man through and through, I bought him an engineer's hat and he calls it his "ductor" (conductor) hat. He also keeps telling me all the new geotrax train things he wants for his birthday. His other love is playing pirates, he will go around the house wearing a belt with his sword tucked in one side and his pirate pistol stuck in the other. He said something really funny the other day when he was playing pirates... He pointed his pirate hook at me and said "Give me your woot!" I went along with him and gave him some pretend loot. He said, "Thank you. Now I can say, 'Ha, Ha'" Then he proceeded to say "Ha-Ha" in his best piratey voice. It was so funny. James and I nearly fell out of our chairs because we were laughing so hard. I think it's probably not so funny in the retelling, but if you've ever heard him talk like a pirate it's easier to imagine the hilarity of him saying "Now I can say Ha-Ha" before actually saying Ha-Ha. He's now a Sunbeam in Primary and has made the adjustment fairly well, but he still has a problem with hitting other kids and we are trying our best to help him learn to control himself. We love his vibrant personality and relish the times when he sneaks up and gives us kisses and tells us that he loves us. He is a wonderful son.

Well, I think this letter is quite long enough. James and I are doing well and having so much fun being parents. We hope all of you had wonderful holidays too and wish you the best for the new year.

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob

11-12-06

SEPTEMBER

September was a quiet month for us. We spent Labor Day with my family hiking and climbing big rocks up at the Brighton ski resort. We also took the kids up to Snowbird to the Oktober Fest they have there. James was excited to see that they had Dale Myberg the 1996 Yo-yo World Champ there doing a show and offering free lessons. James ended up spending most of the time that we were up there trying to learn how to loop-de-loop his yo-yo a little better. Seth and I went up and tried out the bounce houses that were there. After looking around a bit we went and had some German fare for dinner. Jacob tasted a pickle for the first time and loved it!

DISNEYLAND

Mid-October found Seth and I saying goodbye to James and Jacob and hopping in the car to head to Disneyland again. We went with my parents and my sister, Amy. We spent 3 days at the parks. Seth really enjoyed the Buzz Lightyear ride and he was also tall enough to go on the small roller coaster in Toon Town and the bumper cars which were both fun for him. He also really enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean and decided that he needed a pirate sword for his souvenir. My mom and I went to the Dollar store and found two pirate sets for less than Disneyland was selling one cheap pirate sword, so we got them for him and he and Amy played pirates. Seth also learned that the pirate word for Bathroom is the "Head" and so for the next few weeks he had to go splash his pee-pee in the Head. We had a great time. I think I've gotten my Disneyland fix taken care of for the next year or so.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween was so fun this year. Seth was Woody the cowboy from Toy Story and Jacob was a horse. The Saturday before Halloween was the annual pumpkin carving party and my Aunt Jo's house. Seth and I carved a Thomas Train pumpkin. Marrisse's kids had the day before Halloween off school so we had a Halloween party that night at my parent's house. We dressed up, played Ghost's in the Graveyard, "bobbed" for doughnuts, and played Halloween bingo. On Halloween day we went to James' work and Trick-or-treated from desk to desk. We also went to my mom's house and trick-or-treated a few houses in her neighborhood before heading to Jenni's for dinner and more trick-or-treating. Seth ended up with a huge bucket full of candy.

JOHN'S BACK AGAIN

We are happy to have John living with us again. He finished his job in Iraq and after spending a few weeks in Virginia made his way to Utah. He is living in the basement and has decided to move from the small cave-like bedroom into the unfinished bedroom at the south end of the basement. He has been busy getting organized. He bought a used truck, updated his bike, and has laser surgery done on his eyes. He is studying for the GRE so that he'll be able to start grad school sometime soon.

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth has been learning his letters and numbers. He taught himself how to write the letter H and is working on E and S. He can also read his name and the word Cars. He surprises me all the time with little points of brilliance and insight. He has been diagnosed with Asthma after having trouble breathing during two chest colds. We give him breathing treatments with a nebulizer once a day. The doctor says that there is a chance that he could grow out of it, but he's got relatives on both sides with it so I guess we'll wait and see. Seth's biggest accomplishment this month is finally being potty trained. He has some bad days still, but he is doing a great job and we are so proud of him.

JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob has been cruising. He finally began to crawl and he loves to pull himself upright. I weaned him when I went to Disneyland in October, but he really enjoys drinking from a bottle and was on his way to self-weaning anyway. His first word was ba-ba which he says when he's hungry. He learned how to wave hello and to "throw it in the oven". He loves to explore everything and to follow me around. He reached the 20 pound mark so we had to move him out of his infant car seat and into a convertible seat. His first top tooth came in and I expect his second will be here any day. He loves to laugh and is ticklish all over his body, so it's pretty easy to make him giggle uncontrollably.

JAMES AND MIEKKA

James has been really getting into his yo-yos again. He's been perfecting some of his tricks and has been thinking about getting some new yo-yos. He's really been enjoying having John here to talk to and play with. They spend a lot of time "saving the world" in their Battle for Middle Earth game.

I have been busy being a mom. I made Seth's and his cousin Sophie's Halloween costumes. I cook and clean and shop. I love playing with my all my boys and am having a great time!

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob

9-29-06

I'm trying a new format for this newsletter in the hopes to make things more concise and to not leave anything out. So here goes...

FATHER AND SONS OUTING

On the 22nd of July James and Seth went up into the mountains for a Stake Father and Sons outing. Our ward was in charge of a lot of dutch oven cooking. James decided to try his hand at Elaine Hicken's peach cobbler. Seth spent the evening using the dutch oven tools to move rocks around. They came home smelling like camp fire and Seth was dirty from the top of his head to the bottoms of his shoes, so it must have been a great time!

PORTLAND VACATION

James' company sent him to Portland for a conference and we all decided to go along. We spent Saturday and Sunday touring around Oregon. Saturday we went to the Portland Saturday market. It was more like the portland hippie fest, not at all what we expected. Sunday we drove out to the coast and spent the afternoon at the beach. My parents and my nephew Caleb met us on Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of the week with us. James was in conference stuff all day every day. I think he had a good time, but wished he could have seen a little more of Portland. My parents and I and the kids went to the Zoo, the Children's museum, the Japanese gardens, the Chinese gardens, the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Seth's favorite part of the trip was riding on the light rail Electric Train through the city and the Zoo train. He would say "ALL ABOARD" over and over every time the train stopped which was about every 2 minutes. I'm not sure the other passengers on the train appreciated it, but he had a great time. We also celebrated Seth's actual birthday on the last day of the trip with a slice of cake from the hotel restaurant and presents from mom and dad and grandma and grandpa. We spent that afternoon with James at the Oregon Science Museum before getting stuck in a major traffic jam on the way to the airport. With the 2 babies and Seth all in diapers, we called this the trip of the 4 P's, Peeing, Pooping and Puking in Portland. Let's just say that we used a lot of diapers, changed a lot of outfits and soaked a lot of burp cloths.

SETH'S BIRTHDAY

Seth's third birthday party was a Bob the Builder theme party. I made him a cake shaped like Bob's steamroller, Roley. Seth was so excited to see the cake come together and couldn't wait until we could put the Bob candle holder on it. It was fun to celebrate his birthday with all our friends and family. I can't believe he's three years old!

WILD WEATHER

We had two separate days of crazy weather here in the last month. The first day we had over and inch of rain fall in less than a half hour. That is practically unheard of in Utah. Our road was nearly covered in water and the rain was literally coming down in sheets. I have never seen anything like it in all my 30 years here in Utah. The second day of weird weather started out mild, but as the storm rolled in we had wave after wave of downpours and marble sized hail. The hail ripped our flowers and gardens to shreds and tore leaves out of the trees. Our yard looked so sad after it was all over, but thankfully it has slowly recovered.

MINI GOLFING

For FHE last week we took Seth Mini Golfing for the first time. He had a great time using his golf club like a shuffle board stick. He'd get the ball sort of close to the hole with his stick and then pick the ball up and either put it next to the hole and then hit it in with his club or just put it right into the hole. He also had fun running over the little bridges and into the tunnels that made up the course. It was a great FHE night.

SETH'S UPDATE

Seth's big accomplishment for this month is that he started potty training. He is still trying to get the hang of it. He's having a hard time telling us when he needs to go, but he had two dry days in a row this week and when he has a third dry day he will get some new Thomas trains to play with. I think he gets a little tired of mom and dad asking him if he needs to go and then doesn't want to go at all. He has also inherited his dad's love of computer and is quickly becoming a whiz with a computer mouse.

JACOB'S UPDATE

Jacob has become a mover! He has learned how to army crawl or breast stroke his way around the house. He doesn't use his knees yet to crawl, but he is fast at "swimming" from room to room. He is good at babbling "ma,ma,ma" and "da, da, da" and he can sit by himself now. His two bottom teeth popped up within three days of each other. It was kind of funny, because Jacob had a runny nose one day and I mentioned it to James and James said, "Maybe he's teething." Later that day I stuck my finger in Jake's mouth to see if his gums were swollen and instead of swollen gums I found a little tooth! It was quite a surprise.

FUNNY STORY

A few nights ago James did something really funny. We were laying in bed, he was asleep and I was almost asleep. Suddenly he says in a loud voice, "And this is how you fall asleep!" and then he lets out this big fake snore. I looked over at him wondering if he was being silly or something, but he was just sleeping peacefully. I told him about it the next day and he had no recollection of it. Now it's a running joke. Whenever he's getting ready to fall asleep he has to say "And this is how you fall asleep" and then snores loudly. It always makes me laugh.

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob

07-16-06

Oh boy! I shouldn't have let two whole months pass since writing last. So much has happened. I'll try and keep this as short as I can and just mention some of the highlights.

Over Memorial Day weekend we took Seth for a "Day Out with Thomas". The Heber Valley railroad has a life sized Thomas engine come out each year and the kids get to take a train ride with Thomas. Seth was sooooo excited. There were a bunch of booths that were all Thomas related. Seth got to ride in "Clarabell" (one of Thomas' coaches) and had his picture taken with Thomas. We even ate dinner at a train restaurant.

I finally gave Jacob a haircut. James didn't want me to do it, but Jacob's bangs were so long that they were almost touching his nose. I took a bunch of before and after pictures. He looked very military after the cut. I thought that all he needed were some Army fatigues and he'd be set to follow in Grandpa Lane's footsteps.

At the end of June we went up to Logan for the Baerwaldt family reunion. It was fun to spend a few days with family that we don't see very often. We had an especially good time with Darren and his family. They came down to our house and we went swimming together before heading back up to Logan.

My brother Spencer and his wife Tammy came to visit the first week in July. My parent's had an open house to introduce Tammy to all of their friends. We spent a few days with Tammy, her mom, her sister and her sister's son. We went to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur museum and to the zoo. It was fun to have my whole family together.

We celebrated our 5th anniversary on the 13th of June. Seth spent the night at Marrisse's house, Jenni watched Jacob, and James and I went out to dinner at the Melting Pot. It's a fondue restaurant. The food was fantastic, but the price was pretty steep. We've decided that if we go there again that we will get just the cheese course and the dessert course. We also got ourselves a flat screen TV for our anniversary present.

Seth has been growing up so fast lately. He is getting very precocious. His new favorite thing is to ask "why" after everything I say. He is learning his ABC's and can sing the ABC song all by himself. He is getting really excited about his birthday. I have convinced him that he wants a Bob the Builder birthday instead of a Thomas one so I don't have to go out and buy all new stuff for the party. Seth has also learned to jump with both feet off the ground. He loves playing with his cousins and pretending to be different characters from the movies that he watches.

Jacob weighed nearly 16 pounds at his 4 month doctors appointment so he is gaining about 2 pounds a month and should weigh nearly 20 pounds now. I have the sore arms to prove that he is definitely a big boy. He has learned to turn himself over and has been getting himself up on his hands and knees quite a bit. I think he's not going to be a slouch about crawling and walking like Seth was. He can get his binky into his mouth by himself and is working on being able to sit up. I also started feeding him solid foods a few weeks ago. So far he likes everything I've given him except for green beans.

Well, that's about as short as I can make this update. We love you all.

Love James, Miekka, Seth and Jacob

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