The night before

Before we went to bed the kids put out carrots for the Easter bunny! I tried to put out long, unpeeled carrots with the greens on top, but I was scolded by Alyssa who said, "Mama, you have to peel all the carrots and take the yucky parts off! The Easter bunny doesn't like those!" So, I preceded to 'groom' the carrots a bit and we made it outside to set them out. Alyssa chose the backyard in hopes that the bunny would remember to put out eggs for an Easter egg hunt!

'Egg'cellent Fun!

Aunt Christina, Uncle Wayne, Hayley, Lilyanne and Brayden are still in town for the week, so we decided to make some little Easter treats and color eggs together. We made our way to Grandma and Papa's on Saturday to have fun and get a few things ready for our Easter brunch on Sunday. The kids had a blast and even Jaden was able to get in on the fun!

Coloring eggs with 5 kids 10 and under can be a bit challenging, but we did it! Only 2 cups of colored dye were spilled, Alyssa ended up with a blue leg, and I'm sure Grandma's grout is a pretty shade of blue-yellow, but everyone had a great time and we ended up with a rainbow full of colored eggs!

Ive also been trying to do some sort of Holiday themed food item with Alyssa. Since we were running low on time today, we made Easter egg chocolate dipped rice krispie treats and rice krispie treat baskets full of grass and candy! They turned out so cute!

Jaden, Alyssa & Daddy

Alyssa coloring her eggs!

Alyssa preparing the dye

Jaden coloring his eggs! (read online about putting the egg into a wire wisk for the little ones so that it doesn't fall out -- worked great!)

Patiently waiting for her eggs to be done

Concentrating on writing her name!

Lilyanne

Alyssa's name - she wrote it all by herself!

Long gone....

So February and March have passed us by, and if you follow, you already know I have been unsuccessful at keeping up with the blog the last few months! Between work, visitors, multiple play dates and most importantly, Alyssa's ever-so expanding social calendar, I haven't had time to just sit down and write. I will usually do this in the evenings, however lately, sleep has over taken the blogging at night! There is no possible way to try to catch up, so I thought I would do a few short posts of pictures from February and March to capture the craziness of the last few months!

Random pics from Feb

Because I lacked February postings, here are a few pictures from the month ~

Alyssa and her friends having a Valentine's Day Party that we hosted

Chocolate dipped marshmallows for the party

Treat boxes Alyssa and I made

Alyssa and Aidan at another friends' Valentine's Day party

Alyssa being silly at a birthday party

Funny glasses!

Alyssa and Jaden on the glass coffee table - we have since removed it from the living room!

This is what Jaden thinks of medicine cups

Valentine's day breakfast

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tourist for a day

It's always so great when someone comes in to town for a visit and we get to play tourists for a day! It's probably been over a year since we've been down to the strip. My cousin Vincent and Suzi were in town from Florida over the weekend and we had the opportunity to go see some new sites that were recently built. We walked through the new shops at the Planet Hollywood and dined on some "Phish Food" ice cream at Hagen Daaz. Then we enjoyed the beautiful sunny weather and walked across to the new City Center plaza! After that we headed back to the Wynn where we had a delicious dinner buffet! Alyssa and Jaden were so good and had a we all had a great time with Vinny & Suzi!

Suzi, Vinny & Alyssa eating Hagen Daaz

Jaden loved his ice cream, too!

Alyssa making water tornadoes

Alyssa said she had to pose on these beautiful stairs!

Boys, boys, boys

Today Jaden had his very first boys only play date! He is so used to always having play dates with multiple people, and mostly with older kids that are Alyssa's age. Alyssa was off spending the night with nanny so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for Jaden to have a little of his own fun time. Tyler and Graysen came over this morning and the boys, who are all within 2 months of age, had a blast! They all got along so well together and with no crying, they played and played. They rode the train, played cars, blocks, puzzles, ran around, and to end the day they ate lunch together. By about 12:30, the whining started and it was nap time! Thank you Gena & Tyler, Kathleen & Gray for a great day!

Jaden teaching the boys how to climb on the coffee table

Look guys, Alyssa's gone, we can play with the magical wand!

Jaden and Tyler playing with a puzzle

Tyler

The aftermath of the living room!

Future mountain climber

With every day that passes, I'm convinced that Jaden is going to be some sort of climber one day. He masters climbing on something and then moves on to another object that is just a little more difficult than the first! His 2 most favorite spots are the dining room chairs and the coffee table.

The cracked tooth

Well, the day finally came ~ the day that one of my children "break" per say. I've definitely had my fair share of bloody noses, bumps, scratches, bruises, vomiting, diarrhea, fevers.....you name it, but never a cracked tooth.

Alyssa was watching figure ice skating on T.V. the other day with Nana and thought it would be fun to ice skate around the living room. She jumped up to do a triple spin and fell flat on her face. The first words from her mouth were, "Nana, I have sand in my mouth!" Sure enough, it wasn't sand, it was a piece of her front tooth! A little scared, but mostly embarrassed, she was okay. I keep telling her that when she gets a little bigger, her baby teeth will fall out and she'll grow new teeth that aren't broken!

In hind-site, I think her broken tooth gives her a little spunk and adds to her personality!

Trying real hard to show her tooth - she thought squinting her eye would do it!

Eating with a spoon

Today was the beginning of a new era for Jaden. He was actually interested in trying to use a spoon instead of just shoveling the food in with his hands. It was a little difficult for him at first, but he began the process of getting used to using utensils. I'm not quite sure he's totally ready, as the bowl was overturned and the food was on the floor more than in his mouth!

Are you sure I should use the spoon, mom?

Hmmmm......

Yay! I did it!

Like sister, like brother

Jaden is getting very good at watching and studying Alyssa these days. Purposely, she does various things and hopes Jaden will follow. Today, it was getting in and out of the empty toy buckets.

Growing and growing......

15 months old........

And yet, another milestone birthday! I can't believe my baby boy is 15 months already! It seems like yesterday that I was writing down all of his accomplishments from his first year, and yet the list keeps growing. I didn't realize how much more he can say/do in only the last 3 months since he turned one!

*Since he mastered walking at 9 months, I knew the other physical aspects would come quickly.....he can now run, climb, get up and jump on the bed, climb into a dining room chair and then proceed to stand up in the middle of the dining room table, go up and down the stairs unassisted and get into the middle of the glass coffee table! Whew! This is the sole reason why I do not have a gym membership!

*Jaden can say "hello," his own version of "Alyssa," "more," "down," "mama," "dada," "num num," (food) and many more of his own babbling and pointing combinations.

*He can wave good bye and hello, give kisses goodnight, blow kisses, drink from a cup with a straw.....

*He loves any food from vegetable soup to fruit, to cheetos! He doesn't really have a favorite food, but will scarf down anything you put in front of him, and a lot of it!

*As for baby things, he his totally off the bottle and I'm sure will be climbing out of his crib any day now!

*He loves to play outside and go to the park

*Not sure why, but I thought he only had 3 teeth on the top and 3 teeth on the bottom, but yesterday he was opening his mouth for something, and bam, I saw 4 molars! One on each side. I still can't believe he got molars before the 4th tooth on the top and bottom. So, to this day, he has 10 teeth!

Keep up the good work Jaden, we love to watch you grow each and every day!

A winter day at the park

One of the nice things about living in the desert is the ability to go to the park in the winter! Today, the kids had a blast getting some energy out at the park!