Nana and Papa Visit!

We were so, so excited to have Nana and Papa visit us last week!  We hadn't seen them in almost a whole year and they hadn't been to our house in 2 years.  It was so fun to have them around!

It was a little chilly one morning but that didn't stop Logan from watching from her "perch" on the porch to see when they were going to arrive.  She picked out a nice, eclectic outfit to keep her warm.

She was always so excited when she saw them coming up the hill!

Brody loved the extra attention, too.  Though, he spent nearly the entire week cutting a tooth so he was not the happiest camper a lot of the time.

We did a lot of shopping and got to visit daddy at work while they were here, but Logan says her favorite part of them  being here was playing with them in her living room.

It's such a blessing that both of our families love our children so much and that our kids get to see and spend time with them.  Although, we do wish we could be closer, we really appreciate that both sets make an effort to come and see us or help us get out to see them!

Both kids looking at the camera, but no smiles:

Brody smiles:

Logan smiles:

Can't get them both to do it at the same time.  Oh, well! 

Resurrection Buns

Logan and I made resurrection buns this year!  We rolled marshmallows in butter and coconut crystals (you could use white sugar but we're moving away from refined sugars), and then wrapped them in crescent rolls.

We talked about how Jesus was crucified and they wrapped him and laid him in a tomb, just like we wrapped our marshmallows up in the rolls.

Brody didn't seem as amused as Logan was...

After they baked and cooled Logan opened them up to see that the marshmallow was no longer there!  Of course, we know it's because it melted, but to her it was a great visual representation of an empty tomb.  We read the story of Christ's resurrection (in the big picture story bible--fantastic) and ate our special treats.

We thanked God for the empty tomb, yesterday.  

And because this is my last Easter themed post, I didn't really have anywhere else to throw these two photos:

Conversations with my THREE year old!

I've been meaning to get some of these up here, I share most of them on facebook but I want to make sure to get them in the blog so I have record of them!  I'm trying to get my blog printed into books (by year) and these posts are just priceless.

Yesterday, my handheld mixer bit the dust.  Actually, it was just the actual beaters that broke.  When it happened, Logan came in and asked if she could take the broken one with her to make it feel better (she's very into playing Dr. right now).  When I asked what she was going to do, she replied, "Well, I'll listen to it's heartbeep (yes, heartbeep), then I'll take it's blood pump (blood pressure), then I'll give it a teeny shot and it should feel much better."

Logan's bath was less than warm one night and when I told her it was not cold, it was lukewarm, her response was, "First, I don't see Luke anywhere. Second, this is not warm."  

Logan loves to shop.  She pretends all the time that she's going to the store.  One day she asked Mike to go "shopping" with her in her room, which she said was Target. When I asked if she could just shop in the living room and pretend it was target, she looked at me, incredulously, and said, "I cannot shop here. This is Walmart." Well duh, of course I knew that.

Speaking of Walmart....I think it's pretty known that it's not my favorite place in the world.  I don't like the crowded aisle's, it never feels quite clean enough and if I don't want to go through self checkout, I have to wait way too long in the ONE line that's open.  Logan knows this, too, and on the rare occasion that I do go to Walmart to shop, she likes to proclaim "This is just NOT our favorite place.  You don't like walmart, do you mommy?"  Usually this happens just as some employee is walking by.  I want to crawl under a rock every single time. 

When Logan pretends to grocery shop, she likes to carry her "coupons" and look for the sale items.  One morning she was "scanning" her items and exclaimed, "WOW! 40?!  That's way too expensive.  Guess I'll have to put that back and wait for it to go on sale.  (audible sigh)"  

We're not sure where she came up with this, but every once and a while, when you try and get into her room she'll say, "You'll need some money to get in here, please."  

I took Logan to see The Lorax on opening weekend.  We had a fun little girls night.   However, Logan isn't able to say "Lorax" so she kept telling people we were going to see "Your A**."  Yeah.  Try and explain that one to people.


Tonight I walked into Logan's room and she asked, "Hey mommy, will you please leave the hall light on tonight?  I think it will encourage me to stay in my room all night."  To which I responded, "Did you just say encourage?"  And she replied, "Yes, I did!  Will you?"

And for kicks, a few Loganisms: 

Muddles (mud puddles) 

water fodels (waterfalls)

 tause (pause)

  re-room (living room) --this one's been around since she was 16 months old.

 mathis (math)

Number L (number 7)

 She called Miami your-ami for a long, long time until she realized she loves it there, and now calls it OUR-ami (not mine, not yours, but ours). 
Dr. Chuggington (Dr. Covington, her pediatrician)
Re-di-ur-ee-us (ridiculous)

Easter Sunday!

Happy Easter!  We were so excited to celebrate the risen savior today, but we really celebrate His goodness everyday.

We went to the seminary after church, today, to take our "traditional" Easter/spring pictures.

Logan is desperate to get her little brother to walk.  I think she wants to be able to chase him around, so, she's taken to helping him move along.

Logan wanted to play in the fountain.

Brody spent some time flying.

And we got some good sibling shots.

Did some more flying.

And running.

And just being cute.

Then we tried for some family pictures.

It was hard to get everyone to cooperate.

After we got home we had some goodies waiting for us!  We've made it a tradition to get the kids a fun pair of shoes every year for their baskets and this year we got them each a pair of crocs.

They were a hit!!  (And yes, Logan's croc's have Belle and Aurora in them)

Here we are in 2010:

2011:

And we did actually get a good picture in 2012:

Hope your holiday was wonderful!

ONE!

Homeboy loves the bath.

Brody is 12 months old!  Here's what he's up to:

-He weighs 20 lbs and is in the 25% for his weight

-He's 28 inches long and is in the 25% for his height.

- His head is in the 90%

Sitting in his big boy chair (thank you Great Grandpa Niels, Aunt JoAnne and Granddaddy and Mimi!)

- He wears size 3-4 diapers if he's not in cloth and is still on the medium setting on his one size diapers.

- He wears 9-12 month clothing but I've started just putting him in his 12 month spring/summer clothes because of the weather, they're a little big but he'll grow into them.  He's a little one!

- He crawls like a machine.  He's SO fast and can get from one side of the apartment to the other in seconds.  He's not walking yet and I'm pretty sure it's because he doesn't see a need since he can crawl so quickly.

- He does cruise around furniture and he'll hold your hands and walk with assistance.  Though, he'll only do that for a little bit before dropping to the ground to crawl.

- He climbs furniture like a little monkey.  He finds ways to get up onto most anything.  I've seen him move toys near Logan's bed so he can climb onto the toys to hoist himself onto her bed.  Definitely all boy.

- He still sleeps really well.  He takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon and then is down for the night at 7.  Typically he wakes between 9:30-10 for a quick 10-15 minute cuddle session and then is back down until 7:30am.  When he's cutting teeth we're up all night.

- He cut one more tooth between 11-12 months so we're up to 7 and the 8th is right underneath his gums.

Hey there, handsome!

- We've got him down to using the pacifier only during naps and bedtime.  We've actually done quite a few naps without the pacifier, too, so I'm thinking we may drop it during naps altogether soon.

- He eats three solid meals a day.  I've yet to give him something he hates.  His favorites are: mango, avocado, cheese, peas, green beans, broccoli, bananas, strawberries and carrots.

You can really tell how tiny he is when you see him in cargo shorts like these, they're 6-9 month and they almost look like pants!

- He's drinking whole milk now and seems to enjoy it.  He's still nursing, too.

Birthday dinner.

- He can say several words in sign language: more, please, thank you, all done, night night, bye bye, milk, drink, hungry are the ones off the top of my head.

- He can say a few words verbally: bath, ball, juice, milk, cheese (in reference to smiling for the camera-ha!), bye, dada, mama, ya-ya or la-la for Logan.

- Is very affectionate.  He's a super snuggler!  

- An absolute morning person, unlike his night owl sister!  Not going to lie, it's a little bit difficult to have one of each.

It's very strange having a one year old the second go around.  With Logan I looked at one as being so old and not a baby anymore--in fact, I think I was calling her a toddler before she even turned one.  Brody, though, is still all baby to me.  Maybe it's because he's not walking yet?  Or maybe it's because after having had one, I know that the time is so quick and so precious that I need not grow him up more quickly than he already is going to.  It's such a blessing to watch him grow and learn and explore the world.  We know that all things come from the Lord and are so thankful that this is one of the blessings that He's chosen to bestow on us.  We look forward to many years go come!