Easter!

I love the Friend (PS, it has it's own website now with fun stuff for kids!). As soon as James was born I got a subscription and have read it to him every month for nearly two years now. This month they featured a week of study following the last week of the Savior's life. It has been a real blessing in our home this week.

A little over a week ago, Paul's grandpa (who raised him) took a very bad fall. He broke all of the ribs on the right side of his body. He cracked vertebrae. He had a concussion and was bleeding from his ears. When he was in the hospital he was quite ornery and as a result was drugged up so he would sleep. There wasn't much we could do, but we have been praying for Grandpa and his name has been on the prayer roll in the temple every day. On Thursday they decided to try to take him out of his coma. On Saturday Grandma was told that there was no brain activity and that it was time to think about letting him go.  Grandma was strong and made the calls to her grandchildren to give them the sad news that Grandpa was dying. During church today we felt the love of the Savior and the peace that the knowledge of the resurrection brings.  After church we decided to go and walk around the Provo temple grounds. While we were there we got a call informing us that Grandpa had woken up and while he was in pain, he was responsive! We know he is not out of the woods, but we are overcome with the love of the Lord today.

We also had some fun! On Saturday we took James to the Orem Easter egg hunt. He won a ball and free bowling (which I'm really looking forward to!) and got a decent amount of candy for a 2 year old. Most of it was too hard for him, but he had fun!

Sunday morning he got to debut that sweet bow tie. Everyone thought he was just the cutest thing. Like I said earlier, we headed to the temple afterwards. There were hundreds of missionaries there and several were following him around and taking his picture.  A few of them even requested to have their pictures taken with him. It was pretty funny.  Then we went home, had leftover pizza and took a nap before heading over to our friend's for dinner and an egg hunt. I think the kids had a lot of fun. James loves B. She's 18 months older than him and he really looks up to her and tries to imitate everything she does. It's cute. And A. just has him whipped. She's only 10 months old but she's the only kid that can just take something from him and get away with it.  

Pointing out the yellow flowers

Farm Country

We took James to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point yesterday. It was so much fun. He had been last summer, but his personality and language skills have really exploded since then.

He called all horses, cows, donkeys, alpacas, ponies and other big animals "cows." And he made sure to shout it at them and let all the animals know that they were, in fact, cows.

feeling the wind on the wagon ride

"cow says 'moo!'"

there is a little kid's sized Jail house there. James didn't like being behind the bars at all. 

me and my not-so-little boy

feeding the goats

feeding the chickens

I wish that we had a family pass to Thanksgiving Point because I would be there ALL the time. We had a great time. I can't wait for when we visit the Detroit Zoo this summer. I think he's going to have a blast!

Spring!

While it currently doesn't look like Spring, It is!! Here is what we've been up to lately:

homemade pizza. YUM!

I don't know how he managed this.

Playing at the Park

New books from the library

I picked up this food tray from DI for 50 cents! And yes, he will eat all this food for lunch.

He piled up all the bedding and pretended to sleep. 

I love this kid

I picked up the wreath at DI for $1 and the flowers from Joann for under $2.  I just painted it white and hot glued the flowers on. SO much cheaper than pre-made wreaths.

My sister and I both made one. We blew the eggs ourselves and painted twigs from her yard. I love it!

James just loves this peeps bunny garland made from felt.